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Tracking has been criticized for relegating disadvantaged students to lower track courses in which students encounter a greater lack of instructional support. While an end to tracks through detracking is a possible solution, there are concerns that detracking will create more heterogeneous classrooms, making it harder for teachers to provide adequate support to their students. Using the 2015 PISA dataset, this study conducts a causal inferential analysis to understand the differences in student perceptions of teaching in tracked and untracked environments. The results provide evidence that students needs, with respect to adaptation of instruction and provision of individualized feedback and support, are being met to the same extent on average in tracked and untracked science classes, suggesting that teachers may not necessarily have a harder time meeting the needs of students in untracked classes.

Faculty development (FD) programs are critical for providing the knowledge and skills necessary to drive positive change in health professions education, but they take many forms to attain the program goals. The Macy Faculty Scholars Program (MFSP), created by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation (JMJF) in 2010, intends to develop participants as leaders, scholars, teachers, and mentors. After a decade of implementation, an external review committee conducted a program evaluation to determine how well the program met its intended goals and defined options for ongoing improvement.The committee selected Stufflebeam's CIPP (context, input, process, products) framework to guide the program evaluation. Context and input components were derived from the MFSP description and demographic data, respectively. Process and product components were obtained through a mixed-methods approach, utilizing both quantitative and qualitative data obtained from participant survey responses, and curriculum vitae (CV).The evaluation found participants responded favorably to the program and demonstrated an overall increase in academic productivity, most pronounced during the two years of the program. Mentorship, community of practice, and protected time were cited as major strengths. Areas for improvement included: enhancing the diversity of program participants, program leaders and mentors across multiple sociodemographic domains; leveraging technology to strengthen the MFSP community of practice; and improving flexibility of the program.The program evaluation results provide evidence supporting ongoing investment in faculty educators and summarizes key strengths and areas for improvement to inform future FD efforts for both the MFSP and other FD programs.

Spatial skills are critical for student success in K-12 STEM education. Teachers' spatial skills and feelings about completing spatial tasks influence students' spatial and STEM learning at both the primary and secondary levels. However, whether spatial skills and spatial anxiety differ or not between these two teacher levels is unknown. Additionally, the relations between teachers' spatial skills, spatial anxiety, and their use of spatial pedagogical practices in remote learning settings is unknown. Here, we investigated if spatial skills and spatial anxiety differ between teachers working at primary versus secondary levels, and examined the relations between their spatial skills and spatial anxiety while accounting for additional influential factors-general reasoning ability and general anxiety. Lastly, we investigated how teachers' spatial skills in conjunction with their spatial anxiety relate to their use of spatial teaching practices for online instruction. Sixty-two K-12 teachers completed measures of spatial skills, spatial anxiety, general anxiety, general reasoning, and a teaching activities questionnaire. Results indicate that spatial skills and spatial anxiety may not vary between teachers working at primary versus secondary levels, but that higher spatial skills in teachers are associated with lower spatial anxiety for mental manipulation tasks. Additionally, teachers with weaker spatial skills and lower mental manipulation anxiety reported more frequently using spatial teaching practices when teaching remotely due to COVID-19. These findings may have broad implications for teacher professional development with regards to developing students' spatial skills during remote learning.

This study reports the results of focus groups with school nurses and teachers from elementary, middle, and high schools to explore their perceptions of child and adolescent oral health. Participants included 14 school nurses and 15 teachers (83% female; 31% Hispanic; 21% White; 21% Asian; 14% African American; and 13% Others). Respondents were recruited from Los Angeles County schools and scheduled by school level for six one-hour focus groups using Zoom. Audio recordings were transcribed, reviewed, and saved with anonymization of speaker identities. NVivo software (QSR International, Melbourne, Australia) was used to facilitate content analysis and identify key themes. The nurses' rate of "Oral Health Education" comments statistically exceeded that of teachers, while teachers had higher rates for "Parental Involvement" and "Mutual Perception" comments. "Need for Care" was perceived to be more prevalent in immigrants to the United States based on student behaviors and complaints. "Access to Care" was seen as primarily the nurses' responsibilities. Strong relationships between community clinics and schools were viewed by some as integral to students achieving good oral health. The results suggest dimensions and questions important to item development for oral health surveys of children and parents to address screening, management, program assessment, and policy planning.

