Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/314201921?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Thursday, June 20, 2013
Student engagement more complex, changeable than thought
June 20, 2013 ? A student who shows up on time for school and listens respectfully in class might appear fully engaged to outside observers, including teachers. But other measures of student engagement, including the student's emotional and cognitive involvement with the course material, may tell a different story -- one that could help teachers recognize students who are becoming less invested in their studies, according to a new study coauthored by a University of Pittsburgh researcher.
More importantly for educators, the study, published online in the professional journal Learning and Instruction, suggests that student engagement -- essential for success in school -- is malleable, and can be improved by promoting a positive school environment. The result paves the way for future work to offer teachers diagnostic tools for recognizing disengagement, as well as strategies for creating a school environment more conducive to student engagement.
"Enhancing student engagement has been identified as the key to addressing problems of low achievement, high levels of student misbehavior, alienation, and high dropout rates," said Ming-Te Wang, assistant professor of psychology in education in the School of Education and of psychology in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences at Pitt, who coauthored the study with Jacquelynne S. Eccles, the Wilbert McKeachie and Paul Pintrich Distinguished University Professor of Psychology and Education at the University of Michigan.
"When we talk about student engagement, we tend to talk only about student behavior," Wang added. "But my coauthor and I feel like that doesn't tell us the whole story. Emotion and cognition are also very important."
Wang and Eccles' study is among the first attempts by researchers to use data to explore a multidimensional approach to the question of student engagement. In the past, only behavioral measures of student engagement -- such as class attendance, turning in homework on time, and classroom participation -- had been evaluated when gauging student engagement. By conducting a study linking students' perceptions of the school environment with behavior, the authors have provided one of the first pieces of empirical research supporting the viability of the multidimensional perspective, which had previously been largely theoretical.
The researchers designed a 100-question survey that includes the evaluation of emotional engagement and cognitive engagement. Sample survey questions that tested emotional engagement in classes across all subject areas asked students to agree or disagree with statements such as "I find schoolwork interesting" and "I feel excited by the work in school." Sample questions concerning cognitive engagement asked students to provide ratings to questions like "How often do you make academic plans for solving problems?" and "How often do you try to relate what you are studying to other things you know about?"
Using the survey, Wang and Eccles conducted a two-year longitudinal study, tracking approximately 1,200 Maryland students from seventh through eighth grade. The authors also measured students' perceptions of their environment by having them answer questions in five areas: school structure support, which gauged the clarity of teacher expectations; provision of choice, which assessed students' opportunities to make learning-related decisions; teaching for relevance, which evaluated the frequency of activities deemed relevant to students' personal interests and goals; students' perceptions of the emotional support offered by teachers; and students' perceptions of how positive their relationships were with fellow students.
The authors found that students who felt that the subject matter being taught and the activities provided by their teachers were meaningful and related to their goals were more emotionally and cognitively engaged than were their peers. Adding measures of emotional and cognitive engagement could broaden researchers' perspectives on student engagement in future work in this area.
Also among the paper's main findings is that the school environment can and, indeed, should be changed if it is impeding student engagement. A positive and supportive school environment is marked, Wang said, by "positive relationships with teachers and peers. Schools must provide opportunities for students to make their own choices. But they also must create a more structured environment so students know what to do, what to expect, from school." Wang also noted, however, that there is no "one size fits all" strategy to the problem of student engagement.
"Usually people say, 'Yes, autonomy is beneficial. We want to provide students with choices in school,'" Wang said. "This is the case for high achievers, but not low achievers. Low achievers want more structure, more guidelines."
As a result, Wang said, teachers must take into account individual variation among students in order to fulfill the needs of each student.
Wang's current work, undertaken in partnership with six Allegheny County school districts, focuses on developing a diagnostic tool that teachers can use to identify students who are disengaged from school, with a specific emphasis on math and science classes.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/jF-qLxjHgqg/130620162844.htm
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Zombie-flavored water and other moments
Movies 
1 hour ago
Paramount
Brad Pitt stars in "World War Z."
