Initial Field Experience Research Articles

The initial field experiences of teacher candidates: Emotional challenges in a complex environment

This qualitative study focuses on how new teacher candidates reflect on teacher tasks such as moral education, care, and teaching. The candidates reflected on these experiences after being put in charge of starting a school day in front of the pupils, but also after having observed how mentor teachers started a school day. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the written reflections of the candidates. Our findings reveal that the candidates noted how micro rituals and school artefacts could support the way teachers work, but also how emotionally challenging it could be to handle such tasks as a novice. These findings are discussed in relation to how teacher education programs can promote openness and honesty when facing challenges and difficulties.

Proposed Modifications in the 6-Minute Walk Test for Potential Application in Patients With Mild COVID-19: A Step to Optimize Triage Guidelines.

Proposed Modifications in the 6-Minute Walk Test for Potential Application in Patients With Mild COVID-19: A Step to Optimize Triage Guidelines.

Students' Perceptions of School-Based Agricultural Education Through an Initial Early Field Experience

The purpose of this study was to identify the perception of students enrolled in an initial early field experience (EFE) in relation to the components of the agricultural education model. The students enrolled in the initial field experience were freshmen and sophomore students. The initial field experience course consisted of four face-to-face class meetings and a 12-hour initial field experience observation. Students’ photographed their perceptions of each component in the agricultural education model (classroom, SAE, FFA). The coding of reflective captions led to themes in three areas of the agricultural education model: (a) classroom themes were active learning, collaboration and facilities, (b) FFA themes were activities and opportunities, and (c) SAE themes were school based projects, awards/degrees, and the smallest circle. Overall, the EFE students used their photographs and descriptions to describe the learner-centered nature of the program. The EFE students described how the three components of the agricultural education model worked together to help school-based agricultural education (SBAE) students gain knowledge and experience. It is recommended that teacher educators incorporate photovoice in EFE programs to facilitate discussion of the initial perceptions of students.

The Impact of Initial Field Experience on Pre-Service Teachers' Attitude Toward Inclusion

The Impact of Initial Field Experience on Pre-Service Teachers' Attitude Toward InclusionIn the United States, up to 50% of new teachers leave the profession within 5 years (Smith & Ingersoll, 2004). This unacceptable level of sustainability of the profession is of concern to both teacher preparation institutions and the local education agencies. This paper looks at one factor that may impact the sustainability of current teacher preparation models: attitudes toward inclusion of students with disabilities in the mainstream classroom. Participants in the study were currently enrolled in 3 different phases of a teacher preparation programmes at a regional university in the United States. A survey was administered at the beginning and at the end of the semester. Results indicate that students become progressively more negative toward inclusion of students with disabilities in the general education classroom yet continue to support the social value of having all students in a general education setting. Results from the survey are presented and implications for practice are discussed.

Regulating the Geological Sequestration of CO2

Governments worldwide should provide incentives for initial large-scale GS projects to help build the knowledge base for a mature, internationally harmonized GS regulatory framework. Health, safety, and environmental risks of these early projects can be managed through modifications of existing regulations in the EU, Australia, Canada, and the U.S. An institutional mechanism, such as the proposed Federal Carbon Sequestration Commission in the U.S., should gather data from these early projects and combine them with factors such as GS industrial organization and climate regime requirements to create an efficient and adaptive regulatory framework suited to large-scale deployment. Mechanisms to structure long-term liability and fund long-term postclosure care must be developed, most likely at the national level, to equitably balance the risks and benefits of this important climate change mitigation technology. We need to do this right. During the initial field experiences, a single major accident, resulting from inadequate regulatory oversight, anywhere in the world, could seriously endanger the future viability of GS. That, in turn, could make it next to impossible to achieve the needed dramatic global reductions in CO2 emissions over the next several decades. We also need to do it quickly. Emissions are going up, the climate is changing, and impacts are growing. The need for safe and effective CO2 capture with deep GS is urgent.

