The Importance of Engaging Pupils Actively in Demonstrations

Science.gov (United States)

Suomela, Liisa; Juuti, Kalle; Ahtee, Maija

2013-01-01

Demonstrating is a traditional method in teaching science that can raise interest and encourage pupils to think about a topic. While demonstrating, the teacher can focus the pupils' attention on the relevant facts and introduce scientific principles and concepts. Through discussion and actively making observations and inferences, rather than…

Make pupils young researchers!

Science.gov (United States)

Gouhier, Armelle

2015-04-01

With the 2011 educational reform in France, a new course has been created in secondary schools : Methods & Practices in Science (MPS). The main goal was to improve the pupils working methods in science, including laboratory and field works. In addition, the pedagogy develops pupils autonomy and creativity, a key factor in a research process. Three teachers are working together (Mathematics, Physics and Geology-Biology), showing how different disciplines complement one another. Eventually, this is aimed at attracting more students in scientific sections. This course is optional, in the "seconde" class in French secondary schools (i.e., for 15 years old students). For the next class, they will have to choose between scientific, economic and literature sections : it is a useful option for them to decide which section has their preference. In my high-school in Clermont-Ferrand, we have chosen a research subject on hydrogeology & water quality improvement in region "Auvergne". The pupils will have to develop and set up appropriate tools to check and improve the water quality, related to different disciplines : - Geology & Biology: hydrogeology, effects of different pollutants on aquatic life, solutions to improve water quality (example of the natural water treatment zone in the lake of "Aydat, Auvergne, France"). - Physics & Chemistry: water potability criteria, pollution tests in water, water treatment plants working. - Mathematics: algorithm development, modeling on excel of the dispersion of pollutants The pedagogy of this course is new in French high-schools : pupils work in groups of three, so as to develop cooperation and autonomy. The teachers give the guidelines at the beginning of each working session, and answer the students questions when necessary. The evaluation is competence-based : instead of a mark, which is the main evaluation method in France, the pupils have to evaluate their own skills. Then, the teachers make an evaluation, and the global process is

Pupils' liking for school: ability grouping, self-concept and perceptions of teaching.

Science.gov (United States)

Ireson, Judith; Hallam, Susan

2005-06-01

Research indicates that affective aspects of development provide a basis for autonomous learning. Pupils' liking for school may be a useful indicator of their relationships with teachers and the school. The aim of the research reported in this paper is to establish the properties of a measure of pupils' liking for school and to examine associations between this measure, pupils' experiences in lessons, their self-concepts and the amount of setting implemented in school. A stratified sample of 45 mixed secondary comprehensive schools was selected for the research. Schools represented a variety of ability-grouping practices in the lower school (Years 7-9), from completely mixed-ability to setting in all academic subjects. All Year 9 pupils were included in the sample. Pupils completed a questionnaire containing items on their self-concept, liking for school, and their perceptions of teaching in English, mathematics, and science. Data on pupils' gender, ethnic origin, social disadvantage and attainment was also collected. The properties and correlates of scales indicating pupils' liking for school and their perceptions of teaching in English, mathematics, and science are established. Liking for school is greater among girls, pupils with higher academic self-concepts, and those with more positive perceptions of teaching. Pupils are more positive about teaching they experience in English than in mathematics or science. When other variables are statistically controlled, there is no significant effect of the extent of ability grouping in the school as a whole. Affective aspects of learning should not be neglected in the drive to raise standards.

Pupils teach to pupils about genetics or global warming

Science.gov (United States)

Cuny, Delphine

2013-04-01

The idea of this project is to put pupils in a teaching situation. Classes of teenagers go to primary schools and animate a science workshop. Junior pupils are separated in small groups and they attend two different sessions in the same half-day. The whole workshop consists of 4 sessions. Each session is organized with an activity (microscope observation, counting of chromosomes, drawing of a curve, etc.) in which senior pupils coach the younger, and ends with a debate or an assessment. The first experiment of this type of project was realized with a class of 14 to 15 year old pupils on the theme: How do your parents transmit your characteristics? The four sessions are attended in disorder but when knowledge of other sessions are necessary, senior pupils explain them at the beginning of the session. Junior pupils have a notebook to write their activities and to note their conclusions. Session 1: What did my father give to make me? Drawing and measuring microscopic observations of human spermatozoons. Conclusion: my father gave a spermatozoon which measures less than one mm long, this spermatozoon met my mother's egg and it made my first cell. Session 2: What does the program that made me look like? Microscope observation of blood cells, identification of chromosomes in the core. On microscope pictures, counting of chromosomes. Conclusion: My program is in each cell of my body, inside the core. Sometimes, in this core, we can observe short sticks that are called chromosomes. All human beings have the same number of chromosomes in their cells: 46. Session 3: Where do my chromosomes come from? Counting of chromosomes in spermatozoons or ovums and playing with sets of chromosomes to deduct sex of a baby. Conclusion: Daddy gave me 23 chromosomes and mummy gave me 23 chromosomes too. My program is then constituted from half of daddy's program and half of mummy's program. My brothers and sisters also have half and half, but not the same halves! Session 4: Where is the

Zanimanje in želje osnovnošolcev za učenje naravoslovja = Interests and Preferences of Primary School Pupils Regarding the Natural Science Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Drago Skurjeni

2008-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the research is to analyze and investigate the interest of primary school pupils in natural science topics within primary school subject fields. Examining the existing curricula, it becomes evident that natural science topics are intertwined in different subject fields. Based on the methodology, developed within the rose project, a quantitative research was performed in order to investigate pupils’ wishes and interests regarding learning about natural science topics within different subject fields. The data was acquired by means of a questionnaire. The findings suggest that the level of Slovene pupils’ interest in natural science is low; nevertheless the girls are more interested in it than boys. The pupils would like to learn more about animals, non-scientific phenomena and information technology. However, they are not interested in physics.

Gender Stereotyping and Female Pupils' Perception of Studying ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Gender Stereotyping and Female Pupils' Perception of Studying Advanced Level Sciences: A Survey of One Province in Zimbabwe. C Pinias, VS Matswetu. Abstract. In spite of advances in the field of science and technology, females are still under-represented in the sciences. The study sought to explore the perceptions of ...

Critical Science Instrument Alignment of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM)

Science.gov (United States)

Rohrbach, Scott O.; Kubalak, David A.; Gracey, Renee M.; Sabatke, Derek S.; Howard, Joseph M.; Telfer, Randal C.; Zielinski, Thomas P.

2016-01-01

This paper describes the critical instrument alignment terms associated with the six-degree of freedom alignment of each the Science Instrument (SI) in the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), including focus, pupil shear, pupil clocking, and boresight. We present the test methods used during cryogenic-vacuum tests to directly measure the performance of each parameter, the requirements levied on each, and the impact of any violations of these requirements at the instrument and Observatory level.

Pupil-class determinants of aggressive and victim behaviour in pupils.

Science.gov (United States)

Mooij, T

1998-09-01

Aggressive behaviour in pupils is expressed in, e.g., bullying, sexual harassment, and violence. Different kinds of variables could be relevant in explaining a pupil's aggressive or victim behaviour. To develop a multilevel theoretical and empirical explanation for different kinds of aggressive and victim behaviour displayed by pupils in a classroom and school environment. A national survey was carried out to identify different kinds of aggressive and victim behaviour displayed by pupils and to assess other variables related to pupils, classes, and schools. A total of 1998 pupils from 100 third and fourth year classes attending 71 different secondary schools took part in the research. Data were analysed by a series of secondary multilevel analyses using the MLA-program. Being a boy, being more extravert, being more disagreeable, coming across fewer teachers with positive teaching behaviour, and attending a lower type of secondary school, help explain why someone is a perpetrator as such. Being a boy, being more disagreeable, being more emotionally unstable, being open to new ideas, and seeing more teachers as being strict, function as explanatory pupil variables for victim behaviour. Other pupil level variables determine more specific aggressive and victim behaviour aspects. Various other class level and school level variables are relevant, too. Personal and environmental pupil variables are more important than class variables but class variables are in turn more important than school variables in explaining a pupil's aggressive and victim behaviour.

Junior Secondary School Pupils' Perception of the Relevance of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

cce

Department of Science Education, Faculty of Science Education, Winneba, Ghana. .... therefore imperative to assess pupils' attitude to the environmental challenges ..... with skills that will allow them during their teaching to employ innovative, ... improve on the existing level of interest, belief, hope and concern with regard to ...

Pupil and Staff Perceptions of Rewards at a Pupil Referral Unit

Science.gov (United States)

Capstick, Joanna

2005-01-01

The present study investigated the perceptions of both pupils and staff at a pupil referral unit (PRU) towards the reward system currently in use. The main aims were to establish whether teachers and pupils perceived the same rewards as effective, to determine whether staff and pupils perceived that rewards changed behaviour, and finally whether…

Inverse Argyll Robertson pupil in Burkitt′s lymphoma

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kakarla V Chalam

2008-03-01

Full Text Available Kakarla V Chalam, Shailesh K Gupta, Vikram S BrarDepartment of Ophthalmology, University of Florida Health Science Center, Jacksonville, FL, USAAbstract: We present a case of an 18 year old white male with Burkitt’s lymphoma who was operated on for hydrocephalus and subsequently referred for evaluation of new onset diplopia. On examination, his visual acuity (VA was 20/20 in both eyes with a right superior oblique palsy. His pupillary reaction to light was intact while on near gaze there was no constriction of the pupils, bilaterally. The other two responses of the near gaze triad ie, convergence and accommodation were present. These findings were suggestive of an Inverse Argyll Robertson pupil (IARP, a rare entity in the literature. We could not find a specific cause attributable to this manifestation in this patient, though we feel it may be secondary to infiltration from Burkitt’s lymphoma and/or compression from elevated intracranial pressure of the efferent pupillary near reflex pathway.Keywords: Inverse Argyll Robertson pupil, Argyll Robertson pupil, pupillary abnormalities, Burkitt’s lymphoma

Environmental Variables and Pupils' Academic Performance in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This causal-comparative study was carried out to investigate the influence of environmental variables on pupils' academic performance in primary science in Cross River State, Nigeria. Three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Two instruments were used to collect data for the study namely: environmental ...

Does the "Pupil Enterprise Programme" Influence Grades among Pupils with Special Needs?

Science.gov (United States)

Johansen, Vegard; Somby, Hege M.

2016-01-01

This paper asks whether the Pupil Enterprise Programme (PEP) is a suitable working method for improving academic performance among pupils with special needs. Overall, 20% of pupils participate in PEP at some point during lower secondary school. Results from multilevel regression modelling indicate that pupils with special needs who have…

Image quality comparison of two multifocal IOLs: influence of the pupil.

Science.gov (United States)

García-Domene, Mari Carmen; Felipe, Adelina; Peris-Martínez, Cristina; Navea, Amparo; Artigas, Jose M; Pons, Álvaro M

2015-04-01

To evaluate the effect of pupil size on image quality of a sectorial multifocal intraocular lens (IOL), the Lentis Mplus (Oculentis GmbH, Berlin, Germany), and the Acri.LISA IOL (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Jena, Germany). The authors measured the MTFs of the Lentis Mplus LS-312 IOL and the Acri.LISA 366D IOL with three different sizes of pupil diameters: 3, 4, and 5 mm. The MTF was calculated from the cross-line spread function recorded with the OPAL Vector System (Image Science Ltd., Oxford, UK) by using fast Fourier-transform techniques. In distance focus, the image quality provided by the Lentis Mplus IOL was better than that of the Acri. LISA IOL with all pupil diameters. In near focus, the MTF of the Acri.LISA IOL was better with a 3-mm pupil, but poor with larger pupils. The aberration effect was equal in both IOLs in distance focus, but in near focus and with a 3-mm pupil, the Acri.LISA IOL was less affected by the aberration than the Lentis Mplus IOL. The Lentis Mplus IOL provides better distance image quality than the Acri.LISA IOL, whereas the near image quality of the Acri.LISA IOL is better with small-pupil diameter. The sectorial design makes this IOL more suitable for patients with a pupil diameter greater than 3 mm. Copyright 2015, SLACK Incorporated.

Pupils' Difficulties: What Can the Teacher Do?

Science.gov (United States)

Dawson, C. J.

1978-01-01

Discusses how the teacher can deal with difficulties pupils of varying ages have in understanding certain chemical ideas. The article does not support using a Piagetian model for science courses in secondary schools. It suggests that Ausubel's learning theory is of much more use to the practicing teacher. (HM)

Pupil Center as a Function of Pupil Diameter

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ahmed, Zaheer; Mardanbegi, Diako; Hansen, Dan Witzner

2016-01-01

We investigate the gaze estimation error induced by pupil size changes using simulated data. We investigate the influence of pupil diameter changes on estimated gaze point error obtained by two gaze estimation models. Simulation data show that at wider viewing angles and at small eye...

Pupils' Response to a Model for Water Transport.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnstone, A. H.; Mahmoud, N. A.

1981-01-01

Described is a model, based on the physical sciences, designed to teach secondary students about water transport through the use of an animated film. Pupils (N=440) taught by this method developed a self-consistent, although reduced, picture and understanding of osmosis. (Author/DC)

Holographic analysis of dispersive pupils in space--time optics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Calatroni, J.; Vienot, J.C.

1981-01-01

Extension of space--time optics to objects whose transparency is a function of the temporal frequency v = c/lambda is examined. Considering the effects of such stationary pupils on white light waves, they are called temporal pupils. It is shown that simultaneous encoding both in the space and time frequency domains is required to record pupil parameters. The space-time impulse response and transfer functions are calculated for a dispersive nonabsorbent material. An experimental method providing holographic recording of the dispersion curve of any transparent material is presented

Holographic analysis of dispersive pupils in space--time optics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Calatroni, J.; Vienot, J.C.

1981-06-01

Extension of space--time optics to objects whose transparency is a function of the temporal frequency v = c/lambda is examined. Considering the effects of such stationary pupils on white light waves, they are called temporal pupils. It is shown that simultaneous encoding both in the space and time frequency domains is required to record pupil parameters. The space-time impulse response and transfer functions are calculated for a dispersive nonabsorbent material. An experimental method providing holographic recording of the dispersion curve of any transparent material is presented.

teachers pattern of instruction and location on pupils critical thinking ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

LUCY

pupils' critical thinking in science achievement in Imo State. To achieve ... such scientific attitudes such as persistence, objectivity, ... abilities out of the learners right from the primary school. ... effectively conceptualizing generalized methods.

Mathematical literacy of school leaving pupils in South Africa

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Howie, S.; Plomp, T.

2002-01-01

This paper discusses some results of South African (SA) grade 12 pupils on an international test of mathematical literacy, administered in the framework of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of

Appropriate Pupilness

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kofoed, Jette

2008-01-01

for football are selected. The article opens up for a microanalysis of everyday practices at the margins and at the core of what this article terms `pupilness'. The concept of intersectionality is suggested as a useful analytical tool to understand the multiple activities of pupils in everyday school life...

How to become a mentalist: reading decisions from a competitor's pupil can be achieved without training but requires instruction.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marnix Naber

Full Text Available Pupil dilation is implicated as a marker of decision-making as well as of cognitive and emotional processes. Here we tested whether individuals can exploit another's pupil to their advantage. We first recorded the eyes of 3 "opponents", while they were playing a modified version of the "rock-paper-scissors" childhood game. The recorded videos served as stimuli to a second set of participants. These "players" played rock-paper-scissors against the pre-recorded opponents in a variety of conditions. When players just observed the opponents' eyes without specific instruction their probability of winning was at chance. When informed that the time of maximum pupil dilation was indicative of the opponents' choice, however, players raised their winning probability significantly above chance. When just watching the reconstructed area of the pupil against a gray background, players achieved similar performance, showing that players indeed exploited the pupil, rather than other facial cues. Since maximum pupil dilation was correct about the opponents' decision only in 60% of trials (chance 33%, we finally tested whether increasing this validity to 100% would allow spontaneous learning. Indeed, when players were given no information, but the pupil was informative about the opponent's response in all trials, players performed significantly above chance on average and half (5/10 reached significance at an individual level. Together these results suggest that people can in principle use the pupil to detect cognitive decisions in another individual, but that most people have neither explicit knowledge of the pupil's utility nor have they learnt to use it despite a lifetime of exposure.

Basic personality dimensions and vocational orientation with pupils of fourth grade of secondary school

OpenAIRE

Ranđelović Dušan; Kašić Kristina

2009-01-01

The main goal of this research was to explore relationship between basic personality dimensions of 'Big Five' model of personality (neuroticism, extraversion, opennes, agreeableness and conscientiousness) and thirteen different groups of activities which orienting pupils toward some vocations (administration, security, electrotechnics, creativity, culture, literature, science, helping jobs, agriculture, practical jobs, sport and management and services). The participants were 219 pupils of fo...

Inquiry-Based Science Education Competencies of Primary School Teachers: A Literature Study and Critical Review of the American National Science Education Standards

Science.gov (United States)

Alake-Tuenter, Ester; Biemans, Harm J. A.; Tobi, Hilde; Wals, Arjen E. J.; Oosterheert, Ida; Mulder, Martin

2012-01-01

Inquiry-based science education is an important innovation. Researchers and teachers consider it to be stimulating for pupils' application of research skills, construction of meaning and acquiring scientific knowledge. However, there is ambiguity as to what competencies are required to teach inquiry-based science. Our purpose is to develop a…

Pupil shape in the animal kingdom: from the pseudopupil to the vertical pupil.

Science.gov (United States)

González-Martín-Moro, J; Gómez-Sanz, F; Sales-Sanz, A; Huguet-Baudin, E; Murube-del-Castillo, J

2014-12-01

To study the different pupil shapes adopted by the different animal species. Review of the related literature, using PubMed database. The initial search strategy was pupil shape (limited to animals). The first volume of System of Ophthalmology (Duke-Elder) and Evolution's witness (I. Schwab) were also reviewed. An optic illusion called pseudopupil is usually observed in the compound eyes of insects. The pupil is circular in most vertebrates, however slit vertical pupils are present in cats and in some snake species. Vertical pupils could have a photoprotective function, as it makes a more complete closure possible in photopic conditions, and helps to camouflage the predator. It has also been hypothesized that it could help to correct chromatic aberration. Ruminants are usually endowed with horizontal pupils. This shape could improve the capacity of the eye to detect vertical silhouettes. Some marine animals have crescent-shaped pupils. In these animals, a superior operculum helps to protect the inferior retina from the great amount of light coming from above. There is a surprising variability in pupil shape. Through this variability, nature has fitted the eye to different circumstances. The theories proposed to explain this high variability are discussed in detail in the article. Copyright © 2012 Sociedad Española de Oftalmología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Dataset of red light induced pupil constriction superimposed on post-illumination pupil response

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shaobo Lei

2016-09-01

Full Text Available We collected and analyzed pupil diameter data from of 7 visually normal participants to compare the maximum pupil constriction (MPC induced by “Red Only” vs. “Blue+Red” visual stimulation conditions.The “Red Only” condition consisted of red light (640±10 nm stimuli of variable intensity and duration presented to dark-adapted eyes with pupils at resting state. This condition stimulates the cone-driven activity of the intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGC. The “Blue+Red” condition consisted of the same red light stimulus presented during ongoing blue (470±17 nm light-induced post-illumination pupil response (PIPR, representing the cone-driven ipRGC activity superimposed on the melanopsin-driven intrinsic activity of the ipRGCs (“The Absence of Attenuating Effect of Red light Exposure on Pre-existing Melanopsin-Driven Post-illumination Pupil Response” Lei et al. (2016 [1].MPC induced by the “Red Only” condition was compared with the MPC induced by the “Blue+Red” condition by multiple paired sample t-tests with Bonferroni correction. Keywords: Pupil light reflex, Chromatic pupillometry, Melanopsin, Post-illumination pupil response

Ghanaian Junior High School Science Teachers' attitude towards ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Contextualising science instruction has been found to improve pupils' understanding of science content since it links science content to the context of the pupil. Science teachers play vital roles in this effort to make science teaching relevant to the Ghanaian child through contextualisation of science instruction.

Science, a Psychological versus a Logical Approach in Teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Ediger, Marlow

2015-01-01

Under which approach do pupils attain more optimally, a logical versus a psychological procedure of instruction? Pupils do need to achieve well in a world of science. Science is all around us and pupils need to understand various principles and laws of science. Thus, teachers in the school curriculum must choose carefully objectives for pupil…

Engaging Pupils in Decision-Making about Biodiversity Conservation Issues

Science.gov (United States)

Grace, Marcus; Byrne, Jenny

2010-01-01

Our pupils' generation will eventually have the daunting responsibility of making decisions about local and global biodiversity. School provides an early opportunity for them to enter into formal discussion about the science and values associated with biodiversity conservation; but the crowded curriculum offers little time for such activities.…

Using Pupil Diameter Changes for Measuring Mental Workload under Mental Processing

Science.gov (United States)

Batmaz, Ihsan; Ozturk, Mustafa

In this study, it is aimed to evaluate the mental workload by using a practical way which based on measuring pupil diameter changes that occurs under mental processing. To determine the mental effort required for each task, the video record of subjects` eyes are taken while they are performed different tasks and pupils were measured from the records. A group of university student, one female 9 males participated to the experiment. Additionally, NASA-TLX questionnaire is applied for the related mental tasks. For verification of results obtained from both indices, the correlation coefficient is calculated task base. The results show that there is weak and negative correlation between the indices on task base except 3rd task. By investigating pupil diameter measurements data too, it is founded that pupil dilates under mental workload during performing related tasks. For all tasks, pupil diameters of response periods increased according to reference baseline period.

Frequency and Efficacy of Talk-Related Tasks in Primary Science

Science.gov (United States)

Braund, Martin; Leigh, Joanne

2013-04-01

Pupil talk and discussion are seen as having important social and cognitive outcomes. In science classes, pupils' collaborative talk supports the construction of meaning and helps examine the status of evidence, theory and knowledge. However, pupil interactive talk in groups is rare in science lessons. The research reported is part of a project to increase the amount of pupil-pupil talk in primary schools through a programme of teaching and professional development. Pupils' self-reports of the frequency and learning efficacies of talk related activities in science lessons were collected before and after a programme of teaching in 24 schools in one of the most socially and educationally deprived areas of England. Findings showed pupils valued talking about their ideas over listening to those of other pupils. Science talk frequency (STF) was closely correlated with science talk efficacy (STE) and both were positively correlated with pupils' attitudes to school science. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) of the correlation of STF with STE showed values were independent of gender and ability but that school experience was a significant factor. After the teaching programme and, contrary to expectations, the frequency of talk activities in science lessons appeared to have decreased but varied according to class grades. The degree of correlation between STF and STE was stronger after the teaching in over half of the schools. Schools where STF/STE strengthened most as a result of teaching were those involved in an additional initiative to use modelled talk related to industrial contexts.

Cooperative learning in science: intervention in the secondary school

Science.gov (United States)

Topping, K. J.; Thurston, A.; Tolmie, A.; Christie, D.; Murray, P.; Karagiannidou, E.

2011-04-01

The use of cooperative learning in secondary school is reported - an area of considerable concern given attempts to make secondary schools more interactive and gain higher recruitment to university science courses. In this study the intervention group was 259 pupils aged 12-14 years in nine secondary schools, taught by 12 self-selected teachers. Comparison pupils came from both intervention and comparison schools (n = 385). Intervention teachers attended three continuing professional development days, in which they received information, engaged with resource packs and involved themselves in cooperative learning. Measures included both general and specific tests of science, attitudes to science, sociometry, self-esteem, attitudes to cooperative learning and transferable skills (all for pupils) and observation of implementation fidelity. There were increases during cooperative learning in pupil formulation of propositions, explanations and disagreements. Intervened pupils gained in attainment, but comparison pupils gained even more. Pupils who had experienced cooperative learning in primary school had higher pre-test scores in secondary education irrespective of being in the intervention or comparison group. On sociometry, comparison pupils showed greater affiliation to science work groups for work, but intervention pupils greater affiliation to these groups at break and out of school. Other measures were not significant. The results are discussed in relation to practice and policy implications.

Turkish Version of Students' Ideas about Nature of Science Questionnaire: A Validation Study

Science.gov (United States)

Cansiz, Mustafa; Cansiz, Nurcan; Tas, Yasemin; Yerdelen, Sundus

2017-01-01

Mass assessment of large samples' nature of science views has been one of the core concerns in science education research. Due to impracticality of using open-ended questionnaires or conducting interviews with large groups, another line of research has been required for mass assessment of pupils' nature of science conception meaningfully.…

Smart Kids--Enhancing Science Learning with Pupil-Pupil Coaching

Science.gov (United States)

Dunne, Mick

2011-01-01

This article presents an interview between the author and two teachers, Ruth Birtles and Michelle Proctor, who are involved in "Smart Kids", an AstraZeneca Science Teaching Trust (AZSTT) funded project for 2009-10 coordinated by the Centre for Science Education, Sheffield Hallam University. In this interview, Proctor and Birtles discuss…

The pupil as an indicator of unconscious memory: Introducing the pupil priming effect.

Science.gov (United States)

Gomes, Carlos Alexandre; Montaldi, Daniela; Mayes, Andrew

2015-06-01

We explored whether object behavioral priming and pupil changes occur in the absence of recognition memory. Experiment 1 found behavioral priming for unrecognized objects (Ms) regardless of whether they had been encoded perceptually or conceptually. Using the same perceptual encoding task, Experiment 2 showed greater pupil dilation for Ms than for correct rejections of unstudied objects (CRs) when reaction times were matched. In Experiment 3, there was relatively less pupil dilation for Ms than for similarly matched CRs when objects had been encoded conceptually. Mean/peak pupil dilation for CRs, but not Ms, increased in Experiment 3, in which novelty expectation was also reduced, and the pupillary time course for both Ms and CRs was distinct in the two experiments. These findings indicate that both behavioral and pupil memory occur for studied, but unrecognized stimuli, and suggest that encoding and novelty expectation modulate pupillary memory responses. © 2015 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

The Active Pupil: Pupil size in attention, working memory, and active vision

OpenAIRE

Mathôt, Sebastiaan

2015-01-01

Slides for the following talk: Mathôt, S. (2015, June). The Active Pupil: Pupil Size in Attention, Working Memory, and Active Vision. Talk presented at the Laboratoire de Psychologie de la Perception, Paris, France.

Experimental investigations of pupil accommodation factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Eui Chul; Lee, Ji Woo; Park, Kang Ryoung

2011-08-17

PURPOSE. The contraction and dilation of the iris muscle that controls the amount of light entering the retina causes pupil accommodation. In this study, experiments were performed and two of the three factors that influence pupil accommodation were analyzed: lighting conditions and depth fixations. The psychological benefits were not examined, because they could not be quantified. METHODS. A head-wearable eyeglasses-based, eye-capturing device was designed to measure pupil size. It included a near-infrared (NIR) camera and an NIR light-emitting diode. Twenty-four subjects watched two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) stereoscopic videos of the same content, and the changes in pupil size were measured by using the eye-capturing device and image-processing methods: RESULTS. The pupil size changed with the intensity of the videos and the disparities between the left and right images of a 3D stereoscopic video. There was correlation between the pupil size and average intensity. The pupil diameter could be estimated as being contracted from approximately 5.96 to 4.25 mm as the intensity varied from 0 to 255. Further, from the changes in the depth fixation for the pupil accommodation, it was confirmed that the depth fixation also affected accommodation of pupil size. CONCLUSIONS. It was confirmed that the lighting condition was an even more significant factor in pupil accommodation than was depth fixation (significance ratio: approximately 3.2:1) when watching 3D stereoscopic video. Pupil accommodation was more affected by depth fixation in the real world than was the binocular convergence in the 3D stereoscopic display.

Formative and summative assessment of science in English primary schools: evidence from the Primary Science Quality Mark

Science.gov (United States)

Earle, Sarah

2014-05-01

Background:Since the discontinuation of Standard Attainment Tests (SATs) in science at age 11 in England, pupil performance data in science reported to the UK government by each primary school has relied largely on teacher assessment undertaken in the classroom. Purpose:The process by which teachers are making these judgements has been unclear, so this study made use of the extensive Primary Science Quality Mark (PSQM) database to obtain a 'snapshot' (as of March 2013) of the approaches taken by 91 English primary schools to the formative and summative assessment of pupils' learning in science. PSQM is an award scheme for UK primary schools. It requires the science subject leader (co-ordinator) in each school to reflect upon and develop practice over the course of one year, then upload a set of reflections and supporting evidence to the database to support their application. One of the criteria requires the subject leader to explain how science is assessed within the school. Sample:The data set consists of the electronic text in the assessment section of all 91 PSQM primary schools which worked towards the Quality Mark in the year April 2012 to March 2013. Design and methods:Content analysis of a pre-existing qualitative data set. Text in the assessment section of each submission was first coded as describing formative or summative processes, then sub-coded into different strategies used. Results:A wide range of formative and summative approaches were reported, which tended to be described separately, with few links between them. Talk-based strategies are widely used for formative assessment, with some evidence of feedback to pupils. Whilst the use of tests or tracking grids for summative assessment is widespread, few schools rely on one system alone. Enquiry skills and conceptual knowledge were often assessed separately. Conclusions:There is little consistency in the approaches being used by teachers to assess science in English primary schools. Nevertheless

BER Science Network Requirements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Alapaty, Kiran; Allen, Ben; Bell, Greg; Benton, David; Brettin, Tom; Canon, Shane; Dart, Eli; Cotter, Steve; Crivelli, Silvia; Carlson, Rich; Dattoria, Vince; Desai, Narayan; Egan, Richard; Tierney, Brian; Goodwin, Ken; Gregurick, Susan; Hicks, Susan; Johnston, Bill; de Jong, Bert; Kleese van Dam, Kerstin; Livny, Miron; Markowitz, Victor; McGraw, Jim; McCord, Raymond; Oehmen, Chris; Regimbal, Kevin; Shipman, Galen; Strand, Gary; Flick, Jeff; Turnbull, Susan; Williams, Dean; Zurawski, Jason

2010-11-01

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the primary provider of network connectivity for the US Department of Energy Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. In support of the Office of Science programs, ESnet regularly updates and refreshes its understanding of the networking requirements of the instruments, facilities, scientists, and science programs that it serves. This focus has helped ESnet to be a highly successful enabler of scientific discovery for over 20 years. In April 2010 ESnet and the Office of Biological and Environmental Research, of the DOE Office of Science, organized a workshop to characterize the networking requirements of the science programs funded by BER. The requirements identified at the workshop are summarized and described in more detail in the case studies and the Findings section. A number of common themes emerged from the case studies and workshop discussions. One is that BER science, like many other disciplines, is becoming more and more distributed and collaborative in nature. Another common theme is that data set sizes are exploding. Climate Science in particular is on the verge of needing to manage exabytes of data, and Genomics is on the verge of a huge paradigm shift in the number of sites with sequencers and the amount of sequencer data being generated.

Towards Science Education for all: Teacher Support for Female ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Towards Science Education for all: Teacher Support for Female Pupils in the Zimbabwean Science Class. ... Annals of Modern Education ... One hundred female pupils studying sciences at either Ordinary or Advanced level, and 10 science teachers from 10 selected secondary schools in one province in Zimbabwe, ...

NP Science Network Requirements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dart, Eli [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Rotman, Lauren [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Tierney, Brian [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

2011-08-26

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the primary provider of network connectivity for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science (SC), the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. To support SC programs, ESnet regularly updates and refreshes its understanding of the networking requirements of the instruments, facilities, scientists, and science programs it serves. This focus has helped ESnet to be a highly successful enabler of scientific discovery for over 20 years. In August 2011, ESnet and the Office of Nuclear Physics (NP), of the DOE SC, organized a workshop to characterize the networking requirements of the programs funded by NP. The requirements identified at the workshop are summarized in the Findings section, and are described in more detail in the body of the report.

Optimal power distribution for minimizing pupil walk in a 7.5X afocal zoom lens

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Wanyue; Zhao, Yang; Berman, Rebecca; Bodell, S. Yvonne; Fennig, Eryn; Ni, Yunhui; Papa, Jonathan C.; Yang, Tianyi; Yee, Anthony J.; Moore, Duncan T.; Bentley, Julie L.

2017-11-01

An extensive design study was conducted to find the best optimal power distribution and stop location for a 7.5x afocal zoom lens that controls the pupil walk and pupil location through zoom. This afocal zoom lens is one of the three components in a VIS-SWIR high-resolution microscope for inspection of photonic chips. The microscope consists of an afocal zoom, a nine-element objective and a tube lens and has diffraction limited performance with zero vignetting. In this case, the required change in object (sample) size and resolution is achieved by the magnification change of the afocal component. This creates strict requirements for both the entrance and exit pupil locations of the afocal zoom to couple the two sides successfully. The first phase of the design study looked at conventional four group zoom lenses with positive groups in the front and back and the stop at a fixed location outside the lens but resulted in significant pupil walk. The second phase of the design study focused on several promising unconventional four-group power distribution designs with moving stops that minimized pupil walk and had an acceptable pupil location (as determined by the objective and tube lens).

Pupil dilation reveals top-down attentional load during spatial monitoring.

Science.gov (United States)

Lisi, Matteo; Bonato, Mario; Zorzi, Marco

2015-12-01

It has long been known that the diameter of human pupil enlarges with increasing effort during the execution of a task. This has been observed not only for purely mechanical effort but also for mental effort, as for example the computation of arithmetic problems with different levels of difficulty. Here we show that pupil dilation reflects changes in visuospatial awareness induced by attentional load during multi-tasking. In the single-task condition, participants had to report the position of lateralized, briefly presented, masked visual targets ("right", "left", or "both" sides). In the multitasking conditions, participants also performed additional tasks, either visual or auditory, to increase the attentional load. Sensory stimulation was kept constant across all conditions to rule out the influence of low-level factors. Results show that event-related pupil dilation strikingly increased with task demands, mirroring a concurrent decrease in visuospatial awareness. Importantly, pupil dilation significantly differed between two dual-task conditions that required to process the same number of stimuli but yielded differed levels of accuracy (difficulty). In contrast, pupil dilation did not differ between two conditions which were equally challenging but differed both in the modality of the dual task (auditory vs. visual) and in the number of stimuli to be attended. We conclude that pupil dilation genuinely reflects the top-down allocation of supramodal attentional resources. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Revising laboratory work: sociological perspectives on the science classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Jobér, Anna

2017-09-01

This study uses sociological perspectives to analyse one of the core practices in science education: schoolchildren's and students' laboratory work. Applying an ethnographic approach to the laboratory work done by pupils at a Swedish compulsory school, data were generated through observations, field notes, interviews, and a questionnaire. The pupils, ages 14 and 15, were observed as they took a 5-week physics unit (specifically, mechanics). The analysis shows that the episodes of laboratory work could be filled with curiosity and exciting challenges; however, another picture emerged when sociological concepts and notions were applied to what is a very common way of working in the classroom. Laboratory work is characterised as a social activity that is expected to be organised as a group activity. This entails groups becoming, to some extent, `safe havens' for the pupils. On the other hand, this way of working in groups required pupils to subject to the groups and the peer effect, sometimes undermining their chances to learn and perform better. In addition, the practice of working in groups when doing laboratory work left some pupils and the teacher blaming themselves, even though the outcome of the learning situation was a result of a complex interplay of social processes. This article suggests a stronger emphasis on the contradictions and consequences of the science subjects, which are strongly influenced by their socio-historical legacy.

Fusion Energy Sciences Network Requirements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dart, Eli [ESNet, Berkeley, CA (United States); Tierney, Brian [ESNet, Berkeley, CA (United States)

2012-09-26

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the primary provider of network connectivity for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. In support of the Office of Science programs, ESnet regularly updates and refreshes its understanding of the networking requirements of the instruments, facilities, scientists, and science programs that it serves. This focus has helped ESnet to be a highly successful enabler of scientific discovery for over 25 years. In December 2011, ESnet and the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (FES), of the DOE Office of Science (SC), organized a workshop to characterize the networking requirements of the programs funded by FES. The requirements identified at the workshop are summarized in the Findings section, and are described in more detail in the body of the report.

Automated Windowing Processing for Pupil Detection

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Ebisawa, Y

2001-01-01

.... The pupil center in the video image is a focal point to determine the eye gaze. Recently, to improve the disadvantages of traditional pupil detection methods, a pupil detection technique using two light sources (LEDs...

Teachers pattern of instruction and location on pupils critical thinking ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper seeks to ascertain the influence of teachers' pattern of instruction and location on pupils' critical thinking in science achievement in Imo State. To achieve this objective, two hypotheses were formulated. Ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. A total of ninety (90) teachers and one thousand ...

Frequency and Efficacy of Talk-Related Tasks in Primary Science

Science.gov (United States)

Braund, Martin; Leigh, Joanne

2013-01-01

Pupil talk and discussion are seen as having important social and cognitive outcomes. In science classes, pupils' collaborative talk supports the construction of meaning and helps examine the status of evidence, theory and knowledge. However, pupil interactive talk in groups is rare in science lessons. The research reported is part of a project to…

Numerical stress analysis of the iris tissue induced by pupil expansion: Comparison of commercial devices

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xiaofei; Perera, Shamira A.; Girard, Michaël J. A.

2018-01-01

Purpose (1) To use finite element (FE) modelling to estimate local iris stresses (i.e. internal forces) as a result of mechanical pupil expansion; and to (2) compare such stresses as generated from several commercially available expanders (Iris hooks, APX dilator and Malyugin ring) to determine which design and deployment method are most likely to cause iris damage. Methods We used a biofidelic 3-part iris FE model that consisted of the stroma, sphincter and dilator muscles. Our FE model simulated expansion of the pupil from 3 mm to a maximum of 6 mm using the aforementioned pupil expanders, with uniform circular expansion used for baseline comparison. FE-derived stresses, resultant forces and area of final pupil opening were compared across devices for analysis. Results Our FE models demonstrated that the APX dilator generated the highest stresses on the sphincter muscles, (max: 6.446 MPa; average: 5.112 MPa), followed by the iris hooks (max: 5.680 MPa; average: 5.219 MPa), and the Malyugin ring (max: 2.144 MPa; average: 1.575 MPa). Uniform expansion generated the lowest stresses (max: 0.435MPa; average: 0.377 MPa). For pupil expansion, the APX dilator required the highest force (41.22 mN), followed by iris hooks (40.82 mN) and the Malyugin ring (18.56 mN). Conclusion Our study predicted that current pupil expanders exert significantly higher amount of stresses and forces than required during pupil expansion. Our work may serve as a guide for the development and design of next-generation pupil expanders. PMID:29538452

Objective Lens Optimized for Wavefront Delivery, Pupil Imaging, and Pupil Ghosting

Science.gov (United States)

Olzcak, Gene

2009-01-01

An interferometer objective lens (or diverger) may be used to transform a collimated beam into a diverging or converging beam. This innovation provides an objective lens that has diffraction-limited optical performance that is optimized at two sets of conjugates: imaging to the objective focus and imaging to the pupil. The lens thus provides for simultaneous delivery of a high-quality beam and excellent pupil resolution properties.

Eye gaze tracking based on the shape of pupil image

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Rui; Qiu, Jian; Luo, Kaiqing; Peng, Li; Han, Peng

2018-01-01

Eye tracker is an important instrument for research in psychology, widely used in attention, visual perception, reading and other fields of research. Because of its potential function in human-computer interaction, the eye gaze tracking has already been a topic of research in many fields over the last decades. Nowadays, with the development of technology, non-intrusive methods are more and more welcomed. In this paper, we will present a method based on the shape of pupil image to estimate the gaze point of human eyes without any other intrusive devices such as a hat, a pair of glasses and so on. After using the ellipse fitting algorithm to deal with the pupil image we get, we can determine the direction of the fixation by the shape of the pupil.The innovative aspect of this method is to utilize the new idea of the shape of the pupil so that we can avoid much complicated algorithm. The performance proposed is very helpful for the study of eye gaze tracking, which just needs one camera without infrared light to know the changes in the shape of the pupil to determine the direction of the eye gazing, no additional condition is required.

Pupil size tracks perceptual content and surprise.

