A multidimensional adapted process model of teaching

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - In the present study, we aimed to specify the key competence domains perceived to be critical for the teaching profession and depict them as...     

Relationship between split-step timing and leg stiffness in world-class tennis players when returning fast serves

ABSTRACT

This study investigated split-step timing when returning serves and whether this timing is related to neuromechanical capabilities in world-class tennis players. In Experiment 1, the split-step timing of four groups of world-class players (male and female ATP/WTA seniors, and ITF juniors) was measured on court when returning serves of the same level players. The four groups initiated the split-step at a similar time, starting around the time ball-racket contact in the serve stroke and landed when early ball-flight information was available. In Experiment 2, the neuromechanical capabilities (leg stiffness and vertical jump performance) of a group of world-class players and three groups of less-skilled tennis players were examined. The results showed an increase in leg stiffness with an increase in the level of expertise. A cross-experiment analysis in world-class male players (ATP/ITF, n = 10) revealed that the timing of initial foot movement was significantly correlated with the leg stiffness (r² = 0.54), with later lateral step after the serve in the players who had higher stiffness. The findings support the hypothesis that world-class tennis players adapt perceptual-motor control on the basis of their neuromechanical capabilities and maximise the time before initiating their interceptive action to rely on more reliable information.     

A Conceptual Analysis of Perspective Taking in Support of Socioscientific Reasoning

Science & Education - Perspective taking is a critical yet tangled construct that is used to describe a range of psychological processes and that is applied interchangeably with related...     

Oxygen and nitrogen plasma hydrophilization and hydrophobic recovery of polymers

PLASMA HYDROPHILIZATION AND SUBSEQUENT HYDROPHOBIC RECOVERY ARE STUDIED FOR TEN DIFFERENT POLYMERS OF MICROFABRICATION INTEREST: polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), polymethylmethacrylate, polycarbonate, polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, epoxy polymer SU-8, hybrid polymer ORMOCOMP, polycaprolactone, and polycaprolactone/D,L-lactide (P(CL/DLLA)). All polymers are treated identically with oxygen and nitrogen plasmas, in order to make comparisons between polymers as easy as possible. The primary measured parameter is the contact angle, which was measured on all polymers for more than 100 days in order to determine the kinetics of the hydrophobic recovery for both dry stored and rewashed samples. Clear differences and trends are observed both between different polymers and between different plasma parameters.     

A comparison of students' conceptual understanding of electric circuits in simulation only and simulation‐laboratory contexts

The aim of this experimental study was to compare learning outcomes of students using a simulation alone (simulation environment) with outcomes of those using a simulation in parallel with real circuits (combination environment) in the domain of electricity, and to explore how learning outcomes in these environments are mediated by implicit (only procedural guidance) and explicit (more structure and guidance for the discovery process) instruction. Matched‐quartets were created based on the pre‐test results of 50 elementary school students and divided randomly into a simulation implicit (SI), simulation explicit (SE), combination implicit (CI) and combination explicit (CE) conditions. The results demonstrated that the instructional support had an expected effect on students' understanding of electric circuits when they used the simulation alone; pure procedural guidance (SI) was insufficient to promote conceptual understanding, but when the students were given more guidance for the discovery process (SE) they were able to gain significant amount of subject knowledge. A surprising finding was that when the students used the simulation and the real circuits in parallel, the explicit instruction (CE) did not seem to elicit much additional gain for their understanding of electric circuits compared to the implicit instruction (CI). Instead, the explicit instruction slowed down the inquiry process substantially in the combination environment (CE). Although the explicit instruction was able to improve students' conceptual understanding of electrical circuits considerably in the simulation environment, their understanding did not reach the level of the students in the combination environment. These results suggest that when teaching students about electricity, the students can gain better understanding when they have an opportunity to use the simulation and the real circuits in parallel than if they have only a computer simulation available, even when the use of the simulation is supported with the explicit instruction. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 71–93, 2011     

The Connection Between Forms of Guidance for Inquiry-Based Learning and the Communicative Approaches Applied—a Case Study in the Context of Pre-service Teachers

Research in Science Education - Recent research has argued that inquiry-based science learning should be guided by providing the learners with support. The research on guidance for inquiry-based...     

