Butterfly Power in the Art of Mentoring Deaf and Hard of Hearing College Students

This article describes the ways in which critical events in the lives of college students may contribute to their career development and personal well being. These critical events are referred to as 'butterflies', adopting as a metaphor that concept from chaos theory which states that relatively small events can have large effects. The study analyzes these events and their effects from the perspective of the students' mentors. Results of the study are related to other concepts from chaos theory including bifurcation points, autopoiesis and emergence. The study explores both the different kinds of critical events students experience as well as how mentoring may help students to deal with them. The role of the mentor as interpreter of events, as change agent and as intervener are identified. The article argues that mentors need to be aware of the potential power of critical events in the career development of college students.     

Early education teachers’ conceptualizations and strategies for managing closeness with the class in child care

This study investigated teachers’ experiences of closeness during interactions with the group of children in child care. Structured interviews were conducted with 24 female teachers who were teaching children between the ages of three and five (mean age = 3.9) regarding their perceptions of closeness with the group of children in the class. Qualitative analyses of the interviews revealed a group solidarity domain of teacher–group relationships composed of three dimensions which comprise emotional solidarity, consensual solidarity, and functional solidarity, with emotional solidarity most dominant in the teachers’ perceptions. This group solidarity domain was interpreted as being consistent with qualities found in Grusec and Davidov’s group participation domain. The findings that, teachers’ closeness with the group of children in the class were dominated by the emotional dimension is similar to previous research results which report the predominance of personal and intimate interactions in relational closeness between teachers and individual children. Teachers described intentional strategies for managing close group relationships that made use of interactional histories between the teachers and children in the class. These discoveries provide a new perspective on teacher closeness with groups, an area of research not often investigated. It also provides insights into the importance teachers place on connecting emotionally with children when they are with the collective group in the classroom.     

A classroom intervention on Spanish grammar and writing: the use of the past tense with secondary school students / La intervención didáctica en el aula sobre gramática y escritura. El saber gramatical y la revisión de textos en el uso de los tiempos verbales del pasado con alumnos de secundaria

Abstract

This article presents an innovative experience which links grammar teaching with writing, following the premises of the Grammar Didactic Sequences (GDS) with one basic objective: to create a situation in which students learn to reflect on the language they use and are able to use these reflections to improve their writing. The GDS, focused on the use of past tense verb forms, was carried out with fourth-year secondary school students in Spain. This article highlights the difficulties experienced by students when using grammatical concepts as elements to control usage and the importance of revising texts in order to create metalinguistic awareness in a recursive didactic process: from grammar to writing, from writing to grammatical revision, and final version writing.     

Lenguaje y rendimiento escolar: Un estudio predictivo

La incidencia de las competencias lingüistícas del escolar sobre las adquisiciones escolares en las demás áreas del currículum es una realidad que todos los maestros pueden comprobar día a día. En este trabajo se investiga esa incidencia, medida a través de la variable fracaso escolar, y sus resultados podrían permitir extraer algunos principios de intervención educativa precoz en algunos aspectos del lenguaje cruciales para la escolaridad posterior.     

A Study of the Use of Ontologies for Building Computer-Aided Control Engineering Self-Learning Educational Software

This paper describes research on the use of knowledge models (ontologies) for building computer-aided educational software in the field of control engineering. Ontologies are able to represent in the computer a very rich conceptual model of a given domain. This model can be used later for a number of purposes in different software applications. In this study, domain ontology about the field of lead–lag compensator design has been built and used for automatic exercise generation, graphical user interface population and interaction with the user at any level of detail, including explanations about why things occur. An application called Onto-CELE (ontology-based control engineering learning environment) uses the ontology for implementing a learning environment that can be used for self and lifelong learning purposes. The experience has shown that the use of knowledge models as the basis for educational software applications is capable of showing students the whole complexity of the analysis and design processes at any level of detail. A practical experience with postgraduate students has shown the mentioned benefits and possibilities of the approach.     

English or Nothing: The Impact of Rigid Language Policies on the Inclusion of Humanizing Practices in a High School ESL Program

This article discusses the results of a qualitative case study that examined how school district language policies impact humanizing practices in a high school ESL program. The theoretical framework builds on Paulo Freire's concept of humanizing pedagogy to explore policy and instruction in a secondary ESL program. Participants of this study include school district officials and high school ESL teachers. Findings indicate that when ESL teachers adhere to rigid language policies, they fail to create humanizing practices in their classrooms. In contrast, when teachers do not hold themselves strictly accountable to the institutionalized discourse of ESL, they are able to enact humanizing practices where students' linguistic and cultural resources are validated as essential for the development of academic resiliency. Paradoxically, even teachers who enact humanizing practices fail to question district language policies that render students cultural and linguistic resources invalid.     

Due diligence: Recognizing the role of patent research in the start-up life cycle

ABSTRACT

This article examines the role that business librarians can play in conveying the importance of thorough patent research in the start-up life cycle. It provides a summary of the components of the start-up life cycle and due diligence research as it pertains to entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. An overview of patent research resources and locations is provided, with particular focus on PatentsView, a web-based patent data visualization and analysis tool.     

Access to higher education in South Africa: expanding capabilities in and through an undergraduate photovoice project

ABSTRACT

There is a gap in research on access to universities in South Africa. The research that exists focuses on quantitative methodologies, although some qualitative studies are now emerging. These research methodologies, although necessary and substantial for the development of equity measures and policies, might be less successful in their impact on the local context, on research participants and in expanding what counts as knowledge in the university. In this paper, participatory research, which has not been used to research access, is explored. The paper seeks to go beyond the instrumentalization of research participants – especially those from low-income households – highlighting the potential of using multi-strategy research, in which participatory elements are included as a way to foster both participants’ human development and local impact. Drawing on a research project on access to higher education in South Africa, the paper demonstrates that by including participatory elements (in this case photovoice) has the potential to operationalize Appadurai’s notion of the ‘right to research’ among undergraduates. Using data, including processes, observations, workshops, interviews, and visual narratives from a participatory photovoice project, the findings highlight how methodological plurality creates space for locally and relevant knowledge production, challenging epistemic barriers and fostering human development among the research participants.