Speaking Ill of the Dead: Anonymity and Communication About Suicide on MyDeathSpace.com

From birth to death, many individuals chronicle their lives online through blogs, pictures, games, Web sites, and social networks. Online spaces, created by the living about the dead, provide a glimpse into often invisible or silent grieving practices. To investigate the role computer-mediated communication (CMC) plays in influencing communication surrounding the often private and taboo topic of suicide, we analyzed the comments sections of MyDeathSpace.com. Our results suggest both a breaking down of social taboos (speaking ill of the dead) and a reaffirming of strict social norms (enforcing a narrow range of acceptable presentation of identity and purpose in life), highlighting how anonymity as a characteristic of CMC can influence our online communication about death.     

Evaluation of Affective and Cognitive‐Affective Domains in Socially‐Oriented Innovative Science and Technology Curricula

Summaries

English

The present work is an attempt to contribute to the field of evaluation of the affective domain in socially‐oriented innovative science and technology curricula. The main concern of such curricula is the long‐term development of the student's personality in terms of decision‐making capability, attitudes, intellectual power, and social involvement.

Since it appears that the realistic choice in the evaluation of such curricula is between ‘no measures’ (subjective judgements) and ‘imperfect proxies’, it is proposed to concentrate on finding adequate (and agreeable) measures to evaluate the long‐range intended (but also the unintended) effects of the programmes in hand, and only then to switch to evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum in achieving these effects (i.e. the educational objectives) in the affective domain. Selected ideas with respect to the above are ‘translated’ here into manageable and applicable procedures within the science class, taking into consideration the ‘local realism of constraints’ within which every science teacher performs.

The development of feasible methods for measurement of curricular outcomes in the affective and affective‐cognitive domains is a precondition for future summative evaluation of socio‐technologically oriented science and technology curricula. Contending with the moral and value‐judgement components of any future science curriculum is therefore the inescapable task ahead.     

Physiological Differences Between Heat Tolerant and Heat Intolerant Young Healthy Women

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Heat intolerance (HI) is determined in the Israel Defense Force according to a heat tolerance test (HTT) before returning to duty after an exertional heat stroke (EHS) event. Recently, increased numbers of female combatants resulted in an increased number of EHS cases among women and a higher percentage of heat intolerance (HI) individuals. We aimed to evaluate the differences between tolerance to heat among women performing an HTT in relation to their menstrual cycle phase. Method: Thirty-three female participants were sorted into two groups: HI and heat tolerant (HT) according to two HTTs performed during both the luteal and follicular phases of the menstrual cycle or while consuming and during a break from consuming contraceptives. Results: HT women had an 18% higher maximal oxygen uptake (p < .005, 95% CI [2.6,9.8]) and 1.2% lower skin temperature in the HTT at the during and follicular phases (p < .01, 95% CI [0.12,0.77]) and 1.7% lower at the off and luteal phases (p < .001, 95% CI [0.34,0.92]). The mean sweat rate was 14% lower among the HI group only at the HTT at the during and follicular phases (p < .05, 95% CI (3,88)]). Conclusion: We found that HT can be predicted using aerobic capacity and core body temperature. Moreover, during the luteal phase, women presented altered thermoregulation that decreased the probability of being HT. This emphasizes the importance of considering the HT/HI criteria in the HTT for women, according to their aerobic ability and menstrual-cycle phase.     

On learning fundamental concepts of group theory

The research reported in this paper explores the nature of student knowledge about group theory, and how an individual may develop an understanding of certain topics in this domain. As part of a long-term research and development project in learning and teaching undergraduate mathematics, this report is one of a series of papers on the abstract algebra component of that project.The observations discussed here were collected during a six-week summer workshop where 24 high school teachers took a course in Abstract Algebra as part of their work. By comparing written samples, and student interviews with our own theoretical analysis, we attempt to describe ways in which these individuals seemed to be approaching the concepts of group, subgroup, coset, normality, and quotient group. The general pattern of learning that we infer here illustrates an action-process-object-schema framework for addressing these specific group theory issues. We make here only some quite general observations about learning these specific topics, the complex nature of understanding, and the role of errors and misconceptions in light of an action-process-schema framework. Seen as research questions for further exploration, we expect these observations to inform our continuing investigations and those of other researchers.We end the paper with a brief discussion of some pedagogical suggestions arising out of our considerations. We defer, however, a full consideration of instructional strategies and their effects on learning these topics to some future time when more extensive research can provide a more solid foundation for the design of specific pedagogies.Work on this project has been partially supported by the National Science Foundation.     

