Children's misconceptions and the teaching of early years science: a case study

The aim of this paper is to examine how teachers’ awareness of children’s misconceptions can affect children’s acquisition of scientific concepts. In other words, this paper is aimed at examining whether teaching is altered when teachers are aware of pupils’ misconceptions of a specific science concept. This paper details a case study focused on two kindergarten classes of five year-old children and their teachers and took place in Cyprus. Two lessons were observed and three children from each class were interviewed. Through the analysis of children’s responses it was possible to identify specific misconceptions related to the concept of rain. The results indicate that it is very important for teachers to be aware of what misconceptions children have, because this can help them plan lessons for children to overcome their misconceptions. It seems that it is more likely for children to overcome their misconceptions when teachers take these misconceptions into account as they plan and teach science lessons.

Virtualization for cost-effective teaching of assembly language programming

A virtual system that emulates an ARM-based processor machine has been created to replace a traditional hardware-based system for teaching assembly language. The proposed virtual system integrates, in a single environment, all the development tools necessary to deliver introductory or advanced courses on modern assembly language programming. The virtual system runs a Linux operating system in either a graphical or console mode on a Windows or Linux host machine. No software licenses or extra hardware are required to use the virtual system, thus students are free to carry their own ARM emulator with them on a USB memory stick. Institutions adopting this, or a similar virtual system, can also benefit by reducing capital investment in hardware-based development kits and enable distance learning courses.

A comparative study of the characteristics of French Fries produced by deep fat frying and air frying

Air frying is being projected as an alternative to deep fat frying for producing snacks such as French Fries. In air frying, the raw potato sections are essentially heated in hot air containing fine oil droplets, which dehydrates the potato and attempts to impart the characteristics of traditionally produced French fries, but with a substantially lower level of fat absorbed in the product. The aim of this research is to compare: 1) the process dynamics of air frying with conventional deep fat frying under otherwise similar operating conditions, and 2) the products formed by the two processes in terms of color, texture, microstructure, calorimetric properties and sensory characteristics Although, air frying produced products with a substantially lower fat content but with similar moisture contents and color characteristics, it required much longer processing times, typically 21 minutes in relation to 9 minutes in the case of deep fat frying. The slower evolution of temperature also resulted in lower rates of moisture loss and color development reactions. DSC studies revealed that the extent of starch gelatinization was also lower in the case of air fried product. In addition, the two types of frying also resulted in products having significantly different texture and sensory characteristics.

Disambiguating with Bourdieu: unravelling policy from practice in the teaching of children with English as an additional language

This article explores the use of Bourdieusian analysis for examining how policy and practice interact in the teaching of English and therefore in the development of children’s language and literacy; in particular how Bourdieusian analysis uncovers the ways in which teachers’ practice has been influenced unconsciously by centralised shaping of the curriculum for English in England while the pupil demographic in schools has become more linguistically diverse. Data were collected from interviews with both newly qualified and very experienced primary school (pupil ages 5 – 11) teachers, whose pedagogical norms for the teaching of English were challenged by the arrival of non-English speakers in their classrooms. The discussion highlights how the use of Bourdieusian constructs of field, habitus and capital can disambiguate teachers’ practical classroom decisions from the influences of policy expectations.

Individual differences in early language learning: a study of English learners of French

The present longitudinal study examines the interaction of learner variables (gender, motivation, self-efficacy and first language literacy) and their influence on second language learning outcomes. The study follows English learners of French from Year 5 in primary school (aged 9-10) to the first year in secondary school (Year 7 aged 11-12). Language outcomes were measured by two oral production tasks; a sentence repetition task and a photo description task both of which were administered at three time points. Longitudinal data on learner attitudes and motivation were collected via questionnaires. Teacher assessment data for general first language literacy attainment were also provided. The results show a great deal of variation in learner attitudes and outcomes and that there is a complex relationship between first language literacy, self-efficacy, gender and attainment. For example, in general, girls held more positive attitudes to boys and were more successful. However, the inclusion of first language ability, which explained 30-40% of variation, shows that gender differences in attitudes and outcomes are likely mediated by first language literacy and prior learning experience.

