Innovative Educator Research Articles

“Out of the box” professional development

At a recent AAPT meeting, I was part of a conversation about professional development that focused on conferences. We discussed the current meeting structure used by AAPT and some alternative formats. This discussion added greatly to my own understanding of new ways for teachers to receive their professional development. This conversation also began my friendship with Kelly O'Shea, a physics teacher from New York. She is also a blogger (check her out at https://kellyoshea.wordpress.com) and an innovative educator. Through my relationship with Kelly, I have grown in my own knowledge of two “out of the box” ways teachers are getting their professional development.

Invincible Eagle: The Career of Keith Brion

As an innovative music educator and prominent conductor, Keith Brion has had a rich and varied career in music. His resume includes eighteen years of teaching in public schools, working as a music supervisor, performing professionally as a piccolo player, directing the Yale University Band, conducting hundreds of orchestral pops concerts, and most recently, founding and directing the New Sousa Band. Brion has arranged and published countless works, particularly those by Percy Aldridge Grainger and John Philip Sousa. He has released over thirty professional recordings highlighting the works of not just Sousa but also of Victor Herbert and Alan Hovhaness. Brion's impact on the American wind band has been both diverse and far-reaching. The primary purpose of this study was to document an oral history of Brion's professional career. In addition to compiling a comprehensive professional biography, this study sought to identify various thematic elements that characterized the stages and turning points of Brion's career. Brion consented to participate in the fall of 2011 and provided personal information (e.g., professional biography, discography, relevant publications, etc.) to aide in selecting appropriate interview topics. After reviewing these artifacts, Brion and the author agreed on the following five topics for discussion: 1. General overview of Brion's early life and teacher training 2. Brion's K-12 teaching career, emphasizing years in West Caldwell, New Jersey 3. Middle career at Yale University 4. Orchestral pops conducting 5. Development and evolution of the New Sousa Band A series of open-ended research questions was developed for each topic. Following the development of these questions, Brion and the author established dates for in-person visits to conduct the interviews. A total of six interviews occurred over the course of two days at Brion's home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and each interview lasted between sixty and ninety minutes. Follow-up questioning was regularly implemented to elaborate on specific topics or events mentioned by Brion. All interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed by the author. To check for validity, Brion reviewed all interview transcripts for correction and clarification purposes. The author also conducted multiple site visits to locations significant in Brions life and career. These visits included Brions personal library, Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut), James Caldwell High School (West Caldwell, New Jersey), and the Carnegie Hall Archives (New York City, New York). During these site visits, the author collected relevant artifacts, took photographs, and conducted additional informal interviews with others who knew or worked with Brion. The oral narrative approach to this study effectively combined Brion's life interviews with thorough artifact analysis to uncover themes across the various stages of Brion's career. Early Life (1933-1951) Keith Brion was born in July of 1933 in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania. Though he spent the early years of his life in Philipsburg, in 1941, during the second World War, Brion's father was transferred to Bloomington, Indiana, through his position with Signal Corps. It was in Bloomington that Brion had his first memory of music education: We lived not far from the University of Indiana campus. I went to school at the University School in Bloomington.... That was my first musical experience in a school. This was during the war, but yet we still went to see Hansel and Gretl, the opera, and we had singing classes, as well. It was a model program. (1) Though his first musical experiences in Bloomington were positive, the Brion family spent only one year in Indiana before returning to Pennsylvania. The remainder of Brion's childhood was spent in Northumberland, Pennsylvania. From that point forward, Brion's public school music education experience always felt lacking to him. …

Reducing barriers to hepatitis C treatment among drug users: an integrated hepatitis C peer education and support program.

This report describes an innovative HCV Peer Educator Program that facilitates education, support, and engagement in HCV treatment among patients in an opioid treatment program. Integrating peer educators in a collaborative manner with close supervision holds promise as a model to reduce barriers to HCV treatment among drug users.

