Arts‐Based Educational Research in Museums: ‘Art for Learning Art’, an A/r/tographic Mediation

This article discusses forms of arts‐based mediation in museums that use creation as the primary tool in the learning process. We present four mediation experiences based on the arts‐based teaching methodologies promoted by the project ‘Art for Learning Art’. These experiences have been developed in four museums: the Centre Pompidou Málaga, the State Russian Museum in Málaga and the Espai d'Art Contemponeo [Center of contemporary art] in Castellón in Spain and the Modern Art Murilo Mendes Museum of Minas Gerais in Brazil. Four experiences in three cities of two countries that work in a methodology which involves participative and collaborative visitor connections with the works exhibited using arts‐based strategies. In all cases, the artistic works of the exhibitions are the conceptual basis for mediation proposals that are offered to the public in order to encourage participation. We link the aesthetic experience as the origin of the mediation process in two fundamental aspects: creation and appreciation. In the act of creative appreciation, most art education objectives are met. The actions and processes are directed by collaborative and contemporary creation strategies around two axes: museum educator‐artists in training and visitors‐artists as learners. In the four experiences that we present here, this confluence takes place. The four events have been adapted to the conditions of the place, public and art exhibitions, contributing new approaches to the model that has been promoted from the University of Granada since 2013.     

Los aspectos socioculturales del área de lengua extranjera y el programa linguapax

La enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras está experimentando un «enriquecimiento curricular» muy positivo. De considerarse como un simple instrumento vehicular de conocimientos o comunicación, las lenguas extranjeras están pasando a conectarse con el gran problema social y cultural de conocer otros pueblos, de conocer el mundo. El objetivo-medio de la globalización (con ciencias sociales principalmente pero no sólo) se convierte así en uno de los puntos fuertes de la enseñanza de otras lenguas.     

Kinetics of acoustic release of doxorubicin from stabilized and unstabilized micelles and the effect of temperature

Ultrasound is being investigated as a trigger mechanism to deliver high concentrations of chemotherapy drugs to cancerous tissues using polymeric micelles. In this paper, we examined the kinetics of acoustic release of doxorubicin using stabilized and non-stabilized micelles. Kinetic models were used to regress release and re-encapsulation time constants for three different compounds, namely non-stabilized Pluronic^® P105 micelles, P105 micelles stabilized using an interpenetrating network of N,N-diethylacrylamide and micelles formed by PEO-b-poly(NIPAAm-co-HEMA-lactate_n). Results showed that the kinetic release constant (k_r) depends on the micellar system under investigation. On the other hand, there is no statistically significant difference between re-encapsulation rate constants for stabilized and unstabilized micelles. We hypothesize that k_r depends on the degree of cross-linking or stabilization.     

¿Cómo se adquieren y usan los términos deícticos en lengua española? Un estudio longitudinal

Resumen

En el ámbito de estudio de la adquisición del lenguaje, la deixis se presenta como un tema importante. Se trata de un recurso lingüístico básico para el desarrollo de la comunicación, por medio del cual los interlocutores se ubican en el espacio y el tiempo estableciendo relaciones entre ellos y con los objetos, al mismo tiempo que se identifican en los roles conversacionales. Asimismo constituye una rica fuente de datos ya que su aprendizaje implica, a la vez, cierto nivel de desarrollo comunicativo, cognitivo y lingüístico, suponiendo un largo y difícil camino que el niño tiene que recorrer basta lograr su dominio. En el presente trabajo pretendemos estudiar la evolución de los términos deícticos en sus diferentes manifestaciones (persona, espacio, tiempo, modo y verbo) en niños españoles. Se realizó un estudio longitudinal, desde una perspectiva funcional, con dos niñas que contaban dos años al comienzo del estudio, finalizándolo cuando cumplieron tres años, y que procedían de medios ambientales diferentes. A partir del análisis de las muestras de habla espontánea de ambas niñas, recogidas en su contexto habitual, se observó el uso que éstas hacen de los términos deícticos. Además, se tuvo en cuenta la adecuación de dicha utilización al contexto comunicativo, señalando, al mismo tiempo, las implicaciones de dicho uso en la evolución y posterior conocimiento de estos términos; así como las diferencias en relación al medio de procedencia de ambos sujetos.     

