壮族仪式剪纸的视觉特质与文化表征

壮族仪式剪纸是壮族祭祀仪式活动中的重要物品,其题材内容乃基于人们对神仙体系的想象,具有简洁写实、稚拙粗犷、色彩主观、多维时空等艺术风格和视觉特征。通过田野考察,运用艺术人类学文化阐释的研究方法,从仪式剪纸的题材类型入手,探讨了壮族仪式剪纸的视觉特征,进而揭示其图像中所蕴含的文化思想。     

“Forging the Fatherland”: Work and vocational education in Argentina during Peronism (1944–1955)

This article focuses on the reforms in the field of vocational education, as well as on representations related to work, in Argentina during Perón’s political leadership. In the framework of far-reaching economic reforms and social transformations, while in the position of secretary of labour (1943–1945) Perón started a vocational education system, which grew notably during his presidency (1946–1952 and 1952–1955). At the same time, his government not only defined the worker as the protagonist of its policy but deliberately constructed and broadly disseminated positive representations of manual work, the worker, the apprentice and his training that were aimed at replacing older ones. After Perón’s overthrow in 1955, the succeeding governments brought the political centrality of the worker to an end and repressed all symbology related to him. In the following years, the vocational education system created during the Peronist era gradually fell apart.

This article analyses the relationship between these phenomena. It assumes that vocational education is not just shaped by economic demands or technological development. It rather believes that, as the analysis of the Peronist case shows, social representations related to work and education can also play an important role, supporting, hindering or impeding the establishment or development of specific vocational education models.     

Improving Students’ Diagram Comprehension with Classroom Instruction

The authors tested whether students can be taught to better understand conventional representations in diagrams, photographs, and other visual representations in science textbooks. The authors developed a teacher-delivered, workbook-and-discussion–based classroom instructional method called Conventions of Diagrams (COD). The authors trained 1 experienced teacher to deliver COD to two 10th-grade biology classes (n = 31) and compared gains in diagram comprehension from COD to those from a business-as-usual control condition (n = 30) in 2 classrooms taught by the same teacher. Students in the COD condition showed statistically significantly greater growth in comprehension of literal and inferential biology diagrams. The control condition in some cases advantaged high-spatial, high-knowledge students, whereas the COD condition for the most part did not. Entries in the COD workbooks were analyzed for amount of student effort. Students with a combination of low pretest biology knowledge and low effort showed much lower gains from pretest to posttest on the inferential biology diagrams measure than did other students in the COD condition.     

How do students misunderstand number representations?

We used both student interviews and diagnostic testing to reveal students’ misconceptions about number representations in computing systems. This article reveals that students who have passed an undergraduate level computer organization course still possess surprising misconceptions about positional notations, two's complement representation, and overflow. Contrary to common opinion, these misconceptions are widespread and reveal the need for instruction that specifically targets these misconceptions. In addition, these misconceptions will serve as the basis for the creation of a standard assessment tool called the digital logic concept inventory. This concept inventory will provide a rigorous and quantitative metric to assess the effectiveness of new teaching methods.     

Socio-educational bullying: repercussions revealed

Using a narrative autoethnographical approach, this article details the identity-related and social repercussions of my experiences as a former victim of social, verbal, and physical bullying in public Franco-Ontarian elementary (1986–1994) and high (1994–1999) schools. The highlighted experiences are more specifically correlated with social representations of feminine beauty and alternative sexual orientations. This article is based on a study that encompasses the following elements: the social environment that contributes to the production, development, internalization, and reproduction of social representations, norms, and identities through interaction; experience which includes stigmatization and bullying; and the continuity of experience inherent to socialization and identity formation. Other concepts (e.g. marginalized multiplicities and intersectionality) are also discussed.     

Social representations and uses of technologies of African high-school students

ABSTRACT

This article examines social representations of information and communications technologies (ICT) in high school students in Niamey, Niger, and explores whether these representations are determined by training in and regular use of ICT. A sample of 50 students attending two lycées1 was studied. Only one lycée offered computer courses. The results of semi-directed interviews show that whether or not they took computer courses, the students developed social representations of ICT. These representations were associated with favourable attitudes toward computer and Internet use at school. The chi-square test hypothesis shows that students’ social representations of ICT were not determined by training in ICT.     

An investigation into the representation of geological maps by 15–16 year‐old Turkish students

This paper explores secondary school students’ representations of a geological map. Ninety‐two high school students (ninth graders – 15‐ to 16‐years‐old) participated in the survey in Turkey. The findings indicate that students have only a vague idea of how a geological map is constructed, and how the map is affected by the topography. The students’ poor understandings are based on insufficient information supplied to them during their learning process, and on their need to see things clearly in order to describe or understand them. Since research shows that developing an understanding of how to make and use geological maps fosters the development of cognitive skills in general, the implication of these research findings is that all pupils would benefit from education in how to make and use geological maps. Thus national curricula should require training in geological map work, teachers should be trained in teaching the necessary skills and textbooks should include good coverage of this topic.     

Understanding Starts in the Mesocosm: Conceptual metaphor as a framework for external representations in science teaching

In recent years, researchers have become aware of the experiential grounding of scientific thought. Accordingly, research has shown that metaphorical mappings between experience-based source domains and abstract target domains are omnipresent in everyday and scientific language. The theory of conceptual metaphor explains these findings based on the assumption that understanding is embodied. Embodied understanding arises from recurrent bodily and social experience with our environment. As our perception is adapted to a medium-scale dimension, our embodied conceptions originate from this mesocosmic scale. With respect to this epistemological principle, we distinguish between micro-, meso- and macrocosmic phenomena. We use these insights to analyse how external representations of phenomena in the micro- and macrocosm can foster learning when they (a) address the students’ learning demand by affording a mesocosmic experience or (b) assist reflection on embodied conceptions by representing their image schematic structure. We base our considerations on empirical evidence from teaching experiments on phenomena from the microcosm (microbial growth and signal conduction in neurons) and the macrocosm (greenhouse effect and carbon cycle). We discuss how the theory of conceptual metaphor can inform the development of external representations.     

‘Changing the context’: Tackling discrimination at school and in society

In this paper we propose a social psychological framework for studying the role of schools in promoting positive intercultural relations. We draw on data from schools in England where addressing issues of cultural diversity is a key aim of educational practice. We focus specifically on the role of social context in educational activities that tackle discrimination. We consider the socio-political context, local community context, and immediate school context from a social representations theory perspective. Using data from interviews with staff and focus groups with students in schools from three very different localities, we show that the socio-political context may limit schools’ ability to promote positive intercultural relations but also that it is possible for schools to promote broader change from the bottom-up, acting as agents of change at a societal level, i.e. in terms of changing the local and broader societal contexts in which they are located.     

无意识思维或直觉：基于决策机制的探讨

为探讨无意识思维是否等同直觉,本实验研究发现：（1）被试的无意识思维与直觉在表征极化上并无显著差异,且均更关注极端室友;（2）无意识思维和直觉在表征聚合上存在显著差异,前者的聚合分数显著高于后者,且只有无意识思维产生了表征聚合。上述结果表明,无意识思维并非等同直觉,二者属不同思维过程。本研究建议从更细致的角度探讨无意识思维与直觉的机制,以增进对无意识、自动化思维过程的认识。