Search results for: school counseling

Authors: Holly D. Shan, Monique L. Bautista Neughebauer

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Sunscreen usage is emphasized in public health strategy as it reduces the risk of sunburns and skin cancers. This study aims to explore factors that influence sun protective behavior and outcomes. Data was received from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) 2020. Adults were asked how often they wore sunscreen when outside on a sunny day. Consistent use (“always”) of sunscreen, the incidence of sunburn within a year, and ever having a diagnosis of skin melanoma were compared by gender, race, and the diagnosis of anxiety, depression, and dementia. Individuals identifying as a mixed race were excluded. Statistical analysis was adjusted for large-scale surveys using STATA VSN 7.0, and a two-sided p<0.05 was considered significant. Of the 37,352 participants (53.18% females, 75.01% white, 10.49% black, 0.76% Indian Americans,5.60% Asian), 13.11% had a diagnosis of anxiety, 14.78% depression, and 0.84% dementia. Females wore sunscreen more often than males (24.72% vs. 10.91%, p<0.001). White individuals wore sunscreen most frequently; black individuals the least (17.37% vs. 6.49%, p<0.001). White individuals had the highest rate of sunburn (25.61%, p<0.001) and a history of skin melanoma (3.38%, p<0.001). Participants with anxiety, depression, and dementia all had statistically significantly decreased sunscreen use and increased frequency of sunburn compared to the general population. Only those with dementia had an increased incidence of skin melanoma (2.85% vs. 1.22%, p=0.009). Dermatologists and public health professionals should consider gender, race, and psychiatric comorbidities when counseling patients on sun protection.

Keywords: sun protective behavior, psychiatric disorder, melanoma, sunburn

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Authors: Bahago I. N., Oyewole O. E.

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Nigeria has the second highest prevalence of intestinal worms globally, which has not declined since the 1970s, especially in rural communities. Identifying the gaps in self-care practice will pave a way for a suitable intervention. This study investigated the knowledge, perception, and practice of deworming among mothers of under-five children in rural communities of Lafia Local Government Area, Nasarawa State. This study was descriptive cross-sectional and involved 419 mothers selected by systematic sampling technique. Information was obtained using a valid interviewer-questionnaire. Knowledge, perception, and practice was measured using a 10-point scale for each variable, respectively. Scores of 0-4, >4-6, and >6 were categorised as poor, average/fair, and good, respectively, at p<0.05 level of significance. Respondents’ age was 30.3±9.2 years; 46.5% were into trading, 26.7% were unemployed, 9.3% were skilled labour, and 7.4% were farmers. On literacy, secondary school (25.5%) while 9.1% above secondary school. Many (51.1%) had 2-3 children, while 42.2% had 5 or more children. Most of the respondents (96.2%) had good knowledge of deworming, and 3.8% had fair knowledge. Using multivariate model, Mothers between the ages of 25-34 years were 20 times likely to be more knowledgeable, given they have access to health information (O.R 2.39 -164.31). Most (62.3%) had good perception scores, 33.2% had fair scores, while 4.5% had poor perception scores. Majority (66.4%) had a good deworming practice of deworming, 66.4% had good, 28.4% had fair, and 5.3% had poor practice. The test of association between Parent's literacy level, religion, and age were significantly associated with the level of knowledge of deworming. Knowledge of deworming was above average; perception and practice was good. Women of ages 25-34 years could be trained as community volunteers to propagate the right information about deworming in rural communities, especially among young women of ages 13-19 years. Preferred channels to obtaining health information identified in the study should be explored.

Keywords: deworming, mothers of under-five, intestinal worms, rural communities

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Authors: Suparna Bagchi

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Education as a discipline will probably be shaped by the importance it places on a conceptual, curricular, and pedagogical need to shift the emphasis toward transformative classrooms working for positive change through cultural diversity. Awareness of cultural diversity and race equality has heightened following George Floyd’s killing in the USA in 2020. This increasing awareness is particularly relevant in areas of historically low ethnic diversity which have lately experienced a rise in ethnic minority populations and where inclusive growth is a challenge. This research study aims to explore the perspectives of practitioners, students, and parents towards multiculturalism in four South West England primary schools. A qualitative case study methodology has been adopted framed by sociocultural theory. Data were collected through virtually conducted semi-structured interviews with school practitioners and parents, observation of students’ classroom activities, and documentary analysis of classroom displays. Although one-third of the school population includes ethnically diverse children, BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) characters featured in children's books published in Britain in 2019 were almost invisible, let alone a BAME main character. The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) are vocal about extending the Curriculum beyond the academic and technical arenas for pupils’ broader development and creation of an understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity. However, race equality and community cohesion which could help in the students’ broader development are not Ofsted’s school inspection criteria. The absence of culturally diverse content in the school curriculum highlighted by the 1985 Swann Report and 2007 Ajegbo Report makes England’s National Curriculum look like a Brexit policy three decades before Brexit. A revised National Curriculum may be the starting point with the teachers as curriculum framers playing a significant part. The task design is crucial where teachers can place equal importance on the interwoven elements of “how”, “what” and “why” the task is taught. Teachers need to build confidence in encouraging difficult conversations around racism, fear, indifference, and ignorance breaking the stereotypical barriers, thus helping to create students’ conception of a multicultural Britain. Research showed that trainee teachers in predominantly White areas often exhibit confined perspectives while educating children. Irrespective of the geographical location, school teachers can be equipped with culturally responsive initial and continuous professional development necessary to impart multicultural education. This may aid in the reduction of employees’ unconscious bias. This becomes distinctly pertinent to avoid horrific cases in the future like the recent one in Hackney where a Black teenager was strip-searched during period wrongly suspected of cannabis possession. Early research findings show participants’ eagerness for more ethnic diversity content incorporated in teaching and learning. However, schools are considerably dependent on the knowledge-focused Primary National Curriculum in England. Moreover, they handle issues around the intersectionality of disability, poverty, and gender. Teachers were trained in times when foregrounding ethnicity matters was not happening. Therefore, preoccupied with Curriculum requirements, intersectionality issues, and teacher preparations, schools exhibit an incapacity due to which keeping momentum on ethnic diversity is somewhat endangered.

