Archival science facing the information society

It is only a few decades ago that archivists befan to redefine their discipline in terms of a science. This redefinition of archives and records management was the consequence of a growing need for an adequate expression referring to a comprehensive new body of knowledge on records and archives. Consensus on how to adequately define archival science has not been achieved yet, however. As information society evolves, records and archives are changing in nature and status. It is an emerging discipline that has to be defined, which is still bears the impress of the mindset and practices of the industrial society. Bruno Delmas shows the archivist some clues to find a way out of this ambiguity and keep communicating human heritage to unknown generations.     

Conservation strategy for food-based perishable art: preservation versus reconstruction illustrated by Piece in Ghent by Jason Rhoades (1994)

The aim of this paper was to discuss the role of food preservation science and technology in the conservation of complex food-based installations. By introducing the principles of food science and food preservation into the decision-making process for the conservation of contemporary art, more insight on conservation and presentation possibilities was created. Considering the installation Piece in Ghent (P.I.G.) by Jason Rhoades, which contains French fries, the principles of food preservation science were evaluated. The preservation of the original foods was discussed against the potential of a reproduction of the foods. The context for conservation was determined by analysing the artist's intention, the production method of the artwork, and the degradation processes of the food materials. From the results obtained, guidelines to preserve the ‘original’ foods were proposed, as well as guidelines to reproduce foods that can last longer. The study demonstrated that food preservation science contributed to the development of effective strategies for the conservation of contemporary food-based art.     

Space occupation near the basket shapes collective behaviours in youth basketball

This study aimed to analyse how youth basketball players explored numerical overloads during shot attempts by measuring their space occupation across specific court areas. Four process-tracing variables measured how the number of attackers (NA), number of defenders (ND), interpersonal distance between attacker and the closest defender (ID) and distance between attacker and the basket (DBkt) impacted on the performance outcome (converted shot; missed shot; ball possession lost). Ten competitive games involving 13 U14 teams were video recorded and players’ displacements were digitised. The associations between performance outcomes and the process-tracing measures were assessed using standardised mean differences and a cross-correlation function. A multinomial logistic regression was used to calculate the odds ratio (OR) for each of the three possible outcomes. Results revealed that when shot attempts occurred at larger ID and at smaller DBkt, the possibilities to obtain a converted shot increased. The numerical overload of defenders near the scoring target was predominantly associated with offensive success. Also, the possibility of attackers to lead the spatial relation of movements with the defenders, near the scoring target, appeared as a prominent strategy to succeed. In sum, basketball teams that exhibit potential to adapt their collective behaviours to local changes in the environment might be closer to achieving successful outcomes.     

Does the EDI Measure School Readiness in the Same Way Across Different Groups of Children?

The present study investigates whether the Early Development Instrument (Offord & Janus, 1999) measures school readiness similarly across different groups of children. We employ ordinal logistic regression to investigate differential item functioning, a method of examining measurement bias. For 40,000 children, our analysis compares groups according to gender, English-as-a-second-language (ESL) status, and Aboriginal status. Our results indicate no systematic measurement differences regarding Aboriginal status and gender, except for 1 item on which boys are more likely than girls to be rated as physically aggressive by Kindergarten teachers. In contrast, ESL children systematically receive lower ratings on items of the language and communication domains—as expected by definition of ESL status—but not within the physical, social, and emotional domains. We discuss how our results fit with child development research and the purpose of the Early Development Instrument, thus supporting its validity.     

Bias vs. Bias

When Pope Francis, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, released his encyclical on climate change in June 2015, the Fox News Channel, the most watched cable news network in the United States, faced a dilemma. Some of its news anchors and regular commentators are Catholics, and therefore have a positive bias for the Pope. But the network is also known for its bias against man-made climate change. Guided by cognitive dissonance theory, this study analyzed how Fox News’ anchors and commentators discussed Pope Francis’ stance on climate change. The analysis found a clear ambivalence in their discourse and identified four discursive strategies that they used to navigate discursive dissonance.     

