The emergence of leadership in students’ group interaction in a school-based makerspace

This case study is an examination of the emergence of leadership in students’ group interaction in a school-based makerspace. The data comprised video records of 20 primary school students’ group work within this context, encompassing student-driven creative engagement in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) learning activities. Interaction analysis was applied to analyze the students’ leadership moves and to depict how students’ leadership was related to their collaboration. The analysis resulted in a typology of students’ leadership moves in a makerspace context, namely, coordination of joint work, exploring new ideas, seeking out resources,

and offering guidance and supporting others, adding to the existing literature on student leadership and collaboration in novel learning environments. The study also illustrates how the students’ leadership moves in group interactions can lead to dominating and/or shared leadership, with consequences for students’ collaboration. The study points to the importance of more research and development of pedagogical practices that support students’ symmetric participation and opportunities to lead collaborative work and to promote advanced collaboration in school-based makerspaces.

     

Development of two short measures for recovery and stress in sport

The Acute Recovery and Stress Scale (ARSS) and the Short Recovery and Stress Scale were first established in German for the purposes of monitoring athletes’ current recovery-stress states in an economical and multidimensional manner. The aim of this paper is to document the development and initial validation of the English versions of these two psychometric monitoring tools. A total of 267 English-speaking athletes from a variety of team and individual sports participated in the study. The English versions demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency for both instruments (Cronbach α of .74–.89). Furthermore, good model fit was found for the eight scales of the ARSS, matching the structure and results of the German counterparts. Correlations among and between the scales reciprocate the theoretical constructs of stress and recovery, supporting the construct validity of the scales. Correlation coefficients within stress and recovery ranged between r_s?=?.29 and .68. The correlations between stress and recovery varied between r_s?=??.29 and ?.64. These constructs were further supported by correlations with the scores of the Recovery-Stress Questionnaire for Athletes, thereby showing convergent validity. The findings demonstrate initial validity and reliability of the two measures and reflect the results of the German versions. However, further research is needed before applying these scales in practical settings.     

Teacher interventions in students’ collaborative work in a technology-rich educational makerspace

This study reports on an investigation of teacher interventions in students’ collaborative work in an educational makerspace. We draw on a qualitative analysis of video data on teacher–student interaction derived from 94 students (aged 9–12) and their teachers in a Finnish school. The results show that the teacher interventions were both student- and teacher-initiated. Three leading teacher intervention strategies were identified, namely authoritative, orchestrating and unleashing which emerged in teacher–student interactions dealing with conceptual, procedural, technological, behavioural and motivational issues. The study demonstrates the demands makerspaces pose for teacher–student interaction, and how moving from authoritative to collaborative interaction requires collective efforts and cultural change.     

Different research markets: a disciplinary perspective

Drawing upon the notions of academic capitalism and the transformation of academic research from traditional academic orientation into market orientation, the paper sets out to empirically scrutinize the changing nature of academic research, focusing especially on disciplinary differences. The paper is based on a survey of heads of departments and research units at Finnish universities representing all disciplinary groups (n = 255) and on in-depth interviews with Finnish academics (n = 31) in the fields of humanities, social sciences, technology and natural sciences. Based on the survey data, the funding, selection of research topics, collaboration partners, audiences and publication forums in research are analysed. Following this, five research markets are discerned: academic, corporate, policy, professional and public market, each characterized by its own values and rationality as to what is considered the reference group, basic objective and outcome of research. The paper concludes that the transformation thesis needs to be revisited and specified since on the one hand, academic orientation still remains crucially important in all disciplinary groups, and on the other hand, market orientation entails several kinds of markets, pointing to the versatility of the university–society relationship.     

