Students’ conception of infinite series

This is a report of a study of students’ understanding of infinite series. It has a three-fold purpose: to show that students may construct two essentially different notions of infinite series, to show that one of the constructions is particularly difficult for students, and to examine the way in which these two different constructions may be built so that we may uncover ways to help students improve their understanding. The theoretical framework consists of action–process–object–schema theory and the specific model of conceptions in Balacheff’s theory of conception, knowing, and concept. Approaching the problem from these two different theoretical perspectives allows us to provide different and at the same time complementary explanations of observed phenomena. The two different infinite series constructions are, briefly stated, series as an infinite unending process of addition and series as a sequence of partial sums. Students are found to have difficulty building an understanding of series as a sequence of partial sums and thus tend to have difficulty in problem situations that require this interpretation. The study uses semi-structured interviews with 10 graduate students. The interviews explore situations that might give insight into students’ notion of the sequence of partial sums.     

Conceptual Variation or Incoherence? Textbook Discourse on Genes in Six Countries

The aim of this paper is to investigate in a systematic and comparative way previous results of independent studies on the treatment of genes and gene function in high school textbooks from six different countries. We analyze how the conceptual variation within the scientific domain of Genetics regarding gene function models and gene concepts is transformed via the didactic transposition into school science textbooks. The results indicate that a common textbook discourse on genes and their function exist in textbooks from the different countries. The structure of science as represented by conceptual variation and the use of multiple models was present in all the textbooks. However, the existence of conceptual variation and multiple models is implicit in these textbooks, i.e., the phenomenon of conceptual variation and multiple models are not addressed explicitly, nor its consequences and, thus, it ends up introducing conceptual incoherence about the gene concept and its function within the textbooks. We conclude that within the found textbook-discourse ontological aspects of the academic disciplines of genetics and molecular biology were retained, but without their epistemological underpinnings; these are lost in the didactic transposition. These results are of interest since students might have problems reconstructing the correct scientific understanding from the transformed school science knowledge as depicted within the high school textbooks. Implications for textbook writing as well as teaching are discussed in the paper.     

Learning to rank query suggestions for adhoc and diversity search

Query suggestions have become pervasive in modern web search, as a mechanism to guide users towards a better representation of their information need. In this article, we propose a ranking approach for producing effective query suggestions. In particular, we devise a structured representation of candidate suggestions mined from a query log that leverages evidence from other queries with a common session or a common click. This enriched representation not only helps overcome data sparsity for long-tail queries, but also leads to multiple ranking criteria, which we integrate as features for learning to rank query suggestions. To validate our approach, we build upon existing efforts for web search evaluation and propose a novel framework for the quantitative assessment of query suggestion effectiveness. Thorough experiments using publicly available data from the TREC Web track show that our approach provides effective suggestions for adhoc and diversity search.     

Scenario planning in public libraries: a discussion

The authors explore the use of scenario planning in public libraries via a Q&A discussion. They discuss the impact of unexpected events and unwelcome trends on libraries’ future, explain the distinction between scenario work and forecasting, and outline a practical approach to devising and delivering scenario planning activities at a local library level. This discussion, which took place at Oxford University’s Said Business School on 23 August 2018, explores the use of scenario planning in public libraries.     

Integrating Video Documentary Into the Classroom: A Community Assessment Assignment

Community assessment is a strategy commonly taught to social work students to identify a community’s strengths and challenges. This article describes the value of using video documentary as part of a community assessment assignment. We identify the advantages of using video documentary in the assessment process and the reporting of findings. We discuss the preproduction, production, and postproduction steps necessary to produce a video documentary and illustrate how such assignments can be incorporated into a social work course. We conclude by identifying the educational benefits accrued to students.     

The assessment of severely intellectually disabled students

In 1995 it became mandatory to establish individual educational plans (IEPs) for children with special educational needs in the Swedish compulsory school. On the basis of the pupils' needs, such a plan should contain information about the pupils' school situation and performance, the class, teaching etc. The aim of this article was to study how special educational needs are defined and described and what support measures the school is suggesting, using IEPs from a sample of Swedish compulsory schools. Our study is based on an analysis of IEPs for pupils with special educational needs in the nine‐year compulsory school in a municipality in northern Sweden. A strategic selection of three compulsory schools was made and we restricted the study to grades 3, 6 and 9. The method used to analyse the IEPs was content analysis. Using different theories within the field of special education and disability studies, we have tried to discern to what extent the problems described, and the proposed measures (intervention), are related to predetermined theoretical models of disability and special needs education. Our analysis indicates that difficulties are predominantly attributed to the pupils' shortcomings and individual characteristics, and the same holds for the recommended measures. Another interesting finding is that a number of the plans were established without involving the parents, and many of them did not even know that their child had an IEP. Finally, we discuss our findings in relation to different research traditions within the field of special education.     

Media Education in a New Context

Abstract

The ICEM Conference which was held in Lisbon in October 1997 was entitled ‘Education for Media’. This article presents some reflections from one of the Portuguese representatives, a TV researcher and producer, on the discussions which took place during the conference, and looks at some of the implications which can perhaps be felt world wide     

What is the meaning of special education? Problem representations in Swedish policy documents: late 1970s–2014

In Sweden, as in many other countries, inclusion has been on the political agenda for a long time and has served as a blueprint and guiding principle for practical work in school. However, inclusive education has, by and large, been associated with special education measures, which seriously limit the chances of achieving the vision of inclusion. In this article, we analyse how the meaning of special education is constructed in policy documents from four distinct time periods of Swedish education policy from the late 1970s to 2014. The paper draws on an approach to scrutinise the process of problematisation in public policy-making. Based on the analysis, we argue that there are prospects of a hegemonic intervention regarding the meaning of special education during later years in Swedish education policy, emphasising an individual perspective and individual deficiencies. In contrast to inclusive ambitions, this perspective advocate segregated support measures. Finally, based on previous research and tendencies within the field, we present arguments in the concluding discussion why this hegemonic intervention in education policy also might attract the support of school personnel at the local school level and some potential consequences of the expansion of special education in Sweden.     

Educating students with FASD: linking policy,research and practice

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD ) is a prevalent neurodevelopmental disability with significant implications for learning and behaviour. International research suggests that the prevalence of FASD in school‐aged children is 2.3–6.3%. In this paper, we address the questions: (1) what is FASD ; (2) what is the prevalence of FASD in schools; (3) what is the impact of FASD ; and (4) why develop special FASD education strategies and programmes? We summarise the 18‐year history of W innipeg S chool D ivision's development of its FASD P rogramme of services, describe the specialised FASD classrooms and then present the results from a consensus‐generating workshop comprised of 36 FASD education professionals, with over 209 years of collective FASD education programme experience, who were asked to identify and reach consensus on best strategies and lessons learned in FASD education programmes. We then suggest that effectively educating children with FASD is critical to get right if positive educational outcomes are to be realised.