Search

Universities found themselves unprepared for the dynamic disruption in their delivery of educational services caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The rapid transition by universities to move all classes to an online format posed unexpected challenges and highlighted the lack of preparation. One of these challenges was service failure in several university offerings while not addressing the students' perceived expectations. Within this context, the authors use the SCARF model to examine how motivational factors impact service recovery and value co-recovery in the face of dynamic changes to the students' learning experience. Stemming from its nature in facilitating and improving collaborations and interactions with others, the SCARF model is considered a successful framework for improving collaboration and engagement in academia. Using PLS-SEM, the data supported Status, Certainty, Relatedness, and Fairness as relevant to having a service recovery that rectified, amended, and restored the student's interrupted classroom experience. Overall, the results have some essential initial implications for teaching faculty who want to be prepared to recover in case of another educational service delivery failure like the COVID-19 forced transition experienced.

The sudden transition to online course delivery necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic led to a significant service interruption in the academic lives of college students. Some challenges posed were immediately present such as to how to deliver course material and handle student concerns about classes and life in a new, unexpected, and abrupt "normal." One aspect that arguably can generate a much-improved recovery is the pivotal role that a professor's empathy can provide. This study captures the role of empathy regarding professorial behaviors directly related to the course, those not directly tied to the class, and how they all merge to influence student perceptions of the course. Student's level of perceived stressors related to their life and ultimately their stress level are impacted as well. Findings show empathy plays a key role in positively impacting student satisfaction and well-being while reducing students' sources of concerns such as household conflict, lack of Wi-Fi reliability, lack of access to a constant computer, and financial and food insecurity.

Prior research has demonstrated that the characteristics of school environments can impact the development of creativity in children. Thus, we explored the construct of creativity in the context of a Montessori environment. We used the Evaluation of Potential Creativity to measure creativity in children during one academic year. The study sample comprised 77 third-grade students at a Montessori public school in the southeastern United States and 71 demographically similar students at a traditional public school. Results show that Montessori students performed somewhat better on the Evaluation of Potential Creativity assessment than similar non-Montessori students did. Subgroup analyses indicate that male Montessori students demonstrated higher creativity than did male non-Montessori students. The findings of this study augment the body of research supporting creative development in Montessori children and suggest that researchers should continue to focus on the measurement of creativity in studies related to the efficacy of the Montessori model.

Recognizing that post-secondary student attainment and achievement is of increasing import for economic success, this study compares the post-secondary performance of students who attended public and private high schools. The results generally indicate that students who attended Catholic high schools had higher college grade-point averages (GPAs), were more likely to graduate, and were more likely to graduate with a STEM degree. This Catholic school advantage was wide-ranging, benefiting many subgroups of students, including non-white, low income, urban, and low-achieving students. We controlled for a rich set of factors and conducted sensitivity analyses to establish the strength of these results.

Regardless of the type of arts activity, the importance of the arts in afterschool programs cannot be overestimated. As the arts are increasingly marginalized in public school systems, afterschool arts education can be an alternative way to integrate the arts into children's academic experiences or build on their in-school arts experiences (Briggs & McHenry, 2013; Charmaraman & Hall, 2011; Eckhoff, Hallenbeck, & Spearman, 2011; Stiegelbauer, 2008). However, logistical and resource constraints challenge afterschool programs looking to provide and maintain quality arts education (Montgomery et al., 2013). One solution to the challenge afterschool programs face in providing high-quality arts education is to partner with a university. In the model featured in this article, a university teacher education arts course brings its students into elementary afterschool programs at local Title I schools. These students participate in arts-oriented field experiences that both enhance their own education and provide quality arts activities in the afterschool programs. This ongoing university-afterschool partnership, now in its fifth year, is presented as a model partnership for enhancing arts education after school, one that presents unique opportunities and challenges and that suggests best practices in such partnerships.

Do market-based policies, like school vouchers, that provide an exit option enhance or diminish parental involvement? I examine this question using original survey data from parents participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, the nation's oldest urban voucher program. Voucher students were matched to a set of public school students based on Census tract, test scores, and demographic factors. I find voucher parents say that they are more willing than public school parents to use voice over exit. Further, voucher parents report being more involved in school-based activities or participatory coproduction, while public school parents report participating in more home-based education activities or independent coproduction. Multiple mechanisms inform these relationships. Voucher schools may be more receptive to parental involvement, and the religious nature of some voucher schools may promote participatory coproduction.

Zinc and selenium are essential minerals for human nutrition. Reliable biomarkers of zinc status and selenium status in humans are therefore important. This work investigates a novel portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) method with the ability to rapidly assess zinc and selenium in nail clippings. This approach used a mono-energetic X-ray beam to excite characteristic X-rays from the clippings. Nail clippings were obtained from the Mother and Infant Nutrition Investigation (MINI), a study designed to assess nutrition in a population of women and their breastfed children in New Zealand. Twenty mother-infant pairings were selected to provide nail clippings at two time points (visit 1 at 3 months postpartum; visit 2 at 6 months postpartum). Nail clippings from each mother-infant pairing were divided into three groupings of clippings prior to analysis: those obtained from a big toe of the mother, those from the other toes of the mother, and those from the toes and fingers of the infant. Clippings were prepared and mounted prior to XRF measurement, providing four distinct fragments from each clipping grouping. These fragments were assessed by XRF using a measurement time of either 300 s (visit 1) or 180 s (visit 2). XRF results were determined through both an automated system output and an analysis of the X-ray energy spectrum. Following this assessment of zinc and selenium with the non-destructive XRF method, clippings were measured for zinc and selenium concentration using a "gold standard" technique of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Mean ICP-MS concentrations ranged from 122 μg/g to 127 μg/g for zinc, and from 0.646 μg/g to 0.659 μg/g for selenium. Precision, assessed by a relative standard deviation of measurement, was superior for ICP-MS relative to XRF. For both zinc and selenium, XRF results were compared with ICP-MS concentrations. Linear equations of best fit were determined for each comparison between XRF and ICP-MS results. Coefficients of determination (r2) were stronger for zinc (from 0.74 to 0.95) than selenium (from 0.53 to 0.70). A decrease in XRF measurement time from 300 s to 180 s did not appear to adversely affect the correlation between XRF and ICP-MS results. Using the mono-energetic portable XRF method, the correlation of XRF zinc results with ICP-MS zinc concentrations was improved over previous findings, and selenium measurement was reported for the first time. The method may prove useful for future applications to trace element analysis using nail clippings as a biomarker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes how the changes made to British calendar in 1752, from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, came about and their effect on everyday life. It traces the intercalation or addition of days to lunisolar calendars to the correction made by Emperor Augustus and informs the adoption of the Gregorial calendar by Protestant countries following confusion with dates. Problems with the changed calendar include dates of planting, fairs, herring trade and financial obligations.