"World War Z" breaks out this week, with Brad Pitt playing UN employee Gerry Lane, who travels the world to try and fight the zombie uprising that's so well-detailed in Max Brooks' 2006 novel.
The film is just the latest stop on Hollywood's eternal tour through the world of the undead. As early as 1932, the movie "White Zombie" tackled the world of these fictional favorites, but it wasn't until zombiemaster George A. Romero made "Night of the Living Dead" in 1968 that the undead came, uh, to life.
Here's a look at a few of our favorite zombie moments.
'Night of the Living Dead' starts it all
Romero started it all with this black-and-white shocker. A great film, but it's a moment early on that stays with the viewer. In the opening scene in a graveyard, a brother mocks his sister's fears, cooing, "They're coming to get you Bar-br-a." Guess what? They are.
Courtesy Everett Collection
"Night of the Living Dead" kicked off the modern zombie-movie era.
'Thriller' teaches the world the zombie dance
Will there ever be a more movielike music video than Michael Jackson's 13-minute "Thriller"? It's filled with false endings and scary transformations, but nothing is as memorable as the lurchingly awesome zombie dance, which has been learned and practiced by everyone from flash mobs to senior-citizen centers.
'Shaun of the Dead' shows us we're all zombies in the morning
"Shaun of the Dead" is perhaps the best zombie comedy ever made. And in a near-perfect scene, Shaun slogs through his morning routine of stopping into a convenience store and fails to realize zombies have taken over -- despite bloody handprints on the fridge door, a puddle of unidentified goo in the aisle, no clerk visible and a moaning, staggering zombie panhandler.
Everett Collection
It takes "Shaun of the Dead" a while to figure out that zombies have taken over.
In 'Dawn of the Dead,' shoppers are zombiefied
Ever felt like the mall turns you into a zombie, staggering around under the spell of shouting SALE! signs and overpriced dreck? In "Dawn of the Dead" (both the 1978 original and the 2004 remake), our worst fears of what lurks at the mall are realized. And the remake boasts a singularly chilling scene. Those trapped in the mall have been holding up a whiteboard to exchange messages with the gun-shop owner trapped in another building. After he's bitten, they see his final whiteboard message, just a horrifying smear of blood.
Universal via Everett Collection
The 2004 remake of "Dawn of the Dead" was a respectable take on the 1978 Romero original.
Jim's parents hope he dies in '28 Days Later'
In 2002's "28 Days Later," poor bicycle messenger Jim wakes up in a London hospital after zombies have overrun the city. The film is both horrifying and heartbreaking, but perhaps the saddest moment comes when Jim finds his parents have killed themselves in their bed. They left him this note: "With endless love, we left you sleeping. Now we're sleeping with you. Don't wake up."
20th Century Fox
In "28 Days Later," Jim awakes to a seemingly empty London.
Bill Murray is sorry about 'Garfield'
In the 2009 film "Zombieland," Bill Murray isn't really a zombie, but Jesse Eisenberg thinks he is, and shoots him in the chest. As Murray expires, he's asked if he has any regrets. With dead-on (ha!) delivery, the star croaks out, " 'Garfield,' maybe." And anyone who saw the critically blasted 2004 movie, where Murray voices the fat, lazy, lasagna-loving cat, would agree.
Zombie-flavored water, anyone?
AMC's "The Walking Dead" has offered up plenty of gruesome zombie moments -- heads floating in jars, zombie children getting their hair brushed -- but one tops them all. In an early episode, the gang tried to pull a giant, bloated zombie out of the well, but he breaks in half, spilling his guts back into the water. Mmm ... refreshing.
