Disentangling the relationship between working memory and language: The roles of short-term storage and cognitive control

This study investigates the relationship between working memory and language in young children growing up in a multilingual environment. The aim is to explore whether mechanisms of short-term storage and cognitive control hold similar relations to emerging language skills and to investigate if potential links are mediated by related cognitive abilities. A sample of 119 Luxembourgish 6-year-olds completed several assessments of working memory (complex and simple span), native and foreign vocabulary, syntax, reading, rhyme awareness, and fluid intelligence. Results showed that short-term storage and cognitive control manifested differential links with developing language abilities: Whereas verbal short-term storage was specifically linked to vocabulary; cognitive control manifested unique and robust links with syntax and early reading development. The study suggests that in young children the working memory system is composed of separate but interacting components corresponding to short-term storage and cognitive control that can be distinguished by the roles they play in supporting language acquisition.     

Facilitating Understanding of Movements in Dynamic Visualizations: an Embodied Perspective

Learners studying mechanical or technical processes via dynamic visualizations often fail to build an accurate mental representation of the system’s movements. Based on embodied theories of cognition assuming that action, perception, and cognition are closely intertwined, this paper proposes that the learning effectiveness of dynamic visualizations could be enhanced by grounding the movements of the presentation in people’s own bodily experiences during learning. We discuss recent research on embodied cognition and provide specific strategies for how the body can be used to ground movements during the learning process: (1) making or observing gestures, (2) manipulating and interacting with objects, (3) using body metaphors, and (4) using eye movements as retrieval cues. Implications for the design of dynamic visualizations as well as directions for future research are presented.     

Zivilgesellschaftliche Beteiligung in der Altersspanne von 13 und 32?Jahren �C Entwicklung, Bedingungsfaktoren, Kontexte

Being active in civic organizations can be expressed in multifarious forms of participation and commitment. With regard to individuals, the learning context it provides fosters personal development, sympathy for other perspectives, and social competencies in general and is, thus, particularly meaningful for young people in their second and third decades. With regard to organizations, civic participation strengthens the integration and dynamic adaptation of institutions to changing environments and, on a macro-level, raises social cohesion. The contexts of participation are various: not only in educational institutions and the world of work, but also in clubs, organizations and less formal groups, which are involved in social and political issues. Socio-structural and motivational factors, but also belonging to social networks determine the involvement in such forms of civic participation. Additionally, there is evidence of a mutual reinforcement of participation in different contexts. This is shown by the results of the DJI-Survey AID:A 2009.     

Collaborative research for sustainable learning: the case of developing innovation capabilities at Volvo Cars

This paper aims to make a contribution to the stream of literature on action research by describing a longitudinal collaborative research project which evolved out of a long-term, participation partnership with Volvo Cars. The collaboration was aimed at developing innovation capabilities in the company and accumulating knowledge on how capabilities are developed. The paper provides insights into the design of collaborative research projects to enable mutual, sustainable learning. It draws on key notions in the literature on collaborative management research and action learning, highlighting the research design of the project at Volvo Cars and its relations to action learning. The paper describes how the research design opened the way to establishing a learning system at Volvo Cars while simultaneously generating new scientific knowledge within the area of innovation capabilities. The paper provides rich and detailed data on a collaborative research setting and highlights key aspects related to organizing and undertaking collaborative research.     

Role strain,engagement and academic achievement in early adolescence

The present study was designed to investigate the relationships between role strains following the transition to secondary school and academic achievement. Academic engagement was hypothesized to mediate between role strain and achievement. The sample consisted of 749 students in their first year of secondary school. Four types of role strain were investigated: parent, teacher, school and peer. Parent and teacher role strains appeared to be negatively associated with academic achievement, as mediated through academic engagement. Parent and school role strain were directly and negatively associated with achievement. Results are discussed in the light of parenting practices and the developmental mismatch hypothesis.     

Metaphors we’re colonised by? The case of data-driven educational technologies in Brazil

ABSTRACT

This article discusses issues concerning the spread of data-driven educational technologies in Brazil. Here, as elsewhere, educational technology continues to be promoted optimistically as the bearer of a panacea for historically-rooted social problems. Whilst some of these technologies have indeed contributed to important widening-participation programmes in the last two decades, widespread advocacy of technological ‘solutionism’, reflected in gradually stronger policy demands for efficiencies to be improved through ‘innovation’, has supported a relentless marketisation of the country’s educational systems. As transnational corporations position themselves to take control of key areas of these systems, threatening to restructure the whole sector, data-driven educational technologies provide the latest example in a series of ‘new’ ideas offered in an ever-expanding market. Based on the notion of ‘conceptual metaphors’, which encapsulate specific ways of perceiving, thinking and relating with the world, this article examines key metaphors underpinning discourses surrounding data-driven educational technologies in Brazil. In particular, the article analyses ways in which these specific metaphors may be promoting perspectives that ignore difference and obscure broader questions concerning education, thus contributing to the reproduction of previously existing problems and supporting new forms of colonisation.     

知识产权特征新论——兼析知识产权与有形财产权的区别

知识产权本质上是一种无形财产权,本文通过对知识产权与有形财产权之比较,论述了知识产权的四方面特征,即客体的无形性、相对垄断性、法律效力在时空上的有限性及权利保护范围的不确定性.     

Association between attitudes of filial responsibility and parent caregiving behavior

Objective: To analyze the association between attitudes of filial responsibility and adult child caregivers’ behaviors in the Southern Region of Brazil.

Methods: Cross-sectional study with 100 child caregivers of older adults. The data were collected through an interview using the protocol of filial responsibility adapted and validated to Brazilian Portuguese. Filial Expectation and Filial Piety scales evaluated the attitudes of filial responsibility. Caring behaviors assessed were: instrumental support, emotional, financial support, and companionship. The variables that presented p< .20 value in the bivariate analysis were inserted into a multivariate Poisson regression model.

Results: Financial and emotional support behaviors were significantly associated with filial piety (p = .050 and p = .001, respectively) and filial expectation (p = .013 and p = .023, respectively). Providing companionship was associated with filial piety (p = .015).

Conclusion: Attitudes of filial responsibility are associated with some but not all caregiving behaviors. Brazilians caring for older parents show more similarities to Chinese than to Canadian caregivers. Furthermore, filial responsibility and caregiving behaviors are strongly affected by Brazilian social and cultural norms. Reasons are discussed.     

营造有利于我国高等职业教育发展的法制环境

作为高等教育重要组成部分的高等职业教育，由于发展起步迟，历史短，相应的法制建设还未跟上，还存在着法制建设尚不健全，司法执法不够严格，社会各界及人民群众关于职业教育的法制观念不强等问题。因此，必须积极营造有利于我国高等职业教育发展的法制环境，建立健全高等职业教育方面的法律法规体系，使高等职业教育走上健康，快速发展的轨道。     

Experiential learning in doctoral training programmes: fostering personal epistemology through collaboration

There has been increasing recognition for the need to reform doctoral training practices to foster students’ personal epistemology. This study describes the design and evaluation of a learning experience designed to help students understand the scholarly publication process. Firstly, this study discusses the design of the learning experience, describing the collaborative process of writing an interdisciplinary publication using both online and face-to-face learning. Secondly, this study evaluates the effectiveness of the learning experience by examining students’ reflections. We show that participation in the learning experience helped students to develop their academic writing proficiency, collaboration and teamwork, intercultural competence, and ability to engage in reflective practice. Importantly, we show that each student also created more individualised knowledge, gaining insight into how they and others think. This study, therefore, demonstrates that personal epistemology can be fostered through collaboration in a doctoral writing group context.