Teacher’s Conceptions of Caring and Protective Teaching Elements in Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement Schools

The purpose of this study is to find out what conceptions Rwamwanja refugee settlement teachers have about caring teaching methods. The study was conducted by analysing the data gathered from semi-structured interviews. Twelve teachers were interviewed in four different refugee settlement schools. The main theory of this study is based on ethics of care research by Nel Noddings. In addition, the framework was developed by combining the theories of resilience and psychosocial support which are often employed in research concerning emergency contexts. This study uses qualitative content analysis to describe the conceptions of caring teachers have and protective teaching elements they employ. The results of this study show that many of the key elements of caring and protective teaching were present in teacher’s answers. For example, in their answers, the majority of the teachers pointed out the significance of using soft discipline. However, many teaching elements considered ideal in emergency contexts were missing. These missing methods include routines and flexibility which are considered essential for vulnerable children. The teachers’ levels of conceptual thinking varied remarkably depending on their language skills. The communication was limited to very basic and concrete language in some of the interviews due to lack of mutual understanding. This also raised a question about the level of understanding between refugee pupils and teachers since there is no strong common language between them. The results of this research call for further studies about the effect of caring teaching elements in growth of resilience in refugee children. Keywords: The ethics of care, resilience, psychosocial support, education in emergencies, refugees, education, protection.

Constructing Personal and Couple Narratives in Late Stage Cancer: A Narrative Analysis

An increasing number of people with terminal cancer are being cared for at home, often by their partner. This study explores the identity, experiences and relationships of people caring for their partner at the end of life and how they construct their experience through personal and couple narratives. It draws upon dialogical approaches to narrative analysis to focus on caring partners and the care relationship. Six participants were recruited for the study. Two methods of data collection are used: narrative interviews and journals. Following individual case analysis, two methods of cross-narrative analysis are used: an analysis of narrative themes and an identification of narrative types. The key findings can be summarised as follows. First, in the period since their partner's terminal prognosis, participants sustained and reconstructed self and couple relationship narratives. These narratives aided the construction of meaning and coherence at a time of major biographical disruption: the anticipated loss of a partner. Second, the study highlights the complexity of spoken and unspoken narratives in terminal cancer and how these relate to individual and couple identities. Third, a typology of archetypal narratives based upon the data is identified. The blow-by-blow narratives illustrate how participants sought to construct coherence and meaning in the illness story, while champion and resilience narratives demonstrate how participants utilised positive self and relational narratives to manage a time of biographical disruption. The study highlights how this narrative approach can enhance understanding of the experiences and identities of people caring for a terminally ill partner.

Norm Friesen: The Place of the Classroom and the Space of the Screen, Relational Pedagogy and Internet Technology. New York, Bern etc.: Lang 2011 [Rezension]

Rezension von: Norm Friesen: The Place of the Classroom and the Space of the Screen, Relational Pedagogy and Internet Technology, New York, Bern etc.: Lang 2011 (183 S.; ISBN 978-1-4331-0959-1)

RELATIONAL MEMORY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD: DOES UNITIZATION HELP?

Young children often experience relational memory failures, which are thought to be due to underdeveloped recollection processes. Manipulations with adults, however, have suggested that relational memory tasks can be accomplished with familiarity, a processes that is fully developed during early childhood. The goal of the present study was to determine if relational memory performance could be improved in early childhood by teaching children a memory strategy (i.e., unitization) shown to increase familiarity in adults. Six- and 8-year old children were taught to use visualization strategies that either unitized or did not unitize pictures and colored borders. Analysis revealed inconclusive results regarding differences in familiarity between the two conditions, suggesting that the unitization memory strategy did not improve the contribution of familiarity as it has been shown to do in adults. Based on these findings, it cannot be concluded that unitization strategies increase the contribution of familiarity in childhood.

