Peer‐prompted Social Skills: the role of teacher consultation in student success

ABSTRACT A peer‐prompted social skills programme was introduced to two teachers in a local Head Start preschool programme, and changes in standardised social skills, observed play and problem behaviours were examined. The first teacher was given continuing classroom consultation and training directly addressing the use of the social skills programme. The second teacher was given an equivalent amount of consultation, but no consultant‐initiated efforts were made to support the use of the programme. Significant improvement in standardised measures of social skills and observed levels of associative/co‐operative play behaviour were found only in the skill‐specific consultation classroom. No changes were found for problem behaviour for either classroom. The data suggest that reinforcing the children for appropriate social interactions is not sufficient. Rather, peer support and consultation must be available for the teacher to produce significant changes in the children's behaviour.     

A Decade of Transformation: Educational Policies in Central and Eastern Europe

The changes in Central and Eastern Europe caused by upheavals at the beginning of the 1990s had great impact on the formation and implementation of educational policies. A comparison of patterns in Russia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic shows common features which were rooted in the collapse of the communist system. At the same time these transformation processes were marked by considerable diversity. To elucidate these commonalities and differences, the following problem areas are examined: (a) decentralisation of responsibilities; (b) financing and privatisation; (c) structural reforms; (d) curricular reforms; and (e) evaluation, assessment and examinations. These developments are considered in the light of various theories about how periods of social transformation unfold. The article helps to throw light on the differences between the countries of the region in terms of how the educational changes were perceived and carried out.     

Decreased sympathetic cardiovascular influences and hormone-physiological changes in response to Covid-19-related adaptations under different learning environments

To examine the implications of the transition from face-to-face to online learning from a psychobiological perspective, this study investigated potential differences in physiological stress parameters of students engaged in online or face-to-face learning and determined whether these can be identified as possible mediators between learning experience and achievement emotions. In a randomized experimental field study, medical students (n = 82) attended either regular face-to-face classes of the microscopic anatomy course or the same practical course online using Zoom videoconferencing platform. The present study investigated Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and salivary cortisol concentration as stress correlates, within the contexts of online and face-to-face learning and compared these parameters with a control group that was measured at rest. Additionally, participants completed a standardized questionnaire about their experienced emotions in relation to task achievement and subjective stress levels. A significant reduction in HRV was found in face-to-face learning, suggesting stronger stress responses in the face-to-face learning environment (η² = 0.421, P < 0.001). Furthermore, participants engaged in face-to-face learning showed significantly higher cortisol concentrations (η² = 0.115, P = 0.032). Additionally, increased sympathetic activation correlated with the discrete positive emotion of enjoyment exclusively within the face-to-face condition (r = 0.365, P = 0.043). These results indicate that the transfer of a face-to-face practical course in microscopic anatomy to an online learning environment is associated with decreased sympathetic and enhanced vagal cardiovascular influences, together with lower cortisol concentrations in healthy medical students.     

The Development of Metacognitive Knowledge in Children and Adolescents: Major Trends and Implications for Education

ABSTRACT— This article gives an overview of developmental trends in research on metacognition in children and adolescents. Whereas a first wave of studies focused on the assessment of declarative and procedural metacognitive knowledge in schoolchildren and adolescents, a second wave focused on very young children's "theory of mind" (ToM). Findings from a recent longitudinal study are presented that demonstrate developmental links between early ToM and subsequent declarative metacognitive knowledge, mainly mediated by language competencies. The relevant literature further indicates that developmental trends in declarative and procedural metacognitive knowledge clearly differ. Whereas the findings for declarative metacognitive knowledge show steady improvement through childhood and adolescence, mainly due to increases in knowledge about strategies, the results are not similarly clear-cut for procedural metacognition. Age trends observed for this component of metacognition are significant for self-control activities but not pronounced for monitoring abilities. These findings have important implications for education, emphasizing the role of strategy training procedures in different instructional domains and illustrating teachers' potential impact on the improvement of monitoring and control processes.     

Dynamics of mental model construction from text and graphics

When students read for learning, they frequently are required to integrate text and graphics information into coherent knowledge structures. The following study aimed at analyzing how students deal with texts and how they deal with graphics when they try to integrate the two sources of information. Furthermore, the study investigated differences between students from different school types and grades. Forty students from grades 5 and 8 from higher track and lower track of the German school system were asked to process and integrate texts and graphics in order to answer items from different levels of a text–picture integration taxonomy. Students’ eye movements were recorded and analyzed. Results suggest fundamentally different functions of text and graphics, which are associated with different processing strategies. Texts are more likely to be used according to a coherence-formation strategy, whereas graphics are more likely to be used on demand as visual cognitive tools according to an information-selection strategy. Students from different tracks of schooling revealed different adaptivity with regard to the requirements of combining text and graphic information.     

