Voices from Spanish students with disabilities: willpower and effort to survive university

This article analyses the university experiences of 44 students with disabilities. The voices of Spanish students describe the reasons that lead them to choose a given university degree, their transition in the university, the perception they have of themselves as students and how they evaluate their academic results. This study was done with the biographical-narrative methodology using several different data collection techniques, such as narrative interviews, lifelines and photographs. Data analysis was based on an inductive coding system. The results of this study have enabled us to conclude that most of the students chose their degree course because they had a vocation for it, although their disability also influenced their decision. Some students had such a hard time during their first year that they had to change their course of studies. They thought they had to make a stronger effort than the rest of their fellow students, defined themselves as fighters and survivors, and valued this willpower as their main personal asset, above the outcome achieved.     

Internationalisation and standardisation of European Environmental Assessment. Relevance to India

This paper discusses the rationale underlying ‘PENTA’, an EU funded Erasmus Mundus project. In doing so, it explores the challenges of internationalising and standardising European environmental assessment (EA) practice and education to a third country audience, looking at India as a case study. It is argued that the EU EA Directives are influencing the development of EA systems internationally, leading to a standardisation of the way in which EA is practiced. The so‐called Bologna process is especially playing a crucial role in leading to the standardisation of European higher education and the EU's marketing initiatives are generating effects of internationalisation. Within this context, it is argued that an internationalised and standardised approach to EA education could improve the effectiveness of EA practice in both the developing and developed nations, and ultimately help address the environmental challenges that the world is facing today. However, harmonisation and standardisation challenges must be taken into account at an international and national level, as an internationalised EA curriculum such as that proposed by PENTA must nevertheless be relevant to different policy planning and cultural contexts.     

Do Italian dyslexic children use the lexical reading route efficiently? An orthographic judgment task

The study uses an orthographic judgment task to evaluate the efficiency of the lexical reading route in Italian dyslexic children. It has been suggested that Italian dyslexic children rely prevalently on the sub-word-level routine for reading. However, it is not easy to test the lexical reading route in Italian directly because of the lack of critical items (irregular words), so visual lexical decision tasks and the comprehension/detection of pseudo-homophones are often used. While the former may also be solved on the basis of visual familiarity or phonological re-codification, the latter also involves conceptual and syntactic skills. Eleven dyslexic children participated in the study, performing an orthographic judgment task on stimuli with two phonologically plausible spellings, of which only one was orthographically correct. Their performance was compared with those of 11 proficient readers. The dyslexic children showed selective impairment in detecting phonologically plausible errors, but their performance was normal when required to judge errors inserted in words with regular orthography, i.e., devoid of orthographic ambiguity, and for which a sub-word-level reading procedure is sufficient to guarantee a good performance. Overall, data are coherent with a diagnosis of surface dyslexia, with most children showing defective orthographic lexical processing.

Adaptive SMC based on the dynamic containment of the sliding variable

Conventional Sliding Mode Controllers (SMCs) exhibit a robust performance against matched bounded uncertainties and disturbances by containing them under a fixed controller’s effort. Consequently, the controller is commonly found excessive, leading to chattering and straining the actuator. As a solution, the variable-gain SMCs adapt to the instantaneous system requirements, thus attenuating the aforesaid effects and keeping the SMC’s benefits. However, the reported adaptive laws underlying such behavior commonly require arbitrary design considerations and do not consider practical implementation. Unlikely, in this work, a hysteresis-based adaptability law to drive the sliding variable to a boundary layer around zero is proposed. The sliding boundary—hysteresis’ width—will consistently “bounce” over the sliding variable, trying to shrink against it while preserving the sliding mode. This behavior finds its steady-state once the sliding variable and the sliding boundary’s dynamics are synchronized, with no need of subjective or arbitrary adjustments. The close-loop tuning can be derived from the system’s parameters alone, and its steady-state performance can be quantitatively predicted. Furthermore, a method to adjust the sliding surface parameters according to the system’s desired behavior is provided, all in a closed, analytical way. Finally, the physical actuator limits are taken into account and never exceeded, and the discrete nature of the devices normally used for SMC implementation is incorporated throughout. Two examples are studied to portray the proposal’s advantages.     

Frequency of examinations and student achievement in a randomized experiment

We carry out a randomized experiment involving undergraduate students enrolled at an Italian University attending two introductory economics classes to evaluate the impact on achievement of examination frequency and interim feedback provision. Students in the treated group were allowed to undertake an intermediate exam and were informed about the results obtained, while students in the control group could only take the final exam. The results show that students undertaking the intermediate exam perform better both in terms of the probability of passing the exams and of grades obtained. High ability students appear to benefit more from the treatment. The experiment design allows us to disentangle “workload division or commitment” effects from “feedback provision” effects. We find that the estimated treatment impact is due exclusively to the first effect, while the feedback provision has no positive effect on performance. Finally, the better performance of treated students in targeted examinations seems not to be obtained at the expenses of results earned in other examinations.     

