Discovering Randomness, Recovering Expertise: The Different Approaches to the Quality in Measurement of Coulomb and Gauss and of Today’s Students

The aim of this paper is to discuss different approaches to the quality (or uncertainty) of measurement data considering both historical examples and today’s students’ views. Today’s teaching of data analysis is very much focussed on the application of statistical routines (often called the ?Gaussian approach” to error analysis). Studies on students’ understanding of measurement however show, that though the majority can be enabled to apply those routines most of the students fail to construct a coherent understanding of the matter. Analysing two historical examples of measurement practice of the time around 1,800 when the statistical approach was established, we point out what often neglected key idea gave rise to the statistical approach to data analysis (the appreciation of randomness in data distribution) and how the emergence of this idea was embedded in a very sophisticated insight on measurement and the nature of measurement data (experimental expertise). These two aspects can vividly be illustrated using the different approaches to data handling of Coulomb and Gauss around the time of 1,800. Gauss’s appreciation of the randomness in data distribution consequently led him to other analytical routines as those employed by Coulomb. This is an important aspect concerning the teaching of the statistical routines of data analysis. However, the deep experimental expertise of both Gauss and Coulomb in both cases prevented an application by rote of some routines and shaped their approaches to very successful instruments of data handling. We therefore argue that both the key idea of randomness as well as an elaborated experimental expertise has to be taken into consideration much more than before by instructors and teachers in order to support the students to construct a coherent understanding on the nature and the handling of measurement data and especially the assessment of their quality.     

Who intends to learn and who intends to leave? The intention to leave education early among students from inclusive and regular classes in primary and secondary schools

ABSTRACT

Early school leaving is a serious problem for individual students, especially for students with special educational needs (SEN). This study tests predictors of early school leaving, using data collected among 1,047 students from 60 inclusive and regular classes in primary and secondary schools in Austria with 4th- and 7th-grade students aged 9–11 and 12–14 years. Multilevel regression analyses show that higher school wellbeing and a more positive student–teacher relationship reduce the intention of both 4th and 7th graders to leave school early. Additionally, for 7th graders, having a migrant background and more individualised instruction are predictors of a greater intention to leave school early. School grade, gender, socioeconomic background, SEN, social integration, class climate, school setting (regular class vs. inclusive class), and the heterogeneity of the class composition had no impact on the intention to leave school early.     

Informal Learning with Technology: The Effects of Self-Constructing Externalizations

ABSTRACT

Especially in the context of technology-enhanced informal learning, it is crucial to understand how to design information sources in such a way that learners are not overwhelmed by the demands of the learning process, but at the same time are engaged in higher order thinking processes. Guidance aids learners in dealing with the demands of a learning process. The authors examined the effects of different levels of guidance provided by an information source. To this end, the effects of a preconstructed externalization are compared to a self-constructed externalization. Thirty-eight students participated in the study. The results revealed no significant differences between the groups with respect to posttest retention. However, performance in application tasks was promoted by the condition associated with a lower level of guidance. This suggests that having learners self-construct an externalization might be a suitable means to elicit learners’ higher order thinking processes in technology-enhanced informal learning.     

The use of heuristics during route planning by expert and novice orienteers

Expert orienteers have reported using two heuristics when planning routes to points in the environment that must be located, known as 'controls'. These heuristics constitute attending to the start first and subsequently planning forward to a given control, and attending to the control first and planning backwards to the start. The aim of this study was to establish which heuristic experts use predominantly and whether novices' use of these heuristics differs from that of experts. Two methods for tracing attention were used while 20 expert and 20 novice orienteers planned routes in the laboratory. The results were used to infer the use of heuristics. The orienteers were also interviewed about planning. We found that, when planning, experts generally attend to the control first and novices to the start first. There was also some evidence that novices work forwards from the start to the control and that experts work backwards from the control to the start. From the interviews, it would appear that experts regard the location of the control as the crux of the problem and prioritize this area during planning. These results have implications for an understanding of expertise and problem-solving in sport.     

Physical activity, nutrition, screen time and sleep associated with body weight and physical condition in young children

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to explore the possible relationship between (un)healthy behaviour and (over)weight and physical condition in families with young children (4–7 years), in a village (30,000 inhabitants) in the eastern part of the Netherlands, close to Germany. It is one of two pilot studies as a precursor of a cross-border project including six Dutch and six German villages, to counteract physical inactivity and possible future metabolic problems. In total, 459 children of five elementary schools and their parents were included. Parents were requested to fill in a questionnaire on the nutritional, physical, sedentary, and sleeping behaviour of their child. Relevant background characteristics were obtained and lifestyle classifications were made. At school, the children's height and weight (body mass index (BMI)) were measured, as well as their physical condition (two tests) and basic motor abilities (four physical exercise tests). The relationship between the standardized BMI z-scores and physical condition test scores, and nutritional, physical, sedentary and sleeping habits was analysed using independent sample t-test, bivariate correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. Latent class analysis was used to identify clusters of people based on their nutritional, physical and sleep habits. Of the parents, 376 (82?%) were willing to fill out the questionnaire. High birth weight and a high BMI of the mother and/or father correlated with a higher BMI of the child (ρ?=?0.28, p?<?0.001; ρ?=?0.13, p?=?0.016; and ρ?=?0.23, p?<?0.001, respectively). Daily playing outside, eating small cookies (compared with large cookies) and no sleeping problems (no waking up during the night) were related to low BMI levels (no overweight) [ρ?=???0.14, p?=?0.005; ρ?=???0.12, p?=?.020; t(364)?=?1.81, p?=?0.072 (trend), respectively]. Daily playing outside (frequency and duration) and being a member of a sports club were related to positive scores on the physical condition tests [ρ?=?0.20, p?<?0.001; t(365)?=???2.99, p?=?0.003, respectively]. High levels of television (TV) watching and general sleeping problems were related to a less optimal physical condition [ρ?=???0.09, p?=?0.076 (trend); and ρ?=???0.10, p?=?0.059 (trend), respectively]. A latent class analysis revealed three clusters: 46?% of the sample belonged to the ‘healthy group’ concerning nutrition, sedentary lifestyle and TV/personal computer (PC) use; 17?% to the ‘less healthy’ group and 37?% to a group with nutrition and physical activity habits close to the healthy group, but with low conditional probabilities for the sleeping items. Conducting a pilot study before the start of a binational intervention study gives a blueprint for the final questionnaire, and clues for tailored interventions in the schools, as proposed in the approach of ‘Gesunde Kinder in gesunden Kommunen’ (GKGK). The results of a latent class analysis underscore that interventions should exist of a multi-component strategy, focusing on promoting physical activity, healthy nutrition habits and appropriate sleep.     

