Reconstructing Dominant Paradigms of Teacher Education: Possibilities for pedagogical transformation in Fiji

Many nation states on the periphery of the dominant socio‐economic sphere continue to work with variants of education models introduced by colonial players. This paper argues that whilst historical factors contributed to the development of an educational approach underpinned by a techno‐rational ideology in Fiji, the actual details of educational practice suggest a more complex scenario. The resonance of the debate this establishes is explored through a case study of teacher education in Fiji. The study finds that despite the dominance of a “routinised”, mechanistic practice that was seen to define local culture/s of teacher education, there are indications that imply a sense of “possibilities” and hope. However, dominant techno‐rational and personalistic cultures of practice need to be frameworked by a socially located paradigm that places the issue of transformation more visibly in its remit, and that works from the understandings and perceptions that educators have about their own practice.     

Microcultures and informal learning: a heuristic guiding analysis of conditions for informal learning in local higher education workplaces

This article contributes to knowledge about learning in workgroups, so called microcultures in higher education. It argues that socially constructed and institutionalised traditions, recurrent practices, and tacit assumptions in the various microcultures influence academic teachers towards certain behaviour. In line with this perspective, we present a heuristic with the potential to differentiate various types of microcultures: the commons, the market, the club, and the square. The heuristic is based on a socio-cultural perspective and research on collective action. Its purpose is to assist academic developers to fine-tune their approaches while engaging with colleagues, but also to aid further inquiry into how institutionalised norms and traditions influence academic teaching and student learning.     

When intuitive conceptions overshadow pedagogical content knowledge: Teachers’ conceptions of students’ arithmetic word problem solving strategies

Intuitive conceptions in mathematics guide the interpretation of mathematical concepts. We investigated if they bias teachers’ conceptions of student arithmetic word problem solving strategies, which should be part of their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). In individual interviews, teachers and non-teaching adults were asked to describe students’ strategies in situational contexts within or outside the scope of the intuitive conception. The results revealed that teachers relied on their PCK and identified student strategies; however, in the presence of the intuitive conception, their PCK was overshadowed and they ceased to differ significantly from non-teachers. This brings the attention to certain biases that can have a strong impact on teachers’ efficient use of PCK.     

Health(y) education in Health and Physical Education

Teachers in the school subject Health and Physical Education (HPE) need to be able both to teach health and to do so in a healthy (equitable) way. The health field has, however, met with difficulties in finding its form within the subject. Research indicates that HPE can be excluding, meaning that it may give more favours to some pupils (bodies) than to others [cf. Webb, L. A., Quennerstedt, M., & Öhman, M. (2008). Healthy bodies: Construction of the body and health in physical education. Sport, Education and Society, 13(4), 353–372.; Webb, L., & Quennerstedt, M. (2010). Risky bodies: Health surveillance and teachers’ embodiment of health. QSE. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 23(7), 785–802; Williamson, B. (2015). Algorithmic skin: Health-tracking technologies, personal analytics and the biopedagogies of digitized health and physical education. Sport, Education and Society, 20(1), 133–151], and thereby being unhealthy for unfavoured pupils. The purpose of this study is therefore to investigate how HPE teacher education students in Sweden interpret health in HPE and discuss possible implications for future education in the school subject. The study involves 81 Bachelor/Master theses, connected to the HPE school subject and examined at six different Swedish universities. All the student theses were examined in 2012. Of the identified theses, 30 can be related more or less directly to health in physical education. These are the ones further scrutinized here. The contents of the selected essays may be categorized on the basis of tests as tools to measure health/ill health/performance, the knowledge required to teach health and also health as part of pedagogy. In sum, the theses display a reproductive approach to the subject, which involves the risk that the subject will subsequently function as disciplining, standardizing and excluding for some pupils, especially for those who do not engage in sports in their leisure time. In order to develop HPE’s potential into becoming healthier and more equal, researchers, teacher education and teachers do not primarily need to perceive health from the activity and individual perspectives, but rather from a power relations and equity perspective aiming towards equality.     

Comparative analysis of selected biomechanic characteristics between a support backward swing and support swing for the 1 1/4 straddle-piked forward salto on the parallel bars

The aim of our research was to study the relationships between performance variables in a support backward swing (SBS), which was used as a progressive step in the learning procedure for a 1 1/4 straddle-piked front somersault and the swing prior to a 1 1/4 straddle-piked front somersault from support to bent arm support on the parallel bars (5/4S). Mitja Petkovsek, parallel bars gold medallist at the 2000 EC in Bremen, performed these elements. Kinematic analysis involved CMAS software (Praha, 1993), and the Suskana body segment model that has 17 points and 15 segments. Kinetic variables were estimated using 2D IMGIM software, which has 8 points and 6 segments (Colja and Cuk, 1994). The results indicated that some kinematic aspects of the two types of swings were similar but there were important differences in kinetic aspects of the motion. During the swing for the 5/4S, force and torque were higher than in the SBS.     

