Enrichment Program Research Articles

Attitudes of high school mathematics teachers in Jeddah towards teaching developed mathematics curricula: اتجاهات معلمي الرياضيات للمرحلة الثانوية بمدينة جدة نحو تدريس مناهج الرياضيات المطورة

This study aimed to identify the attitudes of mathematics teachers at high school towards teaching developed mathematics curricula in Jeddah through identifying their attitudes towards: (nature- importance- enjoyment- courses and training programs for developed mathematics curricula as well as the suitability of the developed mathematics curricula with the capabilities of the student). It also aimed to identify the extent of having different attitudes among high school mathematics teachers towards teaching developed mathematics curricula according to the variables (type of qualification- years of experience) and the interaction between the study variables. The study followed the descriptive survey approach and was conducted on (174) mathematics teachers at high schools of the Jeddah City Education Department. The study reached a set of results, the most important of which are: - Attitudes of high school mathematics teachers towards (the nature of developed mathematics curricula- the importance of developed mathematics curricula- the enjoyment of teaching developed mathematics curricula- training courses and programs- the suitability of the developed mathematics curriculum with the student's abilities) came to a high level. - There were no statistically significant differences in the study sample’s responses about the attitudes of mathematics teachers at high schools towards teaching mathematics curricula developed according to the variables (academic qualification- years of experience). Based on the study findings, the researcher recommended the following: the need to pay more attention to the training in the new mathematics curricula for mathematics teachers; working on providing all possible means to develop training and its methods because of its positive impact on teachers' attitudes towards curricula; developing teachers’ positive attitudes towards improved mathematics curricula by setting up enrichment programs to help mathematics teachers deal with the improved mathematics curriculum.

Making an impression: What do students who attended an informal evolution enrichment program in the sixth‐grade recall from the experience 3 years later?

AbstractInformal learning environments such as Natural History Museums can introduce visitors to a variety of topics in evolution by providing accessible representations of concepts like geological time, evolutionary mechanisms, biological diversity, geological time, and fossil dating. Our study examined sixth‐grade students' conceptualization of evolutionary ideas following four extracurricular, evolution‐themed “Science Days” at Nature Campus—an informal learning environment that employs an extensive combination of resources, including fossils, mounted specimens, and labs, as well as zoological and botanical gardens. The purpose of this study was to identify changes in the students' personal constructs over time, in order to determine which aspects of what they had learned during the Science Days had been retained. I, therefore, conducted two sets of interviews, which employed Kelly's Repertory Grid technique to elicit “personal constructs” representing these students' perceptions of evolution and the concepts and ideas associated with it. The first round of interviews was held immediately after the program's conclusion, and the second was conducted 3 years later (ninth‐grade). I then compared the results of the two sets of interviews. Our results showed that multiple elements of the Nature Campus learning experience were retained by the students, emphasizing the contribution of its characteristics as an authentic learning environment that uses visualization, tactile, physical examples, and interactive, inquiry‐based activities to promote meaningful learning. They also showed changes in the prominence and complexity of certain constructs that reflect the nature of the relationship between what the students learned in the informal environment of the Nature Campus and what they have since been taught (or not been taught) in the formal environment of their school.

Can brief interventions and enrichment programmes improve medical students' attitudes towards careers in psychiatry?

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Persiapan Pembelajaran Dan Teknologi Untuk Tahun Ajaran Baru Di Era Pandemi Pada Smpit Al Inayah

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the learning process from face to face to online. Based on IASP 2020, the components of the learning process and the sub-components of learning quality require an active learning process, an assessment of processes and outcomes as well as a remedial and/or enrichment program. Things that need to be prepared in the online learning process in accordance with the quality of learning desired by IASP 2020 and supporting technologies that can be used are video conferencing, Learning Management System (LMS) and Gamification. The results of data collection using questionnaires or questionnaires on participant responses showed positive results where teachers gained knowledge and skills in accordance with the objectives of the activity, namely 80% strongly agreed and 20% agreed

