Faculty Research & Creative Scholarship 2019: Q-R

Journal Title: School Science and Mathematics

Abstract: There is a compelling need to develop an algebra teacher self‐efficacy instrument (ATSEI) as algebra continues to be considered a gatekeeper course for postsecondary educational and career opportunities, which is seen as a crucial piece in closing the achievement gap. This paper reports on the development and validation of the ATSEI, an instrument that measures two domains, Efficacy To Do School Algebra (Knowledge Efficacy, KE‐A) and Efficacy to Teach Algebra (Personal Teaching Efficacy, PTE‐A) along six categories. Four of the categories represented content standards (variables, functions, patterns, and modeling) and two of the categories represented process standards (technology and concrete models, and multiple representations). Through conducting an exploratory factor analysis across two phases, the instrument was reduced and refined from an initial 118 items developed from a curriculum analysis to 36 items that reflected two significant categories, Functions and Technology. The ATSEI measure is validated for in‐service mathematics teachers and thus provides an instrument to examine need and impact in professional development venues. The specificity of the ATSEI allows those working with teachers to be better able to support them in the field and in return positively influence the learning outcomes of the students they teach.
Author: Sarah Quebec Fuentes, Associate Professor Elementary, Middle School, and Secondary Mathematics Education

Journal Title: Intervention in School and Clinic

Abstract: Meaningful inclusion of quantitative reasoning into mathematics instruction requires meaningful ways to evaluate it. Few formative assessments exist to evaluate the strategies students use when reasoning mathematically. The Framework for Evaluating Quantitative Reasoning Strategies presented in this article provides teachers with categories for evaluating types of quantitative reasoning strategies students use for problems in the mathematical domain of number and operations. Numerous examples of the types of strategies students use for comparing fractions and how to evaluate the complexity of these strategies are provided. Included are research-based instructional recommendations for moving students toward a deeper conceptual understanding of fractions as numbers.
Author: Sarah Quebec Fuentes, Associate Professor Elementary, Middle School, and Secondary Mathematics Education

Journal Title: Australian Mathematics Teacher

Description: This article describes an action research project designed to help students improve the quality of their small group discussions. Practical classroom advice is included.
Author: Sarah Quebec Fuentes, Associate Professor Elementary, Middle School, and Secondary Mathematics Education

Description:Co-published with University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA), this textbook prepares aspiring educational leaders for the important and challenging task of supporting instruction in their schools. Instructional Leadership in the Content Areas equips leaders—who might not have content backgrounds that align with those of the teachers they supervise—with research-based practices and knowledge specific to a range of subject areas. Presenting over 20 problems-based cases at the elementary, middle, and high school levels and across seven areas of content, this book deepens knowledge of exemplary instruction, improves feedback dialogues, and helps leaders work effectively alongside teachers and instructional specialists. Rich with activities, resources, and discussion questions, this casebook provides a broad overview of instructional leadership and the tools for school leaders to improve and support classroom practices across all content areas in intentional ways that support career-long professional growth.
Editor: Sarah Quebec Fuentes, Associate Professor, Elementary, Middle School, and Secondary Mathematics Education

Journal Title: The Journal of Social Studies Research

Abstract: This study explored early stages of civic engagement among 48 young adolescents by examining what they think about as a result of participating in various civic learning activities during a summer civics camp, and whether or not this thinking varied based on participants’ entering civic profiles. Participant thinking was assessed through concept maps. Based on survey data, participants were classified into entering profiles of civic development: justice-oriented or participatory youth; civically purposeful or not, and civically involved or not. Findings show that, of the eight camp activities studied, interactions with guest speakers from various community agencies were most likely to generate thinking about knowledge and civic action. Participant thinking did not differentiate in any consistent ways based on whether or not they were justice-oriented. However, there were differences in thinking when participants were classified by presence or absence of civic purpose and civic involvement.
Author: Brandy P. Quinn, Assistant Professor, Educational Psychology, Middle and Secondary Education

