Looking at the keyboard or the monitor: relationship with text production processes

In this paper we explored text production differences in an expository text production task between writers who looked mainly at the keyboard and writers who looked mainly at the monitor. Eye-tracking technology and keystroke-logging were combined to systematically describe and define these two groups in respect of the complex interplay between text production and the reading of one’s own emerging text. Findings showed that monitor gazers typed significantly faster and were more productive writers. They also read their own text more, and they frequently read in parallel with writing. Analysis of fixation durations suggests that more cognitive processing is in use during reading in parallel with writing than during reading in pauses. Keyboard gazers used the left and right cursor keys significantly more. We suggest that this is because they revised their texts in a much more serial mode than monitor gazers. Finally, analysis of the characteristics of the final texts showed no differences between the groups.     

Social capital,human capital and parent–child relation quality: interacting for children’s educational achievement?

We analyse the utility of social capital for children’s achievement, and if this utility interacts with family human capital and the quality of the parent-child relationship. Our focus is on parental activities directly related to children’s school work. Our data stem from a Swedish cohort born in 1953 and consist of both survey and register data. We find that parents with more human capital tended to offer their children more social capital. OLS regressions showed that, when present, social capital was directly related to children’s grades and its utility for achievement did not depend on parents’ human capital. The utility of social capital was enhanced when combined with a very good parent-child relation.     

Happy objects,happy men? Affect and materiality in vocational training

This article investigates the prevailing social inertia of vocational training. Previous research indicates that gendered social norms contribute to sustaining gender segregation. Few studies, however, have paid attention to how the interplay of emotional and material factors impact on gender norms in vocational training. The article builds on an ethnographic study in a Swedish upper-secondary educational programme traditionally dominated by masculinity norms, namely the Building and Construction programme. Employing Sara Ahmed's notion of happy objects, the article centres on vocational students' expressed joy in the practical work and shows how joy contributes to sustaining and challenging dominant masculinity patterns. Though students enjoyed practical work, the study indicates that a particular version of happiness was normalised which ruled out non-heterosexual and female students. The article suggests that further studies of social inertia in vocational training need to account for the interconnectedness of the emotional, material, and corporeal dimensions of gender.     

Learning to argue as a biotechnologist: disprivileging opposition to genetically modified food

In the public discussion of genetically modified (GM) food the representations of science as a social good, conducted in the public interest to solve major problems are being subjected to intense scrutiny and questioning. Scientists working in these areas have been seen to struggle for the position of science in society. However few in situ studies of how the debate about science appears in learning situations at the university level have been undertaken. In the present study an introductory course in biotechnology was observed during one semester, lectures and small group supervision concerning GM food were videotaped and student’s reports on the issue were collected. The ethnographic approach to Discourse analysis was conducted by means of a set of carefully selected and representative observations of how a group of students learn to argue and appropriate views held in the Discourse they are enculturated into. While socio-scientific issues (SSIs) are often associated with achieving scientific literacy in terms of “informed decisions” involving “rational thought and Discourse” this study shows that SSI in practice, in the context studied here, is primarily concerned with using scientific language to privilege professional understandings of GMOs and discredit public worries and concerns. Scientific claims were privileged over ethical, economical and political claims which were either made irrelevant or rebutted. The students were seen to appropriate a Discourse model held in the biotechnological community that public opposition towards GMO is due to “insufficient knowledge”. The present study offers insights into biotechnology students’ decision making regarding socio-scientific issues, while also demonstrating the utility of Discourse analysis for understanding learning in this university context. Implications for reflection on the institutional Discourse of science and teaching of controversial issues in science are drawn and the study contributes to the investigation of claims of scientific literacy coupled to SSIs and argumentation     

School Schedules Affect Sleep Timing in Children and Contribute to Partial Sleep Deprivation

Although the environmental light/dark cycle is the main zeitgeber for the human species, the social cues seem to be important in the synchronization of circadian rhythms. In Brazil, the existence of two school schedules—one with only morning classes (MG) and other with only afternoon classes (AG)—allows the investigation of the effect of school activities on light exposure and sleep/wake patterns in children. Forty‐seven children wore wrist actimeters for a week for registration of light and sleep data. MG children presented shorter sleep duration on school days than the children from the AG. The results showed that during school days MG children were exposed to bright light earlier in the morning when compared to AG children. Nevertheless, there were no differences in light exposure after sunset. The results reflect the role of school schedules and artificial light in shaping light exposure, and its association with sleep timing in children.     

