New realities for Polish primary school informatics education affected by COVID-19

Education and Information Technologies - In the paper, the authors discuss the first research effort to explore the transition from traditional teaching into distance teaching in Polish primary...     

Career development of English female head-teachers: influences,decisions and perceptions

This paper presents findings from a study examining the career development experiences of female head-teachers in the south of England. Adapting a three-stage career model, the study examined different stages of the women’s lives and careers in order to understand what encouraged and influenced them to become educational leaders and how their experiences shaped their perceptions of headship. The study used semi-structured life story interviews to generate rich accounts of women’s lives from childhood. Findings suggest that parents exerted significant influence on the participants’ values and ambitions, while teachers influenced their career choices. Their perceptions of headship developed and changed over time, transforming from feelings of shock at the reality and the complexity of headship to control and confidence that increased over first, second and third headships.     

Dual-task effect on postural control in high-level competitive dancers

Abstract

We investigated balance in 33 competitive dancers (17 females, 16 males) and 22 controls (17 females, 5 males) (age 16–27 years) on a force plate in two conditions: single task (quiet stance) and dual task (with a concurrent mental task). Balance was evaluated using centre-of-pressure shift (sway) variability, mean speed, frequency, and sample entropy. The effect of the dual task in the medio-lateral plane was comparable in both groups, decreasing sway variability (P < 0.05) and increasing mean speed (P < 0.001), frequency, and sample entropy (P < 0.001), showing that the participants effectively increased the level of automaticity. In the antero-posterior plane, the dual task also increased sway frequency and sample entropy (P < 0.01) in dancers without affecting their standing performance. In contrast, postural control in non-dancers was vulnerable to reduced cognitive investment, which adversely interfered with baseline performance. There were very high correlations between sway sample entropy and frequency in each group, plane, and task (r = 0.92–0.98, P < 0.001), indicating that both parameters may measure the same characteristic of postural control and that higher sway frequency may play an important role in protecting stability in dual tasking. The postural control of dancers and non-dancers appears to be similar, although dancing seems to facilitate the increased level of automatic control in the antero-posterior plane.     

Decreased serum prohepcidin concentration in patients with polycythemia vera

Objective: Iron deficiency is a common complication in patients with polycythemia vera (PV). Hepcidin is a principal regulator of iron homeostasis. The aim of our study was to assess prohepcidin, a hepcidin precursor, and other iron status pa-rameters in the serum of PV patients. Methods: The study was performed in 60 patients (F/M 26/34) aged 38～84 (66±10) years. The control group consisted of 20 healthy volunteers, age and sex matched. The following parameters were determined in blood serum samples: prohepcidin concentration, iron content, unsaturated iron binding capacity (UIBC), total iron binding capacity (TIBC), transferrin saturation (TfS), and concentrations of ferritin and soluble transferrin receptor (sTIR). Results: All PV patients showed significantly lower levels of prohepcidin, higher levels of sTIR and TIBC compared to the control group. 40% of the patients from the study group showed concentrations of ferritin below the normal range and significantly lower levels of serum iron and TfS, and significantly higher levels of sTfR, UIBC and TIBC in comparison with the rest of the study group. In this group of patients, prohepcidin concentrations were significantly lower than those in other patients. Conclusion: The results indicate that PV patients suffer from iron metabolism disorders. The decreased serum level ofprohepcidin in PV patients may be a result of iron deficiency.     

The influence of textbooks on teachers’ knowledge of chemical bonding representations relative to students’ difficulties understanding

Background: Textbooks are integral tools for teachers’ lessons. Several researchers observed that school teachers rely heavily on textbooks as informational sources when planning lessons. Moreover, textbooks are an important resource for developing students’ knowledge as they contain various representations that influence students’ learning. However, several studies report that students have difficulties understanding models in general, and chemical bonding models in particular, and that students’ difficulties understanding chemical bonding are partly due to the way it is taught by teachers and presented in textbooks.