An integrated application for voltage sag analysis

Voltage sags affect many more customers than momentary interruptions do. The sags on a distribution feeder are likely to result in damage to a customer's sensitive equipment on all of the adjacent feeders. It is essential to understand the characteristics of sags in order to determine the most suitable distribution feeder configuration and equipment specifications. In this paper, the development and implementation of an integrated software tool for voltage sag analysis is presented. It integrates the available historical outage data, analytical calculation algorithm and advanced computer graphic capabilities together to provide valuable voltage sag information. State-of-the-art software technologies are used to ensure the effectiveness, openness and flexibility of the integration approaches. Initial field experiences at PG&E (USA) have indicated a great demand of such an informational tool.

A new CAMAC and VXIbus high performance highway interconnect

High performance, distributed data acquisition and control systems based on the CAMAC Serial Highway have been used extensively in the nuclear science field for 20 years. The need for higher I/O system throughput and the increased use of VXIbus-based instrumentation has led to the development of a new highway interconnect. This interconnect supports CAMAC crates, VXI chassis or a mixture of CAMAC and VXI on a high-speed fiber-optic highway. A typical highway interconnect system consists of a VMEbus or PCI bus host interface card, a fiber-optic ring configuration, CAMAC crate controllers and/or VXI Slot-0 controllers. The development of a VME-based I/O controller is being considered. Various throughput benchmarks and initial field experience are discussed. The crate controller supports the FASTCAMAC protocol being proposed to the NIM Committee. The maximum I/O throughput in FASTCAMAC mode is 10 megabytes/s.

The efficacy of interactive video for teaching basic classroom management skills to pre-service teachers

Results The results of this study are promising given the relatively brief treatment period. The significant, but not dramatic, achievement gains imply that more time spent with the simulation may result in higher achievement. The significant findings from the stages of concern instrument also suggest that the simulation may have begun to cause the expected shift in concerns. As discussed earlier, the C&I students' high concerns across most of the stages showed they (a) had some knowledge about classroom management, (b) had considered their limitations, (c) had wondered how they would learn more, and (d) had projected their needs to the time when they would enter the field. With such high concerns across the stages, the anticipated treatment effect from a longer treatment will probably be limited to a reduction of concerns in the earlier stages and only a slight increase in the later stages, which occurred to a limited degree with the C&I 7 group. As discussed earlier, a longer treatment may result in more dramatic changes. However, an important point worth emphasizing is that computers are rarely the sole learning medium. Computers are generally regarded as learning tools that have the potential to enrich traditional learning tasks and facilitate higher levels of achievement. Perhaps the classroom management simulation would prove more effective if used as an integral part of a class in which an instructor provided more concrete procedures for program use and goals as outcomes. Group discussions, in which various management principles would be analyzed for appropriateness and inappropriateness in given situations, would be an important part of such a structured approach. Utilizing the simulation in such a manner would eliminate user tendencies to (a) neglect the specifics of and differences between the principles of management and (b) hurry through the scenarios in order to just “see what happens” without attending to the principles demonstrated or infringed. Because CAI is an effective mode for independent study (Robinson, 1988), another possible use of the simulation is to make it available for students in the field who are forced to deal with management problems on an everyday basis in addition to their many other responsibilities. After exposure to real situations, users may be more receptive to exploring the scenarios more intensely to improve their automaticity in selecting appropriate management strategies based on knowledge gleaned from the simulation. Conclusion Interactive-video computer-based simulations are potentially useful for introducing pre-service teachers to classroom situations because they are dependable, consistent, and easily accessible (Hasselbring et al., 1987; Roblyer, 1988). Education staff often have difficulty finding and coordinating quality, initial field experiences for their students. If field experiences can be effectively simulated, work on initial experiences can be pursued at any time, making those experiences dependable and easily accessible. Easy accessibility, combined with time compression, will also result in time and cost savings (Abrams & Streit, 1986; Milheim, 1989). That is, simulated field experiences are available at any time, saving the time and travel costs associated with actual field experience. This is similar to claims made by military users of interactive-video training courseware (Ramsberger, Harris, Knerr, & Hopwood, 1985). Because users' experiences will be the same, or similar (depending on the nature of the simulation and what choices students make within the programs), they will have common experiences that lead more easily to classroom discussion (Hasselbring et al., 1987; Walkley & Kelley, 1989). Simulated field work may reduce anxiety because users know they can try ideas without risking failure with “real” students or worrying about possible negative effects from unacceptable actions (Gropper, 1983). Therefore, simulations using interactive video potentially provide an important, “risk-free,” stepping stone from non-experienced student to classroom professional. With these advantages, interactive-video computer-based simulations are promising tools to help prepare educators.