Keywords: case study, curriculum decolonisation, inclusive education, multiculturalism, qualitative research in Covid19 times

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Authors: Odeh Regina Comfort, Angelina Okewu Ogwuche

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The study investigated transformational leadership style of principal and conflict management in secondary schools in North Central Nigeria. A descriptive survey design was adopted. The population of the study comprised 34,473 teachers in 1949 public secondary schools in the study area. Proportionate stratified random sampling and simple random sampling techniques were used to select 39 public secondary schools and 689 respondents, respectively, for the study. The researcher utilized a self-structured questionnaire titled 'Influence of Transformational Leadership Style Questionnaire (ITLSQ)'. Face and content validity were ensured. The reliability index of 0.86 was obtained through Cronbach alpha statistics. The instrument was a modified Likert rating scale of Very High Extent (4), High Extent (3), Low Extent (2) and Very Low Extent (1). Mean, and standard deviation were used to answer 2 research questions, while chi-square goodness of fit was used to test the 2 hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results among others indicate: that intellectual stimulation and individualized components of transformational leadership style of principal in public secondary schools in the study area have significant influence on conflict management in secondary schools. Based on the results, it was recommended that principals of secondary schools should be encouraged to practice the intellectual stimulation component of transformational leadership style that would help to consider teachers' levels of knowledge to decide what suits them to reach high levels of attainment thereby minimizing conflict in school settings; also transformational leadership should be taught to all people at all levels of secondary school especially that which pertains to individualized consideration to have a positive impact on the overall performance of teachers and this would help to minimize conflict in schools.

Keywords: conflict management, individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation, transformational leadership style

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Authors: Amjad Alsulami, Farah Albishri, Kholod Alzubidi, Lama Almehemadi, Salma Elhag

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Food allergy is a common and rising problem among children. Many students have their first allergic reaction at school, one of these is anaphylaxis, which can be fatal. This study discovered that several schools' processes lacked safety regulations and information on how to handle allergy issues and chronic diseases like diabetes where students were not supervised or monitored during the cafeteria purchasing process. There is no obvious prevention or effort in academic institutions when purchasing food containing allergens or negatively impacting the health status of students who suffer from chronic diseases. Students must always be stable to reflect positively on their educational development process. To address this issue, this paper uses a business reengineering process to propose the automation of the whole food-purchasing process, which will aid in detecting and avoiding allergic occurrences and preventing any side effects from eating foods that are conflicting with students' health. This may be achieved by designing a smart card with an embedded QR code that reveals which foods cause an allergic reaction in a student. A survey was distributed to determine and examine how the cafeteria will handle allergic children and whether any management or policy is applied in the school. Also, the survey findings indicate that the integration of QR technology into the food purchasing process would improve health condition detection. The suggested system would be beneficial to all parties, the family agreed, as they would ensure that their children didn't eat foods that were bad for their health. Moreover, by analyzing and simulating the as-is process and the suggested process the results demonstrate that there is an improvement in quality and time.

Keywords: QR code, smart card, food allergies, business process reengineering, health condition detection

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Authors: Natalia Podkhodova, Olga Sheremeteva, Mariia Soldaeva

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Creating favorable conditions for students’ comprehension of mathematical content is one of the primary problems in teaching mathematics in secondary school. Psychology research has demonstrated that positive comprehension becomes possible when new information becomes part of student’s subjective experience and when linkages between the attributes of notions and various ways of their presentations can be established. The fact of comprehension includes the ability to build a working situational model and thus becomes an important means of solving mathematical problems. The article describes the implementation of a holistic approach to teaching mathematics designed to address the primary challenges of such teaching, specifically, the challenge of students’ comprehension. This approach consists of (1) establishing links between the attributes of a notion: the sense, the meaning, and the term; (2) taking into account the components of student’s subjective experience -emotional and value, contextual, procedural, communicative- during the educational process; (3) links between different ways to present mathematical information; (4) identifying and leveraging the relationships between real, perceptual and conceptual (scientific) mathematical spaces by applying real-life situational modeling. The article describes approaches to the practical use of these foundational concepts. Identifying how proposed methods and technology influence understanding of material used in teaching mathematics was the research’s primary goal. The research included an experiment in which 256 secondary school students took part: 142 in the experimental group and 114 in the control group. All students in these groups had similar levels of achievement in math and studied math under the same curriculum. In the course of the experiment, comprehension of two topics -'Derivative' and 'Trigonometric functions'- was evaluated. Control group participants were taught using traditional methods. Students in the experimental group were taught using the holistic method: under the teacher’s guidance, they carried out problems designed to establish linkages between notion’s characteristics, to convert information from one mode of presentation to another, as well as problems that required the ability to operate with all modes of presentation. The use of the technology that forms inter-subject notions based on linkages between perceptional, real, and conceptual mathematical spaces proved to be of special interest to the students. Results of the experiment were analyzed by presenting students in each of the groups with a final test in each of the studied topics. The test included problems that required building real situational models. Statistical analysis was used to aggregate test results. Pierson criterion was used to reveal the statistical significance of results (pass-fail the modeling test). A significant difference in results was revealed (p < 0.001), which allowed the authors to conclude that students in the study group showed better comprehension of mathematical information than those in the control group. Also, it was revealed (used Student’s t-test) that the students of the experimental group performed reliably (p = 0.0001) more problems in comparison with those in the control group. The results obtained allow us to conclude that increasing comprehension and assimilation of study material took place as a result of applying implemented methods and techniques.

