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Occupational therapy programs can use a variety of delivery modes for Level I fieldwork. All experiences aim to contribute to the clinical and professional preparation for Level II fieldwork. This study compared the Level II fieldwork outcomes for two cohorts of students, one that participated in simulation-based Level I fieldwork and one that completed community and clinic-based Level I fieldwork. The student outcomes on the American Occupational Therapy Association AOTA Fieldwork Performance Evaluation (FWPE) for the Occupational Therapy Student were used for comparative data. The results indicated no statistically significant difference in the two cohorts' midterm score ratings. Statistically significant differences with higher performance for the cohort that participated in simulation-based Level I fieldwork were noted in the areas of safety and use of occupation-based interventions. The results of this study support the effective use of high-fidelity simulation in preparing students for success on Level II fieldwork.

This article explores the experiences of a group of women who having achieved success in education and returned to the adult learning environment again. A creative methodological approach allows the women to describe in their own words experiences of educational success and motivations to return to learning. Discussion points predominantly focus on outcomes that fall outside those typically measured. These include alternative interpretations of success; benefits of diverse learning groups; personal growth and bias, and connections and friendship. Questions of success and outcomes in later life are also explored. Conclusions identify the importance of recognising the diversity of experience in adult education, the varying methods of measuring success and the need to ensure learner stories are heard.

In student-teachers' education, it is fundamental to foster the intercultural communicative competence for them to express their views on cultural concepts and phenomena in written and orally, with native and non-native speakers of a foreign language. In the same vein, future foreign language teachers, particularly at an early stage of their learning process, are expected to possess some basic citizen competencies which allow them, amongst other things, to show an understanding of the country they live in, the cultural diversity it has, and the current situation they and their co-nationals are facing (cognitive dimension). Bering in mind the importance of competences mentioned before. This short-scale quantitative study set out to classify the perceptions that a group of student-teachers had on Colombia, their cultural identity, and Colombians' cultural identity in general. To that end, one oral and two written short narratives along with a final questionnaire were collected and analysed using Atlas TI. 8 and Excel spreadsheets. The counting and classification of prominent speech parts that conveyed perceptions (nouns, nouns plus adjectives and adjective per se) unveiled that participants held quite optimistic views on their nation, particularly in cultural, natural, geographic, and culinary aspects. It was also revealed that student-teachers had a high appreciation of themselves culturally speaking, praising their personality and mood as most important features. Furthermore, it was unveiled that participants held a positive view about their compatriots, highlighting their personality, mood, and character. It is important to remark that positive views about own identity were much higher than general views on Colombians.

This study reports the results of a national survey of the types and uses of assessments for matriculating secondary students into college Chinese language programs. In addition to providing an overview of college placement procedures obtained from 35 college Chinese programs, the survey also probed into the rationales behind the varied placement procedures across different colleges and universities, the range of commonly used standardized tests and related policies and perceptions, and the perceived effectiveness of such practices by 125 secondary and 74 postsecondary instructors. Our analysis identifies both practices that hinder high school students' smooth transition to college and practices that facilitate the transition and achieve optimal placement in postsecondary Chinese programs. Based on analyses of convergent and divergent practices and perspectives, we recommend a series of principles and strategies for more effective secondary-postsecondary articulation of Chinese language programs in the United States.

This article is a feminist inquiry into the learning experiences of mothers in an informal parent support group and asks: What is quality education and how do we ensure we are identifying it appropriately? Drawing on feminist research and incorporating contributions from 16 women, this article highlights how a group of women identify their experiences as significant learning episodes. In doing this they reject other methods of learning in favour of informal, dialogical learning in convivial and supportive settings. Rather than relying on authorised knowledge (Letherby, 2003) they rely on the experiential knowledge of other mothers. Reminiscent of feminist community education this group enables the women to overcome oppression and isolation by collectively naming their world in order to understand it. The community education setting is in decline in Ireland but when we draw on quantitative methods to define, categorise and count educational groups we need to ensure we are naming, counting and including all forms of education. This paper argues that we are overlooking important groups who are engaging in quality informal community education.

Research suggests that exploratory experiences in the music classroom are a crucial developmental stage as students begin making the kinds of decisions required of them during composition and improvisation. The aims of this article are to (1) articulate a rationale for exploratory learning experiences in the music classroom and (2) outline practical strategies for using exploration as a foundation for compositional and improvisational development. Drawing on the research of Peter Webster, John Kratus, and Maud Hickey, this article outlines group and individual strategies for setting up a listening walk, introducing students to invented notation, scaffolding exploratory learning experiences in the classroom, and provides resources for extending these lessons into composition and improvisation instruction. Embedding exploration into the music classroom empowers students to develop the mental flexibility, disposition, and skills needed for improvising and composing.