Science.gov (United States)

Kloosterman, Niels A; Meindertsma, Thomas; van Loon, Anouk M; Lamme, Victor A F; Bonneh, Yoram S; Donner, Tobias H

2015-04-01

Changes in pupil size at constant light levels reflect the activity of neuromodulatory brainstem centers that control global brain state. These endogenously driven pupil dynamics can be synchronized with cognitive acts. For example, the pupil dilates during the spontaneous switches of perception of a constant sensory input in bistable perceptual illusions. It is unknown whether this pupil dilation only indicates the occurrence of perceptual switches, or also their content. Here, we measured pupil diameter in human subjects reporting the subjective disappearance and re-appearance of a physically constant visual target surrounded by a moving pattern ('motion-induced blindness' illusion). We show that the pupil dilates during the perceptual switches in the illusion and a stimulus-evoked 'replay' of that illusion. Critically, the switch-related pupil dilation encodes perceptual content, with larger amplitude for disappearance than re-appearance. This difference in pupil response amplitude enables prediction of the type of report (disappearance vs. re-appearance) on individual switches (receiver-operating characteristic: 61%). The amplitude difference is independent of the relative durations of target-visible and target-invisible intervals and subjects' overt behavioral report of the perceptual switches. Further, we show that pupil dilation during the replay also scales with the level of surprise about the timing of switches, but there is no evidence for an interaction between the effects of surprise and perceptual content on the pupil response. Taken together, our results suggest that pupil-linked brain systems track both the content of, and surprise about, perceptual events. © 2015 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Perspectives of pupils, parents, and teachers on mental health problems among Vietnamese secondary school pupils.

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Dat Tan; Dedding, Christine; Pham, Tam Thi; Bunders, Joske

2013-11-06

Secondary school can be a stressful period for adolescents, having to cope with many life changes. Very little research has been conducted on the mental health status of secondary school pupils in South East Asian countries, such as Vietnam.The study aimed to explore perceptions of mental health status, risk factors for mental health problems and strategies to improve mental health among Vietnamese secondary school students. A qualitative design was used to address the main study question including: six in-depth interviews conducted with professionals (with two researchers, two psychiatrists, and two secondary school teachers) to learn about their experience of mental health problems among secondary school pupils; 13 focus group discussions (four with teachers, four with parents, and five with pupils); and 10 individual in-depth interviews with pupils who did not take part in the FGDs, to reflect on the collected data and to deepen the authors' understanding. All interviews and FGDs were audio-taped, transcribed and analyzed for the identification of emerging issues using qualitative techniques of progressive coding, analytic memoing and ongoing comparison. Our study confirms the need to pay attention to mental health of pupils in Vietnam. Depression, anxiety, stress, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts were seen as major problems by all stakeholders. Mental health problems were mainly associated with academic pressure, resulting from an overloaded curriculum and pressure from teachers and parents to succeed. The study found that pupils' mental health demands interventions at many levels, including at the level of government (Ministry of Education and Training), schools, communities, families and pupils themselves. Vietnamese secondary school pupils feel that their mental health status is poor, because of many risk factors in their learning and living environment. The need now is to investigate further to identify and apply strategies to improve students' mental

Professional determination problems of modern senior pupils

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G.N. Danylenko

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Background. Today, young people are more focused on getting education as such, without taking into account the profession. The relevance of this study is the identification of the level of professional self-determination of senior pupils, the mechanisms of formation of professional preferences. The article contains the concept and content of professional self-determination in adolescence; the results of the study on the formation of professional self-determination in senior pupils are presented. The study conducted among 9th grade pupils of secondary schools has revealed that the further gradual self-determination of the future specialty depends not only on psychological readiness for conscious choice. Materials and methods. The study involved 982 pupils of secondary schools in Ukraine. To study the level of formation of professional readiness, there was conducted a survey on the developed questionnaire. Statistical analysis was carried out using MS Excel and SPSS 17. Results. The results showed that professional intents of 9-graders are a key feature for solving the problem of high school selection and future careers. But for most students, these intentions are contradictory due to objective reasons. Radio, television, books don’t have a significant impact on the choice of professional self-determination. Conclusions. The conducted survey is self-sufficient for the analysis of professional orientation. But the choice of profession by the students is influenced by many factors. Therefore, carrying out the studies on vocational guidance requires an integrated approach.

Pupil Evaluation of Teachers.

Science.gov (United States)

Biggs, John; Chopra, Pran

1979-01-01

This investigation is concerned with (a) constructing a pupil evaluation of teachers (PET) scale, for use in grades 7-11, incorporating certain areas of teaching behavior, and affective pupil responses to teachers; and (b) using the scale as a source of feedback to both regular and student teachers. (Author)

On written expression of primary school pupils

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stevanović Jelena

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Normative rules of standard Serbian language are acquired during primary and secondary education through curriculum demands of Serbian language instruction, which takes place in three fields: grammar, orthography and culture of expression. Topic of interest in this paper is the quality of written expression of 6th and 7th grade pupils, in the context of all three fields specified to be mastered by the curriculum of Serbian language. Research comprised 148 primary school pupils from Belgrade. Linguistic analysis of spontaneously created written text was performed, in the conditions where it was not explicitly demanded form the pupil to write correctly. The results indicate that the majority of pupils make spelling and grammatical errors, meeting the condition for the basic level of mastering the knowledge in Serbian language according to the standards specified for the end of compulsory education. In addition to this, a considerable majority of pupils has a satisfactory level of culture of written expression. Pupils more often make spelling than grammatical errors. Seventh grade pupils are better than sixth grade pupils with respect to adhering to grammar rules and according to culture of written expression, while the mark in Serbian language and general school achievement of pupils correlate only with the degree of adhering to the orthographic rules. It was concluded that not only individual programs of support for pupils who make more errors are necessary, but also launching national projects for the development of linguistic competence of the young in Serbia.

NEWS: Why choose science?

Science.gov (United States)

2000-05-01

National concerns over the uptake of science subjects and an analysis of how school science departments together with careers programmes influence students' subject choices feature in a recent report from the UK's National Institute for Careers Education and Counselling. It points out that decisions on science subjects are taken very early in pupils' education, often well before the implications of those choices can be clearly understood. If pupils are to be encouraged to keep science options open, then both science teachers and careers advisers have important roles to play. Physics is in fact singled out in the report's recommendations as in need of special attention, due to its perceived difficulty both within the double-award science course and also at A-level. The lack of qualified teachers in physics is noted as a problem for schools and the many initiatives to address these issues should be encouraged according to the report, but within an overall high-profile and well funded national strategy for developing science education in schools. The report also notes that science teachers do not feel able to keep up with career information, whilst few careers advisers have a science background and have little opportunity to build up their knowledge of science syllabuses or of science and engineering careers. More contact between both types of specialist is naturally advocated. Copies of the full report, Choosing Science at 16 by Mary Munro and David Elsom, are available from NICEC, Sheraton House, Castle Park, Cambridge CB3 0AX on receipt of an A4 stamped (70p) addressed envelope. A NICEC briefing summary is also available from the same address (20p stamp required).

Power constellations between Roma pupils and their teachers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Iveta Rožníčková

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The goal of this empirical study is to describe power constellations that are generated in interactions between Roma pupils and their teachers, and also to summarize the basic findings of this research and to point out some real situations that can occur during the teaching lessons. The first part of the thesis describes the differences in the social interaction of Roma pupils. The second part is focused on the authority of the teachers and also on using this authority during the lessons. The third part is focused on pupils‘ strategies that are created based on the requirements of teachers. The basic findings of the research are selected in the methodological section. The research survey revealed five power constellations, which are the subject of this empirical study. The empirical study suggests how teachers and pupils define and shape relationships. From the present paper, a lot of influences are involved in the formation of power constellation, ranging from the personality of the teachers, socializing in school, through family upbringing to cultural differences.

BES Science Network Requirements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Biocca, Alan; Carlson, Rich; Chen, Jackie; Cotter, Steve; Tierney, Brian; Dattoria, Vince; Davenport, Jim; Gaenko, Alexander; Kent, Paul; Lamm, Monica; Miller, Stephen; Mundy, Chris; Ndousse, Thomas; Pederson, Mark; Perazzo, Amedeo; Popescu, Razvan; Rouson, Damian; Sekine, Yukiko; Sumpter, Bobby; Dart, Eli; Wang, Cai-Zhuang -Z; Whitelam, Steve; Zurawski, Jason

2011-02-01

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the primary provider of network connectivityfor the US Department of Energy Office of Science (SC), the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. In support of the Office ofScience programs, ESnet regularly updates and refreshes its understanding of the networking requirements of the instruments, facilities, scientists, and science programs that it serves. This focus has helped ESnet to be a highly successful enabler of scientific discovery for over 20 years.

BES Science Network Requirements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dart, Eli; Tierney, Brian; Biocca, A.; Carlson, R.; Chen, J.; Cotter, S.; Dattoria, V.; Davenport, J.; Gaenko, A.; Kent, P.; Lamm, M.; Miller, S.; Mundy, C.; Ndousse, T.; Pederson, M.; Perazzo, A.; Popescu, R.; Rouson, D.; Sekine, Y.; Sumpter, B.; Wang, C.-Z.; Whitelam, S.; Zurawski, J.

2011-01-01

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the primary provider of network connectivity for the US Department of Energy Office of Science (SC), the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. In support of the Office of Science programs, ESnet regularly updates and refreshes its understanding of the networking requirements of the instruments, facilities, scientists, and science programs that it serves. This focus has helped ESnet to be a highly successful enabler of scientific discovery for over 20 years.

Creating Pupils' Internet Magazine

Science.gov (United States)

Bognar, Branko; Šimic, Vesna

2014-01-01

This article presents an action research, which aimed to improve pupils' literary creativity and enable them to use computers connected to the internet. The study was conducted in a small district village school in Croatia. Creating a pupils' internet magazine appeared to be an excellent way for achieving the educational aims of almost all…

Investigating Situational Interest in Primary Science Lessons

Science.gov (United States)

Loukomies, Anni; Juuti, Kalle; Lavonen, Jari

2015-01-01

Pupils' interest has been one of the major concerns in science education research because it can be seen as a gateway to more personalised forms of interest and motivation. However, methods to investigate situational interest in science teaching and learning are not broadly examined. This study compares the pupils' observed situational interest…

Education in the Field Influences Children's Ideas and Interest toward Science

Science.gov (United States)

Zoldosova, Kristina; Prokop, Pavol

2006-10-01

This paper explores the idea of informal science education in scientific field laboratory (The Science Field Centre). The experimental group of pupils ( N = 153) was experienced with approximately 5-day lasting field trips and experiments in the Field Centre in Slovakia. After finishing the course, two different research methods were used to discover their interest and ideas toward science. Pupils from the experimental group showed significant differences from those that did not experience education in the Field Centre (control group, N = 365). In comparison to the control group, pupils of the experimental group highly preferred book titles that were related to their program in the Field Centre. There were differences between the drawings of ideal school environment from both pupils groups. In the drawings of the experimental group, we found significantly more items connected with the educational environment of the Field Centre (e.g. laboratory equipment, live animals). We suppose field science education would be one of the most effective ways to increase interest of pupils to study science and to invaluable intrinsic motivation at the expense extrinsic motivation.

School and Pupil Effects on Secondary Pupils' Feelings of Safety in School, around School, and at Home

Science.gov (United States)

Mooij, Ton; Fettelaar, Daan

2013-01-01

In line with fear of crime research, schools should be secure places where pupils feel safe in order to function well. Various types of risk and promotive variables at school and pupil level may differently influence a pupil's feelings of safety in school, the school surroundings, and at home. The aim is to elaborate and test a theoretical…

How pupils percieve the teacher's motivational techniques?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bodroža Bojana

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Current research in the field of education indicates that the behaviour of the teacher affects significantly the quality and level of the pupil's motivation. The aim of our research was to determine the structure of the motivational style of teachers seen from the pupils' perspective, and to find out whether the pupils' perceptions of the teacher's motivational style depend upon cultural-educational influences of the family, and some characteristics of the students (academic achievements, gender. The sample included 856 pupils from 40 elementary schools in Serbia. We used the questionnaire with Likert's scale to obtain the evaluation of the teachers' behaviours. By the factor analysis we extracted three components of the teacher' behaviour: stimulating pupils' interest and competences, de-motivational teachers' behaviours and stimulating freedom of thinking and expression. The results show that the pupils whose parents have lower levels of education think that the behaviour of the teachers is directed to stimulating interest and competencies, as well as freedom of thinking and speech than the pupils of the parents of higher educational status. The control of the influence of the education of parents showed that the pupils of lower academic achievement perceive the teacher's behaviour as de-motivational. Compared to girls boys estimate more highly that teachers stimulate their interests and competencies. A suggestion is offered how a teacher should develop a behavioural style which would positively influence the quality of the pupils' motivation.

Pupils as Victims of Peer Violence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cvek Mihaela

2013-11-01

Full Text Available The school is an educational institution that has to provide appropriate control of adults over pupils, which they do. Nevertheless, violence cannot be avoided. Pupils encounter peer violence in different roles, as observers, victims, perpetrators, or both. The objective of our research was to examine how often pupils are victims of peer violence, and to what extent the latter depends on pupils’ gender and age. The results of the research made among pupils in the fifth, seventh, and eighth grades of various primary schools across Slovenia showed that 24.1 per cent of pupils had already been victims of peer violence. The ones that they tend to tell about such episodes are their parents. The results have also shown that school is really a place where violence is very common, and that psychological and verbal abuse are the most common types of violence used.

Perspectives of pupils, parents, and teachers on mental health problems among Vietnamese secondary school pupils

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Background Secondary school can be a stressful period for adolescents, having to cope with many life changes. Very little research has been conducted on the mental health status of secondary school pupils in South East Asian countries, such as Vietnam. The study aimed to explore perceptions of mental health status, risk factors for mental health problems and strategies to improve mental health among Vietnamese secondary school students. Methods A qualitative design was used to address the main study question including: six in-depth interviews conducted with professionals (with two researchers, two psychiatrists, and two secondary school teachers) to learn about their experience of mental health problems among secondary school pupils; 13 focus group discussions (four with teachers, four with parents, and five with pupils); and 10 individual in-depth interviews with pupils who did not take part in the FGDs, to reflect on the collected data and to deepen the authors’ understanding. All interviews and FGDs were audio-taped, transcribed and analyzed for the identification of emerging issues using qualitative techniques of progressive coding, analytic memoing and ongoing comparison. Results Our study confirms the need to pay attention to mental health of pupils in Vietnam. Depression, anxiety, stress, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts were seen as major problems by all stakeholders. Mental health problems were mainly associated with academic pressure, resulting from an overloaded curriculum and pressure from teachers and parents to succeed. The study found that pupils’ mental health demands interventions at many levels, including at the level of government (Ministry of Education and Training), schools, communities, families and pupils themselves. Conclusions Vietnamese secondary school pupils feel that their mental health status is poor, because of many risk factors in their learning and living environment. The need now is to investigate further to identify and

Objective lens simultaneously optimized for pupil ghosting, wavefront delivery and pupil imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Olczak, Eugene G (Inventor)

2011-01-01

An objective lens includes multiple optical elements disposed between a first end and a second end, each optical element oriented along an optical axis. Each optical surface of the multiple optical elements provides an angle of incidence to a marginal ray that is above a minimum threshold angle. This threshold angle minimizes pupil ghosts that may enter an interferometer. The objective lens also optimizes wavefront delivery and pupil imaging onto an optical surface under test.

Barrier Island Activity to Illustrate Hands-On Science

Science.gov (United States)

Griffin, Suzanne H.

The department of Physics of the University of Glasgow was concerned about losing students after the end of the level 1 Physics course. The current research project started as an attempt to find out the reasons for this, but moved to investigate attitudes towards Physics at several stages during secondary school and attitudes towards science with primary pupils. Analyses of factors, which influence students' intentions towards studying Physics, were performed against the background of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, which interprets people's behaviour by considering three factors: attitude towards behaviour (advantages or disadvantages of being involved in the behaviour, e.g. studying Physics for Honours); subjective norm (approval or disapproval of important people towards engaging in the behaviour, e.g. parents, teacher, general norms of the society); perceived behavioural control (skills, knowledge, cooperation of others, abilities, efforts required to perform the behaviour). Analysis of these factors revealed some reasons for students' withdrawal from Physics after level 1 and pointed to factors which may facilitate students' persistence in the subject. A general analysis of level 1 and level 2 students' attitudes towards different aspects of the university Physics course revealed that the level 1 students' attitudes towards their university course of lectures and course of laboratories tended to be negatively polarised. Recommendations were suggested on the basis of the gathered evidence about how to make students' experience in university Physics more satisfactory for them. The data obtained from the separate analyses of females' and males' attitudes towards university Physics course have showed that attitudes of females and males were similar. The only significant difference between level 1 females and males was found to be the perceived behavioural control factor (students' attitudes towards course difficulty, attitudes towards work load in the course

Schooling adaptation of Romanian remigrants pupils to the primary education in Romania

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Claudiu Langa

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The way and the level a school-aged pupil adapts to different learning systems are mainly influenced by the family, the social background, the educational background, all of which will later reflect upon school success. The theme of the present study places us on a new territory, being of interest for the specialists in the field of educational sciences, for all those who have concerns in the field of education, as well as for parents. Its main purpose has been the research of the impact this fact has on the students that returned to their homeland, who are at the early schooling stage, as well as how elementary teachers respond to the real needs of their adaptation through specialized psycho-pedagogical assistance to such children. The method used in this investigative approach was the questionnaire-based research. The study was carried out on elementary teachers from the Olt county, who, during the current school year, have enrolled remigrants pupils in their classroom. The study objectives were aimed at analyzing the factors involved in adapting remigrants pupils to schools

Empowering Primary School Pupils through Literacy Remediation ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Empowering Primary School Pupils through Literacy Remediation Project in Uyo ... and retraining in the hope that this will impact on the pupils' literacy development. ... process and often fail to engage the pupils in activities that promote literacy ... In other to empower such children for meaningful learning, reading needs to ...

Orienting of attention, pupil size, and the norepinephrine system.

Science.gov (United States)

Gabay, Shai; Pertzov, Yoni; Henik, Avishai

2011-01-01

This research examined a novel suggestion regarding the involvement of the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system in orienting reflexive (exogenous) attention. A common procedure for studying exogenous orienting of attention is Posner's cuing task. Importantly, one can manipulate the required level of target processing by changing task requirements, which, in turn, can elicit a different time course of inhibition of return (IOR). An easy task (responding to target location) produces earlier onset IOR, whereas a demanding task (responding to target identity) produces later onset IOR. Aston-Jones and Cohen (Annual Review of Neuroscience, 28, 403-450, 2005) presented a theory suggesting two different modes of LC activity: tonic and phasic. Accordingly, we suggest that in the more demanding task, the LC-NE system is activated in phasic mode, and in the easier task, it is activated in tonic mode. This, in turn, influences the appearance of IOR. We examined this suggestion by measuring participants' pupil size, which has been demonstrated to correlate with the LC-NE system, while they performed cuing tasks. We found a response-locked phasic dilation of the pupil in the discrimination task, as compared with the localization task, which may reflect different firing modes of the LC-NE system during the two tasks. We also demonstrated a correlation between pupil size at the time of cue presentation and magnitude of IOR.

Requirements and design reference mission for the WFIRST/AFTA coronagraph instrument

Science.gov (United States)

Demers, Richard T.; Dekens, Frank; Calvet, Rob; Chang, Zensheu; Effinger, Robert; Ek, Eric; Hovland, Larry; Jones, Laura; Loc, Anthony; Nemati, Bijan; Noecker, Charley; Neville, Timothy; Pham, Hung; Rud, Mike; Tang, Hong; Villalvazo, Juan

2015-09-01

The WFIRST-AFTA coronagraph instrument takes advantage of AFTAs 2.4-meter aperture to provide novel exoplanet imaging science at approximately the same instrument cost as an Explorer mission. The AFTA coronagraph also matures direct imaging technologies to high TRL for an Exo-Earth Imager in the next decade. The coronagraph Design Reference Mission (DRM) optical design is based on the highly successful High Contrast Imaging Testbed (HCIT), with modifications to accommodate the AFTA telescope design, service-ability, volume constraints, and the addition of an Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS). In order to optimally satisfy the three science objectives of planet imaging, planet spectral characterization and dust debris imaging, the coronagraph is designed to operate in two different modes: Hybrid Lyot Coronagraph or Shaped Pupil Coronagraph. Active mechanisms change pupil masks, focal plane masks, Lyot masks, and bandpass filters to shift between modes. A single optical beam train can thus operate alternatively as two different coronagraph architectures. Structural Thermal Optical Performance (STOP) analysis predicts the instrument contrast with the Low Order Wave Front Control loop closed. The STOP analysis was also used to verify that the optical/structural/thermal design provides the extreme stability required for planet characterization in the presence of thermal disturbances expected in a typical observing scenario. This paper describes the instrument design and the flow down from science requirements to high level engineering requirements.

Requirements and Design Reference Mission for the WFIRST-AFTA Coronagraph Instrument

Science.gov (United States)

Demers, Richard T.; Dekens, Frank; Calvet, Rob; Chang, Zensheu; Effinger, Robert; Ek, Eric; Hovland, Larry; Jones, Laura; Loc, Anthony; Nemati, Bijan;

The place of native language in Science teaching and learning in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The effect of limited English language proficiency on the learning of science is investigated for some Junior Secondary School (J.S.S.) pupils. Despite serious efforts put up by pupils to learn science, difficulties in speaking and writing English were factors that limited their performance in science. Two types of schools: an ...

Teachers on Perceived Traits and Academic Achievements of Regular Pupils and Pupils with Special Needs in Mainstream Primary Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Lesar, Irena; Cuk, Ivan; Pecek, Mojca

2014-01-01

When looking for answers to the question of academic (non)achievement of regular pupils and pupils with special needs, it is necessary to take into account the extraordinary complexity of factors, ranging from psychological across instructional to home environment variables. The academic achievement is not only a reflection of the pupil's…

Adaptive optics retinal imaging with automatic detection of the pupil and its boundary in real time using Shack-Hartmann images.

Science.gov (United States)

de Castro, Alberto; Sawides, Lucie; Qi, Xiaofeng; Burns, Stephen A

2017-08-20

Retinal imaging with an adaptive optics (AO) system usually requires that the eye be centered and stable relative to the exit pupil of the system. Aberrations are then typically corrected inside a fixed circular pupil. This approach can be restrictive when imaging some subjects, since the pupil may not be round and maintaining a stable head position can be difficult. In this paper, we present an automatic algorithm that relaxes these constraints. An image quality metric is computed for each spot of the Shack-Hartmann image to detect the pupil and its boundary, and the control algorithm is applied only to regions within the subject's pupil. Images on a model eye as well as for five subjects were obtained to show that a system exit pupil larger than the subject's eye pupil could be used for AO retinal imaging without a reduction in image quality. This algorithm automates the task of selecting pupil size. It also may relax constraints on centering the subject's pupil and on the shape of the pupil.

Chimpanzees and humans mimic pupil-size of conspecifics.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mariska E Kret

Full Text Available Group-living typically provides benefits to individual group members but also confers costs. To avoid incredulity and betrayal and allow trust and cooperation, individuals must understand the intentions and emotions of their group members. Humans attend to other's eyes and from gaze and pupil-size cues, infer information about the state of mind of the observed. In humans, pupil-size tends to mimic that of the observed. Here we tested whether pupil-mimicry exists in our closest relative, the chimpanzee (P. troglodytes. We conjectured that if pupil-mimicry has adaptive value, e.g. to promote swift communication of inner states and facilitate shared understanding and coordination, pupil-mimicry should emerge within but not across species. Pupillometry data was collected from human and chimpanzee subjects while they observed images of the eyes of both species with dilating/constricting pupils. Both species showed enhanced pupil-mimicry with members of their own species, with effects being strongest in humans and chimpanzee mothers. Pupil-mimicry may be deeply-rooted, but probably gained importance from the point in human evolution where the morphology of our eyes became more prominent. Humans' white sclera surrounding the iris, and the fine muscles around their eyes facilitate non-verbal communication via eye signals.

GeoBus: sharing science research with schools

Science.gov (United States)

Roper, Kathryn; Robinson, Ruth; Moorhouse, Ben

2016-04-01

GeoBus (www.geobus.org.uk) is an educational outreach project that was developed in 2012 by the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of St Andrews, and it is currently sponsored by industry, NERC, The Crown Estate, and the Scottish Government. The aims of GeoBus are to support the teaching of Earth Science in secondary (middle and high) schools by providing teaching support to schools that have little or no experience in teaching this subject. This is, in part, done through the sharing of new science research outcomes and the experiences of young researchers with school pupils to provide a bridge between industry, higher education institutions, research councils and schools. Since its launch, over 40,000 pupils will have been involved in experiential Earth science learning activities in 190 different schools (over 400 separate visits) across the length and breadth of Scotland: many of these schools are in remote and disadvantaged regions. A new GeoBus project is under development within the Department of Earth Sciences at UCL in London. A key aim of GeoBus is to incorporate new research into our workshops with the main challenge being the development of appropriate resources that incorporate the key learning aims and requirements of the science and geography curricula. GeoBus works closely with researchers, teachers and educational practitioners to tailor the research outcomes to the curricula as much as possible. Over the past four years, GeoBus has developed 17 workshops, 5 challenge events and extensive field trips and each of these activities are trialled and evaluated within the university, and adjustments are made before the activities are delivered in schools. Activities are continually reviewed and further developments are made in response to both teacher and pupil feedback. This critical reflection of the project's success and impact is important to insure a positive and significant contribution to the science learning in

WFIRST: Update on the Coronagraph Science Requirements

Science.gov (United States)

Douglas, Ewan S.; Cahoy, Kerri; Carlton, Ashley; Macintosh, Bruce; Turnbull, Margaret; Kasdin, Jeremy; WFIRST Coronagraph Science Investigation Teams

2018-01-01

The WFIRST Coronagraph instrument (CGI) will enable direct imaging and low resolution spectroscopy of exoplanets in reflected light and imaging polarimetry of circumstellar disks. The CGI science investigation teams were tasked with developing a set of science requirements which advance our knowledge of exoplanet occurrence and atmospheric composition, as well as the composition and morphology of exozodiacal debris disks, cold Kuiper Belt analogs, and protoplanetary systems. We present the initial content, rationales, validation, and verification plans for the WFIRST CGI, informed by detailed and still-evolving instrument and observatory performance models. We also discuss our approach to the requirements development and management process, including the collection and organization of science inputs, open source approach to managing the requirements database, and the range of models used for requirements validation. These tools can be applied to requirements development processes for other astrophysical space missions, and may ease their management and maintenance. These WFIRST CGI science requirements allow the community to learn about and provide insights and feedback on the expected instrument performance and science return.

3R Practices Among Moe Preschool Pupils through the Environmental Education Curriculum

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mahat Hanifah

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Education is the key to increasing the knowledge and awareness of the general public on environmental issues at early ages, as envisaged in the concept of sustainable development. Hence, this study aims to discuss the sustainability practices among children at a Ministry of Education (MOE pre-school as a result of the implementation of environmental education through a formal curriculum. Sustainability practices of pupils in this study involves the concept of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Survey methods were used, which involved 500 pupils in MOE preschools in Hulu Langat district, Selangor Malaysia. Results showed that pre-school pupils practice the 3Rs only at a moderate level while the level of knowledge of sustainability was at a high level. The results also showed that there was no significant relationship between prolonged knowledge in practicing the 3Rs among pre-school students. Obviously the input given by the teacher in teaching and learning science was not aligned with sustainability activities such as the 3Rs. Space conservation practices using a structured curriculum platform should be utilised in order to produce citizens who are aware of sustainable development.

Factors That Influence Student Pursuit of Science Careers; the Role of Gender, Ethnicity, Family and Friends

Science.gov (United States)

Rodrigues, Susan; Jindal-Snape, Divya; Snape, Jonathan B.

2011-01-01

This study adds to a body of research reporting on pupils' choices and outcomes in relation to science. The article reports on 536 Scottish pupils' perceptions regarding reported intention to choose careers in science, with further analysis in terms of family, friends, gender and ethnicity. The pupils, aged 14-15, from 5 schools in one Scottish…

How pupils percieve the teacher's motivational techniques?

OpenAIRE

Bodroža, Bojana; Đerić, Ivana; Gutvajn, Nikoleta

2015-01-01

Current research in the field of education indicates that the behaviour of the teacher affects significantly the quality and level of the pupil's motivation. The aim of our research was to determine the structure of the motivational style of teachers seen from the pupils' perspective, and to find out whether the pupils' perceptions of the teacher's motivational style depend upon cultural-educational influences of the family, and some characteristics of the students (academic achievements, gen...

It's Easier than You Think! Exploring an Outdoor Pedagogy for Teaching Science

Science.gov (United States)

Hainsworth, Mark

2018-01-01

As well as providing a valuable and enjoyable experience for pupils, outdoor learning also enhances and contextualises learning in science by helping pupils understand science concepts. Teachers' lack of confidence in which aspects of the science curriculum they can actually teach outdoors deters them from venturing outside the classroom for…

Assessments and Intervention for Pupils with Reading Difficulties in Sweden--A Text Analysis of Individual Education Plans

Science.gov (United States)

Andreasson, Ingela; Wolff, Ulrika

2015-01-01

Since 1995 all Swedish compulsory schools have been required to establish Individual Educational Plans (IEPs) for pupils with special educational needs. According to the Swedish Education Act such a plan should be drawn up if pupils do not achieve the goals in the curriculum or the syllabus. The process of IEPs covers a prior investigation to…

Sociocultural handicap of foreign pupils and professional qualification of teachers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Markéta Zachová

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The presented text shows the results of research carried out within the dissertation thesis. The main topic is the phenomenon of sociocultural handicap of foreign pupils (pupils with a different mother tongue. The research is based on the expert belief that integration of foreign pupils (pupils with a different mother tongue into Czech schools and the training of teachers in this field is still somewhat marginal, even though there is a growing debate about increasing cultural diversity, increasing heterogeneity of schools and introduction of inclusive measures. The aim of the research was to analyze professional training of teachers in relation to the sociocultural handicap of foreign pupils (pupils with a different mother tongue. The goal was refined by the formulation of research questions: What possible problems (difficulties reflect teachers in the teaching process of foreign pupils? What procedures and strategies do teachers use to help these pupils to be integrated successfully? How do teachers assess their professional readiness for education of foreign pupils (whether they were sufficiently prepared to work with foreign pupils in the course of their undergraduate studies, where they find benefits, deficiencies in this training? How do students assess their undergraduate education for foreign-pupil teaching (whether they were ready to work with foreign pupils in their previous undergraduate education, where they find benefits, deficiencies in this training? The research used questionnaire survey techniques for teachers and students and semi-structured interviews for teachers. The partial technique was the analysis of study subjects focused on the education of foreign pupils at the Faculty of Education at West Bohemian University in Pilsen (hereinafter WBU. The research group was made up of teachers of the 1st grade of primary schools of the Pilsen and Karlovy Vary regions and students of the 4th grade of the field of Teaching for the

The Manchester Color Wheel: validation in secondary school pupils.

Science.gov (United States)

Carruthers, Helen R; Magee, Linda; Osborne, Susan; Hall, Linda K; Whorwell, Peter J

2012-09-05

As part of our research programme into facilitating improved ways of communicating with patients, especially about more sensitive clinical issues, we have been investigating whether there are any non-verbal methods that might aid this process. One such approach is to ask patients to choose a color in response to a particular question, for instance about health or psychological status, and for this purpose we developed the Manchester Color Wheel (MCW). This instrument consists of positive, neutral and negative colors and its validation in normal adults and those with anxiety or depression showed that it is responsive to change and reproducible. It also has the capacity to identify a positive frame of mind. We concluded that it might be a particularly useful instrument in adolescents and therefore this study aimed to validate it in a secondary school. 620 pupils (aged 11-17 years, mean age 14.0 years, 298 (48.1%) males, 322 (51.9%) females) at Sale Grammar School in Greater Manchester were asked to relate their mood to a MCW color and also complete the Hospital Anxiety Depression (HAD) questionnaire. To give these pupils an experience in science, 197 were divided into four subgroups for an 'experiment' to ascertain whether, compared to controls, a change in mood color choice could be induced by participation in sport, music or art activities. Although mood color and HAD depression score are unlikely to be measuring exactly the same psychological state, a negative mood color was chosen by 62.5% of HAD depressed compared to only 14.5% of HAD normal pupils (p color was chosen by 48.9% of normal and only 18.8% of depressed pupils (p colors which reached significance for sport and music. This study confirms the potential utility of the MCW to rapidly and easily assess a variety of health issues in large populations, including adolescents. Some of our results should also be of interest to educationalists.

Safe and sensible preprocessing and baseline correction of pupil-size data.

Science.gov (United States)

Mathôt, Sebastiaan; Fabius, Jasper; Van Heusden, Elle; Van der Stigchel, Stefan

2018-02-01

Measurement of pupil size (pupillometry) has recently gained renewed interest from psychologists, but there is little agreement on how pupil-size data is best analyzed. Here we focus on one aspect of pupillometric analyses: baseline correction, i.e., analyzing changes in pupil size relative to a baseline period. Baseline correction is useful in experiments that investigate the effect of some experimental manipulation on pupil size. In such experiments, baseline correction improves statistical power by taking into account random fluctuations in pupil size over time. However, we show that baseline correction can also distort data if unrealistically small pupil sizes are recorded during the baseline period, which can easily occur due to eye blinks, data loss, or other distortions. Divisive baseline correction (corrected pupil size = pupil size/baseline) is affected more strongly by such distortions than subtractive baseline correction (corrected pupil size = pupil size - baseline). We discuss the role of baseline correction as a part of preprocessing of pupillometric data, and make five recommendations: (1) before baseline correction, perform data preprocessing to mark missing and invalid data, but assume that some distortions will remain in the data; (2) use subtractive baseline correction; (3) visually compare your corrected and uncorrected data; (4) be wary of pupil-size effects that emerge faster than the latency of the pupillary response allows (within ±220 ms after the manipulation that induces the effect); and (5) remove trials on which baseline pupil size is unrealistically small (indicative of blinks and other distortions).

Pupil Absenteeism and the Educational Psychologist

Science.gov (United States)

Carroll, H. C. M.

2015-01-01

From a review of the literature, it is concluded that (i) each form of pupil absenteeism relates to a heterogeneous group of children; (ii) because of such heterogeneity, those who are involved in assessment and intervention in relation to pupil absenteeism are faced with a demanding task; (iii) as a consequence of their education and training,…

Estimation of operators’ fatigue using optical methods for determination of pupil activity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Krzysztof Różanowski

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Introduction The purpose of this study was to develop and initially validate an objective, yet quick, method for assessment of human fatigue. This aim can be achieved by the use of an optical, non-contact method of analysis of pupil activity. The study involved 2 phenomena typical for the behavior of the human pupil: pupillary reflex and pupillary movements. The 1st phenomenon is related to the pupillary light reflex (PLR, which presents the results of physiological adaptation mechanisms of the human eye. The pupillary unrest index (PUI is an additional parameter referring to the tendency for instability of the pupil. Material and methods Indicators of these 2 mechanisms were assessed under the same experimental laboratory conditions. Assessment was conducted on a group of volunteers (N = 10 during 4 controlled series of measurements performed at night. Pupillary reflex parameters associated with PLR and pupillary unrest index (PUI were recorded using F²D Fit-For-Duty, a commercially available system made by AMTech Pupilknowlogy GmbH. Baseline pupil diameter, oscillations, reflex latency, maximum reaction time, pupil constriction time, pupil dilation time, and constriction amplitude were recorded. Results As a result of the study, we were able to demonstrate correlation and confirm the usefulness of PLR and PST methods in the assessment of sleep deprivation. Parameters of PLR that may indicate human fatigue were identified. The effect of light impulse sequences on the dynamics of pupillary reflex and the relationship between PUI (pupillary unrest index measurement duration and sleepiness assessment validity, were assessed. Conclusions The results of the pilot studies were sufficient to develop minimum requirements for a PLR sensor that would be capable of estimating the level of fatigue with accuracy of a PUI method, but at a 5 times faster rate.

ASCR Science Network Requirements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dart, Eli; Tierney, Brian

2009-08-24

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the primary provider of network connectivity for the US Department of Energy Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. In support of the Office of Science programs, ESnet regularly updates and refreshes its understanding of the networking requirements of the instruments, facilities, scientists, and science programs that it serves. This focus has helped ESnet to be a highly successful enabler of scientific discovery for over 20 years. In April 2009 ESnet and the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR), of the DOE Office of Science, organized a workshop to characterize the networking requirements of the programs funded by ASCR. The ASCR facilities anticipate significant increases in wide area bandwidth utilization, driven largely by the increased capabilities of computational resources and the wide scope of collaboration that is a hallmark of modern science. Many scientists move data sets between facilities for analysis, and in some cases (for example the Earth System Grid and the Open Science Grid), data distribution is an essential component of the use of ASCR facilities by scientists. Due to the projected growth in wide area data transfer needs, the ASCR supercomputer centers all expect to deploy and use 100 Gigabit per second networking technology for wide area connectivity as soon as that deployment is financially feasible. In addition to the network connectivity that ESnet provides, the ESnet Collaboration Services (ECS) are critical to several science communities. ESnet identity and trust services, such as the DOEGrids certificate authority, are widely used both by the supercomputer centers and by collaborations such as Open Science Grid (OSG) and the Earth System Grid (ESG). Ease of use is a key determinant of the scientific utility of network-based services. Therefore, a key enabling aspect for scientists beneficial use of high

Technological literacy of fifth and sixth grade pupils of primary school

OpenAIRE

Keše, Jaka

2016-01-01

The first part of this thesis contains a theoretical description of the importance of technology and technological literacy. It introduces the dimensions and standards of technological literacy for pupils aged 9 to 12, followed by a comparative analysis of the Slovenian curriculums of technical subjects (natural science, technical studies, engineering and technology). The thesis has two goals. The first is to evaluate the technological literacy rates among students in the 5th and 6th grade of...

Facilitating Creativity in Science Students' through Teacher ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study ascertained how teachers facilitate the creativity skills of the Pupils as an outcome of professional development. 450 primary school pupils and 50 Basic science teachers in the primary schools were sampled. The study adopted the Solomon four group design. The Torrance Test for Creative thinking (TTCT) and ...

PRAGMATIC ABILITIES OF PUPILS WITH MILD INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mateja SHILC

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The research analyses characteristics of pragmatic abilities of storytelling of pupils with mild intellectual disabilities (MID, in the light of vocabulary characteristics, grammar structure and substantive structure of a story, considering their age and gender. The sample consists of 60 pupils with MID, aged 7 to 9, who attend special school. Child’s pragmatic abilities are assessed with The Storytelling Test. The research results reveal considerable progress of the older group in vocabulary, whereas the progress in grammatical and substantive structure was less substantial. When comparing achievements of pupils with MID according to the vocabulary, grammatical and substantive story structure, no gender differences are determined. A comparison of pragmatic abilities of younger and older groups of pupils with MID with the norms for peers with typical development shows minor deviation of the younger group. The research results reveal characteristics of pragmatic abilities of pupils with MID and can provide insights to speech therapists, teachers, special education teachers and counsellors when considering profiles of individuals that are taken as a basis for designing intervention programs. By implementing such program, we would encourage development of pragmatic abilities of pupils, thus affecting their academic achievements, communication competency and social skills.

Efektivitas Penambahan Natrium Diklofenak terhadap Larutan Obat Dilatasi Pupil pada Pasien Retinopati Diabetik

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arief S. Kartasasmita

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Pemeriksaan fundus memerlukan akses visualisasi yang baik. Pada penderita diabetes melitus, pupil sulit lebar menggunakan obat pelebar pupil standar sehingga perlu ditambahkan agen pelebar pupil. Penelitian ini dilakukan di Rumah Sakit Mata Cicendo periode Januari sampai Juli 2014 menggunakan metode double masked rendomized cotrolled trial terhadap 64 mata dari 32 subjek penelitian yang telah didiagnosis menderita retinopati diabetika dengan tingkat yang sama antara mata kiri dan kanan. Dibuat larutan kombinasi campuran 10 mL tropikamid 0,5%/fenilefrin 0,5%, 10 mL fenilefrin 5% dan 10 ml 0,1% Na diklofenak (larutan I dan campuran 10 mL tropikamid 0,5%/fenilefrin 0,5%, dan 10 mL fenilefrin 5% (larutan II. Setiap subjek mendapat salah satu larutan pada mata dan larutan yang lain pada sebelahnya secara acak. Dilakukan pemantauan dengan cara memotret pupil pada menit ke-15, 20, dan 25 pada kedua mata. Lebar pupil kedua kelompok perlakuan diukur dengan perangkat lunak khusus (image processing. Dari penenelitian terdapat perbedaan bermakna antara penggunaan larutan I dan larutan II dalam melebarkan pupil baik pada menit ke-15 (t=2,02; p=0,047, menit ke 20 (t=2,23; p=0,029, dan pada menit ke-25 (t=2,041; p=0,045. Larutan kombinasi fenilefrin, tropikamid, dan natrium diklofenak menghasilkan efek dilatasi pupil yang lebih baik dibanding dengan larutan kombinasi fenilefrin dan tropikamid saja pada kasus retinopati diabetes. [MKB. 2017;49(3:199–207] Kata kunci: Dilatasi pupil, natrium diklofenak, retinopati diabetika Effectiveness of Sodium Diclofenac Addition to Pupil Dilatation Agent on Diabetic Retinopathy Patients Fundus examination requires good visualization of fundus. In diabetic patients, it is difficult for the pupil to dilate using the standard pupilarry dilating agent. To achieve proper dilation, special agents have to be added to the standard dilation agent. The study was conducted in Cicendo Eye Hospital from January to July 2014, using

Holocaust Denial among Slovenian Secondary School Pupils

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maša Pavlič

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The article presents tendencies of Holocaust denial among secondary school pupils in Slovenia. It focuses on research implemented in January 2012, in which 400 Slovenian secondary school pupils were included. In spite of the assumption that Holocaust denial amongst the youth in Slovenia already exists, we also assumed that a degree of Holocaust denial amongs Slovenian pupils is lower that amongst their peers in other EU countries. Research also inquired about the level of anti-Semitism in conjunction with Holocaust denial. The research project confirmed that students on lower levels of high school education and with less history and sociology lessons in curriculum are more receptive for the Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism is more present in this demographic. The level of Holocaust denial amongst secondary school pupils is not negligible; it suggests that this topic should be more thoroughly discussed in secondary schools.

