Gender-inclusive game-based learning in secondary education

Boys show a stronger preference for digital entertainment games than girls. For this reason, it may be that game-based learning is more acceptable to boys than to girls. Yet game-based learning might improve the performance of both boys and girls, depending upon the instructional design. In a quasi-experimental study with a secret-trail game, effects were examined on students' subject-matter knowledge. Analysis of covariance revealed that both boys and girls of the game intervention group showed a higher test performance, compared to students of the control group. However, different game activities mediated this effect of the secret-trail game on performance: girls seemed to profit more from searching the Internet to complete assignments and boys from competing with others. The performance of both boys and girls was negatively influenced by technical problems. The results are discussed within the framework of gender-inclusive game design.     

Optimal control in unobservable integral Volterra systems

This paper presents solution of the optimal linear-quadratic controller problem for unobservable integral Volterra systems with continuous/discontinuous states under deterministic uncertainties, over continuous/discontinuous observations. Due to the separation principle for integral systems, the initial continuous problem is split into the optimal minmax filtering problem for integral Volterra systems with deterministic uncertainties over continuous/discontinuous observations and the optimal linear-quadratic control (regulator) problem for observable deterministic integral Volterra systems with continuous/discontinuous states. As a result, the system of the optimal controller equations are obtained, including the linear equation for the optimally controlled minmax estimate and two Riccati equations for its ellipsoid matrix (optimal gain matrix of the filter) and the optimal regulator gain matrix. Then, in the discontinuous problems, the equation for the optimal controller and the equations for the optimal filter and regulator gain matrices are obtained using the filtering procedure for deriving the filtering equations over discontinuous observations proceeding from the known filtering equations over continuous ones and the dual results in the optimal control problem for integral systems. The technical example illustrating application of the obtained results is finally given.     

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) assistants in Europe: Pathways towards continuous professional development (CPD) and qualification

There is broad consensus amongst researchers and international organisations that the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC), which means the wellbeing of children and families, depends on well-educated and competent staff. This remains a challenge in Europe, since part of the workforce is also represented by low-qualified ECEC assistants in many EU countries. In the CoRe study (2011), assistants are defined as ‘invisible workers’, meaning that their presence is usually not taken into account in policy documents and that they have far fewer possibilities of qualification and professional development than core practitioners. Building on the findings of the CoRe study, a recent NESET II report reviewed the profiles of ECEC assistants in 15 European countries and their professionalisation opportunities. This article describes the report's findings, with a focus on the roles of assistants and on how to create coherent pathways towards their qualification and continuous professional development (CPD) opportunities. The latter is shown through the examples of three case studies carried out in Denmark, France and Slovenia. Recommendations for policy makers are included in the conclusions. The framework of the article is the ‘competent system’: as pointed out in the CoRe study, individual competences alone are not sufficient to create quality. A ‘competent system’ is needed which includes collaboration between individuals, teams and institutions and has competent governance at policy level. This means working within a holistic ‘educare’ approach that is able to value the educative role of caring and the caring role of education.     

The illegal body: `Eurodac' and the politics of biometric identification

Biometrics is often described as `the next big thingin information technology'. Rather than IT renderingthe body irrelevant to identity – a mistaken idea tobegin with – the coupling of biometrics with ITunequivocally puts the body center stage. The questions to be raised about biometrics is howbodies will become related to identity, and what thenormative and political ramifications of this couplingwill be. Unlike the body rendered knowable in thebiomedical sciences, biometrics generates a readable body: it transforms the body's surfaces andcharacteristics into digital codes and ciphers to be`read' by a machine. ``Your iris is read, in the sameway that your voice can be printed, and yourfingerprint can be read', by computers that, in turn,have become ``touch-sensitive', and endowed with seeingand hearing capacities. Thus transformed into readable``text', the meaning and significance of the biometricbody will be contingent upon ``context', and therelations established with other ``texts'. Thesemetaphors open up ways to investigate the differentmeanings that will become attached to the biometricbody and the ways in which it will be tied toidentity. This paper reports on an analysis of plans andpractices surrounding the `Eurodac' project, aEuropean Union initiative to use biometrics (specif.fingerprinting) in controlling illegal immigration andborder crossings by asylum seekers.     

Advancing nursing students' transition to scholarship: embedding a librarian into the Advanced Nursing Research course

Background:Nursing students often prioritize learning clinical skills rather than research skills, possibly inhibiting their growth as scholars. Supporting nursing students'' learning of information literacy skills has been shown to impact nurses'' involvement with research after graduation. This suggests a need for developing innovative information literacy teaching strategies that can enable nursing students to better understand the process of research and how to apply research to practice.Case Presentation:This article describes the implementation of the embedded librarian project at the course level at the University of Memphis. A librarian was integrated into the Advanced Nursing Research course, a semester-long course for graduate nursing students, for the fall 2020 semester. This case shares the embedded librarian project''s implementation and evaluation strategies.Conclusions:The embedded librarian project aided students'' acquisition of information literacy skills at the University of Memphis. Students reported that the embedded librarian project helped them complete assignments for their research course. Using an embedded librarian service within the graduate nursing curricula model may enhance scholarship among future nurses.     

EPRs in the consultation room: A discussion of the literature on effects on doctor-patient relationships

In this paper we discuss expected and reported effects on care provider-patient relations of the introduction of electronic patient records (EPRs) in consultation settings by reviewing exemplary studies and literature on the subject from the past decade. We argue that in order for such assessments to be meaningful, talk of effects of “the” EPR needs to be replaced by an “unpacking” of EPR systems into their constituent parts and functionalities, the effects of which need to be assessed individually. Following from this principle, the paper discusses EPR systems ranging from simple data entry and retrieval systems to more sophisticated multi-user and multifunctional on-line systems. On a second level, our analysis of the literature is informed by the question which model of ideal patienthood underlies the assessment of effects of EPRs. To this end, we identify three “models of patienthood” implicit in writing about benefits and drawbacks of EPRs for patients: the autonomy, the consumer, and the holistic models, and argue that assumptions concerning these models need to be reflected upon more critically to improve understanding of what exactly EPR use does to the doctor-patient relationship.     

Literacy development beyond early schooling: a 4-year follow-up study of Croatian

Reading and Writing - The purpose of this study was to investigate literacy development beyond the early school years. We investigated mean-level and rank-order changes in two reading (word...