Gender, Behavioral Assessment of Negative Reinforcement Driven Risk Taking Propensity, and Cigarette Smoking

Cigarette smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death and disability in the United States and most often is initiated during adolescence. An emerging body of research suggests that a negative reinforcement model may explain factors that contribute to tobacco use during adolescence and that negative reinforcement processes may contribute to tobacco use to a greater extent among female adolescents than among male adolescents. However, the extant literature both on the relationship between negative reinforcement processes and adolescent tobacco use as well as on the relationship between gender, negative reinforcement processes, and adolescent tobacco use is limited by the sole reliance on self-report measures of negative reinforcement processes that may contribute to cigarette smoking. The current study aimed to further disentangle the relationships between negative reinforcement based risk taking, gender and tobacco use during older adolescence by utilizing a behavioral analogue measure of negative reinforcement based risk taking, the Maryland Resource for the Behavioral Utilization of the Reinforcement of Negative Stimuli (MRBURNS). Specifically, we examined the relationship between pumps on the MRBURNS, an indicator of risk taking, and smoking status as well as the interaction between MRBURNS pumps and gender for predicting smoking status. Participants included 103 older adolescents (n=51 smokers, 50.5% female, Age (M(SD) = 19.41(1.06)) who all attended one experimental session during which they completed the MRBURNS as well as self-report measures of tobacco use, nicotine dependence, alcohol use, depression, and anxiety. We utilized binary logistic regressions to examine the relationship between MRBURNS pumps and smoking status as well as the interactive effect of MRBURNS pumps and gender for predicting smoking status. Controlling for relevant covariates, pumps on the MRBURNS did not significantly predict smoking status and the interaction between pumps on the MRBURNS and gender also did not significantly predict smoking status. These findings highlight the importance of future research examining various task modifications to the MRBURNS as well as the need for replications of this study with larger, more diverse samples.

A energia no ensino da física

Dissertação de mest. em Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Univ. do Algarve, 2004

Possibilities and problems of teaching the history of the present time through media and information literacy.

Le système éducatif encourage une histoire positiviste, ordonnée, unilatérale et universelle; par l´incorporation de le découpage chronologique de l´histoire en quatre étapes. Mais, est-ce qu´il serait posible que les élèves puissent étudier leur propre présent? Mon commuication poursuit d´exposer, comme Saab affirmait, le présent est “le point de départ et d´arrivée de l´enseignement de l´histoire détermine les allers et les retours au passé”. La façon d´approcher l´enseignement de l´histoire est confortable. Il n´y a pas de questions, il n´y a pas de discussions. Cette vision de l´histoire interprétée par l´homme blancoccidental-hétérosexuel s´inscrit dans le projet de la modernité du Siècle des Lumières. Par conséquent, cette histoire obvie que nous vivons dans una société postmoderne de la suspicion, de la pensée débile. En ce qui concerne la problématique autour de la pollution audiovisuelle et la façon dont les enseignants et les élèves sont quotidiennement confrontés à ce problème. Par conséquent, il est nécessaire de réfléchir à la question de l´enseignement de l´histoire quadripartite. Actuellement, les médias et les nouvelles technologies sont en train de changer la vie de l´humanité. Il est indispensable que l´élève connaisse son histoire presente et les scénarioshistoriques dans l´avenir. Je pense en la nécessité d´adopter une didactique de l’histoire presente et par conséquent, nous devons utiliser la maîtrise des médias et de l´information. Il faut une formation des enseignants que pose, comme Gadamer a dit: “le passé y le présent se trouvent par une négociation permanente”. Una formation des enseignants qui permette de comprendre et penser l´histoire future / les histoires futures. À mon avis, si les élèves comprennent la complexité de leur monde et leurs multiples visions, les élèves seront plus tolérantes et empathiques.

Research, STEM Education, & Native American Programs in Montana

Oscillating electroosmotic flows in microchannels can be used as a separating mechanism for biological species. This MEMS related work specifically studies the separation of different sized DNA on the microscale as a pre-cursor to lab on a chip systems. In addition to this research, Dr. Thomas will present programs and activities that enable Native American students to obtain their STEM degrees. This involves working with middle school through graduate students at the 4 year institutions, Tribal colleges, and K-12 schools in Montana.

The effect of mobile technology as an active student response system on the acquisition of U.S. history content of secondary students with specific learning disabilities

Students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) typically learn less history content than their peers without disabilities and show fewer learning gains. Even when they are provided with the same instructional strategies, many students with SLD struggle to grasp complex historical concepts and content area vocabulary. Many strategies involving technology have been used in the past to enhance learning for students with SLD in history classrooms. However, very few studies have explored the effectiveness of emerging mobile technology in K-12 history classrooms. ^ This study investigated the effects of mobile devices (iPads) as an active student response (ASR) system on the acquisition of U.S. history content of middle school students with SLD. An alternating treatments single subject design was used to compare the effects of two interventions. There were two conditions and a series of pretest probesin this study. The conditions were: (a) direct instruction and studying from handwritten notes using the interactive notebook strategy and (b) direct instruction and studying using the Quizlet App on the iPad. There were three dependent variables in this study: (a) percent correct on tests, (b) rate of correct responses per minute, and (c) rate of errors per minute. ^ A comparative analysis suggested that both interventions (studying from interactive notes and studying using Quizlet on the iPad) had varying degrees of effectiveness in increasing the learning gains of students with SLD. In most cases, both interventions were equally effective. During both interventions, all of the participants increased their percentage correct and increased their rate of correct responses. Most of the participants decreased their rate of errors. ^ The results of this study suggest that teachers of students with SLD should consider a post lesson review in the form of mobile devices as an ASR system or studying from handwritten notes paired with existing evidence-based practices to facilitate students’ knowledge in U.S. history. Future research should focus on the use of other interactive applications on various mobile operating platforms, on other social studies subjects, and should explore various testing formats such as oral question-answer and multiple choice. ^

