The Law of Inertia: How Understanding its History can Improve Physics Teaching

The law of inertia is a problem in teaching due to the impossibility of showing the proposition experimentally. As we cannot do an experiment to verify the law, we cannot know if it is correct. On the other hand, we know that the science based upon it is successful. A study in the history of mechanics has shown that there are different foundations for the law but also that the law plays the same role in the science since Newton. To avoid a statement of which we cannot be sure, the present paper proposes to understand the law through its function in the theory. In this case, we do not have to say how a free body moves, but rather that the rectilinear and uniform motion is the motion of reference in Newtonian mechanics.     

Conflict,education and the global south: New critical directions

This paper seeks to provide a starting point for a broader discussion on the development of a critical research agenda in the field of ‘Education and Conflict Studies’. We begin the paper with a brief overview of the field of Education and Conflict drawing on a series of recent ‘overviews’ of the field and locate this within the context of the changing geo-political situation that emerged in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. This is followed by explaining what we understand by a critical research agenda and why we think it necessary. Thirdly, we explore a series of potentially interesting areas of inquiry that are currently absent or undeveloped within the field and which relate particularly to its ‘global’ dimension. Finally, we conclude by making some more reflective comments on our approach, its potential for making a positive contribution to both theory and practice within the field of Education and Conflict, and the need for more critically informed, but policy relevant research in this emerging area of inquiry.     

A multilevel hypernetworks approach to capture meso-level synchronisation processes in football

ABSTRACT

Understanding team behaviours in sports performance requires understanding the interdependencies established between their levels of complexity (micro-meso-macro). Previously, most studies examined interactions emerging at micro- and macro-levels, thus neglecting those emerging at a meso-level (reveals connections between player and team levels, depicted by the emergence of coordination in specific sub-groups of players–simplices during performance). We addressed this issue using the multilevel hypernetworks approach, adopting a cluster-phase method, to record player-simplice synchronies in two performance conditions where the number, size and location of goals were manipulated (first-condition: 6 × 6 + 4 mini-goals; second-condition: Gk + 6 × 6 + Gk). We investigated meso-level coordination tendencies, as a function of ball-possession (attacking/defending), field-direction (longitudinal/lateral) and teams (Team A/Team B). Generally, large synergistic relations and more stable patterns were observed in the longitudinal direction of the field than the lateral direction for both teams, and for both game phases in the first condition. The second condition displayed higher synchronies and more stable patterns in the lateral direction than the longitudinal plane for both teams, and for both game phases. Results suggest: (i) usefulness of hypernetworks in assessing synchronisation of teams at a meso-level; (ii) coaches may consider manipulating these task constraints to develop levels of local synchronies within teams.     

The Generalizability of Students’ Interests in Biology Across Gender, Country and Religion

In order to bridge the existing gap between biology curricula and students’ interests in biology, a strategy for identifying students’ interest based on their questions and integrating them into the curriculum was developed. To characterize the level of generalizability of students’ science interests over 600 high school students from Portugal, Turkey, England and Israel, who chose biology as an advanced subject, their interest level was ranked in 36 questions that were originally raised by Israeli students. Results indicate that students from four different countries show interest in similar science questions. The most intriguing questions were the ones that dealt with human health and new developments in reproduction and genetics. Religious affiliation had the strongest effect on students’ interest level, followed by national affiliation and gender. The findings suggest that students’ interest in one context is relevant to the development of interest-based learning materials in a different context. However, despite these similarities, cultural and sociological differences need to be taken into account.     

A window into different cultural worlds: young children's everyday activities in the United States, Brazil, and Kenya

A powerful means to understand young children's normative development in context is to examine their everyday activities. The daily activities of 79 children (3 years old) were observed, for 20 hr each, in their usual settings. Children were selected from 4 cultural groups: European American and African American (Greensboro, United States), Luo (Kisumu, Kenya), and European descent (Porto Alegre, Brazil), evenly divided by social class. Examining children's naturally occurring engagement in school-relevant activities, both in and out of child care, revealed the importance of ecological context. The variation in activities was not explainable simply by cultural group (including race within the United States) or social class, but by the intersection of culture and class. The developmental implications of these findings are discussed.     

On the Concept of Force: How Understanding its History can Improve Physics Teaching

Some physicists have pointed out that we do not know what force is. The most common definition of force in textbooks has been criticized for more than two centuries. Many studies have shown that the concept of force is a problem for teaching. How to conceive force on the basis of the concepts and criticism of force in the works of Newton, Euler, d’Alembert, Lagrange, Lazare Carnot, Saint-Venant, Reech, Kirchhoff, Mach, Hertz and Poincaré is the question of the present article. This part of the article is followed by an overview of definitions of force in contemporary textbooks. In the next part, an answer to the question is given: how to understand force within the framework of the laws of motion and in applications. Finally, some educational implications are considered.     

Fluid balance of elite Brazilian youth soccer players during consecutive days of training

In this study we investigated pre-training hydration status, fluid intake, and sweat loss in 20 elite male Brazilian adolescent soccer players (mean?±?s: age 17.2?±?0.5 years; height 1.76?±?0.05?m; body mass 69.9?±?6.0?kg) on three consecutive days of typical training during the qualifying phase of the national soccer league. Urine specific gravity (USG) and body mass changes were evaluated before and after training sessions to estimate hydration status. Players began the days of training mildly hypohydrated (USG?>?1.020) and fluid intake did not match fluid losses. It was warmer on Day 1 (33.1?±?2.4°C and43.4?±?3.2% relative humidity; P?相似文献   

Teaching Literacy through Braille in Mainstream Settings whilst Promoting Inclusion: Reflections on Our Practice

We would describe teaching literacy through braille as one of the most rewarding and challenging aspects of the role of a Qualified Teacher for the Visually Impaired (QTVI). This article focuses on teaching literacy through braille in mainstream settings whilst promoting inclusion and meeting the social–emotional needs of children who use braille. It aims to share good practice and is based on reflections from our own practice and research carried out by some of the authors. The article considers the impact of vision impairment on opportunities for literacy development, the main challenges QTVIs working in a peripatetic (itinerary) way face, as well as what works well and how we can overcome these challenges. The article describes what characterises good practice in teaching braille, describes effective collaborative work between teachers, other professionals and parents, and analyses how to promote inclusion whilst ensuring pupils access the specialist curriculum and individualised instruction.