The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services by the Department of Education Organization Act, which President Jimmy Carter signed into law on October 17, 1979.The Department of Education is administered by the United States Secretary of Education. It has 4,400 employees - the smallest staff of the Cabinet agencies - and an annual budget of $68 billion. The President's 2023 Budget request is for 88.3 billion, which includes funding for children with disabilities (IDEA), pandemic recovery, early childhood education, Pell Grants, Title I, work assistance, among other programs. Its official abbreviation is ED ("DoE" refers to the United States Department of Energy) but is also abbreviated informally as "DoEd".
This text outlines the author’s personal epistemological and methodological foundations in adult education research, emphasizing a journey of continuous learning and openness. It is written on the basis of 25 years of research experience and many empirical projects. One main thesis is that a curious and open approach to research paradigms is crucial, alongside lifelong learning research. Further, maintaining clear epistemological and philosophical positions is essential to avoid arbitrariness. Here a constructivist view is adopted, acknowledging that the social world is interpreted and meaning-laden, interpretations are shaped by shared patterns (culture, language) and individual experiences. However, social structures and inequalities, while socially constructed, impact individual actions. Social phenomena in this sense are both objectively structured and subjectively interpreted. Thus, research must address the interplay of individual agency and social structures. A pragmatistic methodology, advocating for flexible method selection based on the research question, is put at the forefront. Pragmatism acknowledges the context-dependent nature of research and the influence of researchers’ beliefs. Aiming for use-inspired basic research, generalizable knowledge derived from real-life problems should be addressed. Research can inform pedagogical practice by offering new perspectives and challenging traditional interpretations. At the same time, one has to be aware that research findings are subject to diverse interpretations, requiring clear and honest communication. Regarding the concrete realization of research projects, the article argues for selecting methods carefully and considering a range of factors. Ethical considerations are paramount, and the pros and cons of mixed-method designs are discussed. Certain preconditions that are relevant for all research projects are examined here, namely openness, teamwork and collaborative exchange, continuous dialogue, networking, and time.
With the rapid expansion of online education and continuous advancements in information technology, in-depth analysis and understanding of students’ learning motivation have become increasingly critical. Students’ learning motivation may affect their participation and achievements, making accurate identification and classification of learning motivation significant. This study proposes an advanced integrated model that combines Long Short-Term Memory networks (LSTM) with Neural Ordinary Differential Equations (Neural ODEs) for the classification and analysis of learning motivation. The LSTM component focuses on capturing long-term dependencies in time series data, while the Neural ODEs part is responsible for modeling continuous dynamic processes. We delve into the mathematical properties of the model and provide comprehensive theoretical analysis through theorems, reasoning, and inference. Moreover, we designed a series of rigorous experiments using real online education datasets from the Tianchi platform for validation. The experimental results show that the integrated model significantly outperforms standalone LSTM, Neural ODEs, and the baseline Random Forest model on multiple performance metrics such as accuracy, recall, and F1 score. We also deeply analyze the contribution of different model components and discuss various implementation details and hyperparameter selections. The main findings and methods of this study not only offer new perspectives and tools for analyzing learning motivation in the field of online education but also provide valuable insights for other time series and continuous data classification tasks.
Objective: The authors sought to collect qualitative data with support from the literature to elucidate the impact of COVID-19 on U.S. parents and guardians working in the library profession. Methods: The research team conducted a literature search in January 2022, with an update completed in January 2023 of several bibliographic databases and Google including the search terms COVID-19, parents, guardians, librarians, workplace, among others. In addition, requests for participation in a survey was sent out over listservs within and outside of the Medical Library Association (MLA), including regional library groups, and on social media to collect stories from library professionals who were parents or guardians during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from the survey and the literature search were analyzed and categorized according to theme. Results: There were 51 respondents to the survey and 90 relevant studies found in the literature search. The most prevalent themes that emerged from the data analysis were “employer support/lack of support,” “childcare issues,” “mental health/stress/burnout,” “remote work–positive outcomes,” and “flexibility.” Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic affected parents and guardians who were library professionals beyond childcare issues. While organizations and individual workers have learned to live with the pandemic and minimize risks of transmission, COVID-19 brought to light some of the existing and underlying issues that are specific to parents and guardians who are library workers in the United States. Further research is warranted. Keywords: COVID-19, librarianship, parents, guardians
Abstract AIM The purpose of the study was to investigate whether course transformation teaching strategies using repetitive quizzing and peer-tutor supplemental instruction help enhance students' learning experiences and learning outcomes based on self-determination theory. BACKGROUND Undergraduate baccalaureate pharmacology and pathophysiology courses were redesigned as part of a campus-wide course transformation program to promote students' perceptions of learning and academic achievement. METHOD Students in the nursing pathopharmacology course participated in the two-time online perception survey (pretest and posttest) and knowledge-based exams. RESULTS Results revealed that the course transformation implemented to support students' basic psychological needs was significantly associated with both learning outcomes and students' feelings of competence while also decreasing attrition rates. CONCLUSION Considering the depth and breadth of pathopharmacology content, the teaching intervention using repetitive quizzing and peer-tutor supplemental instruction may contribute to improving students' understanding of the course content while promoting their competence.
Back-and-forth conversations with adults are critical for developing children's language, and, therefore, an important part of the early childhood classroom learning environment; however, the specific nature of teacher feedback, one component of teacher–child conversations, on child language has not been widely studied. This article examined preschool teacher–child conversations during interactive book reading. We coded and analyzed the frequency and content of teacher talk, including feedback, among 20 teachers (11 who participated in a language and literacy intervention; 9 in business-as-usual instruction). Findings revealed that, particularly when teachers were guided on how to initiate and sustain intentional conversations, more conversations took place and were associated with higher overall classroom quality on a commonly used global assessment (the Classroom Assessment Scoring System); likewise, more teacher feedback occurred in intervention classrooms. The frequency of teacher feedback was uniquely linked to children's vocabulary learning on standardized measures beyond the effects of global classroom quality. Findings support the importance of understanding and supporting teacher feedback as an essential part of classroom conversations.
