Teacher training for secondary education and graduates’ entrance into the teaching profession

This study focuses on the relationship between teacher education and graduates’ intended and actual entrance into teaching. Moreover, it explores how this relationship differs for two types of initial teacher training for secondary education. A hypothetical model of graduates’ entrance into the teaching profession comprising empirically grounded variables was developed. Besides teacher education related variables, other factors (e.g., motivation and labour market) were included. Data for this study were based on a sample of 370 graduates qualified for teaching in secondary education. Logistic regression analysis indicates that intention to enter teaching, preparedness for teaching, employment opportunities and type of teacher training explain 43% of the variance in actual entrance into teaching. Furthermore, path analysis was applied to test the hypothetical pattern of (inter)relationships between the variables. Results are largely consistent across the two types of teacher training showing a small, although statistically significant, contribution of teacher education above other antecedents of graduates’ intention to enter teaching.     

The development of analogical reading in Spanish

The use and development of analogical processes in learning to read in Spanish are presented. In the first experiment, the results show that children of 6 years old show analogical effects in reading pseudowords and that the magnitude of this effect is the same as with 10 years old children. However, it is found that children of 10 years old make many lexicalizations when reading pseudowords (about 50% of the items). In experiment 2 this finding is further analyzed. The results show that 9 years old children make more lexicalizations than adult control subjects do. It is suggested that the development of analogical procedures is a fast process (6 years old children already have done it), but that the precise control of lexical information over perceptual one is a later process.     

The Use of Different Translation Devices to Analyze Knowledge-Building in a University Chemistry Classroom

Research in Science Education - This research draws on Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) to understand the epistemic dimension of the higher education classroom discourse of a professor who is well...     

Simulation and augmentation: Issues of wearable computers

As the physical and digital worlds interact,some fields of technoscience have started toshift from an approach emphasizing simulation –in which the physical is replicated in thedigital – to one focusing on augmentation, inwhich the digital is utilized to enhance thephysical. A good place to study theimplications this shift has on the individualis the field of personal wearable technologies.Here, the body is not simply extended byinformation and communication technologies(ICTs), but also becomes their intimate host.This represents a new step in theconceptualization of the synergy betweenindividual (body) and technology (environment),and also affects the ways in which the role andcharacter of each actor are defined. This paperexplores some of the theoreticalre-orientations underpinning the development ofwearable computers and how these shape therelationship between body and environment.     

Belief in a just world, justice concerns, and well-being at Portuguese schools

This article investigates the meaning of the belief in a just world (BJW) for justice cognition at school and for subjective well-being. We hypothesized that BJW should serve as a resource helping to maintain positive well-being and to assimilate experienced injustice. The results of two studies with Portuguese school students (7th–12th grade) and one with university students were consistent with our hypotheses. The more the students endorsed the BJW, the more they evaluated their school grades and their teachers’ and their peers’ behavior towards them as just and the more they were satisfied with life in general. Moreover, the more students felt fairly treated by their teachers, the less they felt distressed at school. Life satisfaction varied however independently of school-specific justice cognitions. This pattern of results persisted when controlled for achievement (grades) as well as for personality dispositions such as self-efficacy, self-esteem, and general trust. The implications of these results for further studies on adolescent development are discussed.     

Flounders unlimited

The aim of this paper is to provide an introduction to higher mathematical concepts and techniques as applied to real-world problems. An interesting case study is the 200-mile limit for fisheries presented in Wan (1989, Mathematical Models and their Analysis (New York: Harper and Row)). It is commented upon, re-examined and solved in a different manner inspired by Turing's (1952, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London , B237 , 37-72) paper as a suitable classroom example for undergraduate students taking a first course on mathematical modelling. Emphasis is made not only on the mathematics--always kept as elementary as possible--but also on interpretations, explanations and translation into plain language of the mathematical expressions and results.