Cinquante années de débats et de recherches sur l’école française

Two major factors have contributed to the evolution of French historiography in the history of education in the past 50 years. The first relates to the general orientation of public debate about schools, which has shifted from a paradigm concerning democratisation to one that focuses on student success rates and the efforts to eliminate inequalities of all sorts. The second factor that has affected scholarly orientations lies in changes linked to academic positioning between pedagogy, history, and the educational sciences in the context of increasing university hirings, at least until recently. These two changes in terms of scholarly paradigms and scholarly professional identities have encouraged the development of a certain number of approaches and questions: a reconsideration of the historic role of the State, an interest in a greater diversity of actors in the educational process, and a re-evaluation of the cognitive, cultural and social effects of teaching at all levels. Despite this, the history of education plays a minor role today in France, not only in teacher training but also in debates about the future of schools.     

Keeping your audience in mind: applying audience analysis to the design of interactive score reports

Score reports have one or more intended audiences: the people who use the reports to make decisions about test takers, including teachers, administrators, parents and test takers. Attention to audience when designing a score report supports assessment validity by increasing the likelihood that score users will interpret and use assessment results appropriately. Although most design guidelines focus on making score reports understandable to people who are not testing professionals, audiences should be defined by more than just their lack of statistical knowledge. This paper introduces an approach to identifying important audience characteristics for designing computer-based, interactive score reports. Through three examples, we demonstrate how an audience analysis suggests a design pattern, which guides the overall design of a report, as well as design details, such as data representations and scaffolding. We conclude with a research agenda for furthering the use of audience analysis in the design of interactive score reports.     

Planning Istanbul’s Public Library System

The paper is an attempt to analyse the role of Nigerian television (TV) journalists as major participants in mass information production, transfer, and, delivery. The analysis centres on the legal, political, economic, and cultural contexts in which the TV journalists operate, and the dangers, problems, and frustrations involved in this operation. It also analyses the strategic role of the TV and its impact as a medium of mass information. The paper concludes by analyzing how TV programming orientation has been skewed in favour of more literate urban and semi-urban populations, and how Nigeria's legal, political, economic, and cultural environments are unfavourable for conscientious and conscious TV journalists. It suggests that only when the TV journalists re-orient themselves and assert their right as people's conscience can they mobilize society for positive change.     

Aggression in news comments: how context and article topic shape user-generated content

News editors listed online aggression as one of the main constraints to audience participation and debate in the media. However, previous studies offer contradictory evidence on how aggression affects the amount and civility of user participation. Furthermore, a large portion of these studies focus on the Anglo-Saxon context and follow an experimental design. This study addresses these issues through a content analysis of over 26,000 news comments from two Portuguese newspapers, testing how aggression in comments relates to the number of replies it generates and the aggressiveness of these replies. Results show that aggression generates more aggression in comment sections, but may also increase participation. The latter effect is moderated by the article topic, an important caveat that may explain different outcomes in previous works. The practical implications of these findings and paths for future research are discussed.     

Trends in Environmental Education Images of Textbooks from Western and Eastern European Countries and Non-European Countries

Textbook analysis is seen as a major element for studying environmental education addressing pupils, image analysis being rather relevant when studying textbooks written in 11 languages. We analysed 25 textbooks from 14 countries addressed to 14–16-year-old pupils, focusing on: (1) local and foreign/global images; (2) urban/rural and nature images; (3) negative impact, human management, and the beauty of nature; and (4) men and women in images with negative and positive impact. We distinguished some trends between Western (WEc) and Eastern (EEc) European countries and non-European countries (NEc). In contrast to textbooks from EEc and NEc, which tend to show the beauty of nature with little human influence, WEc textbooks tend to exhibit more images of urban/rural landscape, of human negative impact and of human management, expressing an anthropocentric view of the environment. Men are usually more present in textbook images than women. However, some images exhibiting more women than men could be found in textbooks from WEc and EEc, but never in NEc. In negative impact pictures, men are more often present than women but NEc women are never present in such images. Women are more frequent than men in positive impact images. Results suggest that textbooks from EEc and NEc should give more emphasis to human management and urban/rural images, whereas those from WEc should give more attention to the beauty of nature. A balance in the presence of men and women in images should be a matter of greater concern by all textbooks’ authors and publishers.     

Molecular design and application of luminescent materials composed of group 13 elements with an aggregation-induced emission property

Complexation of π-conjugated ligands by metal or semimetal ions leads to the enhancement of the planarity and rigidity of π-conjugated systems. Boron, especially, has played a central role in the design of luminescent main-group complexes. However, these complexes still suffer the disadvantage of aggregation-caused quenching as well as typical organic fluorophores. It has recently been reported that some types of boron complexes exhibit the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) property. Moreover, AIE behavior from complexes and organometallic compounds composed of the other group 13 elements, such as aluminum and gallium, has emerged in this decade. These observations greatly encourage us to develop advanced functional materials based on the group 13 elements. Indeed, recent research has demonstrated that these classes of materials are potentially versatile scaffolds for constructing chromic luminophores, efficiently emissive π-conjugated polymers and so on. This review mainly describes AIE-active group 13 complexes with four-coordinate structures and their application as photo-functional materials. Proposed mechanisms of the origins of AIE behavior are briefly discussed.     

Development of the Efficacy Beliefs for Conceptual Change Learning Questionnaire

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to assess college students’ efficacy beliefs for conceptual change and to examine the psychometric properties of the instrument. Participants were 692 students. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized single factor structure of Efficacy Beliefs for Conceptual Change Learning Questionnaire providing evidence for the construct validity. Evidence for concurrent validity also is provided. On the basis of the evidence provided in this study, the questionnaire appears to produce valid and reliable scores for college students. With the use of the questionnaire, conceptual change researchers might be able to better assess the relationship between students’ efficacy beliefs and the change in their conceptual understandings of various science concepts.     

Visiting Shrines: A Turkish Religious Practice and Its Mental Health Implications

The purpose of the present study was to explore through qualitative methodology the practice of visiting shrines, a religious practice indigenous to Turkish Muslims, and its potential mental health benefits. Thirteen individuals were interviewed at two shrines in Istanbul, Turkey. The researchers focused on visitors’ presenting issues, beliefs regarding the practice, the mental health benefits of the visit, and the behaviors that the visitors engaged in during their visit. The data were analyzed using the Consensual Qualitative Research method. Five domains emerged from the data: (i) degree of religiosity and duties, (ii) knowledge and beliefs about shrines, (iii) purpose of visits, (iv) activities during the visit, and (v) experience and impact of the visit. The findings were discussed based on the mental health benefits of visiting shrines and the counseling and cultural implications.