Semiotics as a basis for educational software design

Semiotics has recently been used to support formalisms for software design. On the other hand, every program has a certain educational potential as it exposes the user to a world of entities with which to interact. In this paper, we present a group of semiotic principles for software design and use them to show how they explain different educational possibilities. Our approach is illustrated by Theatre in the Computer: a software environment for children to experience the theatre.     

Mentors' perceptions of their roles in mentoring student teachers

Mentoring may be seen as a process that helps student teachers become professional teachers. In this context, a variety of significant roles played by mentors have been identified in the literature. This paper reports on mentors' perceptions of the most important roles selected from a given list, as revealed through questionnaire and interview data. This analysis forms part of a large‐scale evaluative project of a school–university partnership scheme initiated by the University of Hong Kong. The findings indicate overwhelming attention given to the role of ‘provider of feedback’, which stresses the provision of pragmatic advice given to student teachers according to their personal strengths and weaknesses. However, for those mentors whose perception of the most important role had changed over time, the direction of change was towards roles such as ‘counselor’, ‘equal partner’ and ‘critical friend’, which emphasize a more relational aspect of working together with student teachers to achieve professional development.     

Using Pictorial Glossaries as an Accommodation for English Learners: An Exploratory Study

In this article we explore the use of pictorial glossaries as an accommodation for English learners (ELs) with entry and emerging levels of English language proficiency. Drawing on survey responses from 98 middle school ELs and cognitive interviews with 10 of the survey participants, we examined the participants’ preferences and experiences with using accommodations and explored how some of them responded to NAEP mathematics items using pictorial glossaries. Our findings showed that the participants viewed the use of pictures, videos, and translations as useful, but they did not have a lot of experience using these types of accommodations. Also, we found that the pictorial glosses sometimes helped ELs with understanding the local meaning of words in the mathematics problems but not with the global meaning conveyed at the sentence level in the problems.     

Four trajectories of rectors in Mexican public universities

Although rectors of Mexican public universities play an important role in their institutions, we know very little about them. This article first describes the different election processes in Mexican public universities for selecting a rector. These varied processes reveal the ambiguity of the concept of “autonomy” as applied to rectors, focusing on the role and possible influence of public authorities despite the formal prohibition of such interference in the law. Second, the article presents a typology of four typical career trajectories for rectors before they are elected, analyzing their educational, academic, professional, administrative, and political backgrounds. These different paths to the position of rectors in different types of institutions have implications for public policy and university autonomy.     

Factors Influencing American Indian and Alaska Native Postsecondary Persistence: AI/AN Millennium Falcon Persistence Model

The purpose of this review of literature is to identify variables (Hart 1998), relevant to AI/AN postsecondary persistence, and to examine the relationship between findings and postsecondary persistence theories at 2 and 4-year institutions. An exhaustive review with selective citation was used to locate relevant documents. Due to the limited amount of articles found for this review, I included both qualitative and quantitative articles. The factors were organized into four emerging themes including; family support, institutional support, tribal community support and academic performance. Due to the lack of research conducted using measures important to AI/AN persistence, the understanding of factors influencing AI/AN student postsecondary persistence is still somewhat limited.     

Birth order and participation in school sports and other extracurricular activities

Argys, L.M., Rees, D.I., Averett S.L., & Witoonchart, B. (2006). Birth order and risky adolescent behavior. Economic Inquiry, 44(2), 215–233 demonstrated that a strong link exists between birth order and adolescent risky behavior. Using data on 10th graders from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, we extend the work of Argys et al. by examining the relationship between birth order and participation in school sports and other extracurricular activities. Our results suggest that having an older sibling is associated with an increased probability that males played baseball and football, were members of the school swim team, and participated in cheerleading. Female 10th graders with older siblings were less likely to engage in a variety of extracurricular activities including school band, community service, and yearbook. These results provide additional evidence that birth order is related to adolescent behavior.     

Role Balance and Depression Among College Students: The Moderating Influence of Adult Attachment Orientations

This study examined interrelationships among role balance perceptions, adult attachment orientations, and depression within an ethnically diverse, mixed‐gender sample of college students. Adult attachment orientations—and particularly attachment avoidance—significantly interacted with students' role balance levels to predict their depression scores. Implications and recommendations for college counseling centers are also discussed.