Correction to: The Connection Between the Body and the Environment: a Changing View

Science & Education - A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-021-00195-1     

一个外国人给温总理的礼物——实时内核

在新中国成立60年之际,我得知了自己因自由软件／开源软件的成果获得2009年度中国政府“友谊奖”的喜讯。这不仅是一个重大的新闻,同时也为我提出了—个问题“我们怎样向他们解释我们现在到底在做什么呢？”有谁了解自由软件／开源软件呢？     

Towards a Pedagogy of Short Story Writing

The article reports on a small‐scale short story writing project. It details the development of the project and shares the emerging findings. The aim of the project was to enhance the quality of students' writing while developing teachers' practice in the teaching of short story writing. The project team comprised the author and four secondary teachers of English. The approach to story writing outlined here was influenced by the example of gaming, where players immerse themselves in a secondary world, confront situations which demand problem‐solving skills, progress through a number of stages, and find satisfaction in completing the game. The project explored the link between talking and thinking and the value given to putting forward tentative ideas, raising questions and solving problems in a collective manner, in a whole‐class teaching situation. The teachers used guided classroom talk to explore each stage in the composition of a story. They challenged students into better ways of thinking or more elaborate forms of explanation. The teachers asked ‘what if’ questions to open up possibilities for the young writers. The teachers also had to judge when best to seize the moment and move the students towards writing. A key issue for the project was to explore the extent to which the structured approach helped to liberate the imagination of the students and improve the quality of their writing.     

Relationship between adverse early experiences,stressors, psychosocial resources and wellbeing

The study examined a diathesis stress model of the relationship between adverse child experiences (ACEs), stressors and psychosocial resources to explore their relationship with wellbeing. A cross sectional study was conducted across two mental health and addiction treatment centers. 176 individuals were interviewed using a demographics form, SCID-DSM-IV(First, Spitzer, Gibbon, &Williams, 2002), Child Trauma Questionnaire (Bernstein & Fink, 1998), NEO-Five Factor Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992), Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (Petrides, 2009), The Coping, Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS) (Endler & Parker, 1990), Recent Life Events Questionnaire (Department of Health, 1985) and perceived social support from family, friends and religion. Multiple, regressions and correlations were used to analyze the data. All early experiences, except physical, abuse and death of a parent in childhood, were significantly correlated with increased number of, stressors and lower wellbeing scores. This is possibly because of sample specific issues. Number of stressors partially mediated the relationship between ACEs and wellbeing. Increased number of ACEs was related to higher neuroticism and emotion-focused coping and lower conscientiousness, agreeableness, trait emotional intelligence and task coping scores. These resources were significantly related to increased stressors and lower wellbeing. Distraction and emotion coping significantly moderated the relationship between number of stressors and wellbeing. These findings support the diathesis stress model and indicate that there are significant relationships between ACEs, psychosocial, resources, stressors and wellbeing. Recommendations to improve wellbeing are discussed.     

Bringing in Bourdieu's theory of social capital: renewing learning partnership approaches to social inclusion

Abstract

This article considers the concept of ‘team’ in a second‐level school setting, in the context of the priority given to teams in the implementation and co‐ordination of a variety of programmes (The Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme; the Leaving Certificate Applied; The Transition Year Programme and the Junior Certificate School Programme) in post‐primary schools. Having proposed a definition of ‘team’, which speaks to the moral purpose of education, the article identifies the competition for appointment to posts of responsibility leading to the co‐ordination of such programmes as a factor which, potentially, works against the creation of successful teams. The creation of co‐ordination posts has the potential to redistribute power and influence in schools, and create impediments to the realisation of a team culture based upon respect, autonomy and equality. For this reason, consideration needs to be given to the separation of team formation and the competition between individuals for career advancement and promotion.     

Cytokine responses to resistance training in people with multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Exercise for individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) has been shown to improve cardiovascular function, increase strength and endurance, and reduce fatigue. The impact of exercise on immune function in the disease, however, remains mostly unexplored. Ten female MS patients participated in an 8 week programme of twice-weekly progressive resistance training, with pre- and post-training assessment of serum concentrations of cytokines IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, CRP, TNF-α and IFN-γ. After training, IL-4, IL-10, CRP and IFN-γ showed statistically reduced resting concentrations in blood, while TNF-α showed non-significant reductions and IL-2 and IL-6 remained unchanged. These results suggest that progressive resistance training may have an impact on cytokine concentrations in individuals with MS and should be confirmed in studies with stronger statistical power. The impact of these changes on overall immune function in MS and on disease status and prognosis remains to be determined.     

Collaborative Interactions at the Microcomputer Keyboard

Abstract Two studies are reported, both concerned with microcomputer use in the context of collaborative groups. The first study, conducted with eight year‐olds, examines whether the opportunity to practise a problem solving task in pairs produces better subsequent individual performance on the task than does individual practice. Evidence was found for such peer‐facilitation only when children were constrained to collaborate by the imposition of a ‘dual key’ entry requirement. The second study, conducted with 11‐year‐olds, compares the functioning of two types of group over a series of sessions during which the children were introduced to database software. Groups formed on the basis of nominations of preferred working partners were found to demand less teacher intervention and to make fewer minor errors than groups formed on the basis of arbitrary allocation. The possibilities offered by the microcomputer in the classroom for experimentally rigorous but ecologically valid research are discussed.     

Making the transition to post-secondary education: opportunities and challenges experienced by students with ASD in the Republic of Ireland

Abstract

Internationally there are increasing numbers of young people on the ASD spectrum attending higher education. Early transition planning is essential and students with ASD often require support to articulate their post-school educational goals and actively participate in transition planning meetings. Services within higher education are primarily designed to provide academic supports however, non-academic supports may be an even more crucial factor in enabling successful transitions for young people on the ASD spectrum who often experience heightened anxiety within an unfamiliar environment. Within this paper, the results of a small-scale exploratory study of the transition experiences of six young people on the ASD spectrum to post-secondary education will be shared. There was limited evidence that transition planning had been initiated as a formal process for the six students. Accessing support in higher education proved to be a complex process for some students who required sustained input from parents to ensure that they would utilise the supports available. Encouraging the development of self-determination skills, a key predictor of success in higher education, needs to begin in secondary school. It is anticipated insights from this study can contribute to the development of an embedded infrastructure to support effective transitions for students with ASD to post-secondary education.