The limits of levels: Understanding the International Adult Literacy Surveys (IALS)

The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), an initiative of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), was carried out in the early to mid-1990s across more than 20 countries. It was followed in the early years of the 21st century by the Adult Literacy and Life Skills (ALL) survey and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC, currently in data analysis). This article reviews the philosophical basis, theoretical underpinnings and data analysis of the original and subsequent IALS-based surveys. The purpose is to inform users of the survey data of what the surveys can, and cannot, provide. The author argues that the key use of these surveys is providing insights into population-level distribution of one form of literacy, namely a particular kind of text consumption in a developed society. He also points out the challenges regarding the use of the survey series for making international comparisons, for documenting change over time and for representing broad models of literacy. The tendency to use the survey findings for these uses is considered by the author as a misuse of the data, which leaves the potential of the IALS surveys to provide insights into the effectiveness and equity of different educational systems largely untapped.     

Developing and Assessing Curriculum on the Physics of Medical Instruments

Undergraduate educational settings often struggle to provide students with authentic biologically or medically relevant situations and problems that simultaneously improve their understanding of physics. Through exercises and laboratory activities developed in an elective Physics in Biomedicine course for upper-level biology or pre–health majors at Portland State University, we aim to teach fundamental physical concepts, such as light absorption and emission and atomic energy levels, through analysis of biological systems and medical devices. The activities address the properties of electromagnetic waves as they relate to the interaction with biological tissue and make links between physics and biomedical applications such as microscopy or laser eye surgery. We report on the effect that engaging students in tasks with actual medical equipment has had on their conceptual understanding of light and spectroscopy. These initial assessments indicate that students’ understanding improves in some areas as a result of taking the course, but gains are not uniform and are relatively low for other topics. We also find a promising “nonshift” in student attitudes toward learning science as a result of taking the course. A long-term goal of this work is to develop these materials to the extent that they can eventually be imported into an introductory curriculum for life sciences majors.     

Effect of glycine site/NMDA receptor antagonist MRZ2/576 on the conditioned place preference and locomotor activity induced by morphine in mice

Objective： To study the effect of glycine site/NMDA （N-methyl-D-aspartate） receptor antagonist MRZ2/576 on the conditioned place preference （CPP） and locomotor activity induced by morphine in mice. Methods： Different doses （1.25, 2.5 and 5 mg/kg, i.p.） of MRZ2/576 were used to evaluate the effect of MRZ2/576 on the acquisition and expression of CPP induced by morphine （5 mg/kg） in mice. In addition, we examined the locomotor activity of mice in conditioning and testing phase of CPP paradigm. Results： MRZ2/576 alone could not establish place preference, but a 5 mg/kg dose of MRZ2/576 could block both acquisition and expression of morphine-induced CPP. In testing phase of CPP, there was no statistical difference for locomotor activity between the groups; injection of MRZ2/576 showed a dose-dependent decrease of locomotor activity on both control and morphine-treated mice, especially 5 mg/kg of MRZ2/576 significantly suppressed the locomotor activity of mice. Conclusion： Based on the present results, we assume that MRZ2/576 can antagonize the rewarding effect of morphine, suggesting that this glycine site/NMDA receptor antagonist could be used to treat addictions due to its light side effect profile.     

Familienstruktur und Bildungserfolg

Zusammenfassung Dieser Beitrag befasst sich mit der h?ufig vorgetragenen These, dass sich die Struktur der Herkunftsfamilie und hier insbesondere die Abwesenheit eines Elternteils auf den Bildungserfolg von Kindern auswirke. Diese These wird aus der Perspektive der Lebensverlaufsforschung theoretisch kritisiert und auf der Grundlage deutscher und amerikanischer Umfragedaten empirisch relativiert. Es zeigt sich, dass es nicht die Strukturver?nderungen der Familie als solche sind, die Einfluss auf den Schulerfolg von Kindern nehmen. Statt dessen rücken Selektionseffekte ins Zentrum der Aufmerksamkeit sowie insbesondere die sozialen und politischen Rahmenbedingungen, unter denen sich familiale Ver?nderungen vollziehen.

