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Poor mathematics preparation severely restricts students' future educational and occupational choices. This paper explores the extent to which differences were observed in the pedagogical practices of those teaching college introductory college math at a community college and at a four-year college. Although college math instructors generally may be poorly prepared to teach their assigned course content, this lack of preparation may be less characteristic of community college instructors for various reasons including their educational training and occupational priorities. Findings indicated that recommended practices such as metacognitive strategies and references to prior knowledge were more likely to be used by math instructors at a two-year than a four-year college. The implications of these findings for professional development and hiring requirements are discussed and emphasized for college math department chairs and administrators generally.

The pre-service teacher followed in this paper aimed to act as an agent of change during a time of reform in Irish secondary mathematics education. A teacher-researcher led action research project was conducted to depict the reality of the situation regarding the implementation of mathematical problem solving from a variety of perspectives-namely those of the pre-service teacher/teacher-researcher, the secondary school students, and the other mathematics teachers in the school. A problem-based approach to teaching and learning was implemented by the pre-service teacher using Van de Walle's teaching through problem solving framework in an attempt by the pre-service teacher to enact change at the classroom level. Following this intervention, participating students showed an improvement in engagement with mathematical problem solving and expressed positive opinions regarding the problem-based approach to teaching and learning. Meanwhile, other mathematics teachers in the school expressed concerns relating to the reality of implementing problem solving in their classrooms; however, these concerns were not issues faced by the author when implementing problem solving in the same setting. When these concerns were indirectly challenged by the preservice teacher a change in conversation occurred.

A lack of knowledge and appreciation of the prominence of mathematics in different careers can have a negative impact on a student's engagement with the subject. A perceived lack of relevance can result in disinterest, and even disengagement with mathematics entirely. This can lead to more serious consequences for the economy of a country who requires a consistent flow of well-educated science, technology, and mathematics graduates to ensure economic and social development. Research shows that the textbook is the most commonly used resource in Irish classrooms. Textbooks impact significantly on teaching and learning as they dictate what will be taught, in what order, and how. For this reason, this research commenced with an analysis of local textbooks to evaluate how well they highlight the relevance of mathematics within careers. This textbook analysis, in conjunction with interviews conducted with secondary school mathematics teachers, indicate a distinct lack of resources and support for teachers who want to highlight the relevance of mathematics within a range of careers as a means of enhancing student motivation and engagement with the subject. These findings motivated the conception of a pilot study designed to support secondary school mathematics teachers to fill this gap in teaching resources.

It is often assumed that media literacy serves to protect and uphold democratic practice and that media literate citizens are the best safeguards for democracy. However, little attention is paid to defining this practice and its relationship to ongoing inequities within democratic societies. In this essay, we argue media literacy operates from three core assumptions; media literacy creates knowledgeable individuals, empowers communities, and encourages democratic participation. The first assumption draws out an individual's skills and critical thinking in media literacy practices. The second assumption focuses on the community aspect of media literacy, specifically which communities are best served by media literacy and why. Finally, the connection between media literacy and democratic practices is evaluated to understand how the democratic ideals of equity and justice are situated within the existing literature. Through an exploration of these assumptions, this essay provokes a discussion into the assumptions that media literacy scholarship and practice addresses to highlight some of the gaps in constructing impactful practice that centers on equity and social justice.

Allogeneic transplant (alloHCT) and chimeric antigen receptor modified (CAR)-T cell therapy are potentially cuarative options of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) relapsing after an autologous (auto)HCT. Although the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) prognostic model can predict outcomes of alloHCT in DLBCL after autoHCT failure, corresponding models of CAR-T treatment in similar patient populations are not available. In this noncomparative registry analysis, we report outcomes of patients with DLBCL (≥18 years) undergoing a reduced intensity alloHCT or CAR-T therapy with axicabtagene ciloleucel during 2012 to 2019 after a prior auto-HCT failure and apply the CIBMTR prognostic model to CAR-T recipients. A total of 584 patients were included. The 1-year relapse, nonrelapse mortality, overall survival (OS), and progression-free survival for CAR-T treatment after autoHCT failure were 39.5%, 4.8%, 73.4%, and 55.7%, respectively. The corresponding rates in the alloHCT cohort were 26.2%, 20.0%, 65.6%, and 53.8%, respectively. The 1-year OS of alloHCT recipients classified as low-, intermediate- and high/very high-risk groups according to the CIBMTR prognostic score was 73.3%, 59.9%, and 46.3%, respectively (P = .002). The corresponding rates for low-, intermediate-, and high/very high-risk CAR-T patients were 88.4%, 76.4%, and 52.8%, respectively (P < .001). This registry analysis shows that both CAR-T and alloHCT can provide durable remissions in a subset of patients with DLBCL relapsing after a prior autoHCT. The simple CIBMTR prognostic score can be used to identify patients at high risk of treatment failure after either procedure. Evaluation of novel relapse mitigations strategies after cellular immunotherapies are warranted in these high-risk patients.

