Relations between physiological and cognitive regulatory systems: infant sleep regulation and subsequent executive functioning

The aim of this report was to investigate the prospective links between infant sleep regulation and subsequent executive functioning (EF). The authors assessed sleep regulation through a parent sleep diary when children were 12 and 18 months old (N = 60). Child EF was assessed at 18 and 26 months of age. Higher proportions of total sleep occurring at night time, at both 12 and 18 months, were related to better performance on executive tasks, especially those involving a strong impulse control component. Most relations held above family socioeconomic status, prior mental development and concurrent verbal ability. These findings add to previous results with school-age children in suggesting that sleep favors the development of higher order cognitive functions requiring prefrontal cortex involvement.     

Approaches to studying in higher education Portuguese students: a Portuguese version of the approaches and study skills inventory for students

This paper examines the validity of the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students—short version (ASSIST; Tait et al. in Improving student learning: Improving students as learners, 1998), to be used with Portuguese undergraduate students. The ASSIST was administrated to 566 students, in order to analyse a Portuguese version of this inventory. Exploratory factor analysis (principal axis factor analysis followed by direct oblimin rotation) reproduced the three main factors that correspond to the original dimensions of the inventory (deep, surface apathetic and strategic approaches to learning). The results are consistent with the background theory on approaches to learning. Additionally, the reliability analysis revealed acceptable internal consistency indexes for the main scales and subscales. This inventory might represent a valuable research tool for the assessment of approaches to learning among Portuguese higher education students.     

Learning from animation enabled by collaboration

Animated graphics are extensively used in multimedia instructions explaining how natural or artificial dynamic systems work. As animation directly depicts spatial changes over time, it is legitimate to believe that animated graphics will improve comprehension over static graphics. However, the research failed to find clear evidence in favour of animation. Animation may also be used to promote interactions in computer-supported collaborative learning. In this setting as well, the empirical studies have not confirmed the benefits that one could intuitively expect from the use of animation. One explanation is that multimedia, including animated graphics, challenges human processing capacities, and in particular imposes a substantial working memory load. We designed an experimental study involving three between-subjects factors: the type of multimedia instruction (with static or animated graphics), the presence of snapshots of critical steps of the system (with or without snapshots) and the learning setting (individual or collaborative). The findings indicate that animation was overall beneficial to retention, while for transfer, only learners studying collaboratively benefited from animated over static graphics. Contrary to our expectations, the snapshots were marginally beneficial to learners studying individually and significantly detrimental to learners studying in dyads. The results are discussed within the multimedia comprehension framework in order to propose the conditions under which animation can benefit to learning.     

Development of implanted deaf children’s conversational skills

Previous studies of preverbal development have highlighted the recurrent difficulties experienced by deaf children in acquiring knowledge of the social rules and social skills pertaining to discourse. We expected cochlear implants in children with bilateral profound deafness to improve their use of verbal language, so that their communication skill profile resembled that of younger, hearing children. Using conversation samples taken from videos recorded every 6 months over a 2-year period, we monitored the development of communication skills in a group of 18 prelingually profoundly deaf children (mean implantation age, 3 years and 5 months). Results corroborated our hypothesis that the overall communication performances of children with cochlear implants improve, both quantitatively and qualitatively, as early as the first year post-implantation.     

“A Nightmare Land, A Place of Death”: An Exploration of the Moon as a Motif in Hergé’s Destination Moon (1953) and Explorers on the Moon (1954)

This article analyses the symbolic meaning of the Moon in two bande dessinée books from the Tintin series, Hergé’s Destination Moon (Objectif Lune, 1953) and its sequel Explorers on the Moon (On a Marché sur la Lune, 1954). It argues that these two volumes stand out in the series for their graphic, narrative and philosophical emphasis on both intellectual achievement and physical death. The Moon, as a goal of modern science and a traditional artistic symbol, is made to celebrate the human mind. But Hergé also makes it a dangerous no man’s land, where human beings are made to understand the limitations of their physical abilities. The Moon emphasises the distortion between human dreams of grandeur and the concrete impossibility of their realisation, and the threats they pose to corporeality. As a result, the article suggests that the Moon trip can be seen as a modern re-enactment of the mythological journey to Hell, as the works of the human mind are constantly thwarted by the risk of physical death.     

‘Go,go on and go higher an’ higher’. Second‐generation Turks’ understanding of the role of education and their struggle through the Dutch school system

With reference to capital theories and rational choice theory, this paper aims to understand how abilities and schooling ambitions are intertwined with social class, gender and ethnicity. By drawing on 16 in‐depth interviews carried out with highly educated second‐generation Turks in the Netherlands, the paper discusses the resources, opportunities and educational attitudes of young people, together with the role of the school system and that of teachers in perpetuating ethnic inequalities in schooling, with special emphasis on gender differences in schooling ambitions.     

Magic Women on the Margins: Ec-centric Models in Mary Poppins and Ms Wiz

This paper offers a comparative analysis of two characters belonging to the tradition of empowered “spinster” in children’s fiction, namely Mary Poppins and Ms Wiz, from the perspective of gender politics and child/adult interactions. A distinction is made between the figure portrayed in P. L. Travers’ texts and the Disney film starring Julie Andrews, which turned the magic nanny into a cultural icon. These two renderings of the powerful, single woman, in turn, are contrasted with Terence Blacker’s postmodern depiction of the good witch in the “Ms Wiz” series, with a view to tracing the evolution of the ostracised female wizard, a character inherited from folklore that has its origin in the Great Mother archetype. As is demonstrated, each representation of the supernatural woman modifies the manner in which the feminine influences the patriarchal order.