Resource location and structural properties of the nestbox as determinants of nest-site selection in the golden hamster

Nest-site selection, an ecologically relevant behavior, was studied in the golden hamster in a model environment where the animals could choose between nestboxes differing in distance from resource or in structural features (size and illumination). Experiment 1 showed that hamsters can decrease foraging costs by setting their nests in the nestbox nearest to the food and/or nestmaterial sources, and that hoarding costs, as distinct from simple procurement costs, are taken into account in the choice process. Preferences for darker and larger nestboxes were obtained in Experiment 2. Experiment 3 revealed an internally coherent hierarchical pattern in preferences, with illumination being more important than size and resource distance, and size more important than resource distance. The results suggest that nest-site selection and foraging behaviors are parts of an integrated causal system.     

Peer’s mental states in a collaborative setting: Developmental perspective on children’s inferential abilities

The present study investigates the development of children’s ability to make inferences about a peer’s mental state. In this study 48 eight-year-old children, 49 ten-year-old children and 44 adults observed and analyzed short video sequences, extracts from a socio-cognitive interaction between two children working on a mathematical task. The participants inferred mental states of one of the videotaped children while answering questions. Half of the participants watched the different sequences with sound and the other half watched them without sound. The results show that ten-year-old children are nearly as skilled as adults in making inferences but that eight-years-old children make less relevant inferences. The access to verbal information influenced the inferences only for the eight-year-old group.     

Chemistry inside an epistemological community box! Discursive exclusions and inclusions in Swedish National tests in Chemistry

This study examined the Swedish national tests in chemistry for implicit and explicit values. The chemistry subject is understudied compared to biology and physics and students view chemistry as their least interesting science subject. The Swedish national science assessments aim to support equitable and fair evaluation of students, to concretize the goals in the chemistry syllabus and to increase student achievement. Discourse and multimodal analyses, based on feminist and critical didactic theories, were used to examine the test’s norms and values. The results revealed that the chemistry discourse presented in the tests showed a traditional view of science from the topics discussed (for example, oil and metal), in the way women, men and youth are portrayed, and how their science interests are highlighted or neglected. An elitist view of science emerges from the test, with distinct gender and age biases. Students could interpret these biases as a message that only “the right type” of person may come into the chemistry epistemological community, that is, into this special sociocultural group that harbours a common view about this knowledge. This perspective may have an impact on students’ achievement and thereby prevent support for an equitable and fair evaluation. Understanding the underlying evaluative meanings that come with science teaching is a question of democracy since it may affect students’ feelings of inclusion or exclusion. The norms and values harboured in the tests will also affect teaching since the teachers are given examples of how the goals in the syllabus can be concretized.     

Policy development and educational research: The Hungarian experience

Conclusions The interaction between research and politics is weakly structured in Hungarian higher education. Functions and roles are unclear, persons participating often change or combine different roles. The emergence of modern higher education politics in Hungary catalyzes the differentiation, professionalization and institutionalization of experts, advisers and consultants. National reform commissions provide a good framework to work out these roles. The small size of the country and the limitations of its academic resources, however, make this progress gradual and controversial.     

Alphabetic access route in beginning reading acquisition in Portuguese: The role of letter-name knowledge

The present study investigates Ehri's (Ehri & Wilce 1985; Scott & Ehri 1990) hypothesis that knowledge of the alphabet enables children to learn to read by processing and storing letter-sound relations in words. In particular, it examines whether letter-name knowledge facilitates the learning of spellings in which the names of one or more letters can be heard in the pronunciation of the words. Preschool children who could not read any word out of context were divided into two groups on the basis of their ability to name the letters of the alphabet: one group knew the names of the letters while the other did not. Both groups were taught to read two types of simplified spellings: visual spellings, that is, spellings whose letters did not correspond to sounds in the pronunciations of the words but which were visually more salient (e.g., X_QKO for the word cerveja), and phonetic spellings, that is, spellings whose letters corresponded to sounds in the pronunciation of the words (e.g., CRVA for the word cerveja). In all phonetic spellings, the name of at least one letter could be clearly heard in the pronunciation of the words. Results corroborated Ehri's hypothesis. The children who did not know the names of the letters learned to read the visual spellings more easily than the phonetic ones. On the other hand, the children who knew the names of the letters showed the opposite pattern, that is, they learned the phonetic spellings more easily than the visual ones.     

The Poor Get Richer: Heterogeneity in the Efficacy of a School-Level Intervention for Academic Language

We investigate the impact of a relatively brief cross-curricular intervention, Word Generation, on middle school students' development of taught academic vocabulary. Students (n = 8382) in forty-four middle schools in three urban districts were randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. Treatment teachers implemented the program with minimal support and varying levels of commitment. Students in treatment schools scored almost a point higher on the curriculum-based vocabulary posttests than those in control schools (Hedges's g = 0.094, p < 0.05). Though there was no main treatment effect on the standardized measures of students' general vocabulary knowledge or reading comprehension, baseline-by-treatment interactions at the school and student level acted to attenuate the Matthew Effect in reading and vocabulary growth.     

Social interaction learning strategies,motivation, first-year students’ experiences and permanence in university studies*

Applying a structural equations modelling methodology, the study analyses the relationships and effects of self-regulated learning (social interaction learning strategies and motivation) and first-year university experiences on permanence in the sophomore year. The participants are 239 first-year students in different Engineering degrees at a public university in south-eastern Spain. Two alternative structural models are evaluated, showing the superiority of the model where first-year university experiences completely mediate the effects of self-regulated learning on permanence. Motivation and social interaction learning strategies show direct effects on first-year university experiences, and first-year university experiences, in turn, show direct effects on permanence; additionally, both motivation and social interaction learning strategies have indirect effects on permanence via first-year university experiences. The noteworthy theoretical implications of the results are discussed, as well as the teaching methodology and support services provided to first-year university students.     

Avoiding communication barriers in the classroom: the APEINTA project

Education is a fundamental human right, however unfortunately not everybody has the same learning opportunities. For instance, if a student has hearing impairments, s/he could face communications barriers in the classroom, which could affect his/her learning process. APEINTA is a Spanish educational project that aims for inclusive education for all. This project proposes two main accessible initiatives: (1) real-time captioning and text-to-speech (TTS) services in the classroom and (2) accessible Web-learning platform out of the classroom with accessible digital resources. This paper presents the inclusive initiatives of APEINTA. Also an evaluation of the into-the-classroom initiative (real-time captioning and TTS services) is presented. This evaluation has been conducted during a regular undergraduate course at a university and during a seminar at an integration school for deaf children. Forty-five hearing students, 1 foreign student, 3 experts in captioning, usability and accessibility, and 20 students with hearing impairments evaluated these services in the classroom. Evaluation results show that these initiatives are adequate to be used in the classroom and that students are satisfied with them.     

Effects of Alternated Basketball Competition on Perceived Competence in Adolescents with Intellectual Disabilities Over a Period of 13 Months: A research note

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of alternated (segregated and integrated) basketball competition on two domains of perceived competence and on general self-worth. Participants were 24 adolescent males with intellectual disabilities divided equally into three groups: (a) those involved in basketball in an alternated sport competition, (b) those involved in adapted physical activity, and (c) those who were sedentary. The experimental treatment lasted for 13 months. For the sport competition group this involved 2 hr of training each week and 12 competitive meets. We administered Harter's (1985) Self-Perception Profile for Children 13 times to determine changes in perceived competence and general self-worth. The results indicate no significant changes for the different groups in the two domains of perceived competence and in general self-worth over 13 months.