Semi-analytical Monte Carlo simulation of laser-induced fluorescence propagation in an optically participating spray

A semi-analytical Monte Carlo (SMC) simulation was developed to simulate the propagation of laser-induced fluo- rescence (LIF) in an optically participating spray, which simultaneously exhibits spectrally dependent emission, anisotropic scattering, absorption, and re-emission. The SMC simulation is described and then applied to an experimental configuration of a cloud of polydisperse droplets composed of water and sulforhodamine B dye. In the SMC simulation, the collected LIF flux on the remote receptor element is calculated as the global contribution from the emissive source, single, twice, … and nth collision events in any sequence. The effects on the fluorescence photons propagation of spray parameters like the dye concentration, droplets concentration, and droplets size are examined. Three spectral bands representing different optical properties are chosen to analyze the interference of absorption, scattering and re-emission on the detected LIF flux. The obtained spectral LIF flux distribution on the receptor demonstrates a “red shift” phenomenon.     

“I Am Not a Francophone”: Identity Choices and Discourses of Youth Associating With a Powerful Minority

Taking a broad interest in the linguistic, educational, and identity issues relevant to young people, this article examines the experiences and discourses of linguistic minority youth in the French-dominant context of Québec City. Our analysis is based on qualitative interviews conducted with 10 young people who speak a language other than French at home and who chose to study in English at the postsecondary level. Beyond exploring the local impact of language policies, we focus on the identity choices these youth make in positioning themselves and the discourses that they appropriate in describing their sociolinguistic context. Findings suggest that tensions between linguistic groups in Québec are perpetuated through discourses that distance one group from another, including discourses of closed-mindedness and superiority. What the students in our study appear to be doing is rejecting a minority identity by invoking national and international scales through their discourses, scales in which English is dominant.     

The development of epiphonological and metaphonological processing at the start of learning to read: A longitudinal study

The processes involved in the processing of phonological information (awareness and phonological recoding) now occupy a key position in the study of the acquisition of reading. The research performed in the field of learning to read have helped support the idea that the learning of writing is based on the ability to develop a phonological knowledge of the formal properties of the spoken language (Mattingly, 1972). Many studies have therefore been devoted to the relations between the learning of reading and phonological skills, that is to say the ability to perform a phonological analysis of spoken language. The present research concerns the development of the phonological skills both before and during the teaching of reading through the longitudinal study of children in their final year of nursery school (NS) and in first grade (FG).     

Comparative study of the cognitive sequelae of school-aged victims of Shaken Baby Syndrome

OBJECTIVE: Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) is now recognized as being the main cause of severe traumatic brain injury in infancy. However, our understanding of the impact of this type of abuse on child development remains sketchy. The main objective of the current study was therefore to shed light on the cognitive dysfunctions that are particular to SBS victims once they are school-aged. METHOD: A clinical group was formed of 11 children diagnosed with SBS who had been admitted between 1988 and 1999 to a tertiary pediatric hospital in Quebec, Canada. The children were matched for age, gender, socio-economic status, and family composition to 11 healthy Quebec children, who made up the control group. A battery of composite tests was developed to assess the children's main cognitive functions and was administered individually to the 22 children. A univariate t-test was used to compare the performances of the two groups. RESULTS: The mean age of the children in the clinical and control groups at the time of the assessment was 87.64 months and 90.18 months, respectively. Pairing and birth data were equivalent for both groups. Significant weaknesses were noted in the clinical group for intelligence quotient (IQ), working memory, mental organization, alternation, and inhibition. These deficits seemed to have a greater impact on the verbal sphere of the children's mental functioning. CONCLUSION: Primary results point to the anterior cerebral regions of the brain as the principal site of dysfunctions that persist years post-trauma. It is important to consider these results longitudinally, even in children apparently less extensively affected, since the frontal regions only reach maturity at the end of adolescence.     