Legacy mentors: Translating the wisdom of our senior nurses

‘Legacy Mentors’ are nurses aged 55 or older with a wealth of knowledge and passion to share with other nurses. Finding ways to capture their wisdom, disseminate their expertise, and potentially retain them longer is critical. As part of an innovative Educator Pathway project in two health authorities in British Columbia, Canada, nurses with up to 40 years of experience proposed to share their wisdom and translate their expertise for the next generation of nurses. The Legacy Mentor Project involved 29 nurses who developed projects to share knowledge with students, novice and experienced nurses in their work settings. The project included an orientation workshop to facilitate project start-up, a mid-way workshop for sharing progress, and a celebration event in September 2009 which highlighted their learning and final outcomes in. Project evaluation through surveys, focus groups and interviews revealed that the nurses’ expertise was validated, suggesting that the translation of expertise by re-energized nurses is a strategy with potential to enhance retention of our most experienced nurses while also enhancing practice learning environments. Unexpected outcomes were reciprocal learning and changing practice of nursing peers through modelling and discussion. This paper will describe the process and outcomes of this pilot project, including description of the projects completed by the Legacy Mentors.

Professor Anthony P. F. Turner: An Innovative Educator And Pioneer Of Biosensors In The 21st Century (On His 60th Birth Anniversary)

Professor Anthony P. F. Turner: An Innovative Educator And Pioneer Of Biosensors In The 21st Century (On His 60th Birth Anniversary)

Innovation with Integrity: Preparing Parent Educators Online

We are living in an economic and social climate that is increasingly complex for families, with unparalleled demands placed on parents as individuals, and on their roles as caregivers and providers (Parlakian & Lerner, 2009). As such, there is a critical need for parent educators who can help parents navigate the challenges of daily life while building and maintaining positive relationships and environments for their children's development (Cooke, 2006). Effective parent educators must stay current in their knowledge of families' changing needs, parenting research, and pedagogical strategies. They also must employ innovative approaches to program delivery that keep pace with learner preferences.Here, we describe the redesign and development of a program to prepare parent education professionals to meet the needs of today's families: a graduate-level university program adapted for online delivery. The online platform affords participation by a wider range of students than does the traditional classroom program, thereby increasing the potential number and diversity of professionals in the field (Rickard & Oblinger, 2003). It employs distance communications technology in program delivery, thereby enhancing student comfort with e-learning tools (e.g., asynchronous discussion boards, chat rooms, modular courses), which increasingly are deployed in the field. Most importantly, the platform facilitates the integration of critical dimensions of educational quality, such as attention to beginners' professional development, to address competency standards through an environment that capitalizes on contemporary learning research. do this, three sections are presented. First, we argue that high quality, innovative parent educator professional development is essential in providing support for today's families. We then describe the key design and pedagogical elements of our program. Finally, we reflect on the program's accomplishments to date and identify challenges to online instruction that must be met if the field of family education intends to move forward with this method of delivery.The Need for Quality Parent Educator DevelopmentThe formal practice of parent education began as a gathering of mothers in the 19th century and developed into a professional field a century later (Smith, Perou, & Lesesne, 2002). During that time parent education evolved into different formats including; individual instruction in homes, small group classes, mass media approaches (Carter, 1996), and more recently, Internet and social media applications (Walker & Greenhow, 2008). Parent education addresses families across all socioeconomic strata and takes place in a variety of settings, such as hospitals, schools, early childhood programs, mental health agencies, churches, and social service agencies (Carter, 1996). Today the National Parenting Education Network (NPEN) asserts that the goal of parent education is: To strengthen families by providing relevant, effective education and support and to encourage an optimal environment for the healthy growth and development of parents and children, (NPEN, n.d., ¶ 1).Decades of research on parenting practices (Collins, Maccoby, Steinberg, Hetherington, & Bornstein, 2000; Herbert, 2004), parent-child relationships (Heath, 2005; Reis, Collins, & Berscheid, 2000), and children's development (Shonkoff, & Phillips, 2000; Thompson, 2006) provide the foundation for the content and delivery of parent education. Research-based outcome frameworks help parent education programs define ways in which participants' needs are addressed, and suggest benchmarks for measuring effectiveness (see Smith, Cudaback, Goddard, & Myers-Walls, 1994). In turn, evaluative research on parent education programs has resulted in a deeper understanding of the process, delivery, and contextual elements that help parents achieve their learning and behavioral goals (Jacobs, 2003). Components of effective parent education programs include: (a) a delivery mode that meets the specific needs of the parents in the group rather than assuming a one-size-fits-all parenting intervention model, and (b) professionals who are well-prepared to meet the needs of individual parents and unique groups (Carter, 1996; Smith et al. …

