User-innovators and “local” information: The case of mountain biking

In a study of innovations developed by mountain bikers, we find that user-innovators almost always utilize “local” information - information already in their possession or generated by themselves - both to determine the need for and to develop the solutions for their innovations. We argue that this finding fits the economic incentives operating on users. Local need information will in general be the most relevant to user-innovators, since the bulk of their innovation-related rewards typically come from in-house use. User-innovators will increasingly tend to rely on local solution information as the stickiness of non-local solution information rises. When user-innovators do rely on local information, it may be possible to predict the general nature of the innovations they might develop.     

Closed circuit? Flow,influence and the liquid management of learning and skills

A new discourse is being deployed by the English learning and skills sector's new professional body, the Education and Training Foundation (ETF). This discourse repositions learning within a specific vision of corporate expectations. With a focus on deregulation in the sector and employer engagement, this repositioning deploys the terminology and mindset of a particular type of industrial process. This repositioning involves an important change, replacing a culture of micro-management with more decentralised techniques of control following changes at the national level of policy and beyond. Here, learning is analogous to the management of liquid, a move which is naturalised in texts which present education as an unavoidable and unassailable process or closed circuit of flow. Paul Virilio's work on the effects of speed is used to pinpoint ambivalence and incipient nihilism as central to this shift, critiquing the ETF's claims to represent the sector.     

Transition systems and non-standard employment in early career: comparing Japan and Switzerland

Even though Japan and Switzerland are characterised by comparatively low youth unemployment rates, non-standard forms of employment are on the rise, posing a risk to the stable integration of young labour market entrants. Drawing on the French approach of societal analysis, this paper investigates how country-specific school-to-work transition systems stratify the risk of non-standard employment in early career differently in Japan and Switzerland. Our results reveal that in Japan, young entrants who completed university education are least at risk of becoming employed in non-standard work. On the contrary, it is the highly educated university graduates who mainly enter the labour market via non-standard employment in Switzerland, where vocational education promotes smooth transitions into standard employment relationships. Our findings suggest that the transition systems of the two countries differ in the way they revert to non-standard forms of employment. However, while job insecurities may not endanger labour market integration of highly skilled university graduates holding good career prospects in Switzerland, they may go hand in hand with social exclusion processes for the low-educated young entrants lacking bargaining power in the segmented Japanese labour market.     

Hippocampal terminology: concepts,misconceptions, origins

The mammalian hippocampus is certainly one of the best investigated brain regions. It fascinates neuroscientists particularly because of its important role in memory. The names for the various parts of the hippocampal formation were created in the course of the first thorough explorations of human brain anatomy. The present, internationally agreed terminology reflects an unfortunate muddle that has been going on for several hundred years. Not surprisingly, even today the origins of some of the names are not always given correctly. It is generally accepted that the Italian anatomist Arantius was the first to apply the term 'hippocampus' to part of that region in the human brain. To later authors, however, this name appeared more or less enigmatic and they proposed various other terms. Yet careful reading of the entire original text of Arantius leads to the conclusion that it was not the hippocampus in our modern terms but the dentate gyrus which he compared to a little sea horse or a silkworm.     

Different patterns of university students’ integration of lecture podcasts,learning materials,and lecture attendance in a psychology course

Lecture podcasts are considered an efficient means for passing on learning contents to students, most notably in lectures with large numbers of students. Here, the lecturer’s presentation, combined with lecture slides, is recorded and broadcasted in video form. The present study investigates how students organize learning when they have the choice of different representations of content: face-to-face lectures, lecture recordings as video podcasts, and additional text material. Latent class analysis identified three groups with different patterns of integration of these representations of content: (1) students who focused on podcasts; (2) students who made little use of the different representations of content; (3) students who occasionally made use of the different learning opportunities. Students in group 1 with a focus on podcasts achieved best. They devoted more time to learning and made diligent use of a variety of learning strategies such as note-taking, generating summaries, or rehearsing with the podcasts. The results suggest providing different representations of content to take into account differences in learners’ preferences and abilities. They speak in favor of podcasts, especially in lectures with a large audience. However, the results also show a group of learners who make minimal use of the various representations of content. Instructional measures should be taken to engage and support these students.     

Towards conceptual coherence in the research on mathematics learner identity: a systematic review of the literature

We examine the case of a lesson planning session within the context of professional development for dialogic instruction, and the lesson enacted following this session, which was intended to provide opportunities to 11th and 12th grade algebra students to explore polynomial functions in terms of their roots and linear factors. Our goal was, through the close analysis of the planning and enactment of the lesson, to gain deeper understanding of how the two participants were framing mathematical learning and how such different frames may explain the disparity between the planned lesson and its outcome. The analysis and discussion point to the complexities of supporting teachers in transitioning from a “doing” frame to an “exploring” frame.     

