“Palabras de la ciencia”: Pedro Castera and Scientific Writing in Mexico’s Fin de Siècle

This essay explores the career of the understudied writer Pedro Castera (1846–1906), who is regarded as one of the first practitioners of science fiction in Mexico. A man of many talents, Castera is one of the most eccentric and eclectic figures in the intellectual life of fin-de-siècle Mexico City. His career took many turns: While during specific periods he devoted himself to writing and participating within the liberal, cosmopolitan culture of Mexico City, he often disappeared from the public eye to devote himself to the development of inventions in the mining industry. The essay discusses the different meanings of ‘invention’ within Castera’s oeuvre, namely poetic and scientific innovation. Setting these two concepts within the domains of literature and scientific writing in the global and local fin de siècle, the essay investigates how Castera’s journalism and fiction (specifically his 1890 novel Querens) are representative of the wider question of scientific development in Mexico and Latin America as a whole during the nineteenth century. Furthermore, it explores the intersections of aesthetics and science during a critical period of modern intellectual history, in which these two areas of knowledge were gradually defining themselves as two distinctive cultures.     

Determinism and Underdetermination in Genetics: Implications for Students’ Engagement in Argumentation and Epistemic Practices

In the last two decades science studies and science education research have shifted from an interest in products (of science or of learning), to an interest in processes and practices. The focus of this paper is on students’ engagement in epistemic practices (Kelly in Teaching scientific inquiry: Recommendations for research and implementation. Sense Publishers, Rotterdam, pp 99–117, 2008), or on their practical epistemologies (Wickman in Sci Educ 88(3):325–344, 2004). In order to support these practices in genetics classrooms we need to take into account domain-specific features of the epistemology of genetics, in particular issues about determinism and underdetermination. I suggest that certain difficulties may be related to the specific nature of causality in genetics, and in particular to the correspondence between a given set of factors and a range of potential effects, rather than a single one. The paper seeks to bring together recent developments in the epistemology of biology and of genetics, on the one hand, with science education approaches about epistemic practices, on the other. The implications of these perspectives for current challenges in learning genetics are examined, focusing on students’ engagement in epistemic practices, as argumentation, understood as using evidence to evaluate knowledge claims. Engaging in argumentation in genetics classrooms is intertwined with practices such as using genetics models to build explanations, or framing genetics issues in their social context. These challenges are illustrated with studies making part of our research program in the USC.     

A model of factors affecting independent learners’ engagement with feedback on language learning tasks

In independent learning contexts, the effectiveness of the feedback dialogue between student and tutor or, in the absence of a tutor, the quality of the learning materials, is essential to successful learning. Using the voices of participants as the prime source of data through a combination of data-driven and concept-driven approaches, this investigation attempts to gain deeper insights into the dynamics of the learning process as students express emotional reactions to the learning environment and in particular the written feedback from their tutors and the learning materials. To account for the different ways in which adult learners studying independently engage both cognitively and emotionally with external feedback, we propose a model based on four key drivers: goal relevance, knowledge, self-confidence, and roles. We conclude that only when these key drivers are aligned with each other can learners in independent settings engage with external feedback and learn from it.     

A model of equitable and sustainable redistribution of knowledge

Education is one of the pillars in which a Welfare State is effectively based on in order to achieve an equitable distribution of wealth. In contemporary society, knowledge and education are among the most appreciated goods, and everyone should have the right to acquire them, without distinction of gender, race, age, health or religion. From our experience of over 15 years at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya we can claim that virtual learning makes access to education easier for certain population strata, whereas otherwise, they would be excluded from such a right. A very significant group of students to consider are women with family burdens who, thanks to this kind of education, are able to gain access to higher education for the first time in their lives and at their maturity ages. Another significant group is students with disabilities, for whom virtual education makes it possible to get training in fields for which it would be more difficult to get in the case of the non-virtual university. Geographic factors are also relevant, since virtual education has provided rural areas and other places with poor infrastructures with a chance to gain access to higher education. This brings with it a redistribution of wealth among territories, and also among different social strata with fewer resources and limitations to commute long distances to higher education institutions. Another issue that needs pointing out is virtual communication. As it is asynchronic, it can lead to a high degree of reflection. All these elements enable us to have a virtual discussion about cultural and linguistic issues which have huge educational value.     

National identity in the historical narratives of a morally questionable historical process / Identidad nacional en las narrativas sobre un proceso histórico moralmente cuestionable

Different studies have shown that national groups construct a positive social identity through the appropriation of heroic narratives about the national past. Within this framework, this research studied the narratives of Argentine university students (n = 27), without specific training in history about a historical process in which their national state carried out morally questionable actions. Specifically, we analysed their narratives on the ‘Conquest of the Desert’, a military campaign carried out in the late nineteenth century which entailed the genocide of the indigenous peoples who inhabited most of what is today Argentina. Through semi-structured interviews, it was revealed that although the grammar of the participants’ narratives is generally poor, it is possible to identify in them two clashing groups as agents of that historical process. Furthermore, the participants did not use the pronouns we/us to refer to any of these groups, so they did not identify with them. We conclude that the poverty of the participants’ narratives may reveal a collective attempt to forget this morally condemnable historical process, which would also have been expressed in the shift of responsibility from the Argentine state to other social groups in most of the narratives analysed. Likewise, failure to identify with the victims, even in cases in which it was considered to be the national state, shows the implementation of cognitive strategies to preserve a positive identity.     

Variation indexes of marks due to continuous assessment. Empirical approach at university / Índices de variación de la nota debidos a la evaluación continua. Contrastación empírica en la enseñanza universitaria

The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has required continuous assessment at university in Spain. The goal of this paper is to analyse how continuous assessment modifies the subject’s final mark, to ascertain whether it improves or lowers the final exam score and to determine whether other variables also affect this relationship. To accomplish this, we have created a database with the marks earned by students who took the final exam in the Financial Accounting class at university in the last three academic years. A variation index of the exam score was constructed as a consequence of continuous assessment, and it was analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The results obtained from the marks and the index were analysed using contingency tables, ANOVA, regression analyses and a contrast of differences in mean. The main conclusions allow us to state that continuous assessment has an important direct effect on the learning process as well as on the final exam score and the overall class mark, and that other variables also influence them.     

Environmental education (EE) policy and content of the contemporary (2009–2017) Mexican national curriculum for primary schools

In Mexico a reformed curriculum is being implemented at the national primary level focused on the competence model and incorporating EE as a key element. This article reports our analyses of what theories, policies and/or EE related-contents were included in the documents that integrated this curriculum: general study plan, study programs of Grades and official students’ textbooks. Results indicate that in those official documents was incorporated a competence related to EE called ‘competences for the coexistence’, implying harmonic relationships with others and the nature. Additionally, EE for sustainability was included as a transversal topic expecting that contributes to reach the graduate profile of basic education that indicates that students should promote and assume the care of health and the environment. Nevertheless, it is not clear how it is expected that teachers implement EE in practice, lacking clarity of the environmental theory that support this curriculum.     

Towards smart learning spaces in Catalan schools: teachers’ perceptions of change

Learning Environments Research - Moving towards Smart Learning Spaces (SLS) requires reconsideration of the school environment using a multi-dimensional approach that considers pedagogical,...