Key components of learning ecologies: A Delphi assessment

The educational landscape has changed in recent years, requiring reflection about new pedagogical methods and theories. There are three important perspectives as drivers of pedagogical reflection: lifelong and life-wide learning, the idea of learning as a social construct in which internal elements and changing external factors converge, and the recognition of technology as a resource that can promote ubiquitous and expanded learning. Learning ecology has been proposed as a conceptual and empirical framework, but its still emergent nature along with its multidimensionality and complexity require further exploration. The Delphi study we present as part of a broader research project aims to identify the components of learning ecologies. Three panel rounds with international experts were carried out, after which two important dimensions emerged in the structure of learning ecologies. The first is related to intrinsic “learning dispositions,” which is made up of three categories: the subject's ideas about learning, their motivations and expectations. The second dimension, called “learning processes,” comprises four components: relationships, resources, actions and context. The identification of the components of learning ecologies and their influence on formal, non-formal and informal training processes will provide guidance for educational policies and help to better organize training programmes.     

How to promote conservation behaviours: the combined role of environmental education and commitment

This study tested the influence of both environmental education (EE) and commitment interventions among teenagers for promoting energy and water conservation at home. Conservation behaviours were measured in two ways – directly and through questionnaires – prior to and after the interventions. Results indicate (1) EE participants may have saved more energy than non-participants and (2) those signing a public commitment saved more energy and water than those who did not. Results from the questionnaire measures demonstrated the importance of EE for promoting ecological self-identity and a personal norm for energy conservation. Based on these results the use of commitment interventions in EE initiatives for promoting conservation behaviours among teenagers is proposed.     

Influence of teachers and schools on students' civic outcomes in Latin America

The authors investigated to what extent teachers' practices and school characteristics can influence students' civic knowledge, civic attitudes, and future participation in Chile, Colombia, and Mexico and how this can be related to their specific curricular structures and educational content. It uses data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study. The results show that in Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, teacher practices and attitudes relate to the civic outcomes. Although teachers' practices and attitudes significantly predict students' civic knowledge, this relationship does not seem relevant for students' expected participation and students' attitudes toward diversity. Still, the democratic environment of the school is a relevant variable in the case of expected participation of students and their attitudes toward diversity, which shows a possible indirect influence of teachers through the school environment. The results are discussed in relation to the civic education curriculum in place in the countries analyzed.     

Perceptions of Portuguese undergraduate students about assessment: a study in five public universities

This paper draws upon a broader piece of research on assessment in higher education, particularly focusing on issues regarding the fairness and effectiveness of the assessment methods and their implications for the learning process. The perceptions of undergraduate students are analysed taking into account the effectiveness and fairness of both traditional and learner-centred assessment methods, as well their influence on the learning process. In total, 624 students participated in this study in five Portuguese Public Universities in different areas of knowledge and programmes. Data were collected through questionnaires. Findings suggest that assessment is seen as more effective and fairer when it is done through the use of learner-centred assessment methods rather than by traditional assessment (e.g. written tests or exams). The students also claim that they devote more time to study when assessment is performed through learner-centred assessment methods than by traditional ones. The most used assessment methods are written tests and oral presentations in group. However, differences in the programmes were identified as well as differences according to gender. Implications of the findings for assessment and for the teaching and learning process are discussed.     

Initial Characterization of Colombian High School Physics Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge on Electric Fields

We explore the initial characterization of the pedagogical content knowledge of four, in-service, Colombian pre-university secondary education physics teachers on the concept of electric field. Two of them teach the content in English as a second language. The aim of the study was to obtain an image of the participants’ teaching of electric field and the inherent complexities that go with that. The results revealed that factors which involved their personal educational models, such as, how they interpret their school’s curriculum, the relationship they see between physics and mathematics, the most effective strategies for teaching physics, and the time they have available to develop the topic played a significant role. The teachers considered it essential to establish new strategies that would motivate the pupils by helping them visualize the electric field.     