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Afghan Taliban say they killed 4 US troops
Top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, Joseph Dunford, talks to media representatives at the ISAF headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, June, 18, 2013. Dunford said NATO will support any positive movement to bring reconciliation between the Afghan people and Taliban. American officials say U.S. representatives will begin formal meetings with the Taliban in a few days at the group's new office opening in Qatar. (AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid)
Top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, Joseph Dunford, talks to media representatives at the ISAF headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, June, 18, 2013. Dunford said NATO will support any positive movement to bring reconciliation between the Afghan people and Taliban. American officials say U.S. representatives will begin formal meetings with the Taliban in a few days at the group's new office opening in Qatar. (AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid)
Muhammad Naeem a representative of the Taliban speaks during a press conference at the official opening of their office in Doha, Qatar, Tuesday, June 18, 2013. In a major breakthrough, the Taliban and the U.S. announced Tuesday that they will hold talks on finding a political solution to ending nearly 12 years of war in Afghanistan as the Islamic militant movement opened an office in Qatar. American officials with the Obama administration said the office in the Qatari capital of Doha was the first step toward the ultimate U.S.-Afghan goal of a full Taliban renouncement of links with al-Qaida. (AP Photo/Osama Faisal)
A general view of Taliban office in Doha before the official opening in Doha, Qatar, Tuesday, June 18, 2013. In a major breakthrough, the Taliban and the U.S. announced Tuesday that they will hold talks on finding a political solution to ending nearly 12 years of war in Afghanistan as the Islamic militant movement opened an office in Qatar. American officials with the Obama administration said the office in the Qatari capital of Doha was the first step toward the ultimate U.S.-Afghan goal of a full Taliban renouncement of links with al-Qaida. (AP Photo/Osama Faisal)
Muhammad Naeem a representative of the Taliban speaks during a press conference at the official opening of their office in Doha, Qatar, Tuesday, June 18, 2013. In a major breakthrough, the Taliban and the U.S. announced Tuesday that they will hold talks on finding a political solution to ending nearly 12 years of war in Afghanistan as the Islamic militant movement opened an office in Qatar. American officials with the Obama administration said the office in the Qatari capital of Doha was the first step toward the ultimate U.S.-Afghan goal of a full Taliban renouncement of links with al-Qaida. (AP Photo/Osama Faisal)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? The Taliban claimed responsibility Wednesday for an attack in Afghanistan that killed four American troops just hours after the insurgent group announced it would hold talks with the U.S. on finding a political solution to ending the nearly 12-year war in the country.
The deadly attack underscores the challenges ahead in trying to end the violence roiling Afghanistan through peace negotiations in Qatar with militants still fighting on the ground.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the insurgents fired two rockets into the Bagram Air Base outside the Afghan capital, Kabul, late on Tuesday. American officials confirmed the base had come under attack by indirect fire ? likely a mortar or rocket ? and that four U.S. troops were killed.
The attack came as the Taliban opened a political office in the Qatari capital of Doha, and announced they were ready for peace talks. The decision was a reversal of months of failed efforts to start negotiations while Taliban militants intensified a campaign targeting urban centers and government installations across Afghanistan.
The Taliban announcement followed a milestone handover in Afghanistan earlier Tuesday as Afghan forces formally took the lead from the U.S.-led NATO coalition for security nationwide. It marked a turning point for American and NATO military forces, which will now move entirely into a supporting role. It also opened the way for the withdrawal of most foreign troops in 18 months.
President Barack Obama cautioned that the peace talks with the Taliban would be neither quick nor easy but that their opening a political office in Doha was an "important first step toward reconciliation" between the Islamic militants and the government of Afghanistan.
In setting up the office, the Taliban said they were willing to use all legal means to end what they called the occupation of Afghanistan ? but did not say they would immediately stop fighting.
American officials said the U.S. and Taliban representatives will hold bilateral meetings in the coming days. Afghan President Hamid Karzai's High Peace Council is expected to follow up with its own talks with the Taliban a few days later.
