«Un redondel con muchas cosas dentro». Eso es un conjunto

Resumen

Se examina la comprensión infantil de algunas nociones de la teoría de conjuntos en una muestra de sesenta niños madrileños entre 6 y 11 años de edad. El análisis se centra en la definición y reconocimiento de conjuntos por parte de los niños, la formación de conjuntos a partir de un material dado y la conciencia de la utilidad de los conjuntos y su relación con otras áreas de las Matemáticas. Los resultados indican que más del 50% de los sujetos identifica el conjunto con el diagrama que lo representa y son incapaces de aplicar esas nociones a problemas concretos. Se interpretan estas dificultades a la luz de la descripción piagetiana de los dos tipos de abstracción—empírica y reflexiva—, y los dos tipos de conocimiento—físico y lógico-matemático—a que dan lugar.     

Counseling and Family Therapy in India: Evolving Professions in a Rapidly Developing Nation

Outpatient counseling is a relatively new concept and form of clinical practice in India. This article provides an overview of the need for and current status of counseling and family therapy in India. Examples of training programs are presented, and future prospects for the counseling and family therapy professions are highlighted. The authors discuss therapeutic issues that clinicians may need to consider when working with Indian clients, as well as some of the potential barriers to counseling individuals, couples, and families in or from the Indian subcontinent. The future of these professions looks bright and parallels India’s rapid development as a nation.     

Real moral problems in the use of virtual reality

In this paper, we argue that, under a specific set of circumstances, designing and employing certain kinds of virtual reality (VR) experiences can be unethical. After a general discussion of simulations and their ethical context, we begin our argument by distinguishing between the experiences generated by different media (text, film, computer game simulation, and VR simulation), and argue that VR experiences offer an unprecedented degree of what we call “perspectival fidelity” that prior modes of simulation lack. Additionally, we argue that when VR experiences couple this perspectival fidelity with what we call “context realism,” VR experiences have the ability to produce “virtually real experiences.” We claim that virtually real experiences generate ethical issues for VR technologies that are unique to the medium. Because subjects of these experiences treat them as if they were real, a higher degree of ethical scrutiny should be applied to any VR scenario with the potential to generate virtually real experiences. To mitigate this unique moral hazard, we propose and defend what we call “The Equivalence Principle.” This principle states that “if it would be wrong to allow subjects to have a certain experience in reality, then it would be wrong to allow subjects to have that experience in a virtually real setting.” We argue that such a principle, although limited in scope, should be part of the risk analysis conducted by any Institutional Review Boards, psychologists, empirically oriented philosophers, or game designers who are using VR technology in their work.     

Math Anxiety: Past Research,Promising Interventions,and a New Interpretation Framework

Mathematics anxiety is a pervasive issue in education that requires attention from both educators and researchers to help students reach their full academic potential. This review provides an overview of past research that has investigated the association between math anxiety and math achievement, factors that can cause math anxiety, characteristics of students that can increase their susceptibility to math anxiety, and efforts that educators can take to remedy math anxiety. We also derive a new Interpretation Account of math anxiety, which we use to argue the importance of understanding appraisal processes in the development and treatment of math anxiety. In conclusion, gaps in the literature are reviewed in addition to suggestions for future research that can help improve the field's understanding of this important issue.     

The intangibles’ mindset of CFOs’ and corporate performance

This paper aims to analyze the companies’ view about the financial valuation of intangibles relevance and its influence on corporate performance. Based on the theory of resources, the role of intangibles in business competitiveness is justified. The traditional factors of production have become secondary, while the success is primarily based on the development and utilization of intangible resources. One of the main problems in managing the intangibles appears to be that, there is a general lack of information about them. Therefore, financial valuation of intangibles will result in significant benefits to the organization that will help determine business strategy, process design as well providing competitive advantage. It follows the hypothesis of this work, the greater known about their intangibles and the greater sensitivity to the financial valuation of them, the better performance. To achieve this objective, a field study is done, doing telephone calls to Basque Country companies’ financial managers.     