Assisting Pupils in Mathematics Achievement (The Common Core Standards)

Science.gov (United States)

Ediger, Marlow

2011-01-01

Mathematics teachers must expect reasonably high standards of achievement from pupils. Too frequently, pupils attain at a substandard level and more optimal achievement is necessary. Thus, pupils should have self esteem needs met in the school and classroom setting. Thus, learners feel that mathematics is worthwhile and effort must be put forth to…

Wavefront-Error Performance Characterization for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) Science Instruments

Science.gov (United States)

Aronstein, David L.; Smith, J. Scott; Zielinski, Thomas P.; Telfer, Randal; Tournois, Severine C.; Moore, Dustin B.; Fienup, James R.

2016-01-01

The science instruments (SIs) comprising the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) were tested in three cryogenic-vacuum test campaigns in the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)'s Space Environment Simulator (SES). In this paper, we describe the results of optical wavefront-error performance characterization of the SIs. The wavefront error is determined using image-based wavefront sensing (also known as phase retrieval), and the primary data used by this process are focus sweeps, a series of images recorded by the instrument under test in its as-used configuration, in which the focal plane is systematically changed from one image to the next. High-precision determination of the wavefront error also requires several sources of secondary data, including 1) spectrum, apodization, and wavefront-error characterization of the optical ground-support equipment (OGSE) illumination module, called the OTE Simulator (OSIM), 2) plate scale measurements made using a Pseudo-Nonredundant Mask (PNRM), and 3) pupil geometry predictions as a function of SI and field point, which are complicated because of a tricontagon-shaped outer perimeter and small holes that appear in the exit pupil due to the way that different light sources are injected into the optical path by the OGSE. One set of wavefront-error tests, for the coronagraphic channel of the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) Longwave instruments, was performed using data from transverse translation diversity sweeps instead of focus sweeps, in which a sub-aperture is translated andor rotated across the exit pupil of the system.Several optical-performance requirements that were verified during this ISIM-level testing are levied on the uncertainties of various wavefront-error-related quantities rather than on the wavefront errors themselves. This paper also describes the methodology, based on Monte Carlo simulations of the wavefront-sensing analysis of focus-sweep data, used to establish the

Using task effort and pupil size to track covert shifts of visual attention independently of a pupillary light reflex.

Science.gov (United States)

Brocher, Andreas; Harbecke, Raphael; Graf, Tim; Memmert, Daniel; Hüttermann, Stefanie

2018-03-07

We tested the link between pupil size and the task effort involved in covert shifts of visual attention. The goal of this study was to establish pupil size as a marker of attentional shifting in the absence of luminance manipulations. In three experiments, participants evaluated two stimuli that were presented peripherally, appearing equidistant from and on opposite sides of eye fixation. The angle between eye fixation and the peripherally presented target stimuli varied from 12.5° to 42.5°. The evaluation of more distant stimuli led to poorer performance than did the evaluation of more proximal stimuli throughout our study, confirming that the former required more effort than the latter. In addition, in Experiment 1 we found that pupil size increased with increasing angle and that this effect could not be reduced to the operation of low-level visual processes in the task. In Experiment 2 the pupil dilated more strongly overall when participants evaluated the target stimuli, which required shifts of attention, than when they merely reported on the target's presence versus absence. Both conditions yielded larger pupils for more distant than for more proximal stimuli, however. In Experiment 3, we manipulated task difficulty more directly, by changing the contrast at which the target stimuli were presented. We replicated the results from Experiment 1 only with the high-contrast stimuli. With stimuli of low contrast, ceiling effects in pupil size were observed. Our data show that the link between task effort and pupil size can be used to track the degree to which an observer covertly shifts attention to or detects stimuli in peripheral vision.

Pupils' Humour Directed at Teachers: Its Types and Functions

Science.gov (United States)

Šedová, Klára

2013-01-01

Based on an analysis of 137 texts written by pupils, this paper examines pupils' humour directed at teachers, its types and social functions. The collected data are divided into three categories that describe different modes of teachers as targets of pupils' humour. The first mode describes teachers as unintentionally comical, the second as duped…

prevalence of rheumatic heart disease among primary school pupils

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2013-01-01

Jan 1, 2013 ... ABSTRACT. Objective: To determine the prevalence of RHD among primary school pupils in Egor ... Results: Of the 1764 pupils recruited, 900 (51.02%) were females while 864 (48.98%) were males. The mean age of the pupils was 8.86 ± 2.14 years. ..... of socio-economic class in voluntary infertility control.

Cyberbullying: Its Nature and Impact in Secondary School Pupils

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Peter K.; Mahdavi, Jess; Carvalho, Manuel; Fisher, Sonja; Russell, Shanette; Tippett, Neil

2008-01-01

Background: Cyberbullying describes bullying using mobile phones and the internet. Most previous studies have focused on the prevalence of text message and email bullying. Methods: Two surveys with pupils aged 11-16 years: (1) 92 pupils from 14 schools, supplemented by focus groups; (2) 533 pupils from 5 schools, to assess the generalisability of…

A cross-sectional questionnaire study of the rules governing pupils' carriage of inhalers for asthma treatment in secondary schools in North East England.

Science.gov (United States)

Funston, Wendy; Howard, Simon J

2016-01-01

Objectives. The primary objective of this study was to assess the rules governing secondary school pupils' carriage of inhalers for emergency treatment of asthma in the North East of England. Design. This study was based upon a postal questionnaire survey. Setting. The setting for this study was mainstream free-to-attend secondary schools which admit 16 year old pupils within the 12 Local Authority areas which make up the North East of England. Participants. All 153 schools meeting the inclusion criteria were invited to participate in the study, of which 106 (69%) took part. Main Outcome Measures. Our three main outcome measures were: whether pupils are permitted to carry inhalers on their person while at school; whether advance permission is required for pupils to carry inhalers, and from whom; and whether the school has an emergency 'standby' salbutamol inhaler for use in asthma emergencies, as permitted since October 2014 under recent amendments to The Human Medicines Regulations 2012. Results. Of 98 schools submitting valid responses to the question, 99% (n = 97) permitted pupils to carry inhalers on their person while at school; the remaining school stored pupils' inhalers in a central location within the school. A total of 22% of included schools (n = 22) required parental permission before pupils were permitted to carry inhalers. Of 102 schools submitting valid responses to the question, 44% (n = 45) had purchased a 'standby' salbutamol inhaler for use in asthma emergencies. Conclusions. Most secondary schools in North East England permit pupils to carry inhalers on their person. The requirement in a minority of schools for parental permission to be given possibly contravenes the standard ethical practices in clinical medicine for children of this age. Only a minority of schools hold a 'standby' salbutamol inhaler for use in asthma emergencies. Wider availability may improve outcomes for asthma emergencies occurring in schools.

FES Science Network Requirements - Report of the Fusion Energy Sciences Network Requirements Workshop Conducted March 13 and 14, 2008

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tierney, Brian; Dart, Eli; Tierney, Brian

2008-01-01

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the primary provider of network connectivity for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States of America. In support of the Office of Science programs, ESnet regularly updates and refreshes its understanding of the networking requirements of the instruments, facilities, scientists, and science programs that it serves. This focus has helped ESnet to be a highly successful enabler of scientific discovery for over 20 years. In March 2008, ESnet and the Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) Program Office of the DOE Office of Science organized a workshop to characterize the networking requirements of the science programs funded by the FES Program Office. Most sites that conduct data-intensive activities (the Tokamaks at GA and MIT, the supercomputer centers at NERSC and ORNL) show a need for on the order of 10 Gbps of network bandwidth for FES-related work within 5 years. PPPL reported a need for 8 times that (80 Gbps) in that time frame. Estimates for the 5-10 year time period are up to 160 Mbps for large simulations. Bandwidth requirements for ITER range from 10 to 80 Gbps. In terms of science process and collaboration structure, it is clear that the proposed Fusion Simulation Project (FSP) has the potential to significantly impact the data movement patterns and therefore the network requirements for U.S. fusion science. As the FSP is defined over the next two years, these changes will become clearer. Also, there is a clear and present unmet need for better network connectivity between U.S. FES sites and two Asian fusion experiments--the EAST Tokamak in China and the KSTAR Tokamak in South Korea. In addition to achieving its goal of collecting and characterizing the network requirements of the science endeavors funded by the FES Program Office, the workshop emphasized that there is a need for research into better ways of conducting remote

FES Science Network Requirements - Report of the Fusion Energy Sciences Network Requirements Workshop Conducted March 13 and 14, 2008

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tierney, Brian; Dart, Eli; Tierney, Brian

2008-07-10

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the primary provider of network connectivity for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States of America. In support of the Office of Science programs, ESnet regularly updates and refreshes its understanding of the networking requirements of the instruments, facilities, scientists, and science programs that it serves. This focus has helped ESnet to be a highly successful enabler of scientific discovery for over 20 years. In March 2008, ESnet and the Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) Program Office of the DOE Office of Science organized a workshop to characterize the networking requirements of the science programs funded by the FES Program Office. Most sites that conduct data-intensive activities (the Tokamaks at GA and MIT, the supercomputer centers at NERSC and ORNL) show a need for on the order of 10 Gbps of network bandwidth for FES-related work within 5 years. PPPL reported a need for 8 times that (80 Gbps) in that time frame. Estimates for the 5-10 year time period are up to 160 Mbps for large simulations. Bandwidth requirements for ITER range from 10 to 80 Gbps. In terms of science process and collaboration structure, it is clear that the proposed Fusion Simulation Project (FSP) has the potential to significantly impact the data movement patterns and therefore the network requirements for U.S. fusion science. As the FSP is defined over the next two years, these changes will become clearer. Also, there is a clear and present unmet need for better network connectivity between U.S. FES sites and two Asian fusion experiments--the EAST Tokamak in China and the KSTAR Tokamak in South Korea. In addition to achieving its goal of collecting and characterizing the network requirements of the science endeavors funded by the FES Program Office, the workshop emphasized that there is a need for research into better ways of conducting remote

Oral Health Status Of Handicapped Primary School Pupils In Dar Es ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

calculus, with highest mean scores mainly among the blind (p= 0.008). Conclusion: The caries prevalence among handicapped primary school pupils was quite low. However, there was relatively high level of gingival bleeding and calculus. Regarding treatment needs, 23% required dental fillings mainly of one and two ...

In the Mind and in the Technology: The Vicarious Presence of the Teacher in Pupil's Learning of Science in Collaborative Group Activity at the Interactive Whiteboard

Science.gov (United States)

Warwick, Paul; Mercer, Neil; Kershner, Ruth; Staarman, Judith Kleine

2010-01-01

The focus of research into the use of the interactive whiteboard (IWB) in the classroom has been largely in relation to teacher-pupil interaction, with very little consideration of its possible use as a tool for pupils' collaborative endeavour. This paper is based upon an ESRC-funded project, which considers how pupils use the interactive…

Pupil-mimicry conditions trust in partners: moderation by oxytocin and group membership.

Science.gov (United States)

Kret, Mariska E; De Dreu, Carsten K W

2017-03-15

Across species, oxytocin, an evolutionarily ancient neuropeptide, facilitates social communication by attuning individuals to conspecifics' social signals, fostering trust and bonding. The eyes have an important signalling function; and humans use their salient and communicative eyes to intentionally and unintentionally send social signals to others, by contracting the muscles around their eyes and pupils. In our earlier research, we observed that interaction partners with dilating pupils are trusted more than partners with constricting pupils. But over and beyond this effect, we found that the pupil sizes of partners synchronize and that when pupils synchronously dilate, trust is further boosted. Critically, this linkage between mimicry and trust was bound to interactions between ingroup members. The current study investigates whether these findings are modulated by oxytocin and sex of participant and partner. Using incentivized trust games with partners from ingroup and outgroup whose pupils dilated, remained static or constricted, this study replicates our earlier findings. It further reveals that (i) male participants withhold trust from partners with constricting pupils and extend trust to partners with dilating pupils, especially when given oxytocin rather than placebo; (ii) female participants trust partners with dilating pupils most, but this effect is blunted under oxytocin; (iii) under oxytocin rather than placebo, pupil dilation mimicry is weaker and pupil constriction mimicry stronger; and (iv) the link between pupil constriction mimicry and distrust observed under placebo disappears under oxytocin. We suggest that pupil-contingent trust is parochial and evolved in social species in and because of group life. © 2017 The Authors.

Pupil size reflects successful encoding and recall of memory in humans.

Science.gov (United States)

Kucewicz, Michal T; Dolezal, Jaromir; Kremen, Vaclav; Berry, Brent M; Miller, Laura R; Magee, Abigail L; Fabian, Vratislav; Worrell, Gregory A

2018-03-21

Pupil responses are known to indicate brain processes involved in perception, attention and decision-making. They can provide an accessible biomarker of human memory performance and cognitive states in general. Here we investigated changes in the pupil size during encoding and recall of word lists. Consistent patterns in the pupil response were found across and within distinct phases of the free recall task. The pupil was most constricted in the initial fixation phase and was gradually more dilated through the subsequent encoding, distractor and recall phases of the task, as the word items were maintained in memory. Within the final recall phase, retrieving memory for individual words was associated with pupil dilation in absence of visual stimulation. Words that were successfully recalled showed significant differences in pupil response during their encoding compared to those that were forgotten - the pupil was more constricted before and more dilated after the onset of word presentation. Our results suggest pupil size as a potential biomarker for probing and modulation of memory processing.

Bullying in Basic School: the Perspectives of Teachers and Pupils

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katja Posnic

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The main purpose of our study was to investigate how basic school pupils and teachers perceive and understand bullying. The participants in the study were 58 teachers and 396 pupils in basic school. The results indicate that both teachers and pupils perceive verbal bullying as the most frequent form of bullying compared to physical and relational bullying. Pupils report perceiving more bullying than teachers. Both pupils and teachers perceive physical and verbal bullying as more serious forms of bullying compared to relational bullying and report feeling more empathy toward victims of these two forms of bullying. In addition, teachers report that they are more willing to intervene in cases of physical and verbal bullying. There are significant differences between pupils’ and teachers’ reports of the likelihood of teachers’ interventions in cases of bullying; compared to pupils teachers report a higher likelihood of their intervention..

Is Tadpole Pupil in an Adolescent Girl Caused by Denervation Hypersensitivity?

Science.gov (United States)

Hansen, Jonas Kjeldbjerg; Møller, Hans Ulrik

2017-06-01

Tadpole pupil is a rarely encountered phenomenon caused by episodic, segmental iris dilator muscle spasm of short duration (2-15 minutes), occurring in clusters without a known precipitating factor. It has most commonly been described in women aged 28 to 48 years. A few hypotheses on pathogenesis have been discussed but none has been proved. Here, we present an adolescent girl with bilateral tadpole pupil that appeared during physical exercise. This is the first pediatric case of tadpole pupil, not caused by preceding surgery, to be published. Based on (1) this case in which tadpole pupil developed when the norepinephrine level rose during exercise, (2) the high ratio of patients with tadpole pupil who concurrently have or later develop Horner syndrome, in which denervation hypersensitivity is well described, (3) a previous report of a patient with both tadpole pupil and Horner syndrome who had denervation hypersensitivity on pharmacological testing, (4) a 29-year-old man with unilateral tadpole pupil induced by exercise, and (5) a 19-year-old man with bilateral tadpole pupil and possible autonomic neuropathy, we suggest denervation hypersensitivity as a probable pathogenic mechanism causing tadpole pupil. In addition, a suggestion for investigations to be performed in future pediatric cases is provided. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Inferior ectopic pupil and typical ocular coloboma in RCS rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsuji, Naho; Ozaki, Kiyokazu; Narama, Isao; Matsuura, Tetsuro

2011-08-01

Ocular coloboma is sometimes accompanied by corectopia in humans and therefore ectopic pupil may indicate ocular coloboma in experimental animals. The RCS strain of rats has a low incidence of microphthalmia. We found that inferior ectopic pupil is associated exclusively with small-sized eyes in this strain. The objective of the current study was to evaluate whether inferior ectopic pupil is associated with iridal coloboma and other types of ocular coloboma in RCS rats. Both eyes of RCS rats were examined clinically, and those with inferior ectopic pupils underwent morphologic and morphometric examinations. In a prenatal study, coronal serial sections of eyeballs from fetuses at gestational day 16.5 were examined by using light microscopy. Ectopic pupils in RCS rats were found exclusively in an inferior position, where the iris was shortened. Fundic examination revealed severe chorioretinal coloboma in all cases of inferior ectopic pupil. The morphologic characteristics closely resembled those of chorioretinal coloboma in humans. Histopathologic examination of primordia showed incomplete closure of the optic fissure in 4 eyeballs of RCS fetuses. Neither F(1) rats nor N(2) (progeny of RCS × BN matings) displayed any ocular anomalies, including ectopic pupils. The RCS strain is a suitable model for human ocular coloboma, and inferior ectopic pupil appears to be a strong indicator of ocular coloboma.

EFFICIENCY OF READING COMPREHENSION TRAINING IN PUPILS LIVING IN POVERTY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Milena Kosak Babuder

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The results of Slovene and foreign studies reveal the connection between literacy levels and the level of education, employment opportunities and consequent socio-economic status of individuals and families. Reading efficiency relating to reading comprehension is an important element of reading literacy performance. The findings of several authors indicate empirical evidence of the existence of deficits and poor reading comprehension in pupils living in poverty and stress the importance of offsetting deficits and developing reading comprehension. Results of both foreign and Slovene studies indicate that the program of reading comprehension should be implemented in this group of pupils. In the article, we want to present effectiveness of the reading comprehension improvement program in pupils living in poverty. According to the findings of our research, in which we structured and implemented the reading comprehension program for pupils living in poverty with the Metacognitive-intersentential model of reading comprehension, the reading comprehension of the experimental group pupils who participated in the program improved compared to the control group pupils who did not participate in the program. Experimental group pupils also significantly improved correctness of their reading, their vocabulary and skills of verbal expression. When the program ended, we tested its efficiency by applied tests. The results on the manifest variables indicated that the program was good and efficient for pupils who live in poverty and experience reading comprehension problems.

"Crystals within Crystals: The Story of Sea Ice". A Classroom-Based Outreach Project Communicating Cutting-Edge Ocean Science to School Pupils

Science.gov (United States)

Butler, B.

2016-02-01

'Crystals within Crystals: The story of sea ice' is a UK based outreach project based that uses a range practical tools to engage school students with cutting edge scientific research that relates to the use of some of the world's most powerful X-rays in sea ice research. The project is delivered in the form of a classroom workshop that first introduces school pupils (aged 11-14) to seawater and the salts that give it a salinity. The pupils are then shown how the presence of salts within seawater results in very important physical changes when the liquid freezes, which includes different structural and optical properties of the ice. The properties of the ice are then linked to the presence of countless microscopic salt crystals that are trapped within the microstructure of the frozen seawater, which is explained with use of a novel crystal growth demonstration. Given that there is currently no way of successfully removing these salt crystals from the ice, the workshop culminates in explaining how some of the worlds most powerful X-rays can be used to investigate processes that otherwise remain elusive. The workshop introduces students to the fundamental principles of scientific enquiry, the sea ice environment, and the power of X-rays in investigating the properties of crystals. Here we present information that outlines a host of practical and project management tools that are applicacble to outreach projects in the the field of ocean sciences, with the aim of seeding ideas and interest for other graduate student to enage with the public during their studies.

Year 7 Pupils' Views of the Future

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ken Roberts

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This paper reports findings from a study among 610 Year 7 (typically age 12 pupils at 27 nonselective secondary schools in three English regions: Cornwall and Devon, London, and Greater Manchester. Data was gathered in workshops, each with 15–25 pupils, who completed questionnaires and performed individual tasks, all related to their vocational and educational aims, their ideas on what counted as success, and the main influences on their forward thinking, then discussed their answers and results. The discussions were tape recorded. Most pupils expressed robust occupational aims, and most said that they wanted to go to university. Family class did not predict levels of educational or occupational aims, but was related to the importance attached to “the job that I want to do” in the pupils' forward thinking. SAT scores did predict levels of occupational aspiration, ideas on what counted as success, and by whom and what the pupils were most influenced. These findings are interpreted to challenge the view, on which a raft of current policies are based, that social class disparities in educational and labour market outcomes are due to the intergenerational transmission of low aspirations in lower-class families and neighbourhoods. The paper concludes with an alternative model of status transmission processes in which attainments during secondary education are posited as the key intervening variable.

Assessing and Enhancing Science Education at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum

Science.gov (United States)

Saroka, Keith W.

The department of Physics of the University of Glasgow was concerned about losing students after the end of the level 1 Physics course. The current research project started as an attempt to find out the reasons for this, but moved to investigate attitudes towards Physics at several stages during secondary school and attitudes towards science with primary pupils. Analyses of factors, which influence students' intentions towards studying Physics, were performed against the background of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, which interprets people's behaviour by considering three factors: attitude towards behaviour (advantages or disadvantages of being involved in the behaviour, e.g. studying Physics for Honours); subjective norm (approval or disapproval of important people towards engaging in the behaviour, e.g. parents, teacher, general norms of the society); perceived behavioural control (skills, knowledge, cooperation of others, abilities, efforts required to perform the behaviour). Analysis of these factors revealed some reasons for students' withdrawal from Physics after level 1 and pointed to factors which may facilitate students' persistence in the subject. A general analysis of level 1 and level 2 students' attitudes towards different aspects of the university Physics course revealed that the level 1 students' attitudes towards their university course of lectures and course of laboratories tended to be negatively polarised. Recommendations were suggested on the basis of the gathered evidence about how to make students' experience in university Physics more satisfactory for them. The data obtained from the separate analyses of females' and males' attitudes towards university Physics course have showed that attitudes of females and males were similar. The only significant difference between level 1 females and males was found to be the perceived behavioural control factor (students' attitudes towards course difficulty, attitudes towards work load in the course

Pupil – Teacher Ratio: Implication for Quality Education in Nigeria ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Significantly, pupil-teacher ratios are very essential to quality of education. They perhaps rank alongside professional knowledge, skill, as well as strategies, in genuinely determining educational success and performance. This paper discusses pupil-teacher ratio and relevance that pupils seem to have a greater impact on ...

PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS IN EKITI STATE, NIGERIA

African Journals Online (AJOL)

lected from school pupils between. 11.00 and 14.00 hours, a period when the eggs of Schistosoma hae- matobium are concentrated in the urine. Pupils involved in this study were randomly selected using the class register in each endemic school to avoid bias. Examination of the urine specimens was done qualitatively.

Adaptive optics with pupil tracking for high resolution retinal imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Sahin, Betul; Lamory, Barbara; Levecq, Xavier; Harms, Fabrice; Dainty, Chris

2012-02-01

Adaptive optics, when integrated into retinal imaging systems, compensates for rapidly changing ocular aberrations in real time and results in improved high resolution images that reveal the photoreceptor mosaic. Imaging the retina at high resolution has numerous potential medical applications, and yet for the development of commercial products that can be used in the clinic, the complexity and high cost of the present research systems have to be addressed. We present a new method to control the deformable mirror in real time based on pupil tracking measurements which uses the default camera for the alignment of the eye in the retinal imaging system and requires no extra cost or hardware. We also present the first experiments done with a compact adaptive optics flood illumination fundus camera where it was possible to compensate for the higher order aberrations of a moving model eye and in vivo in real time based on pupil tracking measurements, without the real time contribution of a wavefront sensor. As an outcome of this research, we showed that pupil tracking can be effectively used as a low cost and practical adaptive optics tool for high resolution retinal imaging because eye movements constitute an important part of the ocular wavefront dynamics.

School Science and the Language Arts

Science.gov (United States)

Ediger, Marlow

2014-01-01

An integrated science curriculum assists pupils to retain learnings better than to separate academic disciplines. Too frequently, science teachers teach each academic discipline as separate entities. However, there is much correlating of science with language, for example which might well be implemented in teaching and learning situations. Thus,…

Joint optimization of source, mask, and pupil in optical lithography

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jia; Lam, Edmund Y.

2014-03-01

Mask topography effects need to be taken into consideration for more advanced resolution enhancement techniques in optical lithography. However, rigorous 3D mask model achieves high accuracy at a large computational cost. This work develops a combined source, mask and pupil optimization (SMPO) approach by taking advantage of the fact that pupil phase manipulation is capable of partially compensating for mask topography effects. We first design the pupil wavefront function by incorporating primary and secondary spherical aberration through the coefficients of the Zernike polynomials, and achieve optimal source-mask pair under the condition of aberrated pupil. Evaluations against conventional source mask optimization (SMO) without incorporating pupil aberrations show that SMPO provides improved performance in terms of pattern fidelity and process window sizes.

Ability of Slovakian Pupils to Identify Birds

Science.gov (United States)

Prokop, Pavol; Rodak, Rastislav

2009-01-01

A pupil's ability to identify common organisms is necessary for acquiring further knowledge of biology. We investigated how pupils were able to identify 25 bird species following their song, growth habits, or both features presented simultaneously. Just about 19% of birds were successfully identified by song, about 39% by growth habit, and 45% of…

Vocational Orientation of the Deaf Pupils

OpenAIRE

Sobolevská, Šárka

2017-01-01

The main goal of the bachelor thesis is to learn about vocational orientation of deaf pupils in their last years of study at selected elementary schools for the Deaf and to compare the results to results of similar studies done with pupils without hearing impairment. Based on relevant scientific sources, the paper introduces general aspects that shape vocational orientation, also describes vocational development on D. E. Super's Career Development Theory. The thesis continues with characteriz...

Unilateral Adie's tonic pupil and viral hepatitis: Report of two cases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karadžić Jelena

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction. Adie’s (tonic pupil is a neuro-ophthalmological disorder characterized by a tonically dilated pupil, which is unresponsive to light. It is caused by damage to postganglionic fibers of the parasympathetic innervation of the eye, usually by a viral or bacterial infection. Adie’s syndrome includes diminished deep tendon reflexes. Outline of Cases. We report data of a 59-year-old female with unequal pupil sizes. She complained of blurred vision and headache mainly while reading. She had a 35-year history of hepatitis B and liver cirrhosis. On exam, left pupil was mydriatic and there was no response to light and at slit lamp we saw segments of the sphincter constrict. We performed 0.125% pilocarpine test and there was a remarkable reduction of size in the left pupil. The second case is a 55-year-old female who was referred to the University Eye Clinic because of a headache and mydriatic left pupil. She had diabetes mellitus type 2, as well as hepatitis A virus 20 years earlier. On exam, the left pupil was mydriatic, with no response to light. Test with diluted pilocarpine was positive. Neurological examinations revealed no abnormality in either case so we excluded Adie’s syndrome. Conclusion. Adie’s tonic pupil is benign neuro-ophthalmological disorder of unknown etiology. Most patients commonly present no symptoms and anisocoria is noticed accidentally. Although the etiology is unknown, there are some conditions that cause tonic pupil. It may be a part of a syndrome in which tonic pupil is associated with absent deep tendon reflexes.

Cooking and Hammering: Primary School Pupils' Concepts of Their Craft Skills

Science.gov (United States)

Müürsepp, Mare; Kikkull, Andry

2014-01-01

The aim of the study is to clear the significance of craft skills for the pupils in age nine and twelve years. More than 200 pupils were asked to define, what are the most important skills for the pupils of their age. The results bring out that category of the skills related to craft subject is of the most presented categories in pupils' self…

Long-Term Stewardship Science and Technology Requirements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McDonald, J.K.; Nickelson, R.A.

2002-01-01

To ensure technology developed for long-term stewardship will meet existing requirements, a review of requirements was performed. In addition to identifying existing science and technology related requirements, gaps and conflicts of requirements were identified

Pupils with sensory disabilities in physical education classes: Attitudes and preferences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Petra Kurková

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Background: The key factor that affects the success of shaping positive attitudes towards regular life-long performance of physical activity (PA is the pupils' level of inner motivation. This is influenced, among other things, by their family background, the educational institution that they attend and the educator's competencies. Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe and analyse the attitudes among pupils with sensory disabilities in physical education (PE classes. A partial objective was to compare the preferences for various PA by pupils with sensory disabilities in PE classes. Method: A non-standardized questionnaire was used to collect the data. The sample was based on the following features: a a participant had to be deaf or hard of hearing, b a participant had to have a visual disability, and c had to have been educated in special educational settings. The data were quantified on the percentage basis. To carry out cross-group statistical testing of differences, a ratio analysis with the help of the Chi-square test was applied. The level of statistical significance was set to p < .05. We analysed the data of 70 pupils attending the second stage of two elementary schools in Slovakia: a 37 pupils (22 boys and 15 girls, age 13.3 ± 1.45 years from a school for the deaf, and b 33 pupils (14 boys and 19 girls, age 13.4 ± 1.41 years from a school for the blind. Results: The differences in the preferences for various PA during PE classes in the cross-group comparison of pupils with sensory disabilities were discovered. A comparison of the opinions of pupils with sensory disabilities pointed out a difference consisting in a higher percentage of positive attitudes among pupils with visual disabilities in indicators of popularity, importance, the pupils' efforts and feelings towards education. A statistically significant difference was discovered only in feelings during PE classes. This result may be considered

Teaching High-Ability Pupils in Early Primary School

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dijkstra, Elma

2015-01-01

This thesis describes the design and implementation of the intervention 'Excel Kwadraat' in primary schools. This intervention aims to improve teachers’ differentiation practices in order to better anticipate pupil differences, including excellent or high-ability pupils. In the end, the intervention

Turkish Primary School Pupils' Views on Punishment

Science.gov (United States)

Aydin, Bahri

2010-01-01

Teachers meet with unwanted behavior when they are acting as facilitators of the learning process and they resort to certain tactics to deal with them. One of these tactics is punishment. This study aimed to identify the views held by Turkish primary school pupils on punishment. According to the results of the study, pupils were punished for…

Inclusive School Is (Not) Possible--Pupil's Voice

Science.gov (United States)

Pavlovic, Slavica

2016-01-01

Inclusive education has been the focus of a number of research studies in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, most of the research was based on the teachers and to a lesser extent on parents' attitudes towards inclusive education, while pupils' views and voice were mainly neglected. The core of this paper is survey research on primary school pupils'…

Deriving Earth Science Data Analytics Requirements

Science.gov (United States)

Kempler, Steven J.

2015-01-01

Data Analytics applications have made successful strides in the business world where co-analyzing extremely large sets of independent variables have proven profitable. Today, most data analytics tools and techniques, sometimes applicable to Earth science, have targeted the business industry. In fact, the literature is nearly absent of discussion about Earth science data analytics. Earth science data analytics (ESDA) is the process of examining large amounts of data from a variety of sources to uncover hidden patterns, unknown correlations, and other useful information. ESDA is most often applied to data preparation, data reduction, and data analysis. Co-analysis of increasing number and volume of Earth science data has become more prevalent ushered by the plethora of Earth science data sources generated by US programs, international programs, field experiments, ground stations, and citizen scientists.Through work associated with the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Federation, ESDA types have been defined in terms of data analytics end goals. Goals of which are very different than those in business, requiring different tools and techniques. A sampling of use cases have been collected and analyzed in terms of data analytics end goal types, volume, specialized processing, and other attributes. The goal of collecting these use cases is to be able to better understand and specify requirements for data analytics tools and techniques yet to be implemented. This presentation will describe the attributes and preliminary findings of ESDA use cases, as well as provide early analysis of data analytics toolstechniques requirements that would support specific ESDA type goals. Representative existing data analytics toolstechniques relevant to ESDA will also be addressed.

[The role of physical education teachers to support overweight and obese pupils].

Science.gov (United States)

Jodkowska, Maria; Oblacińska, Anna; Tabak, Izabela; Radiukiewicz, Katarzyna

2010-01-01

School-based physical education (PE) is often proposed as a strategy for obesity prevention and treatment. Thus the role of PE teachers is crucial on this field. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perception of PE teachers towards overweight and obese pupils aged 13-15 years, especially psychosomatic problems and support for obese adolescents in realisation of physical activity programme. A random sample of 185 PE teachers from 112 lower secondary schools in Poland were surveyed regarding their perception of pupils obesity and their support for obese adolescents. PE teachers observed many negative features among obese pupils: Two thirds of teachers (67% male and 74% teachers with work experience 6-10 years) observed decreased physical fitness and exercise capacity in this group of pupils. Body-related barriers in obese pupils and anxiety caused by weight related peer teasing were observed by respectively 30% and 20% teachers more often women teachers and teachers with shorter work experience. PE teachers were engaged in activities to support obese pupils: 90% of them assessed obese pupils by personal development, 70% conducted counseling and 20% cooperated with obese pupils' parents. Two third of teachers reported successes in their work with obese pupils. Their difficulties were connected with body-related barriers in pupils (24%), and aversion to exercise and physical efforts and location of PE lessons at school (9-16%). 1. The PE teachers can play an important role in preventing and combating obesity in pupils. 2. PE teachers should be motivated to organize interesting PE lessons, school sport and competitions for both normal and overweight pupils.

The Manchester Color Wheel: validation in secondary school pupils

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carruthers Helen R

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background As part of our research programme into facilitating improved ways of communicating with patients, especially about more sensitive clinical issues, we have been investigating whether there are any non-verbal methods that might aid this process. One such approach is to ask patients to choose a color in response to a particular question, for instance about health or psychological status, and for this purpose we developed the Manchester Color Wheel (MCW. This instrument consists of positive, neutral and negative colors and its validation in normal adults and those with anxiety or depression showed that it is responsive to change and reproducible. It also has the capacity to identify a positive frame of mind. We concluded that it might be a particularly useful instrument in adolescents and therefore this study aimed to validate it in a secondary school. Methods 620 pupils (aged 11–17 years, mean age 14.0 years, 298 (48.1% males, 322 (51.9% females at Sale Grammar School in Greater Manchester were asked to relate their mood to a MCW color and also complete the Hospital Anxiety Depression (HAD questionnaire. To give these pupils an experience in science, 197 were divided into four subgroups for an ‘experiment’ to ascertain whether, compared to controls, a change in mood color choice could be induced by participation in sport, music or art activities. Results Although mood color and HAD depression score are unlikely to be measuring exactly the same psychological state, a negative mood color was chosen by 62.5% of HAD depressed compared to only 14.5% of HAD normal pupils (p  Conclusion This study confirms the potential utility of the MCW to rapidly and easily assess a variety of health issues in large populations, including adolescents. Some of our results should also be of interest to educationalists.

Pupil Response and the Subliminal Mere Exposure Effect

Science.gov (United States)

Yoshimoto, Sanae; Imai, Hisato; Kashino, Makio; Takeuchi, Tatsuto

2014-01-01

The subliminal mere exposure effect (SMEE) is the phenomenon wherein people tend to prefer patterns they have repeatedly observed without consciously identifying them. One popular explanation for the SMEE is that perceptual fluency within exposed patterns is misattributed to a feeling of preference for those patterns. Assuming that perceptual fluency is negatively correlated with the amount of mental effort needed to analyze perceptual aspects of incoming stimuli, pupil diameter should associate with SMEE strength since the former is known to reflect mental effort. To examine this hypothesis, we measured participants’ pupil diameter during exposure to subthreshold stimuli. Following exposure, a preference test was administered. Average pupil diameter throughout exposure was smaller when the SMEE was induced than when the SMEE was not induced. This supports the hypothesis that increasing perceptual fluency during mere exposure modulates autonomic nervous responses, such as pupil diameter, and eventually leads to preference. PMID:24587408

Pupil response and the subliminal mere exposure effect.

Science.gov (United States)

Yoshimoto, Sanae; Imai, Hisato; Kashino, Makio; Takeuchi, Tatsuto

2014-01-01

The subliminal mere exposure effect (SMEE) is the phenomenon wherein people tend to prefer patterns they have repeatedly observed without consciously identifying them. One popular explanation for the SMEE is that perceptual fluency within exposed patterns is misattributed to a feeling of preference for those patterns. Assuming that perceptual fluency is negatively correlated with the amount of mental effort needed to analyze perceptual aspects of incoming stimuli, pupil diameter should associate with SMEE strength since the former is known to reflect mental effort. To examine this hypothesis, we measured participants' pupil diameter during exposure to subthreshold stimuli. Following exposure, a preference test was administered. Average pupil diameter throughout exposure was smaller when the SMEE was induced than when the SMEE was not induced. This supports the hypothesis that increasing perceptual fluency during mere exposure modulates autonomic nervous responses, such as pupil diameter, and eventually leads to preference.

Pupil response and the subliminal mere exposure effect.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sanae Yoshimoto

Full Text Available The subliminal mere exposure effect (SMEE is the phenomenon wherein people tend to prefer patterns they have repeatedly observed without consciously identifying them. One popular explanation for the SMEE is that perceptual fluency within exposed patterns is misattributed to a feeling of preference for those patterns. Assuming that perceptual fluency is negatively correlated with the amount of mental effort needed to analyze perceptual aspects of incoming stimuli, pupil diameter should associate with SMEE strength since the former is known to reflect mental effort. To examine this hypothesis, we measured participants' pupil diameter during exposure to subthreshold stimuli. Following exposure, a preference test was administered. Average pupil diameter throughout exposure was smaller when the SMEE was induced than when the SMEE was not induced. This supports the hypothesis that increasing perceptual fluency during mere exposure modulates autonomic nervous responses, such as pupil diameter, and eventually leads to preference.

Pupil Size Tracks Attentional Performance In Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Wainstein, G; Rojas-Líbano, D; Crossley, N A; Carrasco, X; Aboitiz, F; Ossandón, T

2017-08-15

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis is based on reported symptoms, which carries the potential risk of over- or under-diagnosis. A biological marker that helps to objectively define the disorder, providing information about its pathophysiology, is needed. A promising marker of cognitive states in humans is pupil size, which reflects the activity of an 'arousal' network, related to the norepinephrine system. We monitored pupil size from ADHD and control subjects, during a visuo-spatial working memory task. A sub group of ADHD children performed the task twice, with and without methylphenidate, a norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake inhibitor. Off-medication patients showed a decreased pupil diameter during the task. This difference was no longer present when patients were on-medication. Pupil size correlated with the subjects' performance and reaction time variability, two vastly studied indicators of attention. Furthermore, this effect was modulated by medication. Through pupil size, we provide evidence of an involvement of the noradrenergic system during an attentional task. Our results suggest that pupil size could serve as a biomarker in ADHD.

Pupils with leukemia and their reintegration into school

OpenAIRE

Purkat, Maja

2013-01-01

One of the most common childhood malignancies is leukemia. Treatments are now much more successful than in the past, but many children with leukemia are facing difficulties when returning to school. For pupils with leukemia, school is very important, providing them with a feeling of normalcy and hope for the future. But when such a child, with all his or her characteristics, returns to school, he meets with certain requirements. He or she encounters obstacles which are directly or indirectly ...

Skills of Chemistry Pupils during the Period of Curricular Reform

OpenAIRE

Bayerová, Anna

2015-01-01

Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Přírodovědecká fakulta Katedra učitelství a didaktiky chemie Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Science Department of Teaching and Didactics of Chemistry Doktorský studijní program: Vzdělávání v chemii Ph.D. study program: Education in Chemistry Autoreferát disertační práce Summary of the Ph.D. Thesis Mgr. Anna Bayerová Dovednosti žáků v chemii v období kurikulární reformy Skills of Chemistry Pupils during the Period of Curricular Reform Školitel/Supervisor: ...

Adie’s Tonic Pupil in Systemic Sclerosis: A Rare Association

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anusha Venkataraman

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We report a rare association of Adie’s tonic pupil in a patient with systemic sclerosis who was otherwise systemically stable. This paper is an effort to unravel whether the tonic pupil and systemic sclerosis are an association by chance (which may be the case or systemic sclerosis is the source of the tonic pupil.

