Potentiality for change? Revisiting an action research project with a sociomaterial approach

This article takes as its point of departure an action research project conducted in an upper secondary school in Sweden. The project had a practitioner research approach and was carried out with students in one class. In this article, I elaborate on the tensions that appeared during the project concerning collaboration and action. This is done by revisiting the project with a theoretical approach of sociomaterialism. Revisiting entails critically and creatively exploring how to comprehend collaboration and action differently. It raises question about who or what are involved in the collaborations and what are to be considered ‘good’ actions. Within the elaboration, collaboration and action become intertwined phenomena that are always working together. Furthermore, it proposes how the notion of intervention embraces the distributed and collective disposition of both collaboration and action. By addressing the notions of collaboration and action with a sociomaterial approach changing a teaching practice becomes a relational experiment without preset goals. The potential for change becomes within speculative interventions that affords various encounters and relations.     

Building life world connections during school booktalk

In criticisms of children's literature, notions of 'fantasy' and 'realism' are pivotal. In school 'booktalk' conversations pupils referred to what is 'real' in three different ways: (i) by referring to feelings of or semblance to 'real' life, (ii) by invoking shared facts and (iii) by making references to personal experiences. In cases when teachers or pupils initiated so-called text-to-life or real world connections, two types of dilemmas occurred. First, engagement was at times bought at the cost of quite literal reader responses. At other times, engagement was accomplished at the price of intrusiveness. There was, thus, a delicate balance between life world references, on the one hand, and literal readings or intrusion, on the other. Moreover, students sometimes resisted life world probing, but volunteered privileged information about their parents, displaying different notions from teachers about legitimate information in a school context.     

Serial Argumentation Goals and Their Relationships to Perceived Resolvability and Choice of Conflict Tactics

The present study utilized a scale that measured Bevan, Hale, and Williams' (2004) serial argumentation goals and associated these goals with the perceived resolvability of the serial argument and serial argument conflict tactics. College students reporting on current and former dating partnerships completed a written survey containing close-ended items. Six of Bevan et al.'s (2004) ten original goals again emerged from data analyses, and the four remaining goals combined to form a single goal. These seven serial argument goals were related to perceived resolvability and conflict tactics in generally expected ways.     

The academic and psychological benefits of exercise in healthy children and adolescents

This review examines the psychological benefits exercise is connected to in healthy children and adolescents. Studies on the effect of exercise on academic performance, self-esteem, emotions, and mood were examined. Academic performance is found to be maintained when normal academic classes are reduced and replaced by an increase in exercise, physical activity, or physical education. Exercise seems to have a positive effect on several aspects of cognition and self-esteem in healthy children and adolescents. A positive connection between exercise and emotions and moods in children is found in the few studies that have been conducted.     

提高西藏黄奶牛生产性能研究

该项目是中澳国际联合的其中一个,根据发展奶业,促进农区畜牧业发展,提高农村生活水平的需要在西藏河谷流域农牧交错带开展调研.三年来在四个不同的区域进行随机抽样设点,了解项目区奶牛发展现状,系统收集分析当前农户饲养奶牛的饲料结构,营养水平、繁殖成活能力以及管理模式.同时引进澳方饲养奶牛的先进技术、管理措施和发展理念,有效利用西藏现有的作物秸秆,研发优良饲草、饲喂技术,进一步研究牛在一个生长周期中的饲料平衡、生长模式及量化营养等生产性能的对应关系,加大引创结合、重点突破,提高项目区奶牛生产性能,增加农户现金收入.     

Influences of orthographic consistency and reading instruction on the development of nonword reading skills

Wimmer and Goswami (1994) report that seven-, eight-, and nine-year old English children had considerably more difficulties with a nonword reading task than German children who acquire an orthography with highly consistent grapheme-phoneme correspondences. In Study 1, seven-, eight-, and nine year old English children receiving a phonics instruction were presented with the same task and compared with the children tested by Wimmer and Goswami. Study 2 is a replication with different samples of English children receiving the standard electic approach combining both whole-word and phonics strategies, English children receiving a phonics teaching approach and German children who are taught via phonics methods and acquire a consistent orthography. Children from Grades 1 to 4 were tested. In both studies, the English phonics children read the nonwords with almost the aame accuracy and speed as the German children. In Study 1, the English phonics children performed clearly better on nonword reading than the English standard sample. In Study 2, this difference was also evident but less marked. In Grade 1 English phonics as well as English standard children had clearly more difficulties with phonological decoding than German children indicating a relevant influence of orthographic consistency.     

An early review of stroboscopic visual training: insights,challenges and accomplishments to guide future studies

ABSTRACT

Stroboscopic visual training (SVT) is a form of training in which an individual practices a task under intermittent visual conditions with the intention of enhancing subsequent performance under normal visual conditions. Training with stroboscopic devices is theorized to improve important visual, perceptual, and cognitive skills, which in turn transfers to enhanced sporting performance. Indeed, while there is an abundance of anecdotal evidence suggesting benefits of strobe training, empirical evidence is rarer and less conclusive. This lack of clarity is due, in part, to the challenging methodological issues faced when conducting experimental vision training studies in applied contexts. The present paper is an early review of the research to date with a focus on the key methodological decisions, such as the training and testing protocols employed, participant samples and control groups used, and practical considerations that enable such training in applied settings. Whilst still at an early stage, the existing studies point to SVT enhancing some aspects of foveal visual sensitivity and visual motor control, with notable benefits for some athletic tasks. Such improvements could have implications not just in sport, but in domains such as rehabilitation, education, and motor vehicle safety.     

High-Resolution Ultrasonic Imaging of Artworks with Seismic Interferometry for Their Conservation and Restoration

Artworks are an inseparable part of the cultural heritage of societies and provide us with a unique look at cultural developments through time and space. For the best possible conservation, it is paramount to know the constituent materials, condition, and construction techniques of the objects (e.g. painting on wood, fresco, sculpture). Such information is required not only for the surfaces of the objects, but also for the interiors; in the imaging discipline, this is known as depth imaging. Here, we introduce a new method for non-invasive depth imaging as an alternative to traditional non-invasive methods when the latter cannot be used to obtain the required information. We use ultrasonic transverse-wave transmission measurements and turn them into virtual reflection measurements. We achieve this by applying seismic interferometry with active sources. Obtaining reflection measurements by seismic interferometry allows us to apply an advanced imaging technique – prestack depth migration, as used in seismic exploration – to produce a high-resolution depth image of an object. We apply our method to ultrasonic data recorded on a mockup of a painting on a wooden support. We validate our method by comparing our results with an image from X-ray computed tomography.