Group items tagged

A range of approaches loosely linked by the value of getting people to tell stories about their lives. Some influence from White and Epston's narrative therapy in some chapters. A chapter of autobiographical narratives of people in the field (incl. Sternberg) mostly emphasizes who helped them on their paths; not much insight into how we address challenges.

"Empirically supported treatments (ESTs) are interventions that have been found to be efficacious for one or more psychological conditions, like major depression, panic disorder, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. Prior to the 1990s, there were no specific guidelines for either practitioners or mental health consumers regarding which treatments to select for which conditions. " "Because ESTs are manualized, they necessarily constrain clinical creativity. To some extent, this criticism is based on a caricature of manualized therapies. Treatment manuals do not necessarily mandate fixed responses to patients' verbal behaviors in therapy; instead, most manuals provide flexible guidelines for how to proceed at different stages of treatment. Moreover, increasing numbers of treatment manuals afford therapists considerable leeway to respond flexibly to differing patient trajectories within treatment. "

Insightful memoir providing information about the affects of bullying. Easy reading with personal reflection about feelings associated with being the victim of bullying. Very informative for educators, parents, students, but for anyone who may be dealing with such difficulties in their settings.

New scientific research study appears in the Dec. 1 issue of TheJournal of the American Medical Association, delves into linking mitochondrial dysfunction with autism. "Certainly, these findings need to be confirmed in larger studies," study researcher Cecilia Giulivi, PhD, of the University of California, Davis tells WebMD. "More research is also needed to understand how mitochondrial dysfunction might contribute to autism." This study helps to bridge scientific and medical uncertainties surrounding the little known causes of autism, which are believed to be both environmental and genetic.

This article talks about when it may or may not be appropriate to use action learning. Action learning is an approach you take on with a group to gain a better knowledge of a particular objective that can be achieved through shared reflection and action. Through this process individuals willingly participate to deal with a problem as a group and create innovative ideas that can be carried out and evaluated to continue revisionism. (Our action research class in a nutshell) The example chapters at the beginning outline a clear picture of a kind of problem that needs continued learning and revision to meet a better goal after reflection and reassessment occur.

The article is about a systematic approach and learning about "a problem" resolving them with a group of committed people through reflection and dialogue. This action learning approach may not be suitable for everyone due to the time constraints and the possible need for immediate problem- solving. There are tools that are utilized during the process of trying to learn about a problem that help to facilitate the learning process of that problem.

This article provides more resources to the Action Research Process. This involves identifing a problem and wanting to implement change to improve outcomes. Something each Action Research articles have in common are reflection and evaluation.

This article outlined several issues. 1. High powered politicians coming together to make decisions on federal policy that directly effect their financial profits. 2. The use of insufficient evidence from studies, the lack of scientific correlation and the improper transcription of results from studies being used to make "the best" decisions in standardized tests and phonics instruction on reading skills. 3. The emphasis and funding for schools being put toward standardized tests and phonics instruction along with materials/products needed for them instead of other places that may be in more need.

This article brings to light what Metcalf describes as the "Bush Revolution" in education. After providing a brief history of education, referencing Horace Mann and John Dewey, Metcalf stresses education as a business, connecting McGraw (Publisher McGraw-Hill) and Bush. Bush changes the system and creates new standards in education, as a result new materials are then needed to implement his new education 'revolution.' Metcalf implies the situation is more about business between friends than actually worrying about educating children.

This article looks at several different approaches to Action Research.

Model of interest: Dialogical relation between individual performance & Social knowledge, provides an axis of knowledge as a process linking dialogue communication for trust building/community with thinking while doing; and dialogue of dissemination of information with individual performance and reflection on practice. Interesting model of action research processes with social context.

An article highlighting the findings of a cohort of 14 teachers from high-needs, urban areas schools who have addressed the education dilemma in a report. The report highlights 5 things that needs to be addressed in order to change the effectiveness of how our schools current operate.