Unmet health needs in patients with coronary heart disease: implications and potential for improvement in caring services

BACKGROUND: Improving the quality of health care services requires tailoring facilities to fulfil patients' needs. Satisfying patients' healthcare needs, listening to patients' opinions and building a closer provider-user partnership are central to the NHS. Few published studies have discussed cardiovascular patients' health needs, but they are not comprehensive and fail to explore the contribution of outcome to needs assessment. METHOD: A comprehensive self-administered health needs assessment (HNA) questionnaire was developed for concomitant use with generic (Short Form-12 and EuroQOL) and specific (Seattle Angina Questionnaire) health-related quality of life (HRQL) instruments on 242 patients admitted to the Acute Cardiac Unit, Nottingham. RESULTS: 38% reported difficulty accessing health facilities, 56% due to transport and 32% required a travelling companion. Mean HRQOL scores were lower in those living alone (P < 0.05) or who reported unsatisfactory accommodation. Dissatisfaction with transport affected patients' ease of access to healthcare facilities (P < 0.001). Younger patients (<65 y) were more likely to be socially isolated (P = 0.01). Women and patients with chronic disease were more likely to be concerned about housework (P < 0.05). Over 65 s (p < 0.05) of higher social classes (p < 0.01) and greater physical needs (p < 0.001) had more social needs, correlating moderately (0.32 < r < 0.63) with all HRQL domains except SAQ-AS. Several HRQL components were highly correlated with the HNA physical score (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Patients wanted more social (suitable accommodation, companionship, social visits) and physical (help aids, access to healthcare services, house work) support. The construct validity and intra-class reliability of the HNA tool were confirmed. Our results indicate a gap between patients' health needs and available services, highlighting potential areas for improvement in the quality of services

Computer-aided tool for the teaching of relational algebra in data base courses

This article describes the design and implementation of computer-aided tool called Relational Algebra Translator (RAT) in data base courses, for the teaching of relational algebra. There was a problem when introducing the relational algebra topic in the course EIF 211 Design and Implementation of Databases, which belongs to the career of Engineering in Information Systems of the National University of Costa Rica, because students attending this course were lacking profound mathematical knowledge, which led to a learning problem, being this an important subject to understand what the data bases search and request do RAT comes along to enhance the teaching-learning process.It introduces the architectural and design principles required for its implementation, such as: the language symbol table, the gramatical rules and the basic algorithms that RAT uses to translate from relational algebra to SQL language. This tool has been used for one periods and has demonstrated to be effective in the learning-teaching process.  This urged investigators to publish it in the web site: www.slinfo.una.ac.cr in order for this tool to be used in other university courses.

What Does Value Matter? The Interest-Relational Theory of the Semantics and Metaphysics of Value

Value and reasons for action are often cited by rationalists and moral realists as providing a desire-independent foundation for normativity. Those maintaining instead that normativity is dependent upon motivation often deny that anything called '"value" or "reasons" exists. According to the interest-relational theory, something has value relative to some perspective of desire just in case it satisfies those desires, and a consideration is a reason for some action just in case it indicates that something of value will be accomplished by that action. Value judgements therefore describe real properties of objects and actions, but have no normative significance independent of desires. It is argued that only the interest-relational theory can account for the practical significance of value and reasons for action. Against the Kantian hypothesis of prescriptive rational norms, I attack the alleged instrumental norm or hypothetical imperative, showing that the normative force for taking the means to our ends is explicable in terms of our desire for the end, and not as a command of reason. This analysis also provides a solution to the puzzle concerning the connection between value judgement and motivation. While it is possible to hold value judgements without motivation, the connection is more than accidental. This is because value judgements are usually but not always made from the perspective of desires that actually motivate the speaker. In the normal case judgement entails motivation. But often we conversationally borrow external perspectives of desire, and subsequent judgements do not entail motivation. This analysis drives a critique of a common practice as a misuse of normative language. The "absolutist" attempts to use and, as philosopher, analyze normative language in such a way as to justify the imposition of certain interests over others. But these uses and analyses are incoherent - in denying relativity to particular desires they conflict with the actual meaning of these utterances, which is always indexed to some particular set of desires.

