The relation between intellectual and metacognitive skills in early adolescence.

The first objective of this study was establishing to what extent metacognitive skill is associated with intelligence. As a second objective, the impact of hints on the execution of metacognitive skills was investigated. Both issues have major implications for the training and transferability of metacognitive skills during performance on a representative school task. First, a standardized intelligence-test was administered to a group of first-year secondary-school students. Next, these students solved six math word problems, three without metacognitive hints and three including these hints. Metacognitive skilfullness was assessed through systematical observation, while learning performance consisted of performance on a math task and grade point average (GPA). Results show that without hints metacognitive skilfulness is the main predictor of initial learning, while intelligence additionally enters the regression equation after the presentation of metacognitive hints. GPA also appears to be predicted by a combination of intellectual and metacognitive skills. Consequences for the early acquisition of metacognitive skills are discussed.     

Leadership for team learning: the case of university teacher teams

Teacher team involvement is considered a key factor in achieving sustainable innovation in higher education. This requires engaging in team learning behaviors that should result in new knowledge and solutions. However, university teachers are not used to discussing their work practices with one another and tend to neglect any innovation in their tasks. Team leadership behavior is often considered essential for stimulating team learning behavior, but it is unclear how this transpires. Therefore, the present study explores university teacher team members’ perceptions of team learning behavior, their assigned task, and leadership behaviors in their team. Interviews were conducted with 16 members of different teacher teams at a university of applied sciences. Findings included that the vast majority of the team learning behaviors only involved sharing ideas; engaging in constructive conflicts and co-constructions was not observed. Only a few teams combined all three team learning behaviors. In these teams, members observed that existing methods and solutions were no longer adequate, with leaders appearing to combine transformational and transactional behaviors, but operating from a distance without actively interfering in the process. Furthermore, these team members shared leadership behaviors while focusing on the team as a whole, instead of solving problems at individual level. This strongly indicates that task perception and specific vertical and shared team leadership behaviors play a role in stimulating teachers in seeking controversy and co-constructing new knowledge.     

Change management: A classification

Abstract

Higher education systems, like others, experience a proliferation of management approaches including tools designed to induce and manage change: strategic planning and reporting, planning and budgeting systems, peer review and self‐evaluation, total quality management, reengineering, the art and practice of learning organisations, etc. While these approaches may differ in their specific focus and the type of professionals they address, they also have much in common and can complement each other. The present paper addresses the spectrum of change processes and proposes taxonomies to guide their use.     

Un concept mythologique de la troisième république: le renforcement du capital humain de la France

Abstract

Some ideas, whether right or wrong, seem never to die, whatever might be the general evolution of knowledge, of science, or simply of good common sense. This is exactly the case with physical education or sports. For centuries, and especially since the middle of the nineteenth century, its advocates have fought for recognition of its all‐round virtues, taken as a concept. But to attain a high level of recognition, not only in society but in official government circles, certain conditions were necessary.

Education as a whole, around the middle of the nineteenth century, had to be strict and similar to military drill to be considered efficient, although the French middle classes and bourgeoisie had very little taste for the military. Although they admired physical prowess they had a horror of regimentation. But later on, when the Prussians so easily defeated Austria, feelings of doubt in French superiority began to spread, and a handful of theoreticians of physical exercise tried to show that to combat the so‐called degeneration of the race, it was essential to impose a system of education in which physical exercise, coupled with military drill, still had an important place. As scientific arguments they referred to the theories of evolution and its then accepted principle, according to Lamarck, or the transmission of acquired properties and character. Darwin was still unknown in France at that time.

These zealous advocates succeeded in convincing the Minister of Public Education, Victor Duruy, to include gymnastics in the normal course of studies in all schools, and by 1869 one can say that a craze for all types of physical exercise and sport had spread into many levels of society.

That was the start of a never‐ending movement which has passed through various stages of evolution corresponding to the changes in society itself. It has therefore changed its methods, its ways, its forms, but the overall principle remains the same, in spite of the improved understanding of human physiology for instance. Huge amounts of energy and money were spent on realizing this theory: politicians, educators, the military, religious authorities, men of distinction, all fought for the best possible application of this miraculous principle which was believed to cure all ills in this world.

