How emotions shape the relationship between a chemistry teacher and her high school students

In this article we analyse the interaction between a high school chemistry teacher and her students from two different classes, emphasizing how emotions, affects and feelings contributed to, or obstructed, the dynamic of interactions. The data come from an ethnographic research approach and include videotapes of the lessons, interviews and field notes. Using the distinction introduced by Damasio between primary and secondary emotions, and between emotions and feelings, we describe how the background feelings emerged in different ways in the two classrooms. In class B, the relationships were constructed in a friendly way from the very beginning. The positive emotions that contributed to raising positive background feelings occurred in a high number and frequency. In class A, the picture was completely different, with a higher number and frequency of negative emotions. Thus, emotions and background feelings that were constructed differently in each classroom were at the heart of the different outcomes in terms of attitudes towards chemistry that arose in the two classrooms. In the paper, we also discuss the implication of this kind of analysis for science teaching generally.     

Popularity versus respect: school structure,peer groups and Latino academic achievement

This article begins with a discussion of recent critiques of Fordham and Ogbu’s argument on the ‘burden of acting white’. These critiques point to the stereotypical and homogeneous characterization of the black peer group by Fordham and Ogbu, as well as their inattention to the ways in which schools relegate into the lower tracks those students who behave too ethnically and who do not demonstrate proficiency with dominant cultural attributes. The second half of the article presents data showing that academic achievement is related to peer‐group membership and that schools are largely responsible for which peer group students join. Based on an ethnographic study at a predominantly Latino urban high school, I argue that Latino high achievers do not necessarily experience the ‘burden of acting white’ as Fordham and Ogbu suggest. This was due to the institutional practices at Hernandez High School, which ensured that high achievers and low achievers occupied different academic and social spaces, resulting in little interaction between the groups, and to the very different culture that prescribed the ways in which members of each group could achieve status.     

El ordenador como metáfora: Las posibilidades educativas de LOGO

Resumen

El autor considera al LOGO como un prototipo de la utilización educativa de los microordenadores que hace hincapié en la autonomía del aprendizaje y a sus aspectos heurísticos.

Desde postulados teóricos de la psicología genética de Piaget, analiza algunas de las particularidades psicológicas y pedagógicas de LOGO: unidades de base significativas para el niño, carácter constructivo e interactivo del aprendizaje, estatuto positivo del error, posibilidad de reflexionar sobre la propia actividad de aprendizaje.

Estos puntos son ilustrados con ejemplos de conductas de niños aprendiendo a programar con LOGO.     

When access to drugs meets catch-up: Insights from the use of CL threats to improve access to ARV drugs in Brazil

Access to affordable lifesaving medicines is considered a human right. This leads to a question largely understudied in the catch-up literature on accumulation of industrial capabilities. Can the need to improve access to an essential commodity impact the sectoral catch-up trajectory of the corresponding industry? In 1996, Brazil initiated a policy of universal and free access to highly-active ARV therapy, which put an enormous pressure on the Brazilian Ministry of Health (MoH). In order to ensure an adequate supply of ARVs in the public healthcare system with a limited budget, MoH started negotiating price reductions for high-cost patented drugs, often deploying the threat of using compulsory licensing. Through a scoping review of the literature and construction of the Brazilian case study, the paper explores how the need to access is impacted by prior catch-up in the pharmaceutical sector and triggers in turn future sectoral catch-up. It shows that price negotiations may or may not impact both catch-up and access positively. Catch-up can provide bargaining strength in price negotiations and have a positive inter-temporal impact on both future catch-up and access. However, results suggest that only successful catch-up can lead to long term access, as the capabilities accumulated in aborted catch-up are not sufficient for large scale production of low cost essential medicines. Thus, industrial policy and health policy can impact one another and twining between catch-up and access can be helpful.     

