“Oh Yeah,I’m Mexican. What Type are You?” Changing the Way Preservice Teachers Interpret and Respond to the Literate Identities of Children

This writing describes a literacy project between preservice teachers enrolled in a small university in Montana and an inner city school classroom in Kansas. It shows how the preservice teachers and children negotiate meaning at the beginning of the project as well as what the preservice teachers were learning from the children and from their teacher, Scott. Twenty-three third grade children exchanged letters, cards, drawings, autobiographies, and writing about shared literature with 24 preservice teachers for 10 weeks. Scott, the third grade teacher who assisted with the project, was a former student in Rita’s university language arts classroom and was strongly committed to demonstrating to preservice teachers the rewards of teaching in an inner city classroom ... particularly those coming from communities where people of color or linguistic diversity were few. Through shared written responses and the negotiation of meaning between two age groups, this project opened pathways for greater insight into the cultures and lives of children that the university students might otherwise not have known. It also provided myriad glimpses into the lives of real children, each with his or her own interests, life experiences, and expressive modalities thus shaping the perceptions of the preservice teachers about their role as teacher in supporting and responding to the individual strengths of each child.     

Trinucleotide repeats and neuropsychiatric disorders

Expansions of trinucleotide repeats at the level of genomic DNA are increasingly recognized as a cause of a number of neuropsychiatric disorders. Triplet repeat disorders are commonly classified into two groups, those with moderate CAG expansions that result in a polyglutamine stretch in the gene products and those with very long expansions, usually non-CAG, that are not translated. The triplet repeat intergeneration and intra-generational instability, and genetic anticipation characterize disorders. Most of the diseases caused by expanded CAG repeat share common features, which include neurodegeneration, a dominant pattern of inheritance and widespread expression of the gene products with neuronal loss restricted to distinct subset of neurons. Neurodegenerative changes associated of CAG expansion disorders is explained in terms of intra and extra cellular aggregation of mutant gene products, the insoluble nature of the protein(s) being attributed to the presence of polyglutamine stretches, hence their neurotoxic effects. methods based on poymerase chain reaction have become handy in the diagnosis of these genetic disorders. Progress in transgenic animal models for these disorders will be critical for understanding the progress of these disorders and for testing new therapeutic strategies.     

Speed isn’t everything: a study of examination marking

The question of whether marking speed is related to marking accuracy is important for training examiners and planning realistic marking schedules. We explored marking speed in the context of a past examination for an international biology qualification for 14‐ to 16‐year‐olds. Forty‐two markers with differing backgrounds experimentally marked 23 diverse examination questions. All responded to questionnaires about times taken to mark two of four samples of candidate responses. We demonstrated a positive practice effect for inexperienced markers, who became significantly faster during the course of their marking whilst maintaining their accuracies; there was no clear trade‐off between speed and accuracy. The benefits of marking practice and background experience are distinct phenomena. To improve accuracy, longer term investments in education and experience are needed.     

The EUCLIDES methodology and portal An on-line learning environment utilizing PBL and ICT

This paper presents the EUCLIDES （Enhancing the Use of Cooperative Learning to Increase Development of Science Studies） project （134246-LLP-1-2007-1-IT-1-COMENIUS-CMP）, which aims at introducing and pilot-testing an innovative teaching and training methodology, based on the constructivist approach and on problem-based learning （PBL）, through the use of information communication technology （ICT） instruments. This methodology has been developed for the study of science subjects and, is currently used in some European schools of secondary education, involving teachers and students. A moodle platform has been developed to enforce the application and use of the methodology. Through this platform, teachers can monitor the progress of the work of the students and intervene as facilitators when it is necessary to provide further co-ordination, pose questions and suggest problem-based approaches. The use of the platform secures that the teachers remain distant from the students allowing students to work by themselves and find solutions to the problems posed.     

Mapping the discipline history of education

Inaugurated in 2013, this collective research programme aims to construct an international mapping of the history of education that accounts for recent developments in the field. Our goal is to create a current and retrospective assessment of the discipline’s institutional grounding and of the knowledge produced by its practitioners, stretching across national and cultural borders. Ultimately, the programme will help to increase interactions among scholars and facilitate the creation of collaborative research agendas, thereby augmenting the standing and visibility of the discipline.

This text will briefly introduce the programme’s conceptual basis, explaining the methodological steps taken to ensure the comparability of data gathered and the transnational and transcontinental character of the study’s design. In the second section, we will zoom in on doctoral students’ dissertations, which are the optimal way to study a discipline’s development and potential. Doctoral students and recent graduates are part of a tradition, a school of thought, and yet they constitute that tradition’s replacement and renewal. Therefore, as graduate students carry forth the disciplinary torch, they hold the future of the field in their hands.     

The Strategic Challenge of Continuous Change in Multi-Platform Media Organizations—A Strategy-as-Practice Perspective

This article focuses on the complexities of managing multi-platform strategies in the complex and highly dynamic environments of contemporary media markets. Based on a comparative case study of two Nordic media organizations, the article identifies and articulates two sets of practices through which strategy is managed in the continuously changing print and online environments. While the practices that guide strategy development of print publishing tend to be content driven, brand constrained, commercially steered, and top-down monitored, strategizing for online platforms tends to be more technology driven, brand inspired, interactive, and entrepreneurial. For multi-platform media organizations this type of situation is challenging because the incremental and radical innovations that they pursue are platform specific, instead of aiming at exploitation and exploration on both platforms. To succeed in the market, the article argues, multi-platform media organizations need to develop strategies and organizational practices that allow them to be truly ambidextrous—to pursue both incremental and radical change—on all platforms.     

Approaches and strategies for understanding the career development needs of migrants and refugees: the potential of a systems-based narrative approach

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - Addressing immigrants’ social and work inclusion is a priority at a time of increasing migration to Italy and Europe. Career...