An Investigation of the Use of E‐Mail as a Supplemental Modality for Clinical Supervision

The authors investigated the use of student‐initiated e‐mail as a supplemental modality for supervision. Nineteen students e‐mailed their instructors weekly during their 15‐week practicum; these e‐mails were analyzed across 3 time periods using the categories of the discrimination model (J. M. Bernard, 1979, 1997) and an adaptation of W. Lanning's (1986) professional behavior category. Although patterns of e‐mails were similar across time, there was a significant decline in the number of e‐mails as the practicum progressed. Significance was found for message focus, with personalization messages and professional behavior/practicum class messages accounting for more than half of the messages across 3 time periods.     

A national study of kindergarten transition practices for children with disabilities

This study used data drawn from a large, national sample to describe transition practices provided to 1989 children with disabilities as they entered their kindergarten year, obtained through a survey administered to kindergarten teachers. Using path modeling, we examined the child and family, school, and district factors that predict which children and families receive high- and low-intensity transition support as they enter kindergarten and, in particular, what types of high-intensity practices they receive. The type of support kindergarten teachers provided was generally comparable to or higher than previously reported data, with low-intensity transition supports more commonly used than high-intensity supports. In a path model that included a range of child and family, classroom, and district factors, four variables emerged as predictors of transition support. Children from larger districts and higher poverty districts who were entering kindergarten from a different setting were less likely to receive support during the transition period. Rural districts differed little overall from suburban districts because they are, on average, higher poverty, but smaller in size. Urban districts demonstrated efforts that counterbalanced the barriers of size and poverty. We include policy implications based on these findings.     

Improved Feistel-based ciphers for wireless sensor network security

Wireless sensor networks （WSNs） are exposed to a variety of attacks. The quality and complexity of attacks are rising day by day. The proposed work aims at showing how the complexity of modern attacks is growing accordingly, leading to a similar rise in methods of resistance. Limitations in computational and battery power in sensor nodes are constraints on the diversity of security mechanisms. We must apply only suitable mechanisms to WSN where our approach was motivated by the application of an improved Feistel scheme. The modified accelerated-cipher design uses data-dependent permutations, and can be used for fast hardware, firmware, software and WSN encryption systems. The approach presented showed that ciphers using this approach are less likely to suffer intrusion of differential cryptanalysis than currently used popular WSN ciphers like DES, Camellia and so on.     

The Mirror Neuron System and Observational Learning: Implications for the Effectiveness of Dynamic Visualizations

Learning by observing and imitating others has long been recognized as constituting a powerful learning strategy for humans. Recent findings from neuroscience research, more specifically on the mirror neuron system, begin to provide insight into the neural bases of learning by observation and imitation. These findings are discussed here, along with their potential consequences for the design of instruction, focusing in particular on the effectiveness of dynamic vs. static visualizations.

Education experienced by foreign-born faculty whose native countries have undergone major socio-economical changes

Three professors of education reflected on education in their countries of origin, and compare their education with learning, teaching and the education in the United States. The three countries represented are China prior to the political and economical reforms starting from 1979, Iran prior to the Islamic Republic of 1979, and the Russian Federation of the Former Soviet Union prior to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Certain aspects of education such as the curriculum, pedagogy, length of schooling, methods of teaching, the textbooks, and priorities and goals of schooling in each country are discussed. This article is a comparison of the educational system of each country with the American educational system as well as among the three countries. The article concludes with each author offering some ideas on how the American educational system might benefit from the experience of the other countries.     

Ensuring Indigenous cultural respect in Australian undergraduate nursing students

Like other Westernised countries, Australia’s history of colonisation, racism and oppression has impacted upon Indigenous Peoples’ health and well-being. It is also evident that institutional racism and ongoing colonisation are present in the Australian health system. Better preparation of health professionals to work in a culturally respectful way can contribute to addressing health disparities and prejudices. One approach to enabling the development of cultural respect is through embedding an Indigenous graduate attribute (IGA) across curricula and ensuring the process is thoughtfully developed and assessed. This paper describes and discusses the process of developing an assessment criteria template (ACT) to assess Indigenous cultural respect in an undergraduate nursing degree programme. Critical to the project was meaningful engagement with Indigenous stakeholders and Indigenous leadership to inform the development and implementation process. Although the context will vary globally due to the diversity of Indigenous Peoples and each country’s history of colonisation, by publishing this work, we intend to provide transparency into the process we undertook to embed and assess an IGA ACT in an undergraduate nursing curriculum. We hope this is helpful for other tertiary institutions internationally who are also engaging in this space.