The EFQM self-assessment processes in HEIs in Spain and in Jordan

The purpose of this paper is to compare the European Foundation for Quality Management （EFQM） self-assessment model in higher education institutions （HEIs） in Spain and in Jordan. Case study methodology on eight services provided by a public university in Spain and seven services provided by one public university and one private university in Jordan is used. The findings show the steps that an administrative service may follow in order to apply the questionnaire approach to conduct self-assessment in a successful manner and the difficulties, benefits and success factors in both countries by comparing the results. This paper provides lessons for decision makers and managers of other universities in developing countries, who wish to perform an exercise in self-assessment using a questionnaire approach.     

A case example of one state's efforts to measure and address the critical shortage of school psychologists

Despite persistent calls for school psychologists to provide comprehensive and integrated services, school psychologists may have difficulty providing these services because of critical shortages in the profession. This practical action research study involved surveying district supervisors of school psychologists and training program directors in the state to identify the current and projected shortages in Florida. This multimethod, multi‐informant case example also focused on facilitators of and barriers to addressing the critical shortage. How the data have been used to inform recruitment, retention, and advocacy efforts to identify school psychology as a critical shortage legislatively are provided as well as recommendations for future research.     

Learning for autonomy

There is a need for a new concept of post-literacy which goes beyond the learning of codes. The target population is defined on the basis of their need to be given the capacity to take decisions on essential economic, civic, political and day-to-day aspects of their lives.The main arena of post-literacy lies in the countries of the Third World, where the economic crisis has serious effects on the quality of life and impairs the motivation to learn. Particular reference is made to the concept of participation and to the ability to determine four types of basic educational need: fundamental needs, productivity needs, social service needs and community organization needs.Four Latin American programmes linked to these four types of need are presented and discussed in terms of their particular features: popular participation in decision making; the search for methods and techniques which give the population a certain degree of autonomy; and respect for the cultures and world visions of the communities in the conduct of post-literacy, educational innovation and other activities. The programmes are: post-literacy in Nicaragua (fundamental education needs); research on post-literacy and employment in 13 countries (productivity needs); the CIPCA project for peasants in Piura, on the northern coast of Peru (social service needs); and the Talking Maps project developed with the Paez community in Cauca, Colombia (community organization needs).

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Zusammenfassung Ein neues Nachalphabetisierungskonzept, das über das Erlernen von Codes hinausgeht, wird benötigt. Die Zielgruppe wird aufgrund ihrer Bedürfnisse genau bestimmt, die sie dann in die Lage versetzen soll, Entscheidungen über wichtige ökonomische, staatsbürgerliche, politische und alltägliche Aspekte ihres Lebens zu treffen.Das Hauptgebiet der Nachalphabetisierung liegt in den Ländern der Dritten Welt, wo die Wirtschaftskrise ernsthafte Auswirkungen auf die Lebensqualität hat und die Lernmotivation beeinträchtigt. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit wird auf das Konzept der Partizipation gelenkt und auf die Fähigkeit, vier Arten von Grundbedürfnissen der Bildung festzusetzen: fundamentale Bedürfnisse, Produktivitätsbedürfnisse, Bedürfnisse im Sozialbereich und in der Gemeindeorganisation.Vier lateinamerikanische Programme, die mit diesen vier Arten von Grundbedürfnissen verbunden sind, werden in Bezug auf ihre besonderen Merkmale vorgestellt und erörtert: Beteiligung der Bevölkerung an Entscheidungsprozessen; die Suche nach Methoden und Techniken, die der Bevölkerung einen gewissen Grad an Autonomie verleihen; Achtung vor den Kulturen und Weltvisionen der Gemeinden bei der Ausführung der Nachalphabetisierung, der Innovationen auf dem Bildungssektor und anderer Aktivitäten. Diese Programme sind: Nachalphabetisierung in Nicaragua (fundamentale Bildungsbedürfnisse); Forschung über Nachalphabetisierung und Beschäftigung in 13 Ländern (Produktivitätsbedürfnisse); das CIPCA-Projekt für die Landbevölkerung in Piura an der Nordküste Perus (Bedürfnisse im Sozialbereich); und das sprechende Landkarten-Projekt, das mit der Paezgemeinde in Cauca, Kolumbien entwickelt wurde (Bedürfnisse in der Gemeindeorganisation).

