Going to action? A literature review on educational proposals in formal Environmental Education

The current state of the planet’s environmental deterioration calls for formal educational contexts to implement effective environmental proposals which nurture action competence. The aim of this paper is to examine the educational proposals in formal contexts that have been published in the two research journals of greatest impact on Environmental Education during the period 2008–2013, and to analyse how they contribute to the development of action competence. Special attention is paid to research (i) based on real participation by students; (ii) promotes reflection on the complexity of environmental issues; (iii) facilitates critical thinking; (iv) encourages autonomous and responsible decision-making and (v) involves communities. Our results show that these approaches can help improve the development of action-focused environmental education and bring to light a series of challenges for future research.     

User's Approaches to Information Gathering and Processing

The paper explains how the engineer may process effectively the information flows coming to him from many sources. The contribution is a prerequisite for building personalised and field-oriented intelligent database mediators. The technique used is based on a particular attitude closed to the natural language structure and called the orientation semantics. According to this attitude, the natural text has an implicit faced structure recognisable by a metaknowledge processor. According to this technique the engineer may measure his knowledge enrichment.     

Salamanca 1994-2019: there is still a long way to Latin America

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the progresses and challenges in education in Latin America since the Salamanca World Conference on Special Needs Education. The main advances have been in the access to education of a greater number of students derived from a higher public expenditure. The challenges that still exist can be summed up through insufficient educational quality, especially with regard to the situation of teachers and the infrastructure of schools. It’s difficult to collect appropriate, rigorous and accurate data for special needs education. The article concludes by pointing out the importance of rebuilding three bridges to move faster in the inclusive process: first, a political bridge to agree on the improvement of the educational budget during the next decade; a social and cultural bridge that supports attitudes of citizens in favour of diversity and inclusion; and finally, an educational bridge with two fundamental pillars: education of infant and young children and training and professional development for teachers.     

“Strong,Independent, Able to Learn More …”: Inclusion and the construction of school students in Iceland as diagnosable subjects

This paper deals with the way the vision of including children with special educational needs into their home school, constituted for instance in UNESCO's The Salamanca Statement and Framework on Special Needs Education, has merged with other contemporary discourses (ideas and practices) in Icelandic education. In particular, the paper focuses on the historical conjuncture of inclusion politics, individualism, a technological approach to education, and market ideology and practices in Icelandic education. These approaches are analysed as discursive patterns of legitimating principles functioning in Icelandic education at the beginning of the twenty-first century.     

Warm elaborated feedback. Exploring its benefits on post-feedback behaviour

Abstract

This study provides evidence on the impact of including warm messages in elaborated feedback. These messages are aimed at the motivational process that can be mobilised by feedback and that which can condition its reception and the way students face the task (post-feedback behaviour). In a task where secondary school students had to learn a new strategy for improving their reading skills in a computer-based environment, we compared the use of elaborated feedback with the use of elaborated feedback enhanced with motivational messages (warm elaborated feedback) and a control condition (without feedback). The results showed that students receiving warm elaborated feedback revisited the text more often than those receiving only the elaborated feedback, and that both groups revisited the text more than the control group. This finding suggests that controlling the motivational aspects in feedback messages may increase the effectiveness of elaborated feedback.     

Evaluation and publication delay in Ibero-American scientific journals

This article analyses the review, acceptance and publication dates of a sample of 21,890 articles from 326 Ibero-American scientific journals from all subject areas and countries included in the Latindex Catalogue 2.0 and published between 2018 and 2020 (freely available as an open access dataset). The aim is to discover evaluation and publication times. The evaluation process takes a median of 110 days, the publication process, a median of 82 days, and the whole process, a median of 224 days. Statistical differences are found according to periodicity, subject areas, countries, existence of a printed version and article type (Call for Papers or General articles). From the data we find that the delay in publication is longer than publishers themselves report to the DOAJ. STEM areas present the most similarity in publication patterns, having a higher number of evaluation days (Ed) than publication days (Pd); Arts and Humanities present the opposite pattern, with a higher Pd than Ed. In the case of Social Sciences, the times are similar. General articles and Call for Papers articles differ in terms of Ed, but not Pd, indicating that Call for Papers revisions are faster.     

Effects of a contrast training programme on jumping,sprinting and agility performance of prepubertal basketball players

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a 10 week contrast training (CT) programme (isometric + plyometric) on jumping, sprinting abilities and agility performance in prepubertal basketball players. Fifty-eight children from a basketball academy (age: 8.72 ± 0.97 years; body mass index: 17.22 ± 2.48 kg/m²) successfully completed the study. Participants were randomly assigned to experimental groups (EG, n = 30) and control groups (CG, n = 28). The CT programme was included in the experimental group’s training sessions – twice a week – as part of their usual weekly training regime. This programme included 3 exercises: 1 isometric and 2 plyometric. Jumping, sprinting and agility performance were assessed before and after the training programme. Significant differences were found in posttest between EG and CG in sprint and T-test: EG showed better results than CG. Furthermore, there were significant differences in posttest-pretest between EG and CG in squat jump, countermovement jump, drop jump, sprint and T-test with the EG showing better results than CG. The CT programme led to increases in vertical jump, sprint and agility levels, so that the authors suggest that prepubertal children exhibit high muscular strength trainability.     

Multi-actor co-design of extension interventions: paradoxes arising in three cases in the Republic of Ireland

Purpose: This paper demystifies the processes, methodologies and outputs of three co-design projects, identifying how and to what extent are aims and principles of the multi-actor approach realised and upheld in the field. Implications from the cases for participatory principles are discussed.

Design/Methodology/approach: A detailed ethnographic account is presented of three multi-actor co-design cases, supporting diverse readers’ interpretations and learnings.

Findings: Three paradoxes were identifiable from the multi-actor processes: (1) outputs can be orphaned when they lack strong identifiers and affiliations with discrete professional communities outside of the co-design team; (2) combining diverse knowledges co-design can generate outputs that are new and strange (rather than familiar and acceptable) to end-users; (3) for Responsible Research and Innovation, co-creating interventions that are challenging (rather than popular) to society may be required.

Practical implications: Awareness of dynamics and paradoxes arising in the implementation of multi-actor co-design supports enhanced facilitation of processes and impacts of outcomes. Together, the paradoxes highlight the critical importance of communications and engagement initiatives across diverse communities in the aftermath of co-design efforts.

Theoretical implications: Although co-design processes are case-dependent, reflexive accounts of how they play out contribute to the body of knowledge of how co-design may be better understood. The cases in this paper identify paradoxes with implications for principles and theory of multi-actor co-design.

Originality/Value: This paper presents a detailed account of three unique co-design processes. Practical and theoretical implications of the cases are identified.