Influence of subject matter setting on comprehension monitoring

Research on the influence of subject matter setting on comprehension monitoring by secondary school students is reported in this article. Subjects were led to believe that they were reading passages from a science textbook in a science class or, alternatively, from a newspaper in a language class. Comprehension monitoring was expected to diminish in a situation in which information was acquired from a scientific source, in a science class, when compared to a situation in which information was acquired from a less authoritative source, like a newspaper, in a language class. Comprehension monitoring was measured by analyzing subjects' responses to a questionnaire and their written recall of several contradictory texts. Contrary to what was expected, evaluation and regulation of comprehension increased in the science setting. It was concluded that comprehension monitoring is dependent on subject matter setting, and that science education has a beneficial effect on this variable.     

Between the prescribed and the lived in physical education lessons

This study examines physical education (PE) curriculum development in an elementary school. Our goal was to understand the daily construction of a curriculum. We sought to analyse the theoretical and methodological framework and documents that a PE teacher uses each day while putting a curriculum into practice (lived curriculum). The data collection instruments included participant observation, interviews and document analysis. The analytical process revealed the influence of internal and external factors that affect both the authorship and the autonomy of a teacher working on the daily construction of a lived PE curriculum and that create tensions, struggles and conflicts.     

Effective Communication to Aid Collaboration for Digital Collections: A Case Study at Florida Gulf Coast University Library

ABSTRACT

Effective communication is one of the most important resources for successful outreach efforts. This article addresses the benefits that can emerge from successful communication as well as the negative effects that may stem from ineffective communication. A case study of Florida Gulf Coast University Archives, Special Collections, & Digital Initiatives' outreach efforts among local cultural heritage organizations will demonstrate methods used to approach these organizations and subsequent results. After attempting to provide several organizations with professional assistance regarding digitization and digital preservation of historic records, Archives, Special Collections, & Digital Initiatives sought to establish a formalized outreach approach. While there is a large amount of literature discussing broad outreach efforts, few articles delve into specific communication methods, potential benefits, and possible drawbacks. This article will show that with specific methods of communication, outreach can prove advantageous for both the community organization in need and the library institution providing the service.     

European Higher Education Society

In his paper, the author – anacademic and former Minister of Education forPortugal – traces the origins of the BolognaDeclaration of 1999 and its follow-up studiesleading to the Prague Conference of HigherEducation Ministers in May 2001. He summarisesthe outcomes of the Prague Conference, anddraws conclusions on the crucial role of the`Bologna process' in advancing European HigherEducation.     

Fulfilling Their Dreams: Marginalized Urban Youths' Perspectives on a Culturally Sensitive Social and Emotional Learning Program

A growing body of research suggests educators need to focus on cultivating social and emotional competencies that youth will need to thrive in the new knowledge economy (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, &; Schellinger, 2011 Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., &; Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing student's social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, 82, 405–432. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01564.x.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). For marginalized urban youth, in particular, few have derived programs and interventions to assist with these competencies. This study illuminates the perspectives of 9 African American youth at risk for academic failure taking part in the Fulfill the Dream (FTD) program. FTD is a social and emotional learning curriculum emphasizing social justice and critical consciousness through the utilization of hip-hop culture. Information regarding the nature of the collaboration of this research project and recommendations for education professionals working with marginalized youth are discussed.     

Science teaching in science education

Reading the interesting article Discerning selective traditions in science education by Per Sund, which is published in this issue of CSSE, allows us to open the discussion on procedures for teaching science today. Clearly there is overlap between the teaching of science and other areas of knowledge. However, we must constantly develop new methods to teach and differentiate between science education and teaching science in response to the changing needs of our students, and we must analyze what role teachers and teacher educators play in both. We must continually examine the methods and concepts involved in developing pedagogical content knowledge in science teachers. Otherwise, the possibility that these routines, based on subjective traditions, prevent emerging processes of educational innovation. Modern science is an enormous field of knowledge in its own right, which is made more expansive when examined within the context of its place in society. We propose the need to design educative interactions around situations that involve science and society. Science education must provide students with all four dimensions of the cognitive process: factual knowledge, conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge, and metacognitive knowledge. We can observe in classrooms at all levels of education that students understand the concepts better when they have the opportunity to apply the scientific knowledge in a personally relevant way. When students find value in practical exercises and they are provided opportunities to reinterpret their experiences, greater learning gains are achieved. In this sense, a key aspect of educational innovation is the change in teaching methodology. We need new tools to respond to new problems. A shift in teacher education is needed to realize the rewards of situating science questions in a societal context and opening classroom doors to active methodologies in science education to promote meaningful learning through meaningful teaching.     

The Multi-timescale,Multi-modal and Multi-perspectival Aspects of Classroom Discourse Analysis in Science Education

Research in Science Education -     

The impact of exercise training on the lipid peroxidation metabolomic profile and respiratory infection risk in older adults

Aging is associated with oxidative stress that may increase susceptibility to respiratory infections (RIs). We aimed to assess the impact of exercise training on the risk of RIs in older adults and on a targeted metabolomic profile of stress oxidative lipid peroxidation-related metabolites. Methods: In an 8-month clinical trial, 38 participants over 60 years of age were allocated to an exercise group (EG), in which participants underwent 90-min training sessions three times/week(n?=?20), or a control group (CG), in which participants maintained daily physical activities(n?=?18). Daily respiratory symptoms and RIs number and severity were collected. Serum by-products were assessed by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry with time of flight analyzer. Serum metabolomic profiling comprised 76 metabolites (alcohols, aldehydes, alkanes, and ketones). Principal components analysis and ANOVA-simultaneous component analysis were used to evaluate the metabolomic profile change. Results: The odds ratio of RIs for the EG was 2.0 CI 95% [0.2;25]. The incidence of RIs was 47% [23;70] in the EG vs. 44%[12;77] in the CG. The metabolomic profiling showed that alkanes and aldehydes classes differed between the EG and the CG before and after intervention. A calibration model showed a relation between the metabolites from four main classes (ketones, alcohols, alkanes and aldehydes) and the prediction of the number of RIs. Conclusion: Moderate exercise training, in older adults, compared with no exercise in controls, did not show a difference in the risk of RIs. A pattern of lipid peroxidation was associated with the number of RIs.     

Agricultural extension as adult education: institutional evolution and forces for change

Agricultural extension is generally considered by adult educators to be one of the many different providers of adult education. Agricultural extension's pragmatic, specialized content and its task‐oriented field‐directed methodologies for providing information and technology transfer, and often other services as well, places this education provider in a unique category, so unique in fact that it is often overlooked in discussions of formal as well as nonformal education. This paper briefly reviews the value and current reforms taking place to reform agricultural extension, through structural, financial and managerial decentralization strategies and through the shift of government power and responsibility to market‐oriented approaches. The paper highlights the major forces for change that underscore the challenges facing this specialized provider of non‐formal adult education, including sociopolitical, economic, institutional and programmatic forces, which are affecting and will continue to affect extension worldwide.