Teaching and learning geometry : issues and methods in mathematical education.

Recurso para la evaluación de la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de la geometría en la enseñanza secundaria desde la perspectiva de los nuevos docentes y de los que tienen más experiencia. Está diseñado para ampliar y profundizar el conocimiento de la materia y ofrecer consejos prácticos e ideas para el aula en el contexto de la práctica y la investigación actual. Hace especial hincapié en: comprender las ideas fundamentales del currículo de geometría; el aprendizaje de la geometría de manera efectiva; la investigación y la práctica actual; las ideas erróneas y los errores; el razonamiento de la geometría; la solución de problemas; el papel de la tecnología en el aprendizaje de la geometría.

Approaches and methods in language teaching.

Analiza los enfoques y métodos sobre teoría y aprendizaje del lenguaje, metas, programas de estudios, práctica docente, los papeles del profesor y del estudiante, materiales y técnicas para la clase. Esta nueva edición incluye entre otros, temas como la lengua en su totalidad, las inteligencias múltiples, la programación neurolingüística, aprendizaje del lenguaje en cooperación y el léxico. Asimismo, busca aclarar no solo los supuestos que hay detrás de estos métodos, sus similitudes y diferencias, sino también ayudar a los profesores a investigar sus propias opiniones y prácticas en la enseñanza de la lengua.

The effects of question-generation training on metacognitive knowledge, self regulation and learning approaches in Science

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n

Knowledge-based modelling and simulation of operational problems of microbiological origin in wastewater treatment plants

The activated sludge and anaerobic digestion processes have been modelled in widely accepted models. Nevertheless, these models still have limitations when describing operational problems of microbiological origin. The aim of this thesis is to develop a knowledge-based model to simulate risk of plant-wide operational problems of microbiological origin.For the risk model heuristic knowledge from experts and literature was implemented in a rule-based system. Using fuzzy logic, the system can infer a risk index for the main operational problems of microbiological origin (i.e. filamentous bulking, biological foaming, rising sludge and deflocculation). To show the results of the risk model, it was implemented in the Benchmark Simulation Models. This allowed to study the risk model's response in different scenarios and control strategies. The risk model has shown to be really useful providing a third criterion to evaluate control strategies apart from the economical and environmental criteria.

Advances in continuously profiling the thermodynamic state of the boundary layer: integration of measurements and methods

This paper describes advances in ground-based thermodynamic profiling of the lower troposphere through sensor synergy. The well-documented integrated profiling technique (IPT), which uses a microwave profiler, a cloud radar, and a ceilometer to simultaneously retrieve vertical profiles of temperature, humidity, and liquid water content (LWC) of nonprecipitating clouds, is further developed toward an enhanced performance in the boundary layer and lower troposphere. For a more accurate temperature profile, this is accomplished by including an elevation scanning measurement modus of the microwave profiler. Height-dependent RMS accuracies of temperature (humidity) ranging from 0.3 to 0.9 K (0.5–0.8 g m−3) in the boundary layer are derived from retrieval simulations and confirmed experimentally with measurements at distinct heights taken during the 2005 International Lindenberg Campaign for Assessment of Humidity and Cloud Profiling Systems and its Impact on High-Resolution Modeling (LAUNCH) of the German Weather Service. Temperature inversions, especially of the lower boundary layer, are captured in a very satisfactory way by using the elevation scanning mode. To improve the quality of liquid water content measurements in clouds the authors incorporate a sophisticated target classification scheme developed within the European cloud observing network CloudNet. It allows the detailed discrimination between different types of backscatterers detected by cloud radar and ceilometer. Finally, to allow IPT application also to drizzling cases, an LWC profiling method is integrated. This technique classifies the detected hydrometeors into three different size classes using certain thresholds determined by radar reflectivity and/or ceilometer extinction profiles. By inclusion into IPT, the retrieved profiles are made consistent with the measurements of the microwave profiler and an LWC a priori profile. Results of IPT application to 13 days of the LAUNCH campaign are analyzed, and the importance of integrated profiling for model evaluation is underlined.

Inertia in Japanese organizations: knowledge management routines and failure to innovate

This paper argues that features of Japanese organizations, previously held to be the foundations of innovation, change and flexibility, can equally be significant barriers to change, innovation and adaptation in turbulent economic environments. This paper draws on two in-depth case studies of Japanese organizations. It shows how, in both cases, these firms displayed specific weaknesses in the ways in which they integrate and bundle knowledge, in particular around their research and development (R&D) functions. Despite the adoption of strategies of technological innovation and internationalization, the data suggest that the pursuit of both strategies is beset by barriers of inertia. Embedded internal network connections and knowledge-sharing routines between central R&D and other divisions are inappropriate for the revised strategy. Existing external connections, with preferred suppliers and customers within keiretsu structures, and close relationships with existing R&D partners retard these firms' strategic flexibility. With a limited variety of latent routines, knowledge, capabilities and agency to draw on when needed, these firms have limited organizational responsiveness and high levels of path-dependency.