Support teachers' beliefs about the academic achievement of students with special educational needs

José Castro Silva, lecturer in sciences of education, and José Morgado, assistant professor, both work at the Instituto Superior de Psicologica Aplicada in Lisboa, Portugal. In this article, they describe their study of support teachers' beliefs about the academic achievement of school students with special educational needs. The 'support teachers' who were the subject of this study work in mainstream schools where the majority of pupils with special educational needs are educated in mainstream classes run by 'general teachers'. The work of the support teachers is supervised and supported by 'special education team co-ordinators'. The study reported here set out to elicit the support teachers' beliefs about the factors that contribute to success at school for pupils with special educational needs. Results suggest that the support teachers consider that factors including 'school climate', 'curriculum design' and 'teaching approach' contribute significantly to achievements among these pupils. On the other hand, analysis reveals that the support teachers attribute difficulties and lack of achievement significantly to 'out-of-school' contextual variables. These findings are related to a detailed review of the literature and the authors discuss the implications for policy, practice and professional development.     

The Evolution of Interaction Shape in Differential Susceptibility

Expectations about the shape of statistical interactions play a crucial role in the study of differential susceptibility and other types of person–environment interplay. These expectations shape methodological guidelines and inform the interpretation of empirical findings; however, their logic has never been explicitly examined. This study is the first systematic exploration of the evolution of interaction shape in differential susceptibility. The model introduced here yields a number of novel insights; for example, interactions in differential susceptibility should usually be asymmetric and likely to be biased toward the prototypical shape of diathesis–stress models. This article also presents an exploratory analysis of interaction shape in recent empirical studies and ends with a discussion of the theoretical and methodological implications of the present findings.     

‘We are more than EFL teachers – we are educators’: emancipating EFL student-teachers through photovoice

The prevailing pedagogical orientations of English as a foreign language (EFL) education in Spain oppress learners intellectually in ways that are counterproductive to their learning. As a reaction to this, 129 EFL student-teachers (STs) took part during the 2013/14, 2014/15, and 2015/16 academic years in a workshop which drew on the methodology of participatory action research and on photovoice as a data-creating strategy, in order to emancipate these STs intellectually, boost their EFL development, and offer an alternative critical model for their future EFL teaching. The research was assessed collectively through a variety of qualitative strategies. Results showed that the photovoice workshop created a rich and meaningful context for EFL learning, one which enabled the STs to fully actualize their intellectual potential by producing knowledge collectively, thereby setting a memorable educational example for their own future teaching.     

Do training institutions learn from experience?

This essay is concerned with organisational learning and, in particular, policy learning. Sometimes, organisations learn; sometimes they do not. Sometimes they use their acquired knowledge, but this is, not always the case.     

On the Shapley value and its application to the Italian VQR research assessment exercise

Research assessment exercises have now become common evaluation tools in a number of countries. These exercises have the goal of guiding merit-based public funds allocation, stimulating improvement of research productivity through competition and assessing the impact of adopted research support policies. One case in point is Italy's most recent research assessment effort, VQR 2011–2014 (Research Quality Evaluation), which, in addition to research institutions, also evaluated university departments, and individuals in some cases (i.e., recently hired research staff and members of PhD committees). However, the way an institution's score was divided, according to VQR rules, between its constituent departments or its staff members does not enjoy many desirable properties well known from coalitional game theory (e.g., budget balance, fairness, marginality). We propose, instead, an alternative score division rule that is based on the notion of Shapley value, a well known solution concept in coalitional game theory, which enjoys the desirable properties mentioned above. For a significant test case (namely, Sapienza University of Rome, the largest university in Italy), we present a detailed comparison of the scores obtained, for substructures and individuals, by applying the official VQR rules, with those resulting from Shapley value computations. We show that there are significant differences in the resulting scores, making room for improvements in the allocation rules used in research assessment exercises.     

Electronic administration in Spain: From its beginnings to the present

This study presents the basic lines of electronic administration in Spain. The complexity of the Spanish political-administrative system makes such a study challenging, in view of the considerable degree of autonomy and competences of the regional administrative bodies and local agencies with respect to the central government, the former being more visible in the 17 regions of Spain. Nonetheless, the central government maintains a series of legal instruments that allow a certain common framework of action to be imposed, aside from what is put into effect through diverse programs aimed precisely to develop common tools for the regions and municipalities of Spain. After an introduction that provides some necessary background, this study describes the legislative framework in which Spain's electronic administrative system has developed. The data included in the study refer to investment in information and communication technologies (ICT) and the services offered by the different Administrations on the internet; internet access by citizens, homes, businesses, and employees, as well as the interactivity existing with administrations by means of the internet; the origins and rise of various political initiatives of the Central Government involving electronic administration; and finally, the situation of civil service personnel, as catalysts of the success of Information Society in the Public Administration within Spain.     

Analyzing the impact of knowledge management on CRM success: The mediating effects of organizational factors

Customer relationship management (CRM) and knowledge management (KM) have become key strategic tool for all companies, especially in the current competitive environment. Moreover, customer knowledge is an important issue for CRM implementation. Reviewing the literature, we found many studies that analyze the crucial role played by KM initiatives as determinants of the success of CRM. Moreover, we found also diverse studies that show high rates of failure when implementing that strategy, so there is still no integrated conceptual framework to guide companies to their successful implementation. In this paper, with data of 153 Spanish hotels, we examine the relationships between KM and CRM success using a structural equation model. The main contribution is that having knowledge management capabilities is not sufficient for the success of CRM, but there are other factors to consider. In particular, organizational factors indeed impact CRM success and they appear to be intermediaries of the impact of other factors (KM capabilities/technological/customer orientation factors) in the success of CRM (in financial and marketing terms).     

Effects of cold water immersion on the recovery of physical performance and muscle damage following a one-off soccer match

The aim of this study was to assess the effects of a single session of cold or thermoneutral water immersion after a one-off match on muscular dysfunction and damage in soccer players. Twenty-male soccer players completed one match and were randomly divided into cryotherapy (10 min cold water immersion, 10°C, n = 10) and thermoneutral (10 min thermoneutral water immersion, 35°C, n = 10) groups. Muscle damage (creatine kinase, myoglobin), inflammation (C-reactive protein), neuromuscular function (jump and sprint abilities and maximal isometric quadriceps strength), and delayed-onset muscle soreness were evaluated before, within 30 min of the end, and 24 and 48 h after the match. After the match, the players in both groups showed increased plasma creatine kinase activity (30 min, 24 h, 48 h), myoglobin (30 min) and C-reactive protein (30 min, 24 h) concentrations. Peak jump ability and maximal strength were decreased and delayed-onset muscle soreness increased in both groups. However, differential alterations were observed between thermoneutral water and cold water immersion groups in creatine kinase (30 min, 24 h, 48 h), myoglobin (30 min), C-reactive protein (30 min, 24 h, 48 h), quadriceps strength (24 h), and quadriceps (24 h), calf (24 h) and adductor (30 min) delayed-onset muscle soreness. The results suggest that cold water immersion immediately after a one-off soccer match reduces muscle damage and discomfort, possibly contributing to a faster recovery of neuromuscular function.