The Future of Educational Neuroscience

The primary goal of the emerging field of educational neuroscience and the broader movement called Mind, Brain, and Education is to join biology with cognitive science, development, and education so that education can be grounded more solidly in research on learning and teaching. To avoid misdirection, the growing worldwide movement needs to avoid the many myths and distortions in popular conceptions of brain and genetics. It should instead focus on integrating research with practice to create useful evidence that illuminates the brain and genetic bases as well as social and cultural influences on learning and teaching. Scientists and educators need to collaborate to build a strong research foundation for analyzing the “black box” of biological and cognitive processes that underpin learning.     

Ein Hoarding-Verfahren für ortsbezogene Informationen

Zusammenfassung.   Mit der zunehmenden Verbreitung mobiler Endger?te w?chst auch der Bedarf in mobilen Umgebungen auf entfernt gespeicherte Informationen zuzugreifen. Da dieser Informationszugriff meist über drahtlose Netzwerke erfolgt, treten in mobilen Informationssystemen h?ufig Probleme wie geringe Bandbreite, gro?e Verz?gerungen oder Verbindungsausf?lle auf. Hoarding-Verfahren versuchen diese Probleme zu l?sen, indem sie Informationen, auf die der Benutzer voraussichtlich zugreifen wird, im voraus übertragen. Dazu müssen sie jedoch vorhersagen, welche Informationen der Benutzer ben?tigen wird. In diesem Beitrag stellen wir ein Hoarding-Verfahren vor, das für diese Vorhersage die Ortsabh?ngigkeit von Informationszugriffen ausnutzt. Wie wir durch Simulationen zeigen, wird der Speicherplatz auf dem Endger?t dadurch sehr effizient genutzt. (Die hier vorgestellte Arbeit ist mit Unterstützung der DFG im Rahmen der Forschergruppe Nexus sowie des Graduiertenkollegs Parallele und Verteilte Systeme entstanden. Eingegangen am 2. Februar 2001 / Angenommen am 1. Juni 2001     

“What Do You Say to Your Mother When Your Mother's Standing Beside You?” Birth and Adoptive Family Contributions to Adoptive Identity via Relational Identity and Relational–Relational Identity Gaps

Grounded in the communication theory of identity, the present study explores how adoptive identity—an individual's understanding of what it means to be an adopted person—is influenced by the relational layer of his or her adoptive and birth family relationships. Seven focus group interviews were conducted in which participants were prompted to engage in a dialog about their experiences as an adopted individual. Analyses revealed that adoptees' relational identity with both their adoptive and birth families contributed in meaningful ways to their adoptive identity, but these relationships at times come into conflict with one another and with the adoptees' personal layer of identity, generating relational–relational and personal–relational identity gaps.     

Examining teachers’ use of computer-based technologies: A case study

This paper presents a case study that illustrates the extent to which technology is used in and out of the classroom in the elementary schools of Turkey. The data were collected through interviews, observations and document analyses. The results show that teachers use technology for administrative purposes, technology education, non-educational purposes, instructional preparation, teacher-directed instructional delivery, student homework and instructional assessment. This study further reveals that teachers’ use of technology is very limited. If teachers use technology for instruction, it is almost always to support their traditional teaching methods.     

Exploring the Communication of Evangelical Families: The Association Between Evangelical Gender Role Ideology and Family Communication Patterns

This study examines the relationship between the Evangelical gender role ideologies termed Complementarianism and Egalitarianism and conversation- and conformity-orientation communication patterns stemming from the general theory of family communication. A nonrandom group (N = 124) of Evangelical parents were surveyed using a cross-sectional, self-report survey design. Specific differences were discovered in the perceptions of communication in families for individuals holding conservative Complementarian and progressive Egalitarian gender role ideologies. Evangelical parents who endorsed a more Egalitarian family gender role ideology reported greater use of conversation-oriented communication patterns in their families whereas respondents holding a more Complementarian family gender role ideology reported more use of conformity-oriented communication patterns in their families.     

Through the Looking Glass: Twenty Years of Chinese Internet Research

This article is a report on a research project that collected detailed information on articles, book chapters, books, and so on, published by academics on the Chinese Internet between 1990 and early 2013. The findings of the meta-review of 20 years of Chinese Internet research, as gleaned from quantitative and qualitative analysis of the collected body of publications, are presented and discussed in this report. It engages with the conclusions drawn by previous meta-studies, and seeks to shed a critical, self-reflexive light onto the main discursive formations of their research field. The article concludes that there is still a lot of scope for growth in studies of the Internet in China and lists several of the identified research gaps.     

Alterations in neuromuscular activation patterns associated with walking in short-leg walking boots

BackgroundShort-leg walking boots are a common intervention for acute and chronic lower extremity injury. Few studies have examined the neuromuscular adaptations associated with short-leg walking boots and no previous study has investigated timing characteristics of muscle activation during gait. The purpose of the current study was to examine the timing and amplitudes of muscle activation of the extrinsic ankle musculature during walking in two types of short-leg walking boots.MethodsEleven healthy young adults performed five level walking trials at a self-selected pace in each of three conditions: normal walking, Gait Walker and Equalizer short-leg walking boots. Ground reaction forces were collected from a force platform while surface electromyography (EMG) was collected from the tibialis anterior, peroneus longus and medial gastrocnemius. EMG signals were rectified and smoothed using the root mean squared with a 20-ms smoothing window and were normalized to the largest mean of the normal walking trials. A repeated measures analysis of variance was used to assess the effect of short-leg walking boots on the onset, duration and amplitude of muscle activation.ResultsShort-leg walking boots were generally associated with earlier onsets of muscle activation and longer durations of muscle activation. However, there was no reduction in EMG amplitude.ConclusionThe findings of this study show that the induced alterations in muscle activation patterns may limit the short-leg walking boots.     

Quality of geometry instruction and its short-term impact on students' understanding of the Pythagorean Theorem

This article presents findings from a German–Swiss video-based classroom study. The research examines how three basic dimensions of instructional quality impact the development of students' understanding of the Pythagorean Theorem. The study sample comprised 19 German and 19 Swiss mathematics classes. A three-lesson introductory unit on the Pythagorean Theorem was videotaped in all classes. Multilevel analyses revealed both classroom management and cognitive activation to have positive effects on mathematics achievement. The results also provide empirical evidence that cognitive activation and a supportive climate moderate the relationship between mathematics-related interest and mathematics achievement.