Exceptional educators: a collaborative training partnership for the inclusion of students with Down's syndrome

This article discusses the results of a teacher training initiative in the United States. Exceptional Educators is the result of an inter‐organisational collaboration between a community‐based organisation (Gold Coast Down Syndrome Organization), the local public school system and a university professor. The training focuses on three distinct objectives; understanding the physical and emotional needs of the disability, creating modified curriculum units based on individual learning goals and recognising common behavioral problems that arise in school settings. Overall, the results showed positive outcomes, with gains in knowledge of curriculum modification, behavioural strategies and overall understanding of Down's syndrome, as well as an increase in confidence level. A six‐week follow‐up survey indicated that the majority of the participants used the information presented back in their teaching environments. This study also investigated the added value of this collaboration, finding that the community connection often continues past the training and has provided teachers additional avenues for support.     

Key challenges and future directions for educational research on scientific argumentation

At the 2015 NARST: A Worldwide Organization for Improving Science Teaching and Learning Through Research Annual International Conference, a group of scholars held an extended pre‐conference workshop to discuss key challenges and future directions faced by argumentation researchers around the world. This wide‐ranging group of facilitators and participants represented varying perspectives and experiences with argumentation research. Learning artifacts from the workshop were collected and analyzed utilizing multiple qualitative coding techniques. Analysis of these artifacts revealed five major themes that emerged from the NARST workshop describing this group of scholars’ views on current issues and potential directions for the field of argumentation research. These themes center on: (i) establishing a classroom culture that values argumentation; (ii) how differing theoretical frameworks challenge how researchers communicate findings; (iii) the challenge of assessing various aspects of scientific argumentation in a valid and reliable fashion; (iv) pedagogical challenges in supporting student discourse and social collaboration; and (v) challenges concerning the professional development of teachers. Each of these themes is described using direct quotes from the workshop artifacts, and implications for future research in argumentation are discussed. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 55: 5–18, 2018     

The North Carolina Child Care Corps: The role of National Service in Child Care

The purpose of the present study is to document the impact of training and ensuing experience on the knowledge, beliefs, and practices of AmeriCorps national service volunteers in child care classrooms. The North Carolina Child Care Corps (NCCCC) combined federal (AmeriCorps) and state (Smart Start) dollars in the state of North Carolina to improve existing teacher-child ratios by providing trained teachers for child care centers. Participants (Corps members) in the project received four weeks of intensive training in child development and early childhood education and were then assigned to child care classrooms in counties receiving Smart Start funding in five regions of the state. Corps members did not replace existing staff, but were added as assistant teachers above and beyond the mandated teacher-child ratios. Results from Year One of the project indicate that the NCCCC was successful in training Corps members in the areas of child development and early childhood appropriate practices. However, Corps members showed a decline in the appropriateness of their interactions with children after nine months of service in child care classrooms. Implications concerning the use of AmeriCorps volunteers to improve the quality of child care are discussed.     

Minimizing the Influence of Item Parameter Estimation Errors in Test Development: A Comparison of Three Selection Procedures

In test development, item response theory (IRT) is a method to determine the amount of information that each item (i.e., item information function) and combination of items (i.e., test information function) provide in the estimation of an examinee's ability. Studies investigating the effects of item parameter estimation errors over a range of ability have demonstrated an overestimation of information when the most discriminating items are selected (i.e., item selection based on maximum information). In the present study, the authors examined the influence of item parameter estimation errors across 3 item selection methods—maximum no target, maximum target, and theta maximum—using the 2- and 3-parameter logistic IRT models. Tests created with the maximum no target and maximum target item selection procedures consistently overestimated the test information function. Conversely, tests created using the theta maximum item selection procedure yielded more consistent estimates of the test information function and, at times, underestimated the test information function. Implications for test development are discussed.     

Stuck and sticky in mobile academia: reconfiguring the im/mobility binary

Dominant maternal ideologies impinge upon the career progression of academic mothers and non-mothers. Using “narratology” as a theoretical lens, this article offers insights into the working lives of academic mothers and non-mothers by drawing upon narratives collected by phenomenologically interviewing Palestinian women academics working at Palestinian universities. The analysis of the emerging persistent narratives shows that, as women, both mothers and non-mothers are influenced by socially constructed notions of “motherhood” and are accordingly put at a disadvantage within academia. In Palestine’s conservative, patriarchal context, academic non-mothers are expected to shoulder the burden of care within their families and to extend their mothering capacity to their students and co-workers. Furthermore, this study contributes to the contemporary debates on the tensions that exist between the prevailing discourses of the “altruistic mother” and the “career woman,” as well as the institutional demands that restrict women’s ability to simultaneously fulfill their work expectations and domestic roles.

     

利用深掺杂Si所研制的微型流量传感器

使用深掺杂方法在Si材料中掺入Au原子后，其电阻率随温度T的变化关系从主要依赖于T-3/2项的浅掺杂材料变成主要依赖于exp(-E／KT)项的深掺杂材料，从而大幅度地提高了掺金Si材料对温度的敏感性。这样在理论上深掺杂Si材料比浅掺杂Si材料对温度的敏感性提高了约1000倍。对于深掺杂方法制成的微型流量传感器特性的测量证明了以上理论。深掺杂Si材料的应用不但大大提高了微型流量传感器的灵敏度，也大幅度地降低了响应时间。