Who dares to disconnect in the age of uncertainty? Teachers’ recesses and ‘off‐the‐clock’ work

In 1999, all student teachers at secondary I level at the University of Bern who had to undertake an internship were asked to participate in a study on learning processes during practicum: 150 students and their mentors in three types of practicum participated—introductory practicum (after the first half‐year of studies), intermediate practicum (after two years of studies) and final practicum (after three years of studies). At the end of the practicum, student teachers and mentors completed questionnaires on preparing, teaching and post‐processing lessons. All student teachers, additionally, rated their professional skills and aspects of personality (attitudes towards pupils, self‐assuredness and well‐being) before and after the practicum. Forty‐six student teachers wrote daily semi‐structured diaries about essential learning situations during their practicum.

Results indicate that in each practicum students improved significantly in preparing, conducting and post‐processing lessons. The mentors rated these changes as being greater than did the student teachers. From the perspective of the student teachers their general teaching skills also improved, and their attitudes toward pupils became more open. Furthermore, during practicum their self‐esteem and subjective well‐being increased. Diary data confirmed that there are no differences between different levels of practicum in terms of learning outcomes, but give some first insight into different ways of learning during internship.     

Cognitive-motor dual-task ability of athletes with and without intellectual impairment

Cognition is important in many sports, for example, making split-second-decisions under pressure, or memorising complex movement sequences. The dual-task (DT) paradigm is an ecologically valid approach for the assessment of cognitive function in conjunction with motor demands. This study aimed to determine the impact of impaired intelligence on DT performance. The motor task required balancing on one leg on a beam, and the cognitive task was a multiple-object-tracking (MOT) task assessing dynamic visual-search capacity. The sample included 206 well-trained athletes with and without intellectual impairment (II), matched for sport, age and training volume (140 males, 66 females, M age = 23.2 ± 4.1 years, M training experience = 12.3 ± 5.7 years). In the single-task condition, II-athletes showed reduced balance control (F = 55.9, P < .001, η² = .23) and reduced MOT (F = 86.3, P < .001, η² = .32) compared to the control group. A mixed-model ANCOVA revealed significant differences in DT performance for the balance and the MOT task between both groups. The DT costs were significantly larger for the II-athletes (?8.28% versus ?1.34% for MOT and ?33.13% versus ?12.89% for balance). The assessment of MOT in a DT paradigm provided insight in how impaired intelligence constrains the ability of II-athletes to successfully perform at the highest levels in the complex and dynamical sport-environment.     

Family education, child-parent interactions and child development

We examine the influence of family educational practices on the interaction and communication competencies of four-year-old children. The child, as an active player in its own development, has to manage intra- and inter-personal conflicts in the socio-cognitive and socio-affective registers. We postulate that parental educational practices orient the relationship which each child develops with the world and with itself. Family educational practices were evaluated by means of two questionnaires (general education, specific education). The child’s communication competence was assessed on the following levels: intrapsychic dynamics (projective, tests, social competence and self-representation scales); oral and written communication competence (typological analysis (250 children and their parents). The results show that sociocultural contexts interact with family educational concepts and practices to influence the development of self-representations and the capacity for oral and written communication. General family education modulates the intrapsychic personal dynamics of young children, while specific family education is more responsible for influencing behaviours linked to school activities. A top-down hierarchical analysis was used to differentiate between these two forms of communication competence and the patterns adopted by the child within the diversity of family educational contexts.     

Yellow and social perceptions of racing cyclists’ sportspersonship: Proposing an inter-contextual analysis

Through inter-contextual designs, the present set of experiments sought to explore whether the colour yellow would impact on social perceptions of sportspersonship exclusively in relation to competitive cycling. In Experiment 1 (N = 149), a silhouette image of a cyclist on a yellow background yielded lower perceptions of sportspersonship in comparison to grey or to the context of motocross, regardless of the colour. That interaction was conceptually replicated in Experiment 2 (N = 146) while changing measures (i.e., adaptation of the World Anti-Doping Code) and the context of comparison to sprinting. Furthermore, female and male observers’ scores did not differ significantly thereby suggesting that yellow impacted on perceived sportspersonship similarly across gender. On the whole, those findings suggest that yellow can generate negative impressions of racing cyclists because, with years, this colour took on a meaning of opportunism from frequent pairings with doping. We close with discussing a number of limitations and future research avenues.     

