Emerging patterns of abstraction in environmental education: A review of materials,methods and professional development perspectives

The epistemic unconscious is the history of the field. And it is clear that, to secure some chance of really knowing what one is doing, one has to unfold what is inscribed in the various relations of implication in which the thinker and his thoughts are caught up, that is, the presuppositions he engages and the inclusions and exclusions he unwittingly performs. (Bourdieu, 2000, p. 99)     

Ranking journals using social choice theory methods: A novel approach in bibliometrics

We use data on economic, management and political science journals to produce quantitative estimates of (in)consistency of the evaluations based on six popular bibliometric indicators (impact factor, 5-year impact factor, immediacy index, article influence score, SNIP and SJR). We advocate a new approach to the aggregation of journal rankings. Since the rank aggregation is a multicriteria decision problem, ranking methods from social choice theory may solve it. We apply either a direct ranking method based on the majority rule (the Copeland rule, the Markovian method) or a sorting procedure based on a tournament solution, such as the uncovered set and the minimal externally stable set. We demonstrate that the aggregate rankings reduce the number of contradictions and represent the set of the single-indicator-based rankings better than any of the six rankings themselves.     

Effects of differently polarized microwave radiation on the microscopic structure of the nuclei in human fibroblasts

To investigate the influence of microwave radiation on the human fibroblast nuclei, the effects of three variants of electromagnetic wave polarization, linear and left-handed and right-handed elliptically polarized, were examined. Experimental conditions were: frequency (f) 36.65 GHz, power density (P) at the surface of exposed object 1, 10, 30, and 100 μW/cm², exposure time 10 s. Human fibroblasts growing in a monolayer on a cover slide were exposed to microwave electromagnetic radiation. The layer of medium that covered cells during microwave exposure was about 1 mm thick. Cells were stained immediately after irradiation by 2% (w/v) orcein solution in 45% (w/v) acetic acid. Experiments were made at room temperature (25 °C), and control cell samples were processed in the same conditions. We assessed heterochromatin granule quantity (HGQ) at 600× magnification. Microwave irradiation at the intensity of 1 μW/cm² produced no effect, and irradiation at the intensities of 10 and 100 μW/cm² induced an increase in HGQ. More intense irradiation induced more chromatin condensation. The right-handed elliptically polarized radiation revealed more biological activity than the left-handed polarized one.     

Experience and maturation: The contribution of co-occurrence regularities in language to the development of semantic organization

With development knowledge becomes organized according to semantic links, including early-developing associative (e.g., juicy–apple) and gradually developing taxonomic links (e.g., apple–pear). Word co-occurrence regularities may foster these links: Associative links may form from direct co-occurrence (e.g., juicy–apple), and taxonomic links from shared co-occurrence (e.g., apple and pear co-occur with juicy). Four experiments (2017–2020) investigated this possibility with 4- to 8-year-olds (N = 148, 82 female) and adults (N = 116, 35 female) in a U.S. city with 58.6% White; 29.0% Black, and 5.8% Asian demographics. Results revealed earlier development of the abilities to form direct (ds > 0.536) than the abilities to form shared co-occurrence-based links (ds > 1.291). We argue that the asynchronous development of abilities to form co-occurrence-based links may explain developmental changes in semantic organization.     

Decisión 2016: Comparative Analysis of Journalistic Role Performance on Spanish- and English-language TV Networks

ABSTRACT

This study is one of the first to compare journalistic role performances of English– and Spanish–language TV networks during the 2016 U.S. primaries. Previous research finds that the corporate structure of Spanish–language media in the United States is looking more like its English–language counterparts and that Latino journalists share the norm of objectivity. Meanwhile, research suggests that individuals of different ethnicities turn to different communication channels and that this divergence can be explained by the degree of alignment in linguistic and cultural orientation. In this study, we therefore assess how linguistic differences of TV networks impact journalistic culture during the presidential primaries in 2016. As a crucial component of journalistic culture, we focus on journalistic role performance and find important distinctions: Findings reveal that the greater coverage of presidential candidates as sources on English-language networks have significant consequences for the roles journalists perform. Results suggest that the Spanish–language networks performed significantly more civic journalism roles than their English–language counterparts that perform an interventionist and service role. These differences are discussed alongside different audience-orientation of the networks that reflect deep racial and ethnic divides.     

Bodies displayed on walls: are children’s bodies represented in an inclusive way in the pictures on the walls in their early childhood educational environments?

The messages conveyed by visual representations in the early childhood education (ECE) environment are critical to ensuring the success of inclusive practices. Given that anti-bias education permeates and affects everything which takes place in ECE institutions, the challenge for early childhood educators is to think creatively about how classroom walls can be used effectively as part of an educational environment rather than for purely decorative purposes. Our research aimed to examine, through a content analysis of the illustrations, the representation of the body taking into account the different categories as they are portrayed on nine different ECE classroom walls in Spanish public schools. Results show that the ECE walls are teaching gender equality to young children, with no single predominant role for girls or boys, but that they are not contributing to children learning about corporal diversity related to disability and ageing.     

Carving Metacognition at Its Joints: Protracted Development of Component Processes

Two experiments investigated the development of metacognitive monitoring and control, and conditions under which children engage these processes. In Experiment 1, 5‐year‐olds (N = 30) and 7‐year‐olds (N = 30), unlike adults (N = 30), showed little evidence of either monitoring or control. In Experiment 2, 5‐year‐olds (N = 90) were given performance feedback (aimed at improving monitoring), instruction to follow a particular strategy (aimed at improving control), or both. Across conditions, feedback improved children's monitoring, and instruction improved both monitoring and control. Thus, children's poor metacognitive performance likely reflects a difficulty engaging the component processes spontaneously rather than a lack of metacognitive ability. These findings also suggest that the component processes are distinct, with both undergoing protracted development.