Mathematical experiences and parental involvement of parents who are and who are not mathematicians

Previous studies suggest that parental involvement in children’s mathematics education is more established for parents who feel competent in mathematics. This qualitative study aimed to gain an in-depth insight into the experiences of parental involvement of two different groups of parents: those who are mathematicians and those who are not. Data were collected through narrative interviews with parents. A thematic analysis of the data revealed findings within two distinct but interrelated themes: parents’ mathematical experiences and parental involvement in their children’s mathematics education. The findings indicated that the two groups of participating parents differ in their own experiences of mathematics as well as in their parental involvement. The main difference in parental involvement was indicated in the area of children’s school mathematics, since mathematician parents, compared to non-mathematician parents, according to their narratives almost never get involved in their children’s mathematics homework. In addition, the data revealed a large gap in the coverage and content of the mathematical activities that parents in both groups provided to their children.     

Digital resource developments for mathematics education involving homework across formal,non-formal and informal settings

The aim of this paper is to explore further an under-developed area – how drivers of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment conceptions and practices shape the creation and uses of technologically based resources to support mathematics learning across informal, non-formal and formal learning environments. The paper considers: the importance of mathematics learning in informal and non-formal as well as formal settings; how curriculum focuses on pedagogy supporting these needs, contrasting this focus in England and Serbia; and in these contexts, the roles of homework, the potential of technologies and the roles of the teacher. Technological developments to support mathematics learning for 11- to 14-year-old pupils in the two countries are explored and contrasted, and ways that recent developments inform our understandings of formal, informal and non-formal learning through learning activities, learning support and settings are modelled. The conception of ‘extended pedagogies’ is introduced; implications are outlined.     

Dialogical PISA: correct answers are all alike,every incorrect answer is incorrect in its own way

Why do students give incorrect answers in PISA? What are the reasons for giving incorrect answers? Do all incorrect answers reflect only the lack of competence or might even a competent child make a mistake? The aim of this article is to contribute to a better understanding of these issues. In the current investigation, we selected six students who responded incorrectly to one PISA question in mathematics or science when they solved it individually. Then, we analyzed their understanding of the PISA task and their reasoning about it through a dialogical problem solving in triads to identify why they made an incorrect answer. Moreover, we tried to determine how the shared peer interaction might change the understanding and reasoning of the child and enable her/him to solve the task. The results of this study illustrate the differences between incorrect answers reflecting lack of competence and those incorrect answers, which appear for some other reasons. Based on the dialogical problem solving approach, we analyzed these two types of incorrect answers and the reasoning trajectories behind them.     

Inclusive education in the Slovak Republic two decades after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia

The fall of Communist regime in 1989 and the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993 significantly affected the educational system of today's Slovakia. As a sovereign state, Slovakia has ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities obliging its signatories to practise ‘inclusive education’. This article explores the current educational policies of the Slovak Republic in light of this obligation. Using the official statistical data the article argues that the current state educational policies have not succeeded in meeting the objective of practising inclusive education, as the proportion of students educated in segregated special educational provisions has been consistently rising over the last decade. This article attempts to identify particular aspects of the current educational policies which might have contributed to this phenomenon.     

The connotations of botho philosophy and its potential contribution towards environmental conservation: the case of Tlokoeng community in Lesotho

This paper explores innovative environmental education strategies to conserve biodiversity in a rural-based context, in Lesotho. A case study approach was employed to investigate the community’s conception of botho philosophy and how it might promote nature conservation. Focus Group Interviews were conducted with 105 participants. The responses were analyzed to determine the community’s emerging definition and conception of botho. The findings indicate features of botho that parallel the ones that are found in the literature. In addition, botho was described metaphysically as a holistic spiritualised worldview that is concerned with a harmonious co-existence with others, nature and the Creator and empirically, in terms of moral attributes that foster co-existence within the socio-economic and natural systems. It is illustrated that botho can contribute towards environmental education discourse and nature conservation and thus diversify the pre-dominantly Euro-centric knowledge landscape in Lesotho.     