Reynolds, leader of Chicago study of early childhood interventions, discusses the need "to identify... the causal mechanisms or active ingredients of intervention effects"

"Madison Metropolitan School District (2001). "Classroom action research." http://www.madison.k12.wi.us/sod/car/carhomepage.html"

This website is a very helpful tool for anyone taking on the task of an action research project. In the section "Reasons to Do Actions Research" it cites collegiality, personal/professional development, consistency, and challenging the norm, all as reasons why action research needed to be done in this situation. Under the section, "A process for Analyzing Your Data" the site goes through some steps to go through in order to get a big picture of the data that has been collected. Some of the steps include, look for themes or patterns, identify the main points, and draw the information together to include some of the evidence which supports each of your themes. The site also has many other links to topics such as "What is Action Research?", "Guidelines for Developing a Question", "Techniques for Collecting Data", and "Ideas for Your Final Write-Up".

This article has helped further define the principles of action research that we have visited throughout the semester. It provides several visual aids that overlap with our cycles and epicycles design. Information here provide important key aspects of the research process with relevance to an area of interest, in this case education. Many valuable works cited throughout help gain a better understanding of the bones of action research as well as its evolution.

By: Dr. Stephen Waters-Adams 2006

The Communications Director of Pepsi co discusses the marketing campaign Pepsi Refresh, wherein the public is encouraged to come up with new ideas to "refresh" some part of their world, and with the votes of the public, potentially win grant money to fund that idea. It is both a great marketing tool for Pepsi, and a great way to get the public to be creative. I have come across the Pepsi Refresh project in my research, because there are some ideas from the public that include finding ways to incorporate play into people's lives. I think that this project is a great way to have people think about the change that they want to make in the world, and create a proposal for it that is compelling enough to get others to vote for them and make it happen. With the added incentive of possible grant money, people can think freely without the worry of "how could I actually make this happen financially?"

This article looks at targeting staff behavior for change to better aid the treatment of the individuals with developmental disabilities who were receiving services.Decreases in resident self-stimulatory and disruptive/aggressive behaviors occurred when the rate of social interactions from staff persons increased.This article shows how staff training can affect change for the better.

I think this is a good example of action research. The article discusses the relationship between stress at work and how it can have an effect on employees' health. It also gives ideas on ways to decrease stress at work thus improving the health of employees.

This is as very interesting article. The action research process is used along side quantitative data collection procedures to determine effects and solutions to employee stress and workplace changes. The article is extensive and I confess I did skip over the details of the subjects involved in order to see the author's results. The inclusion of employee input to determine matters that disturb them, which can be underestimated and overlooked, such as the simple need to be validated in the work they do, or the desire to have more input into decisions, is how the researchers were able to create interventions for change, by learning about the actual areas of stress.

Response to questions of their paper that claimed that retrieval practice produced meaningful learning of concepts and did so better than concepts mapping

A RaW Stemä refers to an open-ended statement or question that leads your mind to reflecting on the past, in the present and/or for the future. The 'R' stands for reflective; the 'a' stands for and; the 'W' stands for writing. A Reflection and Writing Stem is like a sentence completion or question which allows you to fill in your thoughts.

I consider myself a "reflectologist", a term I created during one of my reflection sessions. A reflectologist believes in the importance of reflection for growth and change. A RaW Stemä refers to an open-ended statement or question that leads your mind to reflecting on the past, in the present and/or for the future. The 'R' stands for reflective; the 'a' stands for and; the 'W' stands for writing. A Reflection and Writing Stem is like a sentence completion or question which allows you to fill in your thoughts.

This is a great site that has a lot of resources for Special Educators, many of which focus on utilizing technology within Special Education.

A teacher discusses her experiences dealing with standarized tests. She has found that interactive games are the most effective way to help her students review the concepts they have been taught. Games are fun and encourage cooperation and teamwork. Examples she provides include "Eggspert" and PowerPoint games. She also provides links to templates of some of the PowerPoint games she uses.

As a higher education employee, it's interesting to me to hear about what the new trends are in terms of programs at other universities compared with our own. This article both saddens and inspires me, because it discusses how the study of humanities may be in danger, because it is not considered "practical" and does not always lead to a definite career path. I am reminded of how some K-12 administrators are taking away programs in the arts, to free up more time for math and science, subjects that are considered more important because of statewide testing. The article inspires me, because it goes further, to mention what some specific colleges are doing to increase focus and enrollment in humanities fields, and how the colleges and universities are trying to hold on to these fields, despite the low enrollment. I would be interested to see how these techniques end up working, and how the schools plan on evaluating them.