Qualitätssicherung in Kindertageseinrichtungen

Obwohl heute ein weitgehender Konsens darüber vorliegt, dass der Qualit?tssicherung bei Humandienstleistungen ein ganz besonderer Stellenwert zukommt, fehlt eine systematische Auseinandersetzung mit den Gründen und M?glichkeiten einer solchen Qualit?tssicherung. Am Beispiel der Bildung, Erziehung und Betreuung von Kindern in Kindertageseinrichtungen sollen deshalb in diesem Beitrag systematische überlegungen zu einer Qualit?tssicherung zusammengetragen und diskutiert werden. In einem ersten Teil des Beitrags werden prim?r aus ?konomischer, jedoch auch aus p?dagogischer Perspektive die unterschiedlichen Gründe für eine Qualit?tssicherung au?erhalb des Marktes dargelegt. Eine solche Qualit?tssicherung muss jedoch nicht vom Staat selbst übernommen werden, vielmehr hat dieser lediglich die Rahmenbedingungen für ein funktionierendes Qualit?tssicherungssystem zu setzen. Der Beitrag stellt dar, welche Anforderungen ein solches Qualit?tssicherungssystem prinzipiell erfüllen muss, im Anschluss daran wird überprüft, inwiefern diese Anforderungen im deutschen Kindertageseinrichtungsbereich erfüllt sind. Als Ergebnis kann festgehalten werden, dass das deutsche Qualit?tssicherungssystem zu keinen ausreichenden Ergebnissen führt und daher reformbedürftig ist. Als Ansatzpunkt für solche Reformüberlegungen schlagen wir ein Gütesiegelsystem vor, das — in Kombination mit einer Subjektf?rderung über Kinderbetreuungsgutscheine — wettbewerbliche Elemente nicht nur bei der Zuteilung von Finanzmitteln, sondern auch bei der Qualit?tssicherung nutzbar macht. Damit verspricht das Gütesiegelsystem im Vergleich zum bisherigen System effizienter und effektiver zu sein.     

Integrating plasmonic diagnostics and microfluidics

Plasmonics is generally divided into two categories: surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of electromagnetic modes propagating along a (noble) metal/dielectric interface and localized SPRs (LSPRs) on nanoscopic metallic structures (particles, rods, shells, holes, etc.). Both optical transducer concepts can be combined with and integrated in microfluidic devices for biomolecular analyte detections, with the benefits of small foot-print for point-of-care detection, low-cost for one-time disposal, and ease of being integrated into an array format. The key technologies in such integration include the plasmonic chip, microfluidic channel fabrication, surface bio-functionalization, and selection of the detection scheme, which are selected according to the specifics of the targeting analytes. This paper demonstrates a few examples of the many versions of how to combine plasmonics and integrated microfluidics, using different plasmonic generation mechanisms for different analyte detections. One example is a DNA sensor array using a gold film as substrate and surface plasmon fluorescence spectroscopy and microscopy as the transduction method. This is then compared to grating-coupled SPR for poly(ethylene glycol) thiol interaction detected by angle interrogation, gold nanohole based LSPR chip for biotin-strepavidin detection by wavelength shift, and gold nanoholes/nanopillars for the detection of prostate specific antigen by quantum dot labels excited by the LSPR. Our experimental results exemplified that the plasmonic integrated microfluidics is a promising tool for understanding the biomolecular interactions and molecular recognition process as well as biosensing, especially for on-site or point-of-care diagnostics.     

Enhanced jump performance when providing augmented feedback compared to an external or internal focus of attention

Factors such as an external focus of attention (EF) and augmented feedback (AF) have been shown to improve performance. However, the efficacy of providing AF to enhance motor performance has never been compared with the effects of an EF or an internal focus of attention (IF). Therefore, the aim of the present study was to identify which of the three conditions (AF, EF or IF) leads to the highest performance in a countermovement jump (CMJ). Nineteen volunteers performed 12 series of 8 maximum CMJs. Changes in jump height between conditions and within the series were analysed. Jump heights differed between conditions (P < 0.001), resulting in best performance with AF (32.04 ± 7.11 cm), followed by EF (31.21 ± 6.67 cm) and IF (30.77 ± 6.87 cm). Significantly different (P < 0.001) within-series effects of higher jump heights at the end of the series in AF (+1.60%) and lower jump heights at the end of the series in EF (?1.79%) and IF (?1.68%) were observed. Muscle activity did not differ between conditions. The differences between conditions and within the series provide evidence that AF leads to higher performance and better progression within one series than EF and IF. Consequently, AF seems to outperform EF and IF when maximising jump height.     

Rise and decline of education systems: a contribution to the history of the modern state

If by ‘education systems’ we understand institutional units, constituted by common legal provisions, organizational structures, curricular goals and value foundations, the current period signals their decline. This indicates the decline of the modern nation state, which has characterized the political map of Europe for 300 years and gradually expanded to the other continents. Therefore education systems in their ‘state‐bound’ constitution must be identified as a category of ‘organized space’ within a given historical period—and not as a perpetual phenomenon. This understanding of the current ‘education system’ points the way to the concept of ‘educational spaces’ in periods preceding the modern nation state. It helps to identify the current stages of transition, indicated by the emergence of regional ‘educational spaces’, the expansion of private sectors, and the invasion of the globalizing markets into the ‘knowledge society’.