The Need for E‐Learning Strategies: Higher Education Institutions and Their Responses to a Changing Environment

Integrating e‐Learning in their educational delivery and support processes is one way of strategy formation higher education institutions can deploy to respond to their changing environment. In this article, the focus of such a strategy formation is on three strategic choices: traditional, face‐to‐face, campus‐based education (back‐to‐basics), flexible on‐campus delivery of education (stretching‐the‐mould) or anytime, anywhere education (worldcampus). Results of a quantitative study showed that higher education institutions with a worldcampus strategy differ from higher education institutions with a back‐to‐basics strategy because they have a stronger focus on ‘increasing access,’ ‘offering logistic flexibility,’ and ‘use of ICT for income generation.’ By doing so, these higher education institutions aim to respond to an environment that is becoming increasingly market‐oriented and competitive.     

Advice for sex advisors: a guide for ‘agony aunts’, relationship therapists and sex educators who want to work with the media

Education programmes for sex and relationships are greatly needed globally. One way such information can be delivered is via the media. Sex and relationship advice has long been a popular media component, but the quality, accuracy and effectiveness of such advice—particularly from the sex ‘expert’ or ‘agony aunt’—has not been adequately addressed. Given the rising cult of the ‘expert’ and ‘self‐improvement’ features within the media alongside growing sexual health problems, this paper discusses problems associated with providing media sex education and makes suggestions for effective communication of sex and relationships messages for those who wish to be media sex educators or who already offer media sex and relationships advice and seek to improve their skills.     

‘Loveable’ mammals and ‘lifeless’ plants: how children's interest in common local organisms can be enhanced through observation of nature

This study investigated which plants and animals Swiss children found most attractive and evaluated the effect of an educational programme on children's preferences for species. More than 4000 pupils (8–16 years old) from 248 classes participated in the study. Possible effects of the programme were studied with the help of questionnaires using a pretest/post‐test design with an experimental group that participated in the programme and a control group that did not. Before the start of the programme most children found decorative or garden species among plants, and pets and exotic species among animals, most attractive. However, the more wild plants and animals children noticed in their local environment and could name, the more did they appreciate these organisms. Moreover, the more additional wild plants the children noticed due to the programme, the higher was the increase in their appreciation of these species. This supports the hypothesis that children may appreciate animals other than pets and exotic species and even inconspicuous wild plants if they know them.     

Swiss Elementary School Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Forest Education

This article investigates benefits and challenges of forest education in view of 257 Swiss elementary school teachers (1st–3rd grade), by means of a written questionnaire and 15 in-depth interviews. Two thirds of the teachers carried out forest education during normal lesson hours (mean visits = eight per year). Forests were clearly considered as an educational setting, and especially suitable for the enhancement of personal and social skills. Setting rules was seen as indispensable for successful forest education and a must to communicate to “novice” teachers. Moreover, the didactic of forest education should be implemented in teacher education curricula.     

Playing with light

The authors conducted action research by developing workshops that involved teacher-participants in their own exploratory learning. The authors facilitated participants in researching of what they noticed, and wanted to understand about light and shadows by structuring the environment, and the questions that wereasked of them, in ways that integrated practices of teaching into those of researching. During the workshops, transitions evolved in how participants used materials to make light and dark effects and interacted with each other. Transactions also occurred in how the authors intervened to teach and research what participants did, and to encourage their reflective observations. It is proposed that such explorations offer new beginnings for extending understandings of physical phenomena and of the world, as made through our actions and thoughts.     

Factors impacting participation of European elite deaf athletes in sport

Abstract

This study examine 53 European elite deaf athletes for their family's hearing status, use of hearing aids, communication preference, education in integrated or segregated settings, family members' encouragement for participation in sports, coach preference (hearing or deaf), and conditions for competitive events with deaf or hearing athletes. These data were gathered through semi-structured interviews administered in the athlete's native language. Deaf athletes reported that when given the opportunity to compete with hearing athletes, it enhanced their opportunity for competition. Participating in sports with hearing athletes played an important role in the integration of deaf athletes into mainstream society. If adaptations to communication can be made in these integrated settings, the ability of deaf athletes to participate in such settings will increase.     

