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Students in Special Education and Extracurricular Activities
No full textResearch regarding the effects of extracurricular activities on youth is abundant and clear: extracurricular activities benefit students. Some even suggest the benefits go far beyond the high school experience and can have a profound and positive influence on adulthood. However, school-organized extracurriculars often leave out many in their school population, such as their students with disabilities. This thesis examines the effects of extracurriculars on secondary students and the need for all adolescents to feel socially accepted. It discusses how extracurriculars can provide the feeling of social acceptance for both students of typical development and those with disabilities. Finally, it provides an example application that demonstrates how educators can bring students of typical development and students with disabilities together to create positive school culture, more opportunities for students with disabilities, and make the long-term benefits of extracurriculars available to everyone
Connecting Common Core State Standards to Career and Technical Education
No full textThe purpose of this literature review was to identify the current educational pathways that are offered at the secondary level, explore the intersections that exist between career and technical education (CTE) and core academic courses, determine how states are currently using this information to prepare students for college and career readiness, and identify the obstacles that occur due to integration. The need for integration is visible in the research but the implementation of common core state standards (CCSS), especially used by English language arts, mathematics, and science, into CTE is not as simple as just inserting these standards into CTE courses. Reviewing the intersections that occur with both CTE and academic core courses, identifying limitations and funding concerns, and ensuring that there is time allocated to complete the implementation is imperative to successfully integrate core academic standards into CTE courses
Standards-Based Grading Implementation: Rural Elementary Leaders’ Perceptions of Useful Professional Development Practices
No full textThe ultimate goal of K-12 education is to prepare learners to be life-, career-, and college-ready. Elementary schools develop the foundational skills necessary for students to be successful in secondary education and beyond. The implementation of standards-based grading can significantly contribute to a transparent grading system that identifies and communicates what students know and are able to do. This qualitative study examined rural Minnesota elementary leaders’ perceptions of effective professional development practices specific to the implementation of standards-based grading. Snowball sampling was employed to gain districts’ names using standards-based report cards. Interviews were conducted utilizing a videoconferencing tool and eleven semi-structured questions were asked of eight interviewees. Participants identified job-embedded professional development practices that informed educators’ beliefs and practices, as well as overcame challenges. Themes that occurred in all eight interviews included the intentional alignment of job-embedded professional development practices shifted educators’ beliefs, practices, and assisted in overcoming challenges, influential leadership positions were crucial in implementation and sustainability, communicating the WHY with supporting evidence was necessary for all stakeholders, Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) served as the main framework to complete ongoing work, teacher ownership was fostered through collaboration in PLCs, and standards-based grading was a planning initiative rather than a cost initiative. This study suggests further research is needed to learn teachers’, parents’, and students’ perceptions of effective practices for the implementation of standards-based grading.Keywords: standards-based grading, professional development, Professional Learning Communities (PLCs
Vocational Faculty Experience with Emerging Technology
No full textThis case study illuminates the vocational faculty experience with emerging technologies. Interviews were conducted with vocational faculty who incorporated emerging technology into their practice within three years of the study. The researcher sought to (1) discover experiences and perceptions regarding role, motivation, and self-efficacy related to technology integration, (2) gain an understanding of how emerging technologies are influencing pedagogy, and (3) discover what types of institutional support are valued. Data collected within this study provides evidence that emerging technologies are impacting pedagogy. A distinction between classroom technologies and industry-related technologies was revealed. The centrality of industry-related technology in vocational program pedagogy is a key finding from this study. Study participants exhibited intrinsic motivation demonstrated by a strong sense of self, independence, and self-efficacy. This closely aligns with key social determination theory factors of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The experience of faculty in this study differs in distinct ways from that of faculty found in existing literature. Further research that increases understanding of the vocational faculty experience, when added to knowledge of other faculty groups, can result in the development of a holistic approach to establishing expectations and support related to the integration of emerging technology across higher education institutions
Provost Address at Faculty Convocation
No full textProvost Robin Rylaarsdam welcomes the Faculty of Bethel University back to campus to begin the academic year 2021-2022 at the Faculty Convocation. She introduces the new faculty and roles, new innovation initiatives, and the series of faculty speakers who present their innovative approaches to program revitalization, recruitment, pedagogy, and efforts towards justice. (audio length: 26 minutes 16 seconds
