Investigation of the Painting Idyll Attributed to Henryk Siemiradzki: The Unusual Technology of a Canvas Painting Executed on an Enlarged Photograph

The subject of the research is an oil painting entitled Idyll created using an unusual technique. The painting layer was applied on canvas covered with photosensitive medium on which a photograph was developed. The results of the examination of Idyll in the context of its attribution to Henryk Siemiradzki (1843–1902) are discussed. Its atypical technology and the possibility of the artist having used the photographic technique are also considered. X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy were performed to establish the technique and to characterize the pigments and materials used in the painting. The identified pigments and the information provided by analytical photography (UV, X-ray images) were compared with the results of the detailed examination of 56 of Siemiradzki’s oil paintings. Performed analyses revealed that the majority of the features identified in Idyll point to Henryk Siemiradski’s technique.     

It takes a village: Managing conflict in the K-12 classroom

This project examines the classroom conflict management challenges K–12 teachers experience. The U.S. Department of Education released a January 2014 bulletin outlining their classroom conflict management position, providing teachers recommendations without providing tools and conflict management knowledge to effectively implement the recommended programs. Understanding the nature and components of conflict better enables conflict managers (i.e., teachers) to effectively manage and resolve conflict. Understanding the challenges teachers face when managing conflict enables practitioners to create practical recommendations for conflict resolution education. This project analyzed data from four focus groups of K–12 teachers (n = 21) from the northern Midwest. Teachers identified structural challenges (i.e., lack of parental or administrative support) to managing conflict. Findings indicate that comprehensive conflict management training and productive communication between all levels of the system are necessary to effectively manage conflict in the classroom.     

Transposition of Knowledge: Encountering Proportionality in an Algebra Task

This article reports on an analysis of the process in which knowledge to be taught was transposed into knowledge actually taught, concerning a task including proportional relationships in an algebra setting in a grade 6 classroom. We identified affordances and constraints of the task by describing the mathematical praxeology of the two different types of knowledge exposed, in the task as such and in the activity of the classroom. Through the teacher’s explicit process of reasoning, modeling, revising, solving, and repeatedly explaining the task, we found that the transposition of knowledge was seriously affected by the contextualization of the task. Modeling word problems about everyday situations has its limitations and can, as in this case, make the problem unsolvable unless it is accepted as a “textbook task” disguised as real but adjusted to the norms of school mathematics. Such constraints may obscure mathematical ideas afforded by the task. We conclude that learning opportunities embedded in a task do not necessarily surface when a task is treated in a classroom setting.     

Protection or Participation?

Children’s status as a particularly vulnerable group in society implies a journalistic obligation to shed light on children’s stories and listen to their perspectives, but their vulnerable position also means they deserve protection from potentially harmful news coverage. Based on a close-reading of two extensively covered news serials concerning irregular migrant children facing deportation, and on in-depth interviews with journalists, editors, and key actors working on behalf of irregular migrant children, the present article sheds light on how journalists balance competing, ethical, professional, and organizational concerns when reporting on issues concerning children. The article shows that while journalists say they are aware of the ethical aspects concerning extensive media exposure of young children, they justify the reporting by foregrounding children as innocent victims of the immigration system and by highlighting the journalistic obligation of shedding light on the wrongdoings of this system. The potential burden of media exposure is relativized as less harmful than the alternative—deportation. Theoretically, the article contributes to the literature on children in the news media, human-interest stories and journalism, and the role of journalism reporting vulnerable groups.     

Literacy skills of welfare recipients

Illiteracy is considered to be a significant barrier to employment. Programs are being established to require literacy education and work programs of welfare recipients. The purpose of this study was to determine the literacy skills of a random sample of welfare recipients. One-hundred and six welfare subjects were administered theWoodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery and a comprehensive interview form. Using common criteria to separate the sample into the literate and functionally illiterate, the groups were found to differ significantly on intellectual capabilities. It was concluded that illiteracy is associated with subaverage intellectual functioning among persons on welfare. A number of recommendations were made pertaining to policy.     

NONVERBAL ASPECTS OF CREATIVE THINKING: STUDIES OF DEAF CHILDREN

Pictorial figural representations are of essential importance in the cognitive development of the deaf. Creative abilities of the deaf were studied with regard to five components of classroom behaviour: motivation, socialization, antisocial behaviour, passiveness and level of intelligence. The subjects were a group of 22 deaf pupils aged 13‐15 and a group of hearing children. The Test of Creative Thinking‐Drawing Productions (TCT‐DP), the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices and the Pupil Behaviour Inventory were used to examine main trends. Comparisons indicated that no significant difference was found between the school functioning of the hearing and the nonhearing in achievement motivation and antisocial behaviour. However in socialization and in intelligence level the nonhearing were significantly lower than the hearing. TCT‐DP results showed that the number of thematic solutions and humour responses increased with deafness, and certain elements became more stereotypical, less individual and less original In addition, IQ in deaf pupils was related to the drawing of concrete objects, whereas in the hearing group intelligence level was related to use of abstractions.