“Next year we are small, right?” Different times in children’s development

How do children conceptualise their own development? From their point of view, what serve as constraints for their movements in time and space? The theoretical framework of the experiment described here was a cultural historical first person developmental perspective. The concept of transition is here put in use to capture the children’s experience of their movements with or against a dynamic, inviting and demanding socio-cultural landscape over time. An interpretation of children’s experience of their developmental timing with temporalities of the childhood landscape is presented.     

Bridging History of the Concept of Function with Learning of Mathematics: Students’ Meta-Discursive Rules,Concept Formation and Historical Awareness

In this paper we present a matrix-organised implementation of an experimental course in the history of the concept of a function. The course was implemented in a Danish high school. One of the aims was to bridge history of mathematics with the teaching and learning of mathematics. The course was designed using the theoretical frameworks of a multiple perspective approach to history, Sfard’s theory of thinking as communicating, and theories from mathematics education about concept image, concept definition and concept formation. It will be explained how history and extracts of original sources by Euler from 1748 and Dirichlet from 1837 were used to (1) reveal students’ meta-discursive rules in mathematics and make them objects of students’ reflections, (2) support students’ learning of the concept of a function, and (3) develop students’ historical awareness. The results show that it is possible to diagnose (some) of students’ meta-discursive rules, that some of the students acted according to meta-discursive rules that coincide with Euler’s from the 1700s, and that reading a part of a text by Dirichlet from 1837 created obstacles for the students that can be referenced to differences in meta-discursive rules. The experiment revealed that many of the students have a concept image that was in accordance with Euler’s rather than with our modern concept definition and that they have process oriented thinking about functions. The students’ historical awareness was developed through the course with respect to actors’ influence on the formation of mathematical concepts and the notions of internal and external driving forces in the historical development of mathematics.     

Determinants of bone mineral density in patients on haemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis – a cross-sectional,longitudinal study

Introduction:

The aim of the study was to identify biomarkers of alteration in bone mineral density (BMD) in patients on haemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD).

Materials and methods:

In a cross-sectional, longitudinal study dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scans were performed in 146 HD-patients and 28 PD-patients. Follow-up after 14 months (mean) was conducted in 73 patients. As potential biomarkers we investigated parathyroid hormone (PTH), 25-hydroxy vitamin-D, ionised calcium, albumin, phosphate, and total alkaline phosphatases (t-ALP).

Results:

Both groups of dialysis patients had lower BMD in the femoral neck (BMD_neck) (P < 0.001) and forearm (BMD_forearm) (P < 0.001) compared to healthy controls, but comparable BMD in the lumbar spine (BMD_spine). BMD did not differ between dialysis types, but patients ever-treated with glucocorticoids had significantly lower BMD, while patients with polycystic kidney disease had higher BMD. BMD correlated with body weight, actual age, age at initiation of dialysis, duration of dialysis and levels of PTH and t-ALP. However, t-ALP only remained associated with low BMD_spine after adjusting for other factors (P = 0.001). In the follow-up study all patients had decreased BMD in all three locations, but only for the lumbar spine there was a significant association between BMD and the bone markers t-ALP (P = 0.009) and PTH (P = 0.013).

Conclusions:

Both HD and PD patients have low BMD, and increased concentrations of t-ALP is associated BMD_spine after adjustment, while PTH and t-ALP is associated with decrease in BMD_spine over time. This substantiates the use of these biomarkers in both types of dialysis patients.     

Active Learning in Engineering Education: a (re)introduction

ABSTRACT

The informal network ‘Active Learning in Engineering Education’ (ALE) has been promoting Active Learning since 2001. ALE creates opportunity for practitioners and researchers of engineering education to collaboratively learn how to foster learning of engineering students. The activities in ALE are centred on the vision that learners construct their knowledge based on meaningful activities and knowledge. In 2014, the steering committee of the ALE network reinforced the need to discuss the meaning of Active Learning and that was the base for this proposal for a special issue. More than 40 submissions were reviewed by the European Journal of Engineering Education community and this theme issue ended up with eight contributions, which are different both in their research and Active Learning approaches. These different Active Learning approaches are aligned with the different approaches that can be increasingly found in indexed journals.     

Sex differences in mental strategies for single-digit addition in the first years of school

Abstract

Strategy use in single-digit addition is an indicator of young children’s numeracy comprehension. We investigated Danish primary students’ use of strategies in single-digit addition with interview-based assessment of how they solved 36 specific single-digit addition problems, categorised as either ‘error’, ‘counting’, ‘direct retrieval’ or ‘derived facts’. The proportional use of each strategy was analysed as multi-level functions of school age and sex. In a first study (260 interviews, 147 students) we found decreasing use of counting and increasing use of direct retrieval and derived facts through years 1–4, girls using counting substantially more and the other two strategies substantially less than boys, equal to more than 2 years’ development. Similar results appeared in a subsequent study (155 interviews, 83 students), suggesting that the pattern is pervasive in Danish primary schools. Finally, we ask whether sex differences in strategy use is generally under-reported since many studies do not explicitly address them.     

Wellbeing in school gardens – the case of the Gardens for Bellies food and environmental education program

The article explores the role of the outdoor environment in the Gardens for Bellies Danish school garden program in relation to student wellbeing. It is based on exploratory multiple case study research. The study indicates that the school garden program promotes students’ wellbeing through their positive emotions about being outside in the outdoor environment. Garden activities and their relations with peers, garden educators, and teachers seemed to positively affect students’ self-esteem. Over and above the positive social environment, students’ relations with the natural environment seem also to affect their wellbeing as they develop empathy for animals, insects, and plants. Whether this influences their wellbeing, interpersonal relations, and planetary care in the long run after the program is not, however, documented. Not all students thrive in the open, free, and sometimes chaotic space of the garden. However, the majority of students in the program seem to experience a sense of wellbeing.     

Two conceptions of fraction equivalence

Educational Studies in Mathematics - In this study, we present a mathematical analysis distinguishing two conceptions of equivalence: proportional equivalence and unit equivalence. These two...     

Editorial introduction: Transitions in the process of education

This editorial introduction frames the special issue by highlighting its choices: examining transitions in the educational process, so as to highlight common features of many educational phenomena, often considered separately; and conceptualise transitions as time-embedded processes. Such theoretical choices raise methodological questions, among which, that of preserving the dynamics of education. Three main methodological options for doing so are considered: time reconstruction (verbal or graphic); real-time data gathering; and focus on the individual-social articulation. Each of the papers is thus presented through its specific methodological choices. Finally, two transversal characteristics of transitions are highlighted: the person-and-environment mutual responsiveness, and their inherent playfulness; some consequences for education are suggested.     

Managing stakeholders in transformational government — A case study in a Danish local government

According to the e-government maturity literature public organizations will move through different stages of maturity implying that more mature e-government is better. For many public organizations the next stage to enter is the stage of transformational government (Dhillon et al., 2008). This paper contributes to this literature by reporting the findings from a case study in a Danish local government who has reached the stage of transformational government. Using a grounded theory approach, information about the local government was initially collected and further analyzed within a stakeholder perspective. The paper reports how they succeeded in involving the most important stakeholders in the process of reaching transformational government. Finally the paper offers six lessons learned, based on the case study, about how to manage the involved stakeholders to reach transformational government.