Environmental education in a ‘green classroom’

The ‘Green Classroom’ in the Botanical Garden of Ulm is an experiential learning forum outside school. Its educational concept is based on experimental learning and is geared towards expanding biological knowledge and developing positive attitudes towards small animals such as invertebrates and insects. The attitudes of 68 school students towards small animals, before and after they visited the ‘Green Classroom’, were assessed and the answers they gave in their questionnaires were compared with those of 60 students froma control group that was not yet exposed to this learning environment. Although the students spent only one morning in the ‘Green Classroom’, some of their attitudes towards small animals improved after their visit. These studies underscore the necessity for direct observation and familiarization of the environment including small animals such as invertebrates and insects for appreciating issues related to biodiversity and conservation.     

Social play as joint action: A framework to study the evolution of shared intentionality as an interactional achievement

Social play has a complex, cooperative nature that requires substantial coordination. This has led researchers to use social games to study cognitive abilities like shared intentionality, the skill and motivation to share goals and intentions with others during joint action. We expand this proposal by considering play as a joint action and examining how shared intentionality is achieved during human joint action. We describe how humans get into, conduct, and get out of joint actions together in an orderly way, thereby constructing the state of “togetherness” characteristic of shared intentionality. These processes play out as three main phases, the opening (where participants are ratified and joint commitments are established), the main body (where progress, ongoing commitments, and possible role reversals are coordinated), and the closing (where the intention to terminate the action is coordinated and where participants take leave of each other). We use this process in humans as a framework for examining how various animal species get into, maintain, and get out of play bouts. This comparative approach constitutes an alternative measure of those species’ possession of shared intentionality. Using this framework, we review the play literature on human children and different social species of mammals and birds in search of behavioral markers of shared intentionality in the coordination of play bouts. We discuss how our approach could shed light on the evolution of the special human motivation to cooperate and share psychological states with others.     

低温对杨梅采后生理及保鲜效果的影响

研究了低温对杨梅果实采后生理和贮藏效果的影响.结果表明,与常温对照相比,低温(4℃)抑制了果实呼吸强度,减缓了果实细胞膜透性的增加,延缓杨梅果实总可溶性固形物、维生素C、有机酸等含量的下降,显著提高好果率,说明低温能抑制杨梅采后的衰老腐烂,有利于保持果实品质和延长贮藏期.     

Effects of Expressive Writing Effects on Disgust and Anxiety in a Subsequent Dissection

Emotions influence motivation and achievement, but negative emotions have rarely been assessed in science education. In this study, we assessed the influence of two different expressive writing assignments on disgust and anxiety in university students prior to the dissection of a trout. We randomly assigned students to one of two expressive writing tasks and measured specific state disgust and state anxiety after writing and after the dissection. Specific state disgust was measured a third time after 3 weeks. One writing task was concerned with the dissection, and the other was related to behavioral experiments with mice. We used two general linear models with repeated measures. In the first model, specific state disgust (pre, post, and follow-up) was used as the dependent repeated measure and experimental group as the independent variable. In the second model, state anxiety was used as the dependent repeated measure (pre, post) with experimental group as the independent variable. The repeated testing showed a highly significant effect of experimental group on the repeated measures of disgust. Writing about worries and emotions concerning the dissection leads to higher disgust scores compared to writing about mice. These higher scores persisted even 3 weeks later in the follow-up test. Concerning anxiety, there was a clear influence of the repeated measure of state anxiety, but anxiety was not influenced by the experimental group. We suggest that positive writing should be used in educational contexts to reduce disgust.     

Complex dynamics in academics' developmental processes in teaching

Improving teaching in higher education is a concern for universities worldwide. This study explored academics’ developmental processes in teaching using episodic interviews and teaching portfolios. Eight academics in the context of teaching development reported changes in their teaching and change triggers. Thematic analyses revealed seven areas of change: participants most frequently reported changes in concepts about teaching, their teaching selves and teaching strategies. Triggers of change clustered into eight categories with teaching practices, teaching courses and metacognition reported most frequently. Analysing relations among areas and triggers of change indicated complex dynamics in academics' developmental processes in teaching. This suggests that teaching development should incorporate multiple change triggers to facilitate academics' development in teaching effectively.     

Ethnography at a distance: globally mobile parents choosing international schools

The research we report on was conducted from our computer desktops. We have not met the people we have studied; they are part of what Eichhorn described as a “textual community”, gathered around the threads of online conversations associated with a website servicing the needs of English-language speakers in Germany. The thread in question started in 2008 with a query from someone about to move to Berlin, seeking advice about the best international school in which to enrol her three children. The ensuing conversations are revealing, not only because of the schools canvassed and the manner in which they are discussed, but also because of the schools that are not charted into the discussion. This paper raises questions about qualitative research methodologies in online settings, particularly in relation to studies of the global middle-class. It examines claims about an emerging commitment to “nonlocal ethnography” and the surmising one can make about research subjects one never meets, but who remain comprehensible because of the broader cultural context in which they are situated. The research carries the promise of “rich enough” ethnography, reflecting a commitment to understanding what people do, documenting and analysing the intricate realities influencing and shaping individual choices people make, the complexities they face and the realities they help create. The fact that it was done “at a distance”, in so-called virtual spaces, does not undermine its ethnographic authenticity.     

