Museums at the crossroad: Contributing to dialogue, curiosity and wonder in natural history museums

The first natural history collections opened to the public were inspired by a sense of curiosity and wonder about the products of nature. They were ‘cabinets of curiosities’ that offered a first-hand interaction between owner and visitors. Nowadays, these two facets of the museum experience—dialogue and wonder—have been lost, in part, due to the information overload coming via the media and the impersonal nature of the museum visit. This paper offers some reflections on the evolution of the museum visit, suggests some ways to rediscover this ‘sense of wonder’ and provides ideas on how to promote two-way communication with museum visitors. Two examples of exhibitions are offered as illustrations of the points discussed.     

Antecedents and consequences of autonomous information seeking motivation

Autonomously motivated individuals tend to enjoy activities more than those who are extrinsically motivated, and they also tend to invest more effort. Grounded in basic psychological needs theory, the current study examines the motivation of students' autonomous information seeking and its relationship with the amount of effort invested in and enjoyment derived from information seeking. Autonomy support and perceived competence were found to explain 34.7% of the variance in autonomous motivation while autonomous motivation, in turn, explained 13.1% of variance in effort and 25.8% variance in enjoyment. The model indicates a positive relationship between basic psychological needs and autonomous motivation. Higher students' autonomy support and perceived competence levels lead to increases in autonomous motivation to seek information. Higher autonomous motivation levels, similarly, lead to higher levels of effort and enjoyment. Findings confirm that intrinsically motivated students enjoy information seeking more and invest more effort in the activity. This highlights the importance of encouraging students to engage in information seeking independently, while providing the necessary guidance that would increase their competence.     

Spanish historic archives’ use of websites as a management transparency vehicle

Against the backdrop of Spain’s Transparency Act, this article discusses the presence or otherwise of a series of document types, proposed as management-related transparency indicators, on 61 (8 national and 53 provincial) historic archive websites. Although examples of good practice were identified, the information provided was found to be scant, in particular as regards lines of action, organisational objectives and yearly reports. The information most commonly provided on the websites included the collection classification chart, service use regulations and citizen charters. The inference drawn was that archives, so intently focused on their role in the application of the Act by the organisations they serve, neglect their own administrative obligations in respect of its provisions. The recommendation is that as government-funded and subsidised public service institutions, historic archives should exercise transparency by furnishing the information stipulated in the Act on their websites.     

Effects of AM3 (Inmunoferon) on increased serum concentrations of interleukin-6 and tumour necrosis factor receptors I and II in cyclists

The aims of this study were to examine the changes in plasma concentrations of inflammatory cytokines induced by training and competition in professional cyclists. We report the serum concentrations of interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a), tumour necrosis factor receptors I and II (TNFR-I and -II) in a prospective, randomized, double-blind trial involving the administration of AM3 (Inmunoferon), an oral booster immunomodulator, or placebo to 16 professional cyclists (n = 8 in each group) for 65 consecutive days. Serum was collected just before treatment began (baseline), at the end of pre-competition training, before the mountain stage of the competition (60 days), 4 h after finishing this stage (62 days), and 18 h after the fifth and last day of competition (65 days). To determine the normal levels of cytokines and soluble TNF receptors, individual samples from 14 moderately trained healthy controls were studied. After 60 days of training, the serum concentrations of IL-6 did not differ significantly from those at the beginning of the study for either group of cyclists (placebo and AM3). A significant rise was seen in IL-6 concentrations in both the AM3 and placebo groups at 62 days, 4 h after finishing the mountain stage. The increase was significantly greater in the placebo group than in the AM3 group. At 65 days of treatment, 18 h after the fifth and last day of competition, IL-6 concentrations were similar to those recorded at the end of the training, but were significantly higher in the placebo group than in the AM3 group. At the end of training, serum TNFR-I concentrations in both groups of cyclists were significantly lower than at baseline. The concentrations of serum TNFR-I and -II both 4 h after finishing the mountain stage and 18 h after the fifth and last day of competition were significantly higher than those recorded after training in both groups. Professional cycling competition is associated with increases in serum IL-6 and TNFR-I and -II concentrations. Inmunoferon treatment reduced significantly the concentrations of IL-6 but not those of TNFR-I and -II.     