Jamaican micro/small entrepreneurs: A comparative assessment of their motivations and problems
No full textThe purpose of the paper is to assess the motivations and challenges faced by three groups of micro and small entrepreneurs in Jamaica, as well as factors that might contribute to their success. Success was operationally defined in the study as profit. Data from a survey of 192 micro and small entrepreneurs in the urban informal sector of Jamaica were used in the study. The design tracked a descriptive survey approach with multivariate analysis. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the data with some open-ended flexible questions. The structured questionnaires with Likert-type items were used to increase the reliability and the validity of the responses obtained. The open –ended questions were used to gain a better understanding of the background and experience of the respondents and to allow for diverse reactions. Results showed that entrepreneurs are motivated by opportunities: to create a job for themselves, to increase their income, to be their own boss and control their own destiny, to gain personal security, to acquire personal wealth and build equity for their retirement. Factors that are perceived critical for their success include: working hard, displaying good customer service skills, increase in sales, attracting new customers and selling quality goods and services at competitive prices .Major business problems were identified as: weak economy, low sales volume, lack of adequate capital, poor infrastructure, crime and violence and too much competition. The results of this research may lack generalizability because of the research approach, design and methodology. Implications for policymakers, practice of entrepreneurship in Jamaica as well as information for the academic and research institutions are presented in the paper. There are numerous management and economic issues that may be addressed by local and regional initiatives through this study. The government, other policy makers, profit and not profit organizations may therefore need to look more closely at entrepreneurial education and training, advertising and promotion expertise, technology, and other infrastructural development to better assist micro and small entrepreneurs. Additionally, leveraging the local academic, scientific and research base through the creation of technology transfer offices will be critical to entrepreneurial success
HRS/EHRA/APHRS/LAHRS/ACC/AHA worldwide practice update for telehealth and arrhythmia monitoring during and after a pandemic Developed in partnership with and endorsed by the American College of Cardiology (ACC), the American Heart Association (AHA), the Asia Pacific Heart Rhythm Society (APHRS), the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA), the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS), and the Latin American Heart Rhythm Society (LAHRS).
No full textMeasurement of the Z boson differential production cross section using its invisible decay mode (Z → νν¯) in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV
No full textMeasurements of the total and differential fiducial cross sections for the Z boson decaying into two neutrinos are presented at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data were collected by the CMS detector in 2016 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1. In these measurements, events are selected containing an imbalance in transverse momentum and one or more energetic jets. The fiducial differential cross section is measured as a function of the Z boson transverse momentum. The results are combined with a previous measurement of charged-lepton decays of the Z boson. The measured total fiducial cross section for events with Z boson transverse momentum greater than 200 GeV is 3000−170+180 fb. [Figure not available: see fulltext.
Search for nonresonant Higgs boson pair production in final states with two bottom quarks and two photons in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV
No full textA search for nonresonant production of Higgs boson pairs via gluon-gluon and vector boson fusion processes in final states with two bottom quarks and two photons is presented. The search uses data from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of s = 13 TeV recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb−1. No significant deviation from the background-only hypothesis is observed. An upper limit at 95% confidence level is set on the product of the Higgs boson pair production cross section and branching fraction into γγb b ¯. The observed (expected) upper limit is determined to be 0.67 (0.45) fb, which corresponds to 7.7 (5.2) times the standard model prediction. This search has the highest sensitivity to Higgs boson pair production to date. Assuming all other Higgs boson couplings are equal to their values in the standard model, the observed coupling modifiers of the trilinear Higgs boson self-coupling κλ and the coupling between a pair of Higgs bosons and a pair of vector bosons c2V are constrained within the ranges −3.3 \u3c κλ\u3c 8.5 and −1.3 \u3c c2V\u3c 3.5 at 95% confidence level. Constraints on κλ are also set by combining this analysis with a search for single Higgs bosons decaying to two photons, produced in association with top quark-antiquark pairs, and by performing a simultaneous fit of κλ and the top quark Yukawa coupling modifier κt. [Figure not available: see fulltext.
Search for lepton-flavor violating decays of the Higgs boson in the μτ and eτ final states in proton-proton collisions at s =13 TeV
No full textA search is presented for lepton-flavor violating decays of the Higgs boson to μτ and eτ. The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb-1 collected at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. No significant excess has been found, and the results are interpreted in terms of upper limits on lepton-flavor violating branching fractions of the Higgs boson. The observed (expected) upper limits on the branching fractions are, respectively, B(H→μτ)\u3c0.15(0.15)% and B(H→eτ)\u3c0.22(0.16)% at 95% confidence level