On love,becomings, and true generosity for science education: honoring Paulo Freire

Cultural Studies of Science Education - In this editorial article, we draw on our experiences to create an opening for critical reflection in honor of Paulo Freire's centenary. We start by...     

The Feasibility of Using Virtual Professional Development to Support Teachers in Making Data-Based Decisions to Improve Students’ Writing

Rubrics can be used to give students targeted feedback on their writing and, therefore, teachers should be able to use them as a type of formative assessment to guide writing instruction. This article describes an exploratory study of how three teachers provided instruction for fourth, fifth, and seventh graders with learning disabilities and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in using a technology-based graphic organizer (TBGO) to compose persuasive essays. Given professional development inclusive of online modules, long-range plans, and virtually facilitated professional learning communities, the teachers used a digital dashboard to (a) monitor students’ writing progress with a genre-specific analytic rubric, (b) target a specific instructional skill, and (c) document their instructional decision(s). The article illustrates how educators can effectively use genre-specific writing rubrics in practice to make data-driven decisions about student writing.     

Examination of the role of transient receptor potential vanilloid type 4 in endothelial responses to shear forces

Shear stress is the major mechanical force applied on vascular endothelial cells by blood flow, and is a crucial factor in normal vascular physiology and in the development of some vascular pathologies. The exact mechanisms of cellular mechano-transduction in mammalian cells and tissues have not yet been elucidated, but it is known that mechanically sensitive receptors and ion channels play a crucial role. This paper describes the use of a novel and efficient microfluidic device to study mechanically-sensitive receptors and ion channels in vitro, which has three independent channels from which recordings can be made and has a small surface area such that fewer cells are required than for conventional flow chambers. The contoured channels of the device enabled examination of a range of shear stresses in one field of view, which is not possible with parallel plate flow chambers and other previously used devices, where one level of flow-induced shear stress is produced per fixed flow-rate. We exposed bovine aortic endothelial cells to different levels of shear stress, and measured the resulting change in intracellular calcium levels ([Ca²⁺]_i) using the fluorescent calcium sensitive dye Fluo-4AM. Shear stress caused an elevation of [Ca²⁺]_i that was proportional to the level of shear experienced. The response was temperature dependant such that at lower temperatures more shear stress was required to elicit a given level of calcium signal and the magnitude of influx was reduced. We demonstrated that shear stress-induced elevations in [Ca²⁺]_i are largely due to calcium influx through the transient receptor potential vanilloid type 4 ion channel.     

A SYSTEMATIC FRAMEWORK FOR ADDRESSING TREATMENT INTEGRITY IN SCHOOL SETTINGS

School psychologists are tasked with ensuring treatment integrity because the level of intervention implementation affects decisions about student progress. Treatment integrity includes multiple dimensions that may impact the effectiveness of an intervention including adherence, dosage, quality, and engagement. Unfortunately, treatment integrity is not routinely monitored in consultation. A systematic framework is needed to better prepare practitioners to assess, analyze, and intervene when there are treatment integrity failures. A framework for monitoring and improving multiple dimensions of treatment integrity in natural settings is proposed to provide guidance to practitioners through two phases. The first phase focuses on improving initial treatment integrity and the second phase outlines a problem‐solving process for improving treatment integrity.     

Individual Differences in Emotional Reactivity and Academic Achievement: A Psychophysiological Study

Factors related to grade point average (GPA) are of great importance for students' success. Yet, little is known about the impact of individual differences in emotional reactivity on students' academic performance. We aimed to examine the emotional reactivity–GPA link and to assess whether self‐esteem and psychological distress moderate this relationship. Eighty undergraduate students reported on their GPA, self‐esteem, and psychological distress. Students' pupil radius was monitored during affective picture viewing to assess sympathetic activation in response to emotional stimuli. Cluster analysis on pupil reactivity to pictures identified low, average, and high emotionally reactive students. Regression analyses indicated that profiles of emotional reactivity were associated with GPA. This relationship was moderated by self‐esteem, but not psychological distress. Among students with higher emotional reactivity, those with lower self‐esteem reported poorer GPA. Findings document the importance of differences in students' emotional reactivity and self‐esteem in relation to academic success.     

Does it matter who your schoolmates are? An investigation of the association between school composition,school processes and mathematics achievement in the early years of primary education

Although many studies have focused on the importance of school composition for student achievement, there is still no consensus on whether school composition matters to student achievement, and, if so, why. Therefore, the present study investigates the association between school composition and mathematics achievement at the end of second grade in Flanders. International research points to the initial ability level, SES, ethnicity and sex composition of the school as potential variables in explaining differences in student achievement. Moreover, some researchers suggest that schools ‘react’ to their student body and for that reason we investigated the possible association between school composition and school processes. Data from the SiBO Project have been analyzed using multilevel regression and multilevel mediation analysis. The results showed no direct school composition effects with respect to prior achievement, SES, ethnicity and sex on math achievement. We found two small differential effects, indicating that mean school prior achievement seems to positively affect initially high achievers, and the proportion of minority students in school seems to negatively affect students speaking a non‐European language except for Turkish, Arabic or Berber at home. Furthermore, two small indirect effects were found which suggest that schools with a high mean prior achievement or a high mean SES keep in regular contact with their students' parents and this, in turn, appears to enhance students' math achievement. Overall, our results seem to indicate that school composition in the early years of primary education hardly matters.     

A Methylome‐Wide Association Study of Trajectories of Oppositional Defiant Behaviors and Biological Overlap With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

In 671 mother–child (49% male) pairs from an epidemiological birth cohort, we investigated (a) prospective associations between DNA methylation (at birth) and trajectories (ages 7–13) of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and the ODD subdimensions of irritable and headstrong; (b) common biological pathways, indexed by DNA methylation, between ODD trajectories and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); (c) genetic influence on DNA methylation; and (d) prenatal risk exposure associations. Methylome‐wide significant associations were identified for the ODD and headstrong, but not for irritable. Overlap analysis indicated biological correlates between ODD, headstrong, and ADHD. DNA methylation in ODD and headstrong was (to a degree) genetically influenced. DNA methylation associated with prenatal risk exposures of maternal anxiety (headstrong) and cigarette smoking (ODD and headstrong).     

Early Childhood Teacher Education: A Global Perspective

A couple of years ago I attended a presentation at a professional meeting that made a major impact upon my life. The session, “Ways of Achieving Excellence in a Global Community,” included presentations by early childhood educators from Australia, Hungary and Finland. At the conclusion of this sharing of ideas regarding what other countries are doing to improve the lives of children, I overheard an American colleague whisper to her neighbor in amazement, “My God! We're a Third World country when it comes to child care.” Without contrasts brought out by this session, however, this educator might have never been open to the world of ideas for improving children's lives.