Letter to the editor

Santos-Concejero and Tucker argued in their letter to the editor that in our study the running economy in achieving superior performance was overlooked due to some methodological aspects. Having given the remarks of Santos-Concejero and Tucker appropriate consideration, in this letter to the editor, we argue that our paper does not downplay the influence of running economy on the determinants of the East African running phenomenon, but rather adds novel insights into the interaction between running economy, maximal oxygen uptake and performance.     

Evaluating the Implementation of an Olympic Education Program in Greece

The aim of this study was to develop an instrument for evaluating how an education program has been implemented. Such evaluation can provide insight into the effectiveness of a program. Examined here was the Olympic Education Program used in Greek schools since 2000. In it, students learn the history of the Olympic games and the importance of exercise for health along with the principles and values of sports and volunteerism. The evaluation instrument underlying this study addressed the following six factors: ‘facilities’, ‘administration’, ‘educational material’, ‘student–teacher relationships’, ‘educational procedures’, and ‘training’. Results indicate that the instrument, while adequate for assessing effectiveness, should be combined with advanced statistical methods.     

The notion of historical “parallelism” revisited: historical evolution and students’ conception of the order relation on the number line

This paper associates the findings of a historical study with those of an empirical one with 16 years-old students (1st year of the Greek Lyceum). It aims at examining critically the much-discussed and controversial relation between the historical evolution of mathematical concepts and the process of their teaching and learning. The paper deals with the order relation on the number line and the algebra of inequalities, trying to elucidate the development and functioning of this knowledge both in the world of scholarly mathematical activity and the world of teaching and learning mathematics in secondary education. This twofold analysis reveals that the old idea of a “parallelism” between history and pedagogy of mathematics has a subtle nature with at least two different aspects (metaphorically named “positive” and “negative”), which are worth further exploration.

The Role of Wonder and 'Romance' in Early Childhood Science Education Le Role de l'E´merveillement et du 'Roman' dans l'E´ducation Scientifique des Jeunes Enfants El Papel de las Maravillas y 'Romance' en la Ciencia Educacio´n Temprana de los Nin ¨ os

Over the last decades hands-on activities have been considered the most appropriate form of activities that could help children develop science concepts. In the case of young children in particular, developmentally appropriate activities have been considered those that provide them with opportunities for acting on objects and putting various factors (i.e. the objects' reactions) into relationship. In this paper both arguments and evidence from a pilot study are presented that point to the significance of wonder for the invitation of children to the world of science. It is argued that certain activities that do not appear to be 'pedagogically appropriate' should not be excluded from children's experiential repertoire. Hands-on activities that make children feel excitement, perplexity and surprise and stories in which science ideas have been embedded appear to be more 'pedagogically appropriate' if Whitehead's notion of 'the stage of romance' is taken into account. Au cours des récentes décennies, on a considéréque les activités pratiques étaient les mieux appropriées au développement des concepts scientifiques chez les enfants. Dans le cas des jeunes enfants notamment, les activités appropriées au stade de leur développement étaient jugées celles qui fournissaient des possibilités d'agir sur les objets et de mettre en rapport divers facteurs (c'est àdire les réactions des objets). Dans cet article, on présente les arguments et les résultats d'une étude pilote qui semble indiquer que l'émerveillement est un élément significatif pour faire entrer les jeunes enfants dans le monde des sciences. On avance que certaines activités, qui ne semblent pas 'appropriées du point de vue pédagogique' ne devraient pas être exclues du répertoire d'expériences des enfants. Les activités pratiques qui suscitent l'enthousiasme, la perplexité et la surprise chez les enfants, et les histories incorporant des idées scientifiques, semblent être davantage 'appropriées du point de vue pédagogique' si la notion de 'stade du roman' de Whitehead est prise en compte. En las últimas décadas, se ha considerado que las actividades prácticas son los me´todos ma´s adecuados de actividades para ayudar a los nin ¨ os a desarrollar sus conceptos cient´ificos. En el caso de nin ¨ os jo´venes en particular, se ha creido que las actividades adecuadas para el desarrollo son aquellas que les ofrecen oportunidades para actuar ante objetos y relacionar varios factores (p.ej. las reacciones de los objetos). En este estudio se presentan tanto las razones como la evidencia de un estudio piloto que sen ¨ ala la importancia que las maravillas para la invencio´n de los nin ¨ os tiene para el mundo de la ciencia. Se discute que ciertas actividades que no parecen ser 'pedago´gicamente adecuadas' no deber´ian excluirse del repertorio experimental de los nin ¨ os. Las actividades pra´cticas que aportan emocio´n, perplejidad y sorpresa a los nin ¨ os, y las historias en las que se han incluido las ideas cient´ificas, parecen ser ma´s 'pedago´gicamente adecuadas' si se tiene en cuenta la nocio´n de 'la fase del romance' de Whitehead.     

