School cultures as contexts for informal teacher learning

This study profiles and compares international social contexts for teacher workplace informal learning from the teachers' perspectives. Set in elementary schools in the U.S. and Lithuania, the study illustrates how teachers make sense of and engage in professional learning within their historical, political and administrative contexts. A socio-cultural framework brings into view different opportunities for teacher informal learning. These evolve from comparing teacher interviews about their learning to ethnographic case studies of the school's cultures that include schools' missions, building structures, classroom environments, organizational arrangements, traditions, and professional relationships. The study illustrates key interrelated cultural qualities of schools that support and hinder informal learning; argues for the importance of acknowledging teacher informal learning as a method of career-long professional development, and suggests further research about how to build and sustain the school infrastructure necessary to maintain such development.     

Teachers’ organizational citizenship behavior: Examining the boundary between in-role behavior and extra-role behavior from the perspective of teachers,principals and parents

This study examined how different stakeholders in school (principals, teachers, parents) conceptualize teachers' role breadth, i.e., whether they define given behaviors commonly assumed to be OCBs as in-role or extra-role behaviors. Drawing on a survey of 29 principals, 245 teachers and 345 parents, the results showed that principals and teachers defined more teachers' OCBs in general and toward the school as in-role behaviors than parents did; parents defined more teachers' OCBs toward the student as in-role behaviors than teachers did. A wide variety of possible school interventions is indicated, each with the potential for far broader improvements in school effectiveness.     

Effects of differently polarized microwave radiation on the microscopic structure of the nuclei in human fibroblasts

To investigate the influence of microwave radiation on the human fibroblast nuclei, the effects of three variants of electromagnetic wave polarization, linear and left-handed and right-handed elliptically polarized, were examined. Experimental conditions were: frequency (f) 36.65 GHz, power density (P) at the surface of exposed object 1, 10, 30, and 100 μW/cm², exposure time 10 s. Human fibroblasts growing in a monolayer on a cover slide were exposed to microwave electromagnetic radiation. The layer of medium that covered cells during microwave exposure was about 1 mm thick. Cells were stained immediately after irradiation by 2% (w/v) orcein solution in 45% (w/v) acetic acid. Experiments were made at room temperature (25 °C), and control cell samples were processed in the same conditions. We assessed heterochromatin granule quantity (HGQ) at 600× magnification. Microwave irradiation at the intensity of 1 μW/cm² produced no effect, and irradiation at the intensities of 10 and 100 μW/cm² induced an increase in HGQ. More intense irradiation induced more chromatin condensation. The right-handed elliptically polarized radiation revealed more biological activity than the left-handed polarized one.     

Gender and physics

Unlike many other countries, physics is highly popular in secondary education in Scotland, with large numbers opting for study at the Higher Grade on which entry to higher education is based. This paper reports a project that explored the attitudes and perceptions of Scottish girls and boys towards physics over the age range of 10-18 years old. Towards the end of primary school, attitudes towards science are very positive and both boys and girls are looking forward to studying more science in secondary school, although there is no evidence that the introduction of primary science has been a factor. By the end of the second year of secondary school, these positive attitudes have declined quite markedly and a significant decline of girls' attitudes towards science relative to boys' attitudes was clearly observed. The success of the Standard Grade physics course (a 2-year course taken in third and fourth year, ages 14-16 approximately) is easy to observe in terms of the restoration of positive attitudes of boys and girls again as the pupils move through third and fourth year. This process is especially clearly marked among girls. Surprisingly, over 90 per cent of the observed fourth year pupils wanted to continue studies in physics but a marked decline in attitude is observed during the Higher Grade course (a 1-year course which follows Standard Grade), this being more marked for boys. If the number of girls in physics is an issue for concern within the structure of Scottish system, then the focus of attention should be the structure and nature of the science course in the early secondary school.     