Four-Dimensional Polytopes: Alicia Boole Stott’s Algorithm

B etween 1850 and 1852, the Swiss mathematician Ludwig Schlafli developed a theory of geometry in n-dimensions. In Theorie der vielfachen Kontinuitat ([4]), he defined the n-dimensional sphere, introduced the concept of four-dimensional polytopes, which he called polychemes, and proved that there are exactly six regular polytopes in four dimensions but only three in dimensions higher than four. Unfortunately, his work was not accepted for publication, and only fragments were published some years later. The entire manuscript did not appear until 1901. Thus, mathematicians in the second half of the century were unaware of Schlafli’s discoveries. Between 1880 and 1900 the six regular polytopes were independently rediscovered by, among many others, Stringham in 1880 [5], Gosset in 1900 [3] and Boole Stott in 1900 [1]. The work of Stringham and Gosset is well known today, but that of Boole Stott, an amateur mathematician, has remained almost unnoticed. In this note we present her original algorithmic approach, together with her original drawings and models. We emphasize that, as a woman born in the mid-nineteenth century, Boole Stott never received any formal mathematical training. Her discoveries came from an extraordinary capacity to visualize the fourth dimension. Rigorous mathematical proofs can therefore not be expected in herwork, but instead we find a watershed of surprising and original ideas. Alicia Boole was born near Cork (Ireland) in 1860, the third daughter of the famous logician George Boole. He died when Alicia was four years old, and her mother became an innovative educator. The amateur mathematician Howard Hinton, a frequent guest in their home, was deeply interested in the fourth dimension. He taught the children to visualize four-dimensional shapes with small cubes; this may (or may not) have inspired Alicia’s later research. Whatever the inspiriation, Alicia Boole Stott (she married in 1890) rediscovered the six four-dimensional polytopes by computing their three-dimensional sections. In 1895 she was introduced to the Dutch geometer P. H. Schoute. They collaborated for more than 20 years, combining Schoute’s analytical methods with her unusual visualization ability; in 1914, after Schoute’s death (1913), the University of Groningen awarded Boole Stott an honorary doctorate. After that, she was isolated from the mathematical community until about 1930, when her nephew, G. I. Taylor, introduced her to H. S. M. Coxeter. Despite the nearly 50 year difference in their ages, Boole Stott and Coxeter collaborated productively until her death in 1940. (For more details, see [2].) To clarify her approach to four-dimensional polytopes, we first apply Boole Scott’s method to the five regular polyhedra (Figure 1). Constructing the parallel two-dimensional sections of any polyhedron (i.e., the sections parallel to one of its faces) is quite elementary. To compute, for example, the sections of the cube, we intersect the plane containing a given face of the cube with the cube itself. This intersection is, of course, the face of the cube; that is, the parallel section is a square. Translating the plane towards the center of the cube, we see that all parallel sections are isometric squares. Similarly, parallel sections of the tetrahedron are decreasing triangles, triangles and hexagons for the octahedron, pentagons and decagons for the dodecahedron and triangles, hexagons and dodecagons for the icosahedron. Diagonal sections of a regular polyhedron P are sections H \ P, where H is a plane perpendicular to the segment OV joining the center of the polyhedron with a vertex. We can visualize a regular solid by unfolding it to a planar net. Roughly speaking, this means ‘‘cutting’’ certain edges of the polyhedron and mapping it to a two-dimensional space. The well-known net for the cube is shown in Figure 2. Note that to recover the three-dimensional cube from the unfolded version, one must identify certain edges. This allows us to describe the parallel sections of the cube in a very easy way. Namely, one parallel section could be one of the squares in Figure 2, for example, the middle square (call it MS). In order to obtain the other sections (which will be parallel to the square MS after folding the net) one just needs to move the four edges of MS in the unfolded cube parallel towards the remaining squares. In each case, one obtains a square isometric to the square MS (after necessary identification of end points of the edges).

