On building a web-based university

This paper describes some of the principles for building a freely available web-based university with open content. The ＂tutor-web＂ is an international project for web-assisted education, including such free and open access. This project was initiated by the University of Iceland in partnership with many universities around the world, among them the University of Craiova, Romania. The aim of this paper is to present this project, to point out its specificity and to arouse interest for collaboration in the project, which uses http：//tutor-web.net as the home location.     

Of Pigs and Men: Understanding Students’ Reasoning About the Use of Pigs as Donors for Xenotransplantation

Two important roles of education are to provide students with knowledge for their democratic participation in society and to provide knowledge for a future profession. In science education, students encounter values that may be in conflict with their worldview. Such conflicts may, for example, lead to constructive reflections as well as rejection of scientific knowledge and technology. Students’ ways of reasoning are important starting points for discussing problematic issues and may be crucial for constructive dialogues in the classroom. This study investigates students’ reasoning about conflicting values concerning the human-animal relationship exemplified by the use of genetically modified pigs as organ donors for xenotransplantation. Students’ reasoning is analyzed using Giddens’ concepts of disembedded and embedded practices in parallel with moral philosophical theories in a framework based on human-animal relationships. Thirteen students were interviewed and their stances categorized. Kantian deontological and classical utilitarian ethics were found within the patronage and the partnership models. These students appreciated expert knowledge but those using the partnership model could not accept xenotransplantation if pigs were to be killed. Students using care ethics did not appreciate expert knowledge since it threatened naturalness. The results suggest that stances against the use of scientific knowledge are more problematic than knowledge per se, and that conflicting stances have similarities that present opportunities for understanding and development of students’ argumentation skills for future participation in societal discourse on utilizing expert knowledge. Furthermore it is argued that science education could benefit from a higher awareness of the presence of different morals.     

Attacking beautifully or defending efficiently? A sociological analysis of the prevalence and effect of football strategies

Football ideology is built upon an antagonism between offensive and defensive and effective and beautiful football: attack beautifully and lose, or, defend efficiently and win! In this article, I address the validity of this hegemonic understanding and investigate the extent to which (i) modern football actually practises one or the other – scoring goals or avoids conceding – and (ii) how the two strategies actually pay off. The case is 65 years of Scandinavian male football. I start with an overview of numbers of scored goals and variation in scoring. Next, I look at whether success depends on scoring the most or conceding the least. Finally, I analyse how many positions each goal is worth. In general terms, the finding is a defensive trend where modern football has fewer and more valuable goals, but that this trend has clear wavelike patterns, indicating that which strategy being profitable varies.     

Testgütekriterien der „Profilanalyse nach Grießhaber“. Evaluation eines Verfahrens zur Erfassung grammatischer Fähigkeiten von ein- und mehrsprachigen Grundschulkindern

A diagnostic goal of the “Profile analysis according to Grießhaber” is the assessment of the grammatical ability to place verbs in German sentences in the correct syntactical position. To evaluate the test quality for the first time, 403 monolingual and multilingual primary school children were randomly assigned to three different test materials: Test material that specifically stimulated the target competence led to the best test results. This indicates a low objectivity of application. In addition, ceiling effects for primary school children were detected, which means that the profile analysis can only slightly differentiate among the grammatical abilities of the children. Retest reliability and objectivity of analysis are also too small. In summary, the test quality of the assessment tool should be improved with respect to all of the test quality criteria considered. Hence, we recommend standardizing the profile analysis better and adding more sensitive diagnostic criteria for primary school aged children. Other aspects of profile analysis, for example the improvement of diagnostic competencies of teachers, are recommended for future research.     

Creation of new routines in physical education: second-order reflection as a tradition-challenging form of reflection stimulated by inquiry-based learning

ABSTRACT

The time we live in is characterised by social and cultural changes, but teaching in physical education (PE) does not necessary match these changes. Consequently, the present project explored how second-order reflection (SoR) as a tradition-challenging and developing form of reflection can be stimulated by an inquiry-based learning (IBL) approach in physical education teacher education to transform current pedagogy to align with social and cultural changes. SoR fosters development and learning by inter-professional collaboration and inter-professional dialogue and is an extended form of higher-order thinking (HoT) including critical thinking and problem-solving. The project explored how an IBL approach stimulated a group of pre-service teachers (n?=?32) developing their professional practice by using SoR. Data were generated through video observations and audio recordings of the pre-service teachers’ discussions, reflections and actions during the IBL unit. Furthermore, written reflections regarding the challenges were collected. All data were inductively analysed in order to identify and extract common themes and patterns in relation to SoR. The analyses of the data revealed that during the IBL approach the pre-service teachers used both reflection at first and second-order level. Reflections in the form of technical and practical considerations were common, while examples of SoR were seen especially in the phases of IBL where the pre-service teachers used new theoretical knowledge and experiences from other contexts than PE. Consequently, the findings supported that IBL enhanced the second-order reflective skills of some of the pre-service teachers. However, with further use of guiding and facilitation of the IBL process or keeping the pre-service teachers to their challenges, hypotheses and plans, the methodology has even more potential to enhance the second-order critical reflection of the participants; thereby developing their coming practice to be more reflective, engaging and probably motivational.     