Implementation of evidence-based practice (EBP) for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the education system is a public health priority. Leadership is a critical driver of EBP implementation but little is known about the types of leadership behaviors exhibited by school leaders and how this influences the context of EBP implementation, particularly for students with ASD. The objectives of this study were to determine (1) the leadership profiles of principals involved in EBP implementation for students with ASD and (2) how these leadership profiles related to school characteristics and implementation climate. The Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, Sustainment (EPIS) framework was used to guide the design and analysis of this study. Participants (n = 296) included principals, teachers, and classroom support staff. They provided demographic information and completed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire and Implementation Climate Scale. Using latent profile analysis, a three-pattern solution was identified: Disengaged (6% of sample), Undifferentiated (23% of sample), and Optimal (71% of sample). Principals in schools with higher proportions of students with an individualized education program were more likely to be classified as Undifferentiated than Optimal. The Optimal group was associated with more positive implementation climate than the Undifferentiated or Disengaged groups. Findings suggest that leadership behaviors rated by principals and their staff involved in implementation of common autism EBPs can be meaningfully clustered into three discernible profiles that are shaped by organizational context and linked to strategic implementation climate. Our study findings have implications for leadership training and service delivery in schools by underscoring the critical nature of school leadership during implementation of EBPs for children with autism and the interplay between specific leadership behaviors and strategic implementation climate.

Implementation of evidence-based practice (EBP) for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the education system is a public health priority. Leadership is a critical driver of EBP implementation but little is known about the types of leadership behaviors exhibited by school leaders and how this influences the context of EBP implementation, particularly for students with ASD. The objectives of this study were to determine (1) the leadership profiles of principals involved in EBP implementation for students with ASD and (2) how these leadership profiles related to school characteristics and implementation climate. The Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, Sustainment (EPIS) framework was used to guide the design and analysis of this study. Participants (n = 296) included principals, teachers, and classroom support staff. They provided demographic information and completed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire and Implementation Climate Scale. Using latent profile analysis, a three-pattern solution was identified: Disengaged (6% of sample), Undifferentiated (23% of sample), and Optimal (71% of sample). Principals in schools with higher proportions of students with an individualized education program were more likely to be classified as Undifferentiated than Optimal. The Optimal group was associated with more positive implementation climate than the Undifferentiated or Disengaged groups. Findings suggest that leadership behaviors rated by principals and their staff involved in implementation of common autism EBPs can be meaningfully clustered into three discernible profiles that are shaped by organizational context and linked to strategic implementation climate. Our study findings have implications for leadership training and service delivery in schools by underscoring the critical nature of school leadership during implementation of EBPs for children with autism and the interplay between specific leadership behaviors and strategic implementation climate.

BackgroundHigh levels of work engagement protect against burnout. This can be supported through the work environment and by faculty themselves when they try to improve their work environment. As a result, they can become more engaged and better performers. We studied the relationship between adaptations by physicians to improve their teaching work environment, known as job crafting, and their energy levels, or work engagement, in their work as care provider and teacher. Job crafting encompasses seeking social (i) and structural (ii) resources and challenges (iii) and avoiding hindrances (iv).MethodsWe established a cross-sectional questionnaire survey in a cohort of physicians participating in classroom and clinical teaching. Job crafting and work engagement were measured separately for physicians' clinical and teaching activities. We analyzed our data using structural equation modelling controlling for age, gender, perceived levels of autonomy and participation in decision making.Results383 physicians were included. Physicians' work engagement for patient care was negatively associated with two job crafting behaviors in the teaching roles: seeking structural resources (classroom teaching: ß = - 0.220 [95% CI: -0.319 to - 0.129]; clinical teaching: ß = - 0.148 [95% CI: -0.255 to - 0.042]); seeking challenges (classroom teaching: ß = - 0.215 [95% CI: -0.317 to - 0.113]; clinical teaching:, ß = - 0.190 [95% CI: -0.319 to - 0.061]). Seeking social resources and avoiding hindrances were unaffected by physicians' work engagement for patient care.ConclusionsHigh engagement for teaching leads to job crafting in teaching. High engagement for patient care does not lead to job crafting in teaching.

The neural mechanism for the dyadic process of teaching is poorly understood. Although theories about teaching have proposed that before any teaching takes place, the teacher will predict the knowledge state of the student(s) to enhance the teaching outcome, this theoretical Prediction-Transmission hypothesis has not been tested with any neuroimaging studies. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy-based hyperscanning, this study measured brain activities of the teacher-student pairs simultaneously. Results showed that better teaching outcome was associated with higher time-lagged interpersonal neural synchronization (INS) between right temporal-parietal junction (TPJ) of the teacher and anterior superior temporal cortex (aSTC) of the student, when the teacher's brain activity preceded that of the student. Moreover, time course analyses suggested that such INS could mark the quality of the teaching outcome at an early stage of the teaching process. These results provided key neural evidence for the Prediction-Transmission hypothesis about teaching, and suggested that the INS plays an important role in the successful teaching.