Parasympathetic activity delayed after self-paced exercise

The main purpose of this study was to compare the effect of the constant load and self-paced exercise with similar total work on autonomic control after endurance exercise. Ten physically active men were submitted to (i) a maximal incremental exercise test, (ii) a 4-km cycling time trial (4-km TT), and (iii) a constant workload test with identical total external work performed at 4-km TT. Gas exchange was measured throughout the tests, while blood lactate, heart rate, and heart rate variability (HRV) were measured during the passive recovery. Power output measured at the last lap (i.e. 3600–4000?m) of 4-km TT (316?±?89?W) was statistically higher than power output measured at the end of the constant workload exercise (211?±?42?W). The 4-km TT produced higher values of blood lactate concentration (8.8?±?2.1?mmol?L^?1) than the constant workload test (7.8?±?2.1?mmol?L^?1). The heart rate recovery measured at 60?s (constant workload: 37?±?7?bpm; 4-km TT: 30?±?6) and 120?s (constant workload: 57?±?9?bpm; 4-km TT: 51?±?9?bpm) were higher in the constant workload than in the self-paced exercise. The HRV (i.e. RMSSD30s) was statistically higher in the constant load exercise measured at 120, 420, 450, 480, 540, and 570?s than the self-paced exercise. These findings suggest that the autonomic control responses were dependent of the endurance exercise modalities, with parasympathetic activity being delayed after self-paced exercise, as evidenced by post-exercise heart rate indices.     

Wasting Talent: Using Counter-Storytelling to Narrate Dismal Educational Outcomes

A recent study illustrated that the educational attainment of Latina/o students has been dismal during the past decade and that many Latinas/os continue to “fall through the cracks” of the educational pipeline. Through storytelling, I juxtapose my educational trajectory as a high school graduate with that of my third-oldest brother, who “fell through the cracks” of the educational pipeline as an underclassman in high school. I provide examples of how being reprimanded for minimal misconduct negatively impacted my older brother’s overall school experiences, which ultimately prevented him from finishing high school despite his potential to succeed.     

Fast distributed algebraic connectivity estimation in large scale networks

This paper presents a distributed method to estimate the algebraic connectivity of fixed undirected communication graphs. The proposed algorithm uses bisection to estimate the second smallest eigenvalue of the Laplacian matrix associated to the graph. In order to decide the sub-interval in which the eigenvalue is contained, a distributed averaging algorithm based on Chebyshev polynomials is considered together with a max consensus algorithm. The information exchanged by neighbors in the graph each communication round is constant and independent of the size of the network, making it scalable to large networks. Besides, exploiting the convergence properties of Chebyshev polynomials we provide a direct estimation of the algebraic connectivity so that, instead of the midpoint of the bisection interval, the new approximation can be used. Finally, our algorithm also provides upper and lower bounds on the algebraic connectivity and an estimation of the Fiedler eigenvector associated to it. Simulations in large networks demonstrate the scalability and accuracy of the algorithm.     

A school-based motivational intervention to promote physical activity from a self-determination theory perspective

The authors analyzed the effects of a multidimensional intervention to promote physical activity (PA) in school, based on self-determination theory. The study involved 88 students, between 14 and 17 years old, who were divided into a control group (n = 59) and an experimental group (n = 29). In the experimental group, a 6-month intervention was conducted, applying a teaching unit of fitness and health in physical education (PE) classes, an extracurricular program of healthy PA, and meetings with families. Questionnaires were administered to measure different motivational variables and PA levels at four time points. Significant differences were found in favor of the experimental group in parental and peer autonomy support; integrated regulation in PE; autonomy, intrinsic, and identified regulation in leisure-time PA; moderate, hard, and very hard PA; and physical self-worth. Motivational effects were maintained over time but the effects on PA levels disappeared at 6 months.     

Memory for recent actions in the bottlenosed dolphin (Tursiops truncatus): Repetition of arbitrary behaviors using an abstract rule

Little is known about how animals represent their own actions in working memory. We investigated whether bottlenosed dolphins could recall actions they had recently performed and reveal those recollections using an abstract rule. Two dolphins were trained to respond to a specific gestural command by repeating the last behavior performed. Both dolphins proved to be able to repeat a wide variety of behaviors on command and were able to generalize the repeating rule to novel behaviors and situations. One dolphin was able to repeat all 36 behaviors she was tested on, including behaviors involving multiple simultaneous actions and self-selected behaviors. These results suggest that dolphins can flexibly access memories of their recent actions and that these memories are of sufficient detail to allow for reenactments. The repeating task can potentially be used to investigate short-term action and event representations in a variety of species.