The relative age effect on physical fitness in preschool children

ABSTRACT

The aim of the present study was to investigate the existence of a relative age effect (RAE) on physical fitness of preschoolers. Anthropometry and physical fitness were assessed in 3147 children (3–5 years old) using the PREFIT battery. Based on the birth year, participants were divided into 3year groups (3-, 4- and 5-years). Within each year group, 4quarter groups were created: quarter 1, preschoolers born from January to March; quarter 2, from April to June; quarter 3, from July to September; quarter 4, from October to December. The MANCOVA analysis revealed a main effect of year group (Wilks’ λ = 0.383; F_10,5996 = 369.64; p < 0.001, η_p ² = 0.381) and of quarter (Wilks’ λ = 0.874; F_15,8276.6 = 27.67; p < 0.001; η_p ² = 0.044) over the whole battery of tests. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report the existence of RAE at the preschool stage. In general, performance improved as the relative age increased (i.e., those born in quarter 1 performed better than those in the other quarters). Individualization strategies should be addressed within the same academic year not only in elementary or secondary years but also in preschoolers.     

Perceived efficacy of teachers in Macao and their alacrity to engage with inclusive education

ABSTRACT

This paper reports findings of a mixed methods study examining private school teachers’ perceptions of efficacy in dealing with the challenges presented by inclusive education in Macao. This is highly pertinent after the Government invited consultation to propose changes to amendments of the Decree Law of 1996 concerning the education of students with Special Education Needs (SEN) which will likely see private schools being required to accept these students in the future. Within the context of teacher preparedness for inclusive education, the study found that a number of teachers felt that they were not at all prepared to teach students with SEN. Whilst some teachers suggested that they lacked skills and knowledge in teaching in inclusive classrooms, some felt overwhelmed with the challenges. The teachers proposed that they would need to know how to provide instructional adaptations and modifications to support students with SEN. Implications for continuous development of teacher training and education are discussed within the context of improving teacher efficacy and how private school teachers could better respond to the challenges of inclusive education in Macao.     

Recognition and Realisation Rules in Acquiring School Science ‐‐ the contribution of pedagogy and social background of students

This study investigates the difficulties students encounter in problem solving in the area of sciences. Contrary to usual approaches of a fundamental psychological basis, the research takes into account the sociological processes of learning and transmission in both the family and the school. The aim of the study is to see the extent to which the students have recognition and realisation rules in the micro‐context of problem solving (specific coding orientation) and to find out the reasons which may underlie their difficulties. Thus the data obtained are related to social class, race and gender and also to pedagogic practices (differing in power and control relations) and school science achievement in high level cognitive competencies. They are also related to children's cognitive level. The results show a strong relation between social class and specific coding orientation to problem solving. The relation is also strong for race and weaker for gender. Specific coding orientation is also strongly related to cognitive development and science achievement. These relations differ for the variables according to realisation and recognition rules and their various indices. The study shows the positive influence of pedagogic practice, which constitutes a crucial finding to pedagogic change.     

Students’ Differential Text Production in the Regulative Context of the Classroom

The research reported in this article is focused on the regulative context of the classroom and attempts to analyse the differential text production by students with different backgrounds (social class, race) and submitted to three different pedagogic practices. These practices, differing in power and control relations, required from the students specific socio‐ affective dispositions. The study explores the extent to which children possessed the specific coding orientation at the level of a given regulative pedagogic practice and also the underlying reasons. Bernstein's conceptual instruments of pedagogic code and also of recognition and realization rules were used to develop the analysis.     

Social,emotional and intercultural competencies: a literature review with a particular focus on the school staff

Framed by the EU-project Hand in Hand focusing on Social, Emotional and Intercultural (SEI) competencies among students and school staff the paper discusses implementation and professional competencies based on a literature review. Five themes were identified: 1) Intercultural/transcultural competency is not often referred to in the same research as social-emotional learning, though socio-emotional aspects appear to be `in the core´, 2) it is crucial to be aware of agency among school staff in a SEI-implementation, 3) successful implementation is about more than the activities in the specific program, it is rather about elements in synergy and professional learning over time, 4) the subtle balance between adaptation and fidelity might best be addressed in an adaptive curriculum emphasizing active ingredients, and 5) this is a field with many intervention studies, but it is urgent to consider if the psychometric measures are sufficiently sensitive to catch the subtle changes related to SEI-competencies.