Listening and Experiences of Interpersonal Transcendence

Interpersonal transcendence is a phenomenon marked by total immersion in an interaction, a deep sense of understanding, feelings of mutuality, new insight, and playfulness. Such experiences can be exhilarating, memorable, and rare. This study examines relationships between various listening dispositions and people’s propensity to experience interpersonal transcendence. Participants (N = 300) completed the Interpersonal Transcendence Scale (ITS) along with the Listening Styles Inventory (LSI), the Active Empathic Listening scale (AEL), and the Listening Styles Profile–Revised (LSP-R). Results indicated substantial relationships between ITS responses and the LSI and AEL. The LSP-R dimensions of Relational Listening and Analytical Listening were also related to ITS responses. Other results indicate that propensity to experience interpersonal transcendence is associated with minority group status and age.     

The use of a weighted impact factor for the creation of a polythematic list of the most cited journals

The standard impact factor allows one to compare scientific journals only within particular scientific subjects. To overcome this limitation, another indicator of citation, viz., the thematically weighted impact factor (TWIF), is proposed. This indicator allows one to compare journals of various subjects and takes the fact that a journal belongs to several subjects into account. Information on the thematic headings of a journal and the value of a standard impact factor is necessary for calculation of the indicator. The TWIF, which is calculated according to the citation index of Journal Citation Reports, is investigated in this article.     

Embodied encounters with more-than-human nature in health and physical education

ABSTRACT

Despite the importance of interactions with natural environments for personal and social well-being, there is only limited evidence of the relationship between the environment and health as an idea or area of study in school education in Australia. Logically, the place for such a study, at least in Australia, would be within the Health & Physical Education (HPE) key learning area. However, in HPE, alternative ways of considering health beyond the dominant ‘healthism’ discourses which privilege physical activity, fitness, food and nutrition struggle for any kind of existence. Gruenewald (2004. A Foucauldian analysis of environmental education: Toward the socioecological challenge of the earth charter. Curriculum Inquiry, 34(1), 71–107) suggests looking to the margins of a field to see what knowledge is silenced or subjugated in order to open up new conditions of possibility. This challenged us to look beyond taken for granted ways of thinking about health to identify other resources, perhaps unrecognised as yet, that teachers might draw on to constitute their knowledge of health. To do this, we look to interview data collected when teachers were asked to talk about their personal experiences of the relationship between the environment and health. The analysis of the interviews demonstrated how the teachers conceptualised the relationship between the environment and health by drawing on embodied experiences and affective encounters with more-than-human nature. By theorising these encounters through a post-human, new-materialist lens, we demonstrate how their corporeal knowledge, developed through embodied experiences, has the potential to assist teachers in formulating less institutionalised health understandings. We argue that these encounters with more-than-human nature can serve as alternatives to those dominant healthism discourses that invoke problematic risk, fear and crisis responses.     

Reading and Related Skills in the Early School Years: Are boys really more likely to struggle?

This study examined whether boys and girls in the early school years differed in reading and related skills, and their rates of progress. Gender ratios were calculated to ascertain whether there were more boys than girls who struggle with different facets of reading, and whether the variability of boys’ scores resulted in more boys being identified as poor readers, as evidenced by previous studies. A sample of 335 students in Years 1 and 2 were administered six reading and related assessments. Boys and girls did not significantly differ on any of the measures, and differences in gains were negligible. Boys did not consistently demonstrate significantly greater variability in scores (with the exception of single-word reading and spelling in Year 1 only). These differences, however, did not affect gender ratios for poor performance. Gender ratios were relatively low across measures, but increased with years of schooling. Implications of the results are discussed.     

Are There Any Gender Differences in the Perception of University Support During the Transition Period to Higher Education?

The purpose of this study is to determine if there are gender differences in the perception of university support. The study is based on a survey of 368 students in a Hong Kong university. The findings of the study are threefold. First, female students perceive the university as being more supportive in their academic adjustment than do male students (t = ?4.256, p < 0.001). Second, male students perceive the university as being more supportive in their social adjustment than do female students (t = 2.156, p < 0.05). Last, male students perceive the university as being more supportive in their psychological adjustment than do female students (t= 2.401, p < 0.05).

     

Who teaches mathematics content courses for prospective elementary teachers in the United States? Results of a national survey

This article reports on a national survey of higher education institutions in the United States to answer the question, “Who teaches mathematics content courses for prospective elementary teachers, and what are these instructors’ academic and teaching backgrounds?” We surveyed 1,926 institutions, and a faculty member from each of 825 institutions (42.8?%) participated in the survey. The survey results demonstrate that the majority of institutions are not meeting the recommendations of the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences (The mathematical education of teachers. American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 2001), the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (Professional standards for teaching mathematics. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Reston, VA, 2005), and the National Council on Teacher Quality (Greenberg and Walsh 2008) for prospective elementary teachers to take at least nine credits of mathematics content designed specifically for them. Additionally, most instructors for these courses do not have elementary teaching experience and have likely not had opportunities to think deeply about the important ideas in elementary mathematics, and most institutions do not provide training and/or support for these instructors.     

Pareto-set reduction using compound information of a closed type

The axiomatic approach of Pareto-set reduction is used in this paper to solve the multicriteria choice problem. The goal is to construct an upper estimate for an unknown set of selected alternatives. A method for reducing the set of compromise alternatives using compound closed information on the preference relation of a decision maker is determined. An illustrative example is given.     

Modernization of an anatomy class: From conceptualization to implementation. A case for integrated multimodal–multidisciplinary teaching

It has become increasingly apparent that no single method for teaching anatomy is able to provide supremacy over another. In an effort to consolidate and enhance learning, a modernized anatomy curriculum was devised by attempting to take advantage of and maximize the benefits from different teaching methods. Both the more traditional approaches to anatomy teaching, as well as modern, innovative educational programs were embraced in a multimodal system implemented over a decade. In this effort, traditional teaching with lectures and dissection was supplemented with models, imaging, computer‐assisted learning, problem‐based learning through clinical cases, surface anatomy, clinical correlation lectures, peer teaching and team‐based learning. Here, we review current thinking in medical education and present our transition from a passive, didactic, highly detailed anatomy course of the past, to a more interactive, as well as functionally and clinically relevant anatomy curriculum over the course of a decade. Anat Sci Educ. © 2012 American Association of Anatomists.     

Affordances of Computational Models for English Learners in Science Instruction: Conceptual Foundation and Initial Inquiry

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Computational models are increasingly being used in K-12 science classrooms to engage students in developing and testing explanations of phenomena....