Anhydrobiosis     

T. Ramakrishna Rao 《Resonance》2018,23(5):545-553

In aquatic and moist soil environments subjected to periodic drying, a diverse group of organisms (mostly microscopic) have evolved extreme desiccation tolerance through a physiological adaptation called ‘anhydrobiosis’. Notable among such organisms are tardigrades, bdelloid rotifers, and nematodes. Anhydrobiosis also allows these organisms to tolerate extreme temperatures and ionizing radiation. In this article, the signi-cance and some mechanisms of anhydrobiosis are described.  相似文献   

Trophic Cascades     

T Ramakrishna Rao 《Resonance》2018,23(11):1205-1213

In many ecosystems, apex consumers (top predators) play a crucial role in food web dynamics. Their top-down impacts are known to spread downwards through the food webs in a cascading fashion. Trophic cascades manifest when top predators are excluded from an ecosystem or introduced into a system lacking them. Two such case studies are described here. Trophic cascades are generally more pronounced in the aquatic than in the terrestrial ecosystems, which in turn is related to the differences in the average body sizes of herbivores relative to the plant resources they feed upon and in the structure of their food webs. Scientists express concern that human activities have been leading to planet-wide trophic downgrading (loss of apex consumers) which could affect vital ecological processes of the biosphere.  相似文献   

Editorial     

Pratibha Jolly  T. N. C. Vidya 《Resonance》2018,23(3):245-248

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The Value of Assessing Pupils’ Academic Self-Concept     

Jørgen Frost  Ernst Ottem 《Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research》2018,62(2):264-271

The Myself-As-a-Learner scale (MALS) has been constructed to assess academic self-concept (Burden, R. L. [2000]. The Myself As a Learner Scale. Birmingham: Imaginative Minds; Burden, R. L. [2012]. The Myself As a Learner Scale [2nd ed.]. Cognitive Education Development Centre, Graduate School of Education, University of Exeter.). The scale consists of 20 self-referring statements to which individuals are invited to respond in a positive, negative, or neutral manner. A Norwegian translation proved to be an internally consistent tool for schools. The internal consistency was explored in a sample of 84 monolingual children in which all children were assessed twice with a time difference of about 8 months. Compared to a control group (N?=?31) we found no significant effect of participation in a vocabulary training study on the children’s academic self-concept. Instead we found that high achievers evaluated themselves more positively over time, while low achievers evaluated themselves more negatively in the same period.  相似文献   

An intensification approach to double-block algebra: A pilot implementation of Intensified Algebra in a large urban school district     

Simon T. Tidd  Timothy M. Stoelinga  Angela M. Bush-Richards  Donna L. De Sena  Theodore J. Dwyer 《The Journal of educational research》2018,111(1):95-107

Double-block instruction has become a popular strategy for supporting struggling mathematics students in algebra I. Despite its widespread adoption, little consistent evidence supports the attributes of a successful double-block design or the effectiveness of this instructional strategy. In this study, the authors examine a pilot implementation of a double-block strategy—instantiated in the program Intensified Algebra—that combines core algebra content with insights from research on how students learn mathematics and explicit noncognitive supports focused on key attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors essential to student success. The results of the study show that, when implemented with fidelity, participation in the program significantly increased student achievement on the state end-of-course algebra I assessment.  相似文献   

Transitioning in higher education: an exploration of psychological and contextual factors affecting student satisfaction     

Charlotte R. Pennington  Elizabeth A. Bates  Lauren T. Bolam 《Journal of Further & Higher Education》2018,42(5):596-607

In view of recent changes in the higher education sector, such as increased tuition fees, a greater focus has been placed on widening participation initiatives and monitoring student satisfaction. The aims of the current study were twofold: (1) to explore whether pre-entry programmes foster successful transition to higher education, and (2) to examine longitudinally the factors associated with course satisfaction. Eighty-eight first-year psychology students completed a questionnaire measuring academic self-efficacy, social identity and student satisfaction at the start (Time 1, November 2015) and end (Time 2, March 2016) of the academic year. Findings indicated that students who participated in a pre-entry programme reported higher academic self-efficacy and satisfaction compared to typical route students. Moreover, academic self-efficacy predicted student satisfaction at the start of the academic year, whereas in-group affect (a facet of social identity) predicted this at the end of the academic year. The current findings indicate that pre-entry programmes may have a positive impact on students’ sense of academic self-efficacy. On a more general level, the findings also suggest that academic self-efficacy and social identity may be key indicators of student satisfaction. This highlights the complexities of the concept of ‘student satisfaction’, and demonstrates the utility of examining multiple factors relating to student satisfaction across different time points.  相似文献   

