Rush Health Systems and Meridian Community College: People Serving People

Meridian Community College and Rush Health Systems are partners in delivering training focused on Rush's mission statement of hospital-wide commitment to “excellence in service management.” Rush and MCC have delivered customized classes in the following areas: medical billing, leadership management, computer training, admissions clerk, and system-wide customer service training.     

MISSISSIPPI TECH-PREP COORDINATORS: IDENTIFYING CHALLENGES OF THE JOB

ABSTRACT

Mississippi tech-prep coordinators were surveyed to determine their perceptions of the difficulty of their various job responsibilities as identified in the Mississippi Tech Prep Handbook Pilot Site Implementation Guide 1993–94 (1993 Mississippi tech prep handbook pilot site implementation guide 1993-94 . ( 1993 ). Mississippi State , MS : Research and Curriculum Unit for Workforce Development, Vocational and Technical Education . [Google Scholar]). It was hypothesized that their perceptions would be influenced by the number of sites served by individual tech-prep coordinators and the number of years of experience of the individual coordinators. The coordinators' survey also included open-ended questions to gain insight into specific challenges, such as additional duties assigned by the community college, and changes in responsibilities that have occurred over the years. The coordinators were also asked to suggest improvements in their job responsibilities. Further, a separate survey was conducted of the state tech-prep staff members to gain their perspectives of the coordinators' responsibilities. The state staff members were asked to identify what they considered the most difficult duty and the easiest, to suggest improvements to strengthen tech prep, and to name the most important contribution of the coordinators. Challenges for Mississippi tech-prep coordinators were identified in areas of reporting, accountability, the increasing number of sites, and professional development.     

A Study of Effective First-Grade Literacy Instruction

Literacy instruction in first-grade classrooms in five U.S. locales was observed. Based on academic engagement and classroom literacy performances, the most-effective-for-locale and least-effective-for-locale teachers were selected. The teaching of the most-effective-for-locale teachers was then analyzed, including in relation to the teaching of the least-effective-for-locale teachers. The classrooms headed by most-effective-for-locale teachers were characterized by excellent classroom management based on positive reinforcement and cooperation; balanced teaching of skills, literature, and writing; scaffolding and matching of task demands to student competence; encouragement of student self-regulation; and strong cross-curricular connections. In general, these outcomes did not support any theory that emphasizes just one particular component (e.g., skills instruction, whole language emphasis) as the key to effective Grade 1 literacy; rather, excellent Grade 1 instruction involves multiple instructional components articulated with one another.     

MAKING CONNECTIONS: FROM THE COLLEGE CLASSROOM TO THE EARLY CHILDHOOD SETTING

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to examine the beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge of early childhood teacher candidates within the state of Texas about the inclusion of students with disabilities in the general education classroom. The “Inventory of Opinions About Persons with Disabilities” (IOPD) was utilized to collect self‐report data from preservice educators in their last semester of practical experience (i.e., student teaching or final intern semester) in 10 Texas universities. The return rate of the inventories was 70.85%, with data from 172 useable inventories reported in this study.

The research questions indicated early childhood teacher candidates held positive self‐perceptions (mean = 2.0388) about their beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge related to inclusion and students with disabilities. However, the participants reported less positive attitudes about training (mean = .09884).     

Leveraging the power of music to improve science education

We assessed the impact of music videos with science-based lyrics on content knowledge and attitudes in a three-part experimental research study of over 1000 participants (mostly K-12 students). In Study A, 13 of 15 music videos were followed by statistically significant improvements on questions about material covered in the videos, while performance on ‘bonus questions’ not covered by the videos did not improve. Video-specific improvement was observed in both basic knowledge and genuine comprehension (levels 1 and 2 of Bloom’s taxonomy, respectively) and after both lyrics-only and visually rich versions of some videos. In Study B, musical versions of additional science videos were not superior to non-musical ones in their immediate impact on content knowledge, though musical versions were significantly more enjoyable. In Study C, a non-musical video on fossils elicited greater immediate test improvement than the musical version (‘Fossil Rock Anthem’); however, viewers of the music video enjoyed a modest advantage on a delayed post-test administered 28 days later. Music video viewers more frequently rated their video as ‘fun’, and seemed more likely to revisit and/or share the video. Our findings contribute to a broader dialogue on promising new pedagogical strategies in science education.     

