Nationalism and internationalism

International Review of Education -     

Training science teachers with fully-interactive,distance education technology

Conclusion Our experience with interactive distance education for science teachers has been both exciting and rewarding. This class has convinced us that activity-based science method classes can be presented with this technology. Working with distance education equipment requires the creative combination of long-established teaching techniques with novel procedures required by the technology. Although the technology does involve inevitable limitations and compromises, it sharpens some teaching skills and provides an opportunity for teachers to learn and do more science. As available tools for distance education become even more sophisticated, delivery techniques will have to be altered continually. Doubtlessly, technological developments will continue to be increasingly site friendly. In the future, one can anticipate forms of distance education that will enable communication with an infinite number of remote sites, thus establishing the definitive electronic science classroom.     

Hypoplasticmodeling of soil-structure interfaces in offshore applications

Cyclic and monotonic loaded offshore structures (e.g. piles, pipelines, cables, and suction-buckets) must be designed and calculated considering the effects of the soil-structure interaction. An advanced constitutive soil model must be used, but a simplified Mohr-Coulomb friction law is applied for the soil-structure interface. The Mohr- Coulomb model is a simple bilinear friction model that cannot take into account monotonic and cyclic interface phenomena. These include hardening, softening, and stiffness degradation under loading. However, we propose two advanced hypoplastic interface models for fine- and coarse-grained soils with intergranular strain concept. The intergranular strain concept has been proven to be an efficient way to model the small-strain deformation and un/reloading behavior of soils. The intergranular strain concept is therefore used to enhance the prediction capabilities of the hypoplastic interface models. Differences of the recent model formulation compared with previous versions are presented and discussed based on simulation. This is followed by an application of different models in finite-element simulations. The new models are used to simulate cyclic direct shear interface tests. Furthermore, the advanced interface model is used for simulation of a torodial penetrometer penetration problem. Several aspects, which are particularly important for offshore structures, are compared with the simple Mohr-Coulomb friction model.     

THE CHALLENGE OF INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE: DIALOGUE AND INTERACTIVE STEERING

With reference to the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, the author elaborates the argument that universities are capable of anticipating social and economic change, that indeed it is their duty not only to adapt to these changes but to anticipate and to influence them. A brief outline of the history of universities is given, and the situation of universities in western Europe, specifically in the Netherlands, is contrasted with that in eastern and central Europe, specifically Hungary. Currently, European universities, West and East, are headed towards the same future. This future is being influenced by a number of external factors, particularly technological change, which places a premium on strategic planning, interdisciplinarity with regard to research and teaching, and interuniversity co‐operation at national and international levels.     

Motivation and learning physics

Being involved in science education we cannot avoid confronting the problem of students' waning interest in physics. Therefore, we want to focus on arguments developed by new theoretical work in the field of motivation. Especially, we are attracted by the theory of motivation featured by Deci and Ryan, because it is related to an assumptions of human development similar to our own approach. Beneath elements of cognitive development, motivation is seen as a basic concept to describe students' learning in a physics classroom. German students at lower and upper secondary level regard physics as very difficult to learn, very abstract and dominated by male students. As a result physics at school continuously loses importance and acceptance although a lot of work has been done to modernise and develop the related physics courses. We assume that knowing about the influence of motivation on learning physics may lead to new insights in the design of classroom settings. Referring to Deci and Ryan, we use a model of motivation to describe the influence of two different teaching strategies (teacher and discourse oriented) on learning. Electrostatics was taught in year 8. The outcomes of a questionnaire which is able to evaluate defined, motivational states are compared with the interpretation of the same student's interaction in the related situation of the physics classroom. The scales of the questionnaire and the categories of analysis of the video-recording are derived from the same model of motivation.