Writing for Understanding in Math Class

In this action research study of my classroom of 10th grade geometry students, I investigated how students learn to communicate mathematics in a written form. The purpose of the study is to encourage students to express their mathematical thinking clearly by developing their communication skills. I discovered that although students struggled with the writing assignments, they were more comfortable with making comments, writing questions and offering suggestions through their journal rather than vocally in class. I have utilized teaching strategies for English Language Learners, but I had never asked the students if these strategies actually improved their learning. I have high expectations, and have not changed that, but I soon learned that I did not want to start the development of students’ written communication skills by having the students write a math solution. I began having my students write after teaching them to take notes and modeling it for them. Through entries in the journals, I learned how taking notes best helped them in their pursuit of mathematical knowledge. As a result of this research, I plan to use journals more in each of my classes, not just a select class. I also better understand the importance of stressing that students take notes, showing them how to do that, and the reasons notes best help English Language Learners.

THE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES WHEN TAKING CARE OF THE EMOTIONAL DIMENSION IN PALLIATIVE CARE

The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate existing knowledge and the use of communication strategies in emotional care for patients receiving palliative care in Brazil. It was performed from August, 2008, to July, 2009, with 303 health professionals who worked or had frequent contact with patients receiving palliative care, using a questionnaire. Data was submitted to descriptive and analytical statistical treatment. The professionals reported not knowing about communication strategies, showing a significant difference (p-value 0.0011) in comparing subjects with and without previous training in palliative care, showing that those who had received proper training know/use more communication strategies when providing care for their patients on an emotional level. The strategies most often cited were: careful listening, verbal reaffirmation of care, using open questions, and affective touch. We conclude that there is little knowledge and poor use of communication strategies among health professionals in towards the emotional care of patients receiving palliative care.

Using the Social Skills Inventory in the Diagnosis of Social Anxiety Disorder

This study aimed to assess the relationship between clinical and behavioral manifestations of the Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) and verify the discriminative validity of the Social Skills Inventory (SSI-Del-Prette) in the diagnosis of this disorder. The participants were 1,006 undergraduates, aged between 17 and 35 years old, both genders. Subsequently, 86 participants were randomly selected from the initial sample and grouped as SAD cases and non-SAD cases through systematic clinical evaluation. The results indicated that the more elaborate the repertoire of social skills of an individual is, the lower his/her likelihood of meeting the screening criteria of diagnostic indicators for SAD. Furthermore, the SSI-Del-Prette has demonstrated to significantly distinguish individuals with and without SAD, evidencing, thus, its discriminative validity.

Therapeutic communication between health workers and patients concerning diabetes mellitus care

The objective of this cross-sectional study was to analyze therapeutic communication techniques used by health workers with patients under care for diabetes mellitus. Data were collected in 2010 in a public facility in the interior of Ceara, Brazil using video camera equipment and direct observation. Results showed that the most frequently used techniques within the "expression" group were: asking questions, voicing interest, and using descriptive phrases. The most frequently used technique within the "clarification" group was: asking the patient to specify the agent of action. Finally, in regard to the "validation" group, only the technique "summarizing content of the interaction" was employed. The conclusion is that despite the use of communication techniques on the part of professionals, there is still an alarming gap concerning communication skills. Such skills should be allied with technical expertise to enable the delivery of qualified care to individuals with diabetes mellitus.

Modelling shared attention through relational reinforcement learning

Shared attention is a type of communication very important among human beings. It is sometimes reserved for the more complex form of communication being constituted by a sequence of four steps: mutual gaze, gaze following, imperative pointing and declarative pointing. Some approaches have been proposed in Human-Robot Interaction area to solve part of shared attention process, that is, the most of works proposed try to solve the first two steps. Models based on temporal difference, neural networks, probabilistic and reinforcement learning are methods used in several works. In this article, we are presenting a robotic architecture that provides a robot or agent, the capacity of learning mutual gaze, gaze following and declarative pointing using a robotic head interacting with a caregiver. Three learning methods have been incorporated to this architecture and a comparison of their performance has been done to find the most adequate to be used in real experiment. The learning capabilities of this architecture have been analyzed by observing the robot interacting with the human in a controlled environment. The experimental results show that the robotic head is able to produce appropriate behavior and to learn from sociable interaction.

COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES USED BY HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS IN PROVIDING PALLIATIVE CARE TO PATIENTS

The objective of this study is to verify the relevance and utilization of communication strategies in palliative care. This is a multicenter qualitative study using a questionnaire, performed from August of 2008 to July of 2009 with 303 health care professionals who worked with patients receiving palliative care. Data were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis. Most participants (57.7%) were unable to state at least one verbal communication strategy, and only 15.2% were able to describe five signs or non-verbal communication strategies. The verbal strategies most commonly mentioned were those related to answering questions about the disease/treatment. Among the non-verbal strategies used, the most common were affective touch, looking, smiling, physical proximity, and careful listening. Though professionals have assigned a high degree of importance to communication in palliative care, they showed poor knowledge regarding communication strategies. Final considerations include the necessity of training professionals to communicate effectively in palliative care.

Measures of quality of life in children with cochlear implant: systematic review

The use of cochlear implant (CI) in children enables the development of listening and communication skills, allowing the child's progress in school and to be able to obtain, maintain and carry out an occupation. However, the progress after the CI has different results in some children, because many children are able to interact and participate in society, while others develop limited ability to communicate verbally. The need for a better understanding of CI outcomes, besides hearing and language benefits, has spurred the inclusion of quality of life measurements (QOL) to assess the impact of this technology. OBJECTIVE: Identify the key aspects of quality of life assessed in children with cochlear implant. METHOD: Through a systematic literature review, we considered publications from the period of 2000 to 2011. CONCLUSION: We concluded that QOL measurements in children include several concepts and methodologies. When referring to children using CI, results showed the challenges in broadly conceptualizing which quality of life domains are important to the child and how these areas can evolve during development, considering the wide variety of instruments and aspects evaluated.

Frequency and precision of feedback and the adaptive process of learning a dual motor task

This work investigated the effects of frequency and precision of feedback on the learning of a dual-motor task. One hundred and twenty adults were randomly assigned to six groups of different knowledge of results (KR), frequency (100%, 66% or 33%) and precision (specific or general) levels. In the stabilization phase, participants performed the dual task (combination of linear positioning and manual force control) with the provision of KR. Ten non-KR adaptation trials were performed for the same task, but with the introduction of an electromagnetic opposite traction force. The analysis showed a significant main effect for frequency of KR. The participants who received KR in 66% of the stabilization trials showed superior adaptation performance than those who received 100% or 33%. This finding reinforces that there is an optimal level of information, neither too high nor too low, for motor learning to be effective.

Teaching and learning english phonetics and phonology in the EHEA through design and creation of audiovisual material at the ULPGC

[ES]In this paper we describe the procedure followed in the design and recording of a set of videos for teaching and learning ‘English phonetics and phonology’, a second-year undergraduate course at Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The student’s L1 is Spanish. Two different types of technological support were used: screencast and Powerpoint® presentations. The traditional whiteboard together with the lecturer’s presence also contributed both to the integrated learning of certain acoustic/articulatory aspects of the course contents and to the use of specific software for speech analysis. This video production owns the advantage of being an interactive and autonomous tool which favours a continuous learning process on the student’s side.

Teaching and learning discourse analysis: some ideas on the use of ICTs

[EN]ICTs have played a major role in transforming the way we teach and learn. The purpose of this paper is to present some ideas on how ICTs can be implemented in the teaching and learning of discourse analysis. ICTs offer valuable material to help explain key theoretical concepts of discourse analysis and to examine linguistic and social reality. A tweet, a video song, a speech, an advertisement or a hoax-mail may enhance students’ motivation and stimulate critical thinking.

The influence of nonverbal language on mediation

[ES]Mediation is a process that assigns meaning through the discourse of the disputants whereby signals that are verbally sent become rare indicators to dig for full communication. If reading nonverbal language was not taken into account, we would lose approximately 93% of the total information conveyed by someone; for this reason, it is necessary to know the most recurrent gestures to, thus, foster mediators’ communication skills in order to substantially improve their discourse and understanding. This paper focuses on arguing why nonverbal language is crucial for the mediation process on the basis of the analysis of the theoretical framework of the matter and its implications for mediation.

