The role of self-determination in informal and formal science learning contexts

Learning Environments Research - The goal of this research was to explore cognitive, self-determined learning and autonomous motivational effects in the context of a mobile science exhibition...     

测量学术贡献的关键词分析法探析

语言作为逻辑思维和推理工具,其基本要素是语词。重要语词映射成概念,核心概念建构知识,而知识演进促成学术发展。本文以学术文献中的     

Being a resource for both mother and child: fathers' experiences following a complicated birth

The aim of this study was to describe fathers' experiences of being present on a postnatal ward and during the first days at home following a complicated birth. Fifteen fathers were interviewed, and content analysis was used for the analysis. The theme illustrated that fathers were a resource for both mother and child through practical and emotional engagement. The categories describe how the father empowers the mother and illustrates adapting to new family roles. Following complicated birth, fathers should be invited to stay around-the-clock on postnatal wards because it gives them the opportunity to place their resources at the disposal of mother and child. In antenatal courses, fathers should be prepared for their empowering role after a complicated birth.     

The role of part-time employment among young people with a non-university education in Spain

For some people, a part-time job is merely an intermediate state that serves as a stepping stone to further employment and makes labour market integration easier. Yet, part-time work also appears in highly unstable careers. The present research aims to determine the role of part-time employment for young people with non-university studies. Using the Survey on Transition from Education/Training and Labour Market Integration (ETEFIL-2005), we build the monthly sequence of labour states for young people from when they finish their non-university studies until the time of the survey. The analysis allows us to conclude that part-time work is fairly atypical in the early stages of a career but that those who have part-time jobs spend quite a long time in them. In addition, we identify several patterns in the use of part-time work, the ‘integrative’ pattern proving to be the most prevalent. Factors such as education and early preferences are seen to have a major impact on career paths.     

The academic background of gerontologists and client satisfaction in long-term residential care for older persons

In contemporary Western societies, the aging population poses new challenges both to the policies and to the support systems for older persons. In Portugal, where the phenomena have a major impact, a new professional profile, the gerontologist, has emerged. These professionals have an academic background that corresponds to the 1st cycle degree at Higher Schools and is specifically oriented to the care of older persons. This study aimed to analyze the performance of the gerontologist as a Long-term Residential Care (LRTC) manager in comparison to other professionals. A total of 160 older persons living in Portuguese LRTCs were questioned about their satisfaction in regard to the effectiveness of organization, environmental/structural factors, empathy with employees, occupational activities, and participation in the decision-making process. The client’s satisfaction questionnaire covered 30 items, and each item was rated on a 5-point Likert scale. The older persons were classified as less satisfied or more satisfied according to the median value of the scale score. The older persons from LTRCs managed by a gerontologist are more likely to be more satisfied with provided care. This association was not explained by residents’ characteristics nor by the older persons’ circumstances as residents. These findings highlight the appropriateness of gerontologist skills in managing LTRCs.     

Learning actions indicating algebraic thinking in multilingual classrooms

Educational Studies in Mathematics - This article discusses algebraic thinking regarding positive integers and rational numbers when students, 6 to 9 years old in multilingual classrooms,...     

Marketising private tuition: Representations of tutors’ competence,entrepreneurial opportunities and service legitimation in home tutoring business manuals

Education researchers have explored the marketisation of schools resulting from neoliberal education policy, but little attention has been paid to supplementary education markets. Supplementary education services, such as private tuition, are delivered outside of school but designed to improve performance within it. A small body of research demonstrates that the private tuition market in the UK and the USA is burgeoning, and that students’ access to this service is differentiated by region, class and ethnicity. These emerging demand-side analyses are vital, but they cannot tell us about the educational entrepreneurship that shapes the supply of private tutoring services. This article addresses this lacuna through a discourse analysis of manuals, published as part of the developing tutoring support industry, that are designed to guide would-be entrepreneurs through the establishment of a private tuition business. This analysis excavates manuals’ treatment of: tutors’ motivation to work in the sector and their competence to do so; strategies to be employed in the marketisation of tuition services; and the need to build trust to ensure business legitimation in an unregulated industry. In conclusion, the article sets a new agenda for research into fast-developing supplementary education markets that explores: (i) the dynamics of this expanding educational workforce of private tutors; (ii) the ways marketisation addresses and augments parental anxiety about children's education; and (iii) the need for safeguarding and quality control in private tuition.     

Verification policies in Croatian medical biochemistry laboratories: a survey of the practice

IntroductionThe aim of this study was to screen practices used in verification procedures for methods/analysers among medical biochemistry laboratories (MBLs) in Croatia. We hypothesized that these procedures differ widely from laboratory to laboratory and wanted to gather specific data on steps used in the verification workflow.Materials and methodsIn order to obtain data, an online survey was conducted. The survey, divided in two sections, contained 29 questions and statements addressing general characteristics and specific steps of the verification workflow of each individual MBL. The survey was disseminated among managers of all MBLs in Croatia.ResultsA total of 108/196 (55%) laboratories participated in the survey. Forty nine MBLs were excluded from the second part of the survey: 14 have not implemented verification procedures, and 35 MBLs due to the absence of answers. The most relevant results of the second part of the survey showed that: 18/59 (0.31) of the responding MBLs have difficulties when defining acceptance criteria, 27/59 (0.46) used the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute protocol for precision estimation; the majority of MBLs used a median of 20 samples for method/analyser comparisons and estimated bias using internal quality control samples; reference intervals provided by external sources are mainly adopted; 60% of MBLs do not include linearity verification in their protocol and do not use the national document for the estimation of measurement uncertainty.ConclusionsHeterogeneous verification protocols are routinely utilized across Croatian MBLs which clearly confirms that a national document might help in the harmonization of verification procedures.     

Biological significance attenuates overshadowing, relative validity, and degraded contingency effects

Miller and Matute (1996) showed that blocking is attenuated when the blocked conditioned stimulus (CS) is “biologically significant” (i.e., when the CS has the potential to elicit vigorous responding of any kind). To the extent that blocking is representative of cue competition, this finding suggests that biological significance protects CSs against cue competition effects in general. In the present experiments, we tested this possibility by examining the influence of biological significance of CSs on other examples of cue competition, namely, overshadowing, the relative stimulus validity effect, and the degraded contingency effect in rats. In Experiment 1, we found that intense auditory stimuli induced transient unconditioned lick suppression, thereby indicating that intense sounds were of high inherent biological significance. In Experiment 2A, we found that cues with high inherent biological significance were protected from overshadowing. In Experiment 2B, this finding was extended to cues with high acquired biological significance, which was obtained through prior pairings with a reinforcer of the valence opposite to that used in the overshadowing treatment. In Experiments 3 and 4, we found that cues with high inherent biological significance attenuated the relative validity effect and the degraded contingency effect, respectively. These results lend support to the view that biological significance (inherent and acquired) protects stimuli from cue competition effects, a finding that is problematic for many contemporary theories of learning.