Analysis of the trajectories of Science graduates: applying Bourdieu and Sen

Abstract

We bring together the theories of Bourdieu and Sen in order to understand the processes that influence the study paths chosen by young people with a general degree from a science university in France. The weighting of economic and cultural capital within study options taken in secondary education and during the premier cycle (the first three years of tertiary education) helps characterise elements of students’ trajectories which either stymie or reinforce a nonetheless dominant reproduction.     

Who's in the mirror? Self-other discrimination in specular images by four- and nine-month-old infants

This research investigated the early determinants of self-other discrimination in infancy. Ninety-six 4- and 9-month-old infants were placed facing a live image either of themselves or of another person (experimenter) mimicking them. The specular image was either contingent (on-line), or contingent with a 2-s delay. After a first 1-min presentation, the video image of either the self or the other was suddenly frozen for 1 min (still-face episode). This was followed by a last minute of live presentation. From 4 months of age, infants appeared to perceive and act differentially when facing the specular image of themselves or the mimicking other. In general, infants tended to smile more, look more, and have more protracted first-look duration toward the mimicking other compared with the self. Developmentally, 9-month-olds showed markedly more social initiatives toward the mimicking other compared with the self during the still-face episode. In all, these results indicate that infants develop self-other discrimination in specular images long before mirror self-recognition, which is typically reported by the second year. Discrimination of the self from other is interpreted as a precursory ability and a perceptual foundation of later conceptual self development.     

New Insights on Picasso’s Blue Period Painting La famille Soler

The study of La Famille Soler using non-invasive imaging, molecular, structural, and elemental analysis allowed the re-examination of changes of the work. Considered as the earliest of Picasso’s versions of Le déjeuner sur l’herbe by E. Manet, evidence suggests that an underlying landscape painted by Vidal in 1903 also referred to Manet’s masterpiece. On the other hand, new results suggest that the cubist sketch undertaken by Picasso in 1912, prior to the current blue background, could be an uncompleted transformation of Vidal’s landscape into synthetic cubism. Through study the main pigments used in the underlying compositions were successfully identified.     

Changes in swimming technique during time to exhaustion at freely chosen and controlled stroke rates

The aim of this study was to assess technical changes during constrained swimming in time-to-exhaustion tests. Ten swimmers of national standard performed a maximal 400-m front crawl and two sets of exhaustion tests at 95%, 100%, and 110% of mean 400-m speed. In the first set (free), swimmers had to maintain their speeds until exhaustion and mean stroke rate was recorded for each test. In the second set (controlled), the same speed and individual corresponding stroke rate were imposed. The durations of the exhaustion tests, relative durations of the stroke phases, and arm coordination were analysed. For each speed in the "controlled" set, the exhaustion tests were shorter. Moreover, variables were consistent, suggesting a stabilization of stroke technique. Under the free condition, stroke rate increased to compensate for the decrease in stroke length. At the same time, swimmers reduced the relative duration of their non-propulsive phases in favour of the propulsive phases. Thus, swimmers changed their arm coordination, which came close to an opposition mode. These two constraints enable swimmers both to maintain their stroking characteristics and develop compensatory mechanisms to maintain speed. Moreover, stroke rate can be seen as a useful tool for controlling arm technique during paced exercise.     

Cognitive design for instructional design

There is strong interest in the field of instructional design in building expert systems that can provide advice to inexperienced instructional designers. This paper questions whether the expert systems model to advice-giving is in fact appropriate for a design process such as instructional design. An alternate approach based on case-based reasoning and the critic approach to advice-giving is considered to be better adapted to the cognitive needs of this task. The cognitive constraints of the task are used to orient the design of an instructional design workbench. The concept of an ID workbench illustrates the direct application of cognitive science to a complex practical task in the area of design.     

Contribution of temporal processing skills to reading comprehension in 8-year-olds: evidence for a mediation effect of phonological awareness

This study tested whether the association between temporal processing (TP) and reading is mediated by phonological awareness (PA) in a normative sample of 615 eight-year-olds. TP was measured with auditory and bimodal (visual-auditory) temporal order judgment tasks and PA with a phoneme deletion task. PA partially mediated the association between both auditory and bimodal TP and reading, above nonverbal abilities, vocabulary, and processing speed. PA explained a larger proportion of the association between auditory TP and reading (56% vs. 39% for bimodal TP), and most of the association between bimodal TP and reading was direct. This finding is consistent with a dual-phonological and visual-pathway model of the association between TP and reading in normative reading skills.     

Ethnography's troubles and the reproduction of academic habitus

In this article, we explore the methodological possibilities of dual observation and ‘inter‐reflexive’ interpretation as we have experienced this in a longitudinal ethnographic case study of music teaching and learning in an English Cathedral Choir School. Our intent here is to understand the ways in which our particular historical, social and cultural perspectives lead us to partial yet complementary sensings, seeings, hearings and feelings in this setting, and the ramifications of this for the interpretations we bring to observational data, and the subsequent development of interpretive narrative accounts. Through an analysis of our respective narrative accounts of our first observational encounter in the research setting, and subsequent ‘inter‐reflexive’ interpretation, we seek to interrogate the ways in which a plausible, credible and believable narrative can be developed through the separate and joint analyses of storied reflexive observation.     

De las diferencias culturales a las desigualdades escolares: la evaluación y la norma en una enseñanza indiferenciada

RESUMEN

En el sistema educativo actual, la organización pedagógica es la enseñanza indiferenciada ligada a una evaluación comparativa. El autor describe los mecanismos por los cuales un sistema como éste convierte las diferencias culturales en diferencias escolares. Se analiza la correlación existente entre las desigualdades de formación y el origen social; el hecho de que los mismos programas educativos sean diferentes en unas escuelas (calificación del profesorado, composición del alumnado…) que en otras; la desigualdad de trato en la acción pedagógica y en la evaluación; la desigualdad social ante la evaluación, y la falta de ajuste de la acción pedagógica a las características individuales. En la evaluación está la base de la génesis de las desigualdades de aprendizaje y éxito.     

The effect of an intervention to improve newly qualified teachers’ interpersonal style,students motivation and psychological need satisfaction in sport-based physical education

Recent developments in self-determination theory research in the educational setting (e.g., Reeve, Deci, & Ryan, 2004), suggest that teachers’ interpersonal style should be considered as consisting of three dimensions: autonomy support, structure and interpersonal involvement. Based on this theoretical proposition, the purpose of the present study was to test the effects of a training program for three physical education newly qualified teachers on the aforementioned teachers’ overt behaviors and students’ psychological needs satisfaction, self-determined motivation and engagement in sport-based physical education. After a baseline period of four lessons, the teachers attended an informational session on adaptive student motivation and how to support it. The training program also included individualized guidance during the last four lessons of the cycle. Results revealed that from pre- to post-intervention: (1) teachers managed to improve their teaching style in terms of all three dimensions, and (2) students were receptive to these changes, as shown by increases in their reported need satisfaction, self-determined motivation and engagement in the class.