A Topical Trajectory on Survival: an Analysis of Link-Making in a Sequence of Lessons on Evolution

This study explores the concept of link-making in relation to communicative strategies applied in the teaching and studying of biological evolution. The analysis focused on video recordings of 11 lessons on biological evolution conducted in a Swedish 9^th grade class of students aged 15 years. It reveals how the teacher and students connected classroom conversations, the frequency of references to conversations in whole-class settings, and the development of a theme focusing on species survival and extinction. Detailed examples from the data illustrate how this theme developed from its initiation during the first lesson, through discussion and clarification, to its wrapping up during the last lesson. They further illustrate how students made sense of what the teacher said and wrote, and how the teacher postponed issues, explained and developed topics, provided opportunities for link-making, organised the class, motivated students, and checked their understanding. The study’s methodological approach offers a way of including several time dimensions within research. Based on our findings, we conclude that the excerpts examined here did succeed in building ‘islands of coherence’ in the co-construction of curricular content. Moreover, the topical trajectory in relation to species survival provided opportunities for constructing a ‘scientific story’ in the classroom.     

Picking up the threads. Languaging in a Swedish mainstream preschool

This paper examines the strategies monolingual teachers use to scaffold meaning and encourage and enhance verbal communication with emergent bilingual children in a Swedish mainstream preschool. The study is based on ethnographic fieldwork in a preschool group in which seven of twelve children spoke Swedish as their second, additional language. The basic assumption in this paper is that knowledge is scaffolded in talk between teachers and children. Several scaffolding strategies are identified such as guessing, qualified guessing, interactive scaffolding and co-construction of meaning. The analysis shows that successful languaging assumes a high level of trust between the children and their teachers and that it is essential that the teachers can identify each child’s zone of proximal development. Some educational implications and dilemmas are identified on the basis of the results.     

Achieving scientific excellence: An exploratory study of the role of emotional and motivational factors

This study investigates the perceived role of psychological factors in achieving excellence in scientific research. Six outstanding scientists aged 33–42 were interviewed. Data were analyzed inductively resulting in three main dimensions: personality traits and characteristics, psychological skills and processes, and task-specific strategies. Researchers highlighted the importance of emotional factors and motivational processes to achieve and sustain scientific excellence. Flexible coping, emotion regulation, and goal setting were emphasized and described as particularly important in dealing with rejections, setbacks, and team management issues. Persistence and adaptive perfectionism were key individual characteristics which helped participants in nurturing and sustaining motivation. This study suggests that the specific impact of emotional, motivational, and other psychological skills at different stages of excellence development is relevant; yet, further investigation is needed.     

Student Connections between Algebraic and Graphical Polynomial Representations in the Context of a Polynomial Relation

When establishing connections among representations of associated mathematical concepts, students encounter different difficulties and successes along the way. The purpose of this study was to uncover information about and gain greater insight into how student processes connections. Pre-calculus students were observed and interviewed while performing a task that required connections among graphical and algebraic representations of a polynomial relation. Their reasoning and processes on the task were examined. This revealed more detailed information about the nature of their connections and misconceptions. The study reveals different types of student connections among graphical and algebraic representations.     

Circadian-temporal context and latent inhibition of conditioned taste aversion: Effect of restriction in the intake of the conditioned taste stimulus

Latent inhibition of conditioned taste aversion (CTA) is sensitive to changes in the temporal context. A change in the time of day of conditioning with respect to the time of day of the preexposure can disrupt the latent inhibition. This contextual change in the time of day may reveal a temporal specificity of latent inhibition. The optimum procedure to induce this temporal specificity is not well established. For example, it has been shown that a long period of habituation to temporal contexts is one factor that can determine the effect. However, the experimental conditions on the conditioning day that facilitate this phenomenon are unknown. The aim of this study is to elucidate whether a restriction in the intake of the conditioned taste stimulus affects the temporal specificity of latent inhibition. Two main groups of Wistar rats were tested in a latent inhibition of CTA paradigm, in which the temporal specificity of this phenomenon was analyzed by a change in the time of day of conditioning. The intake of the taste stimulus was restricted in the conditioning day in one of the groups, but this restriction was not applied in the other group. The results indicated temporal specificity of latent inhibition only in the group without restriction, but not in the group with limitation in the intake of the taste stimulus during conditioning. These findings can help to elucidate the characteristics of the procedure to induce temporal specificity of latent inhibition.     

Perspectives on Conceptualizing Developmentally Appropriate Sexuality Education

Despite recognition of the importance of a developmentally appropriate approach to sexuality education, there is little direct guidance on how to do this. This study employed in-depth interviews with experienced sexuality educators and developers of sexuality education materials to identify how this concept is understood and applied in the field. Developmentally appropriate sexuality education was conceptualized consistently across interviews to include (a) addressing developmentally relevant topics, (b) adapting content to cognitive development, (c) accommodating developmental diversity, and (d) facilitating the internalization of sexual health messages. However, these views fell short of incorporating the breadth of knowledge offered by adolescent development research.     

A mathematical experience involving defining processes: in-action definitions and zero-definitions

In this paper, a focus is made on defining processes at stake in an unfamiliar situation coming from discrete mathematics which brings surprising mathematical results. The epistemological framework of Lakatos is questioned and used for the design and the analysis of the situation. The cognitive background of Vergnaud’s approach enriches the study of freshmen’s processes at university. The mathematical analysis and the results specifically underscore the in-action definitions and the zero-definitions and highlight the need of similar mathematical experiences in education, particularly focused on defining processes and the exploration of a research problem.     

How do teachers in Ireland and England conceptualise dyslexia?

This paper presents the findings of a comparative study using data from questionnaire surveys carried out in England (n=57) and Ireland (n=72). The researchers examine how teachers and teaching assistants who are currently teaching pupils with dyslexia in primary schools describe dyslexia and what may have influenced their conceptualisation. The paper examines teachers' responses both in terms of how they view their pupils presenting difficulties in the classroom, and how far they link these to underlying differences in cognitive processing. The researchers suggest ways in which this might influence their teaching in terms of methodology. Findings have been mapped to the Morton and Frith causal modelling framework. The implications of these findings for the training and support of teachers are discussed in the light of recent national initiatives to improve the teaching of dyslexic pupils in both countries.     

Are implicit learning abilities sensitive to the type of material to be processed? Study on typical readers and children with dyslexia

This study aims to examine the impact of the linguistic nature of the material to be tracked in a serial reaction time task on the performance of typical readers and children with dyslexia. In doing so, we wished to detect eventual differences in the mobilisation of implicit learning skills between typical readers according to their experience with the written word (8‐ vs 10‐year‐olds) on the one hand, and between typical readers and children with dyslexia, on the other hand. Experiment 1 confirms the efficiency of implicit sequence learning in typical readers regardless of the nature of the item being tracked. Experiment 2 indicates that the sequence learning of children with dyslexia is sensitive to the nature of the target. Children with dyslexia show differences in the evolution of response times according to the nature of the item to be tracked.     

Virtualization and new geographies of knowledge in higher education: possibilities for the transformation of knowledge,pedagogic relations and learner identities

This article considers some of the ways in which the transformative power of Web 2.0 digital technology is reconfiguring learning, knowledge and academic identities in the contemporary university. Through a focus on five specific examples, we consider the impact of virtualization processes on spatiality, materiality and embodiment, and pedagogic relations. We argue for the benefits of taking a microsociological approach in order to reflect on the potential of virtualization to bring about new geographies of knowledge production and as a means to identify the ways in which potential transformations are uneven, problematic and contested.