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...     

Embodied Reflection of Images as an Arts-Based Research Method: Teaching Experiment in Higher Education

Interchange - This paper discusses a teaching experiment in which 20 university students in Finland participated in the course Critical and Novel Approaches to Management and Organisational...     

Student' Strategic Actions in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) can be a powerful tool in creating learning communities in which students have a chance to construct knowledge collaboratively and to develop explanations of the subject to be studied. It is obvious, however, that collaborative inquiry is a cognitively-challenging task for an individual student. More evidence on the nature and quality of students' actions and strategic processes in CSCL is needed to make these models more applicable in different domains of classroom learning. The aim of this study was to analyse students' strategic actions in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning. Eighteen secondary school students, ages 13–14 years, participated in CSCL inquiries in their literature class. The networked technology environment used was CSILE. The students had three inquiry-based CSCL projects, each lasting for six weeks. The data-collection procedures used were questionnaires, students' written computer notes and repeated process-oriented interviews. The results show the dominance of a superficial approach toward inquiry. This is evidenced by the students' fact-oriented computer notes and their self-reported, surface-level strategic actions. However, the results show a growing amount of collaborative discussion in the networked database. Collaborative networked discussions manifest an increase in deeper-level cognitive strategies and progressive student inquiries. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

On-chip DNA preconcentration in different media conductivities by electrodeless dielectrophoresis

Electrodeless dielectrophoresis is the best choice to achieve preconcentration of nanoparticles and biomolecules due to its simple, robust, and easy implementation. We designed a simple chip with microchannels and nano-slits in between and then studied the trapping of DNA in high conductive medium and low conductive medium, corresponding to positive and negative dielectrophoresis (DEP), respectively. It is very important to investigate the trapping in media with different conductivities since one always has to deal with the sample solutions with different conductivities. The trapping process was analyzed by the fluorescent intensity changes. The results showed that DNA could be trapped at the nano-slit in both high and low conductive media in a lower electric field strength (10 V/cm) compared to the existing methods. This is a significant improvement to suppress the Joule heating effect in DEP related experiments. Our work may give insight to researchers for DNA trapping by a simple and low cost device in the Lab-on-a-Chip system.     

The production of ‘context’ in information seeking research: a metatheoretical view

Context is hot in information science as well as in numerous other disciplines, but what exactly does this mean in and for research? The paper discusses the differences between objectified and interpretative approaches to context. It is argued that in information needs and seeking research (INS), the former approach has thus far been more common. Contextual entities are usually described to provide a background for the study of individuals' or groups' information behavior, not in order to point out how contextual knowledge is. From a metatheoretical viewpoint, context is the site where a phenomenon is constituted as a research object. One way of understanding INS phenomena is to define them as patterns of behavior; another way is to understand them as phenomena mediated by social and cultural meanings and values. A large proportion of current theory and research in INS studies is located within the behaviorist framework which has become so familiar and taken-for-granted that it is rarely seen as a paradigm.     

Analyzing Qualitative Interview Data: The Discourse Analytic Method

The article presents discourse analysis as a method of analyzing qualitative interview data. Using examples from a study of users' library conceptions, it is argued that participants' interpretations are much more context dependent and variable than normally recognized, and that this has important implications for the use of interview data. Instead of producing definitive versions of participants' action or beliefs, interview data may be used to reveal regular interpretative practices through which participants construct versions of actions, cognitive processes, and other phenomena. This method does not take the individual as the principal unit of analysis, but strives to recognize cultural regularities in participants' accounts to examine the phenomena studied at a macrosociologic level.     

Student teachers’ proactive strategies for avoiding study-related burnout during teacher education

The study aims to gain a better understanding of the function of proactive strategies in buffering study burnout among student teachers at the early stage of their studies. There is some evidence that the use of active social coping strategies during studies is related to reduced burnout levels among early career teachers. Less is known about the association between the proactive strategies and burnout among student teachers. Altogether, 244 Finnish student teachers completed the survey. The data were analysed by using SEM. The results suggested that the proactive strategies adopted by student teachers seem to prevent study-related burnout, especially in terms of exhaustion in studies and inadequacy in studying, but not directly the perceived cynicism towards studies. The results imply that learning how to use proactive strategies is functional in coping with study-related stressors, by reducing the risk of student teachers’ burnout.     

Strategies for academic engagement perceived by Finnish sixth and eighth graders

This study explores strategies students use to construct their academic engagement in the social environment of school. The study is based on group interview data collected from 161 sixth (78) and eighth (83) grade students. Students reflected both engaging and disengaging episodes. Data were content analysed. The results show that students reported using only confirming strategies in teacher–student interaction. More diverse strategies were described in relation to peer interaction. The results indicated that simultaneously maintaining functional peer relations and engaging effectively in academic activities is a highly challenging task which requires strategic flexibility and self-regulative skills. In terms of the development of more engaging learning environments for students, our results suggest that more attention should be paid to creating positive opportunities to participate, in terms of both academic activities and peer interaction.     

Tert-butyl amine borane complex: An unusual application of a reducing agent on model molecules of cellulose based materials

The need to preserve cultural heritage on paper requires the setting up of methods and treatments that can be applied to original documents. The cellulose main degradation processes are hydrolysis and oxidation. Only the first one has been widely investigated. The Istituto Centrale per la Patologia del Libro (ICPL) focused its attention on oxidation phenomena and studied a particular class of reducing agents, namely the borane-amine complexes. During the investigation it was found that the borane tert-butylamine complex, besides being the most promising reducing agent, was also able to react with carboxylic functions. In the present study ¹H and ¹³C NMR, Pulsed field gradient NMR spectroscopy as well as Raman spectroscopy were used as analytical tools to disclose the mechanism of the interaction between the borane tert-butylamine complex and the carboxylic functions. Given the complexity of the paper/environment interactions and the subsequent degradation phenomena, we worked on simplified models based on small carbohydrate molecules in order to reproduce the behavior of degraded paper after reductive restoration. Modified D-glucose and D-cellobiose were used in this first step in order to set up the analytical methods before approaching more complex systems such as microcrystalline cellulose and paper. Our results give the experimental evidence that borane tert-butylamine complex is also able to neutralize acidic functions. This finding has important perspectives in paper restoration.