Keywords: comprehension of mathematical content, holistic approach to teaching mathematics in secondary school, subjective experience, technology of the formation of inter-subject notions

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Authors: Shuko Takeshita

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This study investigates the identity formation of mixed-race children in Japan. From the latter half of the 1980s to the mid-2000s, Japan experienced an 'intermarriage boom,' which was soon followed by a fairly significant number of children born to these unions. These children are now coming of age. Among mixed-race children, some embraced both cultural traditions, while others chose a monocultural path despite exposure to two cultural traditions as they grew up. What factors are involved in shaping the identity of mixed-race children? How does identity formation actually occur in these children? This study addresses these questions through an interview survey of 139 cross-cultural families since 1999, including 23 Pakistani-Japanese families, 20 Turkish-Japanese families, 26 families comprising other international Muslim husbands and Japanese wives, 33 Filipino-Japanese families, and 37 Brazilian-Japanese families. The results of this two-decade-long study reveal that in cases where one cannot tell at first glance that children are mixed race, there is a tendency for them to hide their mixed background due to fear of bullying at school, as well as for their parents to encourage them to do this. To pass as a Japanese is one strategy for avoiding discrimination and prejudice, and it can provide a measure of ethnic security or a way of coping with social intolerance. Certainly, among my informants, there are some children who were bullied or teased at school, and as a result, they stopped attending or transferred to other schools. But the mixed-race experience is not always a negative thing in Japan. There is clearly a double standard involved in that mixed-race children of a Caucasian parent are more readily accepted by society than those of a non-Caucasian parent. The perceived social status of mixed-race individuals is usually understood in relation to the hierarchical positionings of monoracial groups. Mixed-race children could be guaranteed the right to enjoy the benefit of maintaining and developing an identity as a Japanese, in addition to one more identity. We need to encourage a new awareness of the children as agents for a transition from a monocultural system to a multicultural system in Japanese society.

Keywords: identity formation, intermarriage, mixed race, multicultural children

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Authors: Soleen Karim, Meira Yasin, Rezhin Qader

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Children’s books present a colorful life for kids around the world, their current environment or what they could potentially have- a home, two loving parents, a playground, and a safe school within a short walk or bus ride. These images are only pages in a donated book for children displaced by war. The environment they live in is significantly different. Displaced children are faced with a temporary life style filled with fear and uncertainty. Children of war associate various structural institutions with a trauma and cannot enter the space, even if it is for their own future development, such as a school. This paper is a collaborative effort with students of the Kennesaw State University architecture department, architectural designers and a mental health professional to address and link the design challenges and the psychological trauma for children of war. The research process consists of a) interviews with former refugees, b) interviews with current refugee children, c) personal understanding of space through one’s own childhood, d) literature review of tested design methods to address various traumas. Conclusion: In addressing the built environment for children of war, it is necessary to address mental health and well being through the creation of space that is sensitive to the needs of children. This is achieved by understanding critical design cues to evoke normalcy and safe space through program organization, color, and symbiosis of synthetic and natural environments. By involving the children suffering from trauma in the design process, aspects of the design are directly enhanced to serve the occupant. Neglecting to involve the participants creates a nonlinear design outcome and does not serve the needs of the occupant to afford them equal opportunity learning and growth experience as other children around the world.

Keywords: activist architecture, childhood education, childhood psychology, adverse childhood experiences

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Authors: Frikha Rim, Abdelmoula Bouayed Nouha, Rebai Tarek

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Pregnancy is a hypercoagulable state which causing a defective maternal haemostatic response and leading to thrombosis of the uteroplacental vasculature, that might cause pregnancy complications as recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). Since heritable Thrombophilic defects are associated with increased thrombosis, their prevalence was evaluated in patients with special emphasis on combinations of the above pathologies. Especially, Factor V Leiden (FVL) G1691A, methylene tetra hydro folate reductase (MTHFR) C677T, and factor II (FII) G20210A mutations are three important causes of thrombophilia, which might be related to recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). In this study we evaluated the presence of these three mutations [factor V Leiden (FVL), prothrombin G20210A (PTG) and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T] amongst 35 Tunisian women with more than 2 miscarriages, referred to our genetic counseling. DNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples and PCR-RFLP was performed for the molecular diagnosis of each mutation. Factor V Leiden and Prothrombin mutation were detected respectively in 5.7% and 2.9% of women with particular history of early fetal loss and thrombotic events. Despites the luck of strength of this study, we insist that testing for the most inherited thrombophilia (FVL and FII mutation) should be performed in women with RPL in the context of thrombotic events. Multi-centre collaboration is necessary to clarify the real impact of thrombotic molecular defects on the pregnancy outcome, to ascertain the effect of thrombophilia on recurrent pregnancy loss and then to evaluate the appropriate therapeutic approach.

Keywords: thrombophilia, recurrent pregnancy loss, factor V Leiden, prothrombin G20210A, methylene tetra hydro folate reductase

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Authors: Nilda San Miguel, Elymar Pascual

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The main focus of this study is exploring the effective approaches in teaching Mathematics that is being applied in public schools, s.y. 2018-2019. This research was written as connected output to the district-wide School Learning Action Cell (DISLAC) on Math teaching approaches which was recently conducted in Victoria, Laguna. Fifty-four math teachers coming from 17 schools in Victoria became the respondents of this study. Qualitative method of doing research was applied. Teachers’ responses to the following concerns were gathered, analyzed and interpreted: (1) evaluation of the recently conducted DISLAC, (2) status of the use of different approaches, (3) perception on the effective use of approaches, (4) preference of approach to explore in classroom sessions, (5) factors affecting the choice of approach, (6) difficulties encountered, (7) and perceived benefit to learners. Results showed that the conduct of DISLAC was very highly satisfactory (mean 4.41). Teachers looked at collaborative approach as very highly effective (mean 4.74). Fifty-two percent of the teachers is using collaborative approach, 17% constructivist, 11% integrative, 11% inquiry-based, and 9% reflective. Reflective approach was chosen to be explored by most of the respondents (29%) in future sessions. The difficulties encountered by teachers in using the different approaches are: (1) learners’ difficulty in following instructions, (2) lack of focus, (3) lack of willingness and cooperation, (4) teachers’ lack of mastery in using different approaches, and (5) lack of time of doing visual aids because of time mismanagement. Teachers deemed the use of various teaching approaches can help the learners to have (1) mastery of competency, (2) increased communication, (3) improved confidence, (4) facility in comprehension, and (5) better academic output. The result obtained from this study can be used as an input for SLACs. Recommendations at the end of the study were given to school/district heads and future researchers.

