Community Child Care Inclusion: the development of two children

The development of two children with severe disabilities who were fully included in a community child care centre that implemented a developmentally appropriate play‐based curriculum is chronicled in this paper. The children's development was monitored over the course of a 9‐month school year using the traditional measure of a standardised assessment instrument, as well as monthly observations of the children in various play activities. The data are presented in a case study format and provide evidence that the children in this study made progress in all areas of development. The findings are important in that they show the children with severe disabilities progressed without intensive intervention, indicating that a play‐based curriculum utilising developmentally appropriate practice may provide an effective structure for the instruction of young children with disabilities.     

Prisoners’ academic motivation,viewed from the perspective of self-determination theory: Evidence from a population of Norwegian prisoners

International Review of Education - The study presented in this article explores prisoners’ academic motivation structure from the theoretical perspective of self-determination theory, using...     

Water-repellent and biocide treatments: Assessment of the potential combinations

It is a common practice to use several chemical products during restoration projects of monuments or sculptures. However, care must be taken when combining the products to avoid a misuse. For example, it is well-known that applying a biocide on stone before a water-repellent leads to a diminishment of the hydrophobic effect of the treatment. But the application of biocide after a water-repellent treatment has been poorly analysed, although studies have proven that the stone looses its hydrophobicity after the application of the biocide. Henceforth, this study investigates the effects of biocide application on a water-repellent film and focuses on the possibilities to restore the efficiency of the previous water-repellent treatment (after the application of the biocide). At first, the tests were performed on glass slides to understand the mechanisms, with the subsequent results revealing that the biocide product deposits on the water-repellent film. Then, the study focuses on determining methods to remove the remains of biocide on limestone samples, previously treated with a water-repellent. The water-repellent used in the study is an alkylpolysiloxane, Rhodorsil H224 from Rhodia.     

Reading and writing self-efficacy of incarcerated adults

This paper is the first to examine the Reading and Writing Self-Efficacy Scale among incarcerated adults. The aim was to examine whether performance of reading and spelling tests (Reading Speed, Nonsense Words and Spelling) explained individual differences in the participants' efficacy beliefs in reading and writing. Six hundred subjects rated their efficacy beliefs in reading and writing, and 92 of them were also sampled for a reading and spelling test. Factor analysis yielded a two-factor solution dividing the reading items and writing items into separate factors and hierarchical regression analysis revealed that education level and test performance accounted for 36.9% and 34.9% of the statistical variance in reading self-efficacy and writing self-efficacy, respectively. The results suggest that assessment of self-efficacy in reading and writing should be included in a screening procedure of reading and spelling difficulties.     

Reconstructing Iconic Experiments in Electrochemistry: Experiences from a History of Science Course

The decomposition of water by electricity, and the voltaic pile as a means of generating electricity, have both held an iconic status in the history of science as well as in the history of science teaching. These experiments featured in chemistry and physics textbooks, as well as in classroom teaching, throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This paper deals with our experiences in restaging the decomposition of water as part of a history of science course at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. For the experiment we used an apparatus from our historical teaching collection and built a replica of a voltaic pile. We also traced the uses and meanings of decomposition of water within science and science teaching in schools and higher education in local institutions. Building the pile, and carrying out the experiments, held a few surprises that we did not anticipate through our study of written sources. The exercise gave us valuable insight into the nature of the devices and the experiment, and our students appreciated an experience of a different kind in a history of science course.     

Producing curious affects: visual methodology as an affecting and conflictual wunderkammer

