From Ancient Greece to Modern Education: Universality and Lack of Generalization of the Socratic Dialogue

Two thousand four hundred years ago Socrates gave a remarkable lesson of geometry, perhaps the first detailed record of a pedagogical method in vivo in history [ Plato. (2008) . Apología de Sócrates. Menón. Crátilo. Madrid: Alianza Editorial]. Socrates asked Meno's slave 50 questions requiring simple additions or multiplications. At the end of the lesson the student discovered by himself how to duplicate a square using the diagonal of the given one as the side of the new square. We studied empirically the reproducibility of this dialogue in educated adults and adolescents of the 21st century. Our results show a remarkable agreement between Socratic and empiric dialogues. Even in questions in which Meno's slave made a mistake, within an unbounded number of possible erred responses, the vast majority of participants produced the same error as Meno's slave. Our results show that the Socratic dialogue is built on a strong intuition of human knowledge and reasoning which persists more than 24 centuries after its conception, providing one of the most striking demonstrations of universality across time and cultures. At the same time, they also emphasize its educational failure. After following every single question including Socrates' “diagonal argument,” almost 50% of the participants failed to learn the simplest generalization when asked to double the area of a square of different size.     

Effects of treadmill running and fatigue on impact acceleration in distance running

The effects of treadmill running on impact acceleration were examined together with the interaction between running surface and runner's fatigue state. Twenty recreational runners (11 men and 9 women) ran overground and on a treadmill (at 4.0 m/s) before and after a fatigue protocol consisting of a 30-minute run at 85% of individual maximal aerobic speed. Impact accelerations were analysed using two lightweight capacitive uniaxial accelerometers. A two-way repeated-measure analysis of variance showed that, in the pre-fatigue condition, the treadmill running decreased head and tibial peak impact accelerations and impact rates (the rate of change of acceleration), but no significant difference was observed between the two surfaces in shock attenuation. There was no significant difference in acceleration parameters between the two surfaces in the post-fatigue condition. There was a significant interaction between surface (treadmill and overground) and fatigue state (pre-fatigue and post-fatigue). In particular, fatigue when running overground decreased impact acceleration severity, but it had no such effect when running on the treadmill. The effects of treadmill running and the interaction need to be taken into account when interpreting the results of studies that use a treadmill in their experimental protocols, and when prescribing physical exercise.     

A public value perspective for ICT enabled public sector reforms: A theoretical reflection

The purpose of this paper is to offer a critical discussion of information system adoption in the public sector (often referred to as e-government) and to contribute to the debate by offering a public value perspective. The paper points to the public value paradigm as an alternative approach to studying ICT-enabled public sector reforms. This paradigm, we argue, proposes an alternative way of framing the nature of the problems faced when ICT enabled public sector reforms are initiated and studied. The public value perspective proposes a new and richer context in which to study and research these phenomena. It also calls for the redefinition of the ways we assess e-government in the context of public sector reforms. It is therefore seen as vital to evaluate the socio-political impact of ICT adoption in the public sector.     

Education of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in the Digital Era

The education of the deaf and hard of hearing has been the aim and inspiration of many technological discoveries and developments. Since the early work of Alexander Graham Bell, a visionary in special education for the deaf, many relevant innovations have considerably improved the quality of life and the professional opportunities for deaf people of all ages, especially recent advances in cochlear implants. In this article, based on our experience at the Instituto Oral Modelo (IOM) in Buenos Aires, we explain how the digital technology of today has radically changed the education of the deaf and the expectations we may have in the digital era for the next generation of children with auditory deficiencies.     

Quality management of body donation program at the University of Padova

Quality management improvement has become a recent focus of attention in medical education. The program for the donation of bodies and body parts (Body Donation Program) at the University of Padova has recently been subjected to a global quality management standard, the ISO 9001:2008 certification. The aim of the present work is to show how the above standard is useful in enhancing the efficiency of body donation procedures and the quality and output of medical education. The program is managed by means of the following interlinked procedures: the collection of body donations, death certificates, data, and body parts from living donors; the transportation and identification of cadavers; the management of bodies, body parts, equipment, instruments, purchasing of necessary materials, and setting up anatomical training sessions; the management of preventive and corrective actions; the management of documents and registration; the management of internal and external quality audits; and the review of outcomes and improvement planning. Monitoring indicators are identified in the numbers of donors and of donated body parts per year, education sessions, and satisfaction of learners and donors, as evaluated by questionnaires. The process management approach, the integrated involvement of medical, technical, and administrative staff in defining procedures, and the application of monitoring indicators allow quality improvement in all aspects of the Body Donation Program. Anat Sci Educ. © 2012 American Association of Anatomists.     

社会主义和哲学(一)

索列尔的序言并不符合历史唯物主义的本来观点.历史唯物主义中的人是与历史事件进程紧密相关并参与其中的.整个社会主义的实践问题在索列尔看来或许可以归纳为以下三方面:第一,无产阶级对自己作为一个阶级的存在是否有一个清晰的概念?第二,无产阶级自己是否有足够强大的力量来参加反抗其他阶级的斗争?第三,无产阶级是否将要推翻资本主义的组织结构,连同它的全部的传统思想体系?其实,历史唯物主义的理论传播现在还远赶不上社会达尔文主义,但历史唯物主义的研究方法却能让我们中的部分人写出关于历史的更加令人信服的著作,远比那些仅仅在哲学和古典学问的帮助下运用他们的技巧的文学家更加令人信服     

Measuring the effectiveness of online problem solving for improving academic performance in a probability course

Education and Information Technologies - Research on impact in student achievement of online homework systems compared to traditional methods is ambivalent. Methodological issues in the study...     

Course Coordinator Orientations Toward their Work and Opportunities for Professional Development

Innovative Higher Education - One way that university mathematics departments across the United States are making efforts to improve their introductory mathematics courses is by implementing or...     

Problematizing the Practicum to Integrate Practical Knowledge

This article examines the influence of a practicum teaching experience on two pre-service science teachers. The research is focused on examining a practicum in a secondary science department that actively promotes the teaching and learning of science as inquiry. We investigated the process through which the pre-service science teachers integrated their practical knowledge, and examined this in the context of the quantified reformed instruction they enacted. Using a mixed methods design, we have quantified these pre-service science teachers’ practice using the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (Piburn et al. 2000), in concert with a narrative methodology drawn from in-depth interviews. Our analysis of the data indicates two important conclusions. The first is the importance of a consistently reformed image of science education being presented and practiced by both science teacher educators and cooperating teachers. The second is the recognition that a consistently reformed image may not be sufficient, of itself, to challenge pre-service teachers’ views of science education. Pre-service teachers appear to be heavily influenced by their biographies and own science education. Consequently, it appears the extent to which a pre-service teacher identifies problems of teaching and learning, and then works toward possible resolution, influences their progress in shaping reformed views of science education.