Keywords: approaches, collaborative, constructivism, inquiry-based, integrative, reflective

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Authors: Stephanie Cheng, Benjamin Poh, Vivyan Tay, Sachin Mathur

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Aim: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a worldwide pandemic affecting 500 million people. It is known to be associated with increased susceptibility to soft tissue infections (STI). Despite being a major public health burden, the literature relating the effects of DM and the presentation, severity and healing of STIs in general surgical patients remain limited. Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of all patients admitted with STI in a tertiary teaching hospital over a 12-month period. Patient demographics and surgical outcomes were collected and analyzed. Results: During the study period, 1059 patients were admitted for STIs, of which 936 (88%) required surgical intervention. Diabetic patients were presented with a higher body-mass index (BMI) (28 vs 26), larger abscess size (24 vs 14 cm²) and a longer length of stay (LOS)(4.4 days vs 2.9 days). They also underwent a higher proportion of wide debridement as well as application of negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) (42% vs 35%). More diabetic patients underwent subsequent re-operation within the same sitting (8 vs 4). There were no differences in re-admission rates within 30 days nor subsequent abscess formation in those followed for 6 months. Conclusion: The incidence of STIs among DM patients represents a significant disease burden; surgeons should consider intensive patient counseling and partnering with primary care providers in order to help reduce the incidence of future STI admissions based on lifestyle modification and glucose control.

Keywords: general surgery, emergency general surgery, acute care surgery, soft tissue infections, diabetes mellitus

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Authors: Reza Johari Fard, Najmeh Cheraghi, Parvin Ehtesham Zadeh, Parviz Asgari

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The aim of this study was to investigate and comparison of the effectiveness of schema mode therapy and emotionally focused couples therapy in attachment styles (secure, avoidant, and anxious) in couples with marital conflict in a quasiexperimental method in a pretest, posttest, and follow up design with a control group. The statistical population of the study included all the couples with marital conflict who visited the Mehrana counseling center in 2019 in Ahvaz, Iran 45 couples were selected by voluntary sampling method and randomly divided into two experimental groups and one control group (15 pairs in each group). The participants completed the Adult Attachment Scale (Hazan and Shaver). The experimental groups underwent schema mode therapy and emotionally focused couples therapy for 12 sessions, but the control group did not receive any intervention. The data were analyzed by the statistical analysis of repeated measures in SPSS-19 software. The results showed that both schema mode therapy and emotionally focused couples therapy are effective in increasing the secure attachment style and reducing avoidant and ambivalent attachment styles in couples with marital conflict. There was no significant difference between the schema mode therapy group and the emotionally focused couple's therapy group in attachment styles. Therefore, it is recommended that therapists and family counselors use these therapies along with other therapeutic interventions to increase secure attachment styles and reduce marital conflicts.

Keywords: schema mode therapy, emotional focused couple therapy, attachment styles, marital conflict

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Authors: Mohammed N. Al Kindi, Mazin Al Khabouri, Khalsa Al Lamki, Tommasso Pappuci, Giovani Romeo, Nadia Al Wardy

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Hereditary hearing loss is a heterogeneous group of complex disorders with an overall incidence of one in every five hundred newborns presented as syndromic and non-syndromic forms. Cadherin-related 23 (CDH23) is one of the listed deafness causative genes. CDH23 is found to be expressed in the stereocilia of hair cells and the retina photoreceptor cells. Defective CDH23 has been associated mostly with prelingual severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) in either syndromic (USH1D) or non-syndromic SNHL (DFNB12). An Omani family diagnosed clinically with severe-profound sensorineural hearing loss was genetically analysed by whole exome sequencing technique. A novel homozygous missense variant, c.A7451C (p.D2484A), in exon 53 of CDH23 was detected. One hundred and thirty control samples were analysed where all were negative for the detected variant. The variant was analysed in silico for pathogenicity verification using several mutation prediction software. The variant proved to be a pathogenic mutation and is reported for the first time in Oman and worldwide. It is concluded that in silico mutation prediction analysis might be used as a useful molecular diagnostics tool benefiting both genetic counseling and mutation verification. The aspartic acid 2484 alanine missense substitution might be the main disease-causing mutation that damages CDH23 function and could be used as a genetic hearing loss marker for this particular Omani family.

Keywords: Cdh23, d2484a, in silico, Oman

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Authors: Nilson Rogério Da Silva, Ingrid Casagrande, Isabela Chicarelli Amaro Santos

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Introduction: People with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may face difficulties in social inclusion in different segments of society, especially in entering and staying at work. In Brazil, although there is legislation that equates it to the condition of disability, the number of people at work is still low. The United Nations estimates that more than 80 percent of adults with autism are jobless. In Brazil, the scenario is even more nebulous because there is no control and tracking of accurate data on the number of individuals with autism and how many of these are inserted in the labor market. Pereira and Goyos (2019) found that there is practically no scientific production about people with ASD in the labor market. Objective: To describe the experience of people with ASD inserted in the work, facilities and difficulties found in the professional exercise and the strategies used to maintain the job. Methodology: The research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee. As inclusion criteria for participation, the professional should accept to participate voluntarily, be over 18 years of age and have had some experience with the labor market. As exclusion criteria, being under 18 years of age and having never worked in a work activity. Participated in the research of 04 people with a diagnosis of ASD, aged 22 to 32 years. For data collection, an interview script was used that addressed: 1) General characteristics of the participants; 2) Family support; 3) School process; 4) Insertion in the labor market; 5) Exercise of professional activity; (6) Future and Autism; 7) Possible coping strategies. For the analysis of the data obtained, the full transcription of the interviews was performed and the technique of Content Analysis was performed. Results: The participants reported problems in different aspects: In the school environment: difficulty in social relationships, and Bullying. Lack of adaptation to the school curriculum and the structure of the classroom; In the Faculty: difficulty in following the activities, ealizar group work, meeting deadlines and establishing networking; At work: little adaptation in the work environment, difficulty in establishing good professional bonds, difficulty in accepting changes in routine or operational processes, difficulty in understanding veiled social rules. Discussion: The lack of knowledge about what disability is and who the disabled person is leads to misconceptions and negatives regarding their ability to work and in this context, people with disabilities need to constantly prove that they are able to work, study and develop as a human person, which can be classified as ableism. The adaptations and the use of technologies to facilitate the performance of people with ASD, although guaranteed in national legislation, are not always available, highlighting the difficulties and prejudice. Final Considerations: The entry and permanence of people with ASD at work still constitute a challenge to be overcome, involving changes in society in general, in companies, families and government agencies.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder (ASD), work, disability, autism

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Authors: Nathaniel C. Villanueva, Ian K. H. Chun, Alyssa S. Fujiwara, Emily R. Leibovitch, Brennan E. Yamamoto, Loren G. Yamamoto

