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Racial disparities and climatological disasters are complex topics rarely addressed in K-12 curricula. Each topic has long been neglected vis-à-vis a pedagogy that has either lagged behind contemporary issues or has intentionally sidestepped the importance of addressing these themes through legal and policy mechanisms that limit educators' ability to discuss each topic. When it comes to students and communities of color in the U.S. who are unequally vulnerable to and affected by the impacts of climate change, it is a significant disservice not to provide fundamental learning opportunities that allow students to engage and contribute to the discourse surrounding these pressing issues. This project was intended to support educators and administrators in implementing pedagogy around these topics conducive to curriculum standards and explicitly developed content for students in grades 8-12. The research question was, "How can the racial inequalities of disaster vulnerability and recovery be addressed in the classroom effectively to build a comprehensive knowledge base, to educate and empower a generation of students who will experience considerably more climatological disasters in the future?"

Introduction: Nutrition literacy has been cited as a crucial life skill. Nutrition education as a primary school subject has been treated inconsequentially when compared to other subjects. We investigated an aspect of the current state of nutrition education in Ghana by engaging stakeholders about their sources of nutrition information and the perceived barriers in implementing nutrition education in mainstream primary schools., Methods: Three hundred and fifty one (351) primary school children, 121 homebased caregivers, six schoolteachers, two headteachers, two Ghana Education Service (GES) officials, and six school cooks were involved in the study. Surveys were used to collect data on nutrition information acquisition behaviors and to record perceived barriers. Key Informant Interviews were conducted among GES officials, headteachers, schoolteachers and school cooks, while Focus Group Discussions were used among homebased caregivers and children to gather qualitative information., Results: Only 36.3% of the primary school children had heard about nutrition, and 71% of those got nutrition information from their family members. About 70% of homebased caregivers had heard or seen nutrition messages, and their source of nutrition information was predominantly traditional media. Schoolteachers mostly received their nutrition information from non-governmental organizations and the Internet, while most of the school cooks stated their main source of nutrition information was hospital visits. Perceived barriers included schoolteachers' knowledge insufficiency, and lack of resources to adequately deliver nutrition education. Lack of a clear policy appeared to be an additional barrier., Conclusion: The barriers to the implementation of nutrition education in the mainstream curriculum at the primary school level that were identified in this study can be resolved by: providing schoolteachers with learning opportunities and adequate nutrition education resources for practical delivery, having specific national policy framework, and including family members and school cooks in the nutrition education knowledge and information dissemination process., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Background & Objective: Canadian Ministries of Health and Education across all provinces aim to support and maximize the mental and physical health of students to ensure their ability to fulfill their academic potential. Chronic sleep loss affects all of these domains. However, tools to optimize youth sleep are generally lacking., Methods: This manuscript explains the rationale for the integration of sleep health education into schools, describes the barriers to sleep health education, outlines efforts made to address them in Canada, and discusses future directions for sleep health education in Canada., Results: There is unequivocal evidence that sleep plays critical roles in achieving the key goals to which Canadian schools are committed. Sleep restriction and poor sleep habits resulting from hectic, demanding, unbalanced lifestyles; pressure for academic success; participation in extracurricular activities; and the low priority given to sleep over competing activities are prevalent in Canadian youth of all ages and may significantly impair their learning, well-being, and health. Attempts to integrate sleep health education into school curricula meet with multiple barriers. Some of these barriers can be overcome by using community-based participation to develop and implement school-based sleep health education programs., Conclusion: Successful school-based sleep health promotion programs hold the promise of having a long-lasting positive impact on students' physical and mental health, academic performance and daytime functioning., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Teacher self-efficacy is critical because it predicts teachers' future behavior and impacts teacher turnover. Most teachers begin their career with moderate to high self-efficacy for teaching, but often experience a sharp decline during the first year of teaching. After the first year, their self-efficacy begins to increase but rarely rises to the level it was prior to beginning teaching. Therefore, examining first-year teachers' self-efficacy is extremely important. Previous research generally depicts teachers as a homogeneous group, relying on variable-centered approaches and including self-efficacy as a scaling score, which may not be applicable at the individual level. Simply extending findings from the variable-centered analyses is insufficient. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to examine the heterogeneous profiles of first-year teachers' self-efficacy from the 2011-2012 Schools and Staffing Survey and to investigate how self-efficacy profiles are related to teacher training at the individual level. Using latent class analyses, we found three statistically distinctive classes within self-efficacy: high, moderate, and low. Regardless of teaching assignments, teachers who completed reading content courses during preparation programs and received discipline-specific mentoring during their first year dominated a higher level of self-efficacy. We conclude that these two factors are essential to preparing and retaining high-quality teachers.

