Learning contexts for young children in Chile: process quality assessment in preschool centres

ITERS (Infant and Toddler Environment Rating Scale), ECERS (Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale) and SACERS (School Age Care Environment Rating Scale) are used to measure process quality. The psychometric characteristics of the three scales are established, and high reliability and adequate validity are observed. The global quality process for the classrooms under study is less than good; process quality based on the direct interaction of adults with children in the classroom is better when compared with quality related to the experiences that children have with learning materials, equipment and space. The associations between child development outcomes and childcare quality are examined. Vocabulary, social development and adaptive behaviour show a strong and positive association with ECERS. Hierarchical regression analyses show that preschool quality has a significant and persistent effect in the variation of child outcomes (5%). These effects are maintained three years later, when children are in primary school (8%).     

Examining the Relationship Between Parental Involvement and Student Motivation

Parent involvement has a sound research base attesting to the many potential benefits it can offer in education. However, student motivation as an academic outcome of parental involvement has only recently been investigated. The purpose of this article is to show how parent involvement is related to students motivation. Studies of students from the elementary school to high school show a beneficial relationship between parental involvement and the following motivational constructs: school engagement, intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, perceived competence, perceived control, self-regulation, mastery goal orientation, and motivation to read. From the synthesis of the parent involvement and motivation literature, we offer potential explanations for their relationship. Directions for areas of continued research are also presented.     

Beeinflusst die Rezession die Integration der Lehrerbildungen? Eine Einladung zur Forschung

Zusammenfassung In diesem Artikel mochten wir einerseits die umstrittene Langewel‐lentheorie beschreiben, die in wirtschaftlichen Kreisen vom Scheinwerfer des Interesses beleuchtet wird. Dabei schenken wir der ebenso umstrittenen Erklärungstheorie Schumpe‐ters fur diese Langewelle unsere besondere Aufmerksamkeit.

Wir legen uns anderseits die Frage vor, ob ein Zusammenhang besteht zwischen dieser Langewelle und den Möglichkeiten, über die man während einer festgesetzten Periode verfügt, um gewisse Innovationen bei der Lehrerbildung einzuführen, zu realisieren und besonders die Kosten dafür zu tragen.

Wir versuchen, unsere Annahme, ‘dass tatsächlich ein solcher Zusammenhang besteht’, zu erläutern mit einer Beschreibung einiger Auffallenden Gegebenheiten der Evolution der (west) deutschen Lehrerbildungen gegen den Hintergrund der Langewelle.

In weiteren Untersuchungen werden wir versuchen, diese provisorisch verfasste aber verantwortbare Annahme zu überprüfen und nachzuweisen. Im Interesse der Sache wäre es zu begrüssen, wenn auch andere Forscher die Folgen fur die Integration der Lehrerbildungen studieren mochten. Wir glauben, eine solche Untersuchung könne gesellschaftlich relevant sein.     

Chile's higher education: between market and state

Presently, most Higher Education policy issues that are debated in Chilean society revolve around the question of the type of relations that should connect the Higher Education system with the state and society.During the 1980–1990 period, Chilean Higher Education underwent drastic changes under a Military Government, directed to the achieving of three main goals: to open-up the Higher Education system, to differentiate its institutional structures, and to partially transfer the cost of state-financed institutions to the students and/or their families (cost recovery) thus forcing these institutions to diversify their funding sources.As a result of the 1980 reforms, both the institutional composition and the financing of Higher Education experienced dramatic changes. New establishments mushroomed. In turn, the rapid increase in the number of institutions resulted in three major effects:first, Higher Education became private-dominant in the non-university levels and has now a dual public/private nature at the university level;second, establishments grew more regionally dispersed but overall enrolment distribution changed in the direction of a still higher concentration in the capital city;third, creation of new entrance opportunities shows an increasing over-extension with respect to enrolment demand. Also funding of Higher Education was drastically altered by the 1980 reforms. Incremental funding was replaced by a diversified funding system which contemplates the employment of four different mechanisms: public institutional core funding, competitive public allocations rewarding institutions that enrol the best students, a Government financed student-loan scheme, and competitive financing of research projects.A new, democratically elected Government was established in 1990. Its Higher Education policies include three major objectives: to fully restore institutional autonomy cancelling all measures of governmental intervention and reinstating the right of faculty members to freely choose their authorities and provide for the self-government of public universities; to increase public spending without changing the diversified-funding approach adopted by the former Government, and to change the legal framework of Higher Education with the aim of introducing more stringent accreditation and evaluation procedures and institutional accountability.     

AIDA: a methodology independent support tool for educational software authoring

Many authoring tools have been proposed in an attempt to find more effective ways to face the challenge of developing educational software. However, most of them are reported to be restrictive, since they are strongly connected to a specific educational software development methodology. The AIDA (Ambiente Integrado para o Desenvolvimento de Aplicações educacionais) authoring environment was developed at the University of Coimbra having as its main objectives the support of most of the activities involved in authoring and making educational software development easier. The AIDA system is based on a design module, i.e. a prototyping tool allowing the creation of Windows-based software, including multimedia features. The system assists evaluation activities and it caters also for support on translation and cultural adaptation, as well as on the reutilization of educational materials. The use of the AIDA environment is illustrated by three small examples using different development methodologies.     

Simultaneous Assembly of Multiple Test Forms

An algorithm for the assembly of multiple test forms is proposed in which the multiple-form problem is reduced to a series of computationally less intensive two-form problems. At each step, one form is assembled to its true specifications; the other form is a dummy assembled only to maintain a balance between the quality of the current form and the remaining forms. It is shown how the method can be implemented using the technique of O-1 linear programming. Two empirical examples using a former item pool from the LSAT are given—one in which a set of parallel forms is assembled and another in which the targets for the information functions of the forms are shifted systematically.     

Zum Problem der Hochschulreform in Spanien: Einige Ausgewählte Daten

Over the past ten years there has been a sweeping reform of the courses taught and qualifications awarded by Spanish universities. For that reason, an investigation was launched in 1996–97 at the University of Santiago de Compostela (in Northwest Spain) into the teaching, research and management entailed in four new degree courses: physics (years one to four), agricultural engineering (first and second years), agricultural food-processing technology (years one to three) and pharmacy. This article reports on students' opinions of the reforms in these courses, revealing dissatisfaction with facilities for practical course work, lack of connection with prospective employment, and a call for more information about courses.     

Interaction between cells in dielectrophoresis and electrorotation experiments

Progress in microelectrode-based technologies has facilitated the development of sophisticated methods for manipulating and separating cells, bacteria, and other bioparticles. For many of these various applications, the theoretical modeling of the electrical response of compartmentalized particles to an external field is important. In this paper we address the analysis of the interaction between cells immersed in rf fields. We use an integral formulation of the problem derived from a consideration of the charge densities induced at the interfaces of the particle compartments. The numerical solution by a boundary element technique allows characterization of their dielectric properties. Experimental validation of this theoretical model is obtained by investigating two effects: (1) The influence that dipolar “pearl chaining” has on the dielectrophoretic behavior of human T lymphocytes and (2) the frequency variation of the spin and orbital torques of approaching insulinoma β-cells in a rotating field.