Cognitive correlates of math skills in third-grade students

Math achievement is not a unidimensional construct but includes different skills that require different cognitive abilities. The focus of this study was to examine associations between a number of cognitive abilities and three domains of math skills (knowing, applying and problem solving) simultaneously in a multivariate framework. Participants were 723 third-grade children (mean age?=?9.07) from 28 elementary schools. Confirmatory factor analyses with binary indicators showed that a four-factor model of math skills (Knowing-Recalling, Knowing-Computing, Applying and Problem Solving) and a nine-factor model of cognitive abilities (Nonverbal and Verbal Reasoning, Verbal Concepts, Planning, Visuo-Spatial Working Memory (WM), two types of Verbal WM, Phonological Awareness and Phonological WM) fit the data well. Results from structural equation modelling showed that verbal reasoning and verbal concepts were most consistently associated with math knowing and problem solving domains. Verbal concepts contributed also to the math applying domain. In addition, simultaneous processing of verbal WM predicted problem solving skills in math. The results can be used in supporting the learning process of students with difficulties in math.     

Socio-emotional orientations and teacher change

In this article we consider how elementary education students’ views of mathematics changed during their mathematics methods course. We focus on four female students: two started the course with mainly positive views of mathematics and a task orientation, two with negative views of the subject and an ego-defensive orientation. The biggest change observed was that the trainees’ views of teaching and learning mathematics became more positive. Moreover, what had been an ego-defensive orientation changed towards a social-dependence orientation. The crucial facilitators of change seemed to be (1) handling of and reflection on one’s experiences of learning and teaching mathematics, (2) exploring content with concrete materials, and (3) collaboration with a partner or working as a tutor of mathematics.

“I Want to Feel That I Live in China”: Imaginaries and Hospitality in International Students’ (mis-)Encounters at a Top Chinese University

Research on international students’ experiences abroad has tended to rely on models of adjustment, integration and/or acculturation to describe their (mis-)encounters with different kinds of people (e.g., co-nationals, locals and other international students). This paper proposes to use the more fluid concepts of imaginaries and hospitality, leaving behind stages and phases of adaption and acculturation, and focusing on the influence of the Structure on their experiences. Based on a discursive pragmatic analysis of interview data with 20 international students at a top Chinese university, the authors review how the students describe the kind of hospitality experienced at this institution and the influence that it has on their (mis-)encounters. Culturalist, differentialist and essentialist imaginaries (static and fixed views of Chineseness) are often used to justify the lack of encounters and the “segregation” and somewhat “positive discrimination” that they experienced. However, the paper shows that, amongst others, the institutional hospitality management for international students leads to closed contexts of encounters and feelings of exclusion. Although the study serves as a case study and cannot be generalized to the many and varied experiences of international students in other universities in China, some recommendations are made to solve, at least in part, misconceptions about what interculturality and hospitality entail in the internationalization of higher education.     

The quantum Zeno effect — watched pots in the quantum world

In the 5th century BC, the philosopher and logician Zeno of Elea posed several paradoxes which remained unresolved for over two thousand five hundred years. In recent times, the Zeno effect made an intriguing appearance in a rather unlikely place — a situation involving the time evolution of a quantum system which is subject to ‘observations’ over a period of time. In 1977, B Misra and E C G Sudarshan published a paper on the quantum Zeno effect, called “The Zeno’s paradox in quantum theory”. Their fascinating result revealed the bizarre workings of the quantum world. In the following article, the quantum Zeno effect is described and a brief outline of some of the work following Misra and Sudarshan’s paper is given. Anu Venugopalan is on the faculty of the Centre for Philosophy and Foundations of Science, New Delhi, on leave from GGS Indraprastha University, Kashmere Gate, Delhi. Her primary research interests are in the areas of Foundations of Quantum mechanics, Quantum Optics and Quantum Information.     

Quantum interference of molecules

The double-slit interference experiment has been famously described by Richard Feynman as containing the “only mystery of quantum mechanics”. While the double-slit experiment for light is easily understood in terms of its wave nature, the very same experiment for particles like the electron is somewhat more difficult to comprehend. It has taken almost six decades after the establishment of its wave nature to carry out a ‘double-slit interference’ experiment for electrons. This has set the stage for interference experiments with atoms and molecules. In the last decade there has been a spectacular progress in matter-wave intereference experiments. Today, molecules with over a hundred atoms can be made to interfere. In this article we discuss some of these exciting developments which probe new regimes of Nature, bringing us closer to the heart of quantum mechanics and its hidden mysteries.