Evaluation of the Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment (FIE) program among Israeli-Arab students

ABSTRACT The Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment (FIE) Program is a process-oriented program based on Structural Cognitive Modifiability and Mediated Learning Experience (SCM-MLE) theory. It is aimed at promoting learning how to learn, development of deficient cognitive functions, problem-solving strategies and metacognitive abilities. The FIE program was developed mainly for students coming from low socioeconomic backgrounds with low academic achievements. The FIE was implemented for one year in three Grade 4 classes (n = 73) in an Israeli-Arab school. Two comparison classes from the same school in Grade 4 (n = 58) learned the regular content-oriented curriculum for the same period. All students were administered the Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices, Numerical Progression Test, and the B8-B12 Set Variation measures before the intervention. Students’ grades in English, Arabic, and Mathematics were recorded before and after the intervention. The findings showed that the students receiving the FIE significantly improved their grades from pre- to post-intervention compared with the comparison group, and that students who started the year with lower cognitive scores benefited from the program more than the students with higher scores. The findings indicating a far-transfer effects are discussed in relation to the SCM-MLE theory and previous research.

Executive function capacity links future thinking and exercise intent

Objective Environmental barriers limit exercise in adolescents, but the contribution of cognitive barriers are not as well characterized. Previous findings suggest future thinking may predict exercise intent, which has been linked to health and actual exercise. However, these models may be incomplete as they do not systematically incorporate potential cognitive contributions (e.g., executive function capacity) to exercise intent. This study investigated the possible mediating role of executive function capacity in the relation between future thinking and exercise intent. Methods Data for the mediation models was collected from 101 adolescents aged 11–17 (M = 13.09) in a summer enrichment program. Adolescent participants completed self-report measures including Consideration of Future Consequences Scale (CFCS), Intent to Exercise, and Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, Second Edition (BRIEF-2). Results This study found that self-reported executive function capacity mediated the relation between future thinking and exercise intent even when controlling for age and subjective socioeconomic status. Conclusions While some exercise interventions aim to increase future thinking, this study provides support for additional research into how interventions may benefit from targeting executive function capacity directly to increase exercise intent and actual exercise.

دوافع تعرض الطلبة للبرامج التعليمية في القنوات التلفزيونية( )فضائية العراق التربوية انموذجاً(

The educational function of television is one of the basic functions in light of the technical development that included the specialized satellite channels in all its fields, including the educational field, as its role became parallel to the role of educational institutions. These studies are among the descriptive studies in terms of the type of study methodology that describes the phenomenon, interprets its and extract the results and relationships between the variables. The study sample was multistage (random and intentional) included the students of the sixth academic and literary preparatory stage in the city of Baghdad. The study problem was summarized by the following main question: ( What are the motives for the exposure of the students of Baghdad to the Iraqi educational channels ? What is the extent of the gratifications that have been achieved as a result of this exposure?). Leading to the secondary questions that branched from it, the most important of which are: - What are the habits and patterns of students' follow-up and educational programs in the Iraqi educational satellite channel? - What are the motives for students' exposure to educational lessons in the Iraqi educational satellite channel? - The study reached several results that can be summarized as follows: - The high degree of exposure of the student population to the Iraqi educational satellite programs, especially for the students of the completed classes, thus achieving the result of the assumption (that the audience of the recipients is an active audience and its use of the media is a deliberate use to achieve a certain benefit). - The results showed that the program plans included the preparation and broadcast of enrichment programs to address various issues and activities of interest to the student group, such as a targeted audience from the satellite channel? The results indicated the high level of utilitarian motivations at the level of ritual motives of the study sample while they were following the educational channels of Iraq, including the adoption of the interesting method of providing educational lessons, as the extent of follow-up increased exponentially with a high degree of benefit from the contents of these programs.

Research at a Distance: Replicating Semantic Differentiation Effects Using Remote Data Collection With Children Participants.

