Comparative outcomes of two instructional models for students with learning disabilities: inclusion with co‐teaching and solo‐taught special education

We compared two instructional models (co‐teaching inclusion and solo‐taught special education) for students with learning disabilities (LD) with regard to their effect on academic achievement and class attendance. Twelve inclusive classes (experimental group) and 13 special education classes (control group) participated in the study. In grade 1, there were eight inclusive classes and nine special education classes with a total of 353 students (195 without disabilities, 58 with LD in inclusion and 100 with LD in special education classes). The data were collected from academic tests. Although our results revealed no significant difference between the two models in terms of target population, objectives and assigned resources, significant differences were observed in the effects on student outcomes in reading/writing and on attendance, as the inclusion model was shown to be globally more effective compared with the special education setting.     

Europe Versus Emerging Countries Within FIFA: Using Inflation as a Conflict Regulation Mechanism

Abstract

As is the case within many international organizations, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is beset by internal tensions between the North, those nations which have historically held most power, and the South, mainly African and Asian countries, which look forward to a more balanced functioning. The numerous conflicts which arise in the governing body of association football usually takes the form of an opposition between regional confederations. The purpose of this article is to show that the regulation of these disputes may be considered as inflationist. The technique of playing on nominal factors such as the number of places in the executive committee or the number of countries participating the world cup can lead to concessions on real power sharing. This tactic is therefore used in FIFA when feasible.     

Retention of prose following testing with different types of tests

Taking a test on a passage one has just studied is known to enhance later retention of the passing contents. This study examined the effects of three types of initial test on later retention: a short-answer test, a multiple-choice test, and a full free-recall test. Questions on the first two of these tests covered only half of the passage contents. Later retention was compared for both initially tested content and un-tested content with that of a control group not initially tested on the passage at all. The subjects were 57 secondary school students who studied a brief history text before taking one of the initial tests. All were given retention tests 2 weeks later. The classical testing effect (enhanced retention due to initial testing) was shown to be influenced by the type of initial test used. Thus, a testing effect was evident in the case of the initial short-answer test, but not in the case of either of the other two tests. A depth-of-processing view is advanced in interpreting this finding. The testing effect was found not to generalize to untested content and in one condition (the initial multiple-choice test), retention of untested content was depressed.     

Biomedical innovation at the laboratory, clinical and commercial interface: A new method for mapping research projects, publications and patents in the field of microarrays

Using the example of microarrays, one of the constitutive technologies of post-genomic biomedicine, this paper introduces a method for analyzing publications, patents and research grants as proxies for “triple-helix interfaces” between university, industry and government activities. Our method creates bridges that allow one to move seamlessly between publication, patent and research project databases that use different fields and formats, and contain different information. These links do not require pre-defined categories in order to search for correspondences between sub-topics or research areas in the three databases. Finally, our results are not restricted to quantitative information but, rather, allow one to carry out qualitative investigations of the content of research activities. Our approach draws on a combination of text-mining and network analysis/mapping software packages.     

Hybrid query expansion model for text and microblog information retrieval

Query expansion (QE) is an important process in information retrieval applications that improves the user query and helps in retrieving relevant results. In this paper, we introduce a hybrid query expansion model (HQE) that investigates how external resources can be combined to association rules mining and used to enhance expansion terms generation and selection. The HQE model can be processed in different configurations, starting from methods based on association rules and combining it with external knowledge. The HQE model handles the two main phases of a QE process, namely: the candidate terms generation phase and the selection phase. We propose for the first phase, statistical, semantic and conceptual methods to generate new related terms for a given query. For the second phase, we introduce a similarity measure, ESAC, based on the Explicit Semantic Analysis that computes the relatedness between a query and the set of candidate terms. The performance of the proposed HQE model is evaluated within two experimental validations. The first one addresses the tweet search task proposed by TREC Microblog Track 2011 and an ad-hoc IR task related to the hard topics of the TREC Robust 2004. The second experimental validation concerns the tweet contextualization task organized by INEX 2014. Global results highlighted the effectiveness of our HQE model and of association rules mining for QE combined with external resources.     

Competence-Based Vocational Education and Training (VET): the Cases of England and France in a European Perspective

This paper examines the notion of ‘competence’ in the VET systems of France and England. While both countries have developed ‘competence-based’ approaches, underlying the similar terminology are distinct meanings, rooted in the countries’ institutional structures and labour processes. A key distinction is identified between a knowledge-based model in France and a skills-based model in England. Competence in the French sense is multi-dimensional and relies on the integration of practical and theoretical knowledge, as well as personal and social qualities within a broadly defined occupational field. By contrast, in England, competence refers to the performance of fragmented and narrowly defined tasks, with minimal underpinning knowledge. Thus, whereas ‘competence’ in the English VET system usually denotes functional employability for what may be relatively low-skilled employment, in France, it encapsulates the multi-dimensional development of the individual as a citizen as well as an employee.

Representing the Quantum Object Through Fiction in Teaching

Our work extends a previous study of epistemological presuppositions in teaching quantum physics in upper scientific secondary school in France. Here, the problematic reference of quantum theory’s concepts is treated at the ontological level (the counterintuitive nature of quantum objects). We consider the approach of using narratives describing possible alternative worlds to address the issue. These possible worlds are based on the counterfactual logic developed in the work of D. Lewis. We will show that the narratives written by G. Gamow describe such possible worlds. Some parts of these narratives are found in textbooks in France. These worlds are governed by laws similar to but importantly different from those in our real world. They allow us to materialize properties inaccessible to everyday experience. In this sense, these fiction stories make ontological propositions concerning the nature and structure of the fundamental elements of our physical universe.     

Cepiah: a method for the design and evaluation of pedagogical hypermedia

CEPIAH is a method and a proposal for a Web‐based system to be used to assist teachers in designing multimedia documents and in evaluating their prototypes. The proposed tool integrates two modules: one for the Evaluation of Multimedia Pedagogical and Interactive software (EMPI), and the other, a method for designing pedagogical hypermedia (SP/UL/FC). The two modules are presented along with applications of distance teaching (and distance learning) and with comments about the first results of this experiment. A short presentation of a third module serves as a conclusion.     

L'inférence figurale: Un pas de raisonnement discursivo-graphique

This article aims at legitimating the use of the graphic registers in the written expression of mathematical reasoning. More than the defence of this legitimacy, the article shows also the risks of its use: the problems of communication which it causes as well as the difficulties, for the teachers, to evaluate the reasoning of the pupils when they integrate these registers into their solutions, and for the pupils, to understand the mathematical texts which use these registers in their discursive expansions differently than optional illustration. With the concept of graphic expansion and figural inference, the article claims to supplement the inferences in Raymond Duval's discursive plans whilst respecting the reasoning functional definition. Having considered the cognitive and semiotic aspects in the definition of figure, the article shows the use of drawings in the reasoning structure of a pupil at secondary level. Figural inference born from this study is examined then defined in terms of function, structure and quality. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.