Pupils' evaluation and generation of evidence and explanation in argumentation.

Science.gov (United States)

Glassner, Amnon; Weinstock, Michael; Neuman, Yair

2005-03-01

Studies on argument have found that participants tend to prefer explanations to evidence. This apparent bias toward explanation has been qualified recently by research that has found it to diminish with the availability of evidence. This study examines the use of explanation versus evidence in the context of argumentation with reference to the goals of particular argument situations. Seventy-nine eighth-grade pupils at a regular, urban middle school. The pupils read argumentation scenarios, each having the stated goal of either explaining or proving a claim. The pupils rated the degree to which each of two provided assertions (one a theoretical explanation, and the other evidence-based) helped achieve the goal of the argument. On a second task, the pupils chose which of the two assertions should be more effective in achieving the argument goal. On the third task, the pupils generated either an explanation or evidence for each of the argumentation scenarios. Pupils demonstrated sensitivity to the relative epistemic strength of explanation and evidence. They rated explanations as more advantageous in achieving the explanation goal, and evidence as more advantageous in achieving the proof goal. Conversely, however, when asked to generate or recall an explanation or evidence, pupils produced more explanations than evidence independent of the argumentation goal. The study refines the definition of argumentation context to include specific goals. Pupils were sensitive to the context of the argumentation situation (e.g.goals, availability of evidence). However, they appeared to have a disposition toward explanation when asked to produce an explanation or evidence-based justification.

HEP Science Network Requirements--Final Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bakken, Jon; Barczyk, Artur; Blatecky, Alan; Boehnlein, Amber; Carlson, Rich; Chekanov, Sergei; Cotter, Steve; Cottrell, Les; Crawford, Glen; Crawford, Matt; Dart, Eli; Dattoria, Vince; Ernst, Michael; Fisk, Ian; Gardner, Rob; Johnston, Bill; Kent, Steve; Lammel, Stephan; Loken, Stewart; Metzger, Joe; Mount, Richard; Ndousse-Fetter, Thomas; Newman, Harvey; Schopf, Jennifer; Sekine, Yukiko; Stone, Alan; Tierney, Brian; Tull, Craig; Zurawski, Jason

2010-04-27

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the primary provider of network connectivity for the US Department of Energy Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. In support of the Office of Science programs, ESnet regularly updates and refreshes its understanding of the networking requirements of the instruments, facilities, scientists, and science programs that it serves. This focus has helped ESnet to be a highly successful enabler of scientific discovery for over 20 years. In August 2009 ESnet and the Office of High Energy Physics (HEP), of the DOE Office of Science, organized a workshop to characterize the networking requirements of the programs funded by HEP. The International HEP community has been a leader in data intensive science from the beginning. HEP data sets have historically been the largest of all scientific data sets, and the communty of interest the most distributed. The HEP community was also the first to embrace Grid technologies. The requirements identified at the workshop are summarized below, and described in more detail in the case studies and the Findings section: (1) There will be more LHC Tier-3 sites than orginally thought, and likely more Tier-2 to Tier-2 traffic than was envisioned. It it not yet known what the impact of this will be on ESnet, but we will need to keep an eye on this traffic. (2) The LHC Tier-1 sites (BNL and FNAL) predict the need for 40-50 Gbps of data movement capacity in 2-5 years, and 100-200 Gbps in 5-10 years for HEP program related traffic. Other key HEP sites include LHC Tier-2 and Tier-3 sites, many of which are located at universities. To support the LHC, ESnet must continue its collaborations with university and international networks. (3) While in all cases the deployed 'raw' network bandwidth must exceed the user requirements in order to meet the data transfer and reliability requirements, network engineering for trans

HEP Science Network Requirements. Final Report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dart, Eli; Tierney, Brian

2010-01-01

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the primary provider of network connectivity for the US Department of Energy Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. In support of the Office of Science programs, ESnet regularly updates and refreshes its understanding of the networking requirements of the instruments, facilities, scientists, and science programs that it serves. This focus has helped ESnet to be a highly successful enabler of scientific discovery for over 20 years. In August 2009 ESnet and the Office of High Energy Physics (HEP), of the DOE Office of Science, organized a workshop to characterize the networking requirements of the programs funded by HEP. The International HEP community has been a leader in data intensive science from the beginning. HEP data sets have historically been the largest of all scientific data sets, and the communty of interest the most distributed. The HEP community was also the first to embrace Grid technologies. The requirements identified at the workshop are summarized below, and described in more detail in the case studies and the Findings section: (1) There will be more LHC Tier-3 sites than orginally thought, and likely more Tier-2 to Tier-2 traffic than was envisioned. It it not yet known what the impact of this will be on ESnet, but we will need to keep an eye on this traffic. (2) The LHC Tier-1 sites (BNL and FNAL) predict the need for 40-50 Gbps of data movement capacity in 2-5 years, and 100-200 Gbps in 5-10 years for HEP program related traffic. Other key HEP sites include LHC Tier-2 and Tier-3 sites, many of which are located at universities. To support the LHC, ESnet must continue its collaborations with university and international networks. (3) While in all cases the deployed 'raw' network bandwidth must exceed the user requirements in order to meet the data transfer and reliability requirements, network engineering for trans-Atlantic connectivity

Influences on Academic Achievement of Primary School Pupils in Cambodia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sopheak Song

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Employing education production function approach, this article investigates the influences of school and pupil background factors on academic achievement of primary school pupils in Cambodia. Based on achievement data of 1,080 Grade 6 pupils from one rural and one semi-urban area, the study reveals that school and teacher quality exerts a considerable effect on pupils’ performance. Teachers’ experience and teacher guides are positively correlated with academic achievement, while instructional time loss is significantly associated with poor performance. In light of these results, policies to boost academic achievement of primary school pupils in Cambodia are discussed.

Theoretical foundations of forming value orientation of pupils by means of school sports abroad

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I.Kh. Turchyk

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Purpose: to determine the theoretical basis for the formation of value orientations of pupils by means of school sports facilities abroad. Material: detailed analysis of 14 published sources. Results: found that in a foreign academic and journalistic literature dominates positive appreciation of cultural values of humanistic school sports in the formation of value orientations of pupils. Found that school sport abroad plays an important role not only as a means of forming the basic values - health, but also an important area of communication, the manifestations of social activity. As well as physical and mental form of organization and leisure facilities, excellent vehicle impacts on other values of human life: the authority and position in society, work, the structure of moral and volitional characteristics, aesthetic ideals and other value orientations. Conclusions: confirmed that the global experience of formation values pupil means school sports deserves attention and requires selective introduction into the domestic education system.

Improving the quality of innovative science teaching materials

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Eijkelhof, H.M.C.; Krüger, J.

2009-01-01

An increasing number of scientists of different fields is working together in interdisciplinary subjects. For school science it is difficult to bring these interdisciplinary developments into the classroom. Pupils thus get an outdated view of science and of possibilities in science and technology

Children Working with Text in Science: disparities with 'Literacy Hour' practice

Science.gov (United States)

Peacock, Alan; Weedon, Helen

2002-02-01

The National Literacy Strategy (NLS) provides a coherent plan of what and how children should be taught about non-fiction text. Nevertheless, the difficulties that children actually experience when using science texts are not fully addressed: in particular, the use and interpretation of the visual elements of science text is given limited attention in the prescriptions for teaching the 'Literacy Hour'. Such disparities identified by prior research and by a content analysis of the NLS Framework Document are considered alongside evidence of the difficulties encountered by a class of Year 5 pupils working with a range of non-fiction texts during science lessons. Pupils' text use is studied through observations and interviews with children, through interviews with their teachers and through a questionnaire about text use strategies. The findings suggest that (1) the pupils experienced considerable difficulty in making sense of the science content of non-fiction text, particularly in terms of interpretation of visual elements and their links to written text and (2) use of retrieval strategies taught during the Literacy Hour was not transferred to learning from text during science lessons. The study proposes closer planning of text use in science and literacy lessons.

Pupil size reflects the focus of feature-based attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Binda, Paola; Pereverzeva, Maria; Murray, Scott O

2014-12-15

We measured pupil size in adult human subjects while they selectively attended to one of two surfaces, bright and dark, defined by coherently moving dots. The two surfaces were presented at the same location; therefore, subjects could select the cued surface only on the basis of its features. With no luminance change in the stimulus, we find that pupil size was smaller when the bright surface was attended and larger when the dark surface was attended: an effect of feature-based (or surface-based) attention. With the same surfaces at nonoverlapping locations, we find a similar effect of spatial attention. The pupil size modulation cannot be accounted for by differences in eye position and by other variables known to affect pupil size such as task difficulty, accommodation, or the mere anticipation (imagery) of bright/dark stimuli. We conclude that pupil size reflects not just luminance or cognitive state, but the interaction between the two: it reflects which luminance level in the visual scene is relevant for the task at hand. Copyright © 2014 the American Physiological Society.

Ethnic School Segregation and Self-Esteem: The Role of Teacher-Pupil Relationships

Science.gov (United States)

Agirdag, Orhan; Van Houtte, Mieke; Van Avermaet, Piet

2012-01-01

The authors examine whether school segregation is related to pupils' global self-esteem and whether this association is mediated by teacher-pupil relationships. Multilevel analyses based on a survey of 2,845 pupils (aged 10 to 12) in 68 primary schools in Belgian urban areas reveal that, for native-Belgian pupils, a higher proportion of immigrants…

Modern foreign investigations of difficulties in understanding of texts among primary school pupils

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sanina S.P.

2016-09-01

Full Text Available In the article, the reader can observe the experience taken from foreign publications that focus on the problems of teaching primary school pupils how to understand the texts, which is one of the most important universal competences in the educational process. The author studied and analyzed the investigations of American, Finnish, Canadian, Chinese and other scientists in this field. The author found out that during the latest half of the century the quality of reading among pupils has dramatically decreased and has a tendency to get even worse. The most attention in the article was paid to the investigations that demonstrate the possible causes of incorrect reading and understanding of the informative texts among pupils. Among the causes there are: the difficulty of the text that influences the understanding of it, using different methods of teaching how to read the text, the control and evaluation of reading skills etc. In the article there are enlisted the factors that contribute to the better understanding of texts. There are also mentioned some strategies of coping with problems and forming the good reading skills. The scientific works that are mentioned in the article have a great importance in the theory and practice of pedagogical science, as the ability to understand the text correctly is not only important for successful educational process at school, but is also an essential ability in life.

Cooking and Hammering: Primary School Pupils' Concepts of their Craft Skills

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mare MÜÜRSEPP

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The aim of the study is to clear the significance of craft skills for the pupils in age nine and twelve years. More than 200 pupils were asked to define, what are the most important skills for the pupils of their age. The results bring out that category of the skills related to craft subject is of the most presented categories in pupils' self description. Thus the primary school pupils essentially defined themselves by the activities they could do practically (building, cooking, repairing of things. The most undefined relation to craft activities is reflected in the answer of smaller boys in our study. A suspicion arisen from the analysis of pupils' sayings, that the craft lessons in the 1st school stage tend to be organized kind of poorly was asserted by the teachers who pointed out the need for special rooms and materials to implement different techniques.

Efficient and robust pupil size and blink estimation from near-field video sequences for human-machine interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Siyuan; Epps, Julien

2014-12-01

Monitoring pupil and blink dynamics has applications in cognitive load measurement during human-machine interaction. However, accurate, efficient, and robust pupil size and blink estimation pose significant challenges to the efficacy of real-time applications due to the variability of eye images, hence to date, require manual intervention for fine tuning of parameters. In this paper, a novel self-tuning threshold method, which is applicable to any infrared-illuminated eye images without a tuning parameter, is proposed for segmenting the pupil from the background images recorded by a low cost webcam placed near the eye. A convex hull and a dual-ellipse fitting method are also proposed to select pupil boundary points and to detect the eyelid occlusion state. Experimental results on a realistic video dataset show that the measurement accuracy using the proposed methods is higher than that of widely used manually tuned parameter methods or fixed parameter methods. Importantly, it demonstrates convenience and robustness for an accurate and fast estimate of eye activity in the presence of variations due to different users, task types, load, and environments. Cognitive load measurement in human-machine interaction can benefit from this computationally efficient implementation without requiring a threshold calibration beforehand. Thus, one can envisage a mini IR camera embedded in a lightweight glasses frame, like Google Glass, for convenient applications of real-time adaptive aiding and task management in the future.

Is Chemistry Attractive for Pupils? Czech Pupils' Perception of Chemistry

Science.gov (United States)

Kubiatko, Milan

2015-01-01

Chemistry is an important subject due to understanding the composition and structure of the things around us. The main aim of the study was to find out the perception of chemistry by lower secondary school pupils. The partial aims were to find out the influence of gender, year of study and favorite subject on the perception of chemistry. The…

Oregon Pupil Transportation Manual. Revised Regulations and Responsibilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Oregon State Dept. of Education, Salem.

Designed for use by Oregon school bus drivers and administrators, this manual answers common questions about school bus transportation in Oregon, including those about the laws governing pupil transportation, the regulations governing pupil transportation administration, and the laws on school bus operation. A chapter of advisory materials covers…

Better for Both--Thoughts on Teacher-Pupil Interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Kilburn, John

1978-01-01

To remove the adversary emphasis from pupil-teacher interactions, the author presents a simple model, showing how an intervention can potentially make a situation better, worse, or unchanged for the pupil and the teacher. A sample scenario is provided of two teachers dealing with a misbehaving child. (SJL)

Basic personality dimensions and vocational orientation with pupils of fourth grade of secondary school

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ranđelović Dušan

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The main goal of this research was to explore relationship between basic personality dimensions of 'Big Five' model of personality (neuroticism, extraversion, opennes, agreeableness and conscientiousness and thirteen different groups of activities which orienting pupils toward some vocations (administration, security, electrotechnics, creativity, culture, literature, science, helping jobs, agriculture, practical jobs, sport and management and services. The participants were 219 pupils of fourth grade of secondary school from different regions of Serbia (Central Serbia, Southern Serbia and Kosovo and Metohija. Two instruments had been used: Test of Personality (FMLI and Test of Vocational Orientation (TPO. The results show that there is significant correlation between basic personality dimensions and vocational orientation. There is positive significant correlation between neuroticism and choosing security, helping jobs, agriculture and practical jobs. Extraversion is in significant positive correlation with choosing administration, security, sport, management, services, culture and literature. Opennes is in significant positive correlation with choosing creativity, culture, literature, helping jobs and services. There is positive significant correlation between agreeableness and choosing helping jobs and negative significant correlation between aggreeableness and choosing security. Conscientiousness is in significant positive correlation with choosing management and science. Also, concerning choosing certain groups of activities there is statistical significant mean difference between male and female.

Career-Related Learning and Science Education: The Changing Landscape

Science.gov (United States)

Hutchinson, Jo

2012-01-01

Pupils ask STEM subject teachers about jobs and careers in science, but where else do they learn about work? This article outlines career-related learning within schools in England alongside other factors that influence pupils' career decisions. The effect of the Education Act 2011 will be to change career learning in schools. The impact on…

Future engineers: the intrinsic technology motivation of secondary school pupils

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Lewis C. R.; McDermott, Hilary J.; Tyrer, John R.; Zanker, Nigel P.

2018-07-01

The supply of students motivated to study engineering in higher education is critical to the sector. Results are presented from the 'Mindsets STEM Enhancement Project'. Fifty-seven new resources packs, designed to improve STEM education in Design and Technology, were given to schools across London. A modified Intrinsic Motivation Inventory questionnaire measured pupils' (n = 458) motivation towards technology. The results show that although pupils have positive reactions to the technology content within Design and Technology lessons, the type of STEM resources and lessons created through the project had made no significant difference on pupils' interest/enjoyment towards technology. This suggests stand-alone resources do not improve pupil motivation. The impact of this work to engineering higher education is that the existing levels and the inability to improve pupil motivation in technology at school could be a factor affecting the pursuit of a technology or engineering related education or career.

Safe and sensible preprocessing and baseline correction of pupil-size data

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mathôt, Sebastiaan; Fabius, Jasper; Van Heusden, Elle; Van der Stigchel, Stefan

Measurement of pupil size (pupillometry) has recently gained renewed interest from psychologists, but there is little agreement on how pupil-size data is best analyzed. Here we focus on one aspect of pupillometric analyses: baseline correction, i.e., analyzing changes in pupil size relative to a

Safe and sensible preprocessing and baseline correction of pupil-size data

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mathôt, Sebastiaan; Fabius, Jasper; Van Heusden, Elle; Van der Stigchel, Stefan

2018-01-01

Measurement of pupil size (pupillometry) has recently gained renewed interest from psychologists, but there is little agreement on how pupil-size data is best analyzed. Here we focus on one aspect of pupillometric analyses: baseline correction, that is, analyzing changes in pupil size relative to a

Language approaches used with deaf pupils in Scottish schools: 2001-2004.

Science.gov (United States)

Grimes, Marian; Thoutenhoofd, Ernst D; Byrne, Delma

2007-01-01

In this article we address "language approach" data as a key variable in quantitative, large-scale research on educational achievement, focusing on our work for the Achievements of Deaf Pupils in Scotland (ADPS) project. The complexity of approaches is addressed, with a particular focus on a "no-exclusion" model of service. In this context 3 years of language-related data are discussed, using constructions of language variables that take into account the variability in deaf pupils' hearing loss levels, types of provision, and professional practice. We see this as a necessary first step toward offering a nuanced context for understanding patterns in the educational outcomes among the ADPS population to be reported in a later article. The ADPS data on language approach can reveal general patterns at macro levels: our analysis suggests that, in Scotland, the extent and quality of British Sign Language/English provision may be determined more by local factors than by linguistic requirements and that ostensibly responsive policies can mask a limited spectrum for pupils and their families. However, the ADPS data are insufficiently sensitive to detailed and local variations to reflect the full complexity of language situations over time-a situation which represents an ongoing challenge for all long-term, large-scale studies.

Corneal aberrations in keratoconic eyes: influence of pupil size and centering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Comastri, S A; Perez, G D; Martin, G; Bianchetti, A; Perez, L I

2011-01-01

Ocular aberrations vary among subjects and under different conditions and are commonly analyzed expanding the wavefront aberration function in Zernike polynomials. In previous articles, explicit analytical formulas to transform Zernike coefficients of up to 7th order corresponding to an original pupil into those related to a contracted displaced new pupil are obtained. In the present paper these formulas are applied to 20 keratoconic corneas of varying severity. Employing the SN CT1000 topographer, aberrations of the anterior corneal surface for a pupil of semi-diameter 3 mm centered on the keratometric axis are evaluated, the relation between the higher-order root mean square wavefront error and the index KISA% characterizing keratoconus is studied and the size and centering of the ocular photopic natural pupil are determined. Using these data and the transformation formulas, new coefficients associated to the photopic pupil size are computed and their variation when coordinates origin is shifted from the keratometric axis to the ocular pupil centre is analyzed.

Pupil dilation co-varies with memory strength of individual traces in a delayed response paired-associate task.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hedderik van Rijn

Full Text Available Studies on cognitive effort have shown that pupil dilation is a reliable indicator of memory load. However, it is conceivable that there are other sources of effort involved in memory that also affect pupil dilation. One of these is the ease with which an item can be retrieved from memory. Here, we present the results of an experiment in which we studied the way in which pupil dilation acts as an online marker for memory processing during the retrieval of paired associates while reducing confounds associated with motor responses. Paired associates were categorized into sets containing either 4 or 7 items. After learning the paired associates once, pupil dilation was measured during the presentation of the retrieval cue during four repetitions of each set. Memory strength was operationalized as the number of repetitions (frequency and set-size, since having more items per set results in a lower average recency. Dilation decreased with increased memory strength, supporting the hypothesis that the amplitude of the evoked pupillary response correlates positively with retrieval effort. Thus, while many studies have shown that "memory load" influences pupil dilation, our results indicate that the task-evoked pupillary response is also sensitive to the experimentally manipulated memory strength of individual items. As these effects were observed well before the response had been given, this study also suggests that pupil dilation can be used to assess an item's memory strength without requiring an overt response.

Understanding Pupil Behaviour: Classroom Management Techniques for Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Ramon

2009-01-01

This book describes a system of successful classroom behaviour management techniques developed by the author over more than twenty-five years. It outlines the difficulties confronting teachers trying to manage pupils' misbehaviour in schools and describes four types of pupil who can be helped to behave responsibly. In "Understanding Pupil…

AUTHOR’S EXPERIENCE IN TRAINING PUPILS OF SPECIALIZED OUT-OF-SCHOOL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS TO RESEARCH WORK BY MEANS OF INFORMATIONAL AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oleksii Voronkin

2016-12-01

Full Text Available In the article the author’s experience in pupils’ training of Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine to research work by means of informational and communication technologies. The three-tiered approach (popular science, experimental, fundamental levels to the organization of personal oriented study in Physics covered such didactic principles as accessibility, visibility, scientific and systematic is considered. At the first level, pupils should be inculcated by interest in physics, its specificity, the terms etc. At the second level the experiment and demonstration of physical phenomena have a paramount importance, which aims to encourage students to make self-facilitated conclusions. At the third level the laboratory works and method of problem learning allow students to develop the ability independently to solve physical tasks. It is concluded that at each of these levels the means of information and communication technologies should be used. As an example, the author reviews the experience of open online course «Introduction to Physics of Sound», designed for pupils of specialized out-of-school educational institutions. We presented the main issues of the online course and examples of cognitive activity of pupils

School Xenophobia and Interethnic Relationships Among Secondary Level Pupils in Spain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Blanca Deusdad

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Migratory processes in southern Europe over the last two decades have brought about substantial changes to the ethnic makeup of secondary schools. Classrooms have increased in their complexity in terms of teaching, as there are pupils with different cultural and economic backgrounds and educational needs, but also in the relationships among the peer groups of pupils. What kinds of attitudes and relations can be found among the members of this culturally diverse pupil body? What kinds of views are held by the pupils about each other? The aim of this paper is to shed light on stereotypes and xenophobic attitudes towards immigrant pupils in secondary schools in Spain, principally among peer groups, and on how teachers address this multicultural classroom dynamic and complexity and any possible prejudices towards stereotypes and racist attitudes that surface inside the classroom. Relationships tend to be formed among peer groups of the same ethnicity and there is a marked rejection of pupils from Moroccan origin. Teachers are neither aware of pupils’ stereotypes nor of their own. As a consequence, they are not giving sufficient pedagogical responses to resolve arguments or disrespectful situations against immigrant pupils. This in turn is contributing, on the one hand, to racist and xenophobic societies (Banks 2011; Deusdad 2013. On the other hand, teachers’ low expectations of these immigrant pupils has had an effect on their academic achievements and on dropout rates (Deusdad 2009. The present study is based on 2196 questionnaires administered to pupils at 43 Spanish secondary schools. In-depth interviews with 54 secondary school teachers were also carried out, so as to understand teachers’ discourses and pedagogical resources. 

Pupils, the Forgotten Partners in Education Action Zones

Science.gov (United States)

Whitehead, Joan; Clough, Nick

2004-01-01

Education action zones (EAZs) involving local partnerships are one of the government's policies set up to help raise standards in pupils' performance and behaviour in areas of economic and social disadvantage. This article explores the nature of these partnerships and the fact that pupils are excluded. It reviews literature on student voice and…

Grounding by Attention Simulation in Peripersonal Space: Pupils Dilate to Pinch Grip But Not Big Size Nominal Classifier.

Science.gov (United States)

Lobben, Marit; Bochynska, Agata

2018-03-01

Grammatical categories represent implicit knowledge, and it is not known if such abstract linguistic knowledge can be continuously grounded in real-life experiences, nor is it known what types of mental states can be simulated. A former study showed that attention bias in peripersonal space (PPS) affects reaction times in grammatical congruency judgments of nominal classifiers, suggesting that simulated semantics may include reenactment of attention. In this study, we contrasted a Chinese nominal classifier used with nouns denoting pinch grip objects with a classifier for nouns with big object referents in a pupil dilation experiment. Twenty Chinese native speakers read grammatical and ungrammatical classifier-noun combinations and made grammaticality judgment while their pupillary responses were measured. It was found that their pupils dilated significantly more to the pinch grip classifier than to the big object classifier, indicating attention simulation in PPS. Pupil dilations were also significantly larger with congruent trials on the whole than in incongruent trials, but crucially, congruency and classifier semantics were independent of each other. No such effects were found in controls. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Innovative Technologies in Science Teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Guerra, Cecilia; Pombo, Lucia; Moreira, Antonio

2011-01-01

Technology plays a crucial role in pupils' and primary teachers' lives nowadays and its use can facilitate change towards an innovative school environment. The internet, for example, can act as a platform to foster science teaching and offers a variety of opportunities for effective science learning and engaging and motivating children. But…

"Invisible" Bilingualism--"Invisible" Language Ideologies: Greek Teachers' Attitudes Towards Immigrant Pupils' Heritage Languages

Science.gov (United States)

Gkaintartzi, Anastasia; Kiliari, Angeliki; Tsokalidou, Roula

2015-01-01

This paper presents data from two studies--a nationwide quantitative research and an ethnographic study--on Greek schoolteachers' attitudes towards immigrant pupils' bilingualism. The quantitative data come from a large-scale questionnaire survey, which aimed at the investigation of the needs and requirements for the implementation of a pilot…

Are teachers' judgements of pupils' ability influenced by body shape?

Science.gov (United States)

Shackleton, N L; Campbell, T

2014-04-01

Evidence indicates that teachers can judge pupils on the basis of their physical appearance, including their body shape. Teacher bias towards obese pupils has been suggested as a potential pathway through which obese children attain relatively lower academic levels. The aim of this study was to investigate whether teachers' judgements of pupils' ability are influenced by the body shape of the child. The sample includes English, singleton children in state schools from the Millennium Cohort Study. The data were taken from the fourth wave of data collection, when the children were approximately 7 years old. In all, 5086/5072 children had teacher ability ratings of reading and maths. Logistic regression analyses were used to test whether teachers' perceptions of the child's reading and mathematics ability were influenced by the pupil's waist circumference, conditional upon cognitive test scores of reading and maths ability. After adjustment for cognitive test scores, no significant overall relationship was found between the pupil's waist circumference and the teacher's judgements of ability. No statistically significant differences were observed in the probability of being judged as above average after further adjustments were made for potential confounders. There is little evidence that teachers' judgements of pupils' ability are influenced by obesity.

The Predictive Role of Maternal Parenting and Stress on Pupils' Bullying involvement.

Science.gov (United States)

Alizadeh Maralani, Fatemeh; Mirnasab, Mirmahmoud; Hashemi, Touraj

2016-10-01

The link between inappropriate parenting style and both bullying and victimization is well documented. However, it is not clear as to which kind of parenting style is associated with victimization. Furthermore, no studies have yet been conducted regarding the role of parental stress in bullying and victimization. This study aimed to examine the role of parenting styles and maternal stress in pupils' bullying and victimization. A total of 300 primary school pupils, enrolled in fourth and fifth grades, participated in the study. Initially, 100 noninvolved pupils were randomly selected using a multistage cluster sampling method. Then using a screening method, 100 bully pupils and 100 victimized peers were selected. Olweus Bullying Scale and teacher nomination were administered for screening these pupils. Baumrind Parenting Style Questionnaire and revised version of Abidin Parental Stress Index (short form) were also applied to all pupils in the study. Data were analyzed using discriminant function analysis. The findings showed that (a) with regard to parenting styles, significant differences were found among groups. Authoritarian parenting style could significantly predict pupils' bullying behavior, whereas victimization was predictable in families with permissive parenting style. In addition, noninvolved pupils were predicted to have authoritative parenting style. (b) Considering maternal stress, significant differences were observed across groups. Parents of bullies and victims were predicted to have higher maternal stress than noninvolved pupils. The implications of the study in relation to the role of mothers in bullying and victimization are discussed.

Roma Pupils' Identification with School in Slovenia and Serbia: Case Studies

Science.gov (United States)

Macura-Milovanovic, Suncica; Munda, Milanka; Pecek, Mojca

2013-01-01

The research presented in this paper aims to challenge the belief held by some education professionals that Roma pupils do not value education. The research sample included groups of Roma pupils from two countries (Slovenia and Serbia) and from different socio-economic backgrounds. The results suggest that the majority of the pupils are aware of…

Assessment of Teacher of Nursing Subjects by Pupils and Students

OpenAIRE

Bednářová, Markéta

2006-01-01

The dissertation Assessment of a teacher of nursing subjects by pupils and students focuses on finding the opinion of pupils of secondary nursing schools and students of higher nursing schools and universities on teachers of nursing. The subject of the interest was particularly qualities and skills of the nursing teachers which pupils and students consider important and desirable. The theoretical part of the work summarizes conclusions from thematically similar studies. The empirical part of ...

A teacher's decade passed with pupils and a simple radiometric instrument. Could junior and senior high school pupils see the radiation with their eyes?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kudo, Hiroyuki

2012-01-01

The author, a teacher of Naragakuen Junior High School-High School in Nara Prefecture, looks back the history of his given education about radiation to 3rd year pupils for the decade from 2002. The main theme of the education includes an actual radiometric study of the already attained, naturally cleaned-up radioactivity derived from A-bomb from the ground of Hiroshima City, and an asking investigation to know how many people misunderstand, as pupils have done so, that Hiroshima ground surface is still radio-contaminated. In 2011, pupils stayed at Fukushima, not Hiroshima. For the radiometric study, pupils first learn the movement of substances in the ground by rain with a model of naturally abundant 40 KCl using a simple radiometer, HAKARUKUN. Then in Hiroshuma, they measure the ambient dose at >600 spots to compare with the doses in other cities like Nara and Kyoto, and the beta-ray of A-bomb-exposed buildings and air dust to see the same half life as that measured in Nara. Their asking investigation revealed that 32.2% and 31.5% of Hiroshima citizen and the resident in other cities, respectively, misunderstand that radiation in the City is higher than other cities. These results have been presented at the conference for pupils mainly held by the Kinki Branch of Chemical Society of Japan. The author expects the exchange of radiological information between learned pupils and parents who have probably not been taught about radiation as its education has been absent during these 30 years. Though, the education is to be given to all pupils hereafter in Japan. (T.T.)

Pupil size in Jewish theological seminary students.

Science.gov (United States)

Shemesh, G; Kesler, A; Lazar, M; Rothkoff, L

2004-01-01

To investigate the authors' clinical impression that pupil size among myopic Jewish theological seminary students is different from pupil size of similar secular subjects. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 28 male Jewish theological seminary students and 28 secular students or workers who were matched for age and refraction. All participants were consecutively enrolled. Scotopic and photopic pupil size was measured by means of a Colvard pupillometer. Comparisons of various parameters between the groups were performed using the two-sample t-test, Fisher exact test, a paired-sample t-test, a two-way analysis of variance, and Pearson correlation coefficients as appropriate. The two groups were statistically matched for age, refraction, and visual acuity. The seminary students were undercorrected by an average of 2.35 diopters (D), while the secular subjects were undercorrected by only 0.65 D (pwork or of apparently characteristic undercorrection of the myopia is undetermined.

Caffeine intake is associated with pupil dilation and enhanced accommodation.

Science.gov (United States)

Abokyi, S; Owusu-Mensah, J; Osei, K A

2017-04-01

PurposeIt is purported that caffeine, an autonomic stimulant, affects visual performance. This study sought to assess whether caffeine intake was associated with changes in pupil size and/or amplitude of accommodation.Patients and methodsA double-masked, crossover study was conducted in 50 healthy subjects of age range 19 to 25 years. Subjects were randomized to treatments such that subjects consumed either 250 mg caffeine drink or vehicle on separate days. Amplitude of accommodation was measured by the push-up technique, and pupil size using a millimeter ruler fixed to a slit lamp biomicroscope in dim illumination (5 lux). Amplitude of accommodation and pupil size were taken at baseline, and at 30, 60 and 90 min time points post treatment. Repeated measures one-way ANOVA and paired t-test were used in analyzing data.ResultsAmplitude of accommodation and pupil size after caffeine intake were significantly greater than vehicle (Pcaffeine beverage was associated with significant increases in amplitude of accommodation and pupil size with time (Pcaffeine. This study suggests caffeine may have some influence on visual functions.

History of Science and Instructional Design: The Case of Electromagnetism

Science.gov (United States)

Seroglou, Fanny; Koumaras, Panagiotis; Tselfes, Vassilis

This paper deals with two main research questions: a) Can we search for pupils'' potential alternative ideas in the history of science and especially in those areas where early scientific ideas were distinct from the current ones? b) Is it possible to overcome pupils'' alternative ideas by using experiments in the classroom, based on early experiments carried out by scientists in the past, in order to promote current scientific ideas? In this paper we present a case study in the field of electromagnetism. From the age of Thales up to the 16th century electrostatic and magnetic phenomena were unified in the context of a ''magic'' idea and were supposed to be of the same nature. Their differences were pointed out during the 16th century by Gardano and Gilbert and the two fields of science were established: electrostatics and magnetism. From the 17th century up to 1830, scientists dealt with the question whether electricities derived from different sources were of the same nature. During 1832-1833, Faraday successfully carried out a number of experiments in order to compare the ability of various electricities to produce the same effects. The above data from the history of science indicated electrostatic, electrodynamic and magnetic phenomena as a field of research on pupils'' and student-teachers'' ideas. The research was carried out in three phases: 10 individual in-depth interviews with 10-14-year-old pupils and 19-21-year-old student-teachers, questionnaire distribution to 109 13-year-old pupils and 148 student-teachers, 10 individual in-depth interviews for further clarification of pupils'' and student-teachers'' reasoning. Research results show that 53% of the student-teachers and 83% of the pupils that were involved in the investigation relate electrostatic with magnetic phenomena, in the same way scientists related these phenomena up to the 16th century. The results also indicate that the lack of common perceptions, commonly observed effects or procedures

Motor performance of pupils with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

OpenAIRE

Otipková, Zuzana

2012-01-01

Title: Motor performance of pupils with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Objectives: The aim of the work was to determine the level of fine and gross motor skills of upper extremities of the pupils with diagnosis ADHD at schools specialized on these pupils and compare it with the fine and gross motor skills of upper extremities of children without this diagnosis at common elementary school. Further work objective was to determine the level of gross motor skills of lower limbs ...

191 Students' Self-Concept and Their Achievement in Basic Science ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

User

2011-07-21

Jul 21, 2011 ... Achievement Test in Basic showed Science (SATBS) were employed as .... Higher Studies; Teacher-Students opinion and found out that students .... Factors and Pupils Leaning Outcome in Bended Primary Science Project,.

High School Pupils' Attitudes and Self-Efficacy of Using Mobile Devices

Science.gov (United States)

Nikolopoulou, Kleopatra; Gialamas, Vasilis

2017-01-01

This paper regards a study aiming to investigate junior high school pupils' attitudes and self-efficacy of using mobile devices. A 25-item questionnaire was administered to 260 pupils aged 12-15 years old, in Greece. Pupils' attitudes were positive, and four factors were extracted, "perceived usefulness", "affection",…

Junior Secondary School Pupils' Perception of the Relevance of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

cce

on the data and an independent sample 2-tailed t-test was used to explore the ... pupils' knowledge, attitudes towards and conceptions of the environmental ... challenges with 1200 fifteen-year-old Norwegian pupils as part of ROSE and ... Some comparative studies were carried out among children from different cultures.

Science by the young for the young

CERN Multimedia

Corinne Pralavorio

2012-01-01

At last week's "Fête de la science", CERN hosted students from Geneva and the Pays de Gex for a full day of (scientific) exchange.    On 13 October some 140 pupils from Geneva collèges and lycées in the Pays de Gex took part in a cross-border colloquium in the Globe of Science and Innovation entitled “La Science en partage” (Sharing Science) organised by CERN and Euroscience-Léman with the support of the Department of Public Instruction of the Canton of Geneva and the French Ministry of National Education. During the conference, pupils presented their scientific projects as part of their work for their maturité leaving certificate in Switzerland or for their supervised practical assignments (TPE) in France. Their presentations of their research were notable for their commendable clarity, becoming modesty and not a little humour, highlighting the enthusiasm with which the work had been co...

Shoring Up Math and Science in the Elementary Grades: Schools Enlist Specialists to Teach Science Lessons

Science.gov (United States)

Jacobson, Linda

2004-01-01

As science gets squeezed in the elementary curriculum, at least two Florida districts are trying a new approach to keeping hands-on lessons a part of pupils' experiences. This article reports how Broward and Palm Beach county districts have increased the number of science specialists working in their elementary schools--teachers who, like physical…

Understanding Basic Temporal Relations in Primary School Pupils with Hearing Impairments.

Science.gov (United States)

Dulcić, Adinda; Bakota, Koraljka; Saler, Zrinka

2015-09-01

Time can be observed as a subjective, as well as an objective phenomenon which is a component of our life, and due to its communicational needs, it is standardized by temporal signs and symbols. The aim of this study was to determine the understanding of basic temporal relations of pupils with hearing impairments. We assumed that the knowledge of basic time relations is a precondition for the acquisition of knowledge that is connected with the understanding of the syllabus in regular school programs. Three groups of pupils have been examined: pupils with hearing impairments who attend the primary school of SUVAG Polyclinic under special condition, integrated hearing impaired pupils with minor additional difficulties who attend regular primary schools in Zagreb with a prolonged expert procedure and pupils of the control group. The subjects have been examined with a measuring instrument constructed by the expert team of the Polyclinic Suvag. Twenty nine subjects have been questioned, chronologically aged between 10 and 12.

Concept-Cartoons as a Tool to Evoke and Analyze Pupils Judgments in Social Science Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Felix Fenske

2011-10-01

Full Text Available The following contribution makes an effort to place the concept-cartoon-method into the context of social science education. Concept-cartoons (CCs enable teachers to use the everyday life experiences and individual thoughts of the pupils as a positive enrichment tool within the learning processes. In this context, CCs are very suitable to function as a method to gain information about both the existing mental conceptions and the individual political judgment strategies. Through this, it is possible to put everyday life concepts and scientific knowledge in a constructive relationship, which finally enhances new learning objectives. First the article highlights the relevance of pupils’ and teachers` concepts for judgment processes. On this basis the method of CCs is introduced and evaluated.Der folgende Artikel beschäftigt sich mit den Möglichkeiten des methodischen Einsatzes von Concept-Cartoons im Rahmen sozialwissenschaftlichen Unterrichts. Als Instrumentarium zur Diagnose von Schülervorstellungen und individuellen Urteilsstrategien, bieten Comic-Cartoons den Lehrkräften die Möglichkeit, den Unterricht entlang dieser lernrelevanten Perspektiven zu gestalten. Durch die konstruktive Verknüpfung von Alltagskonzepten und Fachkonzepten können auf diese Weise neue Chancen für nachhaltige Lehr- und Lernprozesse erschlossen werden. Innerhalb dieses Beitrags wird zunächst die Bedeutung von Schülervorstellungen und vorfachlichen Urteilsstrategien für wirksamen sozialwissenschaftlichen Unterricht geklärt. Im Anschluss erfolgt eine Einführung in die Methode „Concept-Cartoons“. Abschließend werden exemplarisch drei von den Autoren gestaltete Cartoons vorgestellt.

Pupil-led sex education in England (RIPPLE study): cluster-randomised intervention trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Stephenson, J M; Strange, V; Forrest, S; Oakley, A; Copas, A; Allen, E; Babiker, A; Black, S; Ali, M; Monteiro, H; Johnson, A M

Improvement of sex education in schools is a key part of the UK government's strategy to reduce teenage pregnancy in England. We examined the effectiveness of one form of peer-led sex education in a school-based randomised trial of over 8000 pupils. 29 schools were randomised to either peer-led sex education (intervention) or to continue their usual teacher-led sex education (control). In intervention schools, peer educators aged 16-17 years delivered three sessions of sex education to 13-14 year-old pupils from the same schools. Primary outcome was unprotected (without condom) first heterosexual intercourse by age 16 years. Analysis was by intention to treat. By age 16 years, significantly fewer girls reported intercourse in the peer-led arm than in the control arm, but proportions were similar for boys. The proportions of pupils reporting unprotected first sex did not differ for girls (8.4% intervention vs 8.3% control) or for boys (6.2% vs 4.7%). Stratified estimates of the difference between arms were -0.4% (95% CI -3.7% to 2.8%, p=0.79) for girls and -1.4% (-4.4% to 1.6%, p=0.36) for boys. At follow-up (mean age 16.0 years [SD 0.32]), girls in the intervention arm reported fewer unintended pregnancies, although the difference was borderline (2.3% vs 3.3%, p=0.07). Girls and boys were more satisfied with peer-led than teacher-led sex education, but 57% of girls and 32% of boys wanted sex education in single-sex groups. Peer-led sex education was effective in some ways, but broader strategies are needed to improve young people's sexual health. The role of single-sex sessions should be investigated further.