Criticality in international higher education research: a critical discourse analysis of higher education journals

The current study utilizes the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179–211 Ajzen 1991) to examine an instructor confirmation-interaction model in the instructional communication context to discover a means by which instructors might cultivate positive student attitudes and increase beliefs that interactions with instructors would be beneficial in the future. Specifically, the model examines how teacher confirmation (Ellis 2000) influences students’ behavioral intention to communicate with instructors. Surveys were distributed to 343 college students (41.7% male and 58.1% female) in a basic communication course. Results were primarily consistent with the proposed model; teacher confirmation was significantly related to attitudes toward communicating with an instructor, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Subjective norms and perceived behavioral control were also positively related to students’ behavioral intention to communicate with the instructor. However, results reveal attitudes toward communicating do not predict students’ behavioral intention to communicate with instructors. It is recommended that future models examine a more contemporary, hi-tech representation of attitude toward student-instructor interactions as it may produce a significant association with students’ behavioral intent to communicate with them. The study concludes with theoretical and practical implications to examine student classroom communication via the confirmation-interaction model and the theory of planned behavior.     

Undergraduate Laboratory Exercises Specific to Food Spoilage Microbiology

Food spoilage has an enormous economic impact, and microbial food spoilage plays a significant role in food waste and loss; subsequently, an equally significant portion of undergraduate food microbiology instruction should be dedicated to spoilage microbiology. Here, we describe a set of undergraduate microbiology laboratory exercises that focus specifically on food spoilage which were taught in 2 lab periods as part of the undergraduate food microbiology lab curriculum at Cornell University. The lab was broken down into 3 exercises. Two exercises lead students to determine the likely source of contamination in a canned salsa through (exercise 1a) plating and observation of colony morphology and (exercise 1b) determination of the thermal resistance for those isolates. The final exercise (2) involved detection of the spoilage bacterium Alicyclobacillus in apple juice. Spoiled juice demonstrations were also prepared in this exercise for students to observe sensorial changes resulting from spoilage, emphasizing that spoilage is not always visually detectable. Students were able to successfully determine the source of contamination based on the results of their laboratory findings, which they used to make recommendations for production to reduce microbial food spoilage in the canned salsa product. Based on student answers to discussion questions provided following lab exercises, participants were able to (a) identify the significance of microbial spoilage and how spoilage is principally different from food safety, (b) describe varying sensorial changes associated with microbial spoilage, and (c) employ methods and analysis to evaluate sources and type of contamination. Downloadable handouts and stepwise instructions are available as supporting information.     

Dismay and Disappointment: Parental Involvement of Latino Immigrant Parents

Parental involvement in schools has become more popular over the past decade due to Goals 2000 and research suggesting that student academic success increases when parents are included in the education of their children. Although researchers have examined the issue of parents and schools, limited research on parental involvement has been conducted within immigrant communities. Latino immigrant parents within a predominantly Latino community in California were interviewed. Although the community has strong Latino roots, these immigrant parents believed the schools do not listen or care to listen to their needs as parents. The parents in this study desired to be a part of their children's education, but forces within their children's school prevented them from doing so. The parents wished that teachers would be available to speak about grades, be able to find interpreters during open house and at other times throughout the school day, and communicate with the parents when their child is in need of assistance. Due to the apparent walls that had been established within the school's structure, the parents in this study felt abandoned and helpless while trying to gain information regarding their children's education. Parents in this study were so passionate about their stories that they pleaded with the researcher to let their story be heard in the researchers' teacher education courses so future teachers would know how immigrant parents felt.     

The Science of a Sundae: Using the Principle of Colligative Properties in Food Science Outreach Activities for Middle and High School Students

The opportunities for outreach activities for professionals and academics in food science are extensive, as too are the range of participants’ experience levels and platforms for delivery. Here, we present a set of activities that are readily adaptable for a range of students (ages 10 to 18) in multiple platforms (demonstration table and hands‐on workshop). Our activity, collectively called “The Science of a Sundae,” has three units, one for each of the three parts of a sundae: the caramel sauce, the cherry, and the ice cream. In each unit we use these familiar food items to illustrate how colligative properties (or, simply, “solutions” for younger students) impact the chemical, microbiological, and sensorial properties of food. We have used these activities to present to over 1000 students and their parents/chaperones. Grade levels of student participants have ranged from 5th grade through high school, and these activities have been presented in the form of a demonstration table at science events as well as a set of three 45‐minute workshops in a classroom setting. Educational impact of these activities was evaluated with 7th grade students (n = 77) who participated in the 3‐phase workshop. On average, students who took the posttest (after participation in the workshop) scored 36% higher than students who took the pretest (prior to participation in the workshop). These results and instructor observations suggest the merit of this lesson and its adaptability among ages and platforms.