Molecular thermodynamics for cell biology as taught with boxes     

Mayorga LS  López MJ  Becker WM 《CBE life sciences education》2012,11(1):31-38

Thermodynamic principles are basic to an understanding of the complex fluxes of energy and information required to keep cells alive. These microscopic machines are nonequilibrium systems at the micron scale that are maintained in pseudo-steady-state conditions by very sophisticated processes. Therefore, several nonstandard concepts need to be taught to rationalize why these very ordered systems proliferate actively all over our planet in seeming contradiction to the second law of thermodynamics. We propose a model consisting of boxes with different shapes that contain small balls that are in constant motion due to a stream of air blowing from below. This is a simple macroscopic system that can be easily visualized by students and that can be understood as mimicking the behavior of a set of molecules exchanging energy. With such boxes, the basic concepts of entropy, enthalpy, and free energy can be taught while reinforcing a molecular understanding of the concepts and stressing the stochastic nature of the thermodynamic laws. In addition, time-related concepts, such as reaction rates and activation energy, can be readily visualized. Moreover, the boxes provide an intuitive way to introduce the role in cellular organization of "information" and Maxwell's demons operating under nonequilibrium conditions.  相似文献   

Community and the myth of the ideal school: Circulation and appropriation of the Hamburg Gemeinschaftsschulen in Spain (1922–1933)     

María del Mar del Pozo Andrés 《Paedagogica Historica: International Journal of the History of Education》2014,50(5):599-614

The progressive education movement was known in Spain from its very inception, and in fact many of its pedagogical theories and practices reached Spain before reaching other European countries. Yet traditional historiography has always maintained that Spain was never integrated in the progressive education movement, a misconception that helps explain the lack of research in the field. Recent historiographical research, however, has shown that numerous Spanish schools served as laboratories for the implementation of progressive education methods in the 1920s and 1930s. The Spanish educational system proved itself to be especially open to international innovation in general and Spain actually enjoyed a privileged position for the study of how innovative pedagogical ideas could be incorporated and appropriated. Proof of this affirmation can be found in the introduction and dissemination throughout Spain of the experimental public school movement of Hamburg known as Gemeinschaftsschulen.

This article will focus on the way this movement was received in Spain. We will examine the phenomenon from a double perspective, corresponding to the different positions that scholars found themselves in within the educational panorama of the time. On the one hand we will examine the role of the “grass-roots” educators who wished to change schools “from below”, starting with classroom practices. On the other hand we will take a look at the representatives of “high pedagogy”, who were intent on formulating a pedagogical theory on which to base a political–ideological model that would serve to change the school “from above”. Tensions arising among the different pedagogical groups, along with the ambiguity of the translation into Spanish of the term Gemeinschaftsschulen, led to the different groups appropriating the concept in different ways. The evolution of the term Gemeinschaftsschulen, from its original identification with a localised school experiment in Hamburg to its becoming a symbol for virtually all European school vanguards, will be addressed at the conclusion of the article.  相似文献   

Urban middle school students' reflections on authentic science inquiry     

María S. Rivera Maulucci  Bryan A. Brown  Salina T. Grey  Shayna Sullivan 《科学教学研究杂志》2014,51(9):1119-1149

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Incompatibility between pregnancy and educational projects,from the perspective of socially vulnerable adolescent women and men in Mexico     

Lourdes Campero  Alejandra Benítez  Erika Atienzo  Guillermo González  Eréndira Marín 《Gender and education》2014,26(2):151-167

Research focused on adolescent pregnancy reports that this event acquires significance and has different consequences according to the context and social subjects who experience it. In this study, by means of a sample formed by adolescent women and men who are socially vulnerable in Mexico, with and without a history of pregnancy, we can see how this reproductive event turns into a factor of educational vulnerability and how their possibilities and expectations with respect to continuing in school are determined in a differentiated manner, according to gender. The findings show that adolescent pregnancy in vulnerable sectors is scarcely compatible with educational projects and that possibilities and expectations to continue in or re-enter the school system are determined by gender differences; these usually lead to fewer opportunities for adolescent women to return to school during or after pregnancy.  相似文献   

Training Planning and Working Memory in Third Graders     

Andrea Paula Goldin  María Soledad Segretin  María Julia Hermida  Luciano Paz  Sebastián Javier Lipina  Mariano Sigman 《Mind, Brain, and Education》2013,7(2):136-146

Working memory and planning are fundamental cognitive skills supporting fluid reasoning. We show that 2 games that train working memory and planning skills in school‐aged children promote transfer to 2 different tasks: an attentional test and a fluid reasoning test. We also show long‐term improvement of planning and memory capacities in 8‐year‐old children after playing adaptive computer games specifically tailored to entrain these cognitive functions. Working memory capacity expanded from 5 to 7 items by using our games. Furthermore, steady progression in the task indicates that this capacity can be trained rapidly. Planning abilities persisted in a nonmarkovian form of play, where a move is highly influenced by previous moves, avoiding back‐ups. Here, we introduce a public and growing platform ( http://www.matemarote.com.ar/ ) developed for this research which has the potential for wide use in educational research.  相似文献   

The Influence of Reading Expertise in Mirror‐Letter Perception: Evidence From Beginning and Expert Readers     

Jon Andoni Duñabeitia  María Dimitropoulou  Adelina Estévez  Manuel Carreiras 《Mind, Brain, and Education》2013,7(2):124-135