Monitoring the Achievement of Deaf Pupils in Sweden and Scotland

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hendar, Nils Ola Ebbe; O'Neill, Rachel

2016-01-01

Over the past two decades there have been major developments in deaf education in many countries. Medical and technical advances have made it possible for more deaf children to hear and speak successfully. Most deaf pupils learn in ordinary classes in mainstream schools. In this article we explore...... patterns of achievements of deaf pupils to see if these reforms had improved attainment outcomes. International surveys such as PISA do not include deaf pupils. This article describes two independent large-scale surveys about deaf pupils in Sweden and Scotland. The similar results from both countries show...... that deaf children, after two decades of social reform and technical advances, still lag behind their hearing peers. The results also show how large-scale surveys can contribute to a greater understanding of educational outcomes in a small, vulnerable group and make it possible to continue to reform...

Sticky Assessments--The Impact of Teachers' Grading Standard on Pupils' School Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Keller, Tamás

2016-01-01

This paper argues that school grades cannot be interpreted solely as a reward for a given school performance, since they also reflect teachers' assessments of pupils. A teacher's evaluation of a pupil's performance, as reflected in the grade awarded, might influence the effort that the pupil invests in learning. Grades might therefore serve as…

What Can National Data Sets Tell Us about Inclusion and Pupil Achievement?

Science.gov (United States)

Florian, Lani; Rouse, Martyn; Black-Hawkins, Kristine; Jull, Stephen

2004-01-01

Recent developments in the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) have produced a national pupil database (NPD) that contains information about the attainments of individual pupils. Every child in the country has been allocated a unique pupil number (UPN), which means that the academic progress of individuals can be tracked over time. It is…

Tomorrow's Workforce: School Pupils' Views of a Career in Hospitality. Research Report.

Science.gov (United States)

Tregaskis, Olga; And Others

A survey involving 1,024 secondary pupils and 22 career educators from schools throughout the United Kingdom collected information on pupils' perceptions of entering the hotel and catering industry as a career. The research looked in detail at the job expectations of pupils, the status they associated with hotel and catering and nonhotel and…

The Matthew effect in Dutch primary education, differences between school, cohorts and pupils

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Luyten, Johannes W.; Cremers-van Wees, L.M.C.M.; Bosker, Roel

2003-01-01

Secondary analysis of longitudinal data from Dutch primary education was used to assess to what extent differences between educationally disadvantaged pupils and other pupils increase during their school careers. For language and arithmetic the differences between pupils with poorly educated and

Alcohol consumption in Polish middle and high school pupils – has this rapidly increased during 2009–11?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paulina Wojtyła-Buciora

2014-09-01

Full Text Available [b]Introduction.[/b] The dynamic rise of alcohol consumption in adolescents is a matter of serious concern, requiring frequently updated monitoring. By such means, it is possible to optimise preventative measures for dealing with this problem. [b]Objective[/b]. To estimate the magnitude/amount and frequency of alcohol consumed by middle and high school pupils in Poland, including the circumstances when alcohol was first drunk. [b]Materials and Methods[/b]. A randomised survey was performed throughout Poland on middle school (junior high school pupils, (n=9360 in 2009, followed by both middle and high school pupils in 2011 (n=7971. The questionnaire was devised by the Polish Chief Sanitary Inspectorate (GIS. [b]Results[/b]. A strikingly sharp increase in alcohol consumption (29% was observed in subjects between 2009 – 2011. In the latter year, 1 month prior to survey, respectively, 50% and 71% of middle school and high school pupils drank alcohol, and correspondingly, 36% and 63% of these pupils ever became intoxicated/drunk. [b]Conclusions[/b]. 1 Adolescent alcohol consumption increases with age and is highest in girls. Monitoring as well as in-depth analysis thus becomes necessary. 2 Systematic monitoring and analysis of changing healthy lifestyle behaviour should be used for taking the necessary corrective action. This should happen concurrently and consist of planned health education programmes, including health promotion.

Quality knowledge of science through virtual laboratory as an element of visualization

Science.gov (United States)

Rizman Herga, Natasa

Doctoral dissertation discusses the use of virtual laboratory for learning and teaching chemical concepts at science classes in the seventh grade of primary school. The dissertation has got a two-part structure. In the first theoretical part presents a general platform of teaching science in elementary school, teaching forms and methods of teaching and among modern approaches we highlight experimental work. Particular emphasis was placed on the use of new technologies in education and virtual laboratories. Scientific findings on the importance of visualization of science concepts and their triple nature of their understanding are presented. These findings represent a fundamental foundation of empirical research presented in the second part of the doctoral dissertation, whose basic purpose was to examine the effectiveness of using virtual laboratory for teaching and learning chemical contents at science from students' point of view on knowledge and interest. We designed a didactic experiment in which 225 pupils participated. The work was conducted in the experimental and control group. Prior to its execution, the existing school practice among science and chemistry teachers was analysed in terms of: (1) inclusion of experimental work as a fundamental method of active learning chemical contents, (2) the use of visualization methods in the classroom and (3) the use of a virtual laboratory. The main findings of the empirical research, carried out in the school year 2012/2013, in which 48 science and chemistry participated, are that teachers often include experimental work when teaching chemical contents. Interviewed science teachers use a variety of visualization methods when presenting science concepts, in particular computer animation and simulation. Using virtual laboratory as a new strategy for teaching and learning chemical contents is not common because teachers lack special-didactic skills, enabling them to use virtual reality technology. Based on the didactic

Are Polish Primary School Pupils in Favor of Wearing Uniforms? Snapshot Comment

Science.gov (United States)

Asotska, Julia; Butler, Norman L.; Davidson, Barry S.; Griffith, Kimberly Grantham; Brown, Veda E.; Kritsonis, Wiilliam Allan

2007-01-01

The purpose of this article is to discuss whether Polish primary school pupils want to wear uniforms, and it is motivated by the Polish government's recently proposed policy: Zero Tolerance for Violence at School. Seventy one pupils, who attend Podstawowka Nr30 school in Cracow, were surveyed, and the authors found that most pupils are not in…

Assess the physical activity of pupils aged 11

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Đokić Zoran

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this research is to assess physical activity among pupils in primary schools in Novi Sad, aged 11 years. The sample consisted of 185 participants (90 boys and 95 girls. Data were collected through a questionnaire, and modified Beacke Q questionnaire was used. Physical activity related to school - physical education, sports and leisure were assessed. Frequencies were calculated for all data, and significance of differences in inclusion and type of physical activity of pupils by sex was determined by Chi-square test. In all three dimensions of physical activity, the significant differences between boys and girls (p ≤ 0.05 were established. Boys have a higher level of physical activity compared to girls. Regular attendance of physical education is high, but the class intensity is low, while girls exercise with yet lower intensity compared to the boys. Boys are more active in sports and the most common sports for them are: football and basketball, while for girls those are volleyball and tennis. Pupils involved in sports generally carry out their activities more than 4 hours per week and 9 months per year. Most of their leisure time pupils spend with computers and TV, boys spend more time in sports, while girls spend more time walking.

Survey of Mathematics and Science Requirements for Production-Oriented Agronomy Majors.

Science.gov (United States)

Aide, Michael; Terry, Danny

1996-01-01

Analyzes course requirements to determine the amount of required mathematics and science for production-oriented agronomy majors. Reports that mathematics requirements center around college algebra and statistics; science requirements generally include chemistry, biology, plant physiology, and genetics; and land-grant institutions have a…

Indoor environment and pupils' health in primary schools

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

van Dijken, F.; van Bronswijk, J.E.M.H.; Sundell, Jan

2006-01-01

the associations between indoor environmental quality in Dutch schools and pupils' health, also taking into account the children's home environment and personal factors. A cross-sectional study was performed in 11 classrooms in 11 different schools in the Netherlands. The study included exposure measurements......Dutch children are legally bound to spend 15% of their time in a school setting. The indoor environment in Dutch primary schools is known to be substandard. However, it is unclear to what extent the health of pupils is affected by the indoor school environment. The paper aims to assess......, building inspections, and a questionnaire survey on pupils' health and domestic exposure. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and non-parametric tests were performed to assess relationships. None of the schools complied with all indoor environmental quality standards. The importance of both the school...

Developing a Pupil Transportation Manual.

Science.gov (United States)

Douglas, Dave

1987-01-01

District-level pupil transportation manuals that contain clear, concise information about objectives, policies, and regulations are a must. These manuals should also specify procedures concerning evaluation processes, personnel recruitment and selection, and the driver training program. (MLH)

Science and scientists in the drawings of European children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paola Rodari

2007-09-01

Full Text Available The first step of the SEDEC project has been a survey on teachers and pupils perception of science, scientists, and the European dimension of science. Different research actions have been organized for the different targets, and have been held in the six countries involved in the project: Czech Republic, France, Italy, Portugal, Poland and Romania. This article will present the analysis of more then 1000 drawings realized by 9 and 14 years old pupils and representing "a scientist". Form the drawings emerge stereotypes, fears, desires, expectations and more, a whole imaginery that has to be taken in account for an effective educative adn communicative action.

Error analysis of pupils in calculating with fractions

OpenAIRE

Uranič, Petra

2016-01-01

In this thesis I examine the correlation between the frequency of errors that seventh grade pupils make in their calculations with fractions and their level of understanding of fractions. Fractions are a relevant and demanding theme in the mathematics curriculum. Although we use fractions on a daily basis, pupils find learning fractions to be very difficult. They generally do not struggle with the concept of fractions itself, but they frequently have problems with mathematical operations ...

The Origins of Science

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

science of the 20th century, called this "the tradition of critical discussion". In all or almost ... says that he likes to imagine that Thales was the first teacher to tell his pupils: "This is how I see ... indestructible primary matter. Here, Anaximander is ...

Inquiry-based science education: towards a pedagogical framework for primary school teachers

Science.gov (United States)

van Uum, Martina S. J.; Verhoeff, Roald P.; Peeters, Marieke

2016-02-01

Inquiry-based science education (IBSE) has been promoted as an inspiring way of learning science by engaging pupils in designing and conducting their own scientific investigations. For primary school teachers, the open nature of IBSE poses challenges as they often lack experience in supporting their pupils during the different phases of an open IBSE project, such as formulating a research question and designing and conducting an investigation. The current study aims to meet these challenges by presenting a pedagogical framework in which four domains of scientific knowledge are addressed in seven phases of inquiry. The framework is based on video analyses of pedagogical interventions by primary school teachers participating in open IBSE projects. Our results show that teachers can guide their pupils successfully through the process of open inquiry by explicitly addressing the conceptual, epistemic, social and/or procedural domain of scientific knowledge in the subsequent phases of inquiry. The paper concludes by suggesting further research to validate our framework and to develop a pedagogy for primary school teachers to guide their pupils through the different phases of open inquiry.

Monitoring risk behaviour in adolescent pupils regarding consumption of psychoactive substances.

Science.gov (United States)

Wojtyła-Buciora, Paulina; Klimberg, Aneta; Kapka-Skrzypczak, Lucyna; Diatczyk, Jarosław; Urbaniak, Monika; Ulatowska-Szostak, Ewa; Bołdowski, Tomasz; Wojtyła, Andrzej; Marcinkowski, Jerzy T

2017-06-06

Introduction. Taking psychoactive substances constitutes a significant problem for Public Health, particularly in preventing drug abuse and addiction. Objectives. To estimate the amount and incidence of drug consumption in middle and high school pupils, including the circumstances in which drug taking first started, and to determine pupils' knowledge about the consequences of taking psychoactive substances and designer drugs (DDs). Materials and methods. A randomised study was conducted throughout Poland on 9,360 pupils attending middle school (junior high school) in 2009 and 7,971 pupils from middle and high school pupils in 2011. The survey consisted of a questionnaire devised by the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate (GIS) and the replies obtained were subject to the relevant statistical analyses. Results. Drug taking was found to have increased between 2009-2011, especially among those attending high school; proportionally rising from 4% - 11%. The numbers who had ever taken designer drugs were 3% for middle school pupils and 4% from high school. Conclusions. 1) Adolescent drug consumption has increased, particularly in those of older age and in boys. 2) Despite the only brief interval for which designer drugs were legal, they have gained high popularity among the young. 3) Adolescents have insufficient knowledge about the dangers of using DDs. 4) Faced with the growing threat of a dynamic designer drug market, appropriate counter-measures in education and prevention are therefore necessary.

Pupils Produce Their Own Narratives Inspired by the History of Science: Animation Movies Concerning the Geocentric-Heliocentric Debate

Science.gov (United States)

Piliouras, Panagiotis; Siakas, Spyros; Seroglou, Fanny

2011-01-01

In this paper, we present the design and application of a teaching scenario appropriate for 12-years-old pupils in the primary school aiming to a better understanding of scientific concepts and scientific methods, linking the development of individual thinking with the development of scientific ideas and facilitating a better understanding of the…

Inquiry-based science teasching competence of pre-service primary teachers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Alake-Tuenter, E.

2014-01-01

In recent years, improving primary science education has received considerable attention. In particular, researchers and policymakers advocate the use of inquiry-based science teaching and learning, believing that pupils learn best through direct personal experience and by incorporating new

The Loss of Biodiversity as a Challenge for Sustainable Development: How Do Pupils in Chile and Germany Perceive Resource Dilemmas?

Science.gov (United States)

Menzel, Susanne; Bögeholz, Susanne

2009-08-01

The topic of biodiversity is of high value for education for sustainable development as it reflects the interaction of ecological, economic and social issues particularly well. Especially in so-called biodiversity hotspots, among them Chile, natural resources are often depleted for economic interest which, in many cases, is required income. Therefore, economic and social aspects must be considered in order to fully understand biodiversity loss. Being such an important issue, it is surprising that little is known thus far about learning prerequisites concerning biodiversity. This paper presents a qualitative interview study that investigated 16 to 18-year-old Chilean and German learners’ perception of biodiversity and its loss ( n = 24). Firstly, the pupils’ cognitive frameworks were analysed. Secondly, subjective theories about biodiversity loss due to resource dilemmas were explored. Three subjective theories that emerged from the data reflected the notion that most pupils focused on either ecological or economic aspects of biodiversity loss. Pupils who concentrated on ecological aspects often referred to incorrect ecological facts. Moreover, these pupils showed difficulties in developing empathy and solidarity with impoverished people, who depend economically on plants in a resource dilemma. A smaller group of pupils succeeded in integrating the ecological, economic, and social aspects. Regarding the two samples, Chilean pupils seemed to have greater difficulties in recognising the social aspects of biodiversity loss, while German pupils were largely unaware of biodiversity loss on a local level. Implications for biodiversity education and future research will be outlined and discussed.

Knowledge and Experiences of Risks among Pupils in Vocational Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ing-Marie Andersson

2014-09-01

Conclusion: A systematic approach to pupils' training in work environment, which is a basis for a safe and healthy workplace, is lacking. The study findings indicate that pupils are offered knowledge far from that intended by laws and by state-of-the-art occupational health risk research.

Long-Term Stewardship Program Science and Technology Requirements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Joan McDonald

2002-09-01

Many of the United States’ hazardous and radioactively contaminated waste sites will not be sufficiently remediated to allow unrestricted land use because funding and technology limitations preclude cleanup to pristine conditions. This means that after cleanup is completed, the Department of Energy will have long-term stewardship responsibilities to monitor and safeguard more than 100 sites that still contain residual contamination. Long-term stewardship encompasses all physical and institutional controls, institutions, information, and other mechanisms required to protect human health and the environment from the hazards remaining. The Department of Energy Long-Term Stewardship National Program is in the early stages of development, so considerable planning is still required to identify all the specific roles and responsibilities, policies, and activities needed over the next few years to support the program’s mission. The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory was tasked with leading the development of Science and Technology within the Long-Term Stewardship National Program. As part of that role, a task was undertaken to identify the existing science and technology related requirements, identify gaps and conflicts that exist, and make recommendations to the Department of Energy for future requirements related to science and technology requirements for long-term stewardship. This work is summarized in this document.

Pupils' Knowledge and Spoken Literary Response beyond Polite Meaningless Words: Studying Yeats's "Easter, 1916"

Science.gov (United States)

Gordon, John

2016-01-01

This article presents research exploring the knowledge pupils bring to texts introduced to them for literary study, how they share knowledge through talk, and how it is elicited by the teacher in the course of an English lesson. It sets classroom discussion in a context where new examination requirements diminish the relevance of social, cultural…

An assessment of the effect of an experimental environmental education programme (Man and Nutrition) on Kuwaiti primary school pupils (Grade Four)

Science.gov (United States)

Esmaeel, Yaqoub Y. R.

The educational system in Kuwait is undergoing some fundamental changes, and the need for reform of environmental education has become urgent as a result of the concerns of both the government and the public over environmental issues. It is in such a context that this research was conducted. The research was intended to develop, implement, and evaluate an experimental programme Man and Nutrition for Kuwaiti primary school pupils, aimed at developing a positive environmental achievement, Information about the present status of environmental concepts and environmental education in Kuwait was obtained from preliminary study such as interviews and curriculum analysis. Interviews were conducted in ten different primary schools in four districts in Kuwait, which involved 31 pupils in total, hi addition, information was obtained by analysis of the science curriculum for fourth grade primary schools. The preliminary study was carried out during the period April to October 1998. The results of the preliminary study served to aid the development of an experimental teaching programme. The experimental programme Man and Nutrition consisted of eight lessons printed in two booklets, a teacher's guide and pupil's textbook. The research included a review of the relevant literature examining the development of environmental programmes and activities in a number of countries, which were selected because of their environmental education approaches, and the variety of their environmental conditions. Pilot testing of the teaching programmes was carried out to ascertain the appropriateness of the materials and the data collecting instruments used for the evaluation of the main experimental study. The main study group included 115 pupils in four primary schools and four teachers selected in Kuwait. Data collecting included pre and post-tests and the course evaluation by teachers using semi-structured interviews. Statistical analysis of data obtained was carried out using the SPSS

Socio-demographic factors of pupils who use tobacco in randomly ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Objective: To report the prevalence and socio-economic correlates of tobacco use among primary school pupils in Nairobi‚ Kenya. Design: Cross-sectional school-based survey. Setting: Ten primary schools in Nairobi‚ Kenya. Subjects: A questionnaire was administered to 1198 primary school pupils aged 12 to 17 years ...

The Relationship of Teacher Affective Behavior to Pupil Affective Behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Kameen, Marilyn C.; Brown, Jeannette A.

The study investigated the relationship of teacher affective behavior changes to pupil affective behavior changes in the presence of elementary school guidance services for both populations. Specifically, the study asked: Is teacher change in Intimacy and Esprit related to pupil change in Self Perception and Peer Acceptance? Activities were…

Comparative Study of Pupils' Academic Performance between Private and Public Primary Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Adeyemi, Sunday B.

2014-01-01

This paper compares pupils' academic performance between the private and public primary schools. The sample, made up of 240 pupils were randomly selected from the private and public primary schools in Ilesa East and West Local Government Council Areas of Osun State, Nigeria. Two instruments were used. A structured questionnaire and Pupils'…

Competence of matric physical science teachers in some basic problem-solving strategies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mailoo Selvaratnam

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The National Curriculum Statement for matric physical science places strong emphasis on the development of critical thinking and reasoning abilities of pupils. The successful implementation of this curriculum therefore requires teachers who are competent in the cognitive (intellectual skills and strategies needed for learning science effectively. Testing of teachers’ competence in this aspect is therefore important. I therefore analysed teachers’ answers to questions that were carefully designed to test competence in some basic intellectual strategies that are important for problem solving in physical science courses. A total of 73 matric physical science teachers, from about 50 Dinaledi schools in the North West and KwaZulu-Natal provinces in South Africa, were tested in five intellectual strategies: clear representation of problems, identifying and focusing on the goal, identification and use of relevant principles, use of equations for deductions and proceeding step-by-step with the solution. The teachers’ competence was poor in all the intellectual strategies tested. About 60% (the average performance in all 13 questions used for testing of teachers tested were unable to solve the questions correctly. An important objective of the curriculum is the development of critical thinking, scientific reasoning and strategies of pupils. This study shows that the achievement of this objective will be seriously handicapped because of the lack of competence of many teachers in intellectual strategies. There is therefore a need to train teachers in order to increase their competence in this aspect.

The age-related changes in figural perceptual abilities of pupils

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nešić Blagoje V.

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This paper is a part of a broader research in the field of development of different intellectual abilities in primary schools. Using a transverse - longitudinal research strategy, the pupils from nine to fifteen years of age are observed in order to find answers to the following questions: 1 Do the important developmental changes in the figural-perceptual abilities occur in this developmental period? 2 Is the pace of changes in these abilities the same at all ages, grades? 3 Do the developmental changes in these abilities depend on the type of tests, that is, mental operations which register the applied tests? Figural-perceptual abilities are defined as the ability to identify the elements in space, to imagine and transform the elements in space, the ability for spatial reasoning, perceptual shaping flexibility, the ability of eduction of relations and correlates, the ability to identify the elements that are injected into the right material, the ability to notice the difference in the forms and dimensions of the characters, speed observations of similarities and differences between elements in the field of perception. The measurement (assessment of these abilities was performed with the help of 11 tests of intellectual abilities of the figural content. The individual progresses as baseline data were used for the data analysis. The progresses of the subjects were compared with the analysis and the results are the following: 1 The pupils from third to eighth grade showed positive changes in the figurative perceptive abilities. This is shown in all the tests that were used and progresses are statistically significant in all tests 2 There is a tendency that the pupils in the sixth grade made the best progress, and the seventh-grade pupils made the least progress. 3 However, when the progresses are compared in certain tests, then significant differences in the pace of development of these abilities are determined. Namely, the pupils in the higher

Pupils' Plans to Study Abroad: Social Reproduction of Transnational Capital?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Weenink, D.; Gerhards, J.; Hans, S.; Carlson, S.

2013-01-01

This chapter analyses Dutch pupils' plans to study abroad. The main question is to what extent these plans are related to their social class position, their parents' and their own transnational capital and the school type they attend. The analyses are based on survey data of 549 Dutch pupils, aged

Pattern of ocular trauma among primary school pupils in Ilorin, Nigeria.

Science.gov (United States)

Ayanniyi, A A; Mahmoud, O A; Olatunji, F O; Ayanniyi, R O

2009-06-01

To report the pattern of ocular trauma among school pupils in Ilorin, Nigeria, a cross sectional survey of primary school children in 10 randomly selected primary schools within Ilorin, Nigeria was carried out between July 2005 and January 2006. Relevant ocular history and basic ocular examinations were carried out on the children that were selected from a multi-stage sampling process. Diagnosis of ocular trauma was based on historical recollection together with corroborating ocular signs among affected pupils. Ocular trauma was found among 11 (8 boys and 3 girls) out of 1393 (0.8%) pupils and their ages ranged from 5 to 13 years. The trauma related ocular pathology found among the 11 pupils included unilateral phthisis bulbi (2, 0.14%), couching (1, 0.07%) and retinal detachment (1, 0.07%) all leading to blindness in the affected eyes. There was also a unilateral visual impairment caused by traumatic optic atrophy. Others included eyelid bruises (2, 0.14%) and one pupil (0.07%) each with hyphema, eyelid ecchymosis, eyelid laceration, and subconjunctival haemorrhage. The ocular trauma occurred following unsupervised play (4, 36.40%), corporal punishment at school and at home (3, 27.30%), fight (2, 18.20%), home accident (1, 9.10%) and couching (1, 9.10%). School pupils can lose vision to preventable traumatic eye injuries both at school and at home. Measures to minimize ocular trauma both in the home and at school are advocated.

Sex-related differences in the determinants and process of science and mathematics choice in pre-university education

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Langen, A.; Rekers-Mombarg, L; Dekkers, H

2006-01-01

The more science and mathematics subjects that pupils in pre-university education include in their final examination package, the more future academic routes are available to them. Equality of educational opportunity is thus threatened when groups of pupils, distinguished by sex and family

The pupil response is sensitive to divided attention during speech processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Koelewijn, Thomas; Shinn-Cunningham, Barbara G; Zekveld, Adriana A; Kramer, Sophia E

2014-06-01

Dividing attention over two streams of speech strongly decreases performance compared to focusing on only one. How divided attention affects cognitive processing load as indexed with pupillometry during speech recognition has so far not been investigated. In 12 young adults the pupil response was recorded while they focused on either one or both of two sentences that were presented dichotically and masked by fluctuating noise across a range of signal-to-noise ratios. In line with previous studies, the performance decreases when processing two target sentences instead of one. Additionally, dividing attention to process two sentences caused larger pupil dilation and later peak pupil latency than processing only one. This suggests an effect of attention on cognitive processing load (pupil dilation) during speech processing in noise. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Learning Environment And Pupils Academic Performance ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Learning Environment And Pupils Academic Performance: Implications For Counselling. ... facilities as well as learning materials to make teaching and learning easy. In addition, teachers should provide conducive classroom environment to ...

Students Teach Pupils Environmental Issues and Renewable Energy

Science.gov (United States)

Friman, H.; Banner, I.; Tuchin, B. S.; Einav, Y.

2018-05-01

Technological advances and accessibility to information on the internet have opened a new channel of pupils that are being taught by students throughout the country. Students, full of motivation and a will to learn and teach, have understood that this way is good for them – enabling them to profit from a side job and take advantage of the knowledge they have accumulated in their degree. Holon Institute of Technology (“HIT”) developed a new program at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. The Renewable Energy program gives the students technical and practical aspects of energy use (technology and methodology of the study) and energy efficiency. The program also deals with minimizing the environmental impacts of energy use, as well as with energy economy and environmental policy. The entrance of students to the field of teaching pupils while still in their studies brings many advantages, such as: fresh knowledge, motivation to teach, and innovative, out of the ordinary methods that arouse interest in the pupils and intrigue them.

Special Issue: Every picture tells a story: Pupil representations of learning the violin

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrea Creech

2006-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract: The influence on learning outcomes of interpersonal interaction amongst teachers, pupils and parents is the subject of an inquiry that took this researcher on a voyage from the qualitative to the quantitative side of the “methodological divide”, and back again. This paper presents findings from first phase of the research, which included a quantitative survey to examine how learning and teaching experience for violin pupils was influenced by the interpersonal dynamics of responsiveness and control, within pupilparent and pupil-teacher relationships. As part of the survey pupils were asked to draw pictures of their violin lessons. It was thought that the pictures might reveal pupils’ perceptions of their experience of learning an instrument and that the pictures would add depth to the quantitative scales that measured interpersonal mechanisms and pupil outcomes. The pictures were subjected to content analysis and coded accordingly. These codes were matched with pupil artists’ scores for control and responsiveness, as well as with their scores for outcomes that included enjoyment of music, personal satisfaction, self esteem, self efficacy, friendship, motivation and musical attainment. Analysis of variance was computed in order to test the null hypotheses that a pupil-teacher-parent interpersonal behaviour (control and responsiveness was not represented in their pictures and b pupil outcomes were not reflected in their depictions of violin lessons. This paper presents the results of this analysis, thus addressing the question of whether the pictures could be accepted as telling a credible and coherent story about pupils’ perceptions of learning the violin.

Computer Science in High School Graduation Requirements. ECS Education Trends (Updated)

Science.gov (United States)

Zinth, Jennifer

2016-01-01

Allowing high school students to fulfill a math or science high school graduation requirement via a computer science credit may encourage more student to pursue computer science coursework. This Education Trends report is an update to the original report released in April 2015 and explores state policies that allow or require districts to apply…

Musicality Development Among Primary School Pupils in Music Studies

OpenAIRE

Vilde, Ilze

2013-01-01

Abstract Research goal. To explore the structure of musicality, to examine components that characterize musicality among primary school pupils and the pedagogic logic of its development during music lessons in primary school. As a result of the theoretical study, characterizing components and criteria of musicality among primary school pupils were researched and described and the description of musicality was broadened. The created model for music studies for facilitating the developme...

Does Lego Training Stimulate Pupils' Ability to Solve Logical Problems?

Science.gov (United States)

Lindh, Jorgen; Holgersson, Thomas

2007-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of a one-year regular robotic toys (lego) training on school pupils' performance. The underlying pedagogical perspective is the "constructionist theory," where the main idea is that knowledge is constructed in the mind of the pupil by active learning. The investigation has been made…

Adaptive instruction and pupil achievement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Houtveen, A.A M; Booy, N; de Jong, Robert (Rob); van de Grift, W.J C M

In this article the results are reported of a quasi-experiment on effects of adaptive instruction on reading results of children in the first year of reading instruction in Dutch primary schools. The research involved 456 pupils from 23 schools (12 experimental and 11 control group schools).

What pupils can learn from working with robotic direct manipulation environments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lou Slangen; Hanno van Keulen; Koeno Gravemeijer

2011-01-01

This study investigates what pupils aged 10-12 can learn from working with robots, assuming that understanding robotics is a sign of technological literacy. We conducted cognitive and conceptual analysis to develop a frame of reference for determining pupils' understanding of robotics. Four

What pupils can learn from working with robotic direct manipulation environments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lou Slangen; Hanno van Keulen; Koeno Gravemeijer

2010-01-01

This study investigates what pupils aged 10-12 can learn from working with robots, assuming that understanding robotics is a sign of technological literacy. We conducted cognitive and conceptual analysis to develop a frame of reference for determining pupils' understanding of robotics. Four

Effect of pupil size on visual acuity in a laboratory model of pseudophakic monovision.

Science.gov (United States)

Kawamorita, Takushi; Uozato, Hiroshi; Handa, Tomoya; Ito, Misae; Shimizu, Kimiya

2010-05-01

To investigate the effect of pupil size on visual acuity in pseudophakic monovision. For the simulation, a modified Liou-Brennan model eye was used. The model eye was designed to include a centered optical system, corneal asphericity, an iris pupil, a Stiles-Crawford effect, an intraocular lens, and chromatic aberration. Calculation of the modulation transfer function (MTF) was performed with ZEMAX software. Visual acuity was estimated from the MTF and the retinal threshold curve. The sizes of the entrance pupil were 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, and 4.0 mm. Decreasing pupil diameter and increasing myopia progressively improved near visual acuity. For an entrance pupil size of 2.5 mm and a refractive error of -1.50 diopters, the logMAR value (Snellen; metric) in the non-dominant eye at 40 cm was 0.06 (20/23; 6/6.9). Knowledge of the patient's pupil diameter at near fixation can assist surgeons in determining the optimum degree of myopia for successful monovision.

Satisfaction with the program of school bullying prevention and mental health promotion - cross sectional study among primary school pupils in Mostar.

Science.gov (United States)

Černi Obrdalj, Edita; Zadro, Kristina; Batić-Mujanović, Olivera; Zalihić, Amra

2014-01-01

The aim of this study was to assess the frequency of experience in school bullying and family violence, satisfaction with the preventive-promotional program, knowledge about methods for opposing violence and attitudes toward the role of the family physician in bullying prevention. The project was conducted by family physicians, nurses and sixth year medical students. The target group were 5th to 8th grade pupils of two primary schools randomly selected by computer. Basic information about the presence and types of bullying, the long-term consequences of violence and methods to oppose violent behavior was given as an interactive lecture to large groups of pupils. After the lecture, pupils received questionnaires about their experience of school violence, satisfaction with the program and their opinion about the role of the family physician in bullying prevention. The results of the short term outcome evaluation of the program show that younger pupils evaluate the program better than older ones. Furthermore, we found that the frequency of experienced violence is not connected with satisfaction with the program. Most students have never experienced violence in schools and families, 5th and 6th grade students showed greater satisfaction with training, better knowledge of help in case of violence and a more positive attitude towards medical help. We found no significant differences in pupil's satisfaction with the program, knowledge about methods of opposing violence and attitudes towards the role of the family physician in bullying prevention, in relation to the frequency of experience of family violence and school violence. Copyright © 2014 by Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

BER Science Network Requirements Workshop -- July 26-27,2007

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tierney, Brian L.; Dart, Eli

2008-02-01

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the primary provider of network connectivity for the US Department of Energy Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States of America. In support of the Office of Science programs, ESnet regularly updates and refreshes its understanding of the networking requirements of the instruments, facilities, scientists, and science programs that it serves. This focus has helped ESnet to be a highly successful enabler of scientific discovery for over 20 years. In July 2007, ESnet and the Biological and Environmental Research (BER) Program Office of the DOE Office of Science organized a workshop to characterize the networking requirements of the science programs funded by the BER Program Office. These included several large programs and facilities, including Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program and the ARM Climate Research Facility (ACRF), Bioinformatics and Life Sciences Programs, Climate Sciences Programs, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory at PNNL, the Joint Genome Institute (JGI). National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) also participated in the workshop and contributed a section to this report due to the fact that a large distributed data repository for climate data will be established at NERSC, ORNL and NCAR, and this will have an effect on ESnet. Workshop participants were asked to codify their requirements in a 'case study' format, which summarizes the instruments and facilities necessary for the science and the process by which the science is done, with emphasis on the network services needed and the way in which the network is used. Participants were asked to consider three time scales in their case studies--the near term (immediately and up to 12 months in the future), the medium term (3-5 years in the future), and the long term (greater than 5 years in the future). In addition to achieving its goal of collecting and

Inclusion in education: comparing pupils' development in special and regular education

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Peetsma, T.T.D.; Vergeer, M.M.; Roeleveld, J.; Karsten, S.

2001-01-01

Large-scale longitudinal data on differences in pupils' cognitive and psychosocial development in various types of special and mainstream schools are reported in this article. The study focuses on comparing the development of matched pairs of primary-aged pupils in mainstream and special education

Perspectives of pupils, parents, and teachers on mental health problems among Vietnamese secondary school pupils

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nguyen, Dat Tan; Dedding, Christine; Pham, Tam Thi; Bunders-Aelen, J.G.F.

2013-01-01

Background: Secondary school can be a stressful period for adolescents, having to cope with many life changes. Very little research has been conducted on the mental health status of secondary school pupils in South East Asian countries, such as Vietnam.The study aimed to explore perceptions of

Daytime eyeshine contributes to pupil camouflage in a cryptobenthic marine fish.

Science.gov (United States)

Santon, Matteo; Bitton, Pierre-Paul; Harant, Ulrike K; Michiels, Nico K

2018-05-09

Ocular reflectors enhance eye sensitivity in dim light, but can produce reflected eyeshine when illuminated. Some fish can occlude their reflectors during the day. The opposite is observed in cryptic sit-and-wait predators such as scorpionfish and toadfish, where reflectors are occluded at night and exposed during the day. This results in daytime eyeshine, proposed to enhance pupil camouflage by reducing the contrast between the otherwise dark pupil and the surrounding tissue. In this study, we test this hypothesis in the scorpionfish Scorpaena porcus and show that eyeshine is the result of two mechanisms: the previously described Stratum Argenteum Reflected (SAR) eyeshine, and Pigment Epithelium Transmitted (PET) eyeshine, a newly described mechanism for this species. We confirm that the ocular reflector is exposed only when the eye is light-adapted, and present field measurements to show that eyeshine reduces pupil contrast against the iris. We then estimate the relative contribution of SAR and PET eyeshine to pupil brightness. Visual models for different light scenarios in the field show that daytime eyeshine enhances pupil camouflage from the perspective of a prey fish. We propose that the reversed occlusion mechanism of some cryptobenthic predators has evolved as a compromise between camouflage and vision.

Artificial pupil versus contralateral balanced contact lens fit for presbyopia correction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Santiago García-Lázaro

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Purpose: To assess and compare the effects of contact lens-based artificial pupil design and contralateral balanced multifocal contact lens combination (CBMCLC on visual performance. Methods: This randomized crossover study conducted at the University of Valencia, Spain included 38 presbyopic patients using an artificial pupil contact lens in the nondominant eye and a CBMCLC. After a month of lens wear, the binocular distance visual acuity (BDVA, binocular near visual acuity (BNVA, defocus curve, binocular distance, and near contrast sensitivity and near stereoacuity (NSA were measured under photopic conditions (85 cd/m2. Moreover, BDVA and binocular distance contrast sensitivity were examined under mesopic conditions (5 cd/m2. Results: Visual acuity at an intermediate distance and near vision was better with the CBMCLC than with the artificial pupil (p<0.05. Statistically significant differences were found in contrast sensitivity between the two types of correction for distance (under mesopic conditions and for near vision, with the CBMCLC exhibiting better results in both cases (p<0.05. The mean NSA values obtained for the artificial pupil contact lens were significantly worse than those for the CBMCLC (p=0.001. Conclusion: The CBMCLC provided greater visual performance in terms of intermediate and near vision compared with the artificial pupil contact lens.

Digital Learning Aids for Nynorsk Pupils in School: - A Politically Sensitive Area or a Question of a Deeper Scientific Understanding of Learning?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rune Johan Krumsvik

2015-11-01

Full Text Available This position paper focuses on Nynorsk in the digital era and the need for research-based knowledge about it in school settings in Norway. The Norwegian language situation is exceptional because Norway has two written standards, Bokmål (majority variety and Nynorsk (minority variety, and both the Education Act and the Norwegian Directorate of Education require that publishers provide parallel editions of all paper-based and digital learning aids for pupils. However, a national report by Skjær,Eiksund, Fretland, Holen & Netteland(2008 revealed that few publishers have developed and offered digital learning aids in Nynorsk. In 2015 the situation appears to be largely unchanged, even though the authorities, language organisations and “leadings lights” have taken several initiatives to encourage compliance with the Education Act; however, what is needed is further research into the situation of parallel editions of digital learning aids. This is of particular interest today since the pupils in the county with the highest rate (97% of Nynorsk-pupils has consistently been at the top of the list as one of the best performing counties in Norway in national tests since 2006 (Directorate of Education 2015. In addition, Vangsnes, Söderlund & Blekesaune (2015 find that municipalities in Norway with more than 50% Nynorsk-pupils achieve better in National tests when compared to Bokmål municipalities. The main message in our position paper is that the digital revolution might have changed some underlying premises for how we understand and use language and dialects, and the need for parallel editions of digital learning aids in Bokmål and Nynorsk is no longer a question of economics or of political statements for or against Nynorsk, etc., but is instead a question of a more nuanced scientific understanding of learning and achievement in today’s digitized school. The achievements of Nynorsk pupils in national tests is one indicator of school

Succesful Experience of the Project "ASTROTOP" in Israel: Space-astonomy Science education in form of independent reserch projects of pupils

Science.gov (United States)

Pustil'Nik, Lev

We present more then 10 year experience of educational project in Space/Astrophysics/Environment field, realized on the base of National Science- Educational Center "Blossoms of Science" of the Jordan Valley College. Our approach is based on the natural curiosity of children as driver of their self-development from the first minutes of their life and even in adult state. This approach shift center of the weight in educational process from direct lectures, sermons, explanation from teacher to children on own attempts of children to investigate problem, what is interesting for them, by themselves (individually or in group). Our approach includes four levels of the projects: "nano-projects" for children garden and basic school (up to 10-12 years), "micro-projects" for intermediate school (12-16 years), "mini-projects" for high school (16-18 years), and "macro-projects" for the best graduates high schools and students of colleges (17-22 years). These levels and projects are interconnected one with another and sometimes participants, started on the micro-projects level in intermediate school, continue their activity up to macro-projects of the graduate's diploma level. For each level we organize courses for preparation of the teachers and instructors, interested in the using of our receipts, and published books and brochures for them. The content of our activity for different levels: a) Level of kinder gardens/basic schools- special software with interactive movie -nano-projects; b) Level of intermediate school: "Days of Science" in tens schools of Israel- first contact with astronomy; c) Summer astronomy camps (4-5 of one week camps on 200-300 pupils from all country) with introduce to astronomy and with preparation of micro-projects on themes - first successful experience of research in real science fields (hundreds projects); d) ASTROTOP - one year program of preparation of short projects, with solution on the quality level of chosen astrophysical problem - mini

Science Learning via Multimedia Portal Resources: The Scottish Case

Science.gov (United States)

Elliot, Dely; Wilson, Delia; Boyle, Stephen

2014-01-01

Scotland's rich heritage in the field of science and engineering and recent curricular developments led to major investment in education to equip pupils with improved scientific knowledge and skills. However, due to its abstract and conceptual nature, learning science can be challenging. Literature supports the role of multimedia technology in…

Nuclear Physics Science Network Requirements Workshop, May 2008 - Final Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tierney, Ed., Brian L; Dart, Ed., Eli; Carlson, Rich; Dattoria, Vince; Ernest, Michael; Hitchcock, Daniel; Johnston, William; Kowalski, Andy; Lauret, Jerome; Maguire, Charles; Olson, Douglas; Purschke, Martin; Rai, Gulshan; Watson, Chip; Vale, Carla

2008-11-10

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the primary provider of network connectivity for the US Department of Energy Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States of America. In support of the Office of Science programs, ESnet regularly updates and refreshes its understanding of the networking requirements of the instruments, facilities, scientists, and science programs that it serves. This focus has helped ESnet to be a highly successful enabler of scientific discovery for over 20 years. In May 2008, ESnet and the Nuclear Physics (NP) Program Office of the DOE Office of Science organized a workshop to characterize the networking requirements of the science programs funded by the NP Program Office. Most of the key DOE sites for NP related work will require significant increases in network bandwidth in the 5 year time frame. This includes roughly 40 Gbps for BNL, and 20 Gbps for NERSC. Total transatlantic requirements are on the order of 40 Gbps, and transpacific requirements are on the order of 30 Gbps. Other key sites are Vanderbilt University and MIT, which will need on the order of 20 Gbps bandwidth to support data transfers for the CMS Heavy Ion program. In addition to bandwidth requirements, the workshop emphasized several points in regard to science process and collaboration. One key point is the heavy reliance on Grid tools and infrastructure (both PKI and tools such as GridFTP) by the NP community. The reliance on Grid software is expected to increase in the future. Therefore, continued development and support of Grid software is very important to the NP science community. Another key finding is that scientific productivity is greatly enhanced by easy researcher-local access to instrument data. This is driving the creation of distributed repositories for instrument data at collaborating institutions, along with a corresponding increase in demand for network-based data transfers and the tools

Brief Report: Multilevel Analysis of School Smoking Policy and Pupil Smoking Behaviour in Wales

Science.gov (United States)

Wiium, Nora; Burgess, Stephen; Moore, Laurence

2011-01-01

A multilevel analysis of cross-sectional data from a survey involving 1941 pupils (in grades 10 and 11) and policy indicators developed from interviews with staff from 45 secondary schools in Wales examined the hypotheses that pupil smoking prevalence would be associated with: restrictive staff and pupil smoking policies; dissemination of school…

Entrepreneurship Education: Motivation and Effort for Pupils with Special Needs in Norwegian Compulsory School

Science.gov (United States)

Somby, Hege Merete; Johansen, Vegard

2017-01-01

Pupil enterprises are a widespread type of entrepreneurship education. In this working method, pupils start up, manage and close a business over short period of time. National and international policy documents claim that practical working methods through the use of pupil enterprises are beneficial to increase motivation by being a realistic and…

Perspective reports of corporal punishment by pupils in Lesotho schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Monyooe, L A

1993-10-01

This study surveyed reports of practices of corporal punishment at secondary schools in Lesotho by 60 randomly selected pupils. There were 34 males and 26 females, whose mean age was 21 years, with a range between 14 and 29 years. Responses to a questionnaire confirmed that punishment was associated with pupils' reports of academic impairment, psychological damage, and physical injury.