Adrenocortical activity and the Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale: moderating effects of the newborn's biomedical status

The Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale with Kansas Supplement (NBAS-K) was administered midway between feedings to 60 newborns who were between 32 and 122 hours old. 35 of the newborns were classified as extremely healthy and normal (Subgroup I), whereas 25 (Subgroup II) were characterized by slight perinatal problems including gestational age 36-37 weeks or 42+ weeks, and fetal distress during labor. All of the newborns were healthy enough to be cared for in a healthy newborn, Level I nursery. Immediately following administration of the NBAS-K, a blood sample was obtained for plasma cortisol determination. Correlations between behavioral responding on the NBAS-K and levels of plasma cortisol revealed few significant relations for the sample as a whole. When the 2 subgroups were examined separately, a number of significant relations emerged. Newborns in Subgroup I who were more competent in their motor control and state regulation capacities as assessed by Lester's Cluster Scores for the NBAS-K exhibited higher levels of plasma cortisol. In contrast, newborns in Subgroup II who exhibited a greater adrenocortical response to the examination showed more behaviors indicative of high behavioral arousal and distress. This pattern of relations for Subgroup II appeared to be mediated by the number of hours that had elapsed since delivery. As postpartum time increased, the strength of the association between adrenocortical activity and behavioral arousal/distress decreased for Subgroup II. A systems theory approach is used to interpret the difference in patterns of correlations found for the 2 subgroups.     

Neonatal Stress Reactivity: Predictions to Later Emotional Temperament

To investigate the relations among popular measures of neonatal stress and their link to subsequent temperament, 50 full-term newborns from a normal care nursery were examined responding to a heelstick blood draw. Baseline and heelstick measures of behavioral state, heart period, vagal tone, and salivary cortisol were obtained. Recovery measures of behavioral and cardiac activity were also analyzed. Mothers completed Rothbart's Infant Behavior Questionnaire when their infants reached 6 months of age. Baseline vagal tone predicted cortisol in response to the heelstick, suggesting that baseline vagal tone reflects the infants' ability to react to stressors. Greater reactivity to the heelstick (more crying, shorter heart periods, lower vagal tone, and higher cortisol) was associated with lower scores on "Distress-to-Limitations" temperament at 6 months. This finding was consistent with the expectation that the capacity to react strongly to an aversive stimulus would reflect better neurobehavioral organization in the newborn. Recovery measures of cardiac activity approximated and were correlated with baseline measures indicating the strong self-righting properties of the healthy newborn. Finally, vagal tone and salivary cortisol measures were not significantly related, suggesting the importance of assessing both systems in studies of the ontogeny of stress-temperament relations.     

Types and Qualities of Knowledge and their Relations to Problem Solving in Physics

Based on empirical findings and theoretical considerations related to the field of expertise research, the importance of “types” and “qualities” of knowledge in relation to problem solving in physics was investigated. The students (N =138) in this study had a level of competence that corresponds to an intensive beginner college course in physics. It was found that conceptual declarative knowledge and problem scheme knowledge are excellent predictors of problem solving performance. However, a detailed analysis shows that the first knowledge type is more typical for low achievers (novices) in physics problem solving whereas the second type is predominately used by high achievers (experts). Regarding types and qualities of knowledge and their relations to problem solving, the results of a multidimensional scaling analysis (MDS) indicate that two dimensions of knowledge can be distinguished. On the extreme limits of the first dimension, which could be named “problem solving relevance vs. structure of discipline”, are the types of knowledge and the qualities of knowledge, respectively. The second dimension of knowledge could be named “single knowledge elements vs. organised knowledge units”. There are types of knowledge as well as qualities of knowledge distributed along this dimension. Consequences of these results for improving physics education are discussed.     

Tympanic membrane temperature and emotional dispositions in preschool-aged children: a methodological study

Tympanic membrane (TM) temperature asymmetry has been proposed as a phenotypic marker of vulnerability to negative emotionality in children. Little is known about the stability of TM temperatures or how readily one can obtain a reliable index of the phenotype. TM temperatures were collected from 3- to 5-year-old children ( N =73) over 5 months ( Mdn= 34 samples). Seven to 10 samples needed to be aggregated to achieve reliable measures (αs>.70). Using reliable estimates, TM asymmetry remained stable over time, r (72)=.72, p< .01; 70% of the children had warmer left TMs; and TM asymmetry correlated as predicted with measures of children's emotionality. TM asymmetry may be a phenotypic marker of vulnerability to negative emotionality, but measures obtained on one occasion may not reliably index the phenotype.     

Online supervision: a theory of supervisors’ strategic communicative influence on student dissertations

Online supervision mainly focuses on written communication and electronic drafts, while offline supervision comprises physical and social clues, verbal communication, and drafts of texts. This article focuses on supervisors’ written online communication about drafts of undergraduate student dissertations. Theoretically, these utterances form part of the communicative exchanges performed in the practice of supervision. This means that supervision is an emergent phenomenon that relates to its past, current, and future states. The setting was a dissertation course within a bachelor programme in behavioural science. The data consists of 423 utterances from four supervisors. The utterances were analysed and categorised, and the results show different qualities and degrees of identifications in the supervisors’ communicated utterances. The study shows that the quality of supervisors’ utterances embraces the difference between the application of comments, points of view, instructions, and questions. This implicates the importance of supervisors’ awareness of the nature and the combination of their utterances if they want to increase the student autonomy when supervising online.