Wellbeing: How we make sense of it and what this means for teachers

In this paper, the authors discuss their grounded research carried out with teachers about the wellbeing of teachers. They explore the importance of making the concept of wellbeing more intimate and consider hedonic and eudaimonic ways of looking at wellbeing. They present a model of layered reflection which illuminates key factors that have an impact on the wellbeing of teachers.     

Effects of Manipulative Instruction on Solving Area and Perimeter Problems by Students with Learning Disabilities

Abstract. A multiple baseline design was employed to test the effect of manipulative instruction on the perimeter and area problem‐solving performance of middle and high school students who had been diagnosed with LD in the area of mathematics. Modeling, prompting/guided practice, and independent practice in conjunction with manipulative training were employed to teach both perimeter and area problem‐solving skills. Analysis of data revealed that the students rapidly acquired the problem‐solving‐skills, maintained these skills over a two‐month period, and transferred these skills to a paper and pencil problem‐solving format. This research extends previous findings by revealing that use of concrete manipulatives promotes the long‐term maintenance of skills.     

Organizational change in the Medical Library Association: evolution of the continuing education program

"Change" is a critical dimension of contemporary experience. Library associations are not exempt, and they change in ways similar to other organizations. According to some authorities, four phases typify the process: diagnosis, design, implementation, and incorporation. Focusing on changes in the Medical Library Association's longstanding program of continuing education, the authors utilize the "phase framework" to chart that association's movement from a management system depending primarily upon volunteers to one in which professional staff figure prominently. The historical review serves a heuristic purpose for individuals and institutions in identifying characteristic features of the change process.     

Advances in the phylogenesis of Agaricales and its higher ranks and strategies for establishing phylogenetic hypotheses

We present an overview of previous research results on the molecular phylogenetic analyses in Agaricales and its higher ranks (Agaricomycetes/Agaricomycotina/Basidiomycota) along with the most recent treatments of taxonomic systems in these taxa. Establishing phylogenetic hypotheses using DNA sequences, from which an understanding of the natural evolutionary relationships amongst clades may be derived, requires a robust dataset. It has been recognized that single-gene phylogenies may not truly represent organismal phylogenies, but the concordant phylogenetic genealogies from multiple-gene datasets can resolve this problem. The genes commonly used in mushroom phylogenetic research are summarized.     

Simultaneous changes in seed size,oil content and protein content driven by selection of SWEET homologues during soybean domestication

Soybean accounts for more than half of the global production of oilseed and more than a quarter of the protein used globally for human food and animal feed. Soybean domestication involved parallel increases in seed size and oil content, and a concomitant decrease in protein content. However, science has not yet discovered whether these effects were due to selective pressure on a single gene or multiple genes. Here, re-sequencing data from >800 genotypes revealed a strong selection during soybean domestication on GmSWEET10a. The selection of GmSWEET10a conferred simultaneous increases in soybean-seed size and oil content as well as a reduction in the protein content. The result was validated using both near-isogenic lines carrying substitution of haplotype chromosomal segments and transgenic soybeans. Moreover, GmSWEET10b was found to be functionally redundant with its homologue GmSWEET10a and to be undergoing selection in current breeding, leading the the elite allele GmSWEET10b, a potential target for present-day soybean breeding. Both GmSWEET10a and GmSWEET10b were shown to transport sucrose and hexose, contributing to sugar allocation from seed coat to embryo, which consequently determines oil and protein contents and seed size in soybean. We conclude that past selection of optimal GmSWEET10a alleles drove the initial domestication of multiple soybean-seed traits and that targeted selection of the elite allele GmSWEET10b may further improve the yield and seed quality of modern soybean cultivars.     

The effect of context on students’ reasoning about forces

When attempting to solve closely related problems in science, students will often respond to irrelevant contextual features in the questions rather than generalizing their conceptions over the range of relevant situations. In this study, a group of 40 students (one group of 15‐16‐year‐olds and another of preservice science teachers) was surveyed and interviewed to determine the effect of context on the reasoning which they used to solve problems concerning the forces acting on objects in linear motion. It was found that the younger group of students were influenced by contextual features such as the speed, weight and position of the moving object, the direction of the motion and their own personal experience of the context. There were clearly two types of contextual effects ‐‐ primary and secondary, which are described. The older group of students was generally less affected by context and thus more consistent in their reasoning.