Organ economy: organ trafficking in Moldova and Israel

Organ trafficking is an illegal means of meeting the shortage of transplants. The activity flourishes for several interacting reasons, such as medical needs, poverty and criminality. Other factors are fundamental conceptual structures such as the dream of the regenerative body as well as the view of the body as an object of utility and an object of value. The article aims to go behind the normative discussions that usually surround organ trafficking. Why this is happening, and what the societal consequences are, is examined through ethnographic fieldwork. The focus is on the shadow economies that govern existence and in which people, goods, weapons, money, bodies, etc. constitute components of the global market.     

Productivity effects of basic research in low-tech and high-tech industries

R&D encompasses plenty of activities which are usually summarized under the terms of basic research, applied research and development. Although basic research is often associated with low appropriability it provides the fundamental basis for subsequent applied research and development. Especially in the high-tech sector basic research capabilities are an essential component for a firm's success. We use firm-level panel data stemming from Belgian R&D surveys and apply a production function approach which shows that basic research exhibits a premium on a firm's output when compared to applied research and development. When we split the sample into high-tech and low-tech companies, we find a large premium of basic research for firms in high-tech industries, but no premium in low-tech sectors.     

Professional minutia and their consequences: provenance, context, original identification, and anthropology at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois

Historical settings structure how archivists and museum staff understand their work and how they apply relevant professional principles including the three core principles of provenance, context, and original identification. Their professional practices shape how the public understands or reads “original” artifacts and records. In helping to define what originals (artifacts and documents) are at a particular point in time, archivists and museum staff reinforce, support, or contradict theoretical paradigms, discourses, and social narratives on ethnicity, empire/internal colonialism, class, and gender among others. The article discusses two exemplary cases from the museum world that illustrate how the application of the three core principles is influenced by historical conditions and theoretical concepts and how these contingent applications influence what originals come to signify. In the first example, the theoretical concept of social evolution and the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago informed the founding, collecting, describing, and displaying of American Indian objects at the Field Museum of Natural History in 1894. Reflecting this, provenance, context, and original identifications were defined to mean different things for Euro-American versus American Indian objects and records, and Native Americans and others challenged these definitions and practices at the time. In the second example, the 1929–1933 making and displaying of the Hall of Races, a specific race anthropological understanding of race created unambiguous race anthropological provenance, context and original titles (identifications) for both the exhibit and individual race sculptures. By altering information concerning the three principles over the next 60 years, the Field Museum consciously destroyed the integrity of the originals and their meanings. The exhibit had become a political liability and the museum wanted to erase any trace of the race anthropological roots of the project and its sculptures. The article ends by asserting the contingency and importance of the three core principles for archivists and museum staff regardless of the format of the material involved and adds a few related observations for our contemporary hybrid, that means physical and digital, work world.     

Advancement towards the scholarship of teaching and learning through the writing of teaching portfolios

This study explores the impact academic teachers’ writing of a teaching portfolio can have on their professional learning. Through an open-ended questionnaire, 26 academics from three faculties reported on insights, effects on teaching practice, and effects on collegial exchange that the portfolio writing entailed. We discuss how the experienced impact relates to the three competence levels excellence, expertise and scholarship of teaching and learning. With regard to academic development, we conclude that the writing of reflective teaching portfolios has the potential of contributing to an emerging academic community of practice characterised by a scholarly approach to teaching and learning.     

Systematic educational change and teacher skill-building in developed and developing countries: the importance of teacher peer learning groups

Many developed and developing countries are seeking to systematically transform their education processes through Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The aim of this paper is to present findings from one aspect of a larger ICT study in a particular location in a developing country, with the specific focus presented here being ICT professional development and impacts. Research methods in the study included teacher and school leader surveys, targeted interviews and also case studies. Findings at a systems level generally indicated insufficient coordination of training and minimal follow-up occurring. In case study situations in which the school leader ensured a schoolwide approach to the professional learning of teachers, ICT was more embedded into student learning processes in classrooms. Considering ICT and other professional learning relevant to education, this paper has relevance for policy developers and school leaders in developed and developing world contexts. The need exists for using coordinated professional development processes, with more centralised ‘one-off’ training supplemented by schools and districts. The establishment of peer learning groups or mentors to support skill-building over time is also needed. Through these ongoing processes, teachers can more effectively make changes in their teaching practices, with potential impacts on student learning.