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013
US and Cuba agree to resume migration talks
HAVANA (AP) ? The United States and Cuba have agreed to resume bilateral talks on migration issues next month, a State Department official said Wednesday, the latest evidence of a thaw in chilly relations between the Cold War enemies.
Havana and Washington just wrapped up a round of separate negotiations aimed at restarting direct mail service, which has been suspended since 1963. Both sets of talks have been on hold in recent years in a dispute over the fate of U.S. government subcontractor Alan Gross, who is serving a 15-year jail sentence in Havana after he was caught bringing communications equipment onto the island illegally.
The migration talks will be held in Washington on July 17. The State Department official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publically, spoke on condition of anonymity.
"Representatives from the Department of State are scheduled to meet with representatives of the Cuban government to discuss migration issues," the official said, adding that the talks were "consistent with our interest in promoting greater freedoms and respect for human rights in Cuba."
Word of the jump-started talks sparked an angry reaction from Cuban-American Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, who blasted the Obama administration for what she saw as a policy of appeasement.
"First we get news that the Obama State Department is speaking with a top Castro regime diplomat. Then comes the announcement that the administration is restarting talks with the dictatorship regarding direct mail between both countries," Ros-Lehtinen said. "Now we hear that migration talks will be restarted. It's concession after concession from the Obama administration."
Since taking office, Obama has relaxed travel and remittance rules for Cuban Americans and made it far easier for others to visit the island for cultural, educational and religious reasons.
But Obama has continued to criticize the government of President Raul Castro for repression of basic civil and human rights, and his senior aides have offered little praise for a series of economic and social reforms the Cuban leader has instituted in recent years.
A nascent effort at rapprochement between Washington and Havana has stalled since Gross's arrest, and the resumption of the two sets of bilateral talks is sure to raise speculation that there could be movement on his case.
Gross was working on a USAID democracy building program at the time of his arrest in December 2009. Washington has said repeatedly that no major improvement in relations can occur until he is released. His family has complained that he has lost a lot of weight in jail and suffers from various ailments. Cuba reportedly has agreed to allow a U.S. doctor to visit him in detention, and has also granted him conjugal visits and made him available to high-level American delegations.
Cuba, for its part, is demanding the release of four of its intelligence agents serving long sentences in the United States. A fifth agent, Rene Gonzalez, returned home to Havana earlier this year after completing his sentence and agreeing to renounce his U.S. citizenship.
Geoff Thale, a Cuba analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America think tank, said the resumption of talks, and the moves involving Gross and Gonzalez, are a sign that long-frozen relations could finally be improving.
"These are modest but sensible steps," he said. "What's significant is less the steps themselves than the fact that there is movement in the relationship. It's a real break from the status quo."
The migration talks are intended to monitor adherence to a 16-year-old agreement under which the United States issues 20,000 emigration visas to Cubans a year.
Separately, Cuba says it objects to an American policy known as "wet foot, dry foot" ? in which Cuban refugees reaching American soil are allowed to stay in the U.S., while those stopped at sea are sent home. Cuba says the policy encourages its citizens to try to flee the is
Also Wednesday, Cuba issued a statement declaring the recently concluded mail talks as "welcome" and "fruitful," but also said its delegation had informed the Americans that "a high quality, stable and secure" mail service between the countries is impossible as long as Washington maintains its 51-year economic embargo on the communist-run island.
___
Associated Press writer Paul Haven reported this story in Havana and Matthew Lee reported from Washington. AP writer Christine Armario in Miami contributed.
___
Paul Haven on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/paulhaven
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-cuba-agree-resume-migration-talks-211926132.html
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What Are You Focusing On?
One of the seeming ?traps? when first starting out on a manifesting journey can be viewing honestly exactly where your focus lies.
I was reminded of this the other day ? when I was having to do some paperwork for a financial institution.? Not only did the company ignore my instructions totally, they followed their own policy to the letter (of which I was unaware ? as the paperwork did not state what their policy was) and to cut a super long story short ? I had to negotiate a seeming minefield of paperwork hassles, not to mention a phone wait of over an hour to speak to someone who could help me deal with my issues.
