Educators in non-formal vocational education and training in Mozambique: a plea for recognition and professionalisation

Interest in vocational education and training (VET) is growing. This can be attributed to global socio-economic developments requiring continuously changing knowledge and skills. Adult education and training, particularly in non-formal education (NFE) contributes to provide these skills and knowledge for youth and adults. This puts pressure not only on programmes and facilities, but also on the educators. How do they cope with the changing demands? This paper focuses on educators in non-formal vocational education and training (NFVET) in Mozambique. It explores the perceptions, experiences and reflections of educators in NFVET working in training centres on the outskirts of Maputo. Semi-structured interviews and observations were used to get insight into the educators’ understandings and into the conditions in which their educational activities took place. The findings point to the need for the professionalisation of NFVET educators. This would contribute to the quality of their activities and to their status as professionals.     

The Relationship Between Running Economy and Biomechanical Variables in Distance Runners

In this study, we analyzed the relationship between running economy (RE) and biomechanical parameters in a group running at the same relative intensity and same absolute velocity. Sixteen homogeneous male long-distance runners performed a test to determine RE at 4.4 m.s^-1, corresponding to 11.1% below velocity at the ventilatory threshold. We found significant correlations between RE and biomechanical variables (vertical oscillation of the center of mass, stride frequency, stride length, balance time, relative stride length, range of elbow motion, internal knee, ankle angles at foot strike, and electromyographic activity of the semitendinosus and rectus femoris muscles). In conclusion, changes in running technique can influence RE and lead to improved running performance.     

Matching Student Assessment to Problem-based Learning: Lessons from experience in a law faculty

This paper focuses on experiential learning in the paradoxical postmodern moment: a period offering unparalleled opportunities for diverse groups to experiment with identities. But this in a context of frightening uncertainties and insecurities at an environmental, socioeconomic and personal level. The struggle to experiment must also be located within a powerful consumerism which can offer illusions of choice, but substitutes appearance for substance, manic materialism for existential purpose. Using cultural theory and psychoanalysis, I argue that experiential learning, in the postmodern moment, requires a holistic cultural psychology of human agency transcending the narrow vocationalist, short‐term discourse of lifelong learning. In a culture where inherited templates have fractured, experiential learning has become a vital necessity, offering, potentially, some supportive space, emotional as well as critical literacy, for the peoples of the margins, and nearer the core, to recompose selves, stories and communities, on more of their own terms.     

Quantification of Helicobacter pylori levels in soil samples from public playgrounds in Spain

Helicobacter pylori are ubiquitous Gram-negative bacteria with a high estimated level of infection in the world populations, but a majority of the infected persons are asymptomatic. This pathogen has been classified by the World Health Organization as a class I carcinogen and recognized as the causal agent of most peptic ulcers and chronic gastritis that might lead to stomach cancer. Although not all the transmission pathways of these bacteria into humans have been properly identified, enough data have suggested that the oral-oral or fecal-oral ones are the main infection routes. Helicobacter pylori have been detected in non-treated water and in drinking water, which suggested that water might be an important infection source. As childhood is the critical period of infection, the aim of the present work was to examine the presence of Helicobacter pylori in soil samples from public playing areas of Spanish parks.     

An interrogation of the role of critical thinking in English language pedagogy in Chile

The present study aims to critically interrogate the role of Critical Thinking (CT) in English language education in Chile through the analysis of teacher educators’ and postgraduate students’ perceptions and understandings of CT in relation to their academic trajectories through university. Five postgraduate students and five teacher educators from three different Masters of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (MTEFL) programs agreed to take part in the research. Informed by a qualitative paradigm, semi-structured interviews were conducted aimed mainly at (1) unpacking teacher educators’ and postgraduate students’ understandings of CT; (2) investigating postgraduates’ views of the place of critical thinking in their English teacher education training; (3) examining the ways in which teacher educators deal with CT in their pedagogies; and (4) identifying students’ preparedness to approach reading and writing critically, as viewed by both groups of participants. Analysis of responses revealed, on the one hand, students’ recognition of CT skills as necessary to succeed in academic life and, on the other, great concerns for the limited importance accorded to teaching these skills in teacher education courses. Teacher educators’ responses generally showed an increasing interest in trying to incorporate the teaching of CT skills in their pedagogies, but admitted to an overall lack of consistency in the implementation process. The paper concludes with critical questions about the perceived pedagogical mismatches between teacher educators’ and postgraduate students’ perceptions of the role of CT in their academic journeys, and about the role of Chilean teacher education programs in addressing these issues.     

More Issues in Observed‐Score Equating

This article is a response to the commentaries on the position paper on observed‐score equating by van der Linden (this issue). The response focuses on the more general issues in these commentaries, such as the nature of the observed scores that are equated, the importance of test‐theory assumptions in equating, the necessity to use multiple equating transformations, and the choice of conditioning variables in equating.     

The contribution of the diaspora to the reconstruction of education in South Sudan: the challenge of being involved from a distance

Conflicts all over the world result in people living in diaspora, usually maintaining strong ties with their countries of origin. As many of them are well educated and dedicated to their country, expectations of the role they can play in the development of their home country are high. This article reflects on the contribution of the South Sudanese diaspora to the reconstruction of the education system, which was badly affected by over 40 years of civil war. Theories of capacity development, human capabilities and transnationalism are used to build a framework to analyse micro-development projects in the education sector initiated by the South Sudanese diaspora. Case studies and in-depth interviews led to the identification of opportunities and challenges as experienced in these projects. The conclusion points to the need to rethink partnerships in the reconstruction of the education sector in South Sudan.     

A robust unscented transformation for uncertain moments

This paper proposes a robust version of the unscented transform (UT) for one-dimensional random variables. It is assumed that the moments are not exactly known, but are known to lie in intervals. In this scenario, the moment matching equations are reformulated as a system of polynomial equations and inequalities, and it is proposed to use the Chebychev center of the solution set as a robust UT. This method yields a parametrized polynomial optimization problem, which in spite of being NP-Hard, can be relaxed by some algorithms that are proposed in this paper.