Was it really worthwhile? Was it possible to expect objectively measurable results on a national scale if the social factors — such as standards of living, hygiene, working hours, urban conditions — were not taken into account? The history of this element requires a deep understanding of the evolution of most of the factors which make up real life in a country such as France, which experienced various stages in a industrial revolution as well as many political changes.

In spite of this evolution, one must acknowledge that false beliefs survived well into the 1940s, and furthermore, physical exercise, whatever its form, still belongs in many ways to hedonism and is therefore difficult to impose as a universal solution to political problems. As a democracy, France could not accept militarization.     

Teaching methods for modelling problems and students’ task-specific enjoyment, value, interest and self-efficacy expectations

In this study which was part of the DISUM-project, 224 ninth graders from 14 German classes from middle track schools (Realschule) were asked about their enjoyment, interest, value and self-efficacy expectations concerning three types of mathematical problems: intra-mathematical problems, word problems and modelling problems. Enjoyment, interest, value and self-efficacy were assessed before and after a ten-lesson teaching unit promoting modelling competency related to the topics “Pythagoras’ theorem” and “linear functions”. The study aimed to answer the following research questions: (1) Do students’ enjoyment, value, interest and self-efficacy expectations differ depending on the type of task? (2) Does the treatment of modelling problems in classroom instruction influence these variables? (3) Are there any differential effects for different ways of teaching modelling problems, including a “directive”, teacher-centred instruction and an “operative-strategic”, more student-centred instruction emphasising group work and strategic scaffolding by the teacher? The findings show that there were no differences in students’ enjoyment, interest, value and self-efficacy between the three types of tasks. However, teaching oriented towards modelling problems had positive effects on some of the student variables, with the student-centred teaching method producing the most beneficial effects.     

Assessing metacognitive activities: the in-depth comparison of a task-specific questionnaire with think-aloud protocols

Teaching and assessing metacognitive activities are important educational objectives, and teachers are calling for efficient instruments. The advantages of questionnaires in measuring metacognitive activities are obvious, but serious validity issues appear. For example, correlations of questionnaire data with think-aloud measures are generally moderate to low. An explanation may be that these questionnaires are not constructed in line with the metacognitive activities measured by the think-aloud method. In the present study, a questionnaire is constructed based directly on a taxonomy for coding think-aloud protocols. Twenty ninth-graders studied a text while thinking aloud, after which they immediately received the questionnaire. The overall correlation between the questionnaire and the think-aloud protocols (r?=?0.63) was promising. However, scale and item analyses clearly demonstrate some new validity issues. Comparing the questionnaire and the think-aloud results, the students seem to report overt metacognitive activities corresponding more with their behavior reported in the protocols than covert ones. In-depth explorations are presented.     

Teacher research in Dutch professional development schools: perceptions of the actual and preferred situation in terms of the context,process and outcomes of research

This study aims to provide deeper insight into participants’ (e.g. school principals, teachers and student teachers) perceptions of the actual and preferred situation in terms of the context, process and outcomes of practice-based research through teachers-as-researchers at Dutch professional development schools. We interviewed eight school principals, 10 teachers, and six student teachers from four professional development schools in the Netherlands. A trend displayed across all types of participants was their focus on the context dimension of research. Moreover, respondents often focussed in rather general terms on the process of conducting teacher research within the school and the content of this research. A major difference exists between perceptions of the actual and preferred situation related to the effects of teacher research on pupils’ outcomes: despite the central focus of research on pupil learning and learning results, according to participants effects on pupil level were not (yet) reached at this moment. These results suggest that in Dutch professional development schools increased attention is needed both by researchers and practitioners on the process and outcome dimensions of doing teacher research.     