“Fácilis descensus Averni” Mind,Brain, Education,and Ethics: Highway to Hell,Stairway to Heaven,or Passing Dead End?*

Are human beings born unequal when it comes to ethics? Or are ethical standards acquired? Or both nature and nurture? Neuroscience is on its way to discovering biological underpinnings of ethics in our brains. Whatever the upcoming findings on this front will be, our philosophical, political, and educational views, and even the way we look at ourselves as a species, could soon be radically challenged, if not altered. AENEIS, the special section of this journal dedicated to Educational Neuroscience and Ethics, seeks to shed light on the crucial and sometimes frightening questions and answers we are to be confronted with. Starting with Charles Lang (“Science, Education, and the Ideology of ‘How”’) and Zachary Stein (“On the Difference Between Designing Children and Raising Them: Ethics and the Use of Educationally Oriented Biotechnology”), we are embarking on a fascinating but dangerous learning journey. To navigate between Scylla and Charybdis, extreme caution is highly recommended.     

Effects of knowing the task duration on players’ pacing patterns during soccer small-sided games

The aim of this study was to identify the influence of prior knowledge of exercise duration on players’ pacing patterns during soccer small-sided games. Twenty semi-professional male soccer players participated in this study. In the first game scenario, players were not informed how long they would be required to play the small-sided game and the activity was terminated after 20 min (Unknown Condition). In the second game scenario, players were told that they would play the small-sided game for 10 min, but immediately after completing the 10-min game, they were asked to complete another 10 min (Partially Condition). In the third game scenario, players were instructed that they would play the small-sided game for 20 min and then they completed the 20-min game (Known Condition). The results presented a tendency of higher values in all performance variables in the [0′–10′] min compared with the [10′–20′] min. As the players’ previous knowledge about the tasks duration increased, the performance between two moments tended to be similar. Considering the entire 20-min game duration, the Partially Condition of the exercise was the most demanding condition. In conclusion, the knowledge of shorter durations of the exercise seems to lead to an increase of exercise duration demand, and longer exercise durations possibly tend to decrease differences between full knowledge and not knowing the exercise duration.     

Do teachers’ knowledge and behaviour reflect their qualifications and training?

It is easier to collect data on teachers’ qualifications, experience, or training than to get a precise idea of their command of subject matter or their classroom behaviour. However, research consistently shows that “class effect” (the impact on a student of being in one class rather than another) on pupil performance is relatively high, especially in Africa, whereas the impact of qualifications, experience, or training on pupil learning is generally low. The purpose of this paper is to compare teacher academic qualifications and professional training on the one hand, with teacher test scores and behaviour on the other, showing the weak links between the former and the latter. What also emerges is the importance of certain external management-related factors such as the vastly reduced hours of effective learning time due to high rates of absenteeism and delayed term starts. Despite the importance of what really happens in the classroom, it remains difficult to measure the classroom dynamic reliably and accurately.

Equal educational opportunity and declining teacher morale at black,white, and Hispanic high schools in a large urban school district

School desegregation plans and program efforts in bilingual education, special education, compensatory education, and others designed to promote equal educational opportunity for minorities are threatened with a teaching staff best described as being “burned out,” highly stressed, of low morale, having high absenteeism, and subject to physical abuse. This study examines the extremely low level of teacher morale at inner-city schools and finds major “ethical” stressors such as racial tension among faculty, falsifying of school records, and sexual harassment by school officials emerging as factors contributing to teacher exit and absenteeism. With the use of multivariate discriminant analysis procedures and a sample of 400 high school teachers at nine high schools (three black, three white, and three Hispanic in terms of predominant ethnicity), a set of stressors were derived which uniquely characterize teachers at predominantly black, white, and Hispanic high schools. An economic framework is also presented for understanding the nature of the teacher morale, exit, and absenteeism phenomena in urban schools.