Emotional profiles regarding maths among primary school children – A two-year longitudinal study

Learning maths is challenging for many primary school students, and teachers must understand students’ learning and emotional processes specific to learning maths. The current research, grounded in control-value theory, focused on achievement emotions regarding maths. Primary school students (N?=?71) were studied with the primary objective of examining the longitudinal trajectories of achievement emotions of third graders over two years. The Portuguese Achievement Emotions Questionnaire for Elementary Students was administered biannually to assess enjoyment, anxiety, and boredom regarding maths. The results indicate that enjoyment decreased and boredom increased over time, revealing three emotional profiles: positive, negative and moderate. The positive profile showed the highest scores in maths achievement. Profile membership was moderately stable and became increasingly stable and structured. In examining the complexity of students’ emotional profiles and processes, the importance of understanding them to enhance educational support, development, and learning was highlighted.

     

A seventeenth century Japanese painting: Scientific identification of materials and techniques

A Japanese painting on paper, in the form of a horizontal scroll from the Stibbert Museum in Florence, is being treated at the ISCR Paper Conservation Laboratory. The scroll, entitled Bamo Dōi-zu represents 33 different types of horses. Although there is no author's seal, it has been attributed to the famous Japanese artist, Kanō Sansetsu (1589–1651). Before conservation treatment, the artefact underwent technical and scientific examination in order to identify its materials and determine its conservation condition. As sampling paint layers from paintings on paper is extremely invasive, non-destructive techniques such as X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and spectrophotometry were employed. Several points from the paper support were analysed: the metal-leaf decorations, the seals and calligraphy, as well as the painted horses. Results detected and revealed a very simple palette: cinnabar (or its synthetic equivalent vermillion), shell white, carbon black, and the organic yellow gamboge. Pure gold and silver leaves were used for decorating the frontispiece. Useful information was obtained from the paper support and on its conservation conditions. Micro-destructive analyses were also performed on a few paper fragments for microscopic and scanning electron microscope equipped with an X-ray probe analysis. Results showed that materials and techniques are consistent with the Kanō School period.     

Effects of concurrent training on interleukin-6, tumour necrosis factor-alpha and C-reactive protein in middle-aged men

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of moderate- to high-intensity resistance and concurrent training on inflammatory biomarkers and functional capacity in sedentary middle-aged healthy men. Participants were selected on a random basis for resistance training (n = 12), concurrent training (n = 11) and a control group (n = 13). They performed three weekly sessions for 16 weeks (resistance training: 10 exercises with 3 × 8-10 repetition maximum; concurrent training: 6 exercises with 3 × 8-10 repetition maximum, followed by 30 minutes of walking or running at 55-85% [Vdot]O(2peak)). Maximal strength was tested in bench press and leg press. The peak oxygen uptake ([Vdot]O(2peak)) was measured by an incremental exercise test. Tumour necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein were determined. The upper- and lower-body maximal strength increase for both resistance (+42.52%; +20.9%, respectively) and concurrent training (+28.35%; +21.5%, respectively) groups (P = 0.0001).[Vdot]O(2peak) increased in concurrent training when comparing pre- and post-training (P = 0.0001; +15.6%). No differences were found in tumour necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6 for both groups after the exercise. C-reactive protein increased in resistance training (P = 0.004). These findings demonstrated that 16 weeks of moderate- to high-intensity training could improve functional capacity, but did not decrease inflammatory biomarkers in middle-aged men.     

Changing professional discourses in teacher education policy back towards a training paradigm: a comparative study

Modern definitions of professions connect professional knowledge to scientific studies and higher education. In the present article we examine the changing nature of this relationship in initial teacher education in two European countries: Sweden and England. The article is based on policy analyses from recent decades of teacher education reforms. The findings suggest a policy convergence through a shared policy return that has moved teacher education back toward a teacher training paradigm.     

Organizing A Painting Set-Up For Young Children

The purpose of this study was to compare the perceptions of teacher competence within and among three groups of educators (teachers, college supervisors, and public school administrators) as measured by the interview scales of the Instrument for the Observation of Teaching Activities (IOTA) . Six teachers were interviewed, and the interviews were recorded on video tape. Thirty educators, stratified into three groups, and randomly selected from those trained in use of the Instrument, scored the taped interviews. A reliability coefficient for each group of recorders and for the total of the three groups of recorders was calculated from the statistics generated by a three-way analysis of variance. A two-way analysis of variance was then utilized to test for the significance of differences among the three groups of recorders and within each group of recorders and within all recorders on each individual scale. The major findings and conclusions of this study were as follows: 1.) The reliability coefficients as determined by the three-way analysis of variance for each of the three groups and for the total (30) recorders indicated a difference in perception as follows: administrators, .773; teachers, .618; college supervisors, .952; total (30) recorders, .961; 2.) the interview, normally considered a qualitative tool, can be evaluated with quantitative techniques; and 3.) administrators, teachers, and college supervisors perceive many areas of teacher competence similarly.     

Sociocultural approaches to learning and development: A Vygotskian framework

Sociocultural approaches emphasize the interdependence of social and individual processes in the coconstruction of knowledge. This article uses three central tenets of a Vygotskian framework to examine the relation between learning and development: (a) social sources of individual development, (b) semiotic (signs and symbols, including language) mediation in human development, and (c) genetic (developmental) analysis. The role played by culture and language in human development is an essential aspect of the Vygotskian framework and provides an overarching theme for this article. The methodological foundation of this framework is examined, particularly as it contrasts with other perspectives on the process of internalization of social interaction in the construction of knowledge. The article concludes by surveying sociocultural research on and applications to classroom learning and teaching, particularly that which examines the role of collaboration.     

Volunteer Utilization Report Prepared for Future of the Library Task Force of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, 2010

The author has prepared a planning document on how her library system can use volunteers as one strategy for keeping libraries open in the face of severe budget cuts by the county government that provides most of the library's funding. The document is addressed to the Future of the Library Task Force, the planning group that makes policy recommendations to governance officials. The author also estimates the number of volunteers and the number of hours they will contribute as Charlotte Mecklenburg Library works to implement the plan. These calculations generate several tables with information about volunteer activities within the system to provide the planners with sufficient information to make appropriate decisions.     

Making sense of iconic symbols: a study of preschool children conducting a refuse-sorting task

This article is part of a larger project focusing upon explanatory illustrations that children encounter in pre- and primary school education. The research questions concerned (a) how preschool children make sense of iconic symbols when placing items of refuse on illustrations of refuse bins in a sorting task and (b) what stumbling blocks they encounter when interpreting these symbols. Video data were collected with 30 children between four and five?years of age. From the children’s verbal and non-verbal interactions, four different categories of sense-making were constructed: by material, by object type, by appearance and by function. Three stumbling blocks were identified. The first had to do with giving the symbols a different logical meaning to the intended one; the second related to what materials the different refuse items were made of; the third was being able to stick to one correct way of interpreting each symbol.     

Academic work on a back-burner: habituating students in the upper-secondary school towards marginality and a life in the precariat

This article takes its point of departure in ethnographic data from what in Sweden is called the Individual Programme (IP). This programme was for upper-secondary school pupils who were not eligible for one of the country's academic or vocational programme. Its main formally expressed goal was to enable students to become eligible for these programmes. Our data show that this aim risks going unfulfilled as attending the kind of programme represented by the IP increases the likelihood of marginalisation and a precarious existence. The policy of freedom of choice was a problem. This policy allowed the students to opt out of academic work and staff to encourage students to opt for easy study options and activities that took them away from academic routes.