Prática de ensino supervisionada em Pré-escolar e em 1.º ciclo do ensino básico: organização de ambientes educativos promotores da educação em ciências naturais

O presente relatório, elaborado no âmbito Prática de Ensino Supervisionada em Pré-Escolar e em 1.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico dá a conhecer os processos de aprendizagem imanentes à prática desenvolvida em contexto. Em Educação Pré- Escolar elaborei um memorial de formação que permitiu refletir sobre as experiências vividas no estágio, possibilitando a aquisição de conhecimentos e aprendizagens profissionais. No 1º Ciclo do Ensino Básico o estágio também assumiu uma perspetiva reflexiva que me permitiu aprender a profissão, mas a dinâmica do trabalho com as crianças possibilitou, igualmente, a realização de um projeto alinhado com a investigação-ação. Os contextos foram diferenciados pela sua especificidade, quer pela situação geográfica e cultural das instituições, quer pelo nível de ensino em que se desenvolveram. A prática educativa em 1º Ciclo do Ensino Básico ocorreu na escola EB/JI Galopim de Carvalho em Évora, já a prática em Pré-Escolar ocorreu no Núcleo de Educação Infantil Colônia Z-11, na cidade de Florianópolis no Brasil. No que respeita à dimensão investigativa, dediquei especial atenção à “Organização de Ambientes Educativos Promotores da Educação em Ciências Naturais”, com vista a compreender como é que aprender ciências pode contribuir para a literacia científica das crianças tendo em vista o exercício de uma cidadania informada. Para tal as crianças envolveram-se ativamente no processo de construção do seu próprio conhecimento. Recorri a autores que me deram contributos para conceber, planear e fundamentar as práticas, quer do ponto de vista pedagógico quer do ponto de vista dos conteúdos curriculares. Para a recolha e tratamento da informação, atendi aos contextos onde o trabalho se realizou, bem como às observações dos diversos intervenientes na supervisão dos estágios, a planificações e reflexões semanais que fui elaborando e me permitiram concretizar uma análise imprescindível para as aprendizagens concretizadas e apresentadas no presente Relatório; REPORT OF SUPERVISED TEACHING PRACTICE IN PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION AND THE 1ST CYCLE OF PRIMARY EDUCATION: ORGANIZATION OF EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS PROMOTERS OF EDUCATION IN NATURAL SCIENCES Abstract: The present report, elaborated in the scope of the Practice of Supervised Teaching in Pre-School and in the Primary Education, makes to known the learning processes inherent to the practice developed in context. In Pre-School Education, I created a training memorial that allowed me to reflect on the experiences I had live in the internship, making possible the acquisition of professional’s knowledges and learnings. In Primary School the internship also assumed a reflexive perspective which allowed me to learn the profession, but the dynamic of the work with the children allowed me to, equally, the realization of a project lined up with the action-research. The contexts where differentiated by their specificity, by the institutions geographic location, by the cultural situation and by the learning level where they were developed. The educational practice in Primary School occurred in the school EB/JI Galopim de Carvalho in Évora and the Pre-School practice occurred in Núcleo de Educação Infantil Colônia Z-11, in Brazil in the city of Florianopolis. In the matter of the investigative dimension, I dedicated special attention to the “Organization of Educative Environments Promoters of Natural Sciences Education”, to understand how learning sciences can contribute to scientifically literacy of the children, having in view the exercise of an informed citizenship. For this the children involved actively in the process of building their own knowledge. I resorted to authors who give me contributes to conceive, to plan and to fundament the practices, both from the pedagogical point of view and from the curricular contents point of view. To the collect and treat of data, I attend to the contexts where the work were realized, to the observations of the diverse actors in the internship supervision, to the daily plans and weekly reflections which I had been elaborating and which allowed me to concretize an indispensable analysis to the learnings achieve and presented in the present report.

Maintenance of cooperative and helping behaviors in reconstituted groups

The authors conducted a 1-year investigation of whether children, who had been trained in the previous school gear to cooperate, were able to use the skills they had been taught in reconstituted groups without additional training. Sixty-four 4th graders, who had participated in training in cooperative group behaviors in the previous gear, were assigned to the trained condition; 84 4th graders, who had not received any training, were assigned to the untrained condition. The children worked in mixed-ability (high, medium, low) gender-balanced groups (2 boys, 2 girls). Results indicate that the children in the trained groups were consistently more cooperative and helpful than their peers in the untrained groups, although they had not received refresher training in cooperative group behaviors.

Goals and reputations amongst young children - The validation of the importance of goals and reputation enhancement scales

The aim of the present research was to provide school psychologists with valid instruments with which to assess the goals and reputations of young children. This was achieved by ascertaining whether the factor structures and the second-order factor models of the high school versions of the Importance of Goals (Carroll, et al., 1997) and Reputation Enhancement Scales (Carroll, et al., 1999) could be replicated with a primary school sample. Eight hundred and eighty-six 10 to 12 year old children were administered modified versions of the two scales, which were combined and renamed the Children's Activity Questionnaire. For the two scales, the factor structure proved replicable and reliable with the primary school sample. A comparison between the factor loadings of the primary school and the high school samples using the coefficient of congruence procedure demonstrated similarity indicating that the scales are replicable and able to be used with a younger primary school sample. Structural equation modelling indicated that the second-order factor structure of the Importance of Goals Scale was acceptable but this was not the case for the second-order factor structure of the Reputation Enhancement Scale.