The effect of individual differences in the development of metacognitive strategy knowledge

The aim of this study was to investigate the development of metacognitive strategy knowledge (MSK) during schooling at the upper secondary education level and to examine its relation with individual student characteristics. This longitudinal study with two measurement points analyzed a sample of students in grades 10 and 11 from 19 schools preparing students for university in Switzerland. The findings showed no development of MSK within a single year of school. Individual differences appeared in the level and the change of MSK over time. Female students as well as students with higher SES displayed higher MSK than male students and students with lower SES at the first measurement point. Furthermore, SES predicted changes in MSK over time. Between learning motivation and MSK as well as self-efficacy and MSK, high correlations were found at t1. Neither learning motivation nor self-efficacy had an effect on the change of MSK over time. The results show that there is still substantial potential for MSK development at the upper secondary education level. Implications for education and further studies are discussed.     

High School Students Debate the Use of Embryonic Stem Cells: The influence of context on decision‐making

The present study analyzes decision‐making and argumentation by high school students in a debate situation on a socioscientific issue, the use of embryonic stem cells in research and therapy. We tested the influence on the debates of two different contexts. Adolescent students at the high school level in the same grade (mean age 16.4 years) from rural and urban zones of Provence, France, participated in three debate sessions. During the first session, the students listed the background questions they wanted to ask the expert(s). They were also required to identify one or two major issues that would serve as an outline for the future debate. They then discussed these with the expert(s) during the second session and took note of the answers. During this session, the control groups met with a neuroscientist whereas the experimental ‘contextualized’ group met with the same neuroscientist together with a representative of an association of patients suffering from a neurodegenerative disease. Analysis of the students’ arguments and decision‐making revealed that contextualization introduced dynamism in the students’ exchanges: they paid more attention to their peers’ arguments and were more motivated to argue their own opinion. However, this type of contextualization may contribute to reinforcing ideology in scientific progress.     

Teacher Education and Lifelong Learning: The Contribution of Action 3 of COMENIUS European In‐Service Education Projects

As Article 126 of the Treaty of Maastricht on European Union of 1992 calls for the enhancement of the quality of education at all levels, the Council of Ministers of the European Union established the SOCRATES programme in 1995 to take concrete measures in this direction. This article describes the work of one of the three chapters of SOCRATES, called COMENIUS, the three Actions of which enhance the creation of European Educational Projects, target efforts for the children of migrants of various kinds, and stimulate the creation of European transnational projects for the in‐service training and further training of teachers. Various kinds of transnational projects for pupils as well as for teachers are described focussing upon enhancement of the acquisition of new knowledge, of communication skills, of creativity and of problem solving skills, of the use of the new information technologies and open and distance learning skills, and of teamwork and interdisciplinary skills. The traditional school, by involving itself in the European programmes evoked and described, must inculcate the habit of lifelong learning both to its pupils and to its teaching staff. The habit and practice of lifelong learning leading to a realization of the ideals of the learning society will be a crucial contribution to European citizenship.     

Foreign Media Systems

Conferences, proceedings of three recent international telecommunications

Yves de la Haye, ed. Marx and Engles on the Means of Communication (International General, P.O. Box 350, New York, N.Y. 10013---$4.50 or £2.25, paper)

David Hargreaves' Adult Literacy and Broadcasting: The BBC's Experience (London: Frances Pinter/New York: Nichols, 1980---$22.50)

Christopher Bagley and Gajendra K. Verma's Racial Prejudice, the Individual and Society (Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books/Farnborough: Saxon House, 1979--- $19.00)

David Morley's The Nationwide Audience: Structure and Deconding (British Film Institute, 127 Charing Cross Rd., London WC2H oEA---£.2.95 or about $$7.50, paper)

Barbara Coulton's Louis MacNeice in the BBC (London: Faber and Faber/Lawrence, Mass.: Merrimach Book Service, 1980---E12.50/$31.00)

Australia, a report from Henry Mayer of some recent material from

World Bank, catalog of publications from