Multimodal Interaction Analysis: a Powerful Tool for Examining Plurilingual Students’ Engagement in Science Practices

Research in Science Education - Science teaching and learning are discursive practices, yet analysis of these practices has frequently been grounded in theorizations that place language at the...     

Measuring patent assessment quality—Analyzing the degree and kind of (in)consistency in patent offices’ decision making

We argue that consistent decision making in judging a patent's validity and basing this on its underlying technological quality are important elements of patent office service (“assessment”) quality. To understand which level of assessment quality patent offices (can) provide, particularly in new technological areas, we study the concordance of the European Patent Office's (EPO) granting and opposition decisions for individual patents. Using the biotechnology industry in the 1980s (an emerging patenting area then) as an example, we find no empirical evidence that the EPO provided maximal or optimal assessment quality as far as can be told from bibliographic indicators. We discuss research limitations and consequences of this first empirical analysis, and suggest ideas for refinements in future work.     

Are Greek school students flourishing?

ABSTRACT

Schools have a key role in promoting student social and emotional development and are encouraged to serve as a primary source of support, especially for those learners in need of special attention for addressing their needs. Young people’s subjective emotional-social well-being is a general indicator of their mental health status. In this article, we present an assessment of the emotional, psychological and social well-being of Greek adolescent students, determine whether they are flourishing or languishing and investigate whether well-being varies by gender, age and year level. Analysis of data from over 500 Greek adolescent students (year levels 6–10) who completed the Mental Health Continuum (MHC) scale indicated that over half of the participants were flourishing, while only a small proportion were languishing and the remainder had moderate mental health. Gender differences were identified with female students reporting more challenges to their well-being than their male peers. Additionally, younger students were more likely to be flourishing than older students.     

No Difference in the Neural Underpinnings of Number and Letter Copying in Children: Bayesian Analysis of Functional Near‐Infrared Spectroscopy Data

It is under debate whether the neural representation of numbers and letters might rely on distinct neural correlates, or on a mostly shared neural network. In the present study, a total of 47 children in fifth grade (Experiment 1) and sixth grade (Experiment 2) simply copied numbers and letters on a touch screen while brain activation changes were recorded by means of functional near‐infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). fNIRS data of both experiments and a joint analysis revealed that a shared neural network, particularly in the left hemisphere, was activated in response to both number and letter copying. Interestingly, no difference was observed in brain activation patterns between these two stimuli, as revealed by Bayesian analysis. Our findings indicate that both number and letter copying lead to similar brain activation in children. We further suggest methodological and applied applications of these findings in the frame of educational neuroscience.     

Learning with immigrant children,families and communities: the imperative of early childhood teacher education

Abstract

This article reports on a longitudinal study spanning over 5 years, involving the design and implementation of an early childhood teacher education program model that engages a critical-ecological theoretical approach, a funds of knowledge perspective, and design-based methodology. This project aimed to promote equitable education for all children, and especially for young immigrant children encountering situations of oppression within the national and local educational contexts in Arizona. In this teacher education program, families, community members, researchers, pre-service teachers and teachers worked together to develop new modes of curricular activity, new spaces, new relationships, and new forms of movement among participants, as well as new circulations of literacy artefacts.     

Ethical competence – a comparison between the Swedish and the Icelandic curricula and some teachers’ views

The aim of this article is to highlight some conceptions of ethical competence identified in interviews with teachers in religious education in Sweden, and within analyses of policy documents in a Swedish and an Icelandic educational context. As a starting point we take seven interviewed teachers’ comments about what they view as important ethical competences for their pupils to have. A comparative analysis of Swedish and Icelandic policy documents with regard to the conceptual understandings of ethical competence is made, as well as a comparison between the policy documents and teachers’ comments. The Icelandic curriculum is chosen because it differs from the Swedish one in a sense relevant to an analysis of the teacher interviews. The analyses imply a tension between theoretical and analytical conceptions of ethical competence and an action competence. Finally, some possible threads to consider in developing a broadened and deepened understanding of ethical competence are outlined.     

俚语和成语,让你走出英语学习的黑暗

[接上期]Is Slang Only Used By The Lower Classes?“Absolutely not!”Itellmy internationalstudents. There is universal slang that is used by everyone. However, there are many subcategories of slang used by specific groups. Slang can be seen as a family tree with universal slang at the top representing words that are not only used consistently in the media, but by virtually everyone.     

Changing Focus: Internal Quality Audit as an Element in External Quality Evaluation

In summer 2000, the HungarianAccreditation Committee (HAC) completed theinitial round of its eight-year cycleevaluations of all higher educationinstitutions in Hungary. Based on theexperiences and information gained during thisinitial phase of quality control in Hungary,higher education institutions are developing aninternal quality audit mechanism. Some havealready submitted draft reports outlining theirbasic and specific standards relating to theirmissions and programmes. Since autumn 2000,they have been submitting a quality auditreport to the HAC annually. Concurrently, theHAC is working on a new quality evaluationmanual intended to eliminate redundancy of dataand include the institutions' annual qualityaudit results in its own external evaluation.     

Contemporary high-profile scientists and their interactions with the community

This article presents a case study of 10 high-profile Australian research scientists. These scientists are highly committed to engaging with the public. They interact with a wide range of groups in the community, including the traditional media. They are aware that they are seen as representatives of science at a time when the authority of science and scientists is threatened in Australia by controversy around issues such as climate change and vaccination. Through their experiences of interacting with non-scientists, they have developed views about qualities, characteristics and knowledge that contribute to, or inhibit, positive interactions between scientists and non-scientists. Their experiences and insights highlight aspects of contemporary science that are not generally acknowledged in science curricula.