No Light at the End of Tunnel Vision: Steps for Improving Lesson Plans

The authors of this article believe that the current structure of lesson plans impede differentiation, individualization, and innovation and offer little in assessing the quality of teaching and learning. Concrete steps will be offered for planning to better respond to student diversity in meeting lesson objectives.     

Trajectories of psychological states of women elite fencers during the final stages of international matches

This study examined the trajectories and within-person synergies of psychological processes during the final stages of matches. A process-oriented approach was used with nine women elite fencers during an international competition. Multiple assessments of perceived control, threat and challenge appraisals, problem- and emotion-focused coping, positive and negative affects were completed after each touches using video recall method. Multilevel growth curve analyses (MGCAs) indicated that winning and losing matches were each characterised by distinct psychological processes. Specifically, perceived control, challenge appraisal, problem- and emotion-focused coping, and positive affects increased linearly and threat appraisal decreased linearly for wining matches, whereas negative affects increased linearly for losing matches. Regarding the within-person synergies of psychological processes, MGCAs indicated that (1) perceived control and challenge appraisal were significantly associated with problem- and emotion-focused coping for losing matches, the strength of these associations remaining consistent across touches; (2) problem-focused coping was significantly associated with negative affects whereas emotion-focused coping was significantly associated with positive affects for winning matches, the strength of these associations remaining consistent across touches; and (3) problem- and emotion-focused coping were significantly associated with negative affects for losing matches, the linear trajectory of negative affects accelerating at times when athletes had higher levels of emotion-focused coping. Overall, this study provided insights into transactional processes during competition.     

An off-the-shelf integrated microfluidic device comprising self-assembled monolayers for protein array experiments

Microfluidic-based protein arrays are promising tools for life sciences, with increased sensitivity and specificity. One of the drawbacks of this technology is the need to create fresh surface chemistry for protein immobilization at the beginning of each experiment. In this work, we attempted to include the process of surface functionalization as part of the fabrication of the device, which would substitute the time consuming step of surface functionalization at the beginning of each protein array experiment. To this end, we employed a novel surface modification using self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) to immobilize biomolecules within the channels of a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) integrated microfluidic device. As a model, we present a general method for depositing siloxane-anchored SAMs, with 1-undecyl-thioacetate-trichlorosilane (C₁₁TA) on the silica surfaces. The process involved developing PDMS-compatible conditions for both SAM deposition and functional group activation. We successfully demonstrated the ability to produce, within an integrated microfluidic channel, a C₁₁TA monolayer with a covalently conjugated antibody. The antibody could then bind its antigen with a high signal to background ratio. We further demonstrated that the antibody was still active after storage of the device for a week. Integration of the surface chemistry into the device as part of its fabrication process has potential to significantly simplify and shorten many experimental procedures involving microfluidic–based protein arrays. In turn, this will allow for broader dissemination of this important technology.     

The Attitude of Faculty to Russian Immigrant Absorption in Israeli Colleges for the Training of Technicians and Practical Engineers

This article presents findings of a survey aimed at assessing the attitudes of faculty towards the absorption of immigrant students from the former Soviet Union. Data were collected from 33 lecturers in four colleges for the training of technicians and practical engineers in Israel. Responses range along a continuum between the view condoning assimilation (model 1) and the view advocating a gradual process of integration (model 2). These are pre‐existing models of sociological attitude towards immigrant absorption distinguished by Eisikovitz and Beck (1991, Studies in Education, 55/56, pp. 33‐50). According to model 1, all students should be granted equal attention and immigrant students should not be given special treatment. Model 2 recognizes the special status of the immigrant student and the intrinsic problems that accompany this status and, accordingly, the need to find appropriate solutions. Although there is general agreement regarding the main difficulties faced by the immigrants (namely, language problems, financial problems and cultural adjustment), most of the respondents seem to be closer to the perception expressed by model 1 and recommend that the academic requirements, teaching methods, timetable and curriculum be the same for the immigrants as for the veteran Israeli students. Nevertheless, attitudes conforming to model 2 were also expressed as revealed in the recommendation that immigrant students be offered special assistance in preparatory frameworks which should include courses to help acquaint them with the realities of Israeli society, and that they be provided with maintenance grants, textbooks, tutoring, etc. In general, different elements are adopted from each model in accordance with the special needs and circumstances of the immigrant population enrolled in the college.     

Time for Law: Legal Literacy and Gerontological Education

ABSTRACT

In the past, the law has not been considered as an important part of gerontological science. Historically, different sciences such as medicine, biology, psychology, and sociology have played far more important roles in the creation and crystallization of gerontological knowledge. This state of affairs is reflected in academic education and field research, which ascribes little weight to legal aspects of aging. This article maintains that the time is ripe for gerontological education to recognize the importance of exposing students of gerontology in academic institutions to the study and research of law and ageing. Though this claim could be defended on the simple ground that the law is no different, in principle, from a wide range of other scientific disciplines—each of which makes a particular contribution to gerontology—in this article we shall go one step further. This article attempts to demonstrate special elements which make it particularly important to add the study of legal matters to the curriculum of gerontological education. They are the result of 5 aspects of the encounter between the law and old age: (a) the law as a tool for sociological research; (b) the law as a tool for social change; (c) the law as a tool for planning and undertaking care of the old; (d) the weaknesses of the legal discipline in the field of law and aging; and (e) the potential value of legal education for the practice of gerontology, and collaboration between gerontologists and lawyers.     

At Hospitality's Threshold: From Social Inclusion to Exilic Education

Abstract Describing actual museum‐wide events developed for the culturally charged arena of the Brooklyn Children's Museum, this article explores the philosophical and pedagogical double binds that have brought multiculturalism to a political impasse. Museums have strived to be valued resources in an increasingly diverse society. In aspiring to broaden their audience base, their work has shifted from developing educational policies that are “object‐centered” to those that are “community‐centered” — a change of strategy affecting everything from programs to exhibit design. Children's museums — distinct (if not marginalized) from the serious work of the traditional art or ethnographic or natural history museum — know and indeed say in their very name — “children's museum” — that they are for the sake of someone and not about something. They have always already been attuned to the visitor at the threshold.     

Mathematical modeling of tech-related real-world problems for secondary school-level mathematics

Educational Studies in Mathematics - The use of authentic real-world problems that reflect the applied nature of mathematics is not prevalent in formal secondary school settings. In this study, we...     

Advancing Education's Autonomy through Looking Educationally at Philosophy

This article offers a general framework for considering education's autonomy and its implications for the relationship between education and philosophy. In it, Doron Yosef-Hassidim examines an initiative in Israel that calls for an autonomous secular public education and uses it as a context to clarify what education's autonomy means and to identify its major characteristics. To enhance the idea of education's autonomy, he further argues that education should not be subordinate to philosophy and that the question about being human must be kept open and educational. In particular, education's autonomy requires resisting the temptation of applying a philosophical framework about being human to education, even if the particular philosopher of education agrees with the philosophical framework. Finally, Yosef-Hassidim proposes a strategy for treating the question about being human as one that involves both the work of philosophers of education and practitioners in the classroom.