A Relational Derivation of a Functional Program

This article is an introduction to the use of relational calculi in deriving programs. Using the relational caluclus Ruby, we derive a functional program that adds one bit to a binary number to give a new binary number. The resulting program is unsurprising, being the standard $quot;column of half-adders$quot;, but the derivation illustrates a number of points about working with relations rather than with functions.

Horæ evangelicæ : or, the internal evidence of the Gospel history, being an inquiry into the structure and origin of the four Gospels, their historical consistency, and the characteristic design of each narrative /

Mode of access: Internet.

Relational and reproductive trajectories leading to adolescent pregnancy in Portugal: a national and regional characterization

INTRODUCTION: The current study aimed to describe the relational and reproductive trajectories leading to adolescent pregnancy in Portugal, and to explore whether there were differences in this process according to adolescents' place of residence. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data were collected between 2008 and 2013 in 42 public health services using a self-report questionnaire developed by the researchers. The sample consisted of a nationally representative group of pregnant adolescents (n = 459). RESULTS: Regardless of having had one (59.91%) or multiple sexual partners (40.09%), the majority of adolescents became pregnant in a romantic relationship, using contraception at the time of the conception and knowing the contraceptive failure which led to pregnancy (39.22%). In some regions other trajectories were highly prevalent, reflecting options such as planning the pregnancy (Alentejo Region/ Azores Islands), not using contraception (Centro Region/Madeira Islands) or using it incorrectly, without identifying the contraceptive failure (Madeira Islands). On average, romantic relationships were longer than 19 months and adolescents' partners were older than themselves (> 4 years) and no longer in school (75.16%); these results were particularly significant when the pregnancy was planned. DISCUSSION: The knowledge gained in this study shows that prevention efforts must be targeted according to the adolescents' needs in each region and should include high-risk male groups. CONCLUSION: Our results may enable more efficient health policies to prevent adolescent pregnancy in different country regions and support educators and health care providers on sexual education and family planning efforts.

SEEKING CULTURAL FAIRNESS IN A MEASURE OF RELATIONAL REASONING

Relational reasoning, or the ability to identify meaningful patterns within any stream of information, is a fundamental cognitive ability associated with academic success across a variety of domains of learning and levels of schooling. However, the measurement of this construct has been historically problematic. For example, while the construct is typically described as multidimensional—including the identification of multiple types of higher-order patterns—it is most often measured in terms of a single type of pattern: analogy. For that reason, the Test of Relational Reasoning (TORR) was conceived and developed to include three other types of patterns that appear to be meaningful in the educational context: anomaly, antinomy, and antithesis. Moreover, as a way to focus on fluid relational reasoning ability, the TORR was developed to include, except for the directions, entirely visuo-spatial stimuli, which were designed to be as novel as possible for the participant. By focusing on fluid intellectual processing, the TORR was also developed to be fairly administered to undergraduate students—regardless of the particular gender, language, and ethnic groups they belong to. However, although some psychometric investigations of the TORR have been conducted, its actual fairness across those demographic groups has yet to be empirically demonstrated. Therefore, a systematic investigation of differential-item-functioning (DIF) across demographic groups on TORR items was conducted. A large (N = 1,379) sample, representative of the University of Maryland on key demographic variables, was collected, and the resulting data was analyzed using a multi-group, multidimensional item-response theory model comparison procedure. Using this procedure, no significant DIF was found on any of the TORR items across any of the demographic groups of interest. This null finding is interpreted as evidence of the cultural-fairness of the TORR, and potential test-development choices that may have contributed to that cultural-fairness are discussed. For example, the choice to make the TORR an untimed measure, to use novel stimuli, and to avoid stereotype threat in test administration, may have contributed to its cultural-fairness. Future steps for psychometric research on the TORR, and substantive research utilizing the TORR, are also presented and discussed.