What Pupils Can Learn from Working with Robotic Direct Manipulation Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Slangen, Lou; van Keulen, Hanno; Gravemeijer, Koeno

2011-01-01

This study investigates what pupils aged 10-12 can learn from working with robots, assuming that understanding robotics is a sign of technological literacy. We conducted cognitive and conceptual analysis to develop a frame of reference for determining pupils' understanding of robotics. Four perspectives were distinguished with increasing…

Pupil diameter as predictor of cognitive load: A novel tool for geoscience education research

Science.gov (United States)

Mitra, R.; McNeal, K.

2015-12-01

Pupils can truly serve as windows to the mind. Since the early part of the last decade, pupillometry, the study of pupils in response to cognitive tasks, have gained traction in psychophysiological studies. Muscles of the iris work in tandem with the autonomic nervous system in response to light condition to either dilate or contract the pupil, usually between 2 to 7 mm. Along with this response to light conditions, the pupils also contract or dilate in response to emotional or mental response. Therefore, for a cognitive task, if the ambient brightness is controlled, pupil dilation reflects the cognitive load associated with the task. Simple tasks such as counting, memorizing, multiplying and visual searching have been found to have pupillometry profiles reflective of the cognitive load involved with such tasks. In this study, we investigate whether pupil diameter can be used for education research where tasks can be more complex. In particular, we look at two specific types of tasks common in geoscience and several other STEM fields: graph reading and spatial problem solving.

Teacher Pupil Contact in Junior Classrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Boydell, D.

1974-01-01

The purpose of the exploratory study reported here was to examine the nature of teacher-pupil contact in informal junior classrooms in terms of the teacher's method of talking to children and the teacher's conversational approach. (Author/RK)

Judging a book by its cover: the unconscious influence of pupil size on consumer choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Wiseman, Richard; Watt, Caroline

2010-01-01

Past research suggests that men perceive women with large pupils as especially attractive. We employed an innovative methodology to examine whether this effect influences consumer decision-making. A popular psychology book was published with two slightly different front covers. Both covers contained the same photograph of a woman; however, the woman's pupils on one cover were digitally enlarged. Readers indicated whether they were male or female, and whether they possessed the cover with small or large pupils. A significantly greater percentage of men than women had chosen the cover with the large pupils. None of the participants who attempted to guess the nature of the experiment was correct, suggesting that the influence exerted by pupil size was unconscious. These findings provide further support for the notion that people's judgments are unconsciously swayed by pupil size, and demonstrate that this effect operates in a real world setting.

Fine-grained versus categorical: Pupil size differentiates between strategies for spatial working memory performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Starc, Martina; Anticevic, Alan; Repovš, Grega

2017-05-01

Pupillometry provides an accessible option to track working memory processes with high temporal resolution. Several studies showed that pupil size increases with the number of items held in working memory; however, no study has explored whether pupil size also reflects the quality of working memory representations. To address this question, we used a spatial working memory task to investigate the relationship of pupil size with spatial precision of responses and indicators of reliance on generalized spatial categories. We asked 30 participants (15 female, aged 19-31) to remember the position of targets presented at various locations along a hidden radial grid. After a delay, participants indicated the remembered location with a high-precision joystick providing a parametric measure of trial-to-trial accuracy. We recorded participants' pupil dilations continuously during task performance. Results showed a significant relation between pupil dilation during preparation/early encoding and the precision of responses, possibly reflecting the attentional resources devoted to memory encoding. In contrast, pupil dilation at late maintenance and response predicted larger shifts of responses toward prototypical locations, possibly reflecting larger reliance on categorical representation. On an intraindividual level, smaller pupil dilations during encoding predicted larger dilations during late maintenance and response. On an interindividual level, participants relying more on categorical representation also produced larger precision errors. The results confirm the link between pupil size and the quality of spatial working memory representation. They suggest compensatory strategies of spatial working memory performance-loss of precise spatial representation likely increases reliance on generalized spatial categories. © 2017 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Variations in Primary Teachers’ Responses and Development during Three Major Science In- Service Programmes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anthony Pell

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This paper reports on how different types of teachers responded to in-service aimed at developing investigative-based science education (IBSE in primary schools, and the extent to which they applied their new skills in the classroom. Common items from evaluation questionnaires allowed data to be combined from three major in-service programmes. Using complete data sets from 120 teachers, cluster analysis enabled three teacher types to be identified: a small group of ‘science unsures’, with low attitude scores and little confidence, who showed no response to the innovation; ‘holistic improvers’, who showed the largest improvement in science teaching confidence; and ‘high level, positive progressives’, who were very positive to science teaching throughout and showed gains in confidence in teaching physics and chemistry, as well as in demonstrating the relevance of science to their pupils. Taking account of these teacher types alongside interviews and observations, nine developmental stages in how teachers apply their new expertise in the classroom and the whole school are suggested. Major factorsinfluencing application in the classroom are the teachers’ initial science knowledge and pedagogical expertise, and motivating feedback to teachers when pupils responded positively to the innovation. Assessing teachers’ initial level of subject knowledge and science pedagogical expertise to inform the approach and amount of in-service provision is important. Subsequent mentoring as well as support from the school principal when teachers first try IBSE with pupils promotes successful implementation in the classroom.

[Correspondence analysis of association between types of unintentional injuries and influential factors among rural rear pupils].

Science.gov (United States)

Dou, Dongmei; Wang, Peixi

2015-07-01

To explore the association between types of unintentional injuries and influential factors among rural rear pupils. The multistage stratified sampling method was used to select the study participant and thus 594 rural pupils were sampled, 292 rear pupils were confirmed and measured with unintentional injuries and influential factors of rural rear pupils scale. Binary logistic regression analysis indicate that the risk facts related to unintentional injury were left-behind status (OR = 2.68, 95% CI 1.06-6.79), gender (OR = 5.12, 95% C2.68-9.79) and surrounding environment (OR = 3.44, 95% CI 1.37-8.70). Correspondence analysis showed living with father, middle personality and low age were related possibly with traffic accident injury. Living with grandparents, extrovert personality and elder pupils were related possibly with unintentional falls injury. Living with mother, introvert personality and middle-age pupils were related possibly with animmal injury. The personality, ages and guardian types of rural rear pupils are correlated with types of unintentional injuries.

Free Primary Education Policy and Pupil School Mobility in Urban Kenya

Science.gov (United States)

Oketch, Moses; Mutisya, Maurice; Ngware, Moses; Ezeh, Alex C.; Epari, Charles

2010-01-01

This paper examines pupil school mobility in urban Kenya using African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC) household survey data which contain information on pupil transfers between schools. The aim is to identify which school characteristics attract the greatest demand for incoming transfers. The analysis reveals that there are frequent…

Science Club--A Concept

Science.gov (United States)

Wegner, Claas; Issak, Nicole; Tesch, Katharina; Zehne, Carolin

2016-01-01

The following article presents a concept of a science club which was developed by two master's students as a part of their thesis and which has been developed and improved ever since. The extra-curricular concept emphasises pupils' individuality through focusing on problem based leaning, station learning, and mixed age groups. Having joined the…

The Gemini Planet Imager: From Science to Design to Construction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Macintosh, B; Graham, J R; Palmer, D; Doyon, R; Dunn, J; Gavel, D; Larkin, J; Oppenheimer, B; Saddlemyer, L; Sivaramakrishnan, A; Wallace, J K; Bauman, B; Erickson, D; Marois, C; Poyneer, L; Soummer, R

2008-07-01

The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is a facility instrument under construction for the 8-m Gemini South telescope. It combines a 1500 subaperture AO system using a MEMS deformable mirror, an apodized-pupil Lyot coronagraph, a high-accuracy IR interferometer calibration system, and a near-infrared integral field spectrograph to allow detection and characterization of self-luminous extrasolar planets at planet/star contrast ratios of 10{sup -7}. I will discuss the evolution from science requirements through modeling to the final detailed design, provide an overview of the subsystems and show models of the instrument's predicted performance.

Inquiry-Based Science Education Competencies of Primary School Teachers: A literature study and critical review of the American National Science Education Standards

Science.gov (United States)

Alake-Tuenter, Ester; Biemans, Harm J. A.; Tobi, Hilde; Wals, Arjen E. J.; Oosterheert, Ida; Mulder, Martin

2012-11-01

Inquiry-based science education is an important innovation. Researchers and teachers consider it to be stimulating for pupils' application of research skills, construction of meaning and acquiring scientific knowledge. However, there is ambiguity as to what competencies are required to teach inquiry-based science. Our purpose is to develop a profile of professional competence, required for effective inquiry-based science teaching in primary schools in the Netherlands. This article reviews literature and compares the outcomes to the American National Science Education Standards (NSES). In so doing, it seeks to answer the following research questions: What elements of competencies required by primary school teachers who teach inquiry-based science are mentioned, discussed and researched in recent literature? To what extent are the American NSES (introduced 15 years ago) consistent with elements of competencies found in recent literature? A comprehensive literature review was conducted using Educational Resources Information Centre and Google Scholar databases. Fifty-seven peer-reviewed scientific journal articles from 2004 to 2011 were found using keyword combinations. Analysis of these articles resulted in the identification and classification of 22 elements of competencies. This outcome was compared to the American NSES, revealing gaps in the standards with respect to a lack of focus on how teachers view science teaching and themselves as teachers. We also found that elements of competencies are connected and poor mastery of one may affect a teacher's mastery of another. Therefore, we propose that standards for the Netherlands should be presented in a non-linear, holistic, competence-based model.

Learning a Musical Instrument: The Influence of Interpersonal Interaction on Outcomes for School-Aged Pupils

Science.gov (United States)

Creech, Andrea; Hallam, Susan

2011-01-01

Researchers in recent years have increasingly placed an emphasis on seeking pupils' perceptions of educational settings. Alongside this shift towards attaching value to the pupil viewpoint has been a growing interest concerning how interpersonal relationships, manifested as control or responsiveness between teachers and pupils or parents and…

Archaeology in Delaware. Pupil's Guide.

Science.gov (United States)

Delaware State Dept. of Public Instruction, Dover.

The archeology of Delaware, for all practical purposes meaning Indian prehistory, is the focus of this set consisting of teacher's and pupil's guides. Intended primarily for use at the fourth grade level, the material can successfully be adapted for use in grades 5 through 8. The teacher's guide is flexible and non-structured, allowing for…

Capsule-Fixated Intraocular Lens Implantation in Small Pupil Cases.

Science.gov (United States)

Schojai, Merita; Schultz, Tim; Burkhard Dick, H

2017-08-01

To describe a new technique for implantation of capsule-fixated intraocular lenses (IOLs) (FEMTIS; Oculentis, Berlin, Germany) in patients with small pupils. In 4 eyes with small pupils, an anterior capsule-fixated IOL was implanted into the capsular bag after femtosecond laser treatment. The two large and two small flaps of the IOL were elevated to the front of the iris and the anterior capsule. Finally, the iris was flipped over the flaps to ensure a fixation of the capsule inside of the capsulotomy. In all cases, the implantation of anterior capsule-fixated IOLs was possible. No complications occurred during surgery or within the first months after surgery. With the described technique, capsulefixated IOLs can be implanted in eyes with small pupil easily and safely. This type of IOL has great potential to improve the refractive outcome by better prediction of the postoperative IOL position and eliminating IOL rotation after cataract surgery. [J Refract Surg. 2017;33(8):568-570.]. Copyright 2017, SLACK Incorporated.

A Study on the Influence of Teacher's Verbal Guidance on Pupil's Emotional Functions

OpenAIRE

後藤, 靖宏

2006-01-01

How do the pupils accept teachers' words of guidance? The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of teachers' verbal guidance on pupil's consciousness ( of emotions and enthusiasm). Although speech (language) is the fastest method of communication between people, it is not the only means of communication. We usually have two means of communication in human interaction, that is verbal communication and nonverbal communication. This is the same with pupil or student guidance. Nonverbal...

Pupil remapping for high contrast astronomy: results from an optical testbed.

Science.gov (United States)

Kotani, T; Lacour, S; Perrin, G; Robertson, G; Tuthill, P

2009-02-02

The direct imaging and characterization of Earth-like planets is among the most sought-after prizes in contemporary astrophysics, however current optical instrumentation delivers insufficient dynamic range to overcome the vast contrast differential between the planet and its host star. New opportunities are offered by coherent single mode fibers, whose technological development has been motivated by the needs of the telecom industry in the near infrared. This paper presents a new vision for an instrument using coherent waveguides to remap the pupil geometry of the telescope. It would (i) inject the full pupil of the telescope into an array of single mode fibers, (ii) rearrange the pupil so fringes can be accurately measured, and (iii) permit image reconstruction so that atmospheric blurring can be totally removed. Here we present a laboratory experiment whose goal was to validate the theoretical concepts underpinning our proposed method. We successfully confirmed that we can retrieve the image of a simulated astrophysical object (in this case a binary star) though a pupil remapping instrument using single mode fibers.

Permanent alterations in muscarinic receptors and pupil size produced by chronic atropinization in kittens

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, E.L.; Redburn, D.A.; Harwerth, R.S.; Maguire, G.W.

1984-01-01

Chronic mydriasis was induced in six kittens (four monocular, two binocular) and two adult cats (both monocular) by the daily topical application of atropine. Both the kittens and the adult cats were atropinized for a 13-week period with the treatment regimen beginning at the time of eye opening for the kittens. Pupil size measurements, obtained 1 year after the atropinization were discontinued, revealed that, although the pupils of the adult cats were normal, the pupils of the kittens' treated eyes were consistently smaller than pupils in control eyes. The status of the muscarinic receptors in the kittens' irides was investigated using 3 H-QNB binding assays. In comparison with iris muscle homogenates from the control eyes, those from the treated eyes demonstrated an eightfold increase in the number of receptor binding sites. The results indicate that pupil size can be altered permanently by chronic mydriasis initiated early in the life of a kitten and that the permanent change in pupil size may result, in part, from a type of permanent supersensitivity response in the muscle following chronic blockade of muscarinic transmission by atropine

Combining Blink, Pupil, and Response Time Measures in a Concealed Knowledge Test

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Travis eSeymour

2013-02-01

Full Text Available The response time (RT based Concealed Knowledge Test (CKT has been shown to accurately detect participants’ knowledge of mock-crime related information. Tests based on ocular measures such as pupil size and blink rate have sometimes resulted in poor classification, or lacked detailed classification analyses. The present study examines the fitness of multiple pupil and blink related responses in the CKT paradigm. To maximize classification efficiency, participants’ concealed knowledge was assessed using both individual test measures and combinations of test measures. Results show that individual pupil-size, pupil-slope, and pre-response blink-rate measures produce efficient classifications. Combining pupil and blink measures yielded more accuracy classifications than individual ocular measures. Although RT-based tests proved efficient, combining RT with ocular measures had little incremental benefit. It is argued that covertly assessing ocular measures during RT-based tests may guard against effective countermeasure use in applied settings. A compound classification procedure was used to categorize individual participants and yielded high hit rates and low false-alarm rates without the need for adjustments between test paradigms or subject populations. We conclude that with appropriate test paradigms and classification analyses, ocular measures may prove as effective as other indices, though additional research is needed.

Pupils' Self-Perceptions: The Role of Teachers' Judgment Controlling for Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect

Science.gov (United States)

Bressoux, Pascal; Pansu, Pascal

2016-01-01

This article aims to study the relationship between teachers' judgment and pupils' self-perceptions controlling for the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE). Three studies were conducted among third-grade pupils. Study 1 (n = 585) focused on pupils' perceptions of their scholastic competence. Teachers' judgment and BFLPE were found to have an…

Pupil-linked arousal is driven by decision uncertainty and alters serial choice bias

Science.gov (United States)

Urai, Anne E.; Braun, Anke; Donner, Tobias H.

2017-03-01

While judging their sensory environments, decision-makers seem to use the uncertainty about their choices to guide adjustments of their subsequent behaviour. One possible source of these behavioural adjustments is arousal: decision uncertainty might drive the brain's arousal systems, which control global brain state and might thereby shape subsequent decision-making. Here, we measure pupil diameter, a proxy for central arousal state, in human observers performing a perceptual choice task of varying difficulty. Pupil dilation, after choice but before external feedback, reflects three hallmark signatures of decision uncertainty derived from a computational model. This increase in pupil-linked arousal boosts observers' tendency to alternate their choice on the subsequent trial. We conclude that decision uncertainty drives rapid changes in pupil-linked arousal state, which shape the serial correlation structure of ongoing choice behaviour.

Sensitive "Heritage" of Slavery in a Multicultural Classroom: Pupils' Ideas Regarding Significance

Science.gov (United States)

Savenije, Geerte; van Boxtel, Carla; Grever, Maria

2014-01-01

Pupils' attribution of significance to sensitive "heritage" of slavery may differ, particularly in multicultural classrooms. Little is known about the ways in which pupils establish a relationship with the present when discussing the significance of heritage of slavery. Starting from theories of historical significance and identity,…

ADAPTATION OF THE FIRST FORM PUPILS TO EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY IN PRIMARY SCHOOL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Микола Прозар

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The article presents the results of a study of adaptive possibilities (social and psychological of pupils of the first form to the educational activities in secondary schools. Using the research methods, an one-year experiment was conducted: the pupils of the first forms of Kamjanets-Podilsky secondary schools  № 13 and № 14 (73 boys and 87 girls were selected by the method of random sample. The study found that the living conditions of the 6-year-olds (due to the beginning of education in secondary school do not assist formation of adequate adaptation: at the beginning, the social and psychological adaptation correspond to the average level, and in the end – to the lowest one. Obtained results give reason to conclude that the learning activities in the first year of study negatively affects the adaptive possibilities of the first form pupils; it results in poor mental capacity and health of pupils.

Disorders in melanopsin effect of pupil constriction as a risk factor causing eye diseases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V.A. Kaptsov

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Risks of eye damage and eyesight deterioration to a great extent depend on how efficient a biomechanical eye system is under energy-saving lighting conditions. The system's efficiency is determined by its adequacy in managing pupils and ciliary muscle. We analyzed mathematical models describing changes in pupil's diameter which were determined by light-technical parameters of illumination environment (luminance level and brightness. We highlighted the importance of ganglionic cells and the role they play in managing pupil's diameter (miosis when they are exposed to blue light within 480 nm spectrum. Basing on the assessment of a pupil's constriction under exposure to various light stimuli (blue, red, and green ones we worked out a melanopsin effect concept of a pupil's retention at miosis and showed that it could be a diagnostic sign of some diseases (age-related direct retinopathy, pancreatic diabetes under exposure to a blue light impulse with a certain wave length. Under exposure to blue light within 480 nm spectrum ganglionic cells form a managing signal for a sphincter muscle of a pupil and ciliary muscle which provides accommodation (as per Helmholtz and regulates aqueous humor flow in ciliary channel. All modern energy-saving light sources have a low energy level at wave length equal to 480 nm due to gap in their spectrum in comparison with sunlight spectrum with the same light temperature and luminance level. Inadequate management of pupil's diameter under artificial lighting conditions leads to melanopsin effect disorders and causes disharmony in managing aqueous humor outflow. All the above-stated factors under long-term visual load cause eye diseases risks in modern illumination environment. We detected that contemporary mathematic models describing pupil's diameter fluctuations needed to be refined allowing for new knowledge on functional peculiarities of retina cells and energy-saving light sources spectrum.

Teacher students' dilemmas when teaching science through inquiry

Science.gov (United States)

Krämer, Philipp; Nessler, Stefan H.; Schlüter, Kirsten

2015-09-01

Background: Inquiry-based science education (IBSE) is suitable to teach scientific contents as well as to foster scientific skills. Similar conclusions are drawn by studies with respect to scientific literacy, motivational aspects, vocabulary knowledge, conceptual understandings, critical thinking, and attitudes toward science. Nevertheless, IBSE is rarely adopted in schools. Often barriers for teachers account for this lack, with the result that even good teachers struggle to teach science as inquiry. More importantly, studies indicate that several barriers and constraints could be ascribed to problems teacher students have at the university stage. Purpose: The purpose of this explorative investigation is to examine the problems teacher students have when teaching science through inquiry. In order to draw a holistic picture of these problems, we identified problems from three different points of view leading to the research question: What problems regarding IBSE do teacher students have from an objective, a subjective, and a self-reflective perspective? Design & method: Using video analysis and observation tools as well as qualitative content analysis and open questionnaires we identified problems from each perspective. Results: The objectively stated problems comprise the lack of essential features of IBSE especially concerning 'Supporting pupils' own investigations' and 'Guiding analysis and conclusions.' The subjectively perceived problems comprise concerns about 'Teachers' abilities' and 'Pupils' abilities,' 'Differentiated instruction' and institutional frame 'Conditions' while the self-reflectively noticed problems mainly comprise concerns about 'Allowing inquiry,' 'Instructional Aspects,' and 'Pupils' behavior.' Conclusions: Each of the three different perspectives provides plenty of problems, partially overlapping, partially complementing one another, and partially revealing completely new problems. Consequently, teacher educators have to consider these

Truthfulness in science teachers’ bodily and verbal actions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Daugbjerg, Peer

2013-01-01

A dramaturgical approach to teacher’s personal bodily and verbal actions is applied through the vocabulary of truthfulness. Bodily and verbal actions have been investigated among Danish primary and lower secondary school science teachers based on their narratives and observations of their classroom...... actions. The analysis shows how science teachers engage truthfully in pupil relations through an effort of applying classroom management, among other things. In all, this indicates that if science education research wants to understand science teachers’ personal relations to teaching science it could...... be beneficial to address the truthfulness of science teachers’ narratives and actions....

Understanding pressure: didactical transpositions and pupils' conceptions

Science.gov (United States)

Kariotogloy, P.; Psillos, D.; Vallassiades, O.

1990-03-01

Using the concept of pressure two research trends-content analysis and pupils' conceptions of subject matter-are drawn together, in an attempt to understand the issues in teaching and learning specific domains of physics.

Psychometric aspects of pupil monitoring systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Glas, Cornelis A.W.; Geerlings, Hanneke

2009-01-01

Pupil monitoring systems support the teacher in tailoring teaching to the individual level of a student and in comparing the progress and results of teaching with national standards. The systems are based on the availability of an item bank calibrated using item response theory. The assessment of

Pupil dilation indicates the coding of past prediction errors: Evidence for attentional learning theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Koenig, Stephan; Uengoer, Metin; Lachnit, Harald

2018-04-01

The attentional learning theory of Pearce and Hall () predicts more attention to uncertain cues that have caused a high prediction error in the past. We examined how the cue-elicited pupil dilation during associative learning was linked to such error-driven attentional processes. In three experiments, participants were trained to acquire associations between different cues and their appetitive (Experiment 1), motor (Experiment 2), or aversive (Experiment 3) outcomes. All experiments were designed to examine differences in the processing of continuously reinforced cues (consistently followed by the outcome) versus partially reinforced, uncertain cues (randomly followed by the outcome). We measured the pupil dilation elicited by the cues in anticipation of the outcome and analyzed how this conditioned pupil response changed over the course of learning. In all experiments, changes in pupil size complied with the same basic pattern: During early learning, consistently reinforced cues elicited greater pupil dilation than uncertain, randomly reinforced cues, but this effect gradually reversed to yield a greater pupil dilation for uncertain cues toward the end of learning. The pattern of data accords with the changes in prediction error and error-driven attention formalized by the Pearce-Hall theory. © 2017 The Authors. Psychophysiology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Parasympathetic Nervous System Dysfunction, as Identified by Pupil Light Reflex, and Its Possible Connection to Hearing Impairment.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yang Wang

Full Text Available Although the pupil light reflex has been widely used as a clinical diagnostic tool for autonomic nervous system dysfunction, there is no systematic review available to summarize the evidence that the pupil light reflex is a sensitive method to detect parasympathetic dysfunction. Meanwhile, the relationship between parasympathetic functioning and hearing impairment is relatively unknown.To 1 review the evidence for the pupil light reflex being a sensitive method to evaluate parasympathetic dysfunction, 2 review the evidence relating hearing impairment and parasympathetic activity and 3 seek evidence of possible connections between hearing impairment and the pupil light reflex.Literature searches were performed in five electronic databases. All selected articles were categorized into three sections: pupil light reflex and parasympathetic dysfunction, hearing impairment and parasympathetic activity, pupil light reflex and hearing impairment.Thirty-eight articles were included in this review. Among them, 36 articles addressed the pupil light reflex and parasympathetic dysfunction. We summarized the information in these data according to different types of parasympathetic-related diseases. Most of the studies showed a difference on at least one pupil light reflex parameter between patients and healthy controls. Two articles discussed the relationship between hearing impairment and parasympathetic activity. Both studies reported a reduced parasympathetic activity in the hearing impaired groups. The searches identified no results for pupil light reflex and hearing impairment.As the first systematic review of the evidence, our findings suggest that the pupil light reflex is a sensitive tool to assess the presence of parasympathetic dysfunction. Maximum constriction velocity and relative constriction amplitude appear to be the most sensitive parameters. There are only two studies investigating the relationship between parasympathetic activity and hearing

Parasympathetic Nervous System Dysfunction, as Identified by Pupil Light Reflex, and Its Possible Connection to Hearing Impairment.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yang; Zekveld, Adriana A; Naylor, Graham; Ohlenforst, Barbara; Jansma, Elise P; Lorens, Artur; Lunner, Thomas; Kramer, Sophia E

2016-01-01

Although the pupil light reflex has been widely used as a clinical diagnostic tool for autonomic nervous system dysfunction, there is no systematic review available to summarize the evidence that the pupil light reflex is a sensitive method to detect parasympathetic dysfunction. Meanwhile, the relationship between parasympathetic functioning and hearing impairment is relatively unknown. To 1) review the evidence for the pupil light reflex being a sensitive method to evaluate parasympathetic dysfunction, 2) review the evidence relating hearing impairment and parasympathetic activity and 3) seek evidence of possible connections between hearing impairment and the pupil light reflex. Literature searches were performed in five electronic databases. All selected articles were categorized into three sections: pupil light reflex and parasympathetic dysfunction, hearing impairment and parasympathetic activity, pupil light reflex and hearing impairment. Thirty-eight articles were included in this review. Among them, 36 articles addressed the pupil light reflex and parasympathetic dysfunction. We summarized the information in these data according to different types of parasympathetic-related diseases. Most of the studies showed a difference on at least one pupil light reflex parameter between patients and healthy controls. Two articles discussed the relationship between hearing impairment and parasympathetic activity. Both studies reported a reduced parasympathetic activity in the hearing impaired groups. The searches identified no results for pupil light reflex and hearing impairment. As the first systematic review of the evidence, our findings suggest that the pupil light reflex is a sensitive tool to assess the presence of parasympathetic dysfunction. Maximum constriction velocity and relative constriction amplitude appear to be the most sensitive parameters. There are only two studies investigating the relationship between parasympathetic activity and hearing impairment

Socially-pedagogical terms of preparation of senior pupils to service in Military Powers of Ukraine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ryutin V.V.

2010-02-01

Full Text Available The problem of preparation of senior pupils is investigational to military service. The social pedagogical terms of preparation of senior pupils are certain to military service. Adequate psychological pedagogical measures are developed on overcoming of tendency of subzero perception by the senior pupils of service in Military Powers of Ukraine. Basic directions the personal interest are rotined in harmonious, valuable psychical and physical development of the Ukrainian young people. The national orientation of military patriotic education of senior pupils is marked. It is based on ethnology and regional principles of education, respect to history of the people and state.

Quiet pupils can be effective learners

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gunnhildur Óskarsdóttir

2015-11-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates the importance for pupils’ learning of being generally visibly active participant in a classroom discussion. A class of six year-old pupils was taught about the human skeletal system and other organs. To determine what they had learnt, they were asked to produce drawings before and after the course of teaching. The pupils’ participation in the class discussion during the course of teaching was given values on a scale from 1–8, the most talkative receiving the value 1 and the least talkative (or most quiet the value 8. The study showed that the less talkative the pupils were in the discussion the more they gained from the teaching. The results could not be accounted for by ceiling effects and similar patterns obtained across the materials used support the robustness of the findings. The study suggests that it cannot be assumed that participating in classroom discussion during the learning process is a necessary precondition for learning.

Teachers' perceptions of academic failure: Is it worth to bother about unsuccesful pupils?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Malinić Dušica

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We analyzed the convictions of the teachers about scholastic failure and their perception of the activities they use in work with unsuccessful pupils. The theoretical basis for our research was the belief that there is a connection between the teacher's convictions and their everyday practices. The aim was to examine: 1 the teachers' convictions about the nature of academic failure, traits of the failing students, adequacy of after-class sessions and group work in overcoming the problem of academic failure, and 2 the teachers' perception of their own responsibility and engagement in supporting failing pupils. A set of parametric statistical techniques was used to analyze the responses of 1441 elementary-school teachers to the items related to academic failure in the questionnaire about current school problems. The results show that 1 the teachers have optimistic convictions about cognitive abilities of failing pupils and see after-class sessions as a good opportunity to work with them; they state that 2 they additionally prepare classes for work with failing pupils and stimulate them during regular classes and believe that failing pupils are successful in outdoor activities; 3 they have no definite opinion about the role of the teacher and adequacy of group work in overcoming the problem. The concluding observations stress the need for a detailed analysis of the activities based on the teacher's convictions about academic failure and support to failing pupils.

Learning for self-regulation: Improving instructional benefits for pupils, teachers, parents, schools, and society at large

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mooij, Ton

2016-01-01

Compulsory education laws oblige primary and secondary schools to give each pupil positive encouragement in, for example, social, emotional, cognitive, creative, and ethical respects. This is a fairly smooth process for most pupils, but it is not as easy to achieve with others. A pattern of pupil,

Assessment Accommodations for Foreign Pupils in the Light of Educational Justice: Empirical Research among Slovenian Primary School Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Mihelic, Mojca Žveglic

2017-01-01

The starting points of primary school pupils in a foreign country differ significantly from those of native pupils. In Slovenia, the knowledge of pupils who are foreign citizens (foreign pupils) may be assessed with different accommodations for no more than two years. The presented research conducted on a representative sample of 697 Slovenian…

Pupil size directly modulates the feedforward response in human primary visual cortex independently of attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Bombeke, Klaas; Duthoo, Wout; Mueller, Sven C; Hopf, Jens-Max; Boehler, C Nico

2016-02-15

Controversy revolves around the question of whether psychological factors like attention and emotion can influence the initial feedforward response in primary visual cortex (V1). Although traditionally, the electrophysiological correlate of this response in humans (the C1 component) has been found to be unaltered by psychological influences, a number of recent studies have described attentional and emotional modulations. Yet, research into psychological effects on the feedforward V1 response has neglected possible direct contributions of concomitant pupil-size modulations, which are known to also occur under various conditions of attentional load and emotional state. Here we tested the hypothesis that such pupil-size differences themselves directly affect the feedforward V1 response. We report data from two complementary experiments, in which we used procedures that modulate pupil size without differences in attentional load or emotion while simultaneously recording pupil-size and EEG data. Our results confirm that pupil size indeed directly influences the feedforward V1 response, showing an inverse relationship between pupil size and early V1 activity. While it is unclear in how far this effect represents a functionally-relevant adaptation, it identifies pupil-size differences as an important modulating factor of the feedforward response of V1 and could hence represent a confounding variable in research investigating the neural influence of psychological factors on early visual processing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Habermas, Pupil Voice, Rationalism, and Their Meeting with Lacan's Objet Petit A

Science.gov (United States)

Moran, Paul; Murphy, Mark

2012-01-01

"Pupil voice" is a movement within state education in England that is associated with democracy, change, participation and the raising of educational standards. While receiving much attention from educators and policy makers, less attention has been paid to the theory behind the concept of pupil voice. An obvious point of theoretical…

Expectancy modulates pupil size during endogenous orienting of spatial attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Dragone, Alessio; Lasaponara, Stefano; Pinto, Mario; Rotondaro, Francesca; De Luca, Maria; Doricchi, Fabrizio

2018-05-01

fMRI investigations in healthy humans have documented phasic changes in the level of activation of the right temporal-parietal junction (TPJ) during cued voluntary orienting of spatial attention. Cues that correctly predict the position of upcoming targets in the majority of trials, i.e., predictive cues, produce higher deactivation of the right TPJ as compared with non-predictive cues. Since the right TPJ is the recipient of noradrenergic (NE) innervation, it has been hypothesised that changes in the level of TPJ activity are matched with changes in the level of NE activity. Based on aforementioned fMRI findings, this might imply that orienting with predictive cues is matched with different levels of NE activity as compared with non-predictive cues. To test this hypothesis, we measured changes in pupil dilation, an indirect index of NE activity, during voluntary orienting of attention with highly predictive (80% validity) or non-predictive (50% validity) cues. In agreement with current interpretations of the tonic/phasic activity of the Locus Coeruleus-Norepinephrinic system (LC-NE), we found that the steady level of cue predictiveness that characterised both the predictive and non-predictive conditions caused, across consecutive blocks of trials, a progressive decrement in pupil dilation during the baseline-fixation period that anticipated the cue period. With predictive cues we observed increased pupil dilation as compared with non-predictive cues. In addition, the relative reduction in pupil size observed with non-predictive cues increased as a function of cue-duration. These results show that changes in the predictiveness of cues that guide voluntary orienting of spatial attention are matched with changes in pupil dilation and, putatively, with corresponding changes in LC-NE activity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Forecasting transient sleep episodes by pupil size variability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Schumann Andy

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The ability to predict when a person is about to fall asleep is an important challenge in recent biomedical research and has various possible applications. Sleepiness and fatigue are known to increase pupillary fluctuations and the occurrence of eye blinks. In this study, we evaluated the use of the pupil diameter to forecast sleep episodes of short duration (>1s. We conducted multi-channel physiological and pupillometric recordings (diameter, gaze position in 91 healthy volunteers at rest in supine position. Although they were instructed to keep their eyes open, short sleep episodes were detected in 20 participants (16 males, age: 26.2±5.6 years, 53 events in total. Before each sleep event, pupil size was extracted in a window of 30s (without additional sleep event. Mean pupil diameter and its standard deviation, Shannon entropy and wavelet entropy in the first half (15s were compared to the second half of the window (15s. Linear and nonlinear measures demonstrated an elevation of pupil size variability before sleep onset. Most obviously, WE and SD increased significantly from 0.054±0.056 and 0.38±0.16 mm to 0.113±0.103 (T(102=2.44, p<0.001 and 0.46±0.18 mm (T(104=3.67, p<0.05 in the second half of each analysis window. We were able to identify 83% of the pre-sleep segments by linear discriminant analysis. Although our data was acquired in an experimental condition, it suggests that pupillary unrest might be a suitable predictor of events related to transient sleep or inattentiveness. In the future, we are going to involve the other recorded physiological signals into the analysis.

Performing below the Targeted Level: An Investigation into KS3 Pupils' Attitudes towards Mathematics

Science.gov (United States)

Mirza, Anusha; Hussain, Nasreen

2018-01-01

This study sets out to investigate the attitude KS3 pupils have towards mathematics and the factors that influence this attitude. A case study approach was used as the pupils were a unit of the school under study and a survey method was chosen to provide scope to the study. Purposeful sampling was employed for the selection of 200 pupils from…

Curricular Content for Pupils' Mental Health

Science.gov (United States)

Ebadi, Seyed Hossein; Keshtiaray, Narges; Aghaei, Asghar; Yousefy, Alireza

2016-01-01

Present-day curricular designs have to take the pupils' psychological needs in account, thus becoming melodies of mental health and happiness for the next generation. Emphasizing the findings from previous investigations using the research synthesis methodology, the present study has been conducted aiming at achieving some integrative knowledge…

Pupil dilations reflect why Rembrandt biased female portraits leftward and males rightward

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James A Schirillo

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Portrait painters are experts at examining faces and since emotional content may be expressed differently on each side of the face, consider that Rembrandt biased his male portraits to show their right cheek more often and female portraits to show their left cheek more often. This raises questions regarding the emotional significance of such biased positions. I presented rightward and leftward facing male and female portraits. I measured observers’ pupil size while asking observers to report how (displeasing they found each image. This was a methodological improvement over the type of research initially done by Eckhard Hess who claimed that pupils dilate to pleasant images and constrict to unpleasant images. His work was confounded since his images’ luminances and contrasts across conditions were inconsistent potentially affecting pupil size. To overcome this limitation I presented rightward or leftward facing male and female portraits by Rembrandt to observers in either their original or mirror-reversed position. I found that in viewing male portraits pupil diameter was a function of arousal. That is, larger pupil diameter occurred for images rated both low and high in pleasantness. This was not the case with female portraits. I discuss these findings in regard to the perceived dominance of males and how emotional expressions may be driven by hemispheric laterality.

The development of creativity of primary school pupils by fairy-tales

OpenAIRE

Bražienė, Nijolė

2005-01-01

This summary shows that the positive improvements of creativity are obtained by broadening and deepening the knowledge of fairy tales of primary school pupils in the theoretical and practical level, and by realization of potentialities rendered by teaching means of Lithuanian language for the develpment of divergent thinking and imagination of pupils and nurturance of sense of humour, emotionality and empathy purposefully employing additional educational activities.

The GeoBus project: a mobile Earth science outreach project for secondary schools in the UK

Science.gov (United States)

Robinson, R. A.; Roper, K. A.; Macfarlane, D.; Pike, C.