Using Nikola Tesla’s Story and His Experiments as Presented in the Film “The Prestige” to Promote Scientific Inquiry: A Report of an Action Research Project

This paper reports on an action research project undertaken with the primary aim of investigating the extent to which situations that evoke a sense of wonder can promote scientific inquiry. Given the intense interest, curiosity, and wonder that some students had begun to develop after seeing the film The Prestige, a science teacher used this film, which showed Tesla’s demonstrations on the wireless transmission of electrical power, as a source of curiosity and wonder. The class that participated in this action research project was an 11^th grade class in a rural area of southern Greece. Through an analysis of students’ journals, observation, informal discussions, and paper-and-pencil tests, it was found that students (a) became involved with Tesla’s life and work, thus developing an interest in current electricity; (b) learned about the skin effect, the biological effects of AC and DC currents; and (c) better understood Ohm’s law in their attempt to find out the degree of damage or injury a certain measure of current can cause. Moreover, some students began to develop scepticism and open-mindedness, in addition to their sense of wonder. The paper also presents a planning framework for teaching the Tesla story.     

The development of the concept of alive by preschoolers through a cognivive conflict teaching intervention

The aim of this research was the conceptual change and transformation of the intuitive conceptions of preschoolers concerning life through a cognitive—conflict teaching intervention. Young children use the criterion of movement to justify the classification of objects as living or non-living, that is classify plants as non-living because they are immobile and mobile non-alive objects as living. The concept of life includes many sub-concepts and movement is a secondary and not a universal characteristic of living organisms. The subjects of this research were chosen according to their replies concerning the classification of plants as non-living. Subjects of the experimental group received a teaching intervention aiming at the change of their conceptual context about life and focusing mainly at the dependence of an organism to its environment. In the teaching intervention we used the procedure of cognitive conflict through the juxtaposition of live organisms to dead ones and mobile simulations. Our results show that all the children of experimental group presented a conceptual change classifying the plant as alive and using explanations including the dependence on environment and other functions, increasing the number of criteria used for justification of the animal as living.     

Patterns of co-alignment in information-intensive organizations: business performance through integration strategies

Information technology (IT) has transformed business practices in the last several decades: operations, product strategies, distribution, and customer service have become increasingly dependent on IT. Moreover, IT has changed its orientation from that of pure operational utility in the 1960s and 1970s to that of a competitive weapon in the 1990s and today. These phenomena have affected the way modern organizations are managed, as well as the way IT affects the strategic activities of an organization's value-chain.In particular, aligning an organization's business and IT strategies in order to deliver higher business performance presupposes a strategic business opportunity to which information systems technology is integral. In other words, Strategic Alignment between business and IT can have a positive business impact only if we see an organization's IT components as parts of a well-integrated organizational system. If business strategy is viewed separately from IT strategy or IT strategy is viewed only as a “support” tool, then there is little likelihood that the above positive impact of strategic alignment can take place.This research suggests, develops and tests a strategic co-alignment model by examining three types of integration that impact the planning process and the overall performance of information-intensive organizations: technological integration (TI), functional integration and strategic integration (SI).The results of this research yield some useful set of guidelines for theory building for IS, as well as for the business practice aspect of IS: most interesting is the role of consistency (co-alignment) between an organization's business and strategic information systems plans to improve overall firm performance. Other recommendations include having a high degree of involvement of IS executives in corporate planning, the use of outsourcing services to promote organizational systems integration, and the importance of internal coordination mechanisms to facilitate both systems consistency and lower transaction costs. Finally, this study has employed cluster analysis and discriminant analysis to interpret the research findings.     

Between a rock and a hard place: women and computer technology

This paper explores certain possible reasons behind the uneasy relationship between women and technology. The cultural identification of technology with masculinity has been well documented through previous research. However, we feel it is useful to revisit this complex relationship through the scope of a more subtle distinction between ‘users’ and ‘connoisseurs’, and the struggle over power, which revolves around a specific form of hegemonic masculinity. We draw on interviews that examine students’ experiences, emotions, and statements about gender, technology, mathematics, and education, and we try to offer an understanding of the ways women negotiate their position within the dominant discourse about computing and mathematics. Our analysis employs post-structuralist discourse theory.