Developmental dyslexics show deficits in the processing of temporal auditory information in German vowel length discrimination

The present study investigated auditory temporal processing in developmental dyslexia by using a vowel length discrimination task. Both temporal and phonological processing were studied in a single experiment. Seven German vowel pairs differing in vowel height were used. The vowels of each pair differed only with respect to vowel length (e.g., /a/ vs. /a:/). In German, vowel length is characterized by temporal and spectral information. Three types of differences between long versus short vowels were varied: In the phonological condition, pairs of natural vowels were used, differing in their temporal as well as in their spectral content. In two temporal conditions, in contrast, a natural vowel was always combined with a manipulated one to keep spectral content of long and short vowels identical. Thus, the only distinguishing feature between the two vowels was temporal in nature. Vowels were embedded into monosyllabic pseudo-words and presented successively in a speeded same–different task. Twenty dyslexics and twenty age-matched controls participated in the experiment. In both groups, discrimination accuracy decreased with increasing vowel height in the two temporal conditions. This result is consistent with former findings on the relevance of temporal information for vowel length identification in German and extends this topic to cover discrimination demands. In the phonological condition, groups did not differ in discrimination accuracy. In both temporal conditions, however, dyslexics performed worse than controls. These results suggest that developmental dyslexia is associated with impairments in processing basic acoustic parameters of the speech signal, in particular, with a deficit in temporal processing.     

Haemoglobin A1c-based screening for prediabetes and diabetes mellitus: a multi-center study in Croatian adult population

IntroductionBased on the hypothesis that there is a substantial rate of adults with prediabetes and undiagnosed diabetes mellitus (DM), our aim was to perform haemoglobin A1c (HbA_1c)-based screening in a cohort of Croatian adults and estimate the prevalence of prediabetes and undiagnosed DM according to American Diabetes Association criteria.Materials and methodsThis multi-center, cross-sectional study performed in six Croatian hospitals included 5527 patients aged 40 to 70 years admitted to the Emergency Department or undergoing a primary care check-up. Haemoglobin A1c was measured from leftover whole blood samples using the enzymatic method on either Alinity c or Architect c-series analyser (Abbott Laboratories, Chicago, USA). Haemoglobin A1c between 39-47 mmol/mol was classified as prediabetes, while ≥ 48 mmol/mol as undiagnosed DM.ResultsAfter exclusion of 435 patients with known DM, the final cohort included 5092 patients (median age 57; 56% males). A total of 882 (17.3%) patients had HbA_1c values between 39 and 47 mmol/mol. There were 214 (4.2%) patients with HbA_1c ≥ 48 mmol/mol. Prediabetes prevalence ranged from 14.2% to 20.5%, while undiagnosed DM from 3.3% to 7.3%, with statistically significant differences among settings (P < 0.001). Age-stratified analysis showed that prediabetes and undiagnosed DM prevalence increase with age (P < 0.001), being 25.4% and 5.8%, respectively, in patients aged 60 to 70 years.ConclusionUnderlying impairment of glucose metabolism was identified in about one in five adults, with significant number of patients with already overt DM. These results should serve as a starting point for further steps directed towards promotion of preventive measures for DM in Croatia.     

Productive Communication in an Afterschool Engineering Club with Girls Who are English Language Learners

This article the learning of girls who were in a co-ed after school engineering club related to the project: Designing Vital Engineering and Literacy Practices for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math for Elementary Teachers and Children (DeVELOP STEM ETC). While few girls grow up to become engineers in the US, recently more attention has focused on practices that engage girls in order to grow interest in engineering and engineering careers. In this article, we follow three eight and nine-year-old girls (3rd graders). We illustrate how key features of the Engineering Design Process intersect with a multimodal model of Productive Communication to help the girls enact identities as girls and as engineers as they design and build a bridge. We argue that to enact the Next Generation Science Standards, particularly those related to engineering, engineering and STEM educators must attend to the disciplinary literacies and communicative modes of girls and other under-represented minorities. This is also particularly important for learners who are still new to learning English and who may benefit from multimodal interactions and diverse opportunities to learn.     

Science, the public, and social elites: how the general public, scientists, top politicians and managers perceive science

This paper finds that the Croatian public's and the social elites' perceptions of science are a mixture of scientific and technological optimism, of the tendency to absolve science of social responsibility, of skepticism about the social effects of science, and of cognitive optimism and skepticism. However, perceptions differ significantly according to the different social roles and the wider value system of the observed groups. The survey data show some key similarities, as well as certain specificities in the configuration of the types of views of the four groups--the public, scientists, politicians and managers. The results suggest that the well-known typology of the four cultures reveals some of the ideologies of the key actors of scientific and technological policy. The greatest social, primarily educational and socio-spatial, differentiation of the perceptions of science was found in the general public.