Silent Partners: Developing a Critical Understanding of Community Partners in Technical Communication Service-Learning Pedagogies

Although many technical communication teachers and programs integrate some form of service-learning pedagogy, there is a dearth of technical communication research on the silent partners of these projects: the community partners. Drawing upon research data from 14 former community partners of professional writing service-learning courses, the authors suggest that understanding community partners’ own self-defined stakes in service-learning projects can challenge hyperpragmatist representations of community partners and aid us in the continued creation, management, and critical evaluation of service-learning pedagogies and curricula.     

Adapting mentoring to individual differences in novice teacher learning: the mentor’s viewpoint

Being adaptive to the individual novice teacher is considered a condition for effective teacher mentoring. The aims of this study are therefore to explore (1) mentoring activities through which mentors intend to adapt to the individual novice teacher and (2) characteristics of adaptive mentors. Information was collected through on-site, post-mentoring conversation interviews with 18 mentors holding different mentoring conceptions, from different programs for Initial Teacher Education in the Netherlands. Four adaptive mentoring activities were identified: (1) aligning mutual expectations about the mentoring process, (2) attuning to the novices’ emotional state, (3) adapting the mentoring conversation to match the reflective capacity of the novice teacher, and (4) building tasks from simple to complex relative to the novices’ competence level. Adaptive mentors were (1) more likely to mention activities intended to support construction of personal practical knowledge and (2) less likely to mention activities intended to create a favourable context for novice teacher learning. Suggestions for using findings to enhance mentor adaptiveness are discussed.     

Early Mathematical Growth: How to Support Young Children’s Mathematical Development

The purpose of this critical analysis was to investigate the young children’s sense of numerical magnitudes and the important attributes of classrooms where children in kindergarten and first grade are exposed to mathematics. This study aimed to offer guidelines that will assist teachers as they teach mathematics to children between the ages of five and seven.     

The Effect of Loans on the Persistence and Attainment of Community College Students

This study informs public policies regarding the use of subsidized loans as financial aid for community college students. Using logistic regression, it analyzes the National Center for Education Statistics’ Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS 90/94) data to predict persistence to the second year of college and associate’s degree attainment over five years. During the period under study, loans did not contribute to higher persistence and attainment rates. Loans are observed to have a negative effect on persistence and no effect on degree attainment. Estimates of the interaction effects of borrowing and income status are insignificant but demonstrate the need for further testing. The findings are attributed to a combination of the high uncertainty of degree completion among community college students and the negative affective component of indebtedness. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the American Education Finance Association Annual Meeting (Austin, Texas, March, 2000) and at the AIR Forum (Cincinnati, Ohio, May 2000). It has also appeared as a working paper of the Institute for Higher Education Law and Governance at the University of Houston, Texas (IHELG Monograph 01–07).This paper is based upon work supported by the Association for Institutional Research, the National Center for Education Statistics and the National Science Foundation under Association for Institutional Research Grant No. 99-128-0.     

Electronic effects in the cyclocondensation of benzil

Electronic effects are important directing forces in the course of chemical reactions. Small differences in these effects can bring about considerable changes in the results of very similar reactions. Thus, although the ambident nucleophiles urea, ophenylenediamine and dibenzyl ketone are expected to take comparable double condensation pathway in their respective reaction with benzil, urea reacts differently by causing benzil-to-benzilic acid type rearrangement. This is attributed to the reduced availability of the lone pair of electrons on nitrogen in urea that is needed for assisting the dehydration of the intermediate.     

Mathematical practices in a technological workplace: the role of tools

This paper investigates the role of tools in the formation of mathematical practices and the construction of mathematical meanings in the setting of a telecommunication organization through the actions undertaken by a group of technicians in their working activity. The theoretical and analytical framework is guided by the first-generation activity theory model and Leont’ev’s work on the three-tiered explanation of activity. Having conducted a 1-year ethnographic research study, we identified, classified, and correlated the tools that mediated the technicians’ activity, and we studied the mathematical meanings that emerged. A systemic network was generated, presenting the categories of tools such as mathematical (communicative, processes, and concepts) and non-mathematical (physical and written texts). This classification was grounded on data from three central actions of the technicians’ activity, while the constant interrelation and association of these tools during the working process addressed the mathematical practices and supported the construction of mathematical meanings that this group developed from the researchers’ perspective. Technicians’ emerging mathematical meanings referred to place value, spatial, and algebraic relations and were expressed through personal algorithms and metaphorical and metonymic reasoning. Finally, the educational implications of the findings are discussed.     

Dynamics of a prestressed Timoshenko beam subject to arbitrary external load

The free vibration and transient wave in a prestressed Rayleigh-Timoshenko beam subject to arbitrary transverse forces are analyzed by the newly developed method of reverberation-ray matrix （MRRM）. The effects of shear deformation and rotational inertia are taken into consideration. With a Fourier transform technique, the general wave solutions with two sets of unknown amplitude coefficients are obtained in the transformed domain for an unbonded prestressed beam under the action of arbitrary external excitations. From the coupling at joints and the compatibility of displacements in each member, the free and forced vibration responses of a beam with various boundary conditions are finally evaluated through certain numerical algorithms, Results are presented for a simply-supported beam subject to either a point fixed load or moving load. Good agreement with the finite element method （FEM） is obtained. The present work is instructive for high-speed railway bridge design and structural health monitoring.     

Electromagnetic effects on the biological tissue surrounding a transcutaneous transformer for an artificial anal sphincter system

This paper reports on the electromagnetic effects on the biological tissue surrounding a transcutaneous transformer for an artificial anal sphincter. The coupling coils and human tissues, including the skin, fat, muscle, liver, and blood, were considered. Specific absorption rate (SAR) and current density were analyzed by a finite-length solenoid model. First, SAR and current density as a function of frequency (10–10⁷ Hz) for an emission current of 1.5 A were calculated under different tissue thickness. Then relations between SAR, current density, and five types of tissues under each frequency were deduced. As a result, both the SAR and current density were below the basic restrictions of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). The results show that the analysis of these data is very important for developing the artificial anal sphincter system.     

Defining the Difference: Comparing Integrated and Traditional Single-Subject Lessons

Early childhood curricula should be authentic and child-centered, however, many teachers still rely on direct instruction lessons. To better define how an integrated curriculum meets the needs of students, this study examined teacher talk and actions during instructional activities with first and second graders under two conditions: (1) subject-integrated social studies lessons of an integrated curriculum unit (experimental condition); and (2) single subject-focused mathematics lessons of a traditional separate subject curriculum (control condition). The mixed-methods study sought to define and compare characteristics of both curriculum approaches. Fourteen hours of observations were collected in each setting. In the integrated curriculum setting, the teacher was a facilitator of teamwork, offering choices, and giving praise; students made choices, decisions, and worked collaboratively. In the traditional setting, the teacher delivered direct instruction and controlled behavior; students followed directions, recalled knowledge, and worked individually. Less teacher energy was expended for behavior management in the integrated curriculum setting, indicating intrinsic motivation of students. Implementation of integrated curricula is recommended because of the student-centered focus that results in greater motivation, ownership, and teamwork, along with deeper knowledge connections. Because many factors hinder implementation, teachers need support when first teaching with this approach.