Opening Paragraph: Uno de los aspectos más complejos del encuentro entre españoles y andinos es la cuestión de los derechos a la tierra que, ya en el año 1956, el antropólogo John V. Murra (1980 [1956]) había notado, pues involucra la transición entre las costumbres étnicas transmitidas oralmente y la ley peninsular escrita2. Esta transición se ensombrece dado el mal entendimiento de los cronistas observadores que no pudieron escapar de sus propios filtros europeos ni, en su mayoría, entender o hablar las lenguas nativas. Otro elemento para el estudio colonial es la carencia de manuscritos mundanos, dada la falta de oficiales reales en las áreas rurales en los primeros 30 años y más, después del enfrentamiento en la plaza de Cajamarca en 1532.
Author: Susan Ramirez, Neville G. Penrose Chair of History and Latin American Studies, History

Dr. Ramsay is one of the guest editors of this particular issue as well as an co-author and author of two articles in this edition: "Introduction to the Special Issue on Military Moral Injury" by Carrie Doehring and Nancy J. Ramsay and "Moral Injury as Loss and Grief with Attention to Ritual Resources for Care" solely by Nancy J. Ramsay.

Journal Description: Pastoral Psychology is one of the oldest and most well established academic journals in the field of psychology and religion/spirituality. Since 1950, the journal offers an international interdisciplinary forum for the publication of original papers that discuss the work of caring for, understanding, and exploring human beings as persons, in families, in small groups, and in community. This peer-reviewed journal brings the best of psychological, behavioral, social, and human sciences research into critical engagement with pastoral concerns (local, institutional, societal, political, international, and other).
Editor/Author: Nancy J. Ramsay, Professor of Pastoral Theology & Pastoral Care

Dr. Ramsay is the editor of this book as well as a contributing author of the chapter titled "Analyzing and Engaging Asymmetries of Power: Intersectionality as a Resource for Practices of Care"

Description: Pastoral Theology and Care: Critical Trajectories in Theory and Practice offers a collection of essays by leading pastoral theologians that represent emerging trajectories in the fields of pastoral theology and care. The topics explored include: qualitative research and ethnography, advances in neuroscience, care across pluralities and intersections in religion and spiritualties, the influence of neoliberal economics in socio-economic vulnerabilities, postcolonial theory and its implications, the intersections of race and religion in caring for black women, and the usefulness of intersectionality for pastoral practice. Each of the essays offers a richly illustrated review of a practice of pastoral care relationally and in the public domain.
Editor/Author: Nancy J. Ramsay, Professor of Pastoral Theology & Pastoral Care

Journal Title: Childhood Education

Abstract: Others' success can be a powerful motivation to innovate, which sometimes means finding new ways to return to beneficial activities. Finland's academic success has prompted many to explore that country's policies and practices, particularly regarding providing opportunities for children to enjoy more unstructured play.
Author: Deborah Rhea, Professor, Associate Dean of Health Sciences & Research, Director LiiNK Project, Kinesiology

Journal Title: Communications in Analysis and Geometry

Abstract: The eta invariant appears regularly in index theorems but is known to be directly computable from the spectrum only in certain examples of locally symmetric spaces of compact type. In this work, we derive some general formulas useful for calculating the eta invariant on closed manifolds. Specifically, we study the eta invariant on nilmanifolds by decomposing the spin Dirac operator using Kirillov theory. In particular, for general Heisenberg three-manifolds, the spectrum of the Dirac operator and the eta invariant are computed in terms of the metric, lattice, and spin structure data. There are continuous families of geometrically, spectrally different Heisenberg three-manifolds whose Dirac operators have constant eta invariant. In the appendix, some needed results of L. Richardson and C. C. Moore are extended from spaces of functions to spaces of spinors.
Author: Ken Richardson, Professor and Graduate Director, Mathematics

Journal Title: Annals of Global Analysis and Geometry

Abstract: Let M be an even-dimensional, oriented closed manifold. We show that the restriction of a singular Riemannian flow on M to a small tubular neighborhood of each connected component of its singular stratum is foliated diffeomorphic to an isometric flow on the same neighborhood. We then prove a formula that computes characteristic numbers of M as the sum of residues associated with the infinitesimal foliation at the components of the singular stratum of the flow.
Author: Ken Richardson, Professor & Graduate Director, Mathematics