Introduction: Suboptimal access to dermatologic care is dependent on patient location and insurance type. Although there have been attempts to address access issues, barriers to providing excellent dermatologic care to all patients at the right time still exist. The objective of this study was to investigate the clinical impact of Dermatology Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) project participation on primary care providers' diagnostic and treatment tendencies and accuracy. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study constructed using Dermatology Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes case and recommendation data from November 2015 to June 2021. The University of Missouri-based Dermatology Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes specialty hub team offers regularly scheduled live interactive tele-mentoring sessions for primary care providers who practice in rural and underserved areas. 524 patient cases presented by 25 primary care providers were included in the analysis. Of those, 449 cases were included in diagnostic concordance, and 451 in treatment concordance analysis. Results: Less than 40% of all diagnoses were fully concordant with an expert panel. Over 33% of patients were misdiagnosed, and over 26% received partially correct diagnosis. Only 16% of all treatment recommendations were fully concordant with an expert panel. Discussion: Diagnostic and treatment accuracy of participants is low, and Dermatology Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes platform ensured patients received correct diagnosis and treatment quickly. Although tele-dermatology models are effective, they continue to be underutilized. Dermatologists in practice and training should be encouraged to adopt innovative clinical educational models, like Dermatology ECHO, to expand access to dermatologic expertise for the most marginalized populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Goal setting is not an innate skill. Adults who are successful at reaching their goals have learned to set realistic goals and to plan to attain them. Afterschool programs, because they have latitude in their curricular offerings and program elements, can provide strong backdrops for goal-setting initiatives. While studies have shown that goal setting is a behavior elementary-age children can accomplish, they do not examine goal-setting initiatives in afterschool programs. This article describes a goal-setting intervention implemented in a 21st Century Community Learning Centers afterschool program serving students in grades 1-5 at two school sites. The authors structured the goal-setting intervention using the Transtheoretical Model, which depicts behavior change as a process that evolves through a series of stages. They believed that use of the Transtheoretical Model, and specifically its Stages of Change construct, could provide elementary afterschool students with a method of setting and achieving goals. With the assistance of afterschool teachers as the goal-setting facilitators, the authors wanted to discern: (1) Is there a difference in the pre-intervention and post-intervention scores of the Stages of Change among students participating in the afterschool intervention?; (2) How does an afterschool goal-setting intervention affect students' goal-setting behaviors?; and (3) How does an afterschool goal-setting intervention affect intervention facilitators? The results show that the intervention offered benefits for both students and teacher-facilitators. The authors used their data to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the goal-setting intervention in order to improve its implementation. (Contains 4 figures and 1 table.)

When he returned to Amsterdam in spring 1945, Otto Frank discovered that not one but two versions of his daughter's diary had survived the Holocaust: the three notebooks of so‐called version A and the revision of that diary on loose sheets of paper, called version B. Other texts also survived, including a notebook Anne titled “Tales and Events from the Secret Annex,” where she collected more than three dozen short pieces of prose. Best known for its “tales,” the book is, in fact, mostly nonfiction, including numerous sketches of annex life. More self‐contained and literary than her diary entries, they show Anne experimenting as a writer. They also show her writing vigorously in the summer of 1943, a period unrepresented in version A since none of that year's diary notebooks survived. Yet, as Anne later wrote, it was “the second half of 1943” when her life changed: when she began “to think, to write.” My goal here is to better fit the “Tales” notebook into the story of Anne's life and work, a project made easier by the recent publication of Anne Frank: The Collected Works, which includes, for the first time in English, all of the author's writing, in one volume, in separate, continuous texts. To read those texts in the order in which she wrote them is to see Anne Frank not just growing as a writer but becoming a writer. The results are of interest not only to scholars of Anne's life and work but to teachers of young readers and writers, for whom Anne Frank has long been a model, if an imperfectly understood one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the expansion of public Montessori education and its implications for student participation and outcomes. The study focuses on the state of South Carolina, which has the largest number of public Montessori programs in the United States. Through a comprehensive analysis of demographic characteristics and standardized test scores, we investigate the participation of different student groups in public Montessori programs and compare the academic achievement of public Montessori students to their peers in traditional public schools. The findings indicate that public Montessori attracts a diverse range of students, but there is an underrepresentation of less-resourced students and students of color in public Montessori programs. Using matching procedures, we find that Montessori students demonstrated higher achievement growth in ELA and math compared to similar traditional public school students. Subgroup analyses find that higher achievement growth for Montessori students is consistent across many student groups. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of public Montessori and highlights the importance of considering curriculum and educational philosophy when evaluating the impact of education policies and programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]