Remote data collection procedures can strengthen developmental science by addressing current limitations to in-person data collection and helping recruit more diverse and larger samples of participants. Thus, remote data collection opens an opportunity for more equitable and more replicable developmental science. However, it remains an open question whether remote data collection procedures with children participants produce results comparable to those obtained using in-person data collection. This knowledge is critical to integrate results across studies using different data collection procedures. We developed novel web-based versions of two tasks that have been used in prior work with 4-6-year-old children and recruited children who were participating in a virtual enrichment program. We report the first successful remote replication of two key experimental effects that speak to the emergence of structured semantic representations (N = 52) and their role in inferential reasoning (N = 40). We discuss the implications of these findings for using remote data collection with children participants, for maintaining research collaborations with community settings, and for strengthening methodological practices in developmental science.

The Effect of Class-Wide Enrichment Applied to Gifted and Normal Children in Early Childhood

The purpose of the study was two-fold: The first purpose of the research was to conduct the "adaptation study of Brigance K & 1 screen II to Turkish," while the second was to “investigate the effect of the enrichment program applied to gifted children and their classmates in the 1st grade of primary education on their performance in multiple intelligence fields". The research was conducted in the screening model and experimental design. The study group consisted of 477 primary schools first grade students (6 years old). Data collection tools are as follows, Brigance K & 1 Screen II scale, Goodenough-Harris draw-a-person test, Teele Multiple Intelligence Preference Inventory (TIMI), Enrichment Program Pre-test -Post-test, and "Project Evaluation Criteria List." After the screening process, a class-wide enrichment program based on multiple intelligence was applied to gifted and talented children and their classmates. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze the data at hand. The findings of the study revealed that Brigance K & 1 Screen II scale was effective in determining gifted children attending the first grade of primary school with a rough evaluation. The enrichment program results were different from the existing school program in favor of enrichment. The class-wide enrichment program has improved all children, with a more potential for gifted children. As a part of the program, a total of 163 students were given project assignments. At the end of the evaluation, it was determined that the students improved in multiple intelligence areas.

The effectiveness of relationship enrichment program training in reducing latent communication aggression and increasing relationship maintenance strategies

The effectiveness of relationship enrichment program training in reducing latent communication aggression and increasing relationship maintenance strategies

Determinants of Black families’ access to a community‐based STEM program: A latent class analysis

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to uncover determinants of Black families’ access to STEM enrichment, specifically focusing on I AM STEM—a community‐based program. Our research examined the association between class membership and how families learned about I AM STEM, to provide a more nuanced understanding about how family dynamics influence Black parents’ access to educational enrichment programs for their children. This study draws from Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological systems theory (EST) and Coleman's (1988) definition of social capital to explore the ways in which Black families across socioeconomic backgrounds access and use the community‐based STEM program. A latent class analysis was employed to identify determinants based on specific predictors (e.g., parents’ highest level of education, free/reduced lunch status, and grade level of registered children). The latent class model extracted three distinct classes. Our findings revealed that all parents were likely to enroll their elementary‐aged children, but the likelihood of enrolling middle or high school children increased with parents who were college educated. This study also uncovered that regardless of income or neighborhood lines, Black parents of all social classes, and family dynamics learned about the program through information sharing. Furthermore, the program's location increased access to informal STEM learning opportunities for parents who experienced poverty, while the program's curriculum attracted middle‐class Black families who were not residents of that particular community. Collectively, I AM STEM promoted educational and economic inclusion, which broadened participation in STEM programming.

Cultivating Graduate STEM Pathways: How Alliance-Based STEM Enrichment Programs Broker Opportunity for Students of Color

To understand how higher education institutionsbrokergraduate opportunities for Students of Color (SOCs) in STEM, we employ a single case study of a Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) alliance. Drawing primarily from student interviews and informed bySmall’s (2006)organizational brokerage theory, our findings illuminate how 1) alliance-based STEM enrichment programs (SEPs) bridge social capitalviainterorganizational networks and 2) how SEP instability creates barriers to building the trust that is central to the brokerage process. We conclude with recommendations for future research and practice.

