Life-shortening effects of radiological weapons in military operations

Military operations can present risks whose origins may be unconventional. As an example, we can mention those within the spectrum of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) defense. This study evaluates, through a computer simulation, an operation in which soldiers face radiological contamination after the triggering of a radiological dispersion device (RDD) in an inhabited urban area. The simulation of the Gaussian scattering (analytical) of the Cs-137 radionuclide is performed using the HotSpot Health Physics codes software. The results of the simulation are evaluated according to two radiological risk domains, referring to high (above 100 mSv) and low integrated radiation doses over 4 continuous days of operation. The radiological risk for developing solid cancer according to specific epidemiological models was estimated. This information served as a basis for estimating the future detriment, that is, the loss of life expectancy (LLE). In addition, the methodology may serve as an instructional resource for tabletop exercises contributing to develop leadership and preparation for decision-making in asymmetric environments.

Using structural equation modelling for understanding relationships influencing the middle school technology teacher’s attitudes toward STEAM education in Korea

The purpose of this study was to investigate the structural relationship between technology teachers’ attitudes toward STEAM education and the cooperation of instructional resources collaboration, school educational change receptivity, and instructional expertise and instructional efficacy. The population comprised about 3500 technology teachers working in middle schools in Korea, and the sample size was set at 650. Data were collected in parallel with postal surveys and online surveys. A total of 650 copies were distributed, of which 409 were recovered, and 283 copies were used for analysis after data cleaning. The Mplus 7 program was used for data analysis, and the significance level was set at 5%. First, we found that the suitability of the structural model established to clarify technology teachers’ attitudes toward STEAM education, instructional resource collaboration, school educational change receptivity, instructional expertise, and instructional efficacy was generally good, so the relationship between the variables was reasonably confirmed. Second, school educational change receptivity and instructional efficacy were found to have a direct effect on attitudes toward STEAM education. Third, the teachers’ instructional resources collaboration was confirmed to influence their attitudes toward STEAM education by mediating the school educational change receptivity and instructional efficacy, and their instructional expertise mediated their instructional efficacy. Fourth, school educational change receptivity was confirmed to influence attitudes toward STEAM education through the dual media of instructional expertise and instructional efficacy. Finally, instructional resource collaboration was confirmed to influence attitudes toward STEAM education through school educational change receptivity, instructional expertise, and instructional efficacy.

A Classroom Exercise on Building Auditors' Interview Skills

ABSTRACT This instructional resource describes a classroom exercise that assists students to understand the importance of performing interviews for auditors. The exercise allows students to practice their interview skills in the context of a business continuity problem. Students are assigned to groups of two and are randomly chosen to play the role of either an auditor or a director of information technology in a client corporation. In this setting, the auditor needs to understand the audit client's business continuity strategies and practices from the director's perspective without being able to observe or obtain detailed information. This exercise contributes to the development of students' ability to interview, which is an important soft skill in the audit process. In addition, this exercise can be administered at different levels of auditing or accounting information systems courses to bring more hands-on learning activities to the classroom.

Examining Middle School Students’ Gestures on Geological Field Trips

The purpose of this study was to examine middle school students’ gestures during a geological field trip. Previous research on gestures has focused on understanding human development and exploring students’ gestures can be helpful in improving understanding of students’ communication in learning environments. In this study, middle school students from a gifted education center engaged in fieldwork along the Hantan-River to learn about and explain river formation processes. Using hermeneutics to interpret meaning from student gestures, researchers identified three types of frequently used gestures: deictic, imageable, and depictive, which served either a social communication purpose (explaining, asking, insisting, and giving evidence) or science communication purposes (visualization and temporal or spatial). Researchers offer implications about the role of gestures for helping novice learners communicate geoscience content and about the potential for gestures to be used by educators as an instructional resource for learners.

Conceptualizing Virtual Instructional Resource Enactment in an Era of Greater Centralization, Specification of Quality Instructional Practices, and Proliferation of Instructional Resources

This article conceptualizes the enactment of virtual instructional resources. We propose a framework that combines traditional concepts of curricular enactment (e.g., the designated, intended, and enacted curriculum) with concepts more salient to the implementation of virtual instructional resources. More specifically, we develop a model that considers the purpose of virtual instruction resources (core or supplemental), the social organizational contexts (e.g., district administrators, teacher professional communities, individual teachers) that shape the enactment of virtual instruction resources, and the process—from creation to enactment—through which virtual instructional resources impact classrooms. We first offer a brief overview of the greater specification of desirable instructional practices and greater centralization, because it is our assertion that virtual instructional resource enactment can best be understood in the context of other important changes and contexts in education more broadly. Next, we introduce our conceptual model of virtual instructional resource enactment. We then specify the concepts of purpose, social organization, and process and situate these concepts in our model. Third, we explain how purpose, social organization, and process influence different aspects of life in schools, including sensitivity to specific contexts, teacher learning, affordances for search and transfer, opportunities for participation in professional communities, and consistency of implementation. We conclude with a discussion in which we articulate the potential tensions and provide direction for future research.

