Reading Progress Monitoring for Secondary‐School Students: Reliability,Validity, and Sensitivity to Growth of Reading‐Aloud and Maze‐Selection Measures

The validity and reliability of curriculum‐based measures in reading as indicators of performance and progress for secondary‐school students were examined. Thirty‐five grade 8 students completed reading aloud and maze‐selection measures weekly for 10 weeks. Criterion measures were the state standards test in reading and the Woodcock–Johnson III Test of Achievement. Different time frames for each measure were compared. Most alternate‐form reliability coefficients were above .80. Criterion‐related validity coefficients ranged from .77 to .89. No differences related to time were found. Only maze selection reflected significant growth, with an average increase of 1.29 correct choices per week. Maze growth was related to the reading performance level and to change on the Woodcock–Johnson III from pre‐ to posttest.     

Buddhist Wall Paintings at Nako Monastery,North India: Changing of the Technology Throughout Centuries

The technical study of wall paintings from the Buddhist temple complex at Nako, Western Himalayas, was one of the basic preconditions required for designing an appropriate conservation strategy. The complex, composed of four temples from the eleventh–twelfth century, offered a unique possibility to carry out a comprehensive research of technology and painting materials used in early and later western Tibetan Buddhist wall paintings as well as a comparative assessment with murals from other sites in the Western Himalayas. The study was based on extensive fieldwork and an integrated analytical approach comprising a wide range of non-destructive and micro-destructive methods. Answering the question of the coevality of paintings in the smaller temples with other original murals, the precise characterisation of binding media, the detection of the yellow dye gamboge and natural minerals posnjakite and brochantite identified for the first time in Himalayan murals, the clarification of technology of metal decoration, and the making of raised elements are some of the most exciting results which emerged from the research.     

Microfluidic chip for fast bioassays��evaluation of binding parameters

A seven channel polystyrene (PS) microchip has been constructed using a micromilling machine and a high-temperature assembling. Protein A (PA) has been immobilized by a passive sorption on the microchannel walls. Two bioaffinity assays with human immunoglobulin G (hIgG) as a ligand have been carried out. (i) PA as the receptor and fluorescently labeled hIgG (FITC-hIgG) as the ligand, (ii) PA as the receptor with hIgG as the quantified ligand and fluorescently labeled goat anti-human IgG (FITC-gIgG) as the secondary ligand. One incubation step of the assays took only 5 min instead of hours typical for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay applications. Calibration curves of the dependence of a fluorescence signal on the hIgG concentration in a sample have been obtained in one step due to a parallel arrangement of microchannels. A mathematical model of the PA-FITC-hIgG complex formation in the chip has been developed. The values of the kinetic constant of the PA-FITC-hIgG binding (k_on=5.5 m³ mol⁻¹ s⁻¹) and the equilibrium dissociation constant of the formed complex (K_d≤3×10⁻⁶ mol m⁻³) have been obtained by fitting to experimental data. The proposed microchip enables fast evaluation of kinetic and equilibrium constants of ligand-receptor bioaffinity pairs and the ligand quantification. As the use of microfluidic chips for immunoassays is often limited by price, we used procedures and chemicals that allow for an inexpensive construction and operation of the microdevice, e.g., temperature assembling as a fabrication technique, detection via an ordinary digital camera, nonspecific polystyrene as a substrate, passive sorption of biomolecules as an immobilization technique, etc.     

Undergraduate Research or Research-Based Courses: Which Is Most Beneficial for Science Students?

Research in Science Education - Over the last 25 years, both research literature and practice-oriented reports have claimed the need for improving the quality of undergraduate science...     

Pedro Gutiérrez Bueno’s Textbooks: Audiences, Teaching Practices and Chemical Revolution

Pedro Gutiérrez Bueno wrote two editions of a chemistry textbook between 1788 and 1802. The paper offers a comparative view of both editions taking into account Gutiérrez Bueno’s biography, his intended audience and the changes related to the so-called chemical revolution. Some conclusions are at odds with common images about scientific revolutions and the role of textbooks in science. The analysis aims to shed some light on the multiple historical forces shaping textbooks and the way in which scientific change is assimilated by their writers. This research was partially supported by the program BHA2002-04611-CO3-02     

Learning design and learning analytics in mobile and ubiquitous learning: A systematic review

Mobile and Ubiquitous Learning (m/u-learning) are finding an increasing adoption in education. They are often distinguished by hybrid learning environments that encompass elements of formal and informal learning, in activities that happen in distributed settings (indoors and outdoors), across physical and virtual spaces. Despite their purported benefits, these environments imply additional complexity in the design, monitoring and evaluation of learning activities. The research literature on learning design (LD) and learning analytics (LA) has started to deal with these issues. This paper presents a systematic literature review of LD and LA, in m/u-learning. Apart from providing an overview of the current research in the field, this review elicits elements of common ground between both communities, as shown by the similar learning contexts and complementary research contributions, and based on the research gaps, proposes to: address m/u-learning beyond higher education settings, reinforce the connection between physical and virtual learning spaces, and more systematically align LD and LA processes.     

Equity and social exclusion measures in EU lifelong learning policies

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to examine how EU lifelong learning policies are trying to reach the vulnerable by looking at what measures against social exclusion they offer and how equitable these measures are. It is a qualitative study that focuses on policy documents that form the European Union’s legal and political frameworks of reference in the lifelong learning area since 1992. The document analysis has been complemented by semi-structured interviews with EU lifelong learning experts. The findings show that early school leavers and migrants are the main target groups in the policies, leaving many other groups at risk of being excluded from learning opportunities. There is not enough attention to measures addressing wider social phenomena. There is also an overemphasis on basic skills which are understood in a very narrow way as literacy and numeracy when referring to the vulnerable. We argue that a greater variety of measures as well as better targeted measures are needed to address the multiple and complex needs of the vulnerable. Such measures would allow a broader understanding of lifelong learning where those that are hardest to reach are offered learning opportunities independent of their personal and social circumstances