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Introduction: In previous studies of high school sports, over 15% of concussions were attributed to contact with the playing surface. While artificial turf fields are increasing in popularity due to lower maintenance costs, artificial turf has been associated with more ankle and knee injuries, with inconclusive data on concussions. In this study, natural grass and artificial football fields were compared in terms of deceleration on fall impact. Methods: Accelerometers were placed on the forehead, apex of the head, and right ear of a Century Body Opponent Bag (BOB) manikin. A Riddell HITS football helmet was secured onto the head of the manikin over the accelerometers. This manikin was dropped onto natural grass (n = 10) and artificial turf (n = 9) high school football fields. The manikin was dropped from a stationary position at a height of 60 cm onto its front, back, and left side. Each of these drops was conducted 10 times at the 40-yard line, 20-yard line, and endzone. The net deceleration on impact was calculated as a net vector from each of the three accelerometers’ x, y, and z vectors from the three different locations on the manikin’s head (9 vector measurements per drop). Results: Mean values for the multiple drops were calculated for each accelerometer and drop type for each field. All accelerometers in forward and backward falls and one accelerometer in side falls showed significantly greater impact force on synthetic turf compared to the natural grass surfaces. Conclusion: Impact force was higher on synthetic fields for all drop types for at least one of the accelerometer locations. These findings suggest that concussion risk might be higher for athletes playing on artificial turf fields.

Keywords: concussion, football, biomechanics, sports

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Authors: Hannan Al-Qanai, Haitham Mustafa, Rajeswaran Sivasankar

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Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC, Company), established in 2016 as a subsidiary to Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), is responsible for operating and managing the largest grassroots integrated complex for refining, petrochemicals manufacture businesses, and liquefied natural gas import facilities at Al-Zour, Kuwait. KIPIC and its Contractors/sub-contractors employ over 69,000 staff in its current projects at Al-Zour during peak construction activity. KIPIC holds a unique responsibility to the society, which includes all stakeholders, and demonstrates its social commitment in developing an integrated environment & social management system (ESMS) and ensuring sustainability. This paper mainly demonstrates the knowledge on corporate branding from a corporate social responsibility (CSR) perspective and presents the achievements and best practices of KIPIC in the field of CSR and the challenges faced in handling social issues. Moreover, the study is based on qualitative data abstracted from KIPIC Health, Safety, Security & Environment Management System (HSSE MS) procedures, audit reports, the outcome of counseling sessions, national and international laws and regulations, and International Guidelines on Environment and Social Management System (ESMS). KIPIC has committed to caring for the environmental concerns and acting on social as they do on profits and economic growth. The main findings of this paper are that the successful implementation and operationalization of CSR within an organization depends on a simple but stringent process with both top-down and bottom-up commitment.

Keywords: welfare, corporate social responsibility, social management, sustainability

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Authors: Beata Patuszynska

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Children are largely absent from Polish social discourse, a fact which is mirrored in urban planning processes. Their absence creates a vicious circle – an unfriendly urban space discourages children from going outside on their own, meaning adults do not see a need to make spaces more friendly for a group, not present. The pandemic and lockdown, with their closed schools and temporary ban on unaccompanied minors on the streets, have only reinforced this. The project – co-writing with children a book concerning their first steps into urban independence - aims at empowering children, enabling them to find their voice when it comes to urban space. The foundation for the book was data collected during research and workshops with children from Warsaw primary schools, aged 7-10 - the age they begin independent travel in the city. The project was carried out with the participation and involvement of children at each creative step. Children were (1) models: the narrator is an 7-year-old boy getting ready for urban independence. He shares his experience as well as the experience of his school friends and his 10-year-old sister, who already travels on her own. Children were (2) teachers: the book is based on authentic children’s stories and experience, along with the author’s findings from research undertaken with children. The material was extended by observations and conclusions made during the pandemic. Children were (3) reviewers: a series of draft chapters from the book underwent review by children during workshops performed in a school. The process demonstrated that all children experience similar pleasures and worries when it comes to interaction with urban space. Furthermore, they also have similar needs that need satisfying. In my article, I will discuss; (1) the advantages of creating together with children; (2) my conclusions on how to work with children in participatory processes; (3) research results: perceptions of urban space by children age 7-10, when they begin their independent travel in the city; the barriers to and pleasures derived from independent urban travel; the influence of the pandemic on children’s feelings and their behaviour in urban spaces.

Keywords: children, urban space, co-creation, participation, human rights

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Authors: Dina C. Castro, Rossana Boyd, Eugenia Papadaki

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Immigration within and across continents is currently a global reality. The number of people leaving their communities in search for a better life for them and their families has increased dramatically during the last twenty years. Therefore, young children of the 21st century around the World are growing up in diverse communities, exposed to many languages and cultures. One consequence of these migration movements is the increased linguistic diversity in school settings. Depending on the linguistic history and the status of languages in the communities (i.e., minority-majority; majority-majority) the instructional approaches will differ. This session will discuss how bilingualism is addressed in early education programs in both minority-majority and majority-majority language communities, analyzing experiences in three countries with very distinct societal and demographic characteristics: Peru (South America), the United States (North America), and Italy (European Union). The ultimate goal is to identify commonalities and differences across the three experiences that could lead to a discussion of bilingualism in early education from a global perspective. From Peru, we will discuss current national language and educational policies that have lead to the design and implementation of bilingual and intercultural education for children in indigenous communities. We will also discuss how those practices are being implemented in preschool programs, the progress made and challenges encountered. From the United States, we will discuss the early education of Spanish-English bilingual preschoolers, including the national policy environment, as well as variations in language of instruction approaches currently being used with these children. From Italy, we will describe early education practices in the Bilingual School of Monza, in northern Italy, a school that has 20 years promoting bilingualism and multilingualism in education. While the presentations from Peru and the United States will discuss bilingualism in a majority-minority language environment, this presentation will lead to a discussion on the opportunities and challenges of promoting bilingualism in a majority-majority language environment. It is evident that innovative models and policies are necessary to prevent inequality of opportunities for bilingual children beginning in their earliest years. The cross-cultural examination of bilingual education experiences for young children in three part of the World will allow us to learn from our success and challenges. The session will end with a discussion of the following question: To what extent are early care and education programs being effective in promoting positive development and learning among all children, including those from diverse language, ethnic and cultural backgrounds? We expect to identify, with participants to our session, a set of recommendations for policy and program development that could ensure access to high quality early education for all bilingual children.

