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The C3 Framework encourages ambitious inquiry-based social studies teaching. While inquiry is regularly recommended as a preferred pedagogy, research has shown that social studies teachers rarely engage students in inquiry. This exploratory study surveyed social studies teachers in one school district in a southeastern state to update our understanding of teachers' instructional beliefs and practices related to inquiry and the C3 Framework. Survey responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics and open coding. Findings indicate that the majority of teachers use instructional practices that may be supportive of the C3 Framework and that the ideas within the C3 Framework resonate with most respondents. At the same time, teachers reported challenges with some key concepts within the Framework, such as taking informed action in the classroom and using questions to initiate an inquiry. While the idea of inquiry as espoused by the C3 Framework resonated with teachers, the extent to which they both believe in and practice inquiry methods is unclear and necessitates further study. This study is an initial step to inform future research and efforts to implement the C3 Framework in K-12 social studies classrooms.

The Common Core Standards (CCS) for English Language Arts and College, Career, and Civic Life Framework (C3) require social studies educators to reconsider connections between literacy and history teaching. In this article we examine three perspectives on literacy teaching: content area literacy, disciplinary literacy, and critical literacy. While some scholars see these perspectives as contradictory or in competition, we demonstrate how content, disciplinary, and critical literacy teaching can complement each other and facilitate teaching to and beyond the CCS standards and C3 framework in intermediate, middle school, and high school history instruction. Our article includes teaching examples as well as appendices of teacher resources.

PurposeThe C3 Framework is a recent example in a long history within the field of social studies education of efforts to engage teachers and students in inquiry-oriented teaching and learning. While there is some research regarding the efficacy of the inquiry design model (IDM) of the C3 Framework, few studies have sought to engage social studies teachers as coresearchers as they integrate the framework. This study addressed a persistent divide between the theory and practice of integrating inquiry in the social studies.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, a classroom teacher and a university-based researcher conducted a hybrid action research study to understand the instructional shifts that occur as the C3 Framework is fully implemented into instruction.FindingsBased on the findings, the authors present a theory of action to highlight key opportunities to shift instruction, while also acknowledging the factors that might mitigate those shifts. In particular, the authors focus on teacher decision-making and contextual factors that allow for and hinder the full integration of inquiry.Originality/valueThis study is unique in developing a hybrid action research/qualitative case study that provides insider knowledge related to improving social studies teaching and learning.

Tortajada, Agustín et alt. ; C3 glomerulopathies (C3G) are a group of severe renal diseases with distinct patterns of glomerular inflammation and C3 deposition caused by complement dysregulation. Here we report the identification of a familial C3G-associated genomic mutation in the gene complement factor H-related 1 (CFHR1), which encodes FHR1. The mutation resulted in the duplication of the N-terminal short consensus repeats (SCRs) that are conserved in FHR2 and FHR5. We determined that native FHR1, FHR2, and FHR5 circulate in plasma as homo- and hetero-oligomeric complexes, the formation of which is likely mediated by the conserved N-terminal domain. In mutant FHR1, duplication of the N-terminal domain resulted in the formation of unusually large multimeric FHR complexes that exhibited increased avidity for the FHR1 ligands C3b, iC3b, and C3dg and enhanced competition with complement factor H (FH) in surface plasmon resonance (SPR) studies and hemolytic assays. These data revealed that FHR1, FHR2, and FHR5 organize a combinatorial repertoire of oligomeric complexes and demonstrated that changes in FHR oligomerization influence the regulation of complement activation. In summary, our identification and characterization of a unique CFHR1 mutation provides insights into the biology of the FHRs and contributes to our understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms underlying C3G. Copyright © 2013, American Society for Clinical Investigation. ; Work in this report was funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (SAF2011-26583), the Fundación Renal Iñigo Alvarez de Toledo and the 7FP European Union project EURenOmics to S. Rodríguez de Córdoba; the "Ramón Areces" Foundation, the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (SAF2011-22988), and the "Red Temática de Investigación Cooperativa en Cáncer(RTICC)" (RD06/0020/1001) to O. Llorca; the Spanish "Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad" (PI0900268) to P. Sánchez-Corral; the MRC UK (G0701298) to C.L. Harris; and the Spanish "Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad" (PS09/00122) to M. López Trascasa. In addition, this work was supported by a grant from the Autonomous Region of Madrid (S2010/BMD-2316) to S. Rodríguez de Córdoba, O. Llorca, M. López Trascasa, and P. Sánchez-Corral. M.C. Pickering is a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow in Clinical Science (WT098476MA). H. Yébenes was supported by a postdoctoral contract by the RTICC, and C. Abarrategui-Garrido was supported by the "Fundación de Investigación Biomédica del Hospital Universitario La Paz." ; Peer reviewed