Domestic coalitions in the variation of education privatization: an analysis of Chile,Argentina, and Colombia

Abstract

Education privatization is a global trend that has nonetheless followed multiple trajectories. This article addresses the question of what explains this variation by demonstrating the role that political coalitions play in the re-interpretation of global privatization ideas. A political-coalitional approach helps us analyze from a long-term perspective, the interplay between ideational, political, and economic processes that occurred at the global and domestic levels. Both accumulated benefits and negative consequences of previous reforms realign domestic coalitions that then facilitate or constrain the selection of global ideas and shape the way in which they are implemented at the country level. Based on a comparative historical analysis of three countries, Chile, Argentina, and Colombia, the article identifies three privatization trajectories: marketization, erosion of public education, and dualization of education provision. The long-term analysis of these trajectories also shows that privatization is not a linear process but a complex dynamic with consequences that may trigger unintended changes in the future.     

Communities of Caring: Developing Curriculum That Engages Latino/a Students’ Diverse Literacy Practices

This study investigates the learning and work of a community of practice that engaged in a specific inquiry around family/community literacy and the development of a culture of caring that would connect family/community/school literacies in ways that allowed their mostly Latino/a students to develop positive student identities, enhanced personal connections to their peers, and stronger experiential responses to literacy instruction.     

“Should I let them talk?”: Private speech and task performance among preschool children with and without behavior problems

Preschool and kindergarten teachers must make decisions everyday about how much to allow their children to talk out loud to themselves during various classroom activities. The present study examines the effects of children's private speech use on task performance for a group of behaviorally at-risk children and a group of control children during a speech–action coordination task. Twenty-nine behaviorally at-risk preschool children and 43 control children completed two versions of a speech–action coordination task (motor sequencing version and numeric tapping) two times, once with and once without speech instructions. Results indicated that the behaviorally at-risk children used more speech spontaneously compared to control children and performed just as well, and that both groups of children performed better when given instructions to use speech. Implications of these findings for early childhood educators’ decisions about children's private speech use in the classroom are discussed.     

Developing a community of inquiry instrument: Testing a measure of the Community of Inquiry framework using a multi-institutional sample

This article reports on the multi-institutional development and validation of an instrument that attempts to operationalize Garrison, Anderson and Archer's Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework (2000). The results of the study suggest that the instrument is a valid, reliable, and efficient measure of the dimensions of social presence and cognitive presence, thereby providing additional support for the validity of the CoI as a framework for constructing effective online learning environments. While factor analysis supported the idea of teaching presence as a construct, it also suggested that the construct consisted of two factors—one related to course design and organization and the other related to instructor behavior during the course. The article concludes with a discussion of potential implications of further refinement of the CoI measures for researchers, designers, administrators, and instructors.     

Wrist-based cut-points for moderate- and vigorous-intensity physical activity for the Actical accelerometer in adults

Wrist-based accelerometers are increasingly used to assess physical activity (PA) in population-based studies; however, cut-points to translate wrist-based accelerometer counts into PA intensity categories are still needed. The purpose of this study was to determine wrist-based cut-points for moderate- and vigorous-intensity ambulatory PA in adults for the Actical accelerometer. Healthy adults (n = 24) completed a four-phase treadmill exercise protocol (1.9, 3.0, 4.0 and 5.2 mph) while wearing an Actical accelerometer on their wrist. Metabolic equivalent of task (MET) levels were assessed by indirect calorimetry. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves were generated to determine accelerometer counts that maximised sensitivity and specificity for classification of moderate (≥3 METs) and vigorous (>6 METs) ambulatory activity. The area under the ROC curves to discriminate moderate- and vigorous-intensity ambulatory activity were 0.93 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.90–0.97; P < 0.001) and 0.96 (95% CI: 0.94–0.99; P < 0.001), respectively. The identified cut-point for moderate-intensity ambulatory activity was 1031 counts per minute, which had a corresponding sensitivity and specificity of 85.6% and 87.5%, respectively. The identified cut-point for vigorous intensity ambulatory activity was 3589 counts per minute, which had a corresponding sensitivity and specificity of 88.0% and 98.7%, respectively. This study established intensity-specific cut-points for wrist-based wear of the Actical accelerometer which are recommended for quantification of moderate- and vigorous-intensity ambulatory activity.