Interest in an expository text: How does it flow from reading to writing?

This study investigated the flow of interest in a reading-to-write activity. It was hypothesized that (a) different contents in a text would stimulate different types of interest and (b) different writing tasks would impact differently students’ use of interesting text segments. Participants were 247 11th- and 12th-grade students, who were divided into 6 groups according to a 2 (interesting vs. uninteresting topic) × 3 (type of writing task) design. While reading, students rated novelty, curiosity, impressiveness, importance, and willingness to reflect on each text segment. Participants were then assigned to one of three writing tasks, namely argumentation, text designing, and composition. Results showed that concepts were regarded as important, events/activities as impressive, and evaluations as most worthy of reflection. Topic interest was explicitly expressed mainly in the argumentation condition, where increased topic interest scores after reading and writing were also found.     

Benefits of practicing 4 = 2 + 2: nontraditional problem formats facilitate children's understanding of mathematical equivalence

This study examined whether practice with arithmetic problems presented in a nontraditional problem format improves understanding of mathematical equivalence. Children (M age = 8;0; N = 90) were randomly assigned to practice addition in one of three conditions: (a) traditional, in which problems were presented in the traditional "operations on left side" format (e.g., 9 + 8 = 17); (b) nontraditional, in which problems were presented in a nontraditional format (e.g., 17 = 9 + 8); or (c) no extra practice. Children developed a better understanding of mathematical equivalence after receiving nontraditional practice than after receiving traditional practice or no extra practice. Results suggest that minor differences in early input can yield substantial differences in children's understanding of fundamental concepts.     

Reading information about a scientific phenomenon on webpages varying for reliability: an eye-movement analysis

Students search the Web frequently for many purposes, one of which is to search information for academic assignments. Given the huge amount of easily accessible online information, they are required to develop new reading skills and become more able to effectively evaluate the reliability of web sources. This study investigates the distribution of their visual attention while reading webpages using eye-tracking methodology. The aim was to examine whether information received differential attention depending on the reliability of the source and whether the individual characteristics of topic-specific prior knowledge and epistemic beliefs moderated their visual behavior during reading. Factual knowledge after reading was also examined. Forty-nine university students read four webpages providing verbal and graphical information about the universal validity of the central dogma of molecular biology, which varied for reliability. Indices of first-pass and second-pass reading or inspection were used to trace the processing of information within each page. Findings revealed that readers made an implicit source evaluation as they spent a longer time inspecting the pictures about the more and less familiar information within the most reliable source during the immediate, more automatic, processing. In addition, topic-specific epistemic beliefs moderated this processing as readers with more availing convictions about knowledge attended more the information provided in pages that required more discernment. Moreover, readers increased their factual knowledge of the topic after reading. Educational implications are outlined.     

Effect of template shape on metal nanoimprinting: a dislocation dynamics study

Dislocation dynamics simulations are performed to investigate the effect of template shape on the nanoimprinting of metal layers. To this end, metal thin films are imprinted by a rigid template made of an array of equispaced indenters of various shapes, i.e., rectangular, wedge, and circular. The geometry of the indenters is chosen such that the contact area is approximately the same at the final imprinting depth. Results show that, for all template shapes, the final patterns strongly depend on the dislocation activity, and that each imprint differs from the neighboring ones. Large material pile ups appear between the imprints, such that polishing of the metal layer is suggested for application of the patterns in electronics. Rectangular indenters require the lowest imprinting force and achieve the deepest retained imprints.     

Aligning digital and social inclusion: A study of disadvantaged students and computer access

In this paper we discuss the notion of the digital divide and link it with recent policy designed to promote social inclusion in a project that addressed both issues. Families in low socio economic areas of Australia were given computers and Internet access as part of a project that had as its primary aim to support the participation of disadvantaged families in digital activities at home and in schools. The authors collected data over a period of 3 years that included, pre and post surveys with parents and students, interviews with program facilitators, and focus groups with parents. This paper focuses on selected themes that emerged from the interview and focus group data with the parents and explores the ways in which they perceived having the computer had impacted on their lives and those of their school aged children. This data (surveys, interviews and focus groups) reveals that all family members felt that the ownership of a computer enabled them to feel more confident about their active participation in everyday educational, social and community activities. Parents, teachers and students also reported that owning a computer was important to their lives yet they were not naïve to the fact that they still had a lot to learn in terms of using all the options available to them on the computer. Students noted the increased ease with which they could complete school work and communicate with friends in online contexts and outlined some of the ways in which they used the computer for leisure activities. Parents highlighted the increase in their own digital skill levels and described the ways in which their lives had benefitted from having a computer in the home. Problems associated with connectivity at the beginning of the project, the quality of the machines and inadequate initial training were listed as drawbacks to greater participation. The project represents one attempt to address the digital divide and illustrates how going beyond the dichotomy of a ‘haves’ v ‘have nots’ view of the digital divide is necessary if we want to promote social inclusion.     