Brace Yourself Here Comes Generation Y

Brace Yourself Here Comes Generation Y

Remembering Dr. George J. Apel, Jr: A Posthumous Tribute to an Innovative, Obscure Pioneer in Christian Higher Education

This paper is a belated tribute to George J. Apel, Jr., an innovative and obscure Christian higher educator. Peruse the name and subject indices of any and all books about Christian higher education, and nowhere will there appear even a reference to George J. Apel, Jr. Although Apel never finished high school or college, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Sacred Theology for his accomplishments in Christian higher education. This paper deals primarily with his single most outstanding educational accomplishment (and failure): the University Foundation in St. Augustine, Florida. The foundation was a Christian higher education endeavor conceptualized and implemented by Apel for delivering liberal arts and theological education through residency and nonresidency, credit-accruing, accredited course work. The foundation included the St. Augustine Junior College, a graduate school, the American Theological Seminary, and an extension program via correspondence, all housed in the former Kirkside residence of the nineteenth−century oil magnate Henry Morrison Flagler. The foundation completed its short run in 1949 and has now been superseded by the Saint Augustine Bible Institute & College.

Vladimir Janda, MD, DSc

The purpose of this presentation is to pay tribute to the life's work of Professor Vladimir Janda, a key figure in the 20th Century rehabilitation movement. An accomplished neurologist, he founded the rehabilitation department at Charles University Hospital in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He was one of the seminal members of the Prague school of manual medicine and rehabilitation that expanded its influence throughout Central and Eastern Europe. His observations regarding muscle imbalances, faulty posture and gait, and their association with chronic pain syndromes, etiologically, diagnostically, and therapeutically, influenced the rehabilitation world. The authors comprise a multinational, multiprofessional group representative of rehabilitation specialists around the world who would like to pay tribute and give a final word of thanks to this innovative educator, clinician, and author.

Empowering Technology for Teacher Education

STAND still and look until you really see. These simple, but provocative, words were the theme of a 30-year-old environmental education program called the Environmental Studies Project. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the project was headed by an innovative educator, Bob Samples - I suspect the words were his as well. Over the last three decades or so, these simple words have become the central undergirding principle of my philosophy of teaching. Here is an example from the elementary science methods course I teach. On the first day of each new science methods class, we go outside for a nature walk. One of the first things we encounter is a pine tree. I ask the class what kind of a tree it is and never get answers much more specific than evergreen or pine tree. I then ask the class to observe the tree more carefully. After a short time, the students usually note that the tree is tall and has rough bark. Occasionally, someone will say it looks sparse. I have to prompt them to observe and describe the length of the needles and the way they look at the end of each branch. After a little discussion, we conclude that the needles are a foot long or longer. I then help them describe the arrangement of needles at the end of a branch, which is like a barber's brush. Then I direct their attention to the size of the terminal branches, which are stubby and never thinner than a cigar. Eventually, someone will notice one of the pinecones either on the tree or on the ground. And the cones are very large: 10 to 15 inches long and of the classic pinecone shape, not long and slender. After about or 10 minutes of such observations, I tell the students that they are looking at a longleaf pine, a tree that once covered the Deep South but that is now becoming endangered. Obviously, this lesson is more about observation than it is about pine trees - although the Lorax might disagree. But the theme of Stand still . continues throughout the methods course and quickly affects how the students view their world. They soon begin to do similar activities with their own children and with their students. By now, you are probably wondering, what does this theme have to do with technology? Well, it's this: technology empowers you to stand still and really look at teaching. Furthermore, I am not sure you can study teaching effectively without using technology. The best lesson I've ever taught was heavily dependent on technology. The lesson was an inquiry lesson in a graduate class called Improvement of Instruction. I should explain that this class differs from the one we call Models of Teaching. The models class deals with instruction at the macro level, studying such things as step-by-step methods of guided discovery. The improvement class studies instruction at the micro level, dealing with such topics as proximics (purposeful movement toward a student or around the classroom) and subtle classroom routines and rituals. The lesson was delivered in a university classroom that had a computer-equipped podium, a fast Internet connection, and a large video projector. To start the lesson, I wrote the following question on the white board: What are some effective and efficient techniques master teachers use to make starting an activity go smoothly? Next, class members offered their hypotheses - closely related, I suspect, to how they started activities in their own classrooms. Here are their hypotheses: 1. Use a signal, for example, clap hands or turn off the lights. 2. Say Give me five (teacher holds up fingers, each of which has a meaning in the classroom). 3. Introduce the lesson and put it in perspective. 4. Have stuff ready. 5. Use a routine. 6. Wait for quiet. The third step in a general-inquiry model is to gather data. For this step, we used the classroom computer and projector to access streaming digital video clips from the Study of Teaching section of my website (www. …