Teacher-child relationships and the development of academic and behavioral skills during elementary school: a within- and between-child analysis

Despite recent growth in research highlighting the potential of teacher-child relationships to promote children's development during the early years of school, questions remain about the importance of these relationships across elementary school. Using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care (N = 1,364), this study examines between- and within-child associations between teacher-child relationship quality and children's academic achievement and behavior problems from kindergarten (ages 4-6 years) through 5th grade (ages 9-11 years). Results suggest that increases in teacher-child relationship quality are associated with improvements in teacher-reported academic skills and reductions in behavior problems consistently throughout elementary school. As children progressed from kindergarten through fifth grade, the importance of teacher-child relationship quality is unchanging.     

Multicultural education, pragmatism, and the goals of science teaching

In this paper, we offer an intermediate position in the multiculturalism/universalism debate, drawing upon Cobern and Loving’s epistemological pluralism, pragmatist philosophies, Southerland’s defense of instructional multicultural science education, and the conceptual profile model. An important element in this position is the proposal that understanding is the proper goal of science education. Our commitment to this proposal is explained in terms of a defense of an ethics of coexistence for dealing with cultural differences, according to which social argumentative processes—including those in science education—should be marked by dialogue and confrontation of arguments in the search of possible solutions, and an effort to (co-)live with differences if a negotiated solution is not reached. To understand the discourses at stake is, in our view, a key requirement for the coexistence of arguments and discourses, and the science classroom is the privileged space for promoting an understanding of the scientific discourse in particular. We argue for “inclusion” of students’ culturally grounded ideas in science education, but in a sense that avoids curricular multicultural science education, and, thus, any attempt to broaden the definition of “science” so that ideas from other ways of knowing might be simply treated as science contents. Science teachers should always take in due account the diversity of students’ worldviews, giving them room in argumentative processes in science classrooms, but should never lose from sight the necessity of stimulating students to understand scientific ideas. This view is grounded on a distinction between the goals of science education and the nature of science instruction, and demands a discussion about how learning is to take place in culturally sensitive science education, and about communicative approaches that might be more productive in science classrooms organized as we propose here. We employ the conceptual profile model to address both issues. We expect this paper can contribute to the elaboration of an instructional multicultural science education approach that eliminates the forced choice between the goals of promoting students’ understanding of scientific ideas and of empowering students through education.

The conflict between science and religion: a discussion on the possibilities for settlement

In his article Skepticism, truth as coherence, and construtivist epistemology: grounds for resolving the discord between science and religion?, John Staver identifies what he considers to be the source of the conflicts between science and religion: the establishment of the relationship between truth and knowledge, from the perspective of those who see a correspondence between reality and knowledge, assumed in the realm of both contending fields. In the present work, although agreeing with the general principles of constructivism, I discuss Staver’s option of viewing truth as coherence and his proposal of renouncing the objective of knowing reality from both fields’ perspective. Three aspects of Staver’s article are commented and discussed here: the one referring to views of reality or of nature as shared by scientists; the one concerning the different forms of religious beliefs among scientists; and the one accounting for the impossibility, from the standpoint of constructivism, of determining limits to the objectives of science and religion. Also emphasized in this discussion is the importance of combining theoretical and methodological approaches in tune with the complexity of the theme under discussion, accounting for the need to preserve the freedom of thinking and of doing research.     

High-throughput study of alpha-synuclein expression in yeast using microfluidics for control of local cellular microenvironment

Microfluidics is an emerging technology which allows the miniaturization, integration, and automation of fluid handling processes. Microfluidic systems offer low sample consumption, significantly reduced processing time, and the prospect of massive parallelization. A microfluidic platform was developed for the control of the soluble cellular microenvironment of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells, which enabled high-throughput monitoring of the controlled expression of alpha-synuclein (aSyn), a protein involved in Parkinson's disease. Y-shaped structures were fabricated using particle desorption mass spectrometry-based soft-lithography techniques to generate biomolecular gradients along a microchannel. Cell traps integrated along the microchannel allowed the positioning and monitoring of cells in precise locations, where different, well-controlled chemical environments were established. S. cerevisiae cells genetically engineered to encode the fusion protein aSyn-GFP (green fluorescent protein) under the control of GAL1, a galactose inducible promoter, were loaded in the microfluidic structure. A galactose concentration gradient was established in the channel and a time-dependent aSyn-GFP expression was obtained as a function of the positioning of cells along the galactose gradient. Our results demonstrate the applicability of this microfluidic platform to the spatiotemporal control of cellular microenvironment and open a range of possibilities for the study of cellular processes based on single-cell analysis.