Designing science laboratories: learning environments,school architecture and teaching and learning models

This article on secondary schools science laboratories in Portugal focuses on how school space functions as a pedagogical and political instrument by contributing to shape the conditions for teaching and learning dynamics. The article places the impact of changes to school layouts within the larger context of a public school renovation programme, discussing how school space functions as a pedagogical and political instrument. The focus is on science laboratories as a particular learning environment for science education. The study, conducted between 2010 and 2011 in 13 renovated schools within the framework of the Portuguese Secondary School Modernisation Programme, drew on document analysis, interviews, pupil and teacher surveys and site-specific focus groups. One of the main findings is that teachers found that science laboratories were the most controversial and debated of all the renovated learning spaces. Considering that the science laboratory layout was intended to be universal across all schools, there was little intervention by the architects responsible for the renovation of the schools. Focusing on the analysis of the decision to change the science laboratory design within the aims of the education policy, this article discusses how teachers’ criticisms were a response to some of the educational policy goals underlying the renovation of school buildings and the potential impact on science education, namely, the relationship between flexibility of space organisation and pedagogical approaches.     

Synthetic speech and computer aided reading for reading disabled children

A simple way to partially compensate for word decoding problems is to let disabled readers have a micro-computer pronounce the words they are unable to read. Using a program developed for the IBM-PC/AT and a Scandinavian multilingual text-to-speech unit, children can read a textfile (of any size) on the monitor and use a mouse to request the immediate pronunciation of a word. In study 1, Grade-2 children did not perform better on a reading comprehension test when using computer-aided reading, but they rated their understanding significantly higher than when using a text. In study 2, the effect of computer-aided reading in special education settings was studied. Results indicated that older children, from grade 4 and up, benefited more from the computer aided reading than did younger ones. However, both experimental and control groups showed gains in several aspects of reading. Some children did not seem to have metacognitive skills enough to benefit from the computer-aided system. These children may initially need more extensive training in how to use the system and how to monitor their own reading. Reasons for letting the computer deliver the decoding aid as morphological segments are discussed.     

Knowing and teaching kinaesthetic experience in skateboarding: an example of sensory emplacement

The body has become a vital research object in several disciplines in recent years. Indeed, in the social sciences and humanities, a corporeal turn in which embodiment has become a key concept related to learning and socialisation is discussed. This cross-disciplinary paper addresses the epistemological question of how we know what we know and theoretically and empirically contributes to current arguments of a shift from embodiment to emplacement. In other words, this study strives for understanding of the intersection of mind, body and place through a focus on how bodily knowing is formed as part of a moving world. The purpose of the paper is to explore the kinaesthetic experience as bodily knowing in emplaced semi-formal teaching. Through long-term ethnography in a Swedish skateboard setting and in-depth analysis of digital visual material, this paper demonstrates how kinaesthetic experience might be viewed as knowing and how a particular type of this experience might be interpreted as explosiveness and, as such, an act of physical remembrance and energy transformation. Knowing is formed along paths of movement and rhythm, and kinaesthesia is identified as a multisensory experience. It is argued that a fruitful way of bridging the mind–body divide is to view the body as un/knowing, rendering it both knowing and not knowing simultaneously. Moreover, emplaced via its senses in a sociocultural and spatio-temporal environment, this conceptualisation of a moving body in a moving world might allow for re-thinking regarding how a body in context knows, teaches and, possibly, learns.     

EFFECTIVENESS OF THE FRIENDS FOR LIFE PROGRAM IN PORTUGUESE SCHOOLS: STUDY WITH A SAMPLE OF HIGHLY ANXIOUS CHILDREN

The FRIENDS for Life program is a cognitive–behavioral group program that targets anxiety in children. The main purpose of this study was to analyze the effectiveness of the Portuguese version of the FRIENDS for Life Program, which was implemented in schools to reduce anxiety problems in a group of highly anxious children. The study used a quasi‐experimental research design with two groups of children, an intervention (n = 17) and a wait‐list control group (n = 21), aged 8 to 12 years old. The impact of the program in reducing anxiety symptoms as assessed by children and mothers was analyzed through the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders‐Revised (SCARED‐R). The results show a statistically significant post intervention effect on anxiety symptoms evaluated by the child, but not by the mother. The implications of these results for the prevention of anxiety disorders in Portuguese schools are discussed.