Empirical Research into Teaching

The paper argues that 100 years of empirical research into teaching has failed to provide a usable account of best practice. This is partly because of conceptual and other logical problems that cannot in practice be resolved, as has been argued before. However, it is further argued that the real reason that no useful rules of good teaching can be established is that there are no substantive and important rules covering human interactions such as teaching. It is not that science cannot get the answers; rather it is that there are not any answers, and that is why there is not a science of teaching. Every teaching event is unique and the way to determine good practice is to be clear about what one is trying to achieve and to know one’s particular audience. This is not simply sound practical advice, but logically the only path to knowledge in this area.     

Language preference and its relationship with reading skills in English and Spanish

A dearth of research has investigated the language preference of bilingual childhood populations and its subsequent relationship to reading skills. The current study evaluated how a sequential bilingual student's choice of language, in a particular environmental context, predicted reading ability in English and Spanish. The participants were Latino children ranging in age from 7 years, 5 months, to 11 years, 6 months, with 43% born in the United States. Results showed a relationship between a child's higher English language preference for media and for communication with others outside the family and better reading skills in English. Language preference differences predicted reading abilities better for English than for Spanish. Results suggested that sequential bilingual children's language preference may be a useful marker of English language (second language [L2]) facility and use that is related to their reading proficiency or influences the development of English reading skills in such bilingual children in the United States. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 171–181, 2007.     

Oxidative injury and antioxidant vitamins E and C in Schizophrenia

Susceptibility of Schizophrenic patients to lipid peroxidation relative to healthy control subjects was investigated by measuring the malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in plasma. The main finding was that Schizophrenic patients were more susceptible than control subjects to oxidative damage as evident from increased MDA levels in plasma. Antioxidant levels are also depleted in Schizophrenic patients when compared to normal subjects as evident from decreased levels of vitamins E and C in the plasma. Impaired antioxidant defense and increased lipid peroxidation suggests that treatment with antioxidants (Vitamin E, Vitamin C, beta carotene) at the initial stages of illness may prevent further oxidative injury and deterioration of associated neurological deficits in Schizophrenia.     

A Society of Signs? Mediating a Learning Society

This article critiques certain notions of a learning society. These are framed largely in economic and humanist frameworks of competitiveness and social exclusion. This overlooks the implications of information, communications and media technologies, and the linguistic turn in social theory. These suggest a learning society can be framed as a 'society of signs' Some of the possible implications of the latter are outlined.     

A typology of the three-year-old twin sibling relationship drawn from two different environments: School and home

The main purpose of this study was to describe the relational structure of child twins on the basis of their mothers' representations of their behavior in two everyday settings, at school and in the home. This study looks in particular at dependence on the co-twin and the dominant/dominated relationship in these two life environments. Fifty-seven questionnaires were gathered from mothers of twins three months after the children had begun preschool. A multiple correspondence analysis and an automatic classification of the data pointed out several relational structures of the twin sibling relationship, in contrast to the often stereotyped single representation of twinship. A secondary aim was to associate the observed relational structures with (a) the type of twinship and the sex makeup of the twin pair (b) the mothers' child-raising behaviors, which may or may not tend to turn the twins outward (first short separation of the children before preschool). Contrary to predictions, no particular relational structures could be differentiated on the basis of the type of twinship (monozygotic vs. same-sex dizygotic twins). On the other hand, pairs composed of a boy and a girl exhibited a number of specific characteristics. Parents who were in favor of short separations did not have children who were more co-twin independent in the school environment. However these twins showed a dominant/dominated relationship in the home.     

Physiological responses in different intensities of resistance exercise – Critical load and the effects of aging process

Aim was to identify critical load (CL) in young and elderly apparently healthy male cohorts. To contrast the metabolic, cardiovascular and perceptual responses on CL according to age. We evaluated 12 young (23 ± 3 years) and 10 elderly (70 ± 2 years) apparently healthy active males, who underwent: (1) 1 repetition maximum (1RM) test on a 45° Leg Press; (2) on different days, three high-intensity resistance exercise constant load tests (60%, 75% and 90% 1RM) until fatigue (Tlim). Absolute values of both the CL asymptote and curvature constant (kg) were significantly lower in elderly subjects (P < 0.05). In contrast, elderly subjects demonstrated a significantly higher number of repetitions at CL when compared with young subjects (P < 0.05). As expected, oxygen uptake (VO₂) and heart rate (HR) during maximal aerobic exercise testing were significantly reduced in older subjects. However, percent-predicted aerobic capacity were higher in older subjects (P < 0.05). In addition, blood lactate ([La^?]) corrected to Tlim and rating of perceived exertion values were greater in younger subjects at all intensities (P < 0.05). These findings, despite reduced force production in older subjects, endurance-related parameters are well preserved according to age-adjusted percent-predicted values in apparently healthy males.     

Do altmetrics assess societal impact in a comparable way to case studies? An empirical test of the convergent validity of altmetrics based on data from the UK research excellence framework (REF)

Altmetrics have been proposed as a way to assess the societal impact of research. Although altmetrics are already in use as impact or attention metrics in different contexts, it is still not clear whether they really capture or reflect societal impact. This study is based on altmetrics, citation counts, research output and case study data from the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF), and peers’ REF assessments of research output and societal impact. We investigated the convergent validity of altmetrics by using two REF datasets: publications submitted as research output (PRO) to the REF and publications referenced in case studies (PCS). Case studies, which are intended to demonstrate societal impact, should cite the most relevant research papers. We used the MHq’ indicator for assessing impact – an indicator which has been introduced for count data with many zeros. The results of the first part of the analysis show that news media as well as mentions on Facebook, in blogs, in Wikipedia, and in policy-related documents have higher MHq’ values for PCS than for PRO. Thus, the altmetric indicators seem to have convergent validity for these data. In the second part of the analysis, altmetrics have been correlated with REF reviewers’ average scores on PCS. The negative or close to zero correlations question the convergent validity of altmetrics in that context. We suggest that they may capture a different aspect of societal impact (which can be called unknown attention) to that seen by reviewers (who are interested in the causal link between research and action in society).