Innovative architecture of on-board and on-ground radio systems for space communication

The radio communication system is one of the most critical system of the overall satellite platform: it often represents the only way of communication, between a spacecraft and the Ground Segment or among a constellation of satellites. This thesis focuses on specific innovative architectures for on-board and on-ground radio systems. In particular, this work is an integral part of a space program started in 2004 at the University of Bologna, Forlì campus, which led to the completion of the microsatellite ALMASat-1, successfully launched on-board the VEGA maiden flight. The success of this program led to the development of a second microsatellite, named ALMASat-EO, a three-axis stabilized microsatellite able to capture images of the Earth surface. Therefore, the first objective of this study was focused on the investigation of an innovative, efficient and low cost architecture for on-board radio communication systems. The TT&C system and the high data rate transmitter for images downlink design and realization are thoroughly described in this work, together with the development of the embedded hardware and the adopted antenna systems. Moreover, considering the increasing interest in the development of constellations of microsatellite, in particular those flying in close formations, a careful analysis has been carried out for the development of innovative communication protocols for inter-satellite links. Furthermore, in order to investigate the system aspects of space communications, a study has been carried out at ESOC having as objective the design, implementation and test of two experimental devices for the enhancement of the ESA GS. Thus, a significant portion of this thesis is dedicated to the description of the results of a method for improving the phase stability of GS radio frequency equipments by means of real-time phase compensation and a new way to perform two antennas arraying tracking using already existing ESA tracking stations facilities.

Education of tobacco use prevention and cessation for dental professionals--a paradigm shift

The use of tobacco continues to be a substantial risk factor in the development and progression of oral cancer, periodontitis, implant failure and poor wound healing. Dental and dental hygiene education providers have made great advances towards the incorporation of tobacco education into their curricula in recent years. Unfortunately, however, both medical and dental education research has consistently reported schools providing only basic knowledge-based curricula that rarely incorporate more effective, behaviourally-based components affecting long-term change. The limited training of oral healthcare students, at least in part, is reflected in practising dental professionals continuing to report offering incomplete tobacco interventions. In order to prepare the next generation of oral healthcare providers, this paper proposes a paradigm shift in how tobacco use prevention and cessation (TUPAC) may be incorporated into existing curricula. It is suggested that schools should carefully consider: to what level of competency should TUPAC be trained in dental and dental hygiene schools; the importance of establishing rapport through good communication skills; the core knowledge level for TUPAC; suggested instructional and assessment strategies; the importance of continuing professional education for the enhancement of TUPAC.

Communication in troubled waters: responses of fish communication systems to changing environments

Fish populations are increasingly being subjected to anthropogenic changes to their sensory environments. The impact of these changes on inter- and intra-specific communication, and its evolutionary consequences, has only recently started to receive research attention. A disruption of the sensory environment is likely to impact communication, especially with respect to reproductive interactions that help to maintain species boundaries. Aquatic ecosystems around the world are being threatened by a variety of environmental stressors, causing dramatic losses of biodiversity and bringing urgency to the need to understand how fish respond to rapid environmental changes. Here, we discuss current research on different communication systems (visual, chemical, acoustic, electric) and explore the state of our knowledge of how complex systems respond to environmental stressors using fish as a model. By far the bulk of our understanding comes from research on visual communication in the context of mate selection and competition for mates, while work on other communication systems is accumulating. In particular, it is increasingly acknowledged that environmental effects on one mode of communication may trigger compensation through other modalities. The strength and direction of selection on communication traits may vary if such compensation occurs. However, we find a dearth of studies that have taken a multimodal approach to investigating the evolutionary impact of environmental change on communication in fish. Future research should focus on the interaction between different modes of communication, especially under changing environmental conditions. Further, we see an urgent need for a better understanding of the evolutionary consequences of changes in communication systems on fish diversity.

Influence of Engineering Instructors' Teaching and Learning Beliefs on Pedagogies in Engineering Science Courses

This study explored how academics' beliefs about teaching and learning influenced their teaching in engineering science courses typically taught in the second or third year of 4-year engineering undergraduate degrees. Data were collected via a national survey of 166 U. S. statics instructors and interviews at two different institutions with 17 instructors of engineering science courses such as thermodynamics, circuits and statics. The study identified a number of common beliefs about how to best support student learning of these topics; each is discussed in relation to the literature about student development and learning. Specific recommendations are given for educational developers to encourage use of research-based instructional strategies in these courses.