The Urban School Crisis in New Orleans: Pre- and Post-Katrina Perspectives

This article provides a case study of the Algiers Charter School Association, a new organization formed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The Association coordinated the start-up of charter schools on the West Bank of the city, a high-ground neighborhood that escaped the massive flooding that engulfed New Orleans. I situate the case study in the broader social, political, context of state takeover, rapid-fire school crisis and reform, and deepening privatization.     

E-learning and market orientation in higher education

Technology is modifying the way companies do business all over the world. The education sector is no exception; virtual education has emerged as a basic tool to satisfy the changing needs of traditional and newly incorporated students, as well as meet the new requirements of educational institutions. This article therefore tries to achieve a double objective: to analyze what drives the development of online education within the Universities of the European Union and to design a theoretical framework that permits to obtain responses to que question of why students continue their estudies at the same educational institution. Thus, first, the analysis of external factors identifies social, political and technological capacity as issues that explain the rise of e-learning within the field of European higher education. Second, the empirical work shows the design of a cause-effect model with relationships between different variables in which market orientation of Universities and usability play an important role in the future intentions of use for students.     

STRUCTURE OF PRIMARY MATHEMATICS TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS IN SPAIN

Spain was 1 of the 17 countries that participated in the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement’s Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M 2008). In this paper, we explore and describe the structure of Spanish primary mathematics teacher education programs. We analyzed the documents collected from the 48 sampled Spanish institutions that participated in TEDS-M. Our approach to the syllabus analysis focused on the established content dimension of curriculum in educators’ syllabi. These contents are structured into 4 knowledge domains—school mathematics, advanced mathematics, general pedagogy, and mathematics pedagogy—and categorized into subjects and topics. The results show that Spanish teacher education programs are diverse across institutions, but follow a basic structure that emphasizes the teaching of general pedagogy subjects.     

Institutional and country collaboration in an online service of scientific profiles: Google Scholar Citations

The purpose of this paper is to analyse and describe the topological properties of the institutional and national collaboration network from the profiles extracted from Google Scholar Citations (GSC). 19,912 unique profiles with “co-authors” were obtained from a web crawl performed in March 2012. Several statistical and network analysis techniques were used to map and analyse these collaboration relationships at the country and institution level. Results show that The United States dominates the world scientific map and that every research institution is grouped by national, geographical and cultural criteria. A clustering phenomenon based on the self-similarity and fractal properties of scale-free networks is also observed. We conclude that GSC is a suitable tool for collaboration studies only at macro level between countries and institutions.     

A fuzzy linguistic model to evaluate the quality of Library 2.0 functionalities

Libraries incessantly undergo change determined by evolving user needs. These are often induced by the emergence of previously unavailable tools. Web 2.0 represents an example of such a need-shifting technology, which has led to an embrace of new user interactivity services for many library websites, thus coined Library 2.0. This paradigm shift calls for new evaluation models to include the implementation of Web 2.0 technologies. The aim of this paper is to present such a model, and to evaluate the quality of Library 2.0 functionalities, measuring the quality of the 2.0 services offered through the websites based on user perception. We adopt fuzzy linguistic modeling to represent user perception, and apply aggregation operations to linguistic labels in order to evaluate the quality of the new services. Furthermore, our model subsumes the LibQUAL+ methodology, allowing for the identification of specific 2.0 functionalities in need of improvement and of those outstandingly satisfied by the system.     

Quality of Chilean Early Childhood Education from an International Perspective Qualité de l'Education Préscolaire Chilienne dans une Perspective Internationale Calidad de la Educacio´n Preescolar Chilena desde una Perspectiva Internacional