Keywords: early education for bilingual children, global perspectives in early education, cross-cultural, language policies

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Authors: Ayşegül Çabuk, Mine Işıksal

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Mathematics is a sense-making activity so that it requires meaningful learning. Hence based on this idea, meaningful mathematical connections are necessary to learn mathematics. At that point, the major question has become that which educational methods can provide opportunities to provide mathematical connections and to understand mathematics. The amalgam of reasoning and proof can be the one of the methods that creates opportunities to learn mathematics in a meaningful way. However, even if reasoning and proof should be included from prekindergarten to grade 12, studies in literature generally include secondary school students and pre-service mathematics teachers. With the light of the idea that the amalgam of reasoning and proof has significant effect on middle school students' mathematical learning, this study aims to investigate middle grade students' tendencies while reasoning the correctness of statements related to numbers. The sample included 272 middle grade students, specifically 69 of them were sixth grade students (25.4%), 101 of them were seventh grade students (37.1%) and 102 of them were eighth grade students (37.5%). Data was gathered through an achievement test including 2 essay types of problems about algebra. The answers of two items were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively in terms of students' solutions strategies while reasoning the correctness of the statements. Similar on the findings in the literature, most of the students, in all grade levels, used numerical examples to judge the statements. Moreover the results also showed that the majority of these students appear to believe that providing one or more selected examples is sufficient to show the correctness of the statement. Hence based on the findings of the study, even students in earlier ages have proving and reasoning abilities their reasoning's generally based on the empirical evidences. Therefore, it is suggested that examples and example-based reasoning can be a fundamental role on to generate systematical reasoning and proof insight in earlier ages.

Keywords: reasoning, mathematics learning, middle grade students

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Authors: Veysel Çelik, Aynur Aker, Ebru Güç

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Developments in information and communication technologies have increased both the speed of producing information and the speed of accessing new information. Accordingly, the daily lives of individuals have started to change. New concepts such as e-mail, e-government, e-school, e-signature have emerged. For this reason, prospective teachers who will be future teachers or school administrators are expected to have a high awareness of digital data security. The aim of this study is to reveal the effect of the digital storytelling technique on the data security awareness of pre-service teachers of computer and instructional technology education departments. For this purpose, participants were selected based on the principle of volunteering among third-grade students studying at the Computer and Instructional Technologies Department of the Faculty of Education at Siirt University. In the research, the pretest/posttest half experimental research model, one of the experimental research models, was used. In this framework, a 6-week lesson plan on digital data security awareness was prepared in accordance with the digital narration technique. Students in the experimental group formed groups of 3-6 people among themselves. The groups were asked to prepare short videos or animations for digital data security awareness. The completed videos were watched and evaluated together with prospective teachers during the evaluation process, which lasted approximately 2 hours. In the research, both quantitative and qualitative data collection tools were used by using the digital data security awareness scale and the semi-structured interview form consisting of open-ended questions developed by the researchers. According to the data obtained, it was seen that the digital storytelling technique was effective in creating data security awareness and creating permanent behavior changes for computer and instructional technology students.

Keywords: digital storytelling, self-regulation, digital data security, teacher candidates, self-efficacy

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Authors: Jawaher A. Alsultan, Allen Feldman

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With the rapid switch to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, science teachers were suddenly required to teach their classes online. This breakneck shift to eLearning raised the question of how teacher educators could support science teachers who wanted to use reform-based methods of instruction while using virtual technologies. In this retrospective self-study, we, two science teacher educators, examined our practice as we worked with science teachers to implement inquiry, discussion, and argumentation [IDA] through eLearning. Ten high school science teachers from a large school district in the southeastern US participated virtually in the COVID-19 Community of Practice [COVID-19 CoP]. The CoP met six times from the end of April through May 2020 via Zoom. Its structure was based on a model of action research called enhanced normal practice [ENP], which includes exchanging stories, trying out ideas, and systematic inquiry. Data sources included teacher educators' meeting notes and reflective conversations, audio recordings of the CoP meetings, teachers' products, and post-interviews of the teachers. Findings included a new understanding of the role of existing relationships, shared goals, and similarities in the participants' situations, which helped build trust in the CoP, and the effects of our paying attention to the science teachers’ needs led to a well-functioning CoP. In addition, we became aware of the gaps in our knowledge of how the teachers already used apps in their practice, which they then shared with all of us about how they could be used for online teaching using IDA. We also identified the need to pay attention to feelings about tensions between the teachers and us around the expectations for final products and the project's primary goals. We found that if we are to establish relationships between us as facilitators and teachers that are honest, fair, and kind, we must express those feelings within the collective, dialogical processes that can lead to learning by all members of the CoP, whether virtual or face-to-face.

Keywords: community of practice, facilitators, self-study, action research

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Authors: Azadeh Mottaghi, Zeynab Shakeri

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Background: Eating disorders (ED) are group of psychological disorders that significantly impair physical health and psychosocial function. EDconsists wide range of morbidity such as loss of eating control, binge eating disorder(BED), night eating syndrome (NES), and bulimia nervosa. Eating behavior is a wide range term that includes food choices, eating patterns, eating problems. In this study, current knowledge will be discussed aboutcomparison of eating disorders and eating behaviors in morbid obese women with and without type 2 diabetes. Methods: 231 womenwith morbid obesity were included in the study.Loss of eating control, Binge eating disorder and Bulimia nervosa, Night eating syndrome, and eating behaviors and psychosocial factorswere assessed. SPSS version 20 was used for statistical analysis. A p-value of <0.05 was considered significant. Results: There was a significant difference between women with and without diabetes in case of binge eating disorder (76.3% vs. 47.3%, p=0.001). Women with the least Interpersonal support evaluation list (ISEL) scores had a higher risk of eating disorders, and it is more common among diabetics (29.31% vs. 30.45%, p= 0.050). There was no significant difference between depression level and BDI score among women with or without diabetes. Although 38.5% (n=56) of women with diabetes and 50% (n=71) of women without diabetes had minimal depression. The logistic regression model has shown that women without diabetes had lower odds of exhibiting BED (OR=0.28, 95% CI 0.142-0.552).Women with and without diabetes with high school degree (OR=5.54, 95% CI 2.46-9.45, P= 0.0001 & OR=6.52, 95% CI 3.15-10.56, respectively) and moderate depression level (OR=2.03, 95% CI 0.98-3.95 & OR=3.12, 95% CI 2.12-4.56, P= 0.0001) had higher odds of BED. Conclusion: The result of the present study shows that the odds of BED was lower in non-diabetic women with morbid obesity. Women with morbid obesity who had high school degree and moderate depression level had more odds for BED.