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Summary This article deals with the frequently made argument that family structure — and here especially the absence of one parent — has an impact on the school success of children. This argument is theoretically criticised from the perspective of life course research and empirically re-analysed on the basis of survey data from Germany and the U.S. It becomes obvious, that the change of family structure as such has no or only very little impact on children’s school success. Instead, selection effects play a major roll as well as the social and political framework, under which changes to the family occure.

     

Attention,Working Memory,and Long-Term Memory in Multimedia Learning: An Integrated Perspective Based on Process Models of Working Memory

Cognitive models of multimedia learning such as the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (Mayer 2009) or the Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller 1999) are based on different cognitive models of working memory (e.g., Baddeley 1986) and long-term memory. The current paper describes a working memory model that has recently gained popularity in basic research: the embedded-processes model (Cowan 1999). The embedded-processes model argues that working memory is not a separate cognitive system but is the activated part of long-term memory. A subset of activated long-term memory is assumed to be particularly highlighted and is termed the “focus of attention.” This model thus integrates working memory, long-term memory, and (voluntary and involuntary) attention, and referring to it within multimedia models provides the opportunity to model all these learning-relevant cognitive processes and systems in a unitary way. We make suggestions for incorporating this model into theories of multimedia learning. On this basis, one cannot only reinterpret crucial phenomena in multimedia learning that are attributed to working memory (the split-attention effect, the modality effect, the coherence effect, the signaling effect, the redundancy effect, and the expertise reversal effect) but also derive new predictions.     

Silver bullet or red herring? New evidence on the place of aspirations in education

This article reports on a longitudinal study of student aspirations at the ages of 13 and 15 in three schools in the United Kingdom, where there has been a great deal of emphasis placed on aspirations in recent policy making. The data, based on individual interviews with 490 students in areas with significant deprivation as well as interviews with parents, teachers and community members, call into question the effectiveness of concentrating educational efforts on raising aspirations. Aspirations, even in these communities struggling with poverty, are very high—the missing element is the knowledge of how to make these aspirations concrete and obtainable. Implications for educators include insights into the highly aspirational nature of marginalised communities, the key role teachers play in helping aspirations come to fruition, and the need to focus on supporting young people to achieve aspirations that already substantially exceed the jobs available in the UK workforce.     

Designing collaborative multiplayer serious games

The idea of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is being investigated for more than twenty years. Since a few years, game-based approaches like video games for learning (Serious Games) offer new fields of application. The combination of game-based learning concepts and collaborative learning may enable new, game-based application areas of CSCL, like collaborative multiplayer Serious Games. Designing such games, however, is very challenging as it requires to take into account traditional single player game design concepts, concepts for multiplayer game design, and concepts for Serious Game design simultaneously. Only very few examples of such games exist today. In this paper we describe an approach for the design of game-based collaborative learning scenarios using multiplayer Serious Games. Our approach aims at combining design concepts from the fields of collaborative learning and (multiplayer) game design. Our approach takes into account the requirements of traditional single player games (fun, narration, immersion, graphics, sound), challenges of multiplayer games (concurrent gaming, interaction) and Serious Game design (seamless inclusion of learning content, adaptation and personalization). Furthermore, requirements of collaborative learning are considered, like group goals, positive interdependence, and individual accountability. Our design concept was used to create a collaborative 3D multiplayer game fostering collaborative behavior as a foundation for game-based collaborative learning in small teams. We performed a user study with eight gaming sessions and a total of 23 participants. Results showed that the game enables a collaborative gameplay and fosters collaborative behavior. This may allow us to use a game-based CSCL approach to combine the advantages of game-based learning with those of collaborative learning in future.     

Affective–Reflective Theory of physical inactivity and exercise

This article introduces a new theory, the Affective–Reflective Theory (ART) of physical inactivity and exercise. ART aims to explain and predict behavior in situations in which people either remain in a state of physical inactivity or initiate action (exercise). It is a dual-process model and assumes that exercise-related stimuli trigger automatic associations and a resulting automatic affective valuation of exercise (type-1 process). The automatic affective valuation forms the basis for the reflective evaluation (type-2 process), which can follow if self-control resources are available. The automatic affective valuation is connected with an action impulse, whereas the reflective evaluation can result in action plans. The two processes, in constant interaction, direct the individual towards or away from changing behavior. The ART of physical inactivity and exercise predicts that, when there is an affective–reflective discrepancy and self-control resources are low, behavior is more likely to be governed by the affective type-1 process. This introductory article explains the underlying concepts and main theoretical roots from which the ART of physical inactivity and exercise was developed (field theory, affective responses to exercise, automatic evaluation, evaluation-behavior link, dual-process theorizing). We also summarize the empirical tests that have been conducted to refine the theory in its present form.     

