Democracy at work in and through experimental schooling

Through an exploration of two experimental schools, Oruaiti (1950s) and Discovery 1 (2000s), we aim to understand the socio-political contexts that create spaces for experimentation and examine their impact on mainstream schooling. Caught between competing, often contradictory, discourses such experiments struggle between the ‘regeneration’ and ‘reproduction’ functions of schooling. However, we argue that while they have limited impact on mainstream school reform, they contribute ideas of a democratic society and its citizenry. Consequently, they provide ‘windows’ into real-life laboratories in which social debates regarding the function and power of schooling, and specific visions of democracy are played out.     

Use of Internet services and resources in the engineering colleges of Punjab and Haryana (India): A study

This article reports a survey on the use of Internet services and resources in the engineering colleges of Punjab and Haryana states of India. Data were collected by using a questionnaire and follow-up interviews with Internet users, i.e. teachers and students of engineering colleges. The response rate was 80.8%. Results showed that all the respondents make frequent use of the Internet because they have access either at college or at home. The survey revealed that the majority of the respondents, i.e. 65.6%, access the Internet from college or their workplace. More than 75% of the respondents use the Internet services mainly for educational and research purposes. Google and Yahoo search engines are found to be more widely used than other search engines. More than 70% of the respondents feel that the Internet is useful, informative, easy to use, inexpensive and time saving.     

Determining the Intelligibility of Einsteinian Concepts with Middle School Students

Research in Science Education - The modern Einsteinian conception of space, time, matter and radiation represents a radical paradigm shift compared with the traditional Newtonian physics that...     

Combined Analysis of Anti SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM Responses in COVID19 Patients in India

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a global health problem, India being the second most affected country. The kinetics of antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 in Indian population is not studied yet. To understand serological response in relation to age, gender, time period and severity of disease, Roche Elecsys anti-SARS-CoV-2 test was used which analysed both IgM and IgG. One hundred and three COVID-19 patients were enrolled. Seropositivity was seen in 64% of patients, with 33% at ≤ 7 days, 62% between 8 and 15 days and 81% at ≥ 16 days from the time of admission. Men (65%) showed higher antibody response than women (59%), whereas no difference was observed in seropositivity with respect to age of the patients. Dynamics of antibody responses revealed individual variations. Patients in ICU had higher antibody reactivity with 67% positivity as compared to 60% positivity in non-ICU patients. Kinetics of antibody response during COVID-19 disease varied in relation to gender, age, time period and severity and these factors might play an important role in treatment and control of COVID-19.     

Academics' attitudes towards use of electronic journals: A case study of Punjab and Chandigarh

The article examines academics attitude towards e-journal use. A well structured questionnaire was designed to elicit the opinions of the users. Responses were gathered from 542 faculty members of five universities. The results of the study showed that the characteristics that affect the choice of e-format over print in order of preference are ‘faster access’, ‘available from desktop’, ‘convenience’, ‘remote access’, ‘timeliness’, ‘available at all times’, ‘hyperlinks’, ‘multi-user access’, ‘currency of information’, ‘inclusion of audio–video material’, ‘interactivity’ and ‘animation of graphics’. The characteristics that affect the choice of print format over electronic in order of priority are ‘physical comfort’, ‘portability’, ‘ability to underline’, ‘familiarity with format’ and ‘ability to browse’. A majority of the teachers use e-journals for ‘research’, ‘teaching’, ‘writing reports’, ‘current awareness’, ‘background research’ and ‘internal/external presentations’. The problems faced in accessing e-journals are ‘access difficulties’, ‘discomfort of reading from computer screen’, ‘lack of IT knowledge/skill’, ‘information overload’ etc. A majority of the teachers want future e-journals to have features such as ‘full text index of every article’, ‘searching capability across a wide range of journal articles’, ‘searching capability within an article, display relationship between a wide range of works’ and ‘links to multimedia files’, etc. On the basis of the findings, some suggestions are made for maximizing the use of e-journals.     

Gendering Graphics in Indian Superhero Comic Books and Some Notes for Provincializing Cultural Studies

With a focus on the Hindi language superhero comics produced by Raj Comics since the 1980s, this article investigates instances of “modernities in the backyard” and their implications for studying postcolonial popular culture. The graphic narratives in the comic books are neither simply Westernized or transgressive, nor necessarily framed by a mythicized or Orientalised discursive framework. Instead, they register a distinctive heritage combining vernacular and mythic prototypes with hypermodern visions with which to imagine new powers for Indian men and women, even though women may continue to be shaped by the masculinist, desirous gaze and modulated by patriarchal expectations to do with female docility and marriageability. The enquiry provides unique material to chart out the lineaments of postcolonial culture, gender, and power in order to provincialize the scope of cultural studies.     

Reflective and integrative learning and the role of instructors and institutions—evidence from Malaysia

Higher Education - The shift in contemporary workplaces has caused higher education institutions to place importance on developing non-academic attributes along with academic success to help...     

Ophthalmic Presentation of Disseminated Tuberculosis with Relapse-Immunological Profile

TB as the cause of uveitis varies from 0.5 to 10.5%; low sensitivity of confirmatory laboratory investigations and inconsistency of diagnostic criteria leads to paucity of data. Diagnosis requires a high level of suspicion and is often presumptive based on indirect evidences. Interferon gamma, Interleukin-2 and Neopterin are key biomarkers in immuno-regulation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. The relative shift from Interleukin-2 towards Interferon gamma (Interferon gamma/Interleukin-2) is more discriminatory for active tuberculosis. Protein carbonyl and Malondialdehyde, as oxidative stress markers, characterize active tuberculosis. A case of disseminated TB presenting with acute uveitis had a recurrent tubercular lymphadenitis after completing category I treatment under revised national tuberculosis control programme. The present study evaluates the potential utility of above mentioned biomarkers to predict atypical presentation in difficult cases of tuberculosis. Though tuberculous uveitis is amenable to treatment in early course of disease, the delay in diagnosis can have serious consequences for the patient.