In vitro evaluation of a program for machine-aided indexing

This article presents the human evaluation of ILIAD, a program for machine-aided indexing (MAI). It consists of two language engineering modules and is designed to assist expert librarians in computer-aided indexing and document analysis. Our aim is the expert evaluation of automatic multi-word term indexing. Evaluation is performed by documentary engineers. Cataloging and indexing are their principal tasks. They also have a good scientific knowledge of the domain to which the indexed documents belong.We first present the ILIAD program and the two systems submitted to this evaluation, the methodology (protocol) adopted, the differences between the protocol and the implementation, and the results of these evaluations. Human evaluation is divided into three parts: firstly the evaluation of controlled indexing, then free indexing and finally term variant extraction performed during controlled indexing. Finally, we analyze the relevance of this evaluation by calculating the agreement frequency and the Kappa coefficient and propose some future developments.     

The direct and indirect effects of motor competence on adolescents’ mental health through health-related physical fitness

ABSTRACT

Mental health is an important public health issue and up to one in five youth experience mental health problems. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among motor competence, health-related physical fitness and mental health outcomes in adolescents. A secondary goal was to test the direct and indirect effects of motor competence on adolescents’ mental health through health-related physical fitness. Participants were 279 adolescents (M_age = 12.49, SD = 0.89) recruited in the south-west region of the US Motor competence including volleyball, soccer, and ultimate Frisbee, were assessed using PE Metrics?. FITNESSGRAM® test battery was used to assess health-related physical fitness components. Students completed a survey measuring their depressive symptoms and health-related quality of life. Motor competence was significantly associated with components of health-related physical fitness (r ranged from ?0.15 to 0.38). The robust fit of the model supports the significant indirect effect of motor competence on mental health outcomes through health-related physical fitness (χ²/df = 39.92/25; CFI = 0.97; RMSEA = 0.046; 90% CI [0.02, 0.07]). The hypothesized conceptual model tested in this study provides insights into the potential interaction of motor competence and health-related physical fitness with adolescents’ mental health.     

Academic Learning Time in Elementary and Secondary Physical Education Classes

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine how much academic learning time is experienced by elementary and secondary school students during regular physical education classes (ALT-PE) and to investigate three major ALT variables, that is, time devoted to specific content areas, learner engaged time with relevant material, and student's success rate. Subjects were 30 elementary and 31 secondary school physical education teachers; all had two of their regular classes observed according to the ALT-PE observational procedure developed by Siedentop and his colleagues. Group average results were found to be consistent over time, but individual data showed very little stability. The ALT-PE mean results were 31.3% and 36.5% respectively for the elementary and secondary school level and were significantly different. From 19% to 34% of the class period was spent, on the average, in other than P.E. content activities. When class groups, as a whole, were involved in P.E. content activities, students, considered individually, were effectively engaged in those activities 50% of the time. The non-success rate of the students was found to be quite low (10% approximately) and, therefore, did not contribute greatly to decreasing the ALT-PE figures. It was felt that a better management of the student's involvement during P.E. content activities might contribute to increasing significantly the percentage of student academic learning time in a given class period.     

Construction of a Muscular Strength Test for Boys in Grades 4, 5, and 6

Abstract

In this study, a strength test for boys 9 through 12 years of age in grades 4, 5, and 6 was constructed based upon cable tension strength tests. From 18 cable tension strength tests, the following four were selected by multiple correlation procedures: shoulder extension, trunk extension, knee extension, and ankle plantar flexion (ankle extension). The total of these four tests was designated the strength composite. Norms were prepared based on age and weight, utilizing Roger's method in the construction of Strength Index norms; the subjects were 826 boys from ten communities located in various parts of Oregon. A strength quotient was derived by dividing the achieved by the norm strength composite and multiplying by 100.