Teleconferencing tools in enterprises—constraints and opportunities

This paper presents an experimental approach for devising training measures to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) avail themselves of the new opportunities offered by teleconferencing tools.
The approach includes 1) an analysis of training needs, carried out by means of interviews, so as to propose methodologies and tools that will encourage SMEs to create the conditions under which they can make the most of the opportunities that tele-cooperation offers for raising productivity; and 2) a controlled experiment that seeks to analyse the conditions under which the experimental use of teleconferencing systems may become a valuable vehicle for helping SMEs to construct active awareness about the potential of these tools.     

Knowledge based systems for teaching and learning maths

The main task of an educational system is to generate instructional situations which induce students to learn knowledge and problem solving abilities as applied to a cognitive domain.
To this end, an instructional dialogue must be seen as a process aimed at making student and teacher learn from each other: the student has to learn the subject matter from the teacher, while the teacher has in turn to learn from the student how to regulate instructional interaction. The process relies on different kinds of expert knowledge: experience of the domain, about the actual student, and of teaching methods and objectives. This means that an instructional dialogue cannot be realised without an explicit representation of all the kinds of knowledge involved.
Research has established that Knowledge Based Educational Systems (KBESs) can be the keystone in building effective learning tools, but because of the difficulty in realising a system of this kind, most existing systems are prototypes and are intended only as workbenches for the computational analysis of educational processes.
This paper analyses the main problems which underlie the realisation of such systems, with reference to research into knowledge based systems intended for use with teaching/learning mathematics.     

Le conte Africain: L'univers de l'oralite dans le systeme de l'enseignement

Résumé Dans les interprétations les plus courantes, les contes de la tradition orale africaine constituent une riche source de thèmes qui se prêtent à l'éducation morale. Les contes axés sur les rapports entre frère et soeur, par exemple, développent le thème de l'équilibre que chaque individu doit établir entre les relations consanguines et les relations d'alliance. L'auteur explore d'autres clés de lecture et suggère comment ces textes peuvent être mis à profit dans le cadre d'un programme pédagogique multicultural, en raison de leur richesse aux niveaux linguistique, narratif et thématique.

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According to current interpretations, the stories preserved in the African oral tradition constitute a rich source of themes for the purposes of moral education. The stories focusing on the relationship between brother and sister, for example, develop the theme of how each individual must find a balance between consanguineous and marital relationships. The author also explores other keys to the interpretation of these stories and argues that they could profitably be used within the framework of a multicultural educational programme, on account of their linguistic, narrative and thematic richness.

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Zusammenfassung In den gängigsten Interpretationen bilden die Geschichten der afrikanischen oralen Tradition eine reiche Quelle an Themen für eine moralische Bildung. Die auf den Beziehungen zwischen Bruder und Schwester basierenden Geschichten zum Beispiel, entwickeln das Thema der Ausgewogenheit, die jedes Individuum innerhalb seiner eigenen Familie und seiner angeheirateten Familie erreichen muß. Die Autorin untersucht weitere Schlüsselfaktoren zum Verständnis dieser Geschichten und führt aus, daß solche Geschichten aufgrund ihres linguistischen, erzählerischen und thematischen Reichtums nutzbringend im Rahmen multikultureller Bildungsprogramme angewandt werden können.

     

Multi-segment trunk models used to investigate the crunch factor in golf and their relationship with selected swing and launch parameters

The use of multi-segment trunk models to investigate the crunch factor in golf may be warranted. The first aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between the trunk and lower trunk for crunch factor-related variables (trunk lateral bending and trunk axial rotation velocity). The second aim was to determine the level of association between crunch factor-related variables with swing (clubhead velocity) and launch (launch angle). Thirty-five high-level amateur male golfers (Mean ± SD: age = 23.8 ± 2.1 years, registered golfing handicap = 5 ± 1.9) without low back pain had kinematic data collected from their golf swing using a 10-camera motion analysis system operating at 500 Hz. Clubhead velocity and launch angle were collected using a validated real-time launch monitor. A positive relationship was found between the trunk and lower trunk for axial rotation velocity (r(35) = .47, P < .01). Cross-correlation analysis revealed a strong coupling relationship for the crunch factor (R² = 0.98) between the trunk and lower trunk. Using generalised linear model analysis, it was evident that faster clubhead velocities and lower launch angles of the golf ball were related to reduced lateral bending of the lower trunk.