In search of the optimal enrichment program for zoo‐housed animals

Zoo-housed animals are regularly exposed to new forms of environmental enrichment to make their lives less predictable. However, providing new enrichment can have unpredictable effects. We evaluated the effectiveness of two enrichment regimes: (1) providing only new enrichments - "Novelty" and (2) only familiar enrichments - "Familiar."In this case study, enrichment efficacy was assessed using activity budget analysis and novel object tests. The subjects were two focal animals: the golden jackal (Canis aureus) and the European badger (Meles meles). Our results suggest that both assessment methods provided similar conclusions about the animal's welfare. The "Familiar" treatment significantly increased activity and decreased abnormal behavior in the jackal's activity budget, who avoided novel objects in her baseline novel object test. The Novelty treatment resulted in the growth of time the jackal spent in the moat instead of the main enclosure, and an increase in avoidance and abnormal behaviors. In contrast, the badger demonstrated a high intensity of exploratory behavior in the baseline novel object test, and both regimes led to an increase in the activity budget of the badger. We propose that a stable, but complex enrichment can be an effective robust tool to increase animal welfare, but its efficacy depends on the novelty preference of individual animals. A novel object test can be a rapid tool to assess individual animals' novelty preferences, and this information may help to choose optimal enrichment regimes for individual animals.

LSAMP-NICE: Expanding International STEM Research for Underrepresented Minorities

Background: The global challenges of climate change, disease and hunger exceed national borders as do possibilities of sustained life, exploration and economic development in outer space. Both help to underscore the need for sustained international STEM research to leverage the talent embedded in different countries and in diverse groups within countries. This study focuses on the United States National Science Foundation provision of funds to its Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) Program to create a National Center of Excellence LSAMP-NICE for the establishment of international STEM Research Partnerships with a particular emphasis on the integration of international collaborative research for underrepresented minority STEM faculty, students and graduates. The study focuses on the diffusion of this Center’s services to the LSAMP Community, a group of 56 LSAMP funded STEM enrichment programs located across the United States. We found that LSAMP-NICE used mass media (a website and two advertorials in a national journal) and an annual national meeting as its major diffusion strategies during its first two years. Forty-two (42) programs responded to the questionnaire. The majority of the respondents (71.4%) had not used the website; 88.1% had not read the Advertorial in Science Magazine; and 78.6% did not attend the national 2019 LSAMP-NICE Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. Our study suggests a need for additional diffusion techniques to reach the intended audience. Some respondent suggestions for diffusion include participation by LSAMP-NICE representatives at LSAMP Regional Conferences and Symposia, visits by LSAMP-NICE staff to LSAMP programs, forging relationships with higher education institutions abroad so LSAMP students can obtain summer or longer-term research experiences and providing technical assistance on applying for international travel funds.

What the Pandemic Experience Taught Us About STEM Higher Education-School Partnerships.

The move to virtual schooling and other measures to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection dramatically changed the educational experience for grades K-12 populations during the years 2020 and 2021. STEM teaching and learning, and community partnerships focused on STEM education, were not exempt from the changes. Universities and other community partners had to adapt their STEM partnership programming to address new needs and assist students, teachers, families, and schools throughout periods of at-home learning and the re-reintroduction of in-person classes. Some of the changes included developing new programs, providing health-related guidance to school leaders, and converting student-focused programs to virtual formats. Through these experiences, new approaches emerged and lessons were learned that can be applied to partnership activities during normal times. These lessons included recognizing the importance of addressing inequities in students' access to technology; development of strategies to redesign enrichment programs and classroom instruction for effective online delivery; and identifying and adapting to the range of technologies available to support virtual teaching in differing schools. The increased familiarity by all partners with virtual formats has opened the door to greater participation by students in STEM enrichment programs, online partnerships with STEM professionals and mentoring opportunities.

High School Students' Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perspectives from Health Sciences and Technology Academy Participants.