Increasing numbers of students attending higher education institutions in Ireland take obligatory mathematics modules -- service mathematics -- as part of their programmes of study. A dislike of mathematics is frequently expressed among students, particularly mature students, some of whom experience mathematics anxiety. However, despite their experiences with mathematics, mature students demonstrate motivation and resilience in respect of their engagement with mathematics. As part of a mixed methods study, the author endeavoured to explore the mathematics experiences of mature students throughout their lives, and to identify those incidents that have impacted significantly on the students' engagement with mathematics. Twenty mature students were asked to characterise their relationship with mathematics. This paper presents these findings, depicting an interesting variety of responses.

Communication center clients come in various forms. Many centers work with individuals and groups while some work with entire classrooms, departments, or colleges. Very few centers "both" partner with other campus consulting services "and" interact with large units. While a considerable amount of literature focuses on one-on-one consultations and some work focuses on collaboration between similar centers (McCall, Ellis, & Murphy, 2017), little, if any, research deals with these unique partnerships "and" how they collaborate to serve groups. This article examines how one communication center partnered with two other campus consulting services to create a purposeful and collaborative relationship with three sections of a communication course for an entire semester each. The goal of this work is to test effectiveness value of communication and similar consultants in the classroom, and to understand if one approach to consultant inclusion in the classroom is more empowering than another. To accomplish these goals, three groups, or classes, of students were used. The control group excluded all consultant participation. One experimental group had consultants embedded themselves into each class meeting. The other experimental group had consultants provide service-specific workshops during select class meetings. The collaborative partnership for this study included speaking, writing, and research center consultants and pre-and post-semester scales were used to compare empowerment levels and subject knowledge values between groups. Results suggest the workshop group produces higher empowerment and learning levels than other groups.

Mathematics teacher educators in the University of Limerick became aware of a lack of conceptual understanding of key mathematics concepts of prospective secondary mathematics teachers through observation on teaching placement and in pedagogy lectures. A pilot study to enhance the conceptual understanding of prospective teachers was carried out with one undergraduate class in 2009/10 and a longer more in-depth programme was offered to all prospective mathematics teachers in the academic year 2011/12. The intervention was designed to get prospective mathematics teachers "thinking" about mathematics topics they have so far taken for granted and hence better prepare them for classroom practice. This retrospective study divulges a number of observations which emerged, the main one being how rote learning and an emphasis on procedural skills at the expense of conceptual understanding results in a cycle of ineffective teaching which is difficult to break.

The article presents a framework for equitable media literacy practice (EMLP), which changes structure, action, and agency in service of an imagined and inclusive future and makes space for equitable civic and educational experiences. We derived this framework from 28 in-depth interviews with media literacy practitioners across the US. We asked these practitioners what EMLP would mean to them and what challenges and opportunities for EMLP emerge within their individual and organizational contexts. Interviewees acknowledge that equity is difficult to achieve given daily individual, community, and social concerns but is an important component of civic engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aimsProbability discounting refers to the effect of outcome uncertainty on decision making. Using probability discounting, we examined the degree to which self-identified chronic pain patients (CPP) were likely to try a novel analgesic medication given increasing addiction risk. We postulated that propensity for opioid misuse, trait impulsivity and previous opioid experience would be associated positively with likelihood of risky medication use.DesignThis cross-sectional on-line study determined state/trait associations with addiction-related medication decisions in CPP.SettingUS-based CPP participated via Amazon Mechanical Turk; data were collected and analyzed in Baltimore, Maryland.ParticipantsA total of 263 CPP (70.6% female) participated in the study from 12-13 December 2014.MeasurementsCPP responded to the Benefit versus Addiction Risk Questionnaire (BARQ) assessing likelihood of taking a hypothetical once-daily oral analgesic medication as a function of two factors: risk of addiction (0-50%) and duration of expected complete pain relief (3, 30 or 365 days). The primary outcome was the BARQ, quantified as area under the curve (AUC). Grouping of CPP at high or low risk for opioid misuse was based on the Screener and Opioid Assessment for Patients with Pain-Revised (SOAPP-R). Predictors included previous experience with opioids, as well as various measures of chronic pain and mental health.FindingsAcross hypothetical addiction risk assessed in the BARQ, the likelihood of taking a novel analgesic medication was elevated significantly in patients with high (≥18; n = 137) versus low (

