Relations between Risk for Sleep-Disordered Breathing,Cognitive and Executive Functioning,and Academic Performance in Six-Year-Olds

ABSTRACT

Research Findings: Optimal sleep is important for children’s learning and development. Sleep disordered breathing (SDB) refers to a spectrum of conditions from simple snoring to obstructive sleep apnea that is common in childhood and interrupts sleep. We examined pathways between SDB and academic performance of children (N = 163, M age = 6.2 years) one year after school entry. Measures included parent questionnaire and clinical assessment of SDB, standardized tests and rating scales of cognitive and executive functioning, researcher-administered literacy and numeracy tasks, and teacher-reported academic performance. Structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed direct and indirect paths between SDB and poorer academic performance. In indirect models, children’s SDB severity score was significantly linked to poorer executive functioning (β = .38, p < .01) and negatively associated with nonverbal reasoning (β = ?.21, p < .01). Poorer executive functioning, in turn, was negatively related to the verbal composite (β = ?.61, p < .01), with verbal and nonverbal composites associated with academic performance (βs = .56, .27, respectively, p’s < .01). Practice or Policy: These findings point to the need for attention to SDB and its links to potential cognitive sequelae across early development. Practitioners equipped with knowledge of SDB symptoms can facilitate referral for appropriate consultation and evaluation.     

Awakening Teachers’ Capacities for Social Justice With/In Arts-Based Inquiries

Social justice-oriented teacher education can guide preservice teachers toward greater critical sociocultural knowledge, analytic skills, social responsibility, and commitment to act in the interest of providing all students with high quality educational experiences. This qualitative case study examines how arts-based inquiries in social justice-oriented teacher education can provide the necessary generative spaces for developing preservice teachers’ critical sociocultural knowledge. Data were drawn from student interviews and reflective papers across four sections of a course employing collaborative, arts-based inquiry. Findings highlight the cumulative knowledge, pleasure, anxiety, confrontation with material and symbolic bodies, and self-transformations that can develop from art practices and help to awaken preservice teachers’ critical consciousness for teaching for social justice.     

Actividad y lenguaje. El diseño cultural como marco para un programa de enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera

La enseñanza de una lengua extranjera en el medio escolar se conceptualiza en este artículo desde una perspectiva histórico-cultural, planteando la necesidad de recurrir al diseño cultural de entornos y actividades en la LE a partir de las peculiaridades del entorno social de los niños y del centro escolar. El diseño cultural del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje propone vertebrar la programación en torno a ejes de subsistemas de actividades rectoras procedentes de la cultura que permitan al niño acceder a la lengua extranjera como un sistema global de sentidos y significados.     

Students’ feedback in mid-term surveys: an explorative contribution in the Italian university context

This article focuses on the role of student feedback in the process of higher education quality assurance. The most recent reforms of the educational systems encourage teachers to enlarge their educational paradigm by experimenting with assessment practices that would go behind accountability and be more responsive to students’ learning needs. In Italy, despite the widespread acknowledgment of the role played by students’ feedback in providing information about the outputs of their education, the quality assurance process has remained, thus far, largely unchanged. Student compliance with rather traditional academic teaching practices and a diffused sense of uselessness of the results coming from end-course surveys represent increasing malpractices in the Italian quality assurance system. In view of the above, the article reports an explorative study aimed to develop a mid-term survey for student feedback. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Greater basal skeletal muscle AMPKα phosphorylation in men than in women: Associations with anaerobic performance

Objectives: This study was designed to investigate the association of gender, fibre type composition, and anaerobic performance with the basal skeletal muscle signalling cascades regulating muscle phenotype. Design: Muscle biopsies were obtained from 25 men and 10 women all young and healthy. Methods. Protein phosphorylation of Thr¹⁷²AMPKα, Ser²²¹ACCβ, Thr²⁸⁶CaMKII as well as total protein abundance of PGC-1α, SIRT1, and CnA were measured by Western blot and anaerobic performance by the Wingate test. Results: Percent type I myosin heavy chain (MHC I) was lower in men (37.1?±?10.4 vs. 58.5?±?12.5, P?P?P?221ACCβ and Thr²⁸⁶CaMKII fractional phosphorylation tended to be higher in men (P?=?.1). PGC1-α and SIRT1 total protein expression was similar in men and women, whereas CnA tended to be higher in men (P?=?.1). Basal AMPKα phosphorylation was linearly related to the percentage of MHC I in men (r?=?0.56; P?Conclusion: In summary, skeletal muscle basal AMPKα phosphorylation is higher in men compared to women, with no apparent effect on anaerobic performance.     

Sapphos to Baby Dykes: A Photo‐Essay

The LIK:T Young lesbian and Bisexual Women's Project have done a substantial piece of work looking at role models and aspirations of young lesbians and bisexual women through art. The aim of the project was to try and break down isolation, and to raise the aspirations of young lesbian and bisexual (LB) women, as often as a group, LB women have a hidden history/herstory. The work was done over a number of months, including a consultation event in Manchester with lesbian and bisexual women across the generations; a research trip to the Glasgow Women's Library (and their Lesbian Archive); and a number of pieces put together at other events around the country by our roving reporters/photographers. The exhibit created includes six posters designed by the young women involved, and a photo collection of lesbian and bisexual women from across the generations, with accompanying interviews about their loves, lives and everything.     

Early Childhood Educators’ Wellbeing During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Early Childhood Education Journal - The importance of Early Childhood (EC) educators’ wellbeing has been brought into sharp focus during the COVID-19 pandemic, as educators have navigated...     

The Impact of Differentiated Instruction on Students’ Reading Comprehension Attainment in Mixed-Ability Classrooms

Interchange - This explanatory sequential quasi-experimental study investigated the impact of differentiated instruction on reading comprehension attainment in mixed-ability classrooms. Fifty-four...     

Understanding the perceived mattering of physical education teachers

Previous research related to occupational socialization theory has indicated that, in certain school contexts, physical education (PE) and physical education teachers are socially constructed as being less important than, or marginal to, the primary purpose of schooling. This research highlights the challenges associated with occupying a position of marginality. Another way to look at the social experiences of physical education teachers is to examine the extent to which they feel as if they matter to those around them. Drawing upon qualitative and quantitative data sources, the purpose of this study was to examine physical education teachers’ perceived mattering. A mixed-methods design was employed, and data sources included responses to an online survey (N?=?105) and individual telephone interviews (N?=?23). Quantitative data were analyzed using 2?×?2 (education?×?teaching level) Factorial MANOVA; interview data were analyzed using analytic induction and constant comparison. Quantitative analyses indicated that teachers with advanced degrees and those in secondary schools perceived a higher level of mattering than those with bachelor’s degrees and teaching in elementary schools. Respondents perceived that PE mattered slightly more than they did as teachers of the subject. Qualitative analysis indicated that (a) relationships were critical to teachers’ mattering, (b) physical location of the gym and isolation contributed to mattering, and (c) PE was viewed as a service to others in their workplace. Perceived matter is dependent upon a variety of factors related to both personal and workplace factors. Enhancing teachers’ perceptions of mattering may reduce feelings of marginalization.