Qualitative Methoden der Bildinterpretation

Zusammenfassung Die erheblichen Fortschritte der qualitativen Methoden in den vergangenen zwanzig Jahren sind eng mit dem „linguistic turn“ verbunden. Dessen Konsequenzen ebenso wie die für die empirische Sozialforschung ganz allgemein gültige Pr?misse, dass Protokolls?tze, also Texte, die nicht mehr hintergehbaren Grunddaten der (sozial-)wissenschaftlichen Analyse darstellen, haben zu einer Dominanz textinterpretativer Verfahren und zu einer ‘Textfixierung’ qualitativer Methodologien geführt. Insbesondere — und dies ist gerade für die Erziehungswissenschaft besonders folgenschwer — wurde in der qualitativen Forschung nicht unterschieden zwischen einer (textf?rmigen) Verst?ndigung über das Bild und einer (textunabh?ngigen) Verst?ndigung durch das Bild, d.h. im Medium des Bildes. Den methodischen Zugang zur letzteren Ebene, derjenigen einer vorbegrifflichen oder ‘atheoretischen’ Verst?ndigung im Medium des Bildes, haben in den 1920er-Jahren bereits Erwin Panofsky mit seiner Ikonologie und sein Zeitgenosse Karl Mannheim mit der dokumentarischen Methode er?ffnet. Zwischen diesen Methodologien und denjenigen der Semiotik zeigen sich wesentliche Korrespondenzen. Aus der Einsicht, dass die lkonizit?t in ihrer Eigenlogik der Sprache nicht in ad?quater Weise zug?nglich ist, l?sst sich mit Bezug auf die genannten Autoren sowie u.a. Barthes, Foucault und Imdahl die methodologische Konsequenz ziehen, dass wir unsere Konnotationen, unser sprachvermitteltes ikonographisches Vorwissen, soweit wie m?glich ‘einklammern’, also suspendieren müssen, wenn wir der Eigenart des Bildes gerecht werden wollen. Dabei führt der methodische Weg zur Rekonstruktion der Eigensinnigkeit des Bildes über dessen Formalstruktur — insbesondere über die planimetrische Struktur.

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Summary Qualitative methods of interpreting pictures The considerable progress in qualitative methods during the last twenty years is essentially connected with the „linguistic turn“. Its consequences as well as the presumption that textual records are the basic data of all scientific research are responsible for the predominance of methods of text-interpretation and for the particular ‘fixation’ on texts in qualitative methodologies. Especially, there is a lack of differentiation between a communication about pictures and a communication through pictures, i.e. a text-independent understanding via the medium of pictures. The methodical access to a pre-conceptual or ‘atheoretic’ understanding was opened up by Erwin Panofsky in the 1920s with his iconology and by his contemporary Karl Mannheim with his documentary method. Important correspondences between these methodologies and those in the field of semiotics can be demonstrated. From the insight that the iconic character in its obstinacy is not accessible to language in an adequate way, we can — with reference to the mentioned authors as well as to Barthes, Foucault and Imdahl — draw the conclusion that to approach the peculiarities of a picture means to suspend our connotations of language-mediated iconographic (pre-)knowledge as far as possible, to put them „in brackets“. Methodologically, the iconic character can only be reconstructed by describing the formal, especially the planimetric, structure of a picture.

     

Sportunterricht

Physical education is linked with hopes of health improvement. Especially for children and adolescents who are inactive in leisure, physical education (P.E.) is of great importance. The purpose of this paper is to answer the question whether the health status of inactive children and adolescents differs depending on the number of P.E. lessons attended. This question was analyzed with a sub-sample of the KiGGS (children and adolescents health survey) and MoMo (motoric module) studies of inactive subjects (n=310; age 7–17 years) who were classified into two groups depending on the number of P.E. lessons attended (up to 2 lessons/week; more than 2 lessons/week). Health status was assessed using questionnaires, motor performance tests and laboratory findings. Analyses of variance showed no significant differences between the two groups concerning health parameters.