Self-esteem,Locus of Control and Various Aspects of Psychopathology of Adults with Visual Impairments

The exploratory study presented in this article looks into the possible differences in psychosocial aspects (self-esteem and locus of control) and aspects of psychopathology (depression, anxiety, melancholia, asthenia, and mania) amongst sighted adults and adults with visual impairments. Moreover, the study aims to examine the possible correlations between psychosocial aspects and aspects of psychopathology of adults with visual impairments. Furthermore, this study examines the possible relationships between the above psychological aspects and the individual features of the participants (age, gender, age at onset of visual impairments, how recent the loss of vision is, marital status, employment status, and ability of independent mobility). One hundred and forty-eight adults participated in the study: 55 adults with visual impairments and 93 sighted adults. The research was based upon the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Rotter’s Internal–External Locus of Control Scale, and the Symptoms Rating Scale for Depression and Anxiety. The results reveal correlations between psychosocial aspects and psychopathology of adults with visual impairments. Moreover, the individual features influence the psychosocial aspects and psychopathology of the participants.     

Julian’s Birth

A grandmother of seven and childbirth educator shares her daughter’s successful vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) birth story in Switzerland.     

Engineering design projects as a reflection promoter

This article describes examples of reflection documented in a longitudinal research comprising two studies: a three-year three-stage study on technology project-based learning (TPBL) and a three-year two-stage study on engineering thinking (ET). Both studies used qualitative tools such as interviews, active observations, and document analysis. Reflections expressed by 10th grade pupils from eight high schools and 14 post-secondary school students who participated in the TPBL study as well as the reflection findings of experts and undergraduates from the ET study were used. The data analysis indicates that reflection is not generated on its own; it must be fostered. Reflection takes one of three forms: as a reaction to an irregularity or error made when working on the system design; conducted in groups that is inherent to the design process in industry; and from intuition that something may not be quite right, even though preliminary results seem to be correct.     

In between self-knowledge and school demands: policy enacted in the Swedish middle-year classroom

In this article, we focus on the interaction in a Year 5 classroom where students fill in a ‘self-evaluation form’ as a preparation for a forthcoming discussion on progress aiming at the production of an Individual Developmental Plan. Drawing on the theoretical concepts of fabrications and performativity, we understand this as an enactment of policy where both teacher and students become actors and subjects. From using document analysis together with conversation analysis as a methodological approach, we show how the ‘self-evaluation’ in interaction becomes a successful exercise in fabrications as teacher and student negotiate conceptions of the ideal student in relation to self-knowledge and school demands. The article is an empirically grounded contribution to the understanding of how policies are interpreted and made into being by local actors in everyday practices, in this case teachers and students in schools.     

Polychronicity: review of the literature and a new configuration for the study of this hidden dimension of online learning

Polychronicity is the natural tendency or preference for structuring time that has an influence on people’s behaviors. Highly polychronic individuals are involved in everything, doing many things at once because they value human relationships and interactions over arbitrary schedules and appointments. In contrast, highly monochronic individuals focus on one thing at a time, perceive other events as interruptions, and stress a high degree of scheduling, and promptness in meeting obligations and attending appointments. Although time is an important variable in educational contexts, and in particular in online learning, there is a lack of studies on polychronicity in educational research. This article reviews, summarizes, and extends the literature on polychronicity conceptualization and assessment; it discusses the limitations of the results and offers a multidimensional proposal for a polychronicity construct. Finally, the implications of students’ time differences and their impact on instructional situations are discussed.     

Does sensitivity to orthographic regularities influence reading and spelling acquisition? A 1-year prospective study

Recent studies focused on the influence of orthographic processing on reading and spelling performance. It was found that orthographic processing is an independent predictor of reading and spelling performance in different languages and children of different ages. This study investigated sensitivity to orthographic regularities in German-speaking children (N = 31) prior and during formal reading and spelling instruction. In addition, the relationship between sensitivity to orthographic regularities and reading and spelling performance was explored. Two aspects of children’s sensitivity to orthographic regularities (sensitivity to frequent double consonants and sensitivity to legal positions of double consonants) were measured with a nonword forced choice task. The results show that sensitivity to orthographic regularities improved significantly from kindergarten to first grade. Moreover, children’s sensitivity to orthographic regularities at the end of first grade accounted for a significant amount of unique variance in their reading and spelling performance. These results suggest that orthographic sensitivity on a sublexical level is important for the development of reading and spelling skills.