Hemispheric basis for schools in mathematics

Kant based Geometry upon the intuition of space and Arithmetic upon the intuition of time. Frege's logicism accepts Kant's view on Geometry and rejects his view on Arithmetic. Logicism bases Arithmetic upon the Logics of sets. On the other hand Brouwer's Intuitionism accepts Kant's view on Arithmetic and rejects his view on Geometry.A model of Ben-Dov and Carmon relates the Kantian modes of perception, space and time, to the brain's right and left hemispheres, respectively. Therefore we conjectured that the preference for particular foundational schools may be related to the brain's hemispheres.Another way to approach mathematics according to two foundational schools is to compare Nominalism with Platonism. Nominalism accepts individual objects and therefore may be related to the left hemisphere, which processes individual details of information. Platonism accepts classes of individual objects and may be related to the right hemisphere, which integrates individual objects into new wholes.These conjectures were tested in a course on Philosophy of Mathematics. The students were asked which foundational schools they preferred and these preferences were then compared with the scores on the hemispheric tests. The results correspond to the conjectures and the model of Ben-Dov and Carmon.This work is part of a doctoral thesis of the author, which was carried out under the supervision of Prof. A. Evyatar.     

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND THE UNIVERSITY: THE “PROBLEM SOLVING‐DECISION MAKING ACT” WITHIN A CRITICAL SYSTEM‐THINKING FRAMEWORK

Current human expectations are too high and cannot be met in the finite world of conflicting interests and unevenly distributed resources. While human activity has caused the current global environmental crisis, education has not prepared people to handle systems of such size and complexity. In order to survive, the time has come to make rational and intelligent decisions and accordingly to take appropriate actions. Thus, environmental education (EE) has become an imperative component of both science and liberal education. STES (Science‐Technology‐Environment‐Society)‐literate people in terms of the “Problem Solving‐Decision Making Act” is advocated as a precondition for the responsible and rational management of the environment in order to ensure future sustainable development; however, STES literacy requires critical system thinking capability on the part of all who are expected to actively and responsibly participate in the democratic decision‐making process. The needed leadership and contribution of the university in the endeavour to attain the ultimate goal of EE, STES‐literate citizens, is contingent on its readiness to restructure education including course offerings, teaching strategies, and evaluation means, as well as to modify environmental research programmes.     

The use of examinations for revealing and distinguishing between students' misconceptions,misunderstandings and “no conceptions” in college chemistry

Students at all ages hold a wide variety of scientifically faulty knowledge structures called “misconceptions”. As far as misconceptions in chemistry are concerned, college science students are no exception. Systematic administration to freshman biology majors of specially-designed mid-term and term higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS)-oriented examinations within the courses “General and Inorganic Chemistry” and “Introduction to Modern Organic Chemistry” proved these examinations to be very effective in revealing and distinguishing between students'misconceptions, misunderstandings, and“no conceptions”. Several of these have never been mentioned before in the relevant research literature. Accordingly, reflective teaching strategies to overcome this “misconceptions problem” and affect meaningfully subsequent learning have been explored and implemented within our longitudinal effort to develop students' HOCS. The study results combined with accumulated experience indicate that properly designed HOCS-oriented examinations may be very effective for revealing, but notper se for overcoming, students' misconceptions. However, within HOCS-oriented chemistry teaching, the assessment of students by such examinations is very useful particularly for providing data for remediation purposes via appropriate modification of the teaching strategies. Eventually, this leads to gains in students' HOCS which is in line with the overall goal of the current reform in science education.