A Method to Increase Student Interaction Using Student Groups and Peer Review over the Internet

A method of peer review for student groups is proposed. In this method, groups of students publish their assignments results over the Internet. A fellow student group reviews their work and publishes their findings (on the Internet). Finally, the two groups debate their points of view in front of the class. The debate and healthy competition among groups give the students a chance to learn how to give and receive criticism in a constructive way. This should increase the students' ability to interact and work in groups, an important skill for computer science professionals.     

Effects of 6-month soccer and traditional physical activity programmes on body composition,cardiometabolic risk factors,inflammatory, oxidative stress markers and cardiorespiratory fitness in obese boys

Physical activity is important in obesity prevention, but the effectiveness of different physical activity modalities remains to be determined among children. The main purpose of this study was to compare the effects of a 6-month soccer programme and a traditional physical activity programme on changes in body composition, cardiometabolic risk factors, inflammatory and oxidative markers, cardiorespiratory fitness and perceived psychological status in obese boys. Eighty-eight boys (8–12 years; BMI > +2 standard deviations of WHO reference values) participated in one of three groups: soccer, traditional activity and control. Soccer and traditional activity programmes involved 3 sessions per week for 60–90 min at an average intensity of 70–80% of maximal heart rate. Control group participated in activities of normal daily living. All boys participated in school physical education, two sessions per week of 45–90-min. Measurements were taken at baseline and after 6 months, and included body size and composition, cardiometabolic risk factors, inflammatory and oxidative markers, cardiorespiratory fitness and perceived psychological status. Physical activity and dietary intake were assessed before and immediately following the intervention. The three groups had similar characteristics at baseline. After 6 months, both intervention groups had significantly lower relative fatness (% fat), waist circumference and total cholesterol, and higher cardiorespiratory fitness, self-esteem, perceived physical competence and attraction to physical activity compared with control group. In conclusion, physical activity interventions over 6 months positively influenced several indicators of health status among obese boys. The results also suggested that soccer has the potential as an effective tool for the prevention and reduction of childhood obesity and associated consequences.     

Racially liberatory pedagogy: a Black Lives Matter approach to education

Abstract

In this study, we sought to understand how Black lives matter (BLM) epistemology, as displayed through six months of social media content from official accounts, can inform a racially liberatory pedagogy in higher education for Black and other racially minoritized students. We found BLM, through Facebook and Twitter, situated intersectional Black culture in the contemporary struggle for liberation. BLM also offered information that can raise its followers’ intersectional critical consciousness. Additionally, BLM content highlighted actions that can support Black liberation. Lastly, BLM content supported the building of relationships and naming of emotions as Black people work toward their liberation. In this sense, BLM connected with elements of a racially liberatory pedagogy and offered nuances that advanced the framework. We discuss the implications of this framework for teaching in higher education.     

Teaching writing to middle school students in Portugal and in Brazil: an exploratory study

Learning how to write is a challenging process, typically developed in schools. Teachers’ practices in teaching writing, however, have been under researched. The aim of this study was to survey a sample of teachers from Portugal (n = 96) and Brazil (n = 99) about their practices for and perceptions about writing instruction. Teachers reported on time devoted to student writing and the teaching of writing, on their practices to promote students’ self-regulated writing, adaptations for less skilled writers, and their perceptions about writing and the teaching of writing. Findings from this survey raised concerns about the quality of writing instruction in both countries. Teachers reported little time devoted for writing and the teaching of writing in their classes. The majority of the teachers rarely used practices to promote students’ self-regulated writing or applied explicit teaching methods for writing instruction. Both Portuguese and Brazilian teachers perceived writing as a shared responsibility. Brazilian teachers, however, agreed with this perception more strongly. Portuguese teachers’ perception of the importance of writing for students’ academic and professional success was higher than the perceptions held by Brazilian teachers. A positive correlation was found between teachers’ preparation to teach writing and their practices to promote students’ self-regulated writing. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Social representations as mediators of practice in mathematics classrooms with immigrant students

This article suggests that a critical perspective of the notion of social representations can offer useful insights into understanding practices of teaching and learning in mathematics classrooms with immigrant students. Drawing on literature using social representations, previous empirical studies are revisited to examine three specific questions: what are the dominant social representations that permeate the mathematics classroom with immigrant students? What impact do these social representations have on classroom practices? What are the spaces for changing these practices through becoming reflective and critically aware of these representations? These questions are addressed mostly in relation to teachers’ representations, though the article also draws on data from research with students and parents to illustrate the diversity of representations and to argue for a critical and reflective perspective.     

Relationships between macro and micro socio-cultural contexts: implications for the study of interactions in the mathematics classroom

In this paper I attempt to clarify how the relationship between macro and micro social contexts has been addressed in the Vygotskian and Neo-Piagetian approaches to learning. For each approach I look at how key scholars (Cole, 1977; Perret-Clermont, Perret and Bell, 1991) come to view context as central to their theories of cognitive development. In order to illustrate my review of the dominant strands of empirical research I refer to studies that focus on the uses, learning and understanding of mathematics. I start the paper with the socio-cultural Vygotskian approach. This is closely associated with my own research into the relationship between culture and learning. Not surprisingly, I find biases in this body of research in terms of the macro and micro features of contexts which were analysed. In an attempt to gain insights into alternative ways of conceptualising these relationships I explore work which has adopted a socio-psychological approach. In the final part of the paper I discuss how these insights can be used to broaden our basis for studying interactions in the mathematics classroom and conclude by relating my ideas to new developments in socio-cultural theory.This revised version was published online in September 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Predicting the Q of junior researchers using data from the first years of publication

A researcher's Q denotes their ability in scientific research as a real number. Due to their short presence in the academic environment, junior researchers have unstable Q values. This article aims to present a model that uses data from junior researchers’ first years of publication to predict their stable Q values. We tested the deep model and the linear regression model and compared their accuracies. We have obtained reliable results showing that the predicted values estimated with both models are better than the estimated Q values computed with the Q model itself when using only data from the first five years of publication. Lastly, we note that both approaches are robust approaches to deal with the inflation of citation bias.