Frustrations and a frayed temper were slowly but surely destroying my day ? when it occurred to me ? that I hadn?t felt this way for a long, long time.
Why?
Because over the years I had built up a working theory that I would always be in the right time space for anything that came my way and that solutions and ?things? would come easily to me.
Quickly back tracking over the past few days, I suddenly realised that in my anger and stress at the first mistake, I had switched to a ?this isn?t fear, these people are miserable so and so?s and this isn?t going to easy? type mentality.? And sure enough ? it was going exactly as I had predicted!
It had been a while since I had felt such vitriol towards another and it was in that split second that I realised I don?t usually reside in that emotional state anymore and that is what switched me out of that particular state.
I must confess I also went to youtube and played our peace sound which immediately placates me as well.
So then, what to do next.? Shift the state of mind? that everything will resolve itself easily ? amazing how things move.? In the next couple of minutes I had a call back from a very pleasant young man who lead me through the minefield of how to fix my problem.
Five minutes later and the problem was resolved with a 24 hour wait for things to click over in computer land.
So what is the lesson here?? Well obviously you do get what you focus on and when you do, have the presence of mind to step back and see what was the trigger ? then reset and go.
Does this work for all situations ? to some degree yes ? but if the physical world doesn?t move quite so fast as you would wish ? at least your own internal world of emotions is better equipped to handle what is happening and then you can work your way back to sanity and serenity.
And remember ? we all fall of the horse once in a while.? The trick to get back on as quickly as possible and continue the ride.
?
Source: http://www.soundsfromsource.com/what-are-you-focusing-on/
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Tuesday, June 18, 2013
World looks to Bernanke to clarify stimulus plans
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Is the era of ultra-low interest rates nearing an end?
That's the question ? and the fear ? Chairman Ben Bernanke will face this week when he takes questions after a Federal Reserve policy meeting.
Financial markets have been gyrating in the 3? weeks since Bernanke told Congress the Fed might scale back its effort to keep long-term rates at record lows within "the next few meetings"? earlier than many had assumed.
Bernanke cautioned that the Fed would slow its support only if it felt confident the job market would show sustained improvement. And earlier in the day, he said the Fed must take care not to prematurely reduce its stimulus for the still-subpar economy.
Yet investors were left puzzled and spooked by a mixed message. Fear spread that the Fed would soon slow its $85 billion-a-month in bond purchases. Those purchases have been intended to hold down long-term borrowing rates to spur spending. Many worried that a pullback in the bond purchases could boost long-term rates, trigger a stock selloff and perhaps weaken the economy.
On Wednesday, when the Fed ends a two-day policy meeting with a Bernanke news conference, the financial world will be looking to the chairman to settle the confusion. What, Bernanke will likely be asked, would show sustained improvement in the job market? And when will the Fed most likely slow the pace of its bond purchases?
Last month, the U.S. economy added a solid 175,000 jobs. But the unemployment rate was 7.6 percent. Economists tend to regard the job market as healthy when unemployment is between 5 percent and 6 percent.
Since Bernanke's vague public comments May 22, the Dow Jones industrial average has fluctuated sharply and shed about 3 percent of its value. But the bigger shock has been in the bond market. The rate on the benchmark 10-year Treasury has jumped from a low of 1.63 percent in early May to 2.13 percent.
Higher rates ripple through the economy by making mortgages and other loans costlier. The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage, which tends to track the 10-year Treasury yield, reached 3.98 percent last week, according to Freddie Mac. That's its highest level since April 2012.
