Seeking Nettle Textiles – Utilizing a Combination of Microscopic Methods for Fibre Identification

Bast fibres have been commonly used as a textile material in Northern Europe since Neolithic times. However, the process of identifying the different species has been problematic, and many important questions related to their cultural history are still unanswered. For example, a modified Herzog test and the presence of calcium oxalate crystals have both been used in identification. In order to generate more reliable results, further research and advancement in multi-methodological methods is required. This paper introduces a combination of methods which can be used to identify and distinguish flax (Linum usitatissimum), hemp (Cannabis sativa), and stinging nettle (Urtica dioica). The research material consisted of reference fibres and 25 fibre samples obtained from 12 textiles assumed to be made of nettle. The textiles were from the Finno-Ugric and Historical Collections of The National Museum of Finland. The fibre samples were studied by observing the surface characteristics and cross sections with transmitted light microscopy, and by using a modified Herzog test with polarized light, in order to identify the distinguishable features in their morphological structures. The study showed that five out of 25 samples were cotton, 16 nettle, one flax, and one hemp. Findings from two samples were inconsistent. The results show that it is possible to distinguish common north European bast fibres from each other by using a combination of microscopic methods. Furthermore, by utilizing these combined methods, new and more reliable information could be obtained from historical ethnographic textiles, which creates new vistas for the interpretation of their cultural history.     

Shared Entertainment,Shared Opinions: The Influence of Social TV Comments on the Evaluation of Talent Shows

The present research investigated whether co-viewer comments in social TV interactions are able to enhance or weaken media effects. With the example of talent shows, the valence of co-viewer comments (pro/contra/none) as well as the type of content (antisocial behavior vs. conventional performance) were varied in an experiment (N = 117). Results showed that participants’ own comments and their private attitudes about the judges varied in line with comment valence. Findings suggest that social TV viewers are prone to social influence of their co-viewers, which might amplify problems regarding the portrayal of antisocial behavior in reality TV.     

Teachers’ professional agency and learning – from adaption to active modification in the teacher community

The aim of this study was to examine teacher learning in terms of teachers’ professional agency in the professional community of the school. Altogether 2310 Finnish comprehensive school teachers completed a survey. Results showed that teachers’ active efforts to learn in the professional community and to promote school development cannot be explained, and hence reduced, to a single behavioral attribute. The findings indicated that teacher learning in terms of professional agency in the professional community consists of several elements including: skills, efficacy beliefs, and motivational factors, which entail transforming one’s teaching practices, experiencing collective efficacy, constructing positive interdependency, the appreciation of mutual agreements, and using active strategies of help-seeking. The investigation also suggests that the use of modifying strategies is characteristic of both the teacher’s professional agency as well as the strategies employed to reduce stress.     

Explaining Individual Differences in Reading: on the orthographic component of word recognition

This article first presents a conception of word recognition involving both phonological and orthographic processes. Three different explanations about the origin of orthographic processes in word recognition are then discussed. These explanations are: (1) differences in orthographic memory, (2) differences in phonological processes and (3) differences in leisure time reading. In accord with the third explanation, it is argued that automatic orthographic word recognition is directly dependent on children's amount of reading practice in an out‐of‐school setting. Educational implications of this emphasis on leisure time reading effects are also discussed.     

Teachers’ enactment of policy in classrooms: making students accountable through inscriptions from the curriculum in classroom interactions

The purpose of this paper is to examine the complex relationships between educational policy and classroom practice. By employing a sociocultural perspective, we examine formulations inscribed in socio-material artifacts about what students should learn and how they should engage with knowledge. We explore how these formulations are mobilized in instructional work and the implications this activity has for student participation. To address this issue, we analyzed video data of how teachers invoke competence aims from the national curriculum in their instructional work in six classrooms. The analytical procedures were derived from interaction analysis. The analysis focuses on how such formulations explicitly mediate social interaction as it unfolds on a micro level. The findings show that competence aims gain different functions as they are mobilized in classroom practice; in other words, they serve different purposes in teachers’ instructional work and anticipate different modes of student participation. In this study, the competence aims were (a) invoked as a source of authority, (b) translated into instructions, and (c) mobilized to obtain social order in the classroom. More rarely, the competence aims were used in meta-level discussions, where they functioned to reach agreements on how to pursue work toward joint goals. We discuss the implications of these ways of invoking competence aims for student participation.

     

Scientific Reasoning,School Achievement and Gender: a Multilevel Study of between and within School Effects in Finland

The relationships between reasoning and school achievement were studied taking into account the multilevel nature (school- and class-levels) of the data. We gathered data from 51 classes at seven schools in metropolitan and Eastern Finland (N = 769, 395 males, 15-year-old students). To study scientific reasoning, we used a modified version of Science Reasoning Tasks, tapping control-of-variable schemata. Analyses were conducted by MLwiN2.10 multilevel modelling. The present results showed that the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) of schools for scientific reasoning is 7% and that the corresponding ICC of classes is 10%. Whereas the first finding confirms earlier PISA results, the second finding provides new insights into class variation within schools. In practice, class composition seems to be an efficient solution to meeting the differing needs of individual students.