2013-12-01

GeoBus is an educational outreach project that was developed in 2012 by the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of St Andrews. It is sponsored jointly by industry and the UK Research Councils (NERC and EPSRC). The aims of GeoBus are to support the teaching of Earth Science in secondary (high) schools by providing teaching resources that are not readily available to educators, to inspire young learners by incorporating new science research outcomes in teaching activities, and to provide a bridge between industry, higher education institutions, research councils and schools. These linkages are important for introducing career opportunities in Earth sciences. Since its launch, GeoBus has visited over 140 different schools across the length and breadth of Scotland. Over 20,000 pupils will have been involved in practical hands-on Earth science learning activities by December 2013, including many in remote and disadvantaged regions. The resources that GeoBus brings to schools include all the materials and equipment needed to run workshops, field excursions and Enterprise Challenges. GeoBus provides 16 workshops which can be adapted for different learning levels. Workshops are 50 to 80 minute sessions for up to 30 pupils and topics include minerals, rocks, fossils, geological time, natural resources, climate change, volcanoes, earthquakes, and geological mapping. As with all GeoBus activities, the inclusion of equipment and technology otherwise unavailable to schools substantially increases the engagement of pupils in workshops. Field excursions are popular, as many teachers have little or no field trainng and feel unable to lead this type of activity. The excursions comprise half or full day sessions for up to 30 pupils and are tailored to cover the local geology or geomorphology. The Enterprise Challenges are half or full day sessions for up to 100 pupils. Current topics are Drilling for Oil, Renewable Energy, a Journey to Mars and Scotland

Pupil Perspectives on the Purposes and Benefits of Studying History in High School: A View from the UK

Science.gov (United States)

Haydn, Terry; Harris, Richard

2010-01-01

Drawing on data from 1740 pupil questionnaires and 160 pupils in focus-group interviews, the study aimed to gain insight into British pupils' ideas about why they study history at school. The paper considers the implications of these ideas for history teachers and teacher educators. The data suggest that many pupils have very vague ideas about the…

A Web-Based Screening System for Dyslexic Pupils: Do Teachers Need It?

Science.gov (United States)

Ubaidullah, Nor Hasbiah Bt.; Hamid, Jamilah

2012-01-01

Currently in Malaysia, schools that conduct the Dyslexia Special Program for dyslexic pupils have to rely on a manual screening instrument, which is cumbersome and slow in diagnosing dyslexic traits in pupils. Thus, this study was carried out to examine prevailing problems that helped in formulating an appropriate solution to overcome existing…

Pupils' Perceptions of Sex and Reproductive Health Education in Primary Schools in Tanzania: A Phenomenological Study

Science.gov (United States)

Kapinga, Orestes Silverius; Hyera, Daniel Frans

2015-01-01

This study explored pupils' perceptions of sex and reproductive health education in primary schools in Tanzania. Specifically, the study aimed at (i) exploring pupils' views on sex and reproductive health education in primary schools; (ii) determining opinions on the appropriateness of sex and reproductive health education for pupils in primary…

Influence of graphic design of the text on reading quality of pupils with dyslexia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zikl Pavel

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The contribution contains research results focused on reading quality of pupils with dyslexia according to the graphic design of the text. Our aim was to prove if commonly recommended graphic text editing has a certain influence on reading speed and occurrence of mistakes of children with dyslexia. The research sample consisted of pupils with dyslexia and a control group then selected in pairs of intact pupils of 4th and 5th class of primary school (in total 150 pupils. For the purpose of data collection there had been a text used in an unfamiliar language (a nonsensical text, which corresponds to the Czech language in its structure; is a part of standardized reading test. There were four text versions prepared for the research which had been modified into frequently recommended modifications for dyslexics (increased font size, a use of bigger gaps between words and also rows, syllables highlight in words and a standard text corresponding to common reading-books. Conclusion depicts a presentation of impacts of individual texts modifications and also subjective opinions of pupils about these texts.

Coordination of the school interior at science teaching with some anthropometric parameters of 11-12 year old kids

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nataša Rizman Herga

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The aim of the research was to identify adequacy of school furniture dimensions with the help of anthropometric measurements experimented on 11 - 12 year-old pupils. These are the pupils who have switched from classroom teaching to the subject teaching and have lessons in specialized classrooms, which are designed for a specific school subject. We were interested in the discrepancies between pupils' anthropometric dimensions and the dimensions of school furniture situated in science classrooms. The research included 192 pupils (N = 192 in the 6th and 7th grade of primary schools in North-Eastern Slovenia. Readings were made on certain pupils' anthropometric dimensions, including stature, popliteal height, buttock-popliteal lenght, elbow height sitting, thigh thickness, subscapular height and hip width. School furniture taken measurements showed that the dimensions of desks designed according to ISO 5970 correspond with size 6 (for height between 173 and 184 cm. Results of the anthropometric measurements are showed that 6th grade pupils are in average 152 cm high, 7th grade pupils 160 cm. The research has showed a great mismatch of school furniture with anthropometric dimensions which can have serious consequences on pupil development.

Differential ability and attainment in language and arithmetic of Dutch primary school pupils.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mooij, Ton; Driessen, Geert

2016-01-01

Background. In pre-school and primary education pupils differ in many abilities and competences (‘giftedness’). Yet mainstream educational practice seems rather homogeneous in providing age-based or grade-class subject matter approaches. Aims. To clarify whether pupils scoring initially at high

Academic language use in science education in Kindergarten

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Menninga, Astrid; van Dijk, Marijn; Wetzels, Anna; Steenbeek, Henderien; van Geert, Paul

2015-01-01

This study aims at gaining insight into the academic language use of teachers and their pupils in science education in Kindergarten. Using videotaped classroom observations of a video feedback coaching intervention study (Author Citation, 2012), teachers’ (intervention n = 5, controls n = 5) and

Using Educational Neuroscience and Psychology to Teach Science. Part 1: A Case Study Review of Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) and Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE)

Science.gov (United States)

Jenkins, Rebecca Torrance

2017-01-01

This article is the first of a two-part series that explores science teachers' and their pupils' experiences of using different pedagogical approaches based on understandings of how brains learn. For this case-study research, nine science teachers were interviewed and four teachers self-selected to trial a pedagogical approach, new to them, from…

Junior High School Pupils' Perceptions of Air

African Journals Online (AJOL)

cce

Abstract. The study examined Junior High School (JHS) pupils' ideas of the concept air. The ... Stavy (1991) reported that students in his physics class had ... Research studies found that even after having been taught the particulate theory and.

Water. Seychelles Integrated Science. [Teacher and Pupil Booklets]. Unit 3.

Science.gov (United States)

Brophy, M.; Fryars, M.

Seychelles Integrated Science (SIS), a 3-year laboratory-based science program for students (ages 11-15) in upper primary grades 7, 8, and 9, was developed from an extensive evaluation and modification of previous P7-P9 materials. This P7 SIS unit focuses on: (1) the importance of water in students' daily lives; (2) the need to purify drinking…

Pupil-segmentation-based adaptive optics for microscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Ji, Na; Milkie, Daniel E.; Betzig, Eric

2011-03-01

Inhomogeneous optical properties of biological samples make it difficult to obtain diffraction-limited resolution in depth. Correcting the sample-induced optical aberrations needs adaptive optics (AO). However, the direct wavefront-sensing approach commonly used in astronomy is not suitable for most biological samples due to their strong scattering of light. We developed an image-based AO approach that is insensitive to sample scattering. By comparing images of the sample taken with different segments of the pupil illuminated, local tilt in the wavefront is measured from image shift. The aberrated wavefront is then obtained either by measuring the local phase directly using interference or with phase reconstruction algorithms similar to those used in astronomical AO. We implemented this pupil-segmentation-based approach in a two-photon fluorescence microscope and demonstrated that diffraction-limited resolution can be recovered from nonbiological and biological samples.

Interaction of aberrations, diffraction, and quantal fluctuations determine the impact of pupil size on visual quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Renfeng; Wang, Huachun; Thibos, Larry N; Bradley, Arthur

2017-04-01

Our purpose is to develop a computational approach that jointly assesses the impact of stimulus luminance and pupil size on visual quality. We compared traditional optical measures of image quality and those that incorporate the impact of retinal illuminance dependent neural contrast sensitivity. Visually weighted image quality was calculated for a presbyopic model eye with representative levels of chromatic and monochromatic aberrations as pupil diameter was varied from 7 to 1 mm, stimulus luminance varied from 2000 to 0.1  cd/m2, and defocus varied from 0 to -2 diopters. The model included the effects of quantal fluctuations on neural contrast sensitivity. We tested the model's predictions for five cycles per degree gratings by measuring contrast sensitivity at 5  cyc/deg. Unlike the traditional Strehl ratio and the visually weighted area under the modulation transfer function, the visual Strehl ratio derived from the optical transfer function was able to capture the combined impact of optics and quantal noise on visual quality. In a well-focused eye, provided retinal illuminance is held constant as pupil size varies, visual image quality scales approximately as the square root of illuminance because of quantum fluctuations, but optimum pupil size is essentially independent of retinal illuminance and quantum fluctuations. Conversely, when stimulus luminance is held constant (and therefore illuminance varies with pupil size), optimum pupil size increases as luminance decreases, thereby compensating partially for increased quantum fluctuations. However, in the presence of -1 and -2 diopters of defocus and at high photopic levels where Weber's law operates, optical aberrations and diffraction dominate image quality and pupil optimization. Similar behavior was observed in human observers viewing sinusoidal gratings. Optimum pupil size increases as stimulus luminance drops for the well-focused eye, and the benefits of small pupils for improving defocused image

Infant pupil diameter changes in response to others' positive and negative emotions.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena Geangu

Full Text Available It has been suggested that infants resonate emotionally to others' positive and negative affect displays, and that these responses become stronger towards emotions with negative valence around the age of 12-months. In this study we measured 6- and 12-month-old infants' changes in pupil diameter when presented with the image and sound of peers experiencing happiness, distress and an emotionally neutral state. For all participants the perception of another's distress triggered larger pupil diameters. Perceiving other's happiness also induced larger pupil diameters but for shorter time intervals. Importantly, we also found evidence for an asymmetry in autonomous arousal towards positive versus negative emotional displays. Larger pupil sizes for another's distress compared to another's happiness were recorded shortly after stimulus onset for the older infants, and in a later time window for the 6-month-olds. These findings suggest that arousal responses for negative as well as for positive emotions are present in the second half of the first postnatal year. Importantly, an asymmetry with stronger responses for negative emotions seems to be already present at this age.

How can we make Science Education and Careers more attractive for Young People?

Science.gov (United States)

Knickmeier, K.; Kruse, K.

2016-02-01

The Kiel Science Factory (Kieler Forschungswerkstatt) is a school and teaching laboratory, which breaches the gap between school education and university research. Since opening in October 2012, 3.430 pupils worked at the Kiel Science Factory, and joined the different programs (ocean:lab, nano:lab, geo:lab), the numbers of visitors are increasing. The combination of experts in research and experts in education is very effective to attract young peoplés interest for a scientific career, to communicate science and to increase interest of teachers in current science. The biggest lab is the ocean:lab, it is jointly offered by Kiel University, Cluster of Excellence "Future Ocean" and Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education at Kiel University (IPN). The ocean:lab is addressing to school classes from grade 3 to 13, and it is strongly involved in pre-service teacher education. Appropriate to their respective level of study, pupils and students get fascinating insights into marine sciences and the working methods of real scientists. Furthermore teacher trainings and summer schools are producing an enthusiasm, which affects as well teachers as their students. The visiting pupils are mainly from Northern Germany, but also from e.g. Austria, Poland and Japan. Topics are the ocean as an ecosystem and how it is affected by anthropogenic impacts. The program offers an integrated investigation of the ecosystem "ocean" (from Plankton to marine mammals) with an interdisciplinary focus on biological aspects and abiotic factors of the habitat. In addition to pollution of the ocean through plastic waste and noise, the effects of climate change and eutrophication plays a role in discussions and tasks. New formats (e.g. an international Citizen Science Project and Expeditionary Learning) are carried out. The developed material is part of expedition boxes, which can be borrowed for project work in schools and science centers. http://www.forschungs-werkstatt.de/

High-performance 3D waveguide architecture for astronomical pupil-remapping interferometry.

Science.gov (United States)

Norris, Barnaby; Cvetojevic, Nick; Gross, Simon; Jovanovic, Nemanja; Stewart, Paul N; Charles, Ned; Lawrence, Jon S; Withford, Michael J; Tuthill, Peter

2014-07-28

The detection and characterization of extra-solar planets is a major theme driving modern astronomy. Direct imaging of exoplanets allows access to a parameter space complementary to other detection methods, and potentially the characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres and surfaces. However achieving the required levels of performance with direct imaging from ground-based telescopes (subject to Earth's turbulent atmosphere) has been extremely challenging. Here we demonstrate a new generation of photonic pupil-remapping devices which build upon the Dragonfly instrument, a high contrast waveguide-based interferometer. This new generation overcomes problems caused by interference from unguided light and low throughput. Closure phase measurement scatter of only ∼ 0.2° has been achieved, with waveguide throughputs of > 70%. This translates to a maximum contrast-ratio sensitivity between star and planet at 1λ/D (1σ detection) of 5.3 × 10(-4) (with a conventional adaptive-optics system) or 1.8 × 10(-4) (with 'extreme-AO'), improving even further when random error is minimized by averaging over multiple exposures. This is an order of magnitude beyond conventional pupil-segmenting interferometry techniques (such as aperture masking), allowing a previously inaccessible part of the star to planet contrast-separation parameter space to be explored.

How Dr Math reaches pupils with competitions and computer games by using MXit

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Butgereit, L

2009-05-01

Full Text Available In a world where school books, pencils and paper have to compete with cell phones, IPODs, and MP3 players for pupils' attention, Dr Math entices pupils to practice basic mathematics skills by providing games and competitions using Mxit over cell...

Pupils' Readiness for Self-Regulated Learning in the Forethought Phase of Exploratory Production

Science.gov (United States)

Metsärinne, Mika; Kallio, Manne; Virta, Kalle

2015-01-01

This article discusses pupils' readiness for self-regulation in Exploratory Production in Technology Education. In the forethought phase of Exploratory Production, pupils envision and regulate their technological production activities. Next, in the performance phase, the envisioned goals are tried and implemented through ideating, planning and…

Links between Teachers' Beliefs and Their Practices in a Science and Technology Museum Visit

Science.gov (United States)

Karnezou, Maria; Avgitidou, Sofia; Kariotoglou, Petros

2013-01-01

There is a growing body of research examining the impact of science field trips on pupils' learning in science education and the factors that influence their success. However, there is a limited number of studies that focus on the way teachers' beliefs influence their practices in an informal science-learning venue. This research aimed to…

How to link geography, cross-curricular approach and inquiry in science education at the primary schools

Science.gov (United States)

Karvánková, Petra; Popjaková, Dagmar

2018-05-01

Pupil research in school lessons in the sense of Inquiry-Based Education (IBE) is one of the constructivist approaches to education. Inquiry strengthens the positive approach of pupils to natural science subjects, encouraging them to study phenomena and processes taking place in the natural environment around them and use the acquired knowledge in their practical life. Geography as a school subject, due to the multidisciplinary nature of geography as a science, is close to natural sciences as well. This is because of the broadness of the subject of geographical studies, the complex (natural and cultural) landscape. The close links of geography to all cross-sectional themes make it a good support for teaching classical science subjects at schools such as mathematics, physics, chemistry or biology, environmental education. Moreover, the field teaching is one of the strong assets of the implementation of IBE in the school geography. Presented case study on the 'effect of noise on the surroundings' explores the facts mentioned above, in geography teaching. It verifies the pupils' knowledge and skills to adopt the basic principles of IBE in the practice. At the same time, it presents the concrete experiences how the children master the individual stages of IBE during the process of education.

Stimulating the development of coordination in pupils with developmental difficulties in elementary school

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maksimović Jasna

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The paper deals with the effects of specially programmed types of physical activities on the development of coordination of the pupils with developmental difficulties in regular elementary schools. The method of pedagogical research with parallel groups was used in the research which included 135 junior elementary-school pupils. Among them 90 pupils had one of developmental difficulties (intellectual disability, visual and hearing disturbances and they were divided into an experimental and a control group 1, while other pupils had typical development and they formed the control group 2 (n=45. Besides regular classes of physical education the experimental group was engaged in a special programme, devised and implemented into the Individual Educational Plan, as one of the types of intervention within the system of inclusive education. The research lasted for three months during which the groups were tested by the tests of coordination and the data obtained at the beginning and the end of the research period were processed by the application of univariant analysis of covariance and the T-test of the paired samples. The results show that the pupils with developmental difficulties can considerably progress in the development of coordination if their individual characteristics are recognized and optimal conditions are provided.

Socially-pedagogical terms of preparation of senior pupils to service in Military Powers of Ukraine

OpenAIRE

Ryutin V.V.

2010-01-01

The problem of preparation of senior pupils is investigational to military service. The social pedagogical terms of preparation of senior pupils are certain to military service. Adequate psychological pedagogical measures are developed on overcoming of tendency of subzero perception by the senior pupils of service in Military Powers of Ukraine. Basic directions the personal interest are rotined in harmonious, valuable psychical and physical development of the Ukrainian young people. The natio...

Gender Differences in the Approach to caterring Basic School Pupils

OpenAIRE

Brabcová, Věra

2015-01-01

Title: English: Gender Differences in the Approach to caterring Basic School Pupils Author: Věra Brabcová Department: Pedagogy Supervisor: PaedDr. Eva Marádová, CSc. ANNOTATION: The objective of the Bachelor Thesis, divided into two parts, is to find out whether there are any differences in the approach to catering; the discussed group of diners are basic school pupils of the second stage (Czech education system). The work compares the attitude of boys and girls at the age of 11 - 16. The the...

Pupil size stability of the cubic phase mask solution for presbyopia

Science.gov (United States)

Almaguer, Citlalli; Acosta, Eva; Arines, Justo

2018-01-01

Presbyopia correction involves different types of studies such as lens design, clinical study, and the development of objective metrics, such as the visual Strehl ratio. Different contact lens designs have been proposed for presbyopia correction, but performance depends on pupil diameter. We will analyze the potential use of a nonsymmetrical element, a cubic phase mask (CPM) solution, to develop a contact or intraocular lens whose performance is nearly insensitive to changes in pupil diameter. We will show the through focus optical transfer function of the proposed element for different pupil diameters ranging from 3 to 7 mm. Additionally, we will show the images obtained through computation and experiment for a group of eye charts with different visual acuities. Our results show that a CPM shaped as 7.07 μm*(Z33-Z3-3)-0.9 μm Z20 is a good solution for a range of clear vision with a visual acuity of at least 0.1 logMar from 0.4 to 6 m for pupil diameters in the 3- to 7-mm range. Our results appear to be a good starting point for further development and study of this kind of CPM solution for presbyopia.

Condition of physical health of pupils of the 7th-8th classes of the comprehensive school

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Margarita Mameshina

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Purpose: to investigate the level of physical health of pupils of the 7th-8th classes. Material & Methods: pupils of the 7th-8th classes of the comprehensive school No. 150 of Kharkov participated in the research. The following methods were used: theoretical analysis and generalization of scientific literature, method of express-assessment of physical health, mathematical statistics. Results: the comparative analysis of the obtained data in age aspect and on gender sign is carried out; the general assessment of the level of physical health of pupils of the 7th-8th classes is defined. Conclusions: the insignificant prevalence of indicators of the separate components of health of boys over the data of girls and, generally, the reliable improvement of indicators of pupils with age are established; the "average" level of physical health of pupils of the 7th classes and "below the average" level of pupils of the 8th classes are determined.

Grouping Pupils for Language Arts Instruction.

Science.gov (United States)

Ediger, Marlow

A major task involved in teaching pupils is to group them wisely for instruction. Most elementary schools group learners in terms of a self-contained classroom. While it may seem extreme, all curriculum areas on each grade in the elementary school may be departmentalized. In some ways, departmentalization harmonizes more with a separate subjects…

Blindness and severe visual impairment in pupils at schools for the blind in Burundi.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruhagaze, Patrick; Njuguna, Kahaki Kimani Margaret; Kandeke, Lévi; Courtright, Paul

2013-01-01

To determine the causes of childhood blindness and severe visual impairment in pupils attending schools for the blind in Burundi in order to assist planning for services in the country. All pupils attending three schools for the blind in Burundi were examined. A modified WHO/PBL eye examination record form for children with blindness and low vision was used to record the findings. Data was analyzed for those who became blind or severely visually impaired before the age of 16 years. Overall, 117 pupils who became visually impaired before 16 years of age were examined. Of these, 109 (93.2%) were blind or severely visually impaired. The major anatomical cause of blindness or severe visual impairment was cornea pathology/phthisis (23.9%), followed by lens pathology (18.3%), uveal lesions (14.7%) and optic nerve lesions (11.9%). In the majority of pupils with blindness or severe visual impairment, the underlying etiology of visual loss was unknown (74.3%). More than half of the pupils with lens related blindness had not had surgery; among those who had surgery, outcomes were generally poor. The causes identified indicate the importance of continuing preventive public health strategies, as well as the development of specialist pediatric ophthalmic services in the management of childhood blindness in Burundi. The geographic distribution of pupils at the schools for the blind indicates a need for community-based programs to identify and refer children in need of services.

Primary and Secondary Teachers' Ideas on School Visits to Science Centres in the Basque Country

Science.gov (United States)

Morentin, Maite; Guisasola, Jenaro

2015-01-01

In recent decades, research has shown the challenge posed to teachers by science education in informal contexts such as science museums or centres. In addition, there is consensus that in the case of pupils visiting a science centre, learning improves when the visit is connected to the classroom curriculum, so the teachers' involvement in…

Teacher Stress and Pupil Behaviour Explored through a Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy Framework

Science.gov (United States)

Robertson, Caroline; Dunsmuir, Sandra

2013-01-01

Using the psychological framework of rational-emotive behaviour therapy, the principal aim of this study was to establish whether irrational beliefs, self-efficacy or pupil behaviour predicted teacher reports of stress. A secondary aim was to establish whether these variables, in addition to teachers' verbal feedback to pupils in class, predicted…

Measuring Attitude towards RE: Factoring Pupil Experience and Home Faith Background into Assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Thanissaro, Phra Nicholas

2012-01-01

Recent studies have increasingly favoured contextualisation of religious education (RE) to pupils' home faith background in spite of current assessment methods that might hinder this. For a multi-religious, multi-ethnic sample of 369 London school pupils aged from 13 to 15 years, this study found that the participatory, transformative and…

Analyzing processing effort during sentence comprehension in quiet and in noise: Evidence from eye-fixations and pupil size

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wendt, Dorothea; Brand, Thomas; Kollmeier, Birger

2014-01-01

structures . Here, we compare both methods, i.e. p rocessing speed and pupil size , as indicator s for the required effort when processing sentences that differ in their level of syntactic complexity . Furthermore, an interaction of background noise and syntactic complexity is exanimated by analyzing...... processing effort for sentence s presented in quiet and in noise. Moreover, it is investigated whether both measure s provide similar or complementary information about sentence processing and the required effort....

Content and Methodological Formation Model of a Younger Pupil Value-Oriented Attitude to Reality Based on Historical and Social Science Knowledge

Science.gov (United States)

Zakirova, Ranija R.; Shamigulova, Oksana ?.

2016-01-01

One of the most important functions of historical and pedagogical education in modern educational the system is connected with a pupil's character features development, a value apprehension of social events and a formation of a value-oriented attitude to reality. The main aim of the present article is to describe and analyze the results of a…

An Innovative Model of Professional Development to Enhance the Teaching and Learning of Primary Science in Irish Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Greg

2014-01-01

This study investigates the influence of a two-year professional development programme on primary teachers' attitudes towards primary science, their confidence and competence in teaching science, and pupils' attitudes towards school science. Unlike the traditional "one-size-fits all" model of professional development, the model developed…

Super-resolution pupil filtering for visual performance enhancement using adaptive optics

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Lina; Dai, Yun; Zhao, Junlei; Zhou, Xiaojun

2018-05-01

Ocular aberration correction can significantly improve visual function of the human eye. However, even under ideal aberration correction conditions, pupil diffraction restricts the resolution of retinal images. Pupil filtering is a simple super-resolution (SR) method that can overcome this diffraction barrier. In this study, a 145-element piezoelectric deformable mirror was used as a pupil phase filter because of its programmability and high fitting accuracy. Continuous phase-only filters were designed based on Zernike polynomial series and fitted through closed-loop adaptive optics. SR results were validated using double-pass point spread function images. Contrast sensitivity was further assessed to verify the SR effect on visual function. An F-test was conducted for nested models to statistically compare different CSFs. These results indicated CSFs for the proposed SR filter were significantly higher than the diffraction correction (p vision optical correction of the human eye.

Planet Formation Imager (PFI): science vision and key requirements

Science.gov (United States)

Kraus, Stefan; Monnier, John D.; Ireland, Michael J.; Duchêne, Gaspard; Espaillat, Catherine; Hönig, Sebastian; Juhasz, Attila; Mordasini, Chris; Olofsson, Johan; Paladini, Claudia; Stassun, Keivan; Turner, Neal; Vasisht, Gautam; Harries, Tim J.; Bate, Matthew R.; Gonzalez, Jean-François; Matter, Alexis; Zhu, Zhaohuan; Panic, Olja; Regaly, Zsolt; Morbidelli, Alessandro; Meru, Farzana; Wolf, Sebastian; Ilee, John; Berger, Jean-Philippe; Zhao, Ming; Kral, Quentin; Morlok, Andreas; Bonsor, Amy; Ciardi, David; Kane, Stephen R.; Kratter, Kaitlin; Laughlin, Greg; Pepper, Joshua; Raymond, Sean; Labadie, Lucas; Nelson, Richard P.; Weigelt, Gerd; ten Brummelaar, Theo; Pierens, Arnaud; Oudmaijer, Rene; Kley, Wilhelm; Pope, Benjamin; Jensen, Eric L. N.; Bayo, Amelia; Smith, Michael; Boyajian, Tabetha; Quiroga-Nuñez, Luis Henry; Millan-Gabet, Rafael; Chiavassa, Andrea; Gallenne, Alexandre; Reynolds, Mark; de Wit, Willem-Jan; Wittkowski, Markus; Millour, Florentin; Gandhi, Poshak; Ramos Almeida, Cristina; Alonso Herrero, Almudena; Packham, Chris; Kishimoto, Makoto; Tristram, Konrad R. W.; Pott, Jörg-Uwe; Surdej, Jean; Buscher, David; Haniff, Chris; Lacour, Sylvestre; Petrov, Romain; Ridgway, Steve; Tuthill, Peter; van Belle, Gerard; Armitage, Phil; Baruteau, Clement; Benisty, Myriam; Bitsch, Bertram; Paardekooper, Sijme-Jan; Pinte, Christophe; Masset, Frederic; Rosotti, Giovanni

2016-08-01

The Planet Formation Imager (PFI) project aims to provide a strong scientific vision for ground-based optical astronomy beyond the upcoming generation of Extremely Large Telescopes. We make the case that a breakthrough in angular resolution imaging capabilities is required in order to unravel the processes involved in planet formation. PFI will be optimised to provide a complete census of the protoplanet population at all stellocentric radii and over the age range from 0.1 to 100 Myr. Within this age period, planetary systems undergo dramatic changes and the final architecture of planetary systems is determined. Our goal is to study the planetary birth on the natural spatial scale where the material is assembled, which is the "Hill Sphere" of the forming planet, and to characterise the protoplanetary cores by measuring their masses and physical properties. Our science working group has investigated the observational characteristics of these young protoplanets as well as the migration mechanisms that might alter the system architecture. We simulated the imprints that the planets leave in the disk and study how PFI could revolutionise areas ranging from exoplanet to extragalactic science. In this contribution we outline the key science drivers of PFI and discuss the requirements that will guide the technology choices, the site selection, and potential science/technology tradeoffs.

Ciencia: Nivel A (Science: Level A).

Science.gov (United States)

Duron, Dolores; And Others

A teacher's manual was developed for an elementary level science course in Spanish as part of an immersion program for English speaking children. The Level A manual is designed for kindergarten and grade 1 pupils. The five units cover the basic concepts of the weather, colors, animals, plants, and the five senses. Each unit includes vocabulary,…

The impact of a multiple intelligences teaching approach drug education programme on drug refusal skills of Nigerian pupils.

Science.gov (United States)

Nwagu, Evelyn N; Ezedum, Chuks E; Nwagu, Eric K N

2015-09-01

The rising incidence of drug abuse among youths in Nigeria is a source of concern for health educators. This study was carried out on primary six pupils to determine the effect of a Multiple Intelligences Teaching Approach Drug Education Programme (MITA-DEP) on pupils' acquisition of drug refusal skills. A programme of drug education based on the Multiple Intelligences Teaching Approach (MITA) was developed. An experimental group was taught using this programme while a control group was taught using the same programme but developed based on the Traditional Teaching Approach. Pupils taught with the MITA acquired more drug refusal skills than those taught with the Traditional Teaching Approach. Urban pupils taught with the MITA acquired more skills than rural pupils. There was no statistically significant difference in the mean refusal skills of male and female pupils taught with the MITA. © The Author(s) 2014.

Uncovering the Forgotten Effect of Superior Cervical Ganglia on Pupil Diameter in Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: An Experimental Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Onen, Mehmet Resid; Yilmaz, Ilhan; Ramazanoglu, Leyla; Aydin, Mehmet Dumlu; Keles, Sadullah; Baykal, Orhan; Aydin, Nazan; Gundogdu, Cemal

2018-01-01

To investigate the relationship between neuron density of the superior cervical sympathetic ganglia and pupil diameter in subarachnoid hemorrhage. This study was conducted on 22 rabbits; 5 for the baseline control group, 5 for the SHAM group and 12 for the study group. Pupil diameters were measured via sunlight and ocular tomography on day 1 as the control values. Pupil diameters were re-measured after injecting 0.5 cc saline to the SHAM group, and autologous arterial blood into the cisterna magna of the study group. After 3 weeks, the brain, superior cervical sympathetic ganglia and ciliary ganglia were extracted with peripheral tissues bilaterally and examined histopathologically. Pupil diameters were compared with neuron densities of the sympathetic ganglia and ciliary ganglia which were examined using stereological methods. Baseline values were; normal pupil diameter 7.180±620 ?m and mean neuron density of the superior cervical sympathetic ganglia 6.321±510/mm3, degenerated neuron density of ciliary ganglia was 5±2/mm3 after histopathological examination in the control group. These values were measured as 6.850±578 ?m, 5.950±340/mm3 and 123±39/mm3 in the SHAM group and 9.910±840 ?m, 7.950±764/mm3 and 650±98/mm3 in the study group. A linear relationship was determined between neuron density of the superior cervical sympathetic ganglia and pupil diameters (p < 0.005). Degenerated ciliary ganglia neuron density had an inverse effect on pupil diameters in all groups (p < 0.0001). Highly degenerated neuron density of the ciliary ganglion is not responsible for pupil dilatation owing to parasympathetic pupilloconstrictor palsy, but high neuron density of the pupillodilatatory superior cervical sympathetic ganglia should be considered an important factor for pupil dilatation.

A Study of Pupil Control Ideology: A Person-Oriented Approach to Data Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Adwere-Boamah, Joseph

2010-01-01

Responses of urban school teachers to the Pupil Control Ideology questionnaire were studied using Latent Class Analysis. The results of the analysis suggest that the best fitting model to the data is a two-cluster solution. In particular, the pupil control ideology of the sample delineates into two clusters of teachers, those with humanistic and…

Swimming level of pupils from elementary schools with own swimming pool

OpenAIRE

Zálupská, Klára

2012-01-01

Title: Swimming level of pupils from primary school with private swimming pool. Work objectives: The aim is to identify assess level of swimming of pupils from first to ninth grade of primary school with a private pool in Chomutov district using continuous swimming test with regular swimming lessons, which is started in the first grade and persists until the ninth grade. The condition was organizing a school swimming lessons once a week for 45 minutes in all grades. Methodology: Swimming leve...

Decision-related factors in pupil old/new effects: Attention, response execution, and false memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Brocher, Andreas; Graf, Tim

2017-07-28

In this study, we investigate the effects of decision-related factors on recognition memory in pupil old/new paradigms. In Experiment 1, we used an old/new paradigm with words and pseudowords and participants made lexical decisions during recognition rather than old/new decisions. Importantly, participants were instructed to focus on the nonword-likeness of presented items, not their word-likeness. We obtained no old/new effects. In Experiment 2, participants discriminated old from new words and old from new pseudowords during recognition, and they did so as quickly as possible. We found old/new effects for both words and pseudowords. In Experiment 3, we used materials and an old/new design known to elicit a large number of incorrect responses. For false alarms ("old" response for new word), we found larger pupils than for correctly classified new items, starting at the point at which response execution was allowed (2750ms post stimulus onset). In contrast, pupil size for misses ("new" response for old word) was statistically indistinguishable from pupil size in correct rejections. Taken together, our data suggest that pupil old/new effects result more from the intentional use of memory than from its automatic use. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Monitoring the Achievement of Deaf Pupils in Sweden and Scotland: Approaches and Outcomes

Science.gov (United States)

Hendar, Ola; O'Neill, Rachel

2016-01-01

Over the past two decades there have been major developments in deaf education in many countries. Medical and technical advances have made it possible for more deaf children to hear and speak successfully. Most deaf pupils learn in ordinary classes in mainstream schools. In this article we explore patterns of achievements of deaf pupils to see if…

Teleological reasoning in 4-month-old infants: pupil dilations and contextual constraints.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gustaf Gredebäck

Full Text Available Four-month-old infants were presented with feeding actions performed in a rational or irrational manner. Infants reacted to the irrational feeding actions by dilating their pupils, but only in the presence of rich contextual constraints. The study demonstrates that teleological processes are online at 4 months of age and illustrates the usefulness of pupil dilations as a measure of social cognitive processes early in infancy.

Science requirements and the design of cabled ocean observatories

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. Mikada

2006-06-01

Full Text Available The ocean sciences are beginning a new phase in which scientists will enter the ocean environment and adaptively observe the Earth-Ocean system through remote control of sensors and sensor platforms. This new ocean science paradigm will be implemented using innovative facilities called ocean observatories which provide unprecedented levels of power and communication to access and manipulate real-time sensor networks deployed within many different environments in the ocean basins. Most of the principal design drivers for ocean observatories differ from those for commercial submarine telecommunications systems. First, ocean observatories require data to be input and output at one or more seafloor nodes rather than at a few land terminuses. Second, ocean observatories must distribute a lot of power to the seafloor at variable and fluctuating rates. Third, the seafloor infrastructure for an ocean observatory inherently requires that the wet plant be expandable and reconfigurable. Finally, because the wet communications and power infrastructure is comparatively complex, ocean observatory infrastructure must be designed for low life cycle cost rather than zero maintenance. The origin of these differences may be understood by taking a systems engineering approach to ocean observatory design through examining the requirements derived from science and then going through the process of iterative refinement to yield conceptual and physical designs. This is illustrated using the NEPTUNE regional cabled observatory power and data communications sub-systems.

Classroom Curricular Preparedness For Inclusion Of Pupils With Physical Disability Within Public Inclusive Schools For The Pupils With Physical Disability In Bungoma County Kenya.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hesborn Mutoro Chonge

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Since the introduction of Special education in Kenya in 1946 numerous special schools have been established. However there has been a move toward integration and later inclusion of students with disabilities in regular schools. Inclusion has its own challenges. Kenya as a rapidly developing country is undergoing drastic social economic and cultural changes. Consequently learners with disabilities in inclusive schools experience a number of challenges. These challenges bring into focus the need of reinforcing various modifications especially in classroom environments in learning institutions to counteract challenges brought about by the change from integration to inclusive education. With this realization the study sought to examine the classroom curricular preparedness of inclusive schools for the pupils with physical disability. Adaptations that ought to be made under classroom curricular category should ideally aid in lessening these challenges and impact positively on the pupils with physical disability and enhance their learning activities. The study utilized mixed method research approach where both Phenomenology and Descriptive survey research designs were made use of. The findings indicate that there are adequate classroom curricular adaptations for inclusion of pupils with physical disability

Suberythemal Sun Exposures at Swedish Schools Depend on Sky Views of the Outdoor Environments - Possible Implications for Pupils' Health

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pagels, Peter; Wester, Ulf; Söderström, Margareta

2016-01-01

of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) for hazard evaluation of UVR but were potentially enough for adequate Vitamin D formation according to a cited model calculation - as illustrated in the results and discussed. The school environments, typical in southern and middle Sweden......More scheduled outdoor stay is increasingly advocated for school children. This study measured 2nd, 5th and 8th graders' erythemal UV-exposure in September, March and May at four Swedish schools. We related those exposures, as fractions of total available ambient radiation, to the schools outdoor......, offer enough shade to protect children from overexposure during seasons with potentially harmful solar UV radiation. Pupils' outdoor stay may be extended during September and March. In May extended outdoor stay of the youngest pupils requires a more UVR-protective environment....

Optometry-based general population survey of pupil ruff atrophy and ocular hypertension.

Science.gov (United States)

Ang, Ghee S; Stevenson, Peter J; Sargent, Geoff; Grimmer, Peter; Corbett, Patricia; Jourdain, Erin; Wells, Anthony P

2013-01-01

To evaluate and describe the pupil ruff changes and relationship to intraocular pressure, pseudoexfoliation syndrome and glaucoma status in an optometric population in New Zealand. Prospective cross-sectional survey of an optometric population. Six hundred and twenty subjects over 50 years old routinely attending the participating optometry practices. Exclusion criteria included previous intraocular surgery, ophthalmic laser, uveitis, angle closure and secondary glaucoma. Multicentre study involving 11 optometry practices in the Wellington region, New Zealand. The pupillary ruff and associated gonioscopy findings of study participants were graded based on the previously published Pupil Ruff Atrophy grading system. Parameters evaluated include pupillary ruff absence and abnormality, pseudoexfoliation material and trabecular meshwork pigmentation. Correlations between intereye Pupil Ruff Atrophy grading differences and inter-eye intraocular pressure and cup:disc ratio differences. Six hundred and twenty subjects were included, with a mean age of 62.2 ± 9.1 years and mean intraocular pressure of 14.8 ± 3.4 mmHg. Four hundred and fourteen (66.8%) had bilateral pupil ruff changes and 12 (1.5%) had pseudoexfoliation. Inter-eye intraocular pressure asymmetry was significantly correlated with amount of missing pupillary ruff (r = 0.111; P = 0.022) and trabecular meshwork pigmentation (r = 0.147; P = 0.002). Inter-eye cup:disc ratio asymmetry was not correlated with any of the Pupil Ruff Atrophy grading parameters. Asymmetry of pupillary ruff absence and trabecular meshwork pigmentation was correlated with intraocular pressure asymmetry (but not with cup:disc ratio asymmetry) in a general optometric population setting in New Zealand. © 2012 The Authors. Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology © 2012 Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists.

News Teaching: The epiSTEMe project: KS3 maths and science improvement Field trip: Pupils learn physics in a stately home Conference: ShowPhysics welcomes fun in Europe Student numbers: Physics numbers increase in UK Tournament: Physics tournament travels to Singapore Particle physics: Hadron Collider sets new record Astronomy: Take your classroom into space Forthcoming Events

Science.gov (United States)

2010-05-01

Teaching: The epiSTEMe project: KS3 maths and science improvement Field trip: Pupils learn physics in a stately home Conference: ShowPhysics welcomes fun in Europe Student numbers: Physics numbers increase in UK Tournament: Physics tournament travels to Singapore Particle physics: Hadron Collider sets new record Astronomy: Take your classroom into space Forthcoming Events

Effects of a six-session introductory psychology programme on Year 9 pupils' interest in psychology and approaches to learning

OpenAIRE

Norris, E.; De Aguiar Chaves, T.; Dunsmuir, S.

2015-01-01

Psychology is a popular UK A-level, despite many pupils having no previous taught experience of it. Prior introduction to psychology teaching could help pupils make more informed choices to study it. This study evaluates a six-session introduction to psychology programme for 20 Year 9 pupils called ‘Myth-Busting the Brain’. A pre-/post-programme questionnaire investigated pupil interest towards future psychology study, interest in the programme and approaches to learning. There wa...

The Ethnic Prejudice of Flemish Pupils: The Role of Pupils' and Teachers' Perceptions of Multicultural Teacher Culture

Science.gov (United States)

Vervaet, Roselien; Van Houtte, Mieke; Stevens, Peter A. J.

2018-01-01

Background/Context: As a result of migration processes, schools in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium) are notably ethnically diverse. This evolution has coincided with an increasing number of studies focusing on ethnic-minority pupils' experiences of ethnic prejudice from their ethnic majority counterparts. Purpose/Objective/Research…

Pupil interest in physics: A survey in Finland

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jari Lavonen

2005-11-01

Full Text Available Factors interrelating with interest in physics learning are gender, perceived relevance, contents and contexts of physics, and teaching methods. Finnish ninth grade secondary school pupil interest in physics in different contexts was investigated with a survey conducted in connection with the international ROSE project. The sample consisted of 3626 pupils (median age 15 in 61 schools. Means of all items that belong to school physics context for both girls and boys were under the middle of the scale. The most interesting things (especially for girls were connected with human being and the less interesting (especially for girls were connected in artefacts and technological processes. Astronomical context was rather interesting for both genders. The main message of the study is that interesting new curricular approaches and textbooks can be developed by combining technological and human or astronomical contexts.

Perspectives of pupils, parents, and teachers on mental health problems among Vietnamese secondary school pupils

OpenAIRE

Nguyen, Dat Tan; Dedding, Christine; Pham, Tam Thi; Bunders-Aelen, J.G.F.