Exploring the complex and non-linear evolution of Chinese international students’ experiences in US colleges     

Tang T. Heng 《高等教育研究与发展》2018,37(6):1141-1155

This article contests the narrative of Chinese international students (internationals for short) as passive and problematic to reveal the complexity and fluidity of their experiences. Simultaneously, it troubles the overly linear approach of stage theory in understanding internationals’ adjustment. Following nine first- and nine second-year students in US colleges over a year and involving them in semi-structured interviews and journal prompts, this research examined how they evolved. Findings show that while participants grew on academic and personal fronts, their experiences remained multi-dimensional, with second years being less sanguine and reporting challenges different from first years. This article argues that seeing Chinese internationals’ evolution as an uneven ascent affords a more nuanced understanding compared to a U-shape stage theory as it recognizes that while internationals are evolving, new situations provide challenges which they learn to overcome. Consequently, Chinese internationals’ growth troubles the deficit discourse around them and departs from pre-existing research around postgraduates. Findings spell implications for how the college community should enhance transcultural understanding and how future research around internationals could develop.  相似文献   

Interdisciplinary collaboration as a prerequisite for inclusive education     

Lotte Hedegaard-Soerensen  Charlotte Riis Jensen  Ditte Maria Børglum Tofteng 《欧洲特需教育杂志》2018,33(3):382-395

This article reports on findings from a research project on interdisciplinary collaboration between mainstream school teachers and special school teachers. The aim of the research project has been to examine the knowledge of special school teachers and how this knowledge can contribute to the development of an inclusive learning environment in mainstream schools. Not as a simple task of transferring knowledge, but as a process of transforming knowledge through interdisciplinary collaboration and co-teaching. The design of the study is inspired by the notion of participation within action research as a research approach. Thus the thick data generated from reflective activities in the study design are analysed within a narrative and practice directed strategy of analysis.  相似文献   

‘Children’s clans’; social organisation and interpretive reconstruction as aspects on development of peer-groups in outdoor play     

Kari-Anne Jørgensen 《Ethnography and Education》2018,13(4):490-507

The focus of this article is children’s self-organisation of peer-groups through play. The play was initiated by encounters with the environment. The use of ethnographic methods in early childhood research has proved helpful to elucidate, interpret, and understand children’s experiences and the creation of meaning in their everyday lives. This inquiry draws on field notes, informal conversations with the children, and photos from a study of kindergarten children’s experiences of outdoor places and landscapes in Norway. Going out of doors together with the children regularly over a period of 10 months revealed aspects of how children’s interactions in play connect to their use of natural landscapes and its place in peer-group social organisation. The data are presented as ‘narrative maps’ and episodes written as ‘emplotted’ narratives.  相似文献   

Proxy-produced ethnographic work: what are the problems,issues, and dilemmas arising from proxy-ethnography?     

Marie Martinussen  Karin Højbjerg  Andreas Lindenskov Tamborg 《Ethnography and Education》2018,13(1):100-118

This article addresses the implications of researcher-student cooperation in the production of empirical material. For the student to replace the experienced researcher and work under the researcher’s supervision, we call such work proxy-produced ethnographic work. Although there are clear advantages, the specific relations and positions arising from such a set-up between the teacher/researcher and the proxy ethnographer/student are found to have implications for the ethnographies produced. This article’s main focus is to show how these relations and positions have shifted the focus of the ethnographic work and in some way have distorted the ethnographies in certain ways. It is shown how the participating researchers have distinctive, incorporated dispositions with which they pre-consciously participate in an implicit and subtle relation that can make it easy to overlook the distortions during the research process. These ethnographic distortions are generated within a framework drawn primarily on the work of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu.  相似文献