The visual word recognition system recruits neuronal systems originally developed for object perception which are characterized by orientation insensitivity to mirror reversals. It has been proposed that during reading acquisition beginning readers have to “unlearn” this natural tolerance to mirror reversals in order to efficiently discriminate letters and words. Therefore, it is supposed that this unlearning process takes place in a gradual way and that reading expertise modulates mirror‐letter discrimination. However, to date no supporting evidence for this has been obtained. We present data from an eye‐movement study that investigated the degree of sensitivity to mirror‐letters in a group of beginning readers and a group of expert readers. Participants had to decide which of the two strings presented on a screen corresponded to an auditorily presented word. Visual displays always included the correct target word and one distractor word. Results showed that those distractors that were the same as the target word except for the mirror lateralization of two internal letters attracted participants' attention more than distractors created by replacement of 2 internal letters. Interestingly, the time course of the effects was found to be different for the 2 groups, with beginning readers showing a greater tolerance (decreased sensitivity) to mirror‐letters than expert readers. Implications of these findings are discussed within the framework of preceding evidence showing how reading expertise modulates letter identification.  相似文献   

International University Education: An Australian Perspective   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0  

Chris Chapleo  María Victoria Carrillo Durán  Ana Castillo Díaz 《Journal of Marketing for HIGHER EDUCATION》2013,23(1):25-46

This paper attempts to explore the effectiveness of UK universities' websites. The area of branding in higher education has received increasing academic investigation, but little work has researched how universities demonstrate their brand promises through their websites. The quest to differentiate through branding can be challenging in the university context, however. It is argued that those institutions that have a strong distinctive image will be in a better position to face a changing future. Employing a multistage methodology, the web pages of 20 UK universities were investigated by using a combination of content and multivariable analysis. Results indicated ‘traditional values’ such as teaching and research were often well communicated in terms of online brand but ‘emotional values’ like social responsibility and the universities' environments were less consistently communicated, despite their increased topicality. It is therefore suggested that emotional values may offer a basis for possible future online differentiation.  相似文献   

Spanish Secondary-School Science Teachers’ Beliefs About Science-Technology-Society (STS) Issues     

Ángel Vázquez-Alonso  Antonio García-Carmona  María Antonia Manassero-Mas  Antoni Bennàssar-Roig 《Science & Education》2013,22(5):1191-1218

This study analyzes the beliefs about science-technology-society, and other Nature of Science (NOS) themes, of a large sample (613) of Spanish pre- and in-service secondary education teachers through their responses to 30 items of the Questionnaire of Opinions on Science, Technology and Society. The data were processed by means of a multiple response model to generate the belief indices used as the bases for subsequent quantitative and qualitative analyses. Other studies have reported a negative profile of teachers’ understanding in this area, but the diagnosis emerging from the present work is more complex. There was a mix of appropriate beliefs coexisting with others that are inappropriate on the topics analyzed. The overall assessment, however, is negative since clearly teachers need to have a better understanding of these questions. There were scant differences between the pre- and in-service teachers, and hence no decisive evidence that the practice of teaching contributes to improving the in-service teachers’ understanding. These results suggest there is an urgent need to bring the initial and continuing education of science teachers up to date to improve their understanding of these topics of science curricula, and thus improve the teaching of science.  相似文献   

‘Does it answer the question or is it French fries?’: an exploration of language supports for scientific argumentation     

María González-Howard  Katherine L. McNeill  Lisa M. Marco-Bujosa  C. Patrick Proctor 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(5):528-547

ABSTRACT

Reform initiatives around the world are reconceptualising science education by stressing student engagement in science practices. Yet, science practices are language-intensive, requiring students to have strong receptive and productive language proficiencies. It is critical to address these rigorous language demands to ensure equitable learning opportunities for all students, including English language learners (ELLs). Little research has examined how to specifically support ELL students’ engagement in science practices, such as argumentation. Using case-study methodology, we examined one middle school science teacher's instructional strategies as she taught an argumentation-focused curriculum in a self-contained ELL classroom. Findings revealed that three trends characterized the teacher’s language supports for the structural and dialogic components of argumentation: (1) more language supports focused on argument structure, (2) dialogic interactions were most often facilitated by productive language supports, and (3) some language supports offered a rationale for argumentation. Findings suggest a need to identify and develop supports for the dialogic aspects of argumentation. Furthermore, engaging students in argumentation through productive language functions could be leveraged to support dialogic interactions. Lastly, our work points to the need for language supports that make the rationale for argumentation explicit since such transparency could further increase access for all students.  相似文献   

What do Children Aged Four to Seven Know about the Digestive System and the Respiratory System of the Human Being and of Other Animals?     

Susana Garcia-Barros  Cristina Martínez-Losada  María Garrido 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(15):2095-2122

The object of this paper is to learn what little children know about the inside of their bodies before they have studied these particular aspects at school. The data for our project were collected by means of drawings made by 342 Spanish children aged four to seven. They were required to depict where the food, drink, and air which enter their bodies go. In addition to this, we intend to study how the ideas of children evolve during three consecutive years. For this purpose, a group of 32 subjects was monitored. Our findings show that the children recognise specific organs in their own bodies which they associate with the intake of food and air. Furthermore, they usually extrapolate those organs to other animals they are familiar with. Their ideas about the digestive system are more adequate than the ones about the respiratory system, though their ideas improve as they become older, above all those concerning the digestive system. Taking these findings as a basis, this paper suggests some points to be taken into consideration for teaching purposes.  相似文献