Applied physiology of speed skating

Speed skating exercise can be better understood by taking account of physiological and biomechanical considerations. Comparison with other sports shows the unique and peculiar way of skating propulsion. The relatively long lasting isometric muscle contractions during the gliding phase, alternated with high power output push-offs, place unusual demands on the (local) energy delivering systems. The short and explosive push-off needs a specific pattern of motor unit recruitment. Some mixture of slow twitch (to sustain skating posture) and fast twitch fibres (to effect push off) in the hip and knee extensors seems necessary for optimal skating performance.     

Exploiting Distance Technology to Foster Experimental Design as a Neglected Learning Objective in Labwork in Chemistry

This paper deals with the design process of a remote laboratory for labwork in chemistry. In particular, it focuses on the mutual dependency of theoretical conjectures about learning in the experimental sciences and technological opportunities in creating learning environments. The design process involves a detailed analysis of the expert task and knowledge, e.g., spectrophotometry as a method for the determination of the concentration of a compound in a solution. In so doing, modifications in transposing tasks and knowledge to the learning situation can be monitored. The remote laboratory is described, as well as the specific features that alter the degree of fidelity of the learning situation in comparison with the expert one. It is conjectured that these alterations might represent actual benefits for learning.     

The moving image in education research: Reassembling the body in classroom video data

While audio recordings and observation might have dominated past decades of classroom research, video data is now the dominant form of data in the field. Ubiquitous videography is standard practice today in archiving the body of both the teacher and the student, and vast amounts of classroom and experiment clips are stored in online archives. Yet little to no research interrogates how this data partakes in the history of scientific cinema, assembling particular images of teacher and student bodies, nor how the digital nature of video devices might indeed challenge theoretical assumptions about social science more generally. This paper situates current video research practices within the history of scientific cinema and opens up the discussion about how these practices are linked to shifting structures of industrial labor. The paper uses the work of Gilles Deleuze – on art, cinema and the body – as a means of provoking the reader to consider new ways of working with the moving image.     

Process-oriented instruction: Some considerations

This paper does not attempt to be an introduction on process-oriented instruction by providing all the assumptions and key principles. It rather highlights the necessary epistemological shift in education from learning as a receptive process towards learning as a constructive process. The basis for this shift is not a matter of theoretical considerations but lies in the requirements of personal cognitive functioning in the contemporary community. Process-oriented instruction includes not only this epistomological shift. Consequently, process-oriented instruction does not only focus on the information processing activities in the learning process, but also on the affective and the regulative activities. Moreover, it aims at improving students’ learning competence by enhancing the quality of students’ learning competence by enhancing the quality of students’ cognitive and metacognitive development.     

Discursive positioning of beginning teachers’ professional learning during induction: a critical literature review from 2004 to 2014

This study reports on findings from a critical literature review, from 2004 to 2014, in relation to the positioning of beginning teachers’ professional learning during induction. The study uses theoretical frameworks drawn from competing discourses: an instrumental standpoint based on performativity and a dialectical standpoint based on a transformative view of good teaching as an advanced specialised practice. A critical analysis was conducted, using a systematic literature review that yielded 14 peer-reviewed papers, to discursively position teachers’ professional learning and pinpoint questions for future study. Findings showed that while studies reported positive outcomes they were often atheoretical and framed within narrow chains of logic that neglected important strands, such as, teacher “knowledge-of-practice”. The study raises important questions not only about the positioning of beginning teachers’ professional learning but about meaningful professional learning for all teachers across the continuum of teacher education.     

The History of Industrial Research Laboratories as a Resource for Teaching about Science-technology Relationships

The history of industrial research laboratories offers a good opportunity for studying the complex relationships between science and technology. A good insight of these relationships is relevant for shaping a good concept of science and technology in science education and technology education. In the article, three different interaction patterns are derived from the history of industrial research laboratories (in particular the Philips Natuurkundig Laboratorium), namely (1) science as an enabler for technology, (2) science as a forerunner of technology and (3) science as a knowledge resource for technology. In science education and technology education these insights can be used for historical projects and for a use in design-and-make projects.