This paper examines the perspectives of Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA) participants as they navigate through their West Virginia (WV) high school learning environments (i.e., in-person, blended/hybrid, complete virtual) during the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-19 (COVID-19) pandemic. In March of 2020, the participants in this out-of-school-time (OST) academic enrichment program for exceptionally driven, yet underprivileged, at-risk students, with over 70% living in rural areas, started receiving remote learning instruction through learning management systems or via paper packets. In August of 2020, school systems provided parents and caregivers alternative learning environments for their student(s). In order to understand the learning experiences of HSTA students during these unprecedented times, HSTA released the 2020 Learning Outcomes Survey to participants in December of 2020. We performed chi-square test of independence to test the relationship between participants' learning environments, their satisfaction with the education they were receiving, their ability to keep up with their school-work, teacher availability to help when needed and teacher feedback supporting them in their learning environment. The results show significant differences between the learning environments and keeping up with school-work as well as teacher feedback supporting them in their learning; however, Phi and Cramer's V tests for effect size show weak correlations. This study provides a small glimpse into HSTA students' learning experiences as they attempted to continue to learn in their regular school environment during the COVID-19 pandemic while in HSTA.

Work Integrated Learning Online Enrichment Intervention Programme for Student Teachers

The study is based on research conducted on work-integrated learning (WIL), also known as teaching practice during the online enrichment and intervention programme for final-year student teachers at a tertiary institution in Johannesburg. This programme was conducted from 2016 and modified in 2020 to enhance and improve the History methodology student teachers’ Pedagogic Knowledge and Pedagogic Content Knowledge (PCK), during the Corona virus pandemic using different online tools. Former students of the institution who are now teachers, school learners and a psychologist participated in the process of enhancing the student-teachers’ WIL. The purpose of the study was to explore the effectiveness of the online enrichment intervention programme in providing History student teachers with necessary teaching skills and to ensure readiness for WIL during the Covid -19 period. The main research question was: “To what extent can the online enrichment intervention programmes for student-teachers improve and enhance teaching practice before and during WIL in the context of covid-19?” Qualitative research methods of observation, interviews and document analysis were used with a sample of 90 Post-Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) and 4th year Bachelor of Education (BEd) students. The findings indicated that the online enrichment intervention programme improved student-teachers’ confidence, emotional readiness before and during WIL and the unfavourable circumstances in their classrooms. Student-teachers reported better understanding of the need for proactive planning for any circumstance or situation. Despite the constraints imposed by the pandemic, they observed changes in their conceptualisation of teaching, improvement in their interaction with learners, in classroom management, in their ability to implement different teaching strategies, resources and assessment tasks.

Toward Equity: Understanding the Impact of Environmental Stressors on Neural–Immune Interactions During Childhood Development

Around 60% of children and youth in the United States are exposed to violence, crime, or abuse in their communities, either directly or indirectly ( 1 Finkelhor D. Turner H. Ormrod R. Hamby S.L. Violence, abuse, and crime exposure in a national sample of children and youth. Pediatrics. 2009; 124: 1411-1423 Crossref PubMed Scopus (655) Google Scholar ). In urban areas, the prevalence jumps to 96%, with significantly increased likelihood for Latinx and African American or Black youth compared with White youth ( 2 Zimmerman G.M. Messner S.F. Individual, family background, and contextual explanations of racial and ethnic disparities in youths’ exposure to violence. Am J Public Health. 2013; 103: 435-442 Crossref PubMed Scopus (98) Google Scholar ). In the cult TV show The Wire, drug kingpin Marlo Stanfield exposes countless youth to various forms of violence, while local police, educators, and politicians fail to provide consistent support to definitively end the cycle. While a fictional portrayal, this depiction provides a fair representation of the rife exposure to violence faced by America’s urban youth and the lack of community support infrastructure. Almost 20 years after the release of The Wire, Baltimore’s murder rate has only increased, and state-level budget cuts continue to detract from community revitalization and enrichment programs, safe schooling facilities, and violence prevention programs, disproportionately affecting low-income communities and communities of color. SEE CORRESPONDING ARTICLE ON PAGE 165 SEE CORRESPONDING ARTICLE ON PAGE 165 Resting-State Functional Connectivity of the Central Executive Network Moderates the Relationship Between Neighborhood Violence and Proinflammatory Phenotype in ChildrenBiological PsychiatryVol. 90Issue 3PreviewNeighborhood violence increases children’s risk for a variety of health problems. Yet, little is known about biological pathways involved or neural mechanisms that might render children more or less vulnerable. Here, we address these questions by considering whether neighborhood violence is associated with the expression of a proinflammatory phenotype and whether this relationship is moderated by resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the central executive network (CEN). Full-Text PDF

