Looking at learning approaches from the angle of student profiles

This study starts with investigating the relation of perceived workload, motivation for learning and working memory capacity (WMC) with students’ approaches to learning. Secondly, this study investigates if differences exist between different student profiles concerning their approach to the learning and the influence of workloads thereon. Results show a relation for workload and motivation but not for WMC. By means of a cluster analysis, three student profiles were identified based on WMC and motivation. Students characterised by high WMC and average motivation scored higher on surface approaches and lower on deep approaches than students with high autonomous motivation. These latter students also score higher on deep approaches than students characterised by low WMC. Finally, it was found that all student profiles responded the same to the influence of workload. In contrast with prior research, deep approaches were higher when the workload was higher.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Primeras creaciones en el lenguaje infantil. El caso de las metáforas

Resumen

La mayoría de los autores reconoce que el niño crea múltiples términos y expresiones cuando empieza a hablar. Estas creaciones (muchas veces erróneas desde nuestro punto de vista), revelan el empleo de diferentes reglas lingüísticas.

Uno de los motivos que conducen al niño pequeño a crear nuevos términos es el metafórico: designar un objeto con un término que normalmente se aplica a otro objeto, similar al primero. Podríamos entonces pensar que el niño, de dos a seis años, es capaz de emplear y comprender el lenguaje figurado, y particularmente las metáforas. Esta hipótesis es criticada a la luz de una serie de hechos experimentales relativos al desarrollo cognitivo del niño.     

Gender differences in social reputation and peer rejection at school / Diferencias de género en la reputación social y el rechazo entre iguales en la escuela

The objectives of this study are twofold: to see if gender differences in social reputation remain stable throughout schooling, and to analyse behavioural differences between boys and girls with rejected status. A sociometric test was carried out and the Allocation of Perceptive Attributes Method was applied to a sample of 777 students in the mid-cycle and upper-cycle of primary education (years three to six) and the first cycle of CSE (Compulsory Secondary Education). The results show that differences in social reputation remain stable throughout schooling, with the exception of a few trends. We also find that rejection in boys is characterized by behavioural attributes, while characteristics associated with rejection in girls seem to be more subtle. It is concluded that gender ought to be taken into account in the design and implementation of intervention programmes aimed at improving the social integration of students.     

Ethnic Identity Development and Acculturation Preferences Among Minority and Majority Youth: Norms and Contact

This article tests a longitudinal model of the antecedents and consequences of changes in identification with indigenous (Mapuche) among indigenous and nonindigenous youth in Chilean school contexts over a 6‐month period (633 nonindigenous and 270 Mapuche students, M_ages = 12.47 and 12.80 years, respectively). Results revealed that in‐group norms supporting contact and quality of intergroup contact at Time 1 predicted student's changes in Mapuche identification at Time 2, which in turn predicted changes in support for adoption of Chilean culture and maintenance of Mapuche culture at Time 2; some of the relationships between these variables were found to be moderated by age and ethnicity. Conceptual and policy implications are addressed in the Discussion .