A teacher's attitude towards a subject has a major influence on their learning and subsequent teaching of that subject. This has a knock-on effect on the development of their own students' attitudes. However, despite such importance there has been a dearth of research in this area, particularly in relation to the attitudes of pre-service secondary teachers of mathematics. Thus, the aim of this study is to quantify the attitudes of this cohort of teachers at the beginning of their initial teacher education (ITE) program. The participants in the study are pre-service teacher cohorts (N = 98) from four Irish universities who are enrolled in a postgraduate ITE program, known as the Professional Master of Education (PME). Six sub-scales of the overall Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales (FSMAS) were used to gain a quantitative measure of participants' attitudes towards the subject as they embarked on their ITE. The FSMAS scores were strongly positive, although the results of the mathematics anxiety and teacher subscales were notably lower in comparison to the others. Further analysis was carried out to identify affecting factors, particularly in relation to these two low-ranking subscales.

This pilot study explores the effectiveness of a strategy for overcoming post-primary students' misconceptions within the topic of algebra. Although central to the study of mathematics, algebra can be an area of difficulty for many students. A misconception is typically classified as flawed understanding of a concept causing repeated errors, and the prevalence of algebraic misconceptions has been well documented in the literature. Previous studies in probability and statistics have shown that the use of analogies to misconception-prone situations can act as anchors to effect conceptual change and assist in correcting misconceptions. This project follows a framework that has been successfully utilised in previous research, with two versions of a test and interviews conducted with 25 students. The results identified the presence of, and links between, some common misconceptions among the students regarding their knowledge of algebraic equations and also provided insight regarding an effective technique for addressing these misconceptions.

Opioid therapy for pain is associated with an increased risk for substance use disorders. This study's purpose was to determine the association between opioid misuse propensity (Screener and Opioid Assessment for Patients in Pain-Revised) and delay discounting (DD), a behavioral process linked to substance use disorders, which quantifies the extent to which outcomes are devalued because of their delay. Participants reporting chronic pain (N = 249) answered pain and opioid use questions and then completed 4 DD tasks. Each of these tasks assessed either money or pain consequences, framed as either rewards or punishments. Each task involved hypothetical choices between immediate smaller vs delayed larger consequences. The extant Monetary Choice Questionnaire assessed DD of money rewards, and a modified version assessed discounting of money losses (immediate smaller loss vs larger delayed loss). Based on the Monetary Choice Questionnaire, the novel Pain Relief Choice Questionnaire assessed choices between an immediate short duration of pain relief vs a longer duration of pain relief. Similarly, the novel Additional Pain Choice Questionnaire assessed choices between an immediate short duration of additional pain vs a longer duration of additional pain. Discounting of both additional pain and money losses were significantly associated with high Screener and Opioid Assessment for Patients in Pain-Revised scores-indicating participants at greatest risk for opioid misuse discount future punishments rather than future rewards compared with those at low risk. Measures of DD may have promise in more accurately identifying individuals at highest risk for opioid misuse during chronic opioid therapy.

BACKGROUND. Convalescent plasma is the only antibody-based therapy currently available for patients with coronavlrus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It has robust historical precedence and sound biological plausibility. Although promising, convalescent plasma has not yet been shown to be safe as a treatment for COVID-19. METHODS. Thus, we analyzed key safety metrics after transfusion of ABO-compatible human COVID-19 convalescent plasma in 5000 hospitalized adults with severe or life-threatening COVID-19, with 66% in the intensive care unit, as part of the US FDA expanded access program for COVID-19 convalescent plasma. RESULTS. The incidence of all serious adverse events (SAEs), including mortality rate (0.3%), in the first 4 hours after transfusion was CONCLUSION. Given the deadly nature of COVID-19 and the large population of critically ill patients included in these analyses, the mortality rate does not appear excessive. These early indicators suggest that transfusion of convalescent plasma is safe in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. TRIAL REGISTRATION. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04338360. FUNDING. Mayo Clinic, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (75A50120C00096), National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (UL1TR002377), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (5R35HL139854 and R01 HL059842), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (5T32DK07352), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (PDF-532926-2019), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (R21 AI145356, R21 AI152318, and AI152078), Schwab Charitable Fund, United Health Group, National Basketball Association, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and Octapharma USA Inc., Introduction The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the US exceed that of any other country in the [...]

A year-long exploratory project examined how well students could effectively respond to a piece of first-year writing using an articulated framework--Assignment, Focus, Organization, Support, and Proofreading (AFOSP). The students in these small-group writing tutorials received peer-facilitated support while they were enrolled in first-year composition. Results from a one-way repeated measures ANOVA showed statistically significant gains in students' abilities to respond to writing using the framework. The findings suggest that teaching students to use such a framework can improve their ability to critically assess writing. (Contains 2 tables.)