The tensions present in learning jazz improvisation are well recognized given the contextual shift from more informal environments such as jam sessions and apprenticeships towards academic settings such as school bands and college jazz programs. Research suggests that the development of instruction in music education be informed by and modeled after expert practitioners, yet scant evidence exists on the most effective strategies, methods, and/or approaches for teaching jazz improvisation, in particular against the backdrop of this shift in educational paradigms. In response, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate seven jazz educators' lived experiences teaching jazz improvisation. Seven expert jazz educators situated in a variety of teaching contexts throughout Northern California were recruited using purposeful, snowball sampling strategies. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observations of the participants in a teaching context, and documents such as syllabi, handouts, and recordings. Five themes in the form of vignettes describe these participants' common experiences in teaching jazz improvisation: (1) Teacher as Guide; (2) Teacher as Motivator; (3) Psychological Aspects; (4) Navigating the Academic Chasm; and (5) Cultivating Lifelong Learners. Implications for practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Humanity has recently steered itself into an era of environmental instability where the earth is ravaged of its natural resources, where the biodiversity of living organisms is decreasing everyday, and where a rapidly growing human population has become a driving factor in an impending ecological crisis (Rockström et al., 2009; Steffen et al., 2011). Research is increasingly focusing on the roles and responsibilities of public schooling in addressing this crisis (Cassell & Nelson, 2012; Nelson, 2010; Orr, 2004; Stone & Barlow, 2005). However, explicit discussion on the role of music education is being largely neglected. What are the roles and responsibilities of music educators in addressing the impending ecological crisis? The purpose of this article is to discuss implications for the relationship of music education to education for sustainability within the framework of multicultural education. Bennett Reimer's (2003) synergistic philosophy of music education provides a conceptual lens through which to make this connection in a way that not only keeps to the integrity of music education as a discipline, but also addresses issues in multicultural education. In this article, the author first discusses how the field of multicultural environmental education is making space to address multicultural issues in education for sustainability. Next, he briefly summarizes Reimer's synergistic philosophy of music education--specifically his discussion of the feeling dimension of music--and demonstrate how the field of multicultural environmental education is increasingly recognizing the role of emotions in teaching and learning. Utilizing Reimer's philosophy, he concludes with a discussion of music education in education for sustainability through a multicultural perspective.

Summer bridge programs are supposed to connect a graduating high school senior's summer to their first semester in college, easing the transition away from home and into a university setting. Although research is plentiful on the programs, assessments regarding the overall effectiveness of such programs have been mixed (e.g., Cabrera, Miner, and Milem 2013; Douglas and Attewell 2014; Grayson 2003). As Cabrera, Miner, and Milem (2013) note, many of the studies collect data from participants in a one-time satisfaction survey and/or do not have an equivalent group of students who did not participate in the program from which to compare effectiveness. Our proposed study mitigates these flaws by employing a nonequivalent-groups quasi-experiment (NEG). Our bridge program--called Early Start (ES)-- tapped into social, emotional, and academic engagement, as we sought to integrate the students into the university and school communities while holding high expectations and actively involving them in their own learning (Tinto 2004). Results suggest that not only were students enrolled in our program better socially and emotionally integrated into the university during their first year but they also scored better on content-based political science questions at the end of the fall semester, compared to their non-Early Start peers. Finally, aggregated data indicate an increase in retention for Early Start participants.

Recent studies indicate that young children preferentially attend to snakes, spiders, and lions compared with nondangerous species, but these results have yet to be replicated in populations that actually experience dangerous animals in nature. This multi-site study investigated the visual-detection biases of southern Indian children towards two potentially dangerous taxa, snakes and lions, that constituted major threats during human evolution. Three- to 8-year-old children from two distinct populations were presented with visual-search tasks containing one target image embedded in matrices of eight distractor images. Children living in Bangalore city, an urban setting in which exposure to dangerous animals would only occur occasionally during family outings to zoos and forest areas, were compared with children living in and around National Parks where exposure to dangerous species is frequent. In the first two experiments, children from both locations detected snake and lion images more rapidly than nonthreatening lizard and antelope images, respectively. Neither urban nor rural children displayed a bias for detecting horses versus cows, the latter constituting a familiar animal with strong religious significance. For all three experiments, the reaction times of urban and rural children were very similar, indicating that periodic exposure to dangerous animals early in life, coupled with adult cautioning, did not facilitate better snake and lion detection. This consistency of urban and rural children with different exposure to dangerous animals suggests that detection of some dangerous species may reflect both experience in nature and visual biases shaped by natural selection. (Contains 7 figures.)

The ability to detect dangerous animals rapidly in complex landscapes has been historically important during human evolution. Previous research has shown that snake images are more readily detected than images of benign animals. To provide a stringent test of superior snake detection in preschool children and adults, Experiment 1 consisted of two parts using a touch-screen visual search task. Reaction times to detect different target snakes embedded in matrices of lizards were compared with reaction times to detect target lizards embedded in matrices of snakes. Experiment 2 compared the visual salience of lions with that of similarly colored antelopes. This experiment tested the prediction that historically dangerous felid predators would also engender rapid detection. Results from the two experiments revealed that both preschool children and adults located snakes and lions more quickly than their nonthreatening counterparts. Experiment 3 examined the ability of children and adults to distinguish between similar appearing cows and horses. Preschool children and adult men exhibited no reliable differences in detecting the two animal types. Adult women located horses reliably faster than cows, suggesting that visual biases for some animals can be acquired after childhood. (Contains 6 figures.)

Today's colleges and universities see the value of integrated and well-planned environmental graphics systems, creating a sense of place and extending a school's brand identity throughout the campus. The impact of including this vital element in a campus master plan reaches far beyond first impressions, leading to more cohesive and close-knit college communities, increasing recruitment, and building and sustaining a strong sense of school identity and spirit. Environmental graphic design (EGD) typically is defined as "visual communication within the built environment." An EGD system can include an entire campus signage master plan, as well as individual buildings within a campus such as student centers, halls of fame and sports museums, classroom buildings, dining halls and recreational facilities. Components of the system encompass way-finding and identity signage, as well as aesthetic components such as banners and media-driven graphics.

Argues that spelling is an attitude that requires insight and understanding, that students must see a need for it, and that it should be taught in a functional setting. (FL)