Digital video cameras, smartphones, internet and iPads are increasingly used as visual research methods with the purpose of creating an affective corpus of data. Such visual methods are often combined with interviews or observations. Not only are visual methods part of the used research methods, the visual products are used as requisites in interviews when interviewees are watching the recordings and share their reflections on these. The purpose of this article is to critically interrogate how such research apparatus, on the one hand, privilege a visual sense and, on the other hand, how the visual may turn into a multisensory knowledge situation, in which tense situations, un/expected and perhaps conflicting senses and un/comfortable affects are evoked. The article takes its point of departure in our analysis of a research apparatus we invented and used in the research project Schooling identities. In this project, 60 pupil review conversations with 13–15-year-old pupils were videotaped with the purpose of exploring the management of self-management. In 20 follow-up interviews with the pupils, the videos were played on an old television and used as memory triggers and initiators of reflection upon the affective experience of their own pupils’ review conversation. We argue that methods can be analytically scrutinised as affective “wunderkammers”, in which different realities are juxtaposed. In so doing, our ways of experiencing research and processes of subjectification are affected and complicated. We interrogate the intensification of this “wunderkammer” and the particularity of it, when a television is part of the apparatus. As Lisa Blackman reminds us, television may be a technology of intimacy, a medium of telepresence which makes certain mental touch and affective transfer processes such as empathy and suggestion possible. During the television-watching, the peer-review conversations were not only represented or memorised but the very experience of the conversation, the people and the tasks involved were revitalised. In the interviews, former lived reality, videotaped reality and presence were conflated. These moments of a new reality affected both pupils and ourselves as researchers intensely. The television-initiated loops of reflection worked as an affective and inventive trigger creating an intense situation. It may also affect the everyday life of school.     

Not May Not be Too Difficult: The Effects of Negation on Older Adults' Sentence Comprehension

The present research investigated the effects of negation on young and older adults' comprehension of sentences. Participants read sentences, named probe words, answered comprehension questions, and completed the operation-span test. Negation adversely affected comprehension in both age groups such that probe word naming times were marginally slower and comprehension accuracy was reduced for negative sentences. Although older adults' comprehension overall was poorer than young adults, the negation effects were similar for both age groups. Furthermore, age was less predictive of negation comprehension than working memory. Unlike other variables that demonstrate age-related declines in reading comprehension, difficulties in processing negation may not increase with age.     

Students with reading difficulties/dyslexia: a longitudinal Swedish example

The aim of this study was to investigate the longitudinal development of students having difficulties with reading and their decoding ability in Swedish compulsory school. Another aim was to relate this to the experiences of educational activities expressed by students and parents. The decoding ability was assessed by a word chain test given at three occasions and was compared with results on a letter chain test. Retrospective interviews were performed with students and parents. The decoding ability tended to improve for most of the students over time, although some of them failed to improve or even decreased their scores, indicating a lack of environmental adjustment. Special educational support was according to students and parents organised in small and often very heterogeneous groups where the students sometimes received adequate support but often felt deviant from friends in their regular classes. The responsibility for helping the children with their schoolwork was allocated to the parents. Research in this area demonstrates the necessity of a well‐structured and stimulating learning situation. Yet, the development of these students’ decoding abilities, personal experiences, and parental involvement indicate that competence and resources at school regarding children at risk for developing reading difficulties are often lacking in the Swedish educational system.     

Future pest status of an insect pest in museums,Attagenus smirnovi: Distribution and food consumption in relation to climate change

The brown carpet beetle Attagenus smirnovi, Zhantiev 1973 (Coleoptera: Dermestidae) is an important pest of objects of organic origin in museums of cultural and natural history in Europe. Future climate changes are expected to lead to increasing temperatures, which will affect the pest status of this species. In the present study a laboratory investigation was conducted to elucidate the effect of temperature and humidity on the amounts of organic material consumed by larvae of A. smirnovi. In the case of new and old skin, consumption was approximately twice as high at 28 °C compared to 20 °C. Wool was consumed in the greatest amounts: 169 mg of wool was consumed in three months by 30 A. smirnovi larvae. The expected future climate changes in Scandinavia are assumed to lead to higher temperatures in museums and stores where climate is not regulated. Updated data on the present distribution of A. smirnovi in Europe show that it is widespread and common, also in regions with a climate that does not support its survival out of doors. Thus, dispersal of this pest probably only rarely occurs by flight, but usually with human activity. Due to the widespread distribution of A. smirnovi, it is likely that damages in museums and collections in Scandinavia due to this pest will increase as climate changes come into effect.