Social Outcomes Associated With Media Viewing Habits of Low-Income Preschool Children

Research Findings: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between preschool children's social outcomes in the classroom (including hyperactivity, aggression, and social skills) and their media viewing habits (including the amount of television they watch and whether they watch videos/movies that are rated as inappropriate for young children). The participants were 92 low-income pre-kindergarten-age children for whom we obtained parent reports of media viewing habits and teacher reports of classroom behavior. The results suggested that viewing of inappropriate content was associated with higher hyperactivity and aggression scores and a lower social skills rating, whereas the amount of viewing was not related to these classroom outcomes. Policy: There has been a great deal of focus on how both the amount and content of television viewed affects social development in middle and later childhood. These studies have helped influence the development of guidelines for parents of young children to limit media viewing. The findings from the present study suggest that school personnel and others should monitor the content of what preschoolers are watching and should educate parents about the potential impact of media viewing on children's classroom behavior.     

Conservation of stained glass windows with protective glazing: Main results from the European VIDRIO research programme

The methodology of protecting the European stained glass windows against environmental risk (e.g. meteorological factors, air pollution, microorganisms) by means of an external glazing is not new. In spite of many scientific studies carried out in the last 20 years, some questions were still up for discussion. The European VIDRIO (2002–2005) project gave an answer to these questions. The research carried out by the different project partners established a new multidisciplinary approach aimed at evaluating the efficiency of the protective glazing systems and their effects on stained glass windows conservation, and finally at assessing the most appropriate strategy to preserve stained glass windows. Scientific results showed that the so-called isothermal glazing (i.e. ventilation by the air coming from the inside of the building) protected efficiently the ancient stained glass window from environmental attack (i.e. rain, pollutants, condensation, thermal shocks) with very limited secondary effects. The scientific research highlighted that its efficiency was strongly related to the technical design of the protective system. In particular, the ventilation and the size of the interspace had to be carefully considered. The research developed within the VIDRIO project was turned into general recommendations to the owners and practitioners on the best practice for the stained glass windows future conservation.     

“All for One and One for All?” - Knowledge broker roles in managing tensions of internal coopetition: The Ubisoft case

Coopetition, i.e., cooperation between competing actors, has become a pervasive strategy for innovative firms. The primary focus of studies investigating coopetition centers on inter-firm relationships, highlighting the benefits, limits and configurational patterns of cooperative relationships between competing firms. Only a small, emerging group of studies seeks to extend the concept to the intra-firm level, stressing the existence and effects of competition and cooperation between units that are part of the same organization. This paper contributes to this latter group by investigating the effects of internal coopetition on knowledge and innovation sharing and highlighting the fundamental role of knowledge brokers in managing the resulting tensions. Based on a qualitative case study of the video game publisher Ubisoft, we stress how the tensions raised by internal coopetitive settings limit knowledge sharing between units, and we analyze the mechanisms through which the knowledge broker helps to overcome these limits. We identify three main functions of this knowledge broker that allow the promotion of knowledge and innovation transfer to occur between coopeting units: (1) protecting the unit’s competitive advantage by introducing a lagging principle in the transfer process, (2) reducing sharing costs by standardizing innovative solutions, and (3) enhancing awareness of and trust in innovative solutions by centralizing knowledge diffusion.     

Using Number Lines to Solve Math Word Problems: A Strategy for Students with Learning Disabilities

Students with learning disabilities (LD) consistently struggle with word problem solving in mathematics classes. This difficulty has made curricular, state, and national tests particularly stressful, as word problem solving has become a predominant feature of such student performance assessments. Research suggests that students with LD perform poorly on word problem‐solving items due primarily to deficits in problem representation. Therefore, it is imperative that teachers provide these students with supplemental problem‐solving instruction that specifically targets the development of representational strategies. This article describes how one representational strategy, using number lines, can be used to model word problems as part of a comprehensive problem‐solving intervention to improve the conceptual understanding of math word problems and, subsequently, the problem‐solving performance of students with LD.