The aim of the study was to assess the quality of the different types of Chilean early childhood care and education programmes according to international standards. The sample included 120 centres representing the different types of pre-school programmes available, randomly selected from two different geographical regions of the country, where 52% of the population lives. This paper presents the structural and process characteristics observed in the classrooms, according to the results from the application of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS). All the different types of pre-school programmes in Chile exhibited a minimum level of quality, even though there are differences among types of programmes and also according to the geographical area where they were settled. Results are compared with findings from the European Child Care and Education (ECCE) study developed in Austria, Germany, Portugal and Spain and from the Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) project, developed in Britain. Cette étude se propose de évaluer la qualitédes différents programmes d'éducation et soin d'enfants au Chili, selon des standards internationaux. 120 centres ont été selectionnés au hasard, dans les deux départements du pays ou habite le 52% de la population. Cet article analyse les caractéristiques structurelles et du procès observes dans les classes, selon les résultats obtenus avec l'application de l'Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS). Les différents types de programme on montré un niveau minimal de qualité même s'il y avait de différences significatives parmi les programmes et les départements. Les résultats sont compares avec l'étude European Child Care and Education (ECCE) développeé a le'Autriche, dans l'Allemagne, au Portugal et en Espagne et avec ceux projet Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE), développe a l'Angleterre. El propósito de este estudio fue la evaluación de la calidad de los diferentes programas de Educación y cuidado infantil existentes en Chile, aplicando criterios internacionales. La muestra incluyó 120 centros que representan los diferentes tipos de programas existentes en el país, seleccionados al azar, en las dos regiones, en las que habita el 52% de la población total. Este artículo analiza las características estructurales y del proceso observadas en las salas, de acuerdo a los resultados de la aplicación de la Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS). Los distintos tipos de programas mostraron un nivel de calidad promedio correspondiente al rango minimo, aunque existen diferencias significativas entre ellos y también entre las dos regiones. Estos resultados fueron comparados con los hallazgos de los estudios-European Child Care and Education (ECCE), desarrollado en Austria, Alemania, Portugal y Espana y Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE), realizado en Inglaterra.     

Constructivism: Defense or a Continual Critical Appraisal A Response to Gil-Pérez et al.

This commentary is a critical appraisal of Gil-Pérez et al.'s (2002) conceptualization of constructivism. It is argued that the following aspects of their presentation are problematic: (a) Although the role of controversy is recognized, the authors implicitly subscribe to a Kuhnian perspective of `normal' science; (b) Authors fail to recognize the importance of von Glasersfeld's contribution to the understanding of constructivism in science education; (c) The fact that it is not possible to implement a constructivist pedagogy without a constructivist epistemology has been ignored; and (d) Failure to recognize that the metaphor of the `student as a developing scientist' facilitates teaching strategies as students are confronted with alternative/rival/conflicting ideas. Finally, we have shown that constructivism in science education is going through a process of continual critical appraisals.     

Effects of 10-week eccentric overload training on kinetic parameters during change of direction in football players

ABSTRACT

The aim of the current study was to analyse the effect of 10-week eccentric overload training on kinetic parameters during change of direction (COD) in U-19 football players. The outcome measured included relative peak braking (rPB) and propulsive force (rPF), contact time (CT), time spent during braking (BT) and propulsive phase (PT), relative total (rTOT_IMP), braking (rB_IMP) and propulsive (rP_IMP) impulses. Between-group results showed a substantial better improvement (likely) in CT (ES: 0.72) and BT (ES: 0.74) during side-step cutting, and in rPB (ES: 0.84) and rB_IMP (ES: 0.72) during crossover cutting, in the experimental group (EXP) in comparison to control group (CON). Within-group analysis showed a substantially better performance (likely to almost certain) in CT (ES: 1.19), BT (ES: 1.24), PT (ES: 0.70), rPB (ES: 0.75), rPF (ES: 0.68), rTOT_IMP (ES: 0.48) and rB_IMP (ES: 0.50) in EXP during side-step cutting. Regarding crossover cutting, within-group analysis showed a substantial better performance (likely to almost certain) in CT (ES: 0.75), rPB (ES: 0.75), rPF (ES: 1.34), rTOT_IMP (ES: 0.61), rB_IMP (ES: 0.76) and rP_IMP (ES: 0.46) in EXP. In conclusion, the eccentric overload-based programme led to an improvement in kinetic parameters during COD football tasks.