How speechreading contributes to reading in a transparent ortography: the case of Spanish deaf people

The aim of the study is to describe the performance of deaf and hearing people while speechreading Spanish, a language with transparent orthography, and to relate this skill to reading efficiency. Three groups of 27 participants each were recruited: a group of deaf participants, a chronological age‐matched hearing group and a reading age‐matched hearing group. All three were tested on vocabulary, phonological awareness, reading speed, speechreading and, only in the group of deaf people, speech intelligibility. The results indicate that deaf people are better speechreaders than younger hearing people, but they are no better than their age‐matched peers, and that speechreading is related to reading only in deaf people.     

Animation as an Aid to Multimedia Learning

How can animation be used to promote learner understanding of scientific and mathematical explanations? In this review, we examine the role of animation in multimedia learning (including multimedia instructional messages and microworld games), present a cognitive theory of multimedia learning, and summarize our program of research, which has yielded seven principles for the use of animation in multimedia instruction. These include the multimedia principle (present animation and narration rather than narration alone), spatial contiguity principle (present on-screen text near rather than far from corresponding animation), temporal contiguity principle (present corresponding animation and narration simultaneously rather than successively), coherence principle (exclude extraneous words, sounds, and video), modality principle (present animation and narration rather than animation and on-screen text), redundancy principle (present animation and narration rather than animation, narration, and on-screen text), and personalization principle (present words in conversational rather than formal style). Animation can promote learner understanding when used in ways that are consistent with the cognitive theory of multimedia learning.     

Between Transaction and Transformation: The Role of School Principals as Education Leaders in Spain

Spain is, together with Portugal, the only OECD country where school principals are democratically elected from the teaching staff of each primary and secondary school by a School Council, where all members of the school community are represented. While this unique feature of the Spanish system entails many promises in terms of deep democracy and, equally important, the potential legitimacy of change promoted by school leaders, the reality seems to be somewhat less romantic. This paper explores the limitations and constraints faced by school principals in Spain to actually perform their role as school leaders in primary and secondary schools. Based on a major study that we carried out for the National Institute for Quality and Evaluation (INCE) in 2002, involving more than 20,000 questionnaires and 30 Focus Groups (with teachers, principals, school inspectors, administrators, education experts and parents), the paper deals with the impact of leadership on school improvement and change, especially as far as teaching and learning processes are concerned. Despite their democratic legitimacy, or perhaps precisely because of its unexpected effects, the elected principal in Spain faces constraints which de facto position himself or herself between a practice of permanent transaction with colleagues and the mounting pressure of transformation and accountability coming from outside the school. Results from this research suggest that such constraints are determining that the practice of school leadership in Spain is management and maintenance-oriented rather than change-oriented, thus casting doubts about the very model of school leadership.     

The Impact of Design-Based STEM Integration Curricula on Student Achievement in Engineering,Science, and Mathematics

The new science education reform documents call for integration of engineering into K-12 science classes. Engineering design and practices are new to most science teachers, meaning that implementing effective engineering instruction is likely to be challenging. This quasi-experimental study explored the influence of teacher-developed, engineering design-based science curriculum units on learning and achievement among grade 4–8 students of different races, gender, special education status, and limited English proficiency (LEP) status. Treatment and control students (n = 4450) completed pretest and posttest assessments in science, engineering, and mathematics as well as a state-mandated mathematics test. Single-level regression results for science outcomes favored the treatment for one science assessment (physical science, heat transfer), but multilevel analyses showed no significant treatment effect. We also found that engineering integration had different effects across race and gender and that teacher gender can reduce or exacerbate the gap in engineering achievement for student subgroups depending on the outcome. Other teacher factors such as the quality of engineering-focused science units and engineering instruction were predictive of student achievement in engineering. Implications for practice are discussed.     

Dissipative observers for discrete-time nonlinear systems

This paper addresses the problem of designing a state observer for a class of nonlinear discrete-time systems using the dissipativity theory. We show that the dissipative observation methodology, originally proposed by one of the authors for continuous-time nonlinear systems, can be extended to the discrete-time case. For constructing a convergent observer, the methodology is applied to the nonlinear estimation error dynamics, which is decomposed into a discrete-time Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) subsystem in the forward loop, connected to a time-varying static nonlinearity in the feedback loop. In order to assure asymptotic stability of the closed-loop, complementary dissipativity conditions are imposed on each of the subsystems: (i) the static nonlinearity is required to be dissipative with respect to a quadratic supply rate, and (ii) the observer gains are designed such that the LTI system is dissipative with respect to a complementary supply rate. As in the continuous time framework, the proposed method includes as special cases, unifies and generalizes some observer design methods proposed previously in the literature. A great advantage of the Dissipative Observer Design Method proposed here is that it leads to Matrix Inequalities for the design of the observer gains, and these can be usually converted into Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMI’s). The results are illustrated using Chua’s Chaotic system.     

Effects of a nonlinear pedagogy intervention programme on the emergent tactical behaviours of youth footballers

Purpose: This study analysed the effects of a training intervention programme using principles of Non-Linear Pedagogy (NLP) on the decision making (DM) and performance behaviours (P) of youth footballers.

Method: 19 footballers (U12 yrs) participated in 14 training sessions, spread over three phases: Pre-intervention, Intervention, Retention. The intervention was based on Small-Sided and Conditioned Games. We assessed progress during the intervention phase at two different points: intermediate and final. The GPET instrument was used to analyse the DM and P during the completion of 3208 passes in the intervention.

Results: Results shown significant improvements in the DM and P after the intermediate and final points of the acquisition phase. Moreover, significantly higher values were also obtained in both variables in the retention, compared to the pre-intervention phase.

Conclusion: Results indicated that the NLP intervention programme was effective in improving both aspects of team games performance in youth players, with effects consolidated over time.     

Science in Quarantine: Academic Physics in Spain (1750–1900)

The incorporation of Physics as a subject matter in secondary school and universities was a long and controversial process. First, because of religious tensions; later, due to political tensions that, in some way, also had to do with religious belief. In 1857 the Faculties of Sciences were created in Spain. From that time onward the problems for the teaching of physics diminished considerably. At the same time, the first steps were taken toward the development of research in the physical sciences.     

The signed algorithm and its bugs

Deaf children consistently lag behind their hearing cohorts in mathematics achievement tests. It has been hypothesized that their difficulty is a consequence of their lack of covert counting strategies and reliance on memorized verbal facts. We investigated the acquisition of an alternative method to solve sums, the signed algorithm, by six profoundly deaf primary school children. Similarly to the acquisition of the written algorithm by hearing children, deaf children's calculation errors with the signed algorithm were found to be systematic and related to the structure of the numeration system in British Sign Language. These results can be used to examine better ways of teaching arithmetic to deaf children and illustrate in a novel way the role of systems of signs in mathematical cognition.