Record Values and Surviving Glacial Moraines

Estimating the number of glacial advances from surviving glacial debris can, amazingly enough, be cast as a records problem for which there is a substantial statistical literature. As a result, instructors may illustrate method of moments and maximum‐likelihood estimation techniques with an interesting problem in the physical sciences.     

Enhancing nursing home care for seniors: impact of a living classroom on nursing assistant’s education

ABSTRACT

Nursing Assistants (NAs) are the largest workforce in nursing homes, but often lack adequate preparation for their role. The Living Classroom (LC) is an integrated learning approach, whereby a NA program is delivered in a nursing home (NH) in collaboration with a community college. This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of the LC. Mixed methods were used to gather data from 48 NA students, 5 faculty, and 42 NH staff over 30 weeks. Students, faculty, and nursing home staff described the LC as a positive learning experience. Students’ gerontological knowledge increased over time (p = .0012). Students reported very positive relationships with program mentors and NH residents. The LC provides a unique approach to prepare NAs to work in nursing homes. This model could expand to other educational programs with a gerontology focus.     

Count us in: the role of schools and colleges in meeting the mental health needs of young people with learning disabilities

In December 2002, the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities' Committee of Inquiry into the mental health needs of young people with learning disabilities produced its report.
Barry Carpenter, Chief Executive at Sunfield and Chair of the committee, and Hazel Morgan, head of the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities, take this opportunity to share some insights into the workings of the committee and summarise the key findings. The committee drew evidence from a range of sources, but placed the voices and experiences of young people with learning disabilities at the centre of their proceedings. The committee's findings and recommendations were wide ranging and will have far-reaching implications, but there are immediate messages that schools and colleges should hear. It is upon these messages, taking account of pastoral provision, the curriculum, transition and inter-agency work, that Barry Carpenter and Hazel Morgan focus in this article.     

Girls in science — An evaluation of one school's approach to the gender bias in science

Conclusions As the pilot project has only been in operation for one semester there are no profound statements that can be made. What we have at present is the base information for comparison of all data over the duration of the project. Cross tabulation of the data to date has begun. However it should be re-iterated here that there appears to be a lack of understanding by the parents' as to the reason for the all-girls classes at the school and that this situation may be due to the fact that in this school community we have the typical sex-stereotyping roles and attitudes existing. The big question is, Will this intervention strategy of single-sex science classes be effective in altering the girls views about what is appropriate for them to study or follow as a career?     

Parent question use during shared reading time: How does training affect question type and frequency?

This study was designed to examine whether participation in a shared reading workshop alters the frequency with which parents ask their children questions during book reading sessions, particularly questions designed to strengthen component reading skills that they may not have known about before training. Participants in the reading workshop series (N = 57) were taught strategies for asking questions about story content and word structure to build children's language and literacy skills. Findings suggest that parents may be somewhat familiar with traditional dialogic reading strategies focused on story content and utilize them without instruction, whereas parents may be less knowledgeable about sound or print‐focused skills and do not employ strategies focused on word structure until instructed to do so. It is also notable that parents do not use all story content prompts equally. This information can be used by school psychologists to refine the messages educators share with parents about how to best support their children's reading development.     

Academic Follow-Up Data on Two Cohorts of High-Risk Transfer Children

Two cohorts of children from inner-city elementary schools were provided a tutoring intervention to help in their transition to new schools. Participants were third, fourth, and fifth grade children who were identified as having low-income status, evidencing lags on achievement tests, and experiencing stressful life events. The intervention involved an orientation program with twice weekly paraprofessional tutoring. Two and three year academic and sociometric follow-up data were collected. Those provided the intervention evidenced some improvements over time, and these changes were most prominent in the area of reading grades. Fewer significant findings were found on sociometric indices.     

Assessing a Holistic Trait and Factor Approach to Career Development of College Students

To assess the impact of a holistic career and life planning course on college students, the authors asked 209 students in treatment and control groups to complete measures of career development. Results indicate that the course significantly increases vocational identity and career decision‐making self‐efficacy and decreases career indecision.     

Improving the Acquisition of Novel Vocabulary Through the Use of Imagery Interventions

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of imagery interventions on the vocabulary acquisition abilities of second grade students. A total of 15 students were randomly assigned to three different intervention conditions: Word Only, which involves the simple verbal presentation of a vocabulary word; Dual Coding, in which a picture was paired with the vocabulary word, and Image Creation, in which students were told to create a mental picture of the vocabulary word in their mind and draw it on paper. These students were taught a total of 21 vocabulary words: seven animal and habitat words, seven musical instrument terms, and seven science terms. A Latin square design was used, in which each group of students rotated through each of the interventions, being exposed to a different treatment condition for each category of words. Participants were measured on the number of words they were successfully able to acquire through the use of experimenter designed comprehension measures. While no statistical significance was shown between the interventions across the word categories, a significant difference was found between the Image Creation and Word Only interventions within the science terms category. Students also reported that the imagery interventions facilitated the ease with which they learned the words. The findings have implications for increasing the success of classroom instruction, specifically for presenting novel vocabulary words to early elementary learners using imagery methods.