2013-01-01

Background: Secondary school can be a stressful period for adolescents, having to cope with many life changes. Very little research has been conducted on the mental health status of secondary school pupils in South East Asian countries, such as Vietnam.The study aimed to explore perceptions of mental health status, risk factors for mental health problems and strategies to improve mental health among Vietnamese secondary school students. Methods. A qualitative design was used to address the ma...

Science in and out of the classroom: A look at Water Resource at Gammams Water Care Works, Namibia

Science.gov (United States)

Iileka-Shinavene, Leena

2016-04-01

Primary school pupils in Van Rhyn School in Namibia are taught Natural Sciences from grade 4 at the age of 9. The curriculum is mainly theory/classroom based and natural science is taught through theory and various practical activities. However occasionally teachers have opportunities to supplement the pupils' learning experience through outdoor activities such as excursions to museums, municipal works and science fairs. Apart from enhancing the learning experience and improving understanding, such activities make the Natural science subject more interesting subject to learners. Water, a scarce/limited resource in Namibia, is one of the topics we cover in Natural sciences. Sustainable management of water is one of the top priorities of the government, which through various initiatives including the National Development Plan supports innovative ideas and technologies to reclaim water from sewage, recycling of industry and mining water and use semi-purified water for public recreational places. Most of the water used in Windhoek is reclaimed by City of Windhoek. To better illustrate this to the pupils, a school trip with 40 pupils of seventh grade was taken to the City of Windhoek's Gammams Water Care works. The aim of the trip was to show how the sewage purification process works and how the water is reclaimed from sewage. A guided tour of the water works was given by the resident scientists and the pupils were provided with the worksheet to complete after the tour around the Centre. They were encouraged to ask questions in all stages of water purification process and write down short notes. Most learners completed their worksheet during the tour session as they are getting information from the tour guide. The rest had to retrieve information and do further research as they got back to class so they could complete their worksheets. After the tour to Gammams, learners were asked to share what they had learned with the lower grades, 5 and 6, in a classroom

Continuing Professional Development and Learning in Primary Science Classrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Fraser, Christine A.

2010-01-01

This article explores the effects of continuing professional development (CPD) on teachers' and pupils' experiences of learning and teaching science in primary classrooms. During 2006-2007, quantitative and qualitative data were elicited from two primary teachers in Scotland using questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and video-stimulated…

Class composition influences on pupils' cognitive development

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Peetsma, T.; van der Veen, I.; Koopman, P.; van Schooten, E.

2006-01-01

The proportion of low-achieving children in a class can affect the progress of individual pupils in that class. Having a large proportion of low achievers in a class could slow down growth in cognitive achievement but, might also boost such growth, due to the effects of specialist teaching geared to

Pupil diameter, working distance and illumination during habitual tasks. Implications for simultaneous vision contact lenses for presbyopia.

Science.gov (United States)

Cardona, Genís; López, Sílvia

2016-01-01

To determine working distance, pupil diameter and illumination in real life conditions in a sample of presbyopic participants performing habitual tasks. A total of 59 presbyopic subjects (aged between 45 and 63 years) with different occupational backgrounds participated in the study. Participants were first interviewed regarding their habitual tasks with the aid of an ad hoc questionnaire, following which in-office photopic and mesopic pupil diameter was determined. Pupil diameter was also evaluated while participants conducted each of the self-reported habitual tasks by taking a photograph, which was later submitted to image analysis. In addition, working distance was determined with a measuring tape and the illumination that reached the pupil during each of the different tasks was measured, in lux, with a light meter. The four most common habitual tasks were computer use, reading, sewing and sports. A high intersubject variability was found in pupil diameter, working distance and illumination conditions while conducting the same task. Statistically significant differences were found between the in-office measured photopic and mesopic pupil diameters and those obtained while participants were conducting their habitual tasks in real life conditions (all p<0.001). Potential multifocal contact lens users may present with different ages, different jobs or hobbies and different preferences regarding lighting conditions and working distances. This results in different pupil size, even within the same task. This information may be critical when selecting a particular lens design and add power. Eye care practitioners are therefore advised to assess pupil diameter in real life conditions. Copyright © 2015 Spanish General Council of Optometry. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Peculiarities of adaptive and compensatory abilities of the modern pupils

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Тетяна Володимирівна Фролова

2015-06-01

Full Text Available In conditions of an intense functioning of child organism an influence of unfavorable factors can result into breakdown of adaptive and compensatory mechanisms and to become a presupposition for forming pathology.Aim: to define peculiarities of adaptive and compensatory abilities of school-aged children during the school year.Methods. 970 children 9-17 years old were examined at the beginning and at the end of school year. Children were divided in 2 groups: I – 673 children with chronic somatic diseases, II – 297 conventionally healthy children.The study of adaptive and compensatory mechanisms was carried out with a glance to vegetative regulation of body functions. Robinson index (IR was used for an express-assessment of somatic health. Statistic data-processing was done according to the requirements of evidence-based medicine.Result. An analysis of an examination results at the beginning of the school year showed that the pupils of the I group have a complex disturbances of vegetative regulation, low level of aerobic abilities of organism. Among the children of the II group no more than 25% have a satisfactory state of adaptive and compensatory mechanisms that ensure an adequate response of child organism on the stress factors of educational process.At the end of the school year the part of children who have a balanced level of neuroreflex systems of organism decreases by 50%, the number of children with an overstrain of regulatory systems of organism increases by 28%, with unsatisfactory state of adaptive and compensatory mechanisms – by 22% that becomes presupposition for formation and chronization of somatic pathology.An examination of pupils health level at the end of the school year showed that the number of conventionally healthy children decreases by 19,2%. The syntropy of pathological states formed in 54,2% of pupils with chronic somatic pathology, in 34,5% of children the functional disturbance transformed into somatic pathology

GeoBus: bringing Earth science learning to secondary schools in the UK

Science.gov (United States)

Robinson, Ruth; Roper, Kathryn; Pike, Charlotte

2015-04-01

GeoBus (www.geobus.org.uk) is an educational outreach project that was developed in 2012 by the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of St Andrews, and it is sponsored jointly by industry and the UK Research Councils (NERC and EPSRC). The aims of GeoBus are to support the teaching of Earth Science in secondary (middle and high) schools by providing teaching support to schools that have no or little expertise of teaching Earth science, to share the outcomes of new science research and the experiences of young researchers with school pupils, and to provide a bridge between industry, higher education institutions, research councils and schools. Since its launch, GeoBus has visited over 160 different schools across the length and breadth of Scotland. Almost 35,000 pupils will have been involved in experiential Earth science learning activities by April 2015, including many in remote and disadvantaged regions. The challenge with secondary school experiential learning as outreach is that activities need to be completed in either 50 or 80 minutes to fit within the school timetables in the UK, and this can limit the amount of hands-on activities that pupils undertake in one session. However, it is possible to dedicate a whole or half day of linked activities to Earth science learning within the Scotland Curriculum for Excellence, and this provides a long enough period to undertake field work, conduct group projects, or complete more complicated experiments. GeoBus has developed a suite of workshops that all involve experiential learning and are targeted for shorter and longer time slots, and the lessons learned in developing and refining these workshops to maximise the learning achieved will be presented. A key aim of GeoBus is to incorporate research outcomes directly into workshops, and to involve early career researchers in project development. One example that is currently in progress is a set of hydrology workshops that focus on the water

The perception of animal experimentation ethics among Indian teenage school pupils.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Justin Namuk; Choi, Eun Hee; Kim, Soo-Ki

2017-03-01

To promote awareness of animal experimentation ethics among teenagers, we created an educational pamphlet and an accompanying questionnaire. One hundred Indian teenage school pupils were given the pamphlet and subsequently surveyed with the questionnaire, to evaluate: a) their perception of animal experimentation ethics; and b) their opinion on the effectiveness of the pamphlet, according to gender and school grade/age. There was a significant correlation between grade/age and support for animal experimentation, i.e. senior students were more inclined to show support for animal experimentation. There was also a significant correlation between gender and perception of the need to learn about animal experimentation ethics, with girls more likely to feel the need to learn about ethics than boys. In addition, the four questions relating to the usefulness of the pamphlet, and student satisfaction with its content, received positive responses from the majority of the students. Even though the pamphlet was concise, it was apparent that three quarters of the students were satisfied with its content. Gender and age did not influence this level of satisfaction. Overall, our study shows that there is a significant correlation between a pupil`s school grade/age and their support for animal experimentation, and that there is also a significant correlation between gender and the perceived need to learn about animal experimentation ethics. This pilot scheme involving an educational pamphlet and questionnaire could be beneficial in helping to formulate basic strategies for educating teenage school pupils about animal ethics. 2017 FRAME.

THE MAIN PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL REQUIREMENTS OF INFORMATICS TEXTBOOKS FOR 6TH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Popel M.

2017-03-01

Full Text Available In the article the psychological characteristics of pupils 6th grade: rapid psychophysical development and crises inherent in early adolescence. For a comparative analysis of knowledge of pupils as the fifth and sixth grades by training years (2013-2014, 2014-2015 the dependence of quality of knowledge from the problems of adolescence. The specifics of semantic informatics textbooks for 6th grade is taking into account the age and characteristics of pupils need reflected on the psychological and educational requirements. Presents the basic functions performed by the textbook as a teaching tool, particularly in informatics. Considered the requirements set by the modern informatics textbook T. P. Sokolowski. Analysis of current informatics textbooks for 6th grade on the example of studying the topic "Algorithms and their performers' and found some problems in their content. Considering completed research were summarized and singled the basic psychological and pedagogical requirements to be met by informatics textbooks for 6th grade. As the prospects for further research appears analysis electronic editions of informatics and refinement requirements for defined existing textbooks considering psychological characteristics of young adolescents.

Pupil Selection Segments Urban Comprehensive Schooling in Finland: Composition of School Classes in Pupils' School Performance, Gender, and Ethnicity

Science.gov (United States)

Berisha, Anna-Kaisa; Seppänen, Piia

2017-01-01

The Finnish comprehensive school system is regularly referred to as a uniform and "no-tracking". In this article, we show with novel urban case data in Finland that school performance differed significantly between schools, most strikingly between school classes, and was connected to the school's selectiveness in pupil admission. A…

Robust adaptive optics systems for vision science

Science.gov (United States)

Burns, S. A.; de Castro, A.; Sawides, L.; Luo, T.; Sapoznik, K.

2018-02-01

Adaptive Optics (AO) is of growing importance for understanding the impact of retinal and systemic diseases on the retina. While AO retinal imaging in healthy eyes is now routine, AO imaging in older eyes and eyes with optical changes to the anterior eye can be difficult and requires a control and an imaging system that is resilient when there is scattering and occlusion from the cornea and lens, as well as in the presence of irregular and small pupils. Our AO retinal imaging system combines evaluation of local image quality of the pupil, with spatially programmable detection. The wavefront control system uses a woofer tweeter approach, combining an electromagnetic mirror and a MEMS mirror and a single Shack Hartmann sensor. The SH sensor samples an 8 mm exit pupil and the subject is aligned to a region within this larger system pupil using a chin and forehead rest. A spot quality metric is calculated in real time for each lenslet. Individual lenslets that do not meet the quality metric are eliminated from the processing. Mirror shapes are smoothed outside the region of wavefront control when pupils are small. The system allows imaging even with smaller irregular pupils, however because the depth of field increases under these conditions, sectioning performance decreases. A retinal conjugate micromirror array selectively directs mid-range scatter to additional detectors. This improves detection of retinal capillaries even when the confocal image has poorer image quality that includes both photoreceptors and blood vessels.

Dietary Factors Associated To Obesity In Ahwaz Primary School Pupils

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dorosty A.R; Tabatabaei M

2005-05-01

Full Text Available Background: Increase in obesity prevalence in recent years are associated to genetics as well environmental and behavioral factors. Change in dietary patterns including fatty and high density energy foods consumption have been reported to be very important. This study aimed to determine dietary factors (daily energy and macronutrient intakes, energy percentage of macronutrient, energy and macronutrient intakes per kilogram body weight, frequency of cola, natural fruit juice drinking, dairy products except cheese, tomato chips, puff, chocolate and fast food consumption and eating speed associated to obesity in Ahwaz primary school pupils. Materials and Methods: Using two stage cluster sampling from 35 Ahwaz primary schools, all 10-11y students who had a BMI 95th percentile of Hosseini et al. (1999 reference, were identified as obese (n=150 and 150 same age and gender pupils (having BMI0.05. macronutrient intakes per kilogram body weight were significantly lower in obese group (p0.05. Obese students used to eat faster (p<0.05. Conclusion: In conclusion, high intakes of energy, protein, carbohydrate, tomato chips and puff and high eating speed were associated to obesity in Ahwaz primary school pupils.

IS THE INQUIRY-BASED SCIENCE EDUCATION THE BEST?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Milan Kubiatko

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The science education is fighting with a relatively big problem. Many academicians, teachers and also laic society are still perceiving difficulty in understanding of concepts from science subject and lack of interest about this group of subjects. In the past the teaching process was very formal focused on the memorizing of the facts without any deeper understanding of the processes in the nature. Pupils and students knew all definitions about concepts in the science subjects, but practical application was on the low level. The academicians, teachers and other people interested in the science education were eager to change system of education.

Resonance – Journal of Science Education | News

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

pp 446-450 Series Article. Dawn of Science - Logarithms · T Padmanabhan · More Details Fulltext PDF. pp 451-462 Classroom. Fluid Dynamics of a Liquid in a U-shaped Tank · Seok-In Hong · More Details Fulltext PDF. pp 463-467 Personal Reflections. Ya B. Zeldovich – Personal Reminiscences of a Pupil · Varun Sahni.

Meteorology and Climate Inspire Secondary Science Students

Science.gov (United States)

Charlton-Perez, Andrew; Dacre, Helen; Maskell, Kathy; Reynolds, Ross; South, Rachel; Wood, Curtis

2010-01-01

As part of its National Science and Engineering Week activities in 2009 and 2010, the University of Reading organised two open days for 60 local key stage 4 pupils. The theme of both open days was "How do we predict weather and climate?" Making use of the students' familiarity with weather and climate, several concepts of relevance to secondary…

Pupil Dilation and Object Permanence in Infants

Science.gov (United States)

Sirois, Sylvain; Jackson, Iain R.

2012-01-01

This paper examines the relative merits of looking time and pupil diameter measures in the study of early cognitive abilities of infants. Ten-month-old infants took part in a modified version of the classic drawbridge experiment used to study object permanence (Baillargeon, Spelke, & Wasserman, 1985). The study involved a factorial design where…

How Finland Serves Gifted and Talented Pupils

Science.gov (United States)

Tirri, Kirsi; Kuusisto, Elina

2013-01-01

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the ways gifted and talented pupils are served in Finland. The trend toward individualism and freedom of choice as well as national policy affecting gifted education are discussed. Empirical research on Finnish teachers' attitudes toward gifted education with respect to the national…

Appropriate Pupilness: Social Categories Intersecting in School

Science.gov (United States)

Kofoed, Jette

2008-01-01

The analytical focus in this article is on how social categories intersect in daily school life and how intersections intertwine with other empirically relevant categories such as normality, pupilness and (in)appropriatedness. The point of empirical departure is a daily ritual where teams for football are selected. The article opens up for a…

DIDACTIC POTENTIAL OF PUPILS UPBRINGING BY MEANS OF LITARATURE WORKS IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS OF WESTERN UKRAINIAN DIASPORA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tetyana Rybak

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Didactic potential of upbringing pupils in educational institutions of the Diaspora by means of artistic word has been analyzed. The attention is paid to the function of art – Ukrainian literature, which promotes the formation of fully developed personality, their preparation for the conscious and active labour activity, and therefore upbringing is closely connected with life. It is cleared out that when plunging into the system of the artistic world, the pupil learns from the life of the main positive characters how to live in the society and to be useful, because textbooks and manuals on the native literature, readers in the Diaspora provide the basis for children to learn the behaviour of consciousness, and the latter, as it is known, depends on the construction of the world in themselves, that is called the worldview. It is proved that the powerful moral-educational and artistic-aesthetic potential of Ukrainian literature is being implemented in the books of Western Ukrainian Diaspora with the aim of ethnic and cultural enrichment of pupils and above all the formation of national consciousness of Ukrainian children, active choice of their values of national spirituality. It is established that the didactic potential of the upbringing of pupils by means of artistic word allows instilling love to the native language, to Ukraine, and thus it slows down the process of assimilation. On the basis of the study of the scientific-pedagogical heritage of emigration teachers-philologists, the theoretical approaches and practice of schoolchildren education by means of the word have been analyzed, the significance of their experience for the modern educational practice has been substantiated. The system of education of schoolchildren by means of the word, which has been developed over the years, is actual for the development of pedagogical science and practice. The analysis of pedagogical practice, accumulated didactic potential of upbringing pupils in

Effectiveness of yoga-aerobic means’ application in physical education of primary school pupils

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L.S. Mykhno

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Purpose: to determine influence of health related technology on physical condition level of primary school pupils. Material: in the research two groups of first form pupils participated: control group (n=28 and experimental group (n=26. Level of children’s physical fitness was determined with the help of isolated motor tests. At home pupils fulfilled independently and with parents the learned at classes exercises for prophylaxis of posture disorders and for stretching. During fulfillment home tasks or other work in sitting position children were involved by parents in practicing of the worked out by us physical exercises’ breaks. Results: we observed rising of pupils’ physical fitness level: flexibility, ability to keep static balance, power endurance of back and abdomen muscles. To the highest extent yoga aerobic means influenced on flexibility and static balance indicators. Conclusions: when choosing physical exercises for short break in work we considered content of pupils’ learning functioning at definite lesson. All complexes of exercises are to be fulfilled reading texts of the worked out by us verses. It facilitates pupils to better memorize sequence of exercises’ fulfillment and gives emotional coloring to physical exercises.

The use of information and communications technology to support the teaching of science in primary schools

Science.gov (United States)

Skinner, Nigel C.; Preece, Peter F. W.

2003-02-01

The AstraZeneca-Exeter Science through Telematics (AZEST) project provided evidence that the Internet has much potential as a communication channel for the provision and discussion of INSET materials for primary science in the UK. Participating teachers were able to access and use the project website effectively, were more likely to provide feedback when they had personal access to the Internet either at home or at school, and provided valuable feedback concerning the AZEST tasks, but they tended not to respond directly to messages from other participants. Discussion, via e-mail or a web-based discussion forum, was enhanced if participants knew each other personally. There was evidence that the AZEST science INSET materials enhanced teachers' understanding of science concepts and raised their confidence, increased teachers' effectiveness in the role of Science Subject Leader, and improved teachers' pedagogic practice through encouraging innovative investigative approaches to the teaching and learning of science. Participating teachers indicated that a website dedicated to primary science at the local level was valued. Concept mapping was found to be a valuable tool for stimulating discussion and for assessing pupils' and teachers' understanding and was mostly enjoyed by pupils and staff.

Safety Matters! Safety for Primary Science and Technology

Science.gov (United States)

Education in Science, 2011

2011-01-01

This article discusses where teachers stand from a legal point of view when pupils, who have been told to wear eye protection, take it off during the practical lesson, and an accident happens. It also discusses the disposal of dissection and other waste from animal parts used in school science. (Contains 1 footnote.)

Configuration and Dynamics of the Earth-Sun-Moon System: An Investigation into Conceptions of Deaf and Hearing Pupils.

Science.gov (United States)

Roald, Ingvild; Mikalsen, Oyvind

2001-01-01

Reports and analyzes the day and night cycle, the seasons, and the phases of the moon as seen by Norwegian deaf pupils aged 7, 9, 11, and 17 years, and by hearing Norwegian pupils 9 years old. Among the 9-year-olds there was no difference in the inner coherence of the conceptions between deaf pupils. (Author/SAH)

Relations Between Self-Reported Daily-Life Fatigue, Hearing Status, and Pupil Dilation During a Speech Perception in Noise Task.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yang; Naylor, Graham; Kramer, Sophia E; Zekveld, Adriana A; Wendt, Dorothea; Ohlenforst, Barbara; Lunner, Thomas

People with hearing impairment are likely to experience higher levels of fatigue because of effortful listening in daily communication. This hearing-related fatigue might not only constrain their work performance but also result in withdrawal from major social roles. Therefore, it is important to understand the relationships between fatigue, listening effort, and hearing impairment by examining the evidence from both subjective and objective measurements. The aim of the present study was to investigate these relationships by assessing subjectively measured daily-life fatigue (self-report questionnaires) and objectively measured listening effort (pupillometry) in both normally hearing and hearing-impaired participants. Twenty-seven normally hearing and 19 age-matched participants with hearing impairment were included in this study. Two self-report fatigue questionnaires Need For Recovery and Checklist Individual Strength were given to the participants before the test session to evaluate the subjectively measured daily fatigue. Participants were asked to perform a speech reception threshold test with single-talker masker targeting a 50% correct response criterion. The pupil diameter was recorded during the speech processing, and we used peak pupil dilation (PPD) as the main outcome measure of the pupillometry. No correlation was found between subjectively measured fatigue and hearing acuity, nor was a group difference found between the normally hearing and the hearing-impaired participants on the fatigue scores. A significant negative correlation was found between self-reported fatigue and PPD. A similar correlation was also found between Speech Intelligibility Index required for 50% correct and PPD. Multiple regression analysis showed that factors representing "hearing acuity" and "self-reported fatigue" had equal and independent associations with the PPD during the speech in noise test. Less fatigue and better hearing acuity were associated with a larger pupil

Infra-slow oscillation (ISO of the pupil size of urethane-anaesthetised rats.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tomasz Blasiak

Full Text Available Multiplicity of oscillatory phenomena in a range of infra-slow frequencies (<0.01 Hz has been described in mammalian brains at different levels of organisation. The significance and manifestation in physiology and/or behaviour of many brain infra-slow oscillations (ISO remain unknown. Examples of this phenomenon are two types of ISO observed in the brains of urethane-anaesthetised rats: infra-slow, rhythmic changes in the rate of action potential firing in a few nuclei of the subcortical visual system and a sleep-like cycle of activation/deactivation visible in the EEG signal. Because both of these rhythmic phenomena involve brain networks that can influence autonomic nervous system activity, we hypothesised that these two brain ISOs can be reflected by rhythmic changes of pupil size. Thus, in the present study, we used simultaneous pupillography and ECoG recording to verify the hypothesised existence of infra-slow oscillations in the pupil size of urethane-anaesthetised rats. The obtained results showed rhythmic changes in the size of the pupils and rhythmic eyeball movements in urethane-anaesthetised rats. The observed rhythms were characterised by two different dominant components in a range of infra-slow frequencies. First, the long component had a period of ≈ 29 minutes and was present in both the irises and the eyeball movements. Second, the short component had a period of ≈ 2 minutes and was observed only in the rhythmic constrictions and dilations of the pupils. Both ISOs were simultaneously present in both eyes, and they were synchronised between the left and right eye. The long ISO component was synchronised with the cyclic alternations of the brain state, as revealed by rhythmic changes in the pattern of the ECoG signal. Based on the obtained results, we propose a model of interference of ISO present in different brain systems involved in the control of pupil size.

Secondary school pupils' food choices around schools in a London borough: Fast food and walls of crisps.

Science.gov (United States)

Caraher, M; Lloyd, S; Mansfield, M; Alp, C; Brewster, Z; Gresham, J

2016-08-01

The objective was to observe and document food behaviours of secondary school pupils from schools in a London borough. The research design combined a number of methods which included geographic information system (GIS) mapping of food outlets around three schools, systemised observations of food purchasing in those outlets before, during and after school, and focus groups conducted with pupils of those schools to gather their views in respect to those food choices. Results are summarised under the five 'A's of Access, Availability, Affordability and Acceptability & Attitudes: Access in that there were concentrations of food outlets around the schools. The majority of pupil food purchases were from newsagents, small local shops and supermarkets of chocolate, crisps (potato chips), fizzy drinks and energy drinks. Availability of fast food and unhealthy options were a feature of the streets surrounding the schools, with 200 m the optimal distance pupils were prepared to walk from and back to school at lunchtime. Affordability was ensured by the use of a consumer mentality and pupils sought out value for money offers; group purchasing of 'two for one' type offers encouraged this trend. Pupils reported healthy items on sale in school as expensive, and also that food was often sold in smaller portion sizes than that available from external food outlets. Acceptability and Attitudes, in that school food was not seen as 'cool', queuing for school food was not acceptable but queuing for food from takeaways was not viewed negatively; for younger pupils energy drinks were 'cool'. In conclusion, pupils recognised that school food was healthier but provided several reasons for not eating in school related to the five 'A's above. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The interaction of pupil response with the vergence system.

Science.gov (United States)

Feil, Moritz; Moser, Barbara; Abegg, Mathias

2017-11-01

A gaze shift from a target at distance to a target at near leads to pupillary constriction. The regulation of this pupillary near response is ill known. We investigated the impact of accommodation, convergence, and proximity on the pupillary diameter. We recorded pupil size and vergence eye movements with the use of an infrared eye tracker. We determined the pupillary response in four conditions: (1) after a gaze shift from far to near without accommodation, (2) after a gaze shift from far to near with neither accommodation nor convergence, (3) after accommodation alone, and (4) after accommodation with convergence without a gaze shift to near. These responses were compared to the pupil response of a full near response and to a gaze shift from one far target to another. We found a reliable pupillary near response. The removal of both accommodation and convergence in gaze shift from far to near abolished the pupillary near response. Accommodation alone did not induce pupillary constriction, while convergence and accommodation together induced a pupil response similar to the full near response. The main trigger for the pupillary response seems to be convergence. Neither accommodation nor proximity alone induce a significant pupillary constriction. This suggests that the miosis of the near triad is closely coupled to the vergence system rather than being independently regulated.

Including Pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorders in the Classroom: The Role of Teaching Assistants

Science.gov (United States)

Symes, Wendy; Humphrey, Neil

2012-01-01

The aims of the current study were (i) to explore the extent to which pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) were effectively included in lessons, compared with pupils with dyslexia (DYS) or no Special Educational Needs (CON) and (ii) to understand how the presence of a teaching assistant (TA) influences the inclusion/exclusion process. One…

An Examination of the Role of Nursery Education on Primary School Pupils in Nigeria

Science.gov (United States)

Oniwon, H. O. Evelyn

2015-01-01

This study examines the role of Nursery education among primary school pupils. The sole objective of the study was to find out the differences in academic achievement between primary school pupils who received nursery education and those who did not. Descriptive survey research design was adopted to achieve the study objective. Consequently, 20…

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PUPILS FROM URBAN AND RURAL AREAS IN MORPHOLOGICAL AND MOTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mamaj Driton

2015-05-01

Full Text Available One of the most important preconditions for effective influence of physical body exercises among pupils during regular classes of physical education in schools is increased volume and quality of work and study. In order to increase volume and quality of work and study, it is necessary to carry out reform of education at elementary and lower level secondary education in Kosova in order to advance professional personnel and increase number of hours for sport and health education classes. Methods: This research is of a transversal nature, meaning that there has been a measurement of morphological and motoric indicators in the sample of 26 pupils of the age group of 15 years of the elementary and lower level school “Faik Konica” from Prishtina as an urbane center and sample of 30 pupils of elementary and lower level school „Avdulla Tahiri“ from Malisheva. 6 anthropometric and 4 motoric variables have been used (Kurelić et al., 1975. Anthropometric variables included: body height (ATV, length of foot (ADS, body mass (ATT, volume of upper arm in down position (AONL, volume of upper leg (AONK, volume of lower leg (AOPK. Motoric variables included: standing position distance jump (MFESDM, 30 meters distance running (MTR30V, bench bending (MFLPRK, and push-ups (MSKLEK. T-test analysis has been used for independent variables. Results: Obtained results from the statistical analysis demonstrate that anthropometric characteristics and motoric skills of two independent groups of pupils have normal distribution and no visible asymmetry and have tendency toward higher values (epikurtic. T-test analysis demonstrates that pupils from rural areas have lower muscular mass and lower motoric results. Discussion: Conditions for execution of physical education classes and lack of physical activities in the rural environment have strong influence on developments of morphological and motoric characteristics of pupils. Significant statistical differences obtained

Relations Between Self-Reported Daily-Life Fatigue, Hearing Status, and Pupil Dilation During a Speech Perception in Noise Task

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Yang; Naylor, Graham; Kramer, Sophia E

2017-01-01

during the speech processing, and we used peak pupil dilation (PPD) as the main outcome measure of the pupillometry. No correlation was found between subjectively measured fatigue and hearing acuity, nor was a group difference found between the normally hearing and the hearing-impaired participants...... on the fatigue scores. A significant negative correlation was found between self-reported fatigue and PPD. A similar correlation was also found between Speech Intelligibility Index required for 50% correct and PPD. Multiple regression analysis showed that factors representing "hearing acuity" and "self......-reported fatigue" had equal and independent associations with the PPD during the speech in noise test. Less fatigue and better hearing acuity were associated with a larger pupil dilation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the relationship between a subjective measure of daily...

Nuclear Physics Science Network Requirements Workshop, May 6 and 7, 2008. Final Report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tierney, Ed. Brian L; Dart, Ed. Eli; Carlson, Rich; Dattoria, Vince; Ernest, Michael; Hitchcock, Daniel; Johnston, William; Kowalski, Andy; Lauret, Jerome; Maguire, Charles; Olson, Douglas; Purschke, Martin; Rai, Gulshan; Watson, Chip; Vale, Carla

2008-01-01

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the primary provider of network connectivity for the US Department of Energy Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States of America. In support of the Office of Science programs, ESnet regularly updates and refreshes its understanding of the networking requirements of the instruments, facilities, scientists, and science programs that it serves. This focus has helped ESnet to be a highly successful enabler of scientific discovery for over 20 years. In May 2008, ESnet and the Nuclear Physics (NP) Program Office of the DOE Office of Science organized a workshop to characterize the networking requirements of the science programs funded by the NP Program Office. Most of the key DOE sites for NP related work will require significant increases in network bandwidth in the 5 year time frame. This includes roughly 40 Gbps for BNL, and 20 Gbps for NERSC. Total transatlantic requirements are on the order of 40 Gbps, and transpacific requirements are on the order of 30 Gbps. Other key sites are Vanderbilt University and MIT, which will need on the order of 20 Gbps bandwidth to support data transfers for the CMS Heavy Ion program. In addition to bandwidth requirements, the workshop emphasized several points in regard to science process and collaboration. One key point is the heavy reliance on Grid tools and infrastructure (both PKI and tools such as GridFTP) by the NP community. The reliance on Grid software is expected to increase in the future. Therefore, continued development and support of Grid software is very important to the NP science community. Another key finding is that scientific productivity is greatly enhanced by easy researcher-local access to instrument data. This is driving the creation of distributed repositories for instrument data at collaborating institutions, along with a corresponding increase in demand for network-based data transfers and the tools

Differences in morphological characteristics between of football pioneer and elementary school pupils

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Javorac Dejan

2015-01-01

Full Text Available For a large number of sports disciplines generally known morphological structure that most influence the sporty performance, although, no doubt, the coefficients of participation of some morphological dimension in the equation specification changes in development techniques and tactics and modern world achievements in a particular sport. It was determined that the anthropological characteristics, each in its own way, the important task of training in solving with football players (Malacko i Radosav 1985. The aim of this research was to determine differences in the morphological characteristics between of football pioneer and elementary school pupils. In a sample of 196 subjects, the average age of 12:45 ± 0.03 years, there was a comparison of morphological characteristics. The first group consisted of 82 players - Pioneers FC 'Red Star' from Belgrade and the other 114 elementary school pupils from Novi Sad. A sample of five measures for the evaluation of morphological characteristics were: body height, body weight, circumference of chest, waist circumference and volume of the thigh. Comparison of morphological characteristics of young soccer players and elementary school pupils was carried out by using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA and univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA. Analysis of morphological characteristics of young soccer players and elementary school pupils found that there were no statistically significant differences.

The Impact on Pupils' Altruistic Attitudes : a Comparison of the Effects of Direct Activity and Indirect Interventions.

OpenAIRE

Miyasato, Tomoe

2008-01-01

The purpose of this study was to identify the impact on pupils' altruistic attitudes of participating in either direct experiential activity or indirect interventions. In the direct condition, 4th grade pupils interacted experientially with kindergarten children in naturalistic social settings; in the indirect condition, the older pupils read a story about social interaction to the kindergarten children and discussed it with them afterwards. Seventy 4th-graders took part. After they participa...

Parasympathetic nervous system dysfunction, as identified by pupil light reflex, and its possible connection to hearing impairment

OpenAIRE

Wang, Yang; Zekveld, Adriana A.; Naylor, Graham; Ohlenforst, Barbara; Jansma, Elise P.; Lorens, Artur; Lunner, Thomas; Kramer, Sophia E.

2016-01-01

Context\\ud Although the pupil light reflex has been widely used as a clinical diagnostic tool for autonomic nervous system dysfunction, there is no systematic review available to summarize the evidence that the pupil light reflex is a sensitive method to detect parasympathetic dysfunction. Meanwhile, the relationship between parasympathetic functioning and hearing impairment is relatively unknown.\\ud \\ud Objectives\\ud To 1) review the evidence for the pupil light reflex being a sensitive meth...

Researching Pupil Well-Being in UK Secondary Schools: Community Psychology and the Politics of Research

Science.gov (United States)

Duckett, Paul; Sixsmith, Judith; Kagan, Carolyn

2008-01-01

This study explores the relationships between a school, its staff and its pupils and the impact of these relationships on school pupils' well-being. The authors adopted a community psychological perspective and applied critical, social constructionist epistemologies and participatory, multi-method research tools. The article discusses the…

Perceptions of elementary school teachers of their pupils\\' eye ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Perceptions of elementary school teachers of their pupils\\' eye health in ilorin, nigeria. ... PROMOTING ACCESS TO AFRICAN RESEARCH ... roles that school teachers are expected to play in school eye health programmes, their perceptions ...

African Journal of Educational Studies in Mathematics and Sciences ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Towards Scientific Literacy for Basic School Pupils: Which Profile Dimensions are Emphasised in the Ghanaian Basic Science Curricula? EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT · DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT. J Ghartey-Ampiah, 1-14. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ajesms.v4i1.38619 ...

Physical education problems of 5–9 grade pupils in the context of health preservation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Natalia Idrisova

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Purpose: determination of the causes of deterioration of health and related problems of physical education of 5–9 grade pupils. Material & Methods: analysis of the causes and definition of the behavioral characteristics of pupils in relation to physical education was studied during 2012–2017 in one parallel class. In the experiment conducted in two stages, 52 pupils of the secondary school No. 1 of Melitopol took part. In the study used questionnaires, analytical, comparative, experimental and statistical methods. Result: tendency of deterioration of pupils health during training in middle classes is proved; obtained data in accordance with the typology compiled reflect the awareness of some students health as a means of raising the status, as well as the failure to understand half the researched values of physical education in maintaining health and disinterest in physical education. Conclusion: problems of school physical education are determined by the low level of the culture of health of the entire Ukrainian society.

Alerting, Orienting or Executive Attention Networks: Differential Patters of Pupil Dilations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ronny eGeva

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Attention capacities, alerting responses, orienting to sensory stimulation, and executive monitoring of performance are considered independent yet interrelated systems. These operations play integral roles in regulating the behavior of diverse species along the evolutionary ladder. Each of the primary attention constructs—alerting, orienting, and executive monitoring— involves salient autonomic correlates as evidenced by changes in reactive pupil dilation (PD, heart rate, and skin conductance. Recent technological advances that use remote high-resolution recording may allow the discernment of temporo-spatial attributes of autonomic responses that characterize the alerting, orienting, and executive monitoring networks during free viewing, irrespective of voluntary performance. This may deepen the understanding of the roles of autonomic regulation in these mental operations and may deepen our understanding of behavioral changes in verbal as well as in non-verbal species.The aim of this study was to explore differences between psychosensory pupil dilation responses in alerting, orienting, and executive conflict monitoring tasks to generate estimates of concurrent locus coeruleus (LC noradrenergic input trajectories in healthy human adults using the attention networks test (ANT. The analysis revealed a construct-specific pattern of pupil responses: alerting is characterized by an early component (Pa, its acceleration enables covert orienting, and executive control is evidenced by a prominent late component (Pe. Pupil dilation characteristics seem to be task-sensitive, allowing exploration of mental operations irrespective of conscious voluntary responses. These data may facilitate development of studies designed to assess mental operations in diverse species using autonomic responses.

Flipped learning in science education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Thomas Dyreborg; Foss, Kristian Kildemoes; Nissen, Stine Karen

2017-01-01

During the last decade, massive investment in ICT has been made in Danish schools. There seems, however, to be a need to rethink how to better integrate ICT in education (Bundgaard et al. 2014 p. 216) Flipped learning might be a didactical approach that could contribute to finding a method to use...... research questions are “To what extent can teachers using the FL-teaching method improve Danish pupils' learning outcomes in science subject’s physics / chemistry, biology and geography in terms of the results of national tests?” And “What factors influence on whether FL-teaching improves pupils' learning...... will be addressed. Hereafter an array of different scaffolding activities will be conducted, among these are individual supervision, sharing of materials used in lessons and involving local school leaders in the program. During this 3-year period we will follow the progress of the students involved in the program...

Representational Inquiry competences in Science Games

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Magnussen, Rikke

2009-01-01

to support work with genuine scientific inquiry and to meet the seventh- to tenth grade curriculum objectives for science and Danish education in Danish schools. This paper comprises a presentation of the results of a long-term empirical study done of four school classes who have played the game. The chapter......This chapter concerns the enactment of competences in a particular science learning game Homicide, which is played in lower secondary schools. Homicide is a forensic investigation game in which pupils play police experts solving criminal cases in the space of one week. The game is designed......, transform and criticize visual representations as an integrated part of conducting an inquiry in the science game...

Inadequacy of vitamins and minerals among high-school pupils in Ouarzazate, Morocco.

Science.gov (United States)

Anzid, Karim; Baali, Abdellatif; Vimard, Patrice; Levy-Desroches, Susan; Cherkaoui, Mohamed; López, Pilar Montero

2014-08-01

To assess micronutrient intakes and the prevalence of inadequacy in a sample of high-school pupils in Ouarzazate, Morocco. Food records were compiled over three non-consecutive days by pre-trained pupils. Micronutrient intakes were estimated using the DIAL software, adapted to include foods commonly eaten in Morocco. The prevalence of inadequacy was estimated by the proportion of individuals with intakes below the Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) for vitamins B12, A and K, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pyridoxine, folate, ascorbic acid, iodine, Ca, Mg and P; below the Adequate Intake (AI) level for pantothenic acid, biotin, Na and K; and using the probability approach for Fe. Data were adjusted for intra-individual variation with exclusion of under-reporters. Ouarzazate, a semi-urban region situated on the southern slopes of the High Atlas with little industrial development but an important tourism sector. A self-selected sample of 312 pupils aged 15-19 years from the five public high schools. After exclusion of under-reporters, 293 remained for analysis. The highest proportions of below-EAR/AI intakes were seen for pantothenic acid (girls 85·1 %, boys 78·0 %), biotin (boys 83·1 %, girls 79·4 %), thiamin (boys 66·9 %), folate (girls 93·1 %, boys 74·6 %), iodine (boys 94·9 %, girls 88·0 %) and Ca (girls 83·4 %, boys 74·6 %). Na intake was generally in excess whereas K intake was below the AI level. In general, girls had better-quality diets than boys, who appeared to consume more 'empty calories'. Our findings suggest that in this population of Moroccan adolescents, nutritional intervention and educational strategies are needed to promote healthy eating habits and correct micronutrient inadequacies. To provide reliable and precise estimates of nutrient intakes, an update of Moroccan food composition databases is urgently needed. We recommend that national authorities address these issues.

A consideration on issues of the science education in Japan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arima, Akito

1999-01-01

The paper discusses the features of the science education of Japan based on the international data on the science achievement test scores of the school children. Furthermore, the paper introduces the world inquiry surveys on the scientific knowledge of ordinary adults, which is shown by the National Science Foundation, USA. The author will give what the science education of Japan should be in future. The 14 years-age middle school pupils of Japan had gotten the higher scores of science and mathematics achievement tests among the world, i.e. they had been between the first and the third positions in the three time tests from 1964 to 1995. The Japanese showed the extremely narrow distribution of the score. On the other hand, the Singapore and the USA showed the wide spread distributions. Another point of the Japanese pupils was weak capability to put their knowledge to practical use. They knew well that carbon dioxide came out from burning of carbon. However, few knew why carbon dioxide extinguished the fires. The NSF of USA had done the inquiry survey for the ordinary adults' knowledge on molecule, DNA, radiation, radioactivity and so on. In this case the Japanese were almost in the worst group. It is recommended that the