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Résumé Un nouveau concept de post-alphabétisation, qui transcende l'apprentissage de codes, s'avère nécessaire. On définit les populations-cibles sur la base de leur besoin de recevoir la capacité de prendre des décisions sur les principaux aspects économiques, civiques, politiques et courants de leurs vies.Le champ d'activité de la postalphabétisation se trouve essentiellement dans les pays du Tiers Monde, où la crise économique produit des effets sérieux sur la qualité de la vie et entrave la motivation à l'apprentissage. On mentionne en particulier le concept de participation et l'aptitude à déterminer quatre types de besoins éducatifs de base: les besoins fondamentaux, les besoins en matière de productivité, de services sociaux et d'organisation de la communauté.Quatre programmes d'Amérique latine liés à ces quatre types de besoin sont présentés et examinés en fonction de leurs caractéristiques particulières: la participation des populations à la prise de décision; la recherche de méthodes et de techniques qui donnent à la population un certain degré d'autonomie; et le respect des cultures et des visions du monde des communautés lors de la conduite des programmes de post-alphabétisation, d'innovations éducatives et autres. Ces programmes sont: la post-alphabétisation au Nicaragua (besoins éducatifs fondamentaux); la recherche sur la post-alphabétisation et l'emploi dans 13 pays (besoins en matière de productivité); le projet CIPCA à l'adresse des paysans de Piura, situé sur la côte nord du Pérou (besoins en matière de services sociaux); et le projet Cartes parlantes développé avec la communauté Paez dans le Cauca, en Colombie (besoins d'organisation de la communauté).

     

Studying mathematics problem-solving classrooms. A comparison between the discourse of in-service teachers and student teachers

In the article we compare the approaches of 3 in-service teachers and 3 student teachers when they tried to solve a verbal arithmetic problem in the classroom. Each interaction was studied using a System of Analysis that takes into account the cognitive processes involved in the solution of a mathematic problem and describes the interaction at different levels showing what is done and to what degree teachers and/or pupils are responsible for what is done. The results of the study suggest that both groups of teachers are different in how they direct the student’s attention toward the essential aspects implied in the resolution of word problem. On the one hand, the in-service teachers guaranteed students’ understanding of the problem before dealing with the solution, while students teachers only did so when pupils committed errors. On the other hand, the in-service teachers allowed a high level of student participation, while student teachers took a more prominent role so children’s participation was lower.     

Images of Science Linked to Labwork: A Survey of Secondary School and University Students

This paper presents findings about the images of science drawn upon in laboratory work, by upper secondary and university students, in academic streams with a science focus. Data were collected through four written questions, administered to a total of 368 students. The questions all required students to comment on laboratory investigations carried out by research scientists or by science students. We show that students' reasoning has an epistemological and an ontological dimension, and that it often differs significantly from accepted perspectives on the nature of science. The issue for teaching appears to be showing students what counts (and what does not count) as appropriate reasoning in actual situations. In other words, explicit teaching about the various relationships that can exist between theory and data would transform labwork towards a more critical process that involves making and justifying decisions.     

Tunnelling effects in chemistry

Most of the molecules react to form products by climbing a barrier. The energy involved in this climbing of the barrier is known as the activation energy of the reaction. Questions like how fast a reaction occurs can be answered by considering the height of the barrier. However, in some reactions, the reactants transform to products by directly tunnelling across the barrier instead of climbing over it. Such a purely quantum mechanical effect, which becomes more prominent for reactions at low temperatures can lead to interesting and even completely unexpected products. This effect and its consequences in representative examples are discussed.     

Professional Development of Teacher Trainers: a case study

This paper reviews the literature on teacher trainers with special reference to current initiatives in Spain, and provides a case study of the design, delivery and follow‐up to a course for teacher trainers of English language teaching and the pedagogy of language. The course was designed to promote the concept of teachers as reflective practitioners.     

Change Blindness as a Means of Studying Expertise in Physics

Previous studies examining expertise have used a wide range of methods. Beyond characterizing expert and novice behavior in different contexts and circumstances, many studies have examined the processes that comprise the behavior itself and, more recently, processes that comprise training and practice that develop expertise. Other studies, dating back more than 50 years, have used various recall memory tasks to compare experts and novices. In this article, we describe another method for investigating expertise that has its origin in the study of change blindness, a phenomenon within the field of visual cognition. We demonstrate how an incidental change detection paradigm can be used in the context of introductory physics in a way that allows for inferences regarding the formation of mental representations about physical situations. Possible uses in future learning sciences research are discussed.