Background/aim: Occupational therapists are commonly referred children who find reduced social competence a barrier to participation in school activities. Little is known about the social skills expected of children at school and the thinking strategies children use during social interactions. This study aimed to investigate the social skills expected of children during school-based learning activities in the current NSW K-6 Syllabuses and the types of cognitive strategies expected during social interactions., Methods: A qualitative text-based approach was adopted to explore the range of social skills expected of children at school. A content analysis of text-based data was used to identify specific social skills represented in the current NSW K-6 Syllabuses and the types of cognitive strategies required. Cognitive strategy use items from the PRPP System of Task Analysis were used to identify expected ways of thinking that related to social competence outcomes as stated in the Syllabus., Results: Findings revealed a high number of social skills represented in expected learning outcomes for all six subjects included in the analysis. Four categories representing expected social behaviours across the syllabuses were identified: intrapersonal skills: communication by language; interpersonal skills and responding to others. Each desired social competence phrase embedded within syllabus objectives aligned with at least one item from the PRPP System of Task Analysis. The highest representation of expected strategy use was items from Recall (memory) and Planning (problem solving and evaluating) Quadrants., Conclusion: Investigation into the types of cognitive strategies embedded within Syllabus objectives which relate to social competence can assist therapists more accurately target social skills and associated cognitive strategies required for occupational performance at school. Findings from the study support the use of the PRPP System of Task Analysis for identifying and addressing cognitive strategy use during occupational therapy assessment and intervention., (© 2018 Occupational Therapy Australia.)

As the Norwegian society, and thereby the kindergartens, have become more multicultural, the need for cultivating teachers capable of operating in an ever diversified and global world is highlighted as an important educational strategy within teacher education. The purpose of the specific intercultural program in kindergarten teacher education discussed in this article refers to competences needed as a professional teacher in a multicultural kindergarten. Teachers often have various assumptions and beliefs taken for granted. Therefore, reflexivity appears in intercultural education as a crucial asset. However, the article argues that the notion of self-contemplation and self-reflection that can give the subject freedom as a thinking being needs to be challenged. Questioning beliefs and assumptions includes an examination of one's emotional experiences, values and perspectives. This examination can threaten one's core beliefs and create powerful feelings such as anger, shame or resentment. Introducing the concept of disorienting dilemmas, the article problematizes the rationalist intellectual orientation in teacher education and discusses the need to focus on intercultural experiences as sensuous, intellectual and affective. The article illustrates some disorienting dilemmas with narratives from students who have attended the program. Finally, the article considers the conditions and pedagogical means that might support a more holistic approach to learning in intercultural experiences.

Background: Pre-university education curriculum changes may increase the skills and knowledge gap between secondary (high school) and tertiary (university) education that have been identified as having a major impact on the success of students from underresourced educational backgrounds. This study investigated the impact of extensive pre-university curriculum revision on the generic learning skills of entrants to South African medical schools, which admit students directly from high school., Methods: In this prospective study, students entering four medical schools during 2008-2011 were surveyed to determine their practice of and confidence in information handling, managing own learning, technical and numeracy skills, and computer, organizational, and presentation skills in the 12-month preceding entry. The 2008 entrants were the final cohort of the old secondary school curriculum. The mean levels of practice or confidence of entrants to the four medical schools, during 2008-2011, were compared using analysis of variance. The Bonferroni's test was used for further pair-wise comparison of cohorts of students either entering in different years or different institutions., Results: While entrants at the four medical schools did not demonstrate a consistent or sustained change in their practice of or confidence in each skill category over the period of study, there were some significant differences between entrants at the respective institutions. Furthermore, entrants to one medical school were consistently less confident of their skills, despite more practice. These findings are best accounted for by the long-standing history of inequitably resourced pre-university education in South Africa., Discussion: These findings highlight the need for close monitoring of the impact of pre-university education changes on the learning skill profiles of university entrants, in order to design effective university programs which enable students from diverse backgrounds to participate and adequately meet curricula demands., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest

Curriculum based measurement of oral reading (CBM-R) is used to monitor the effects of academic interventions for individual students. Decisions to continue, modify, or terminate these interventions are made by interpreting time series CBM-R data. Such interpretation is founded upon visual analysis or the application of decision rules. The purpose of this study was to compare the accuracy of visual analysis and decision rules. Visual analysts interpreted 108 CBM-R progress monitoring graphs one of three ways: (a) without graphic aids, (b) with a goal line, or (c) with a goal line and a trend line. Graphs differed along three dimensions, including trend magnitude, variability of observations, and duration of data collection. Automated trend line and data point decision rules were also applied to each graph. Inferential analyses permitted the estimation of the probability of a correct decision (i.e., the student is improving - continue the intervention, or the student is not improving - discontinue the intervention) for each evaluation method as a function of trend magnitude, variability of observations, and duration of data collection. All evaluation methods performed better when students made adequate progress. Visual analysis and decision rules performed similarly when observations were less variable. Results suggest that educators should collect data for more than six weeks, take steps to control measurement error, and visually analyze graphs when data are variable. Implications for practice and research are discussed., (Copyright © 2016 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This chapter discusses efforts to define and improve the quality of afterschool services, highlighting areas of agreement and identifying leading-edge issues. We conclude that the afterschool field is especially well positioned to deliver high-quality services and demonstrate effectiveness at scale because a strong foundation has been built for continuous improvement of service quality., (© 2014 WILEY PERIODICALS, INC.)

Much of child care research has focused on the effects of the quality of care in early childhood settings on children's school readiness skills. Although researchers increased the statistical rigor of their approaches over the past 15 years, researchers' ability to draw causal inferences has been limited because the studies are based on nonexperimental designs. The purpose of the present study was to demonstrate how an instrumental variables approach can be used to estimate causal impacts of preschool center care quality on children's academic achievement when applied to a study in which preschool curricula were randomly assigned across multiple sites. We used data from the Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Research Initiative (PCER; n = 2,700), in which classrooms or preschools were randomly assigned to that grantee's treatment curriculum or "business as usual" conditions in 18 research sites. Using this method, we demonstrate how developmental researchers can exploit the random-assignment designs of multisite studies to investigate characteristics of programs, such as preschool center care quality, that cannot be randomly assigned and their impacts on children's development. We found that the quality of preschool care received by children has significant, albeit modest, effects on children's academic school readiness, with effect sizes of .03 to .14 standard deviation increases in academic achievement associated with a 1 standard deviation increase in quality. Applications and potential policy implications of this method are discussed., (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.)

The National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula (American Psychological Association, 2013b) require a teacher with considerable psychology content knowledge to teach high school psychology courses effectively. In this study, I examined the initial teaching credential requirements for high school psychology teachers in the 50 states plus the District of Columbia. Thirty-four states (the District of Columbia is included as a state) require the social studies credential to teach high school psychology. An analysis of the items on standardized tests used by states to validate the content knowledge required to teach social studies indicates little or no presence of psychology, a reflection of psychology's meager presence in the social studies teacher preparation curricula. Thus, new teachers with the social studies teaching credential are not prepared to teach high school psychology according to the National Standards. Approval of The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History (National Council for the Social Studies, 2013) presents an opportunity to advocate for establishing a psychology credential in the 34 states., ((c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.)

The National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula attempts to represent current knowledge in the field of psychology in developmentally appropriate ways. Psychology is a popular high school course, one that can introduce students to scientific ideas and engage students in the learning process. However, it is difficult for even the best of teachers to present all of psychology in a single course for students who begin with virtually no formal knowledge of psychology. The standards presented here constitute the first of two reports in this issue of the American Psychologist (January 2013) representing recent American Psychological Association (APA) policies that support high-quality instruction in the teaching of high school psychology. These standards provide curricular benchmarks for student learning in the high school course.

LA's BEST reflects on how its values-based program-delivery design positively affects youth development., (Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company.)

Science education in the United States will increasingly be driven by testing and accountability requirements, such as those mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act, which rely heavily on learning outcomes, or "standards," that are currently developed on a state-by-state basis. Those standards, in turn, drive curriculum and instruction. Given the importance of standards to teaching and learning, we investigated the quality of life sciences/biology standards with respect to genetics for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, using core concepts developed by the American Society of Human Genetics as normative benchmarks. Our results indicate that the states' genetics standards, in general, are poor, with more than 85% of the states receiving overall scores of Inadequate. In particular, the standards in virtually every state have failed to keep pace with changes in the discipline as it has become genomic in scope, omitting concepts related to genetic complexity, the importance of environment to phenotypic variation, differential gene expression, and the differences between inherited and somatic genetic disease. Clearer, more comprehensive genetics standards are likely to benefit genetics instruction and learning, help prepare future genetics researchers, and contribute to the genetic literacy of the U.S. citizenry.

Four principals from New York City, Los Angeles, and Houston share their schools' journeys of how they expanded learning time and opportunities to best meet their students' academic and developmental needs., (Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company.)

Following a decade of rapid expansion of afterschool enrichment programs, leaders in the field are rethinking how those programs can be designed to play a larger role in supporting student achievement and development and in strengthening school reform initiatives., (Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company.)

Expanding learning time in schools by extending their schedules is a growing movement aimed at helping high-poverty students get stronger academic skills and enjoy a more well-rounded education and positive development., (Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company.)

The Tier 1 Program of the Project P.A.T.H.S. (Positive Adolescent Training through Holistic Social Programmes) is a curricular-based program that attempts to promote positive youth development in Hong Kong. In the second year of the Full Implementation Phase, 20 experimental schools (N = 2,784 students) and 23 control schools (N = 3,401 students) participated in a randomized group trial. Analyses of covariance and linear mixed models, controlling for differences between the two groups in terms of Wave 1 pretest scores, personal variables, and random effect of schools, showed that participants in the experimental schools had significantly higher positive youth development levels than did participants in the control schools at post-test, based on different indicators derived from the Chinese Positive Youth Development Scale. The students in the experimental schools also displayed a lower level of delinquency, but better school adjustment than did students in the control schools. Differences between experimental and control participants were also found when students who joined the Tier 1 Program and perceived the program to be beneficial were employed as participants of the experimental schools.

The proliferation of bioinformatics in modern biology marks a modern revolution in science that promises to influence science education at all levels. This study analyzed secondary school science standards of 49 U.S. states (Iowa has no science framework) and the District of Columbia for content related to bioinformatics. The bioinformatics content of each state's biology standards was analyzed and categorized into nine areas: Human Genome Project/genomics, forensics, evolution, classification, nucleotide variations, medicine, computer use, agriculture/food technology, and science technology and society/socioscientific issues. Findings indicated a generally low representation of bioinformatics-related content, which varied substantially across the different areas, with Human Genome Project/genomics and computer use being the lowest (8%), and evolution being the highest (64%) among states' science frameworks. This essay concludes with recommendations for reworking/rewording existing standards to facilitate the goal of promoting science literacy among secondary school students.

In a survey conducted with 1,107 parents (590 mothers, M age=38.8 yr., SD=5.8; 517 fathers, M age=41.3 yr., SD=6.0) and 123 teachers (82 women, M age=41.1 yr., SD=9.2; 41 men, M age=41.3 yr., SD=9.1) in coastal rural Southern Ostrobothnia, Finland, an assessment of the relative responsibility of the family in comparison with that of school in the teaching of various skills to children was made. Parents and teachers agreed that the school carries 30-40% of the responsibility for the teaching of socio-emotional skills, such as conflict resolution, norms and values, self-esteem, sense of justice and responsibility, and close human relations. They also agreed that school carries 50% of the responsibility for providing information about sexuality and drugs. Fathers opined that school carried a greater responsibility in teaching skills than mothers did.

Families who adopt internationally often need assistance in determining which factors they need to consider when making educational decisions for their child, and they frequently seek guidance from their physician. Understanding how the education system functions, how it differs from the medical system, and how children who have been adopted internationally can succeed in school is important for health care providers, because this information helps parents in making proactive decisions for their children. Internationally adopted children have the best chance of maximizing their learning potential when medical and educational professionals work together to assist families as they plan for their child's education.

A recently released National Research Council (NRC) report, Learning and Understanding: Improving Advanced Study of Mathematics and Science in U.S. High Schools, evaluated and recommended changes in the Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and other advanced secondary school science programs. As part of this study, discipline-specific panels were formed to evaluate advanced programs in biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics. Among the conclusions of the Content Panel for Biology were that AP courses in particular suffer from inadequate quality control as well as excessive pressure to fulfill their advanced placement function, which encourages teachers to attempt coverage of all areas of biology and emphasize memorization of facts rather than in-depth understanding. In this essay, the Panel's principal findings are discussed, with an emphasis on its recommendation that colleges and universities should be strongly discouraged from using performance on either the AP examination or the IB examination as the sole basis for automatic placement out of required introductory courses for biology majors and distribution requirements for nonmajors.

Ten secondary health education state curriculum frameworks were reviewed for their inclusion of 12 mediators commonly used to prevent adolescent substance use. Specific aims of the investigation were: a) to identify the extent to which the 12 mediators were found in each framework; and b) to identify those frameworks that included Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs (ATOD) sections and determine to what extent the 12 mediators were found in those sections. A panel of three researchers independently reviewed each framework. Beliefs about consequences, decision-making skills, and stress management skills were identified most often while commitment, lifestyle incongruence, and normative beliefs were identified least often. Among states that included ATOD sections, beliefs about consequences and resistance skills were the most commonly identified mediators. Commitment, goal setting, and normative beliefs were not identified in any ATOD sections. Research in prevention and implications for health education are discussed.

This is a discussion paper which generates some important research questions for educationalists. The teaching of food skills are at danger of being lost from the school cirriculum by changes imposed by the National Curriculum. This sinister (i.e., unexplained/undefined) development generates potential problems for the teaching of cookery and for the food and eating traditions of British society. The central concern for nutrition educationalists is that cooking is becoming more and more de-domesticated and consequently will become more systemised, more mass produced; in which case, young people need not be educated in basic cooking skills.

The New York Academy of Medicine has pioneered a far-sighted effort which successfully introduced two model health education curricula into the New York City Public Schools at both the elementary and middle school levels. The curriculums for kindergarten through sixth grades, Growing Healthy, are currently being used in 525 of New York's 625 elementary schools, and the curriculum for seventh and eighth grades, Being Healthy, is in place in 60 of 200 junior high schools. These curricula offer a comprehensive approach to health education that promotes emotional well-being as well as physical health by improving health behaviors, attitudes, and academic performance of students through hands-on and interactive activities which develop decision-making skills and the ability to make healthful choices. The program has met with ongoing success and expanding influence, as the result of several important factors. First, the New York Academy of Medicine took a leadership role in supporting a venture outside its own walls and became an active advocate for comprehensive health education in the public schools. The Academy's standing as a prestigious yet independent medical association brought influence to the organizing efforts and contributed the credibility needed to get the program off the ground. Second, the Division of Student Support Services of the New York City Public Schools gave strong acceptance and cooperation leading to ongoing financial support and institutionalization of the program. Added to that is the enthusiasm of teachers, administrators, and other in-school personnel who have made the lessons of Growing Healthy and Being Healthy meaningful by reaching hundreds of thousands of students across New York City. Another important factor is the oversight and longevity which has been provided by the unusual gathering of doctors, educators, public health specialists, funders, and city administrators who created an effective private-public coalition 15 years ago and have remained committed to working together. Last through its ongoing efforts, the Academy's Office of School Health Programs has stayed at the forefront of developments in health education. By continuing to evaluate their activities and by constantly integrating new materials into the existing curricular framework, they have demonstrated that a comprehensive health education program can be both meaningful to children and responsive to community needs by reflecting current public health issues and concerns.

The purpose of this study was to determine the type of school organization that most benefited ninth-grade students. Results indicated that ninth graders in the junior high school setting participated significantly more in extracurricular activities and achieved significantly higher academically than did ninth graders in the senior high school setting.