Keywords: eating disorders binge eating disorder, night eating syndrome, bulimia nervosa, morbid obesity

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Authors: Marlon P. Perez

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The study intended to determine the level of occupational stress that was experienced by faculty members of private and public business schools in Batangas City with the end in view of proposing organizational development interventions in managing occupational stressors. Stressors such as factors intrinsic to the job, role in the organization, relationships at work, career development and organizational structure and climate were used as determinants of occupational stress level. Descriptive method of research was used as its research design. There were only 64 full-time faculty members coming from private and public business schools in Batangas City – University of Batangas, Lyceum of the Philippines University-Batangas, Golden Gate Colleges, Batangas State University and Colegio ng Lungsod ng Batangas. Survey questionnaire was used as data gathering instrument. It was found out that all occupational stressors were assessed stressful when grouped according to its classification of tertiary schools while response of subject respondents differs on their assessment of occupational stressors. Age variable has become significantly related to respondents’ assessments on factors intrinsic to the job and career development; however, it was not significantly related to role in the organization, relationships at work and organizational structure and climate. On the other hand, gender, marital status, highest educational attainment, employment status, length of service, area of specialization and classification of tertiary school were revealed to be not significantly related to all occupational stressors. Various organizational development interventions have been proposed to manage the occupational stressors that are experienced by business faculty members in the institution.

Keywords: occupational stress, business school, organizational development, intervention, stressors, faculty members, assessment, manage

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Authors: Mohammed Belalia Douma

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Interactive learning is considered as the most effective strategy of learning, it is an educational philosophy based on the learner's contribution and involvement mainly in classroom and how he interacts toward his small society “classroom”, and the level of his collaboration into challenge, discovering, games, participation, all these can be provided through the interactive learning, which aims to activate the learner's role in the operation of learning, which focuses on research and experimentation, and the learner's self-reliance in obtaining information, acquiring skills, and forming values and attitudes. Whereas not based on memorization only, but rather on developing thinking and the ability to solve problems, on teamwork and collaborative learning. With the exchange or roles - teacher to student- , when the student will be more active and performing operations more than the student under the interactive learning method; we might face a several issues dealing with class controlling management, noise, and stability of learning… etc. This research paper is observing the application of the interactive learning on reality “classroom” and answers several assumptions and analyzes the issues coming up of these strategies mainly: noise, class control…etc The research sample was about 150 student of the 3rd year primary school in “Chlef” district, Algeria, level: beginners in the range of age 08 to 10 years old . We provided a questionnaire of confidential fifteen questions and also analyzing the attitudes of learners during three months. it have witnessed as teachers a variety of strategies dealing with applying the interactive learning but with a different issues; time management, noise, uncontrolled classes, overcrowded classes. Finally, it summed up that although the active education is an inevitably effective method of teaching, however, there are drawbacks to this, in addition to the fact that not all theoretical strategies can be applied and we conclude with solutions of this case study.

Keywords: interactive learning, student, learners, strategies.

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Authors: Ha T. T. Ly, Truc B. Truc, Hai N. Truong, Mai P. T. Nguyen, Ngoc D. Ngo, Khanh V. Tran, Hai T. Le

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Beta thalassemia is one of the most common inherited blood disorders, which is characterized by decreased or absent in beta globin expression. Patients with Beta thalassemia whose anemia is not so severe as to necessitate transfusions are said to have thalassemia intermedia. Objective: The goal of this study is prenatal diagnosis for pregnancy woman with Beta thalassemia intermedia and her husband with Beta thalassemia carrier at high risk of Beta thalassemia major in Northern of Vietnam. Material and method: The family has a 6 years-old compound heterozygous thalassemia major for CD71/72(+A) and Hbb:c. -78A>G/nt-28(A>G) male child. The father was heterozygous for CD71/72(+A) mutation which is Beta plus type and the mother was compound heterozygosity of two different variants, namely, Hbb: c. -78A>G/nt-28(A>G) and CD26(A-G) HbE. Prenatal Beta thalassemia mutation detection in fetal DNA was carried out using multiplex Amplification-refractory mutation system ARMS-PCR and confirmed by direct Sanger-sequencing Hbb gene. Prenatal diagnoses were perfomed by amniotic fluid sampling from pregnant woman in the 16-18th week of pregnancy after the genotypes of parents of the probands were identified. Result: When amniotic fluid sample was analyzed for Beta globin gene (Hbb), we found that the genotype is heterozygous for CD71/72(+A) and CD26(A-G) HbE. This genotype is different from the 1st child of this family. Conclusion: Prenatal diagnosis helps the parents to know the genotype and the thalassemia status of the fetus, so they can have early decision on their pregnancy. Genetic diagnosis provided a useful method in diagnosis for familial members in pedigree, genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis.

Keywords: beta thalassemia intermedia, Hbb gene, pedigree, prenatal diagnosis

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Authors: Rozi Laskaraki, Argyris Karapetsas, Aikaterini Karapetsa

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This paper is focused on the efficacy of a rehabilitation program based on musical activities, implied to a group of school-aged dyslexic children. Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of auditory training including musical exercises in children with developmental dyslexia (DD). Participants and Methods: 45 third-, and fourth-grade students with DD and a matched control group (n=45) were involved in this study. In the beginning, students participated in a clinical assessment, including both electrophysiological (i.e., event related potentials (ERPs) esp.P300 waveform) and neuropsychological tests, being conducted in Laboratory of Neuropsychology, at University of Thessaly, in Volos, Greece. Initial assessment’s results confirmed statistically significant lower performance for children with DD, compared to that of the typical readers. After clinical assessment, a subgroup of children with dyslexia was submitted to a music auditory training program, conducted in 45-minute training sessions, once a week, for twenty weeks. The program included structured and digitized musical activities involving pitch, rhythm, melody and tempo perception and discrimination as well as auditory sequencing. After the intervention period, children underwent a new recording of ERPs. Results: The electrophysiological results revealed that children had similar P300 latency values to that of the controls, after the remediation program; thus children overcame their deficits. Conclusion: The outcomes of the current study suggest that ERPs is a valid clinical tool in neuropsychological assessment settings and dyslexia can be ameliorated through music auditory training.