President's messagehappy new year, 2004!

President's messagehappy new year, 2004!

Hildegard Peplau: Psychiatric Nurse of the Century

Hildegard Peplau's 50-year career in nursing left an indelible stamp on the profession of nursing, and on the lives of the mentally ill in this country. She wore many hats - founder of modern psychiatric nursing, innovative educator, advocate for the mentally ill, proponent of advanced education for nurses, Executive Director and then President of the American Nurses Association, and prolific author. She raised her daughter as a single parent while pursuing an ambitious professional path. Her determined manner often aroused controversy which never deterred her commitment to advancing the nursing profession.

Functional Reconstruction of the Foot and Ankle.

Sigvard T. Hansen, Jr. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins; 2000. $159.00, 544 pp. The popularity of foot and ankle surgery has increased over the past decade, and this has led to a number of texts offering instruction in the management of many entities. The question of which text is the most appropriate for any given individual is often a difficult one to answer. This text represents the commendable effort by a single author to place his experiences and philosophies regarding foot and ankle surgery into print. Dr. Hansen has long been considered an innovative educator in the field of orthopaedic trauma; he has pioneered numerous surgical techniques and popularized AO principles in this country. More recently, he …

Dr. Bernhard Wunderlich: An innovative educator pioneer in the physical chemistry of polymers

Dr. Bernhard Wunderlich: An innovative educator pioneer in the physical chemistry of polymers

Planning Medical Center Facilities for Education, Research, and Public Service

This book reviews the experience of one new medical school (The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center), with appropriate references to certain unique features of others. The author, as an innovative medical educator, continually stresses the need to conceptualize and design the physical facilities according to the desired educational objectives. As a result of this emphasis, the entire physical plant reflects an overriding concern with the student and the goals of the school in terms of creating scholars. In addition to chapters on the historical perspectives of medical education and educational philosophy, the author systematically covers the primary components of a major medical center: site selection, medical sciences building, student study places, lecture and conference rooms, teaching laboratories, offices, research laboratories, supporting facilities, library, animal facilities, teaching hospital, ambulant patient facilities, hospital laboratories, hospital support facilities, clinical satellites, student housing, recreation facilities, and planning and rescheduling. Each chapter integrates the educational

Daniel Hale Williams: Innovative Surgeon, Educator, and Hospital Administrator

When Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, a black surgeon, reported his successful suturing of the pericardium early in 1897 he stated: “The Index Catalogue and Medicus of the National Medical Library, surgeon-general's office, Washington, D.C., do not give a single title descriptive of suture of the pericardium or heart in the human subject. This being the fact, this case is the first successful or unsuccessful case of suture of the pericardium that has ever been recorded.” 1 Williams DH Stab wound of the heart and pericardium-suture of the pericardium—recovery—patient alive three years afterward. Med Rec. 1897; 51: 439 Google Scholar Dr. Williams also examined the specimens of pericardial and heart wounds in the Army Medical Museum and found none that had any history of operation. These steps were typical of Dr. Williams' thoroughness throughout his 40-year career.