Maintenance-free motive-power cells using gas-recombination technology

This paper summarizes the maintenance-free product development programme of CMP Batteries Ltd. (U.K.). This programme started in 1984 and is still under continual development and inprovement. Its evolvement together with the product's concept and technology are discussed and some of the initial field experience data are presented.

Spectral Gamma-Ray Logging in the Texas Austin Chalk Trend

This paper reviews properties of Austin chalk and Buda limestone formations of the Cretaceous carbonate trend in Texas and highlights interpretive well logging concepts. Emphasis is on initial field experience with Spectralog, a spectral gamma-ray logging device that has found continuous and widespread application in old and new wells in the Austin chalk formation since Nov. 1977. Introduction Early oil production in the 1920's was developed in the Austin chalk, dolomitic limestone streaks in the Eagle Ford shale, and the Buda limestone of the Luling, Darst Creek, Branyon, and Salt Flat fields in Caldwell and Guadalupe counties of south Texas. Subsequent exploration drilling for the Edwards limestone established incidental production in the Austin chalk in Bexar, Frio, and Wilson counties, with occasional completions being made in the Austin chalk and/or Buda limestone in Atascosa County. Interest in the deeper trend of the Austin/Eagle Ford/Buda has been rekindled, reaching, in fact, into a dozen south Texas counties as well as into east Texas due to indicated successes based on high initial productivity indices (PI's) of new wells in this trend. Long-term performance of some of these wells, however, has been disappointing. Most participants exploring in this Upper Cretaceous trend state that an oilwell completion can be made anywhere in the trend. Hence, the key problem is to distinguish the economical wells, prior to the expensive completion operation. Characteristics of solution-drive oil production in the Austin chalk and Buda limestone are initial PI's indicative of high flow rates followed by rapid pressure decline and eventual stabilized low-level production. The conjecture is that some of these completions are in pay zones that have insufficient porosity, low permeability, and only limited development of macro- and microfracture systems. Thus, after stimulation by acidizing and/or fracturing, the artificially created fracture system delivers high initial production rates that will decline rapidly to low production rates upon stabilization. Where the macro- and microfracture system is extensive and supported by some matrix porosity, the wells behave similarly but stabilize at a higher, more economically attractive production rate. Exceptions to the general patterns of oil accumulation in natural fracture systems are the shallow, older fields of Caldwell and Guadalupe counties. In these counties, formation porosity and permeability, along with natural fracture planes, have been adequate to allow migration of oil into fault-controlled anticlinal traps. Hence, the problem is to define and evaluate the better-developed of more numerous fracture systems by geophysical methods before setting the production string. Several formation evaluation approaches have been attempted in the past.1,2 Application of gamma-ray spectral logging data to locate uranium salts precipitated over geologic time on the fracture planes, along with other geophysical fracture detection methods, appears to offer a reliable evaluation system.

Going Backstage

This paper draws on initial field experiences of the authors as participant observers of family members engaged in household work. Negotiating access and establishing rapport provided more than unusual problems of data collection. Such experiences also generated substantive insights into the characteristics of household work. Discussion focuses on the relationships between features of the household work setting, lack of consensus on the criteria by which household work is judged, and respondent views of household work.

Personnel dosimetry using thermoluminescent dosimeters.

A routine system of personnel dosimetry utilizing the phenomena of thermoluminescence has been developed at the National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS). Research in thermoluminescent application techniques was initiated in early 1965 with the hope of developing a suitable system for long-term monitoring of personnel exposed to near background levels of radiation. The dosimeter utilizes two lithium fluoride-teflon disc dosimeters that are held in a plastic dosimeter retainer that is the same size and shape as a standard film packet. The dosimeters are positioned in the open window area and the cadmium filter area of the NRTS badge. An insert in the plastic retainer contains a punched binary code for identification. The experimental results are discussed in terms of reliability, reproducibility, response characteristics, and other factors that affect the validity of performance. The initial field experience of the system since its application in November 1966 is presented.