Accelerometry-Based Characteristics of Overall Sedentary Behavior and Sitting in Middle-Aged Adults

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to describe the accelerometry-based characteristics of overall sedentary behavior (SB) and sitting among adults under free-living conditions. Thirty-six (mean age 47.6 years) volunteers carried a waist-worn accelerometer for ≥4 days with data ≥600 min/d during 14 consecutive days. A machine learning (ML) based method was used to classify the patterns of SB and sitting from raw 3D acceleration. The participants spent most (69.3%) of their waking time in SB, and a half (52.2%) of the SB was performed in a sitting posture. Men broke their overall sedentary time less often (4.1 vs. 6.1 bouts/h), but women sat more; however, women broke their sitting time as often as men (7.6 bouts/h). This study confirms that SB and sitting can be distinguished using ML methods, and more information about SB can be achieved when overall SB and sitting are analyzed separately in free-living conditions.     

Leseleistungen deutscher Schülerinnen und Schüler im internationalen Vergleich (PISA)

Zusammenfassung Der Vergleich der Lesekompetenz 15-j?hriger Schülerinnen und Schüler steht im Mittelpunkt des ersten Zyklus der PISA-Studie (Baumert u.a. 2001). Im Rahmen dieses Artikels wird ein überblick über die zentralen Befunde des 31 Staaten umfassenden internationalen Vergleichs gegeben. Neben den Leistungsverteilungen in den L?ndern wird der Anteil von Schülerinnen und Schülern auf verschiedenen Kompetenzstufen analysiert. Der relativ hohe Anteil an schwachen Lesern in Deutschland wird zum Anlass genommen, potenzielle F?rderm?glichkeiten von Lesekompetenz zu untersuchen. Hierzu werden auf Basis eines Vorhersagemodells die Effekte interventionsnaher Schülermerkmale (Lernstrategiewissen und Interesse) bei statistischer Kontrolle der Effekte der kognitiven Grundf?higkeit sowie der Dekodierf?higkeit der Schülerinnen und Schüler spezifiziert. Der relativ hohe Effekt des Lernstrategiewissens und der ebenfalls noch nachweisbare Effekt des Leseinteresses weisen darauf hin, dass eine F?rderung im Bereich der Informationsverarbeitungskompetenz sowie der Motivation vielversprechend ist. Zus?tzliche empirische Evidenz hierfür ergibt sich aus dem Befund, dass Schüler am unteren Ende der Leistungsverteilung über eine vergleichsweise geringe Informationsverarbeitungskompetenz und-bereitschaft verfügen.

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Summary Reading Literacy of German Students in International Comparison (PISA): Results and Explanations A comparison of the reading comprehension (reading literacy) of 15-year-old students is the central focus of the first cycle of PISA (Baumert et al. 2001). This article provides an overview of the main evidence from the international comparison of 31 countries. Besides the ability distribution of the participating countries, the proportion of students at each competence level is analysed. The relatively high proportion of weak readers in Germany is taken as grounds to investigate opportunities to support reading comprehension. On the basis of a prediction model, the effects of students’ characteristics related to intervention (knowledge of learning strategies, interest) are investigated whilst statistically controlling for basic cognitive ability and the students’ ability to decode written information. The relatively strong effect of knowledge of learning strategies and the effect of interest in reading, indicate that support of information-processing ability and motivation are the most promising support strategies. Additional empirical evidence for this can be found in the fact that students at the bottom of the ability distribution also show signs of weak information-processing ability and lacking motivation.

     

The use of ICT devices by older people with a special focus on their type and respondents’ age: A Czech case study

The recent demographic trends show a rapid increase of aging population, especially in developed countries. Therefore, there is an urgent need to look for the opportunities of maintaining the quality of life of this aging population. One of the solutions seems to be the use of information and communication technology (ICT) devices, which can promote autonomy of older people by facilitating the execution of many routine activities such as shopping or communication. The purpose of this study is to explore the use of ICT devices among older people in the Czech Republic with respect to their type and respondents’ age. The methods include a questionnaire survey, as well as statistical processing of data collection. The results indicate that present seniors are becoming more digitally literate, especially in the use of mobile phones. However, the use of the technological devices then dramatically drops at the age of 75 years. In addition, the results indicate that future research should focus on the use of mobile phones, respectively smartphones, and its effectiveness on the improvement of quality of life of older generation groups.