Written artefacts in post-conference feedback sessions: the running commentary as a support for teacher learning

Written artefacts often form a significant part of teacher education activities and play a crucial role in the dialogue between tutor and student teacher in a post-observation feedback session. However, although the dialogue of feedback sessions has been extensively researched, the role of the artefact has been less explored. This research examines how the written artefact of a running commentary guides or constrains the pedagogical conversation between tutor and student teachers, as well as how it represents the power and authority of the tutor and the teacher education establishment. The article concludes with implications for pre-service teacher education practice.     

Secondary School Students’ Understanding of Science and Their Socioscientific Reasoning

Research in socioscientific issue (SSI)-based interventions is relatively new (Sadler in Journal of Research in Science Teaching 41:513–536, 2004; Zeidler et al. in Journal of Research in Science Teaching 46:74–101, 2009), and there is a need for understanding more about the effects of SSI-based learning environments (Sadler in Journal of Research in Science Teaching 41:513–536, 2004). Lee and Witz (International Journal of Science Education 31:931–960, 2009) highlighted the need for detailed case studies that would focus on how students respond to teachers’ practices of teaching SSI. This study presents case studies that investigated the development of secondary school students’ science understanding and their socioscientific reasoning within SSI-based learning environments. A multiple case study with embedded units of analysis was implemented for this research because of the contextual differences for each case. The findings of the study revealed that students’ understanding of science, including scientific method, social and cultural influences on science, and scientific bias, was strongly influenced by their experiences in SSI-based learning environments. Furthermore, multidimensional SSI-based science classes resulted in students having multiple reasoning modes, such as ethical and economic reasoning, compared to data-driven SSI-based science classes. In addition to portraying how participants presented complexity, perspectives, inquiry, and skepticism as aspects of socioscientific reasoning (Sadler et al. in Research in Science Education 37:371–391, 2007), this study proposes the inclusion of three additional aspects for the socioscientific reasoning theoretical construct: (1) identification of social domains affecting the SSI, (2) using cost and benefit analysis for evaluation of claims, and (3) understanding that SSIs and scientific studies around them are context-bound.     

Academic Mobbing in Relation to Leadership Practices: A New Perspective on an Old Issue

Abstract

Constant pressures emanating from internal and external environments of the academy have resulted in many changes, one of which is the workplace mobbing, an old issue for the broader field of organization science but a relatively new phenomenon in the academic context. This study investigated the relationship between workplace mobbing and academic leadership and the results indicated that the more positive leadership there is in an institution, the less mobbing behaviors are observed.     

Questioning to scaffold: an exploration of questions in pre-service teacher training feedback sessions

The purpose of this research was to explore trainer questioning strategies which aimed to scaffold development and learning in teacher training feedback sessions. Research was conducted with a group of Turkish pre-service English teacher trainees at an English-medium university in Turkey. Findings include a categorisation of different question types which seemed to prompt reflection and construction of knowledge. The data also suggest that trainees need varying levels of support through different question types to better scaffold their understanding of teaching. This study concludes with a data-driven framework of questioning strategies which can be a potential guide for trainers working with pre-service English teacher trainees.     

The influence of supplementary subtests on WISC IQ scores for high achieving students

The validity of Wechsler's (1949) comments concerning the addition of the supplementary WISC subtests was investigated for a sample of 20 fifth-grade students. The study was designed like that of Engin (1974) which investigated whether or not the addition of one or both of the supplementary WISC sub-tests, Digit Span and Mazes, materially affected the obtained IQs of high achieving fifth-grade subjects. All 12 subtests of the WISC were individually administered to the students, and IQs were then calculated in such a manner that specific comparisons could be made. These comparisons were between verbal, Performance and Full Scale IQs composed of the maximum number of subtests, and verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQs exclusive of Digit Span, Mazes, or both subtests. T-tests for correlated means were employed and revealed highly significant differences. The addition of Digit Span and Mazes in the WISC battery served to depress the verbal, Performance and Full Scale IQs of the high achieving students. The study serves to validate the previous investigation by Engin (1974).     

Visual tests for the school psychologist

The cover test and the near point of convergence test are quick, easy tests to help the school psychologist determine if a child should be referred for professional vision care. Negative results from these tests do not mean that the child does not have a visual problem. There is no single test which gives that information. Positive results from these tests, however, are evidence that the child may have a visual problem. This information, along with the results of other performance tests given by the school psychologist, should be reported to the vision care professional to facilitate the accurate determination of the child's visual status.     

结构设计分析模型的合理采用探讨

简要介绍建设结构设计中的分析模型，计算方法，并结合实例进行讨论，提出了一些实用的简化方法供建筑结构设计参考。     

Interactive transport of multi-view videos for 3DTV applications

The authors propose a novel method for transporting multi-view videos that aims to keep the bandwidth requirements on both end-users and servers as low as possible. The method is based on application layer multicast, where each end point receives only a selected number of views required for rendering video from its current viewpoint at any given time. The set of selected videos changes in real time as the user‘s viewpoint changes because of head or eye movements. Techniques for reducing the black-outs during fast viewpoint changes were investigated. The performance of the approach was studied through network experiments.     

Bias in algorithmic filtering and personalization

Online information intermediaries such as Facebook and Google are slowly replacing traditional media channels thereby partly becoming the gatekeepers of our society. To deal with the growing amount of information on the social web and the burden it brings on the average user, these gatekeepers recently started to introduce personalization features, algorithms that filter information per individual. In this paper we show that these online services that filter information are not merely algorithms. Humans not only affect the design of the algorithms, but they also can manually influence the filtering process even when the algorithm is operational. We further analyze filtering processes in detail, show how personalization connects to other filtering techniques, and show that both human and technical biases are present in today’s emergent gatekeepers. We use the existing literature on gatekeeping and search engine bias and provide a model of algorithmic gatekeeping.     

An update algorithm design using moving Region of Attraction for SDRE based control law

State Dependent Riccati Equation (SDRE) methods have the considerable advantages over other nonlinear control methods. However, stability issues can be arisen in SDRE based control system due to the lack of the global asymptotic stability property. Therefore, the previous studies have usually shown that local asymptotic stability can be ensured by estimating a Region of Attraction (ROA) around the equilibrium point. These estimated regions for stability may become narrow or the condition to keep the states in this region may be very conservative. To resolve these issues, this paper proposes a novel SDRE method employing an update algorithm to re-estimate the ROA when the states tend to move out of the stable region. The tendency is checked using a condition which is developed based on a new theorem. The theorem proves that it is possible to redesign the previous ROA with respect to the current states lying close to its boundary for ensuring the “non-local” stability along the trajectory without the need of solving SDRE at each time instant, unlike the standard SDRE approach. Therefore, the new theorem is now able to enhance the stability of the SDRE based closed-loop control system. The feasibility of the proposed SDRE control method is tested in both simulations and experiments. A validated 3-DOF laboratory helicopter is used for experiments and the control objective for the helicopter is to realise a preplanned movement in both elevation and travel axes. The results reveal that the proposed SDRE approach enables the controlled plant to track the desired trajectory as satisfactorily as the standard SDRE approach, while only solving SDRE when needed. The proposed SDRE method reduces the computational load for practical implementation of the control algorithm whilst ensuring the stability over the operational region.