The geometric curvature of the spine during the sirshasana,the yoga’s headstand

This study analysed the behaviour of the geometric curvature of the spine during sirshasana. The position of dorsal retroreflective markers was computed via stereophotogrammetric analysis in six males and five females (29.4 ± 8.8 years, 63.0 ± 11.4 kg, 1.66 ± 0.08 m [average ± standard deviation]). The spinal points were projected onto the sagittal and frontal planes of the trunk, a polynomial was fitted to the data and the two-dimensional geometric curvature was quantified. The inferior lumbar lordosis decreased compared to the orthostatic position and gait, which may favour the posterior protrusion of the lumbar spinal nucleus pulposus in people with posterior herniation. The lateral deviation at the middle of the thoracic spine increases during sirshasana, which may reflect increased difficulties for postural control and spinal loads. It could be useful for promoting positive spinal structural and functional chronic adaptations for healthy participants, if the yoga programme is carefully planned and the spinal alignment is carefully monitored during a headstand. However, it may aggravate some spinal diseases, especially scoliosis.     

On the use of lexical stress in reading Spanish

This paper investigates whether or not lexical stress is used for lexical access in Spanish. A lexical decision task and a masking priming procedure were used to compare correctly-versus-incorrectly stressed words (e.g., técla-TECLA vs. teclá-TECLA). SOA (Stimulus Onset Asynchrony) was manipulated at 33, 66, 100, and 143 ms. The results showed that congruent condition was easier, but in 143 ms SOA only. Furthermore, while congruent condition did not differ from a control identity condition (e.g., tecla-TECLA) incongruent condition was slower, but in 100 and 143 ms SOA only. All these results suggest that stress affects lexical access at a late stage of lexical access processing. Reading models should be re-designed in order to include lexical stress as another phonological code which is used for reading.     

Multilateral agencies and higher education reform in Latin America

During the last decade, the debate over higher education took up a significant space on the agendas of various international agencies, including multilateral development banks and other intergovernmental agencies. This fact points to the importance of the subject within a broader discussion that refers to national development projects and their articulation within the new international economic and political order. In this context, the purpose of this article is to discern the principal lines of argument at work and their implications for the transformation of higher education in Latin America. To this end, we have chosen four cases that we consider relevant for the region: The United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Bank, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLA) and the Interamerican Development Bank (IADB). In the first part of the text we characterize the particularities of each of these organizations, highlighting their relation with the processes of educational change. In the second, we approach the subject of the recommendations made by the multilateral agencies on change in the higher education systems in the world and, particularly, in the Latin American region.     

A University Program with “The Whole World as a Focus”: An Icelandic Response to Globalization

The International Studies in Education program at the University of Iceland illustrates how one university is responding to global trends in higher education. Through a case study we examined the significance of an innovative B.A. program, which is taught in English, aligned with values affirmed in critical multiculturalist scholarship, and designed to respond to demographic changes including a sharp increase in Iceland’s immigrant population. The experience of students, teachers, and administrators raises important questions about institutional responsibilities, both local and global; about the role of English in an international studies program; about de facto segregation of students; and about the significance of local context in global trends in higher education.     

The legal status of home education in post-communist countries of Central Europe

As new laws on education were gradually adopted in post-communist states after 1989, the countries also dealt with the problem of how to include home education in their own legislation. This article investigates the development of legislation on home education in five states of post-communist Central Europe: the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland and Hungary. This analysis of the legal environment for home education confirms on the one hand that these countries’ approach is similar in many aspects. Generally, laws tend to regulate home education rather strictly, all home-educated children must be enrolled at some school, and these schools are mandated by the state to serve as supervisory bodies for home-educated children. This legal arrangement puts the parents of home-schooled children in a very subordinate position in relation to the school. Despite these restrictions, however, the states have gradually opened up the option for home education to quite a broad pool of potentially interested people. On the other hand, the findings show that there are also significant differences between individual countries. These differences provide a good illustration of the fact that, despite historical, economic and cultural similarities, political institutions and state bureaucracies in individual states act autonomously, which leads to different policy outcomes.     

The influence of university students’ learning beliefs on their intentions to use mobile technologies in learning: a study in China and Spain

Educational technology research and development - As an emerging learning method, mobile technologies allow students to gain knowledge via both formal and informal learning. In spite of the...     

Loneliness,personal and social well-being: towards a conceptualization of the effects of cyberbullying / Soledad,bienestar social e individual: hacia una conceptualización de los efectos del cyberbullying

This paper examines the effects of cyberbullying using a mixed method approach, by combining interviews, focus groups and a survey of 7,000 students. In the inductive stage, and following an axial coding analysis, we identified 153 concepts related to conflicts, which were divided into three thematic units to explain the greater impact of cyberbullying: (1) social distance; (2) privacy exposure; and (3) range of the material. The survey concluded that: (1) the victims of bullying and cyberbullying present higher levels of loneliness and lower levels of social well-being compared to non-bullied students, and those who were bullied in both channels presented higher levels of loneliness and lower levels of social well-being than those who were bullied in only one of them; (2) the victims of cyberbullying showed lower levels of individual well-being compared with those who had never been bullied, as with those who suffered face-to-face bullying. This difference was explained by testimonies indicating that most of the cyberbullying was related to intimate content, which has a higher impact on image perception.