Can France really stop them? : A study grounded on the realist perspective about the French foreign policy towards Syria as the root cause of the Phenomenon of French Foreign Fighters

During the Syrian conflict the number of European Foreign Fighters has increased exponentially and has become an ever-growing concern for European policymakers. This phenomenon presents host of major security challenges for European policymakers and governments. Among European countries, France provides the highest number of citizens who have gone to Syria to fight against Assad´s regime. The French authorities have estimated that by mid-2014, over 700 French citizens have left France and travelled to Syria to fight. Historically France has had a relationship with Syria which started with its role as a border-drawing colonial power. Grounded in a framework of realism, that emphasizes nation-states as the primary actor within the international system, the analysis concentrates on the role of France´s foreign policy on the Syria as push factor for terrorism and radicalization. This paper attempts to determinate a specific correlation between the policy that France has been conducting towards Syria between 2000 and 2015, and the phenomenon of French Foreign Fighters. Findings suggest that France´s foreign policy towards Syria is the main root cause of the French Foreign Fighters phenomenon.

Teaching Mathematics in English to Swedish Speaking Students : The Use of Second Language Teaching Practices in the Teaching of Mathematics in English to Swedish Speaking Students in Lower Secondary School

Over 20,000 Swedish lower high school students are currently learning mathematics in English but little research has been conducted in this area. This study looks into the question of how much second language learner training teachers teaching mathematics in English to Swedish speaking students have acquired and how many of those teachers are using effective teaching practices for second language learners. The study confirms earlier findings that report few teachers receive training in second language learning but indicates that some of the teaching practices shown to be effective with second language learners are being used in some Swedish schools

Entry strategies on an emerging market: Brazil: case studies of French cosmetics companies in Brazil

Este trabalho envolve as estrategias de entrada sobre um mercado emergente, o mercado brasileiro. Os estudos de casos que apoiam o assunto são de empresas francesas do setor de cosméticos. Uma revisão da literatura sobre o assunto sera comparada com os resultados dos estudos de caso. Isso para conduzir numa observação do estado atual das caractéristicos de instalação no mercado brasileiro deste setor para empresas estrangeiras de tamanho médio. O estudo da literatura que já existe sobre o assunto se concentra sobre varias problemáticas conectadas com a problemática geral: as razões para internacionalizar, o modo de entrada, os obstáculos encontrados, as estrategias especificais e as adaptações do marketing mix. Depois este trabalho se concentra sobre tres empresas francesas representativas das problematicas atuais do setor : Norlessi, LaboBio e Plains Cosmetics. Os estudos de caso são sustentados por entrevistas e coleção de dados de varios origens, descrevedo mas precisamente na parte de methodologia. Depois será feito uma cross-analysis tentando comparar as conclusões do estudo empirico e do estudo literário. As conclusões finais tem como objetivo de ser uma observação objetiva do raciocinio das empresas consideradas sobre as problemáticas escolhidas.

A multimedia environment for supporting the teaching of robotics systems

This paper aims at describing an educational system for teaching and learning robotic systems. Multimedia resources were used to construct a virtual laboratory where users are able to use functionalities of a virtual robotic arm, by moving and clicking the mouse without caring about the detailed internal robot operation. Moreover through the multimedia system the user can interact with a real robot arm. The engineering students are the target public of the developed system. With its contents and interactive capabilities, it has been used as a support to the traditional face-to-face classes on the subject of robotics.. In the paper it is first introduced the metaphor of Virtual Laboratory used in the system. Next, it is described the Graphical and Multimedia Environment approach: an interactive graphic user interface with a 3D environment for simulation. Design and implementation issues of the real-time interactive multimedia learning system, which supports the W3C SMIL standard for presenting the real-time multimedia teaching material, are described. Finally, some preliminary conclusions and possible future works from this research are presented.

TEACHING OF MEDICAL MICROBIOLOGY - COMMENTS ON BASIC VERSUS APPLIED ASPECTS RELATED TO PROFESSION

Comments about education and medicine teaching were made. The learning and the curriculum in according with the priorities of the country's health had special emphasis.Students and teachers of Botucatu considered that the improvement of the 2nd year medical microbiological course was good with predominantly basic contents. The students prefer a balanced content or predominantly applied to medicine.Three phases of the teaching of microbiological contents are proposed: 1st - in the basic cycly (2nd year); 2nd - into the course of Clinical Laboratory (3rd or 4th year); 3rd - into the clinical cycle, following a program of integration.