Caretaker Score Reliability for Personality Assessment of Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus).

Simple SummaryThe assessment of animals’ personalities can help manage decisions concerning zoo animals more appropriately; for example, a proper personality evaluation helps create stable social groups or increase the chances of breeding success if compatible breeding pairs are chosen. In zoos, the animals’ personality is often evaluated by the caretakers due to their familiarity with the animals and their behaviours. In this study, we aimed to evaluate how reliable caretakers’ ratings are when assessing dolphins’ personalities. With this aim in mind, we asked 24 caretakers to score a variety of personality traits of bottlenose dolphins under their care through a questionnaire in two periods. Our findings showed fair to good degrees of agreement within scores of the same rater and across raters within the same centre. We were also able to identify which raters and centres showed significant score mean differences systematically. We believe the study of raters’ outcomes reliability is crucial to make appropriate management decisions based on the animals’ personalities.The evaluation of zoo animals’ personalities can likely lead to a range of benefits, including improving breeding success, creating stable social groups, and designing and developing environmental enrichment programmes. The goal of this study was to use caretakers scores to evaluate personality in bottlenose dolphins and to assess the reliability of scores within each rater and among raters from each centre. To this end, 24 caretakers from 3 countries (Spain, France, and Argentina), including a total of 5 dolphinariums and 6 groups of dolphins, used a questionnaire based on the Five-Factor Model of Personality to score bottlenose dolphins on a number of personality traits in three different contexts. Each caretaker evaluated the animals under their care twice, ensuring that raters did not share thoughts nor impressions with other raters. Our findings showed a good degree of agreement between each rater’s scores and a fair degree of agreement among scores of raters from the same centre. We also identified which raters and centres had significant mean score differences and detected that 4 out of 24 raters from two different centres showed such differences systematically. The evaluation of raters’ reliability and the identification of particular inconsistent raters and centres is critical to make more appropriate and realistic management decisions that, in turn, directly impact animals’ welfare.

San Antonio Nathan Shock Center: your one-stop shop for aging research.

With evolving cores, enrichment and training programs, and supported research projects, the San Antonio (SA) Nathan Shock Center has for 26years provided critical support to investigators locally, nationally, and abroad. With its existing and growing intellectual capital, the SA Nathan Shock Center provides to local and external investigators an enhanced platform to conduct horizontally integrated (lifespan, healthspan, pathology, pharmacology) transformative research in the biology of aging, and serves as a springboard for advanced educational and training activities in aging research. The SA Nathan Shock Center consists of six cores: Administrative/Program Enrichment Core, Research Development Core, Aging Animal Models and Longevity Assessment Core, Pathology Core, Analytical Pharmacology and Drug Evaluation Core, and Integrated Physiology of Aging Core. The overarching goal of the SA Nathan Shock Center is to advance knowledge in the basic biology of aging and to identify molecular and cellular mechanisms that will facilitate the development of pharmacologic interventions and other strategies to extend healthy lifespan. In pursuit of this goal, we provide an innovative "one-stop shop" venue to accelerate transformative research in the biology of aging through our integrated research cores. Moreover, we aim to foster and promote career development of early-stage investigators in aging biology through our research development programs, to serve as a resource and partner to investigators from other Shock Centers, and to disseminate scientific knowledge and enhanced awareness about aging research. Overall, the SA Nathan Shock Center aims to be a leader in research that advances our understanding of the biology of aging and development of approaches to improve longevity and healthy aging.