Gender difference in cycling speed and age of winning performers in ultra-cycling – the 508-mile “Furnace Creek” from 1983 to 2012

We analysed (i) the gender difference in cycling speed and (ii) the age of winning performers in the 508-mile “Furnace Creek 508”. Changes in cycling speeds and gender differences from 1983 to 2012 were analysed using linear, non-linear and hierarchical multi-level regression analyses for the annual three fastest women and men. Cycling speed increased non-linearly in men from 14.6 (s = 0.3) km · h^?1 (1983) to 27.1 (s = 0.7) km · h^?1 (2012) and non-linearly in women from 11.0 (s = 0.3) km · h^?1 (1984) to 24.2 (s = 0.2) km · h^?1 (2012). The gender difference in cycling speed decreased linearly from 26.2 (s = 0.5)% (1984) to 10.7 (s = 1.9)% (2012). The age of winning performers increased from 26 (s = 2) years (1984) to 43 (s = 11) years (2012) in women and from 33 (s = 6) years (1983) to 50 (s = 5) years (2012) in men. To summarise, these results suggest that (i) women will be able to narrow the gender gap in cycling speed in the near future in an ultra-endurance cycling race such as the “Furnace Creek 508” due to the linear decrease in gender difference and (ii) the maturity of these athletes has changed during the last three decades where winning performers become older and faster across years.     

Global Perspectives on Sports and Movement Cultures: From Past to Present – Modern Sports between Nationalism,Internationalism, and Cultural Imperialism

The presentation uses the slogan of the ISHPES-congress ‘Global perspectives on Sports and Movement Cultures: From Past to Present’ in Qatar, by focusing on the development of modern sports which involve nationalism, internationalism, and cultural imperialism. Theoretical considerations on sports history and universal history form the introduction to the presentation. Sports have indeed become universal and taken on global perspectives, but both factors are based on local, regional, and national physical cultures. In a second step, the thesis of sport as a ‘pattern of modern universal culture’ (Bausinger) is discussed. Deep structures of anthropologically based categories of (natural) physical cultures like running, jumping, or throwing are differentiated from surface-oriented structures such as man-made sport. The notion of sport as a dominant, but permanently changing form (and content) of modern physical culture is described and explained with respect to the work of Allen Guttmann and Norbert Elias.     

中国植物区系中的特有现象——特有属的研究

本文对我国种子植物特有属作了初步研究，提出如下几点粗浅的看法：     1．根据我国各特有属的现代地理分布格局，大部分特有属具有明显的温带性特点。     2．我国特有属在水平分布上具有极不均匀的特点。各特有属的广布程度都很低，生态特     化现象十分明显。在垂直分布上，则主要分布于中海拔地区。特有属数目并不随海拔增高而     增多。     3．根据特有属分布的密集程度和分布区边界的密集交叠情况，划定了三个特有属分布中    心，即川东—鄂西中心, 滇东南—桂西中心和川西—滇西北中心。前二中心可能是残遗中心，后一中心则可能为分化中心。     

Learning Achievement and Motivation in an Out-of-School Setting—Visiting Amphibians and Reptiles in a Zoo Is More Effective than a Lesson at School

Interventions in out-of-school settings have been shown in previous studies to be effectively increase students’ science knowledge and motivation, with mixed results on whether they are more effective than teaching at school. In this study, we compared an out-of-school setting in a reptile and amphibian zoo (Landau, Germany) with a sequence of classroom teaching and a control group without teaching on the topic. We compared learning at school (School) and out-of-school learning (Reptilium), which were tested in a randomized field setting with a focus on knowledge and motivation. Sixty-five elementary students participated in either the School group, Reptilium group or control group. We measured knowledge on the topics reptiles and amphibians with a newly developed two-factorial test, calibrated with item response theory, before the intervention, immediately afterwards (posttest) and 2 weeks later (follow-up). Motivation was measured immediately after the intervention. Data analyses were performed using SPSS and Mplus. We conclude that the two interventions appeared highly superior to the control group and that the out-of-school setting in the Reptilium was more effective than the school-only program. Concerning motivation, perception of choice was higher in the Reptilium than in the School group. There were gender-by-treatment interaction effects for knowledge in the posttest and follow-up, for perceived competence and for pressure/tension. Concerning knowledge, boys performed better in the School group than girls but this gender gap was not significant in the Reptilium group. Boys perceived themselves as more competent in the School group while girls reported less pressure/tension in the Reptilium group. In conclusion, encountering living animals in a formal zoo learning arrangement is encouraged in primary school since it supports self-determination (free choice), leads to higher achievement and closes gender disparities in achievement.