From Students to Consumers: reflections on the marketisation of Portuguese higher education

A progressive attempt to replace traditional public administration values and concepts by others that are closer to private management can be observed in the replacement of the service user concept by that of consumer or client. This redefinition's more implicit or explicit intent is to increase consumers'/clients' status, their capacity to choose and make rational choices in the market, and, ultimately, to ensure that organisations fulfil their needs. Influenced by this tendency, higher education institutions (HEIs) also started to see students as clients or consumers and to influence their choices by trying to define HE demand. This is evident in the shift in their external communication strategies: ‘institutional information’, based on HEIs' prestige, is being progressively replaced by ‘marketed information’, based on economic consumer logic. In trying to understand how students are perceived by Portuguese HEIs, we undertook qualitative research based on the content analysis of undergraduate degrees' announcements in newspapers. Major findings evidence that their content: (1) can be classified in a continuum bounded by two poles: the use of ‘institutional information’ and the use of ‘marketed information’; (2) show the presence of a social representation of students as clients or consumers; (3) seems related to HEIs' nature (public vs. private), positioning in the HE system (universities and polytechnics) and ‘symbolic capital’ (traditional vs. new institutions).     

Allosteric regulation of proteins

Allostery is a mechanism by which the activity of a large number of proteins is regulated. It is manifested as a change in the activity, either ligand binding or catalysis of one site of a protein due to a ligand binding to another distinct site of the protein. The allosteric effect is transduced by a change in the structural properties of the protein. It has been traditionally understood using either the concerted MWC (Monod, Wyman and Changeux) model, or the sequential KNF (Koshland, Nemethy and Filmer) model of structural changes. However, allostery is fundamentally a thermodynamic process and requires an alteration in the enthalpy or entropy associated with the process.     

Locked in and locked out: Covid-19 and teaching “remotely”

PROSPECTS - Covid-19 has rendered education “remote”, opening a chasm in space and time between teachers and students, between how teaching and learning was practiced before...     

Native Waters: Integrating Scientific and Cultural Ways of Knowing about Water

Away needs to be found to make young people want to learn the importance of water, before it is too late and our information is lost forever. —Rosebud Sioux elder.     

Mathematical Modelling: the Interaction of Culture and Practice

Using a sociocultural approach we analyse the results of a Mexican/British project which investigated the ways in which mathematics is used in the practice of school science and the role of spreadsheets as a mathematical modelling tool. After discussing the different school cultures experienced by two groups of pre-university 16–18 year old students we analyse how these different cultures influenced their practice of mathematics, as well as their work with mathematical spreadsheet modelling activities. There were clear differences between the two groups of students in their preference for external representations, in their understanding of the kind of answers they were expected to produce and in the way they conceived the role of mathematics in the practice of science. Although students preferences for a particular representation were not significantly modified by the use of a spreadsheet as a modelling resource, at the end of the study the students recognised the value of using a more diverse set of representations. The results obtained suggest the possibility of enhancing students' capability to shift between a wider range of representations, including graphical, algebraic and numeric ones, using a modelling approach embedded in a computer environment such as a spreadsheet. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Designing technology to support reflection

Technology can play a powerful role in supporting student reflection. Sociocognitive theories provide a conceptual framework that we use to consider systems that afford reflective thinking. Reflective thinking involves actively monitoring, evaluating, and modifying one's thinking and comparing it to both expert models and peers. This requires a combination of both individual and collaborative reflection. These theoretical frameworks suggest four ways that technology can provide powerful scaffolding for reflection: (a) process displays, (b) process prompts, (c) process models, and (d) a forum for reflective social discourse. Each approach is presented with specific examples illustrating its design features. We argue that a systems approach that combines these different scaffolding techniques may be even more powerful. Modern technologies can provide students with rich resources for reflection and help students develop adaptive learning expertise through reflective practice. We conclude with a discussion of design issues that should be considered in the future.The preparation of this article was supported by a Vanderbilt University Research Council grant and a Spencer Fellowship to the first author. The ideas expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the granting agencies. We thank John Bransford, Allan Collins, Ben Loh and Susan Williams for their insightful suggestions on drafts of this article. We also thank Eliot Soloway, Shari Jackson Metcalf and the highly interactive computing group at the University of Michigan for their permission to use the graphics of the Model-It program. Finally, we thank the reviewers for their comments and suggestions.     

Use of Spanish broom (Spartium junceum L.) canvas as a painting support: Evaluation of the effects of environmental conditions

One of the problems in the field of cultural heritage is the degradation of artworks and especially paintings. They appear very sensitive to environmental conditions. In this work, Spanish broom canvas is proposed as a novel painting support. In order to assess the deterioration properties of this new type of canvas, three degradation processes (exposure to wet atmosphere, to acidic attack and to UV light) were simulated and investigated. The deterioration state of the samples was monitored with Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). The structure of the canvas was also analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). These techniques were successfully applied to study the occurrence significant changes of samples. The exposure to acidic and UV attack produced deep changes on the samples (only on the canvas surface in the case of UV light), while no significant effect was identified on the sample after the exposure to wet atmosphere. The results obtained from Spanish broom canvas are reported in comparison to flax canvas.     

The role of sex differences in the referral process as measured by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised

The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) are two tests that are often used in the assessment process for special education referrals. Sex differences apparent in these tests were examined in a sample of Arkansas school children who were first-time referrals for a psychological evaluation. The subjects' PPVT-R standard scores, WISC-R IQ scores, and WISC-R subtest scores were divided into groups according to one-year intervals from ages 6 through 16. A separate 2 × 11 (subjects' sex x subjects' age) analysis of variance was performed for each dependent variable. Results indicated significant sex differences among WISC-R Full Scale, Verbal, and Performance IQs and PPVT-R standard scores (p < .01). Several WISC-R subtests also revealed significant sex differences. Further significant sex differences were indicated at several age groups on each dependent variable, with males consistently scoring higher than females on 87%. of the dependent measures excluding the WISC-R subtest Coding, on which females scored higher. Implications concerning the referral process are discussed.     

The relationship between the WISC-R and WRAT-R for a sample of rural referred children

WISC-R Verbal and Performance IQ scores obtained from a sample of 124 referred children were correlated with WRAT-R achievement scores. The Verbal IQ was found to predict Reading, Spelling, and Arithmetic. The Performance IQ did not add significantly to the predictions. The results were consistent with earlier studies that examined the relationship of the WISC-R to the WRAT.