Zur Diskussion über die Konvergenz ökonomischer und pädagogischer Prinzipien betrieblicher Personal-und Organisationsentwicklung

Die These von der Konvergenz ?konomischer und p?dagogischer Prinzipien betrieblicher Personal-und Organisationsentwicklung findet in der Erziehungswissenschaft einflussreiche Verfechter. In diesem Beitrag werden vier Kritikpunkte zum Literaturstand bezüglich der Konvergenzdebatte entwickelt und n?her erl?utert. Um den Diskussionsstand weiter zu entwickeln, wird ein theoretisches Konzept vorgestellt, das die Schw?chen der kritisierten Ans?tze vermeidet. Die individuelle Kompetenzentwicklung der Besch?ftigten wird als Voraussetzung dafür gesehen, dass dem Betrieb ein umfangreiches Kompetenzspektrum zur Verfügung steht. Damit der Betrieb dieses Kompetenzspektrum nutzen kann, müssen Bedingungen gegeben sein, unter denen die Besch?ftigten einen Nutzen in der Anwendung ihrer Kompetenz sehen. Sind diese gegeben, erh?ht sich die Wahrscheinlichkeit für eine dauerhafte Leistungskraft des Betriebs, was wiederum Voraussetzung dafür ist, dass Besch?ftigte im Rahmen ihrer Arbeit individuelle Kompetenz entwickeln und anwenden k?nnen. Die Tragweite dieses Ansatzes besteht darin, dass eine Operationalisierung von Konvergenzbedingungen über neuere Theorien aus der Lehr-Lern-Forschung m?glich wird.     

The effectiveness of virtual and augmented reality in health sciences and medical anatomy

Although cadavers constitute the gold standard for teaching anatomy to medical and health science students, there are substantial financial, ethical, and supervisory constraints on their use. In addition, although anatomy remains one of the fundamental areas of medical education, universities have decreased the hours allocated to teaching gross anatomy in favor of applied clinical work. The release of virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR) devices allows learning to occur through hands‐on immersive experiences. The aim of this research was to assess whether learning structural anatomy utilizing VR or AR is as effective as tablet‐based (TB) applications, and whether these modes allowed enhanced student learning, engagement and performance. Participants (n = 59) were randomly allocated to one of the three learning modes: VR, AR, or TB and completed a lesson on skull anatomy, after which they completed an anatomical knowledge assessment. Student perceptions of each learning mode and any adverse effects experienced were recorded. No significant differences were found between mean assessment scores in VR, AR, or TB. During the lessons however, VR participants were more likely to exhibit adverse effects such as headaches (25% in VR P < 0.05), dizziness (40% in VR, P < 0.001), or blurred vision (35% in VR, P < 0.01). Both VR and AR are as valuable for teaching anatomy as tablet devices, but also promote intrinsic benefits such as increased learner immersion and engagement. These outcomes show great promise for the effective use of virtual and augmented reality as means to supplement lesson content in anatomical education. Anat Sci Educ 10: 549–559. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Spanglish,Bilingualism, Culture and Identity in Latino Children’s Literature

This paper examines the ways in which Latino children’s literature portrays cultural models of bilingualism and identity affiliations based on language and cultural practices. We focus attention the messages in seven children’s books about practices of and attitudes toward Spanglish, standard Spanish, and individual and societal bilingualism. In addition, we analyze how characters construct their cross-cultural identit(ies), based their language use and engagement in local and transnational cultural themes. Using assertions based on cultural model analyses, we show how portrayals evident in these books inform and are informed by larger cultural models of being bilingual and belonging to Latino bilingual communities in the U.S.     

Improving Conceptual Understanding and Representation Skills Through Excel-Based Modeling

The National Research Council framework for science education and the Next Generation Science Standards have developed a need for additional research and development of curricula that is both technologically model-based and includes engineering practices. This is especially the case for biology education. This paper describes a quasi-experimental design study to test the effectiveness of a model-based curriculum focused on the concepts of natural selection and population ecology that makes use of Excel modeling tools (Modeling Instruction in Biology with Excel, MBI-E). The curriculum revolves around the bio-engineering practice of controlling an invasive species. The study takes place in the Midwest within ten high schools teaching a regular-level introductory biology class. A post-test was designed that targeted a number of common misconceptions in both concept areas as well as representational usage. The results of a post-test demonstrate that the MBI-E students significantly outperformed the traditional classes in both natural selection and population ecology concepts, thus overcoming a number of misconceptions. In addition, implementing students made use of more multiple representations as well as demonstrating greater fascination for science.