Music as a Management Tool in Elementary Physical Education: A Qualitative Investigation

Classroom management is an important aspect for a K–12 teacher in any content area. The same applies in physical education (PE). In PE, there are large spaces, students are moving, and in many cases, equipment (basketballs, rackets, Hula-Hoops, etc.) is involved, thus making PE a unique challenge in regard to classroom management for PE teachers. One tool an elementary PE teacher can use for classroom management is music. For this study, one school administrator, 19 elementary-aged students, and one PE teacher were interviewed about their perceptions of music as a management tool in elementary PE. Findings indicate that students prefer music as a management tool rather than the PE teacher using a whistle or loud voice.

What Preservice Teachers Can Learn From a Content Area Expert

In this chapter, the author presents the negotiation between students and teachers to combat disengagement in a virtual classroom. To address this concern, the chapter presents a model that increases authentic engagement in a mathematics classroom for a group of sophomores, juniors, and seniors using an academic dialogue strategy that prepares students to think critically about what they are learning in the classroom and how these abstract learnings connect to real-world experiences. The dialogues that occur between the author and the students provide an approach that is widely used in literacy settings but may not always happen in content area instruction.

A Framework for Discussion in a Post-COVID World

This chapter addresses how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted teaching and practice for secondary educators. The authors consider how content area secondary educators, in light of the pandemic, can support adolescent students' understanding of discipline specific concepts through discussion in virtual spaces. Discussion is integral to literacy learning in the disciplines because it provides students with the tools they need to be successful learners and active participants in their learning. The authors use critical literacy, TPACK, and SAMR to provide educators with a framework to evaluate and interrogate disciplinary literacy teaching methods. The chapter provides educators with tools for secondary educators to engage in the thoughtful reconstruction of the learning experiences they design for students.

Successful Problem Solving in Genetics Varies Based on Question Content

Student and expert problem solving in genetics was characterized by analyzing written step-by-step processes in four different content areas. A few processes that were associated with correct answers differed depending on content area, but reasoning was consistently predictive of successful problem solving across all content areas.

Teaching Writing Through Content: Six Instructional Activities to Improve Students’ Sentence-Level Writing Skills

Writing is a complex activity requiring a wide range of skills. Sentence construction, a foundational writing skill, is necessary for paragraph and composition writing. Unfortunately, many current approaches to teaching writing place a priority on the product—focusing on teaching the process of writing lengthy pieces rather than providing explicit instruction in the development of singular, well-constructed sentences. Many students with learning disabilities struggle with proficient sentence construction and acquiring content-area knowledge. Teaching sentence-level writing through content can aid in remediating sentence-level writing deficits while helping students build content-area knowledge. A framework for embedding writing across the curriculum and six sentence-level instructional activities are described.

Society, family, and individual characteristics as double-edged swords in the social reintegration of Iranian female survivors from unintentional severe burns: a qualitative study of enablers and barriers

Background Reintegrating to society is a significant challenge during burn survivors’ rehabilitation. Aim This study aims to describe what Iranian female survivors from unintentional severe burns experience as enablers and barriers of social reintegration (SR). Methods Fourteen adult female burn survivors whose burns were unintentional participated in this qualitative study. Data were gathered through semi-structured face-to-face or telephone interviews and analyzed using inductive content analysis. Results Thirteen subcategories and six categories were emerged. Categories and subcategories of enablers content area were as follows: positive impact of society on SR (normal treatment of society, instrumental support), positive impact of family on SR (magnifying personal abilities assets, empathy and emotional support), and positive impact of personal characteristics on SR (coping with others stares, right to have a normal social life). Categories and subcategories of Barriers content area were as follows: negative impact of society on SR (being questioned in public, incorrect judgment about intent of burns, burns as a contagious disease), negative impact of family on SR (embarrassment of appearing in public with the survivor, family mistrust), and negative impact of intra-personal factors on SR (exaggeration of the post-burn changes, being over-sensitive to the others looks). From the deep interpretation of the data two overarching themes were emerged: “acceptance of the new normal by the society and the individual” and “being encompassed by misconceptions and mistreatments”. Conclusions Society, family and the individual characteristics have a dual role to play in the success of social reintegration in Iranian female unintentional burn survivors.

The Effects of Organic Fertilizer and Planting Type on Growth and Yield of Curcuma aromatica

Background: Curcuma aromatica Salisb is an important medicinal herb in Vietnam. It is exploited naturally, so its production is limited and in danger of extinction. Studying an organic farming model is a necessary orientation to exploit, conserve and provide quality raw materials. Methods: The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of surface coating types (A1: without coating, A2: straw coating and A3: polymer coating) and organic fertilizer amount (B1: 0; B1: 15, B2: 20, B3: 25 and B4: 30 ton ha-1) on growth and yield of Curcuma aromatica Salisb. The experiment was designed in a factorial randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The traits studied were: survival plant’s rate (%), leaf area (cm2), plant height (cm), number of leaves, fresh weight (g/plant), dry weight (g/plant), phenolic content/area (mg/20 m2), curcumol content/area (mg/20 m2). Result: The results of the experiment revealed that surface coating types and organic fertilization and their interaction were significant in growth and yield of Curcuma aromatica Salisb.

Comparison of U.S. 4-year and community college librarians’ perspectives on competencies, challenges, and educational preparation for the instructional role

The purpose of this study is to explore and compare community (2-year) college librarians’ perceptions of their competencies, challenges, and educational preparation with those of librarians at 4-year colleges. Researchers created survey questions based on previous studies and distributed the survey through online mailing lists. The survey results indicated that community college instructional librarians’ responses were generally not statistically significantly different from 4-year university librarians in terms of what skills, traits, and educational needs were most prevalent. From the perspective of career challenges, community college instructional librarians cited marketing and changing perceptions/needs of content area faculty, while the librarians at 4-year universities cited burnout and class overload. These differences reveal the substantial challenge of preparing instructional librarians according to the types of libraries and instructional approaches.