Self-assessment of writing in independent language learning programs: The value of annotated samples

The availability of multi-media technologies in education has made the option of independent learning increasingly attractive. Whilst independent learning presents learners with a more flexible learning context, it also presents new challenges in assessment in that the onus is placed upon the learners themselves to monitor and evaluate their own learning.This paper reports on the development of an approach to learner self-assessment which aims to facilitate the self-assessment of performance on extended-response writing tasks. Whilst such tasks are typical within current approaches to communicative language learning, a review of the self-assessment literature reveals no precedent for how actual task performance might be effectively and reliably self-assessed. A methodology was therefore developed which used annotated samples of learner-produced texts, where the annotations would elucidate both the criteria by which performance should be judged and the standards expected, thus enabling learners to assess their own performances by comparing their work with these samples. The methodology was trialled on a small sample of students. It was found to be both reliable and useful, allowing students not only to accurately evaluate their own performance but also to learn new language skills from the samples.     

Adaptation de la Perspective à une Situation Complexe par des Elèves de 9–12 ans

The research described here deals with relationships between teaching situations and pupils’ notions in the context of three dimensional geometry lessons during compulsory schooling. Specifically, ways in which 9 to 12 year old children adapt perspective drawings of a cube in two quite complex situations are looked at. These situations require that assemblies of cubes be represented with different objectives in mind. Furthermore, the situations are created at the beginning of the learning process as implemented at two different school grades. The article presents the bread range of possible types of visual representations of cube assemblies. Three ways of adapting to these situations can be picked out in terms of this classification, namely:

— successful resolution of the coordination problems posed by perspective representation of assemblies involving several cubes;

— restricted use of perspective drawings for one simple part of the assembly;

— abandonment of perspective drawings in favour of other, figurative or semi-figurative method of graphical representation.

The effect of certain features of each situation considered on pupils’ adaptation is also brought out. These features were used to favour semi-figurative techniques of representation linked to spatial orientation procedures.     

Attachment Security and Developmental Patterns of Growth in Executive Functioning During Early Elementary School

Despite the extensive research demonstrating the importance of child executive functioning (EF) for school adjustment, little longitudinal work has formally examined developmental change in EF during the early school years. Based on a sample of 106 mother–child dyads, the current longitudinal study investigated patterns of growth in child performance on three executive tasks between kindergarten (M_age = 6 years) and Grade 3 (M_age = 9 years), and the predictive role of earlier mother–child attachment security in these patterns. The results suggest that early elementary school is a period of significant developmental improvement in child EF, although child performance on different EF tasks follows distinct trajectories across time. The study also provides evidence for a sustained relation between children's early attachment security and their ongoing acquisition of executive skills.     

Investigating a case of hidden misinterpretations of an additive word problem: structural substitution

According to numerous studies (Barrouillet & Camos 2002; Brousseau 1988; Chevallard 1988; Riley et al. 1984; Schubauer-Leoni & Ntamakiliro, Revue Des Sciences de L’éducation, 20(1): 87–113, 1994; Vergnaud 1982; Xin, The Journal of Educational Research, 100(6):347–360, 2007), a combination of many factors, including curriculum, didactic contract and task design, can potentially lead to students experiencing difficulties in developing of a full understanding of addition and subtraction and their relationship in problem solving. Few studies (Conne, Recheche En Didactique Des Mathématiques, 5, 269–332, 1985; DeBlois, Éducation et Francophonie, 25(1), 102–120, 1997; Giroux & Ste-Marie, European Jornal of Psychology of Education, 16(2), 141–161, 2001) describe the misinterpretations of problems as a factor related to learning difficulties. We have studied how and why elementary school students misinterpret the mathematical structure of a simple additive word problem and what kind of possible (hidden) misinterpretation may occur. We analysed possible mechanisms of misinterpretations in word problem solving, discussing various examples of correct and incorrect solutions resulting from the misinterpretation of a problem. We gave the elementary school students a word problem, which could potentially be misinterpreted, and observed their solving strategies. Our results show how the particular form of mathematical misinterpretation—structure substitution—may help students obtain a correct answer and thereby hinder the development of their mathematical reasoning. We further discuss different ways of addressing this phenomenon in teaching practice.