Keywords: dyslexia, event related potentials, learning disabilities, music, rehabilitation

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Authors: Neha Gupta, Sonika Verma, Seema Puri, Nikhil Tandon, Narendra K. Arora

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The concurrent increasing prevalence of underweight and overweight/obesity among children with changing lifestyle and the rapid transitioning society has necessitated the need for a unifying/multi-level approach to understand the determinants of the problem. The present community-based cross-sectional research study was conducted to assess the associations between lifestyle behavior and food environment of the child at household, neighborhood, and school with the BMI of children (6-12 year old) (n=612) residing in three rural clusters of Palwal district, Haryana. The study used innovative and robust methods for assessing the lifestyle and various components of food environment in the study. The three rural clusters selected for the study were located at three different locations according to their access to highways in the SOMAARTH surveillance site. These clusters were significantly different from each other in terms of their socio-demographic and socio-economic profile, living conditions, environmental hygiene, health seeking behavior and retail density. Despite of being different, the quality of living conditions and environmental hygiene was poor across three clusters. The children had higher intakes of dietary energy and sugars; one-fifth share of the energy being derived from unhealthy foods, engagement in high levels of physical activity and significantly different food environment at home, neighborhood and school level. However, despite having a high energy intake, 22.5% of the recruited children were thin/severe thin, and 3% were overweight/obese as per their BMI-for-age categories. The analysis was done using multi-variate logistic regression at three-tier hierarchy including individual, household and community level. The factors significantly explained the variability in governing the risk of getting thin/severe thin among children in rural area (p-value: 0.0001; Adjusted R2: 0.156) included age (>10years) (OR: 2.1; 95% CI: 1.0-4.4), the interaction between minority category and poor SES of the household (OR: 4.4; 95% CI: 1.6-12.1), availability of sweets (OR: 0.9; 95% CI: 0.8-0.99) and cereals (OR: 0.9; 95% CI: 0.8-1.0) in the household and poor street condition (proxy indicator of the hygiene and cleanliness in the neighborhood) (OR: 0.3; 95% CI: 0.1-1.1). The homogeneity of other factors at neighborhood and school level food environment diluted the heterogeneity in the lifestyles and home environment of the recruited children and their households. However, it is evident that when various individual factors interplay at multiple levels amplifies the risk of undernutrition in a rural community. Conclusion: These rural areas in Haryana are undergoing developmental, economic and societal transition. In correspondence, no improvements in the nutritional status of children have happened. Easy access to the unhealthy foods has become a paradox.

Keywords: transition, food environment, lifestyle, undernutrition, overnutrition

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Authors: Caiwei Zhu, Remke Klapwijk

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Spatial thinking, a way of thinking based on the understanding and reasoning of spatial concepts and representations, is embedded in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) learning. Aside from many studies that successfully used targeted training to improve students’ spatial thinking skills, few have closely examined how spatial thinking can be trained in classroom settings. Design and technology education, which receives increasing attention towards its integration into formal curriculums, inherently encompasses a wide range of spatial activities, such as constructing mental representations of design ideas, mentally transforming objects and materials to form designs, visually communicating design plans through annotated drawings, and creating 2D and 3D design artifacts. Among different design topics, biomimicry offers a unique avenue for students to recognize and analyze the shapes and structures in nature. By mapping the forms of plants and animals onto functions, students gain inspiration to solve human design challenges. This study is one of the first to highlight opportunities for training spatial thinking in a biomimicry design project for primary school students. Embracing methodological principles of educational design-based research, this case study is conducted along with iterations in the design of the intervention and collaboration with teachers. Data are harvested from small groups of 10- to 12-year-olds at an international school in the Netherlands. Classroom videos, semi-structured interviews with students, design drawings and artifacts, formative assessment, and the pre- and post-intervention spatial test triangulate evidence for students' spatial thinking. In addition to contributing to a theory of integrating spatial thinking in the primary curriculum, mechanisms underlying such improvement in spatial thinking are explored and discussed.

Keywords: biomimicry, design and technology education, primary education, spatial thinking

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Authors: Mathew Hoyes

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This paper is a collation of data, studies and anecdotes on the way education is funded in New Zealand, the ideals which have lead to this method, as well as the issues it has created when combined with other factors and government policy on education over the last two decades. The purpose of this paper is to provide a historical perspective of this situation and to contribute to the global discussion of how to fund schools in an equitable manner, given that the world has become increasingly more globalised and the perception of widening gaps between the rich and the poor in the western world.

Keywords: education funding equity, egalitarianism, socio-economic, New Zealand colonialism

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Authors: Marissa C. Esperal

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This university-based research project attempted to determine the relevance and effectiveness of the technology-based psychological services extended to selected adults experiencing symptoms of mild anxiety and depression. Ninety-seven participants who voluntarily availed the free online psychological services advertised through a Facebook page (Techno-Psych Serv) signed up for the Informed Consent and Psychological Services Contract Agreement form. These clients availed a maximum of 5 online sessions devoted to online assessment, online counseling and brief therapy sessions using the Google Meet App. Participants who, upon evaluation, were found to still be needing extended psychological and other services were referred to other mental health services institutions. Post-evaluations were conducted using Google Forms upon termination. Findings showed that with a mean of 4.87 (n=97), it was noted that the services provided through the online platform were effective. However, it was noted that the majority of those who availed the services were professionals and skilled workers, thus defeating the objective of extending free psychological services to the marginalized group. It was concluded that offering free technology-based psychological services, though proven effective, is found to be less relevant if the intention is to reach out to the less fortunate and marginalized group. It was further concluded that there is still a need for psychoeducation and mental health promotion among the marginalized sectors. It was recommended that if mental health services are extended to the community of marginalized group, providing physical services are still a better option.

Keywords: technology-based psychological services, adults, mild anxiety, depression

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