The influence of web‐based chemistry learning on students' perceptions,attitudes, and achievements

The goal of this study was to investigate whether integrating a website into chemistry teaching influences 10th‐grade students' perceptions of the classroom learning environment, their attitudes regarding the relevance of chemistry, and their understanding of the concept of chemical bonding. Two groups participated in this study: an experimental group and a comparison group. The main study was conducted during the academic year 2005. The teachers in the experimental group were asked to implement four relevant activities from the website that was developed, all dealing with the concept of chemical bonding. Quantitative tools of the study included: A Chemistry Classroom Web‐Based Learning Environment Inventory to assess students' perceptions regarding the relevance of chemistry to their life and attitude towards chemistry studies, a feedback questionnaire that examined the students' response after performing the website activities, and an achievement test that assessed their knowledge and understanding of the concept of chemical bonding. We found that the experimental group outperformed the comparison group significantly in most of the research categories. This led us to conclude that the web‐based learning environment has potential to enhance the comprehension of chemistry concepts, students' attitudes and interests and to increase students' awareness regarding the relevant aspects of chemistry to daily life.     

THREE STRATEGIES FOR DELIVERING CONTINUING MEDICAL EDUCATION IN GERIATRICS TO GENERAL PRACTITIONERS

General practitioners (GPs) need advanced skills in geriatric assessment to be competent to treat the increasing number of elderly patients. Continuing medical education in geriatrics for GPs is heterogeneous, and not assessed for effectiveness. In this study we compared the educational effects of three geriatric post-graduate training methods on GPs. GPs in the health district of the Nijmegen University Medical Centre (The Netherlands) were offered a variety of training options in geriatric assessment: (1) a formal one-day teacher centered conference (TCC), (2) an interactive GP-centered day of workshops (GCW), and (3) participation in a project of knowledge translation, linked to a research project of geriatric intermediate care (GKT). Pre-post measures were taken of the attitudes of GPs towards the elderly (Aging Semantic Differential, 1969), attitudes towards geriatric patients (Maxwell & Sullivan, 1980 Maxwell, A. J. and Sullivan, N. 1980. Attitudes toward the geriatric patient among family practice residents. Journal of the American Geriatric Society, 2(8): 341–345.  [Google Scholar]; Rosencranz & McNevin, 1969 Rosencranz, H. A. and McNevin, T. E. 1969. A factor analysis of attitudes towards the aged. Gerontologist, 9: 55–59. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and geriatric competencies (Robinson, Barry, Renick, et al., 2001 Robinson, B. E., Barry, P. P., Renick, N., Bergen, M. R. and Stratos, G. A. 2001. Physician confidence and interest in learning more about common geriatric topics: A needs assessment. Journal of the American Geriatric Society, 49: 963–967. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). After training, neither the attitudes towards the elderly nor geriatric patients changed in any of the three groups. The TCC did not show a significant change in perceived competencies, while the GCW and GKT group improved. A formal large group conference is ineffective in improving GPs' geriatric assessment skills, while small interactive workshops and participation in a project of knowledge translation are equally effective. None of the three training methods improved or worsened attitudes toward the elderly in general or the geriatric patients in particular.     

Traceless enzymatic protein synthesis without ligation sites constraint

Protein synthesis and semisynthesis offer immense promise for life sciences and have impacted pharmaceutical innovation. The absence of a generally applicable method for traceless peptide conjugation with a flexible choice of junction sites remains a bottleneck for accessing many important synthetic targets, however. Here we introduce the PALME (protein activation and ligation with multiple enzymes) platform designed for sequence-unconstrained synthesis and modification of biomacromolecules. The upstream activating modules accept and process easily accessible synthetic peptides and recombinant proteins, avoiding the challenges associated with preparation and manipulation of activated peptide substrates. Cooperatively, the downstream coupling module provides comprehensive solutions for sequential peptide condensation, cyclization and protein N/C-terminal or internal functionalization. The practical utility of this methodology is demonstrated by synthesizing a series of bioactive targets ranging from pharmaceutical ingredients to synthetically challenging proteins. The modular PALME platform exhibits unprecedentedly broad accessibility for traceless protein synthesis and functionalization, and holds enormous potential to extend the scope of protein chemistry and synthetic biology.