Visual Attention Preference for Intermediate Predictability in Young Children

How do children allocate their attention? There is too much information in the world to encode it all, so children must pick and choose. How do they organize their sampling to make the most of the learning opportunities that surround them? Previous work shows infants actively seek intermediately predictable information. Here we employ eye-tracking and computational modeling to examine the impact of stimulus predictability across early childhood (ages 3–6 years, n = 72, predominantly Non-Hispanic White, middle- to upper-middle-income), by chronological age and cognitive ability. Results indicated that children prefer attending to stimuli of intermediate predictability, with no differences in this pattern based on age or cognitive ability. The consistency may suggest a robust general information-processing mechanism that operates across the lifespan.     

Rethinking critical patriotism: a case of constructive patriotism in Social Studies teachers in Singapore

Critical patriotism is an ideal in many liberal Western nations. Few studies, however, explore how teachers understand and teach critical patriotism and the possible tensions arising from its adoption, especially in non-Western contexts. This qualitative case study explores the understandings and practices of two Social Studies teachers from an elite girls’ school in Singapore to understand how they negotiate the tensions that arise when critical thinking and patriotism meet. The findings show that the teachers perceive little contradiction between patriotism and critical thinking and, hence, generally taught in line with democratic citizenship education. They encouraged students to discuss controversial policies, brought in diverse perspectives and challenged the status quo. However, sensitive to the socio-political context in Singapore, they sought consensus instead of contestation, gradual change instead of radical change, in contrast to the spirit of critical patriotism. These findings suggest that in Singapore, where communitarian values are promoted, critical patriotism was expressed differently. Constructive patriotism may be a better term to describe the type of patriotism observed in the teachers.     

Customer’s role in knowledge management and in the innovation process: effects on innovation capacity and marketing results

Scholars have acknowledged customer knowledge management (CKM) as a key strategic resource for improving innovation and supporting long-term customer relationship management. This study provides a deeper understanding of the internal antecedents of business innovation capacity overcoming previous approaches. A model that had not previously been tested was used to analyse the role of customer collaboration and CKM – measured as a second-order construct – in innovation processes and marketing results. To test the model, structural equation modelling (partial least squares) was applied to a random sample of 210 Spanish companies. Results confirm that CKM and customer collaboration are antecedents of innovation capacity and marketing results. Furthermore, the effect of CKM is greater than the effect of customer collaboration. This paper provides a basis for managers to encourage innovation in their companies and explains how managers can improve marketing results.     

The role of "genetics" in popular understandings of race in the United States

The increase in public representation of the science-based concept "genetics" in the mass media might be expected to have a major impact on public understanding of the concept of "race." A model of lay understandings of the role of genetics in the contemporary United States is offered based on focus group research, random digit dial surveys, and community based surveys. That model indicates that lay people identify are primarily by physical features, but these identifications are categorized into a variety of groupings that may be regional, national, or linguistic. Although they believe that physical appearance is caused largely by genetics, and therefore that race has a genetic basis, they do not uniformly conclude, however, that all perceived racial characteristics are genetically based. Instead, they vary in the extent to which they attribute differences to cultural, personal, and genetic factors.     

Associations of newly qualified teachers’ beliefs with classroom management practices and approaches to instruction over one school year

We focus on assessing whether newly qualified teachers’ professional outcome expectations and their beliefs about students’ intellectual potential are associated with teachers’ self-reported classroom management and instructional practices. One hundred and eighteen novice teachers participating in the induction year programme were studied during their first years as full-time teachers. Results attest to a salient association between teachers’ more optimistic views of the malleability of students’ intellectual potential and teachers’ confidence in themselves as positive change agents in student outcomes. Also, teachers’ belief-set in the beginning of their career was shown to be associated with significant differences in the level of using instructional practices promoting mastery goal orientation in the classroom as well as offering students emotional support during the learning process. In the light of the significant belief–behaviour links demonstrated, more explicit attention to the sophistication of teachers’ ability beliefs in teacher education programmes is recommended.     

PUKHA: a new pedagogical experience

Society needs responsible leaders and entrepreneurs. CDIO (conceive, design, implement and operate) is a framework for engineering education based on outcomes, more than on contents, that has been adopted by a growing number of engineering educational institutions for producing the next generation of engineering leaders. In order to support engineering students to become entrepreneurs and to bear other concerns than merely technical on today's rapid changing world, the authors believe the CDIO syllabus needs to be improved, and therefore propose a pre requisite to a useful CDIO perspective: IdEF, standing for Identify, Evaluate and Formulate real problems and needs. Based on this concept, this paper describes a new pedagogical project framework (PUKHA - to project, to undertake, to know how to achieve). Within PUKHA projects, more than 300 students have trained and checked their will, risk, responsibility, communication, leadership and entrepreneurship over the last three years.     

IGF1–PI3K-induced physiological cardiac hypertrophy: Implications for new heart failure therapies,biomarkers, and predicting cardiotoxicity

Heart failure represents the end point of a variety of cardiovascular diseases. It is a growing health burden and a leading cause of death worldwide. To date, limited treatment options exist for the treatment of heart failure, but exercise has been well-established as one of the few safe and effective interventions, leading to improved outcomes in patients. However, a lack of patient adherence remains a significant barrier in the implementation of exercise-based therapy for the treatment of heart failure. The insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1)–phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway has been recognized as perhaps the most critical pathway for mediating exercised-induced heart growth and protection. Here, we discuss how modulating activity of the IGF1–PI3K pathway may be a valuable approach for the development of therapies that mimic the protective effects of exercise on the heart. We outline some of the promising approaches being investigated that utilize PI3K-based therapy for the treatment of heart failure. We discuss the implications for cardiac pathology and cardiotoxicity that arise in a setting of reduced PI3K activity. Finally, we discuss the use of animal models of cardiac health and disease, and genetic mice with increased or decreased cardiac PI3K activity for the discovery of novel drug targets and biomarkers of cardiovascular disease.     

School Schedules Affect Sleep Timing in Children and Contribute to Partial Sleep Deprivation

Although the environmental light/dark cycle is the main zeitgeber for the human species, the social cues seem to be important in the synchronization of circadian rhythms. In Brazil, the existence of two school schedules—one with only morning classes (MG) and other with only afternoon classes (AG)—allows the investigation of the effect of school activities on light exposure and sleep/wake patterns in children. Forty‐seven children wore wrist actimeters for a week for registration of light and sleep data. MG children presented shorter sleep duration on school days than the children from the AG. The results showed that during school days MG children were exposed to bright light earlier in the morning when compared to AG children. Nevertheless, there were no differences in light exposure after sunset. The results reflect the role of school schedules and artificial light in shaping light exposure, and its association with sleep timing in children.