Introducing Dialogic Teaching to Science Student Teachers

It is commonly believed that science teachers rely on language that allows only minor flexibility when it comes to taking into account contrasting views and pupil thoughts. Too frequently science teachers either pose questions that target predefined answers or simply lecture through lessons, a major concern from a sociocultural perspective. This study reports the experiences of science student teachers when introduced to the Communicative Approach to science education drawing on dialogic teacher-talk in addition to authoritative teacher-talk. This approach was introduced to the students in an interventional teaching program running parallel to the student teachers’ field practice. The practical implications of this approach during initial teacher education are the central focus of this study. The data consisting of videos of lessons and interviews indicate that the student teacher awareness of teacher-talk and alternative communicative options did increase. Student teachers reported greater awareness of the different functions of teacher-talk as well as the challenges when trying to implement dialogic teaching.     

Project DyAdd: Implicit learning in adult dyslexia and ADHD

In this study of the project DyAdd, implicit learning was investigated through two paradigms in adults (18–55 years) with dyslexia (n?=?36) or with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, n?=?22) and in controls (n?=?35). In the serial reaction time (SRT) task, there were no group differences in learning. However, those with ADHD exhibited faster RTs compared to other groups. In the artificial grammar learning (AGL) task, the groups did not differ from each other in their learning (i.e., grammaticality accuracy or similarity choices). Further, all three groups were sensitive to fragment overlap between learning and test-phase items (i.e., similarity choices were above chance). Grammaticality performance of control participants was above chance, but that of participants with dyslexia and participants with ADHD failed to differ from chance, indicating impaired grammaticality learning in these groups. While the main indices of AGL performance, grammaticality accuracy and similarity choices did not correlate with the neuropsychological variables that reflected dyslexia-related (phonological processing, reading, spelling, arithmetic) or ADHD-related characteristics (executive functions, attention), or intelligence, the explicit knowledge for the AGL grammar (i.e., ability to freely generate grammatical strings) correlated positively with the variables of phonological processing and reading. Further, SRT reaction times correlated positively with full scale intelligence quotient (FIQ). We conclude that, in AGL, learning difficulties of the underlying rule structure (as measured by grammaticality) are associated with dyslexia and ADHD. However, learning in AGL is not related to the defining neuropsychological features of dyslexia or ADHD. Instead, the resulting explicit knowledge relates to characteristics of dyslexia.     

Comparison in effect of different metal ions,pH and reducing agent on the protease activity in human hyper mature and mature cataract

This study was undertaken to isolate and characterize the protease activity of human eye lens sample of mature and hyper mature cataract. Samples were collected just after surgery of the cataract lens and were stored at -20°C. The total protein extract was isolated from 5 samples in each case (mature and hyper mature cataract) and clear supernatant obtained after centrifugation was used as an enzyme source. The optimum pH for the proteases of mature cataract was 7.5 while the proteases of hyper mature cataract were recorded for maximum activity at pH 5.5 and 7.5. The optimum temperature for both enzyme sources was 50 °C. Effect of different metal ions such as potassium, lead, silver, zinc and borate was studied. In each case protease activity was increased. Reducing agent e.g. β mercaptoethanol also caused an increase in activity indicating the involvement of sulfhydryl groups. Protease activity was also located on agar plates.     

Identification of novel catalytic features of endo-β-1,4-glucanase produced by mulberry longicorn beetle Apriona germari

Mulberry longicorn beetle, Apriona germari, has been reported to produce two endo-β-1,4-glucanases or AgEGases (accession Nos. Q6SS52 and Q5XQD1). AgEGase sequence contains catalytic motif (amino acid residues 37~48), which is the characteristic of family Glycohydrolase 45 and is identified as the substrate binding site. The application of bioinformatics ap-proaches includes sequence analysis, structural modeling and inhibitor docking to relate the structure and function of AgEGases. We have dissected the sequence and structure of AgEGase catalytic motif and compared it with crystal structure of Humicola insolens endoglucanases V. The results show an involvement of sulfur containing amino acid residues in the active site of the enzyme. Cys residues and position of disulfide bonds are highly conserved between the two structures of endoglucanases of A. germari. Surface calculation of AgEGase structure in the absence of Cys residues reveals greater accessibility of the catalytic site to the substrate involving Asp42, a highly conserved residue. For the inhibition study, tannin-based structure was docked into the catalytic site of AgEGase using ArgusLab 4.0 and it resulted in a stable complex formation. It is suggested that the inhibition could occur through formation of a stable transition state analog-enzyme complex with the tannin-based inhibitor, as observed with other insect cellulases in our laboratory.