Diversity and diversification in ECEC practices: Considerations from Serbia

Focusing on diversity represents a step forward towards a complex concept of quality in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) system. The diversification of programmes and services takes shape within this framework, bringing a shift from purely technical issues towards a joint construction of the community's culture. Its complexity is visible in its conceptualisation, which combines theoretical and ideological key points concerning childhood, learning, development, well-being and the role of adults and of public policy. This article presents the process and results of a project that included a study to better understand the perspective of professionals, parents and representatives of local policymakers on the meanings given to the diversification of programmes in the ECEC system in Serbia. The method was participatory, with focus groups supporting participants in expressing their opinions and in co-creating meanings and knowledge, linking research to group reflection. The aim was to identify practices related to these meanings in a coherent way, focusing on the concepts of well-being and respect for diversity. The main conclusion is a strong need for a multilevel network to: (a) support policymakers and professionals in creating socially-mixed contexts, (b) support parents by making them feel that they are partners in the educational system, and (c) invest in continuous professional development (CPD) programmes for professionals to train them and encourage them to co-reflect on practice.     

Validation of a Tennis Rating Score to evaluate the technical level of children tennis players

The purpose of this study was to create a valid and reliable assessment scale for the evaluation of three basic tennis strokes (forehand, backhand, serve) for 6–12-year-old tennis players, named the Tennis Rating Score for Children (TRSC). Altogether 60 players (21: forehand, 22: backhand, 17: serve) were video recorded (30 frames per second) while performing three main tennis strokes and later evaluated using the TRSC by five tennis trainers at Day 1 and Day 7. Agreement between days and raters was examined using the intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). A Pearson’s correlation was calculated to determine convergent validity (score related to participant’s level of experience). The reliability between raters was very high for all three main strokes (ICC_FOREHAND = 0.874; ICC_BACKHAND = 0.877; ICC_SERVE = 0.877). The intra-rater test-retests ICCs were also very high (ICC_FOREHAND = 0.885; ICC_BACKHAND = 0.891; ICC_SERVE = 0.887). A large (r_FOREHAND = 0.660) and very large (r_BACKHAND = 0.730; r_SERVE = 0.772) Pearson’s correlations were found between all the ratings and the level of experience. The TRSC is shown to be highly reliable and valid when assessing technical skills in novice players, when compared to actual assessment from coaching experts; this tool may be helpful for tennis coaches to make a more objective diagnostic of the technical level of young tennis players.     

Simulation of Bayes' rule by means of Monte Carlo method

This contribution shows a simple implementation of Monte Carlo simulation method when presenting Bayes' rule. The implementation is carried out in the environment of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets by means of a generator of random numbers. The empiric results gained by simulation serve to confirm the correctness of the chosen procedures in calculations using Bayes' formula.     

Imaginaries of Invention Management: Comparing Path Dependencies in East and West Germany

The ways in which societies and institutions institutionalize and practice invention management reflects not only how new ideas are valued, but also imaginaries about the role of science and technology for societal development. Often taking the US Bayh-Dole-Act as a model, many European states have recently implemented changes in how inventions at academic institutions are to be handled to optimize their societal impact. We analyze how these changes have been taken up—and made sense of—in regions with different pre-existing infrastructures, practices and semantics of invention management. For doing so, we build on a comparative analysis of continuities and changes in infrastructures, practices and semantics of invention management in North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW, a former Western state) and Saxony (a former GDR state) to reflect on how academic institutions have been handling inventions along transforming socio-political contexts. Building on document analysis and qualitative interviews with research managers, we discuss ongoing differences in practices of invention management and the semantic framing of the societal value of inventions in NRW and Saxony, and discuss how this can be understood before the background of their ideological, political and economic separation until reunification in 1990. Joining the conceptual perspectives of path dependencies and sociotechnical imaginaries, we argue that two critical incidents in the history of these states (the reunification in 1990 and a legal change in 2002) allowed for wide-ranging institutional alignments, but also allowed path dependencies in practices and semantics of invention management to prevail.