Purpose: This article aims to delineate the influence of textbooks on teachers’ selection and use of representations when teaching chemical bonding models and to show how this might cause students’ difficulties understanding.

Sample: Ten chemistry teachers from seven upper secondary schools located in Central Sweden volunteered to participate in this study.

Design and methods: Data from multiple sources were collected and analysed, including interviews with the 10 upper secondary school teachers, the teachers’ lesson plans, and the contents of the textbooks used by the teachers.

Results: The results revealed strong coherence between how chemical bonding models are presented in textbooks and by teachers, and thus depict that textbooks influence teachers’ selection and use of representations for their lessons. As discussed in the literature review, several of the selected representations were associated with alternative conceptions of, and difficulties understanding, chemical bonding among students.

Conclusions: The study highlights the need for filling the gap between research and teaching practices, focusing particularly on how representations of chemical bonding can lead to students’ difficulties understanding. The gap may be filled by developing teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge regarding chemical bonding and scientific models in general.     

Dual-task effect on postural control in high-level competitive dancers

We investigated balance in 33 competitive dancers (17 females, 16 males) and 22 controls (17 females, 5 males) (age 16-27 years) on a force plate in two conditions: single task (quiet stance) and dual task (with a concurrent mental task). Balance was evaluated using centre-of-pressure shift (sway) variability, mean speed, frequency, and sample entropy. The effect of the dual task in the medio-lateral plane was comparable in both groups, decreasing sway variability (P < 0.05) and increasing mean speed (P < 0.001), frequency, and sample entropy (P < 0.001), showing that the participants effectively increased the level of automaticity. In the antero-posterior plane, the dual task also increased sway frequency and sample entropy (P < 0.01) in dancers without affecting their standing performance. In contrast, postural control in non-dancers was vulnerable to reduced cognitive investment, which adversely interfered with baseline performance. There were very high correlations between sway sample entropy and frequency in each group, plane, and task (r = 0.92-0.98, P < 0.001), indicating that both parameters may measure the same characteristic of postural control and that higher sway frequency may play an important role in protecting stability in dual tasking. The postural control of dancers and non-dancers appears to be similar, although dancing seems to facilitate the increased level of automatic control in the antero-posterior plane.     

Multiple Employment as an Additional Source of Revenue: Under What Conditions Can it be of Advantage to Both Academics and Universities?

This paper considers the question of when it can be advantageous, for both academics and universities, for individuals to be employed by more than one institution by first analysing the meanings of “advantage”, understood as profitable and valuable, and “disadvantage”. The question is whether it is possible to reach a matrix‐like balance of these opposing meanings/factors in higher education. The analysis is followed by a presentation of the Polish higher education case study seen through three possible scenarios, or Situations: when the alma mater is (1) the only place, (2) the principal place, and (3) one of [too] many places of employment and revenue. The quantitative growth of Polish higher education and its consequences are thought to be the main reason for the emergence of Situation 3. But, with the introduction of a new Law on Higher Education and efforts to create a new institutional culture there are signs of a shift from Situation 3 to Situation 2.     

Magnesium distribution in paper subjected to deacidification investigated by means of Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy

Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA ICP MS) was used to investigate the distribution of magnesium in paper subjected to selected deacidification mass processes. Paper samples have been taken from the early XX century books, which had been previously deacidified with the use of either Book Saver or Bückeburg process. Both methods incorporate the use of magnesium compounds therefore the enrichment of the paper with magnesium was expected as a consequence of the undertaken deacidification. The aim of our investigation with the use of LA ICP MS was to evaluate a possible variety in magnesium distribution over paper within μ-meter resolution, depending on the applied process.     

Engineering Education Taught in Foreign Languages in Poland

After the recent political and economic changes in Poland the country as a whole has changed beyond recognition in the last few years. These changes have also resulted in new requirements in the field of engineering education. In order to improve the quality of teaching and to meet West European standards, some Polish universities offer to Polish and foreign students courses taught in foreign languages which usually follow the American‐English pattern of education.