Enacting FAIR Education: Approaches to Integrating LGBT Content in the K–12 Curriculum

The FAIR Education Act (SB 48) was signed into law in California in July of 2011, amending the Education Code by requiring representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons in the social sciences. In this article, the author uses James Banks’ model of the Four Levels of Integration of Multicultural Content to suggest ways in which lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender content could be located in the K–12 curriculum. Examples are provided at each of the levels including topics such as Gertrude Stein, Harvey Milk, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History Month, the Gay Rights Movement, Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, Matthew Shepard Act, It Gets Better Project, Gay Straight Alliance, and Stop SB 48 campaign, among others. The examples are offered to education boards and others to initiate conversations around ways to appropriately integrate the roles and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons into the curriculum, emphasizing places where such issues are already latent in social science content standards.     

OBESITY AND REPORTS OF NO LEISURE TIME ACTIVITY AMONG OLDER AMERICANS: RESULTS FROM THE THIRD NATIONAL HEALTH AND NUTRITION EXAMINATION SURVEY

Physical inactivity is a cardiovascular risk factor that has a higher prevalence among overweight adults. The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of not participating in Leisure Time Physical Activity (LPTA) and the relationship to body weight class among older U.S. adults. A nationally representative cross-sectional survey with an in-person interview and medical examination was used. Between 1988 and 1994, 6569 adults 60 years of age or older responded to the household adult and family questionnaires as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III. Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic blacks were oversampled to produce reliable estimates for these groups. Overall, 39% of older U.S. adults fall in the overweight range and 23.3% are obese. Obese older adults were more likely than their overweight and healthy weight counterparts to report participating in no LTPA The prevalence of adults reporting no leisure time physical activity (LPTA) is lowest among non-Hispanic whites compared to non-Hispanic blacks and Mexican-Americans in each body mass index category. Future interventions should address strategies to promote an increase in leisure time physical activity among older adults, especially among underserved populations, and help them to prevent weight gain.     

The nature and correlates of Mexican-American adolescents' time with parents and peers

Drawing on cultural-ecological and person-environment fit perspectives, this study examined links among Mexican-American adolescents' time with peers and parents, parents' cultural orientations, and adolescents' psychosocial adjustment and cultural orientations. Participants were 492 Mexican-American adolescents (Ms=15.7 and 12.8 years for older siblings and younger siblings) and their parents in 246 families. Family members described their family relationships, cultural orientations, and psychosocial functioning in home interviews, and time-use data were collected during a series of nightly phone calls. Mexican-American adolescents spent the majority of their peer time with Mexican youth. Some support was found for the hypothesis that the mismatch between parents' cultural orientations and adolescents' peer involvement is linked to adolescents' psychosocial functioning.     

Linking theoretical models to actual practices: A survey of teachers in gifted education

A regional survey of teachers of gifted and talented (G/T) programs, grades kindergarten through nine, in a southeastern state, was carried out. The principle foci of the survey were on theoretical models identified and used by teachers, and the importance of perceived outcome goals for children who are gifted. Respondents claimed awareness of several models of intervention but varied widely in the use of these models. Implications of the disparity between awareness and use of models are discussed. Outcome goals ranked by respondents varied in order, based on three grade level groupings of the teachers, most likely indicating changing perceptions of developmental needs as children progress through grade levels.     

Graduate Business Students Performance with Synchronous and Asynchronous Interaction e-Learning Methods

The effects of synchronous and asynchronous lectures and interaction formats were examined with graduate business students in on‐campus and off‐campus MBA programs. The dependent variables were scores on exams questions and learning styles and cognitive styles were used as covariates. The results indicated significant differences for discussion and lecture format and for on‐campus and off‐campus students. The results were discussed relative to learning in electronic environments.     

Utility of a novel perceptual-motor control test for identification of sport-related concussion beyond current clinical assessments

ABSTRACT

Clinically feasible metrics, that can inform the concussion recovery decision making process by evaluating a unique domain beyond current testing domains (e.g., balance, neurocognition, symptoms, vestibular/ocular function) are still in need. The purpose of this study was to compare perceptual-motor control in adolescent athletes ≤21 days of sport-related concussion and healthy controls and evaluate the association of perceptual-motor control to the outcomes of commonly-used sport-related concussion clinical assessments. Athletes (age: 12-18 years) with sport-related concussion (n = 48) and healthy controls (n = 24) completed the Perception-Action Coupling Task (PACT), whose outcomes are mean reaction, movement, initiation, response time, and accuracy. ImPACT outcomes are verbal/visual memory scores, motor processing speed, and reaction time. Vestibular-Ocular Motor Screen (VOMS) outcomes are symptoms from: smooth pursuit, horizontal/vertical saccades, near-point of convergence, horizontal/vestibular ocular-reflex, and visual motion sensitivity. CONCUSSED demonstrated ~5% deficit in overall perceptual-motor accuracy during PACT compared to CONTROLS (p = 0.03). PACT accuracy negatively correlated with smooth pursuits(r = -0.29), and horizontal (r = -0.35)/vertical (r = -0.30) saccades. The C5.0 decision tree determined PACT accuracy was the most relevant predictor of sport-related concussion when no visual motion sensitivity symptoms were reported and Visual Memory was >66. Perceptual-motor control tests may complement current sport-related concussion assessments when neurocognition and vestibular/ocular motor system are not grossly impaired.     

Conceptions of Science Teacher Mentoring and Mentoring Practice in an Alternative Certification Program

Conceptions of mentoring held by six mentors and six beginning science teachers in an alternative certification program were explored qualitatively by means of case studies and phenomenography. Interviews with the six mentors and six beginning teachers produced 379 statements that were grouped into six conceptual categories. The categories of apprenticeship, personal support, and colearning revealed the variation in how mentors and beginning teachers conceptualized school-based mentoring. The conceptions functioned as referents for their mentoring practice. Mentoring as apprenticeship was the dominant conception among both the beginning teachers and mentors. The findings of this study imply that conceptions of mentoring held by mentors and beginning science teachers should be considered when organizing the school-based component of alternative certification programs.     

Tenets of Body-Soul Rooted Pedagogy: teaching for critical consciousness,nourished resistance,and healing

ABSTRACT

For marginalized communities, schooling is mired in social/bodily control, tracking, and cultural erasure circumscribing difference/culture as obstacles, as opposed to sites of wisdom, connectedness, and critical consciousness. Authors shape a transformative pedagogical framework across teacher education and partnering schools by utilizing spiritually embodied, land-based Chicana Feminist and Indigenous Epistemologies. We outline six tenets of Body-Soul Rooted Pedagogy which: 1) construct education politically, 2) enact schooling as decolonization/empowerment, 3) center epistemologies, multiliteracies of marginalized groups, 4) foster critical frameworks navigating oppression, 5) engage social action pedagogy, and 6) engender hope, well-being. Scholarship has implications for educational theory and practice at all levels.