Just as cheap mortgages have helped feed a housing recovery, higher rates might slow it. Refinancings have declined since Bernanke's comments led to higher mortgage rates: Refinancings are 36 percent below their recent peak at the start of May, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Compounding the confusion stirred by Bernanke's remarks have been comments from other members of the Fed's policy committee. Minutes of the previous meeting suggest a sharp division: Some, like Bernanke, still stress the need to fight high unemployment with low rates. Others warn that rates kept too low for too long raise the risk of high inflation and financial instability later.
The Fed's investment purchases have swollen its portfolio to $3.4 trillion ? a four-fold increase since before the 2008 financial crisis. Eventually, the Fed will need to gradually sell its portfolio. Doing so would likely lead to higher rates. Yet some think it would also defuse some risks to the financial system.
Alan Greenspan, who preceded Bernanke as Fed chairman for nearly two decades, said in a recent interview on CNBC, "The sooner we come to grips with this excessive level of assets on the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve ? that everybody agrees is excessive ? the better."
Economists say Bernanke will seek to clarify the Fed's message Wednesday. Yet they're unsure what he'll say.
Some think he could spell out the Fed's likely timetable for curtailing its bond purchases. The earliest the Fed is expected to announce a pullback is at its September meeting ? and only then if unemployment has declined and the economy is growing faster than its current sluggish annual pace of around 2 percent.
Other analysts think the economy will not have recovered enough by September. They believe the earliest the Fed will reduce its stimulus is at its final meeting of the year in December. Until then, they think Bernanke will seek to reassure investors that the Fed will make sure the economy has strengthened before it acts.
"The Fed has worked very hard to get stock prices and home prices rising to help the economy, and I don't think they want to back away from that in any way," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. "I think Bernanke will deliver a strong message that the Fed is not going to taper until the job market is improving in a consistent way."
Some in this camp say the economy will continue to be held back by a Social Security tax increase that kicked in in January and by federal spending cuts that began taking effect March 1.
"There is nothing in the underlying economy that would suggest the Fed needs to change policy any time soon," said Brian Bethune, an economics professor at Gordon College in Massachusetts. "There is considerably slower growth on the radar screen and absolutely no inflation to worry about."
Indeed, the Fed's preferred gauge of inflation tied to consumer spending rose just 0.7 percent in the 12 months that ended in April? far below the Fed's 2 percent target.
In addition to a statement announcing its policy stance and Bernanke's news conference, the Fed on Wednesday will update its economic forecasts, which it does four times a year. The forecasts will be scrutinized for any hints about the timing of future Fed action.
In its most recent forecasts in March, Fed officials predicted that the economy would grow as little as 2.3 percent this year ? not enough to quickly drive down unemployment ? or as high as 2.8 percent. It forecast that the unemployment rate would dip to between 7.3 percent and 7.5 percent by year's end.
If the Fed dims its outlook for growth and employment, investors would likely read that to mean the central bank will delay any scaling back of its stimulus. But if the Fed upgrades its forecasts, that could suggest that it's moving closer to reducing its bond purchases.
Some analysts think that in his news conference, Bernanke will want to signal to investors that the Fed is moving toward at least the start of a reduced pace of bond purchases in the second half of the year. Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at the Martin Smith School of Business at California State University, suggested one possible approach: The Fed could reduce its $85 billion a month in purchases to about $60 billion in September, then to about $35 billion early next year, then stop the purchases altogether by spring.
Even when the Fed stops buying bonds, it's expected to maintain its current holdings, which would continue to exert downward pressure on long-term rates.
Whatever guidance Bernanke offers Wednesday could help steady markets for a key reason: It will reduce uncertainty.
Margie Patel, a portfolio manager at Wells Fargo Capital Management, thinks investors will remain calm even after the Fed slows its stimulus. She noted that the economy has been improving, however gradually.
"There's no sector you can look at that's extremely dependent on the low rates for growth, even housing," she said. "If rates went up modestly, housing is still more affordable than it has been in years."
___
AP Business Writers Christina Rexrode and Matthew Craft in New York contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/world-looks-bernanke-clarify-stimulus-plans-100441204.html
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