Determinants of Teachers’ Use of Instructional Resource in Teaching Pre-Primary School Science and Mathematics Activities In Machakos County, Kenya

The continuous poor results of science and mathematics in Athi-River Sub-County of Machakos County-Kenya has yielded to the study of determinants of pre-primary school teachers’ use of instructional resources in teaching science and mathematics activities. The effects of use of the instructional resources in learning achievement which has led to poor performance in science and mathematics activities in the current study locale. The major purpose of the study was to establish the extent of teachers’ use of instructional resources in teaching pre-primary science and mathematics activities in Athi-River Sub County of Machakos County, Kenya. The study also found out the effects of teachers’ training level in the use of instructional resources in teaching science and mathematics, Teacher- gender and use of instructional resources, Teacher’s attitude and use of instructional resources in teaching science and mathematics activities and teacher- motivation on the use of instructional resources in teaching science and mathematics in pre-primary schools. This study employed Bruner’s learning theory (1966), which matched well with the determinants of pre-primary teachers’ use of instructional resource. The study targeted 40 pre-primary head teachers, 600 pre-primary teachers and 1800 pre-primary children in Athi-River Sub-County, Machakos County. Athi-River Sub-County was sub-divided to 5 bases and stratified sampling technique was used to select 6 pre-schools from each base translating to a total of 30 pre-schools. Random sampling was used to select 6 pupils from each of the sampled schools for focused study giving a sample size of 1800 pupils. Purposive sampling was also used to select 2 teachers for science and mathematics activities from each of the sampled schools. All head teachers from all the 30 sampled schools were selected leading to a sample of 30 head teachers. A sample size of 270 respondents including 60 teachers, 30 head teachers and 180 pupils) was used in the study. Questionnaires and oral-interviews were used to collect data. Validity of the instruments was determined through examining of the items using content validity. A. Pilot test of the research instruments was done in two schools in the neighboring sub county. Quantitative data was generated from the close-ended items from the questionnaires. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze data such as frequency; standard deviation and mean data analysis was analyzed according. The data was presented in tables. Qualitative data produced from the questionnaire, interview schedules, focused group discussion, as well as data obtained through the observation checklists was analyzed with regards to relevant themes and discussed in line with the research objectives. The findings of the study were as follows: teachers with higher training qualifications were more likely to use instructional resources in teaching science and mathematical activities than their counterparts with less or no training. Male teachers were found to use instructional resources more often in teaching science and mathematics than their female counterparts. Teachers with positive attitude towards science and mathematics were also found to use more instructional resources than teachers with negative attitude. The study recommends that the ministry of education should facilitate pre-primary school teachers to advance their studies through in-service training and that the government of Kenya should motivate pre-primary teachers by paying them reasonable salary. All stakeholders should ensure that instructional resources are made available for better pupil achievement in science and mathematics. This is an open-access article published and distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License of United States unless otherwise stated. Access, citation and distribution of this article is allowed with full recognition of the authors and the source.

Profiling the combinations of multiple representations used in large-class teaching: pathways to inclusive practices

Teachers select multiple representations and adopt multiple visualization approaches in supporting their students to make meaning of chemical phenomena. Representational competence underpins students’ construction of their mental models of concepts thus it is important that teachers consider this while developing instructional resources. In tertiary chemistry, teachers typically use PowerPoint slides to guide lectures. This instructional resource is transferred between different teachers each semester and, while the sequence of topics are likely to be discussed and agreed upon, the content of the slides can evolve organically in this shared resource over time. The aim of this study was to analyse a teacher-generated resource in the form of a consensus set of course slides to characterise the combination and diversity in representations that students had encountered. This study was set in a unique context since the semester's lecture slides represented a distillation of consensus representations used by multiple chemistry lecturers for at least a decade. The representations included: those created by the lecturers; textbook images (from several texts); photographs and images sourced from the internet. Individual representations in each PowerPoint slide were coded in terms of the level of representation, mode and potential function in supporting deeper understanding of chemistry concepts. Three representational organizing frameworks (functional taxonomy of multiple representations, modes of representation and the chemistry triplet levels of thinking) were integrated to categorise the representations. This qualitative data was subjected to hierarchical cluster analysis and several relationships between the categories and topics taught were identified. Additional qualitative data in the form of student reflections on the perceived utility of specific representations were collected at the end of the semester. The findings from this study inform the design and choice of instructional resources for general chemistry particularly in combining representations to support deeper learning of concepts. A broader goal and application of the findings of this study is to identify opportunities for translation of representations into alternative modalities to widen access and participation in learning chemistry for all students. An example of a strategy for translating representations into tactile modes for teaching the topic of phase change is shared.