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Although reading homework is common in university courses, compliance rates vary. Using interviews, this study explored how five students responded to reading assignments in their introductory college mathematics classes and how they viewed reading and reading-related activities relative to their academic successes. Qualitative content analysis of the interview data and resultant case studies revealed that the participants completed their readings and undertook associated activities to produce gains in confidence, preparedness, mastery, achievement, and self-responsibility. This research offers an in-depth view of students' reading and reading-related practices, highlights the importance they attributed to these behaviors, reveals how their mathematics comfort levels influenced their approaches to reading assignments, exposes complicating factors that impacted their academic achievements, and points to the value of using pedagogic interventions to encourage reading in math courses.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the relationship between the problems of practice teachers encounter and social media use. In this study seven teacher bloggers were interviewed about their professional use of blogs and Twitter. Data from the interviews were compared with data from teachers' blogs and Twitter networks. Results indicated that each participant saw being able to choose which problem of practice on which they would work, as well as with whom they would work on these problems, as benefits of virtual networks.

Mathematics teachers are using Twitter as a backchannel at conferences. Understanding whether teachers are using Twitter differently at traditional conferences like the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Annual as compared to new conference models like TwitterMathCamp (TMC) is important. Tweets surrounding the 2015 NCTM Annual and TMC2015 were collected and analyzed to determine the differences in tweeting behavior of the mathematics teachers. Our results showed teachers use Twitter in common ways, despite the attention placed on social media at new conferences.

The advent of social networking tools allows teachers to create online networks and share information. While some virtual networks have a formal structure and defined boundaries, many do not. These unstructured virtual networks are difficult to study because they lack defined boundaries and a formal structure governing leadership roles and the transfer of information. The purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between how a member participates in a virtual blog network and the role of that member in the network. Unlike previous studies that use behavioral or structural characteristics of an individual's network to infer social roles, this study utilized cluster analysis to combine behavior and structural information in role detection. Quantitative methods from social network analysis were used to compare the network structure of individual bloggers both across and within groups. The results indicate that how an individual participates in the network has an influence not only on their current role in the network, but also in how and how quickly their role in the community changes.

The validity of student evaluations of courses and the relationship between evaluations and course outcomes has frequently been examined. Since many course evaluations give students an opportunity to provide answers to open-ended questions in addition to giving Likert scale ratings, it is important to understand the relationship between these responses and course outcomes. This study examined the relationship between student responses to open ended questions (specifically whether they attributed their achievement to factors within their control or factors not within their control) and their outcomes in the course. The results of the study indicate that students that identified external factors (e.g. the professor) as responsible for their success in the course had significantly higher course outcomes than students that identified external factors as responsible for their failure in the course. No differences were detected in course outcomes for students that made external comments on their course evaluations versus those that made internal comments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers brief information on the QAMA calculator from Ilan Samson.

Fertilisers and pesticides are major sources of the environmental harm that results from farming, yet it remains difficult to target reductions in their impacts without compromising food production. We suggest that calculating the ratio of agrochemical inputs to yield can provide an indication of the potential sustainability of farmland, with those areas that have high input relative to yield being considered as less sustainable. Here we design an approach to characterise such Input to Yield Ratios (IYR) for four inputs that can be plausibly linked to environmental impacts: the cumulative risk resulting from pesticide exposure for honeybees and for earthworms, and the amount of nitrogen or phosphorus fertiliser applied per unit area. We capitalise on novel national-scale data to assess IYR for wheat farming across all of England. High-resolution spatial patterns of IYR differed among the four inputs, but hotspots, where all four IYRs were high, were in key agricultural regions not usually characterised as having low suitability for cropping. By scaling the magnitude of each input against crop yield, the IYR does not penalise areas of high yield with higher inputs (important for food production), or areas with low yields but which are achieved with low inputs (important as low impact areas). Instead, the IYR provides a globally applicable framework for evaluating the broad patterns of trade-offs between production and environmental risk, as an indicator of the potential for harm, over large scales. Its use can thus inform targeting to improve agricultural sustainability, or where one might switch to other land uses such as ecosystem restoration., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This study identifies challenges and advantages parents faced in navigating therapy service delivery for their child with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of an online survey, 171 parents of children with disabilities answered four, free response questions regarding the therapy services their children received during the pandemic. A grounded theory approach was used to identify top challenges, barriers, advantages, and recommendations. Challenges included children's poor response to telehealth services, lack of parent training, and technological challenges. Advantages included fewer barriers to service access and increased family involvement. Parents largely recommended shorter, more frequent teletherapy sessions, and resuming in-person services. To improve parent engagement in, and the sustainability of, services, parent feedback should inform service delivery design and implementation. Incorporating parent feedback about service delivery can decrease disparities in access and increase parent engagement in child services both generally, and during periods of service disruption., (© 2022 The Authors. Journal of Community Psychology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Introduction: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality in the US. Further, rural US adults experience disproportionately high CVD prevalence and mortality compared to non-rural. Cardiovascular risk-reduction interventions for rural adults have shown short-term effectiveness, but long-term maintenance of outcomes remains a challenge. Faith organizations offer promise as collaborative partners for translating evidence-based interventions to reduce CVD., Methods: We adapted and implemented a collaborative, faith-placed, CVD risk-reduction intervention in rural Illinois. We used a quasi-experimental, pre-post design to compare changes in dietary and physical activity among participants. Intervention components included Heart Smart for Women (HSFW), an evidence-based program implemented weekly for 12 weeks followed by Heart Smart Maintenance (HSM), implemented monthly for two years. Participants engaged in HSFW only, HSM only, or both. We used regression and generalized estimating equations models to examine changes in outcomes after one year., Results: Among participants who completed both baseline and one-year surveys (n = 131), HSFW+HSM participants had significantly higher vegetable consumption ( p = .007) and combined fruit/vegetable consumption ( p = .01) compared to the HSM-only group at one year. We found no differences in physical activity., Conclusion: Improving and maintaining CVD-risk behaviors is a persistent challenge in rural populations. Advancing research to improve our understanding of effective translation of CVD risk-reduction interventions in rural populations is critical.

Introduction: Up to 20% of children demonstrate behavior problems that interfere with relationship development and academic achievement. Parent participation in behavioral parent training programs has been shown to decrease child problem behaviors and promote positive parent-child relationships. However, attendance and parent involvement in face-to-face parent training remain low. Testing the implementation, efficacy, and cost of alternative delivery models is needed to (a) increase the reach and sustainability of parent training interventions and (b) address the barriers to parent participation and implementation of such programs, specifically in primary health care settings. The purpose of this paper is to describe the study protocol evaluating the implementation, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of delivering the tablet-based ezParent program in pediatric primary care sites., Methods: The implementation of the ezParent in four pediatric primary care sites will be evaluated using a descriptive design and cost-effectiveness analysis. The efficacy of the ezParent will be tested using a randomized controlled trial design with 312 parents of 2 to 5year old children from pediatric primary care settings. Data on parenting and child behavior outcomes will be obtained from all participants at baseline, and 3, 6, and 12months post baseline., Discussion: Integrating and evaluating the implementation of the ezParent in pediatric primary care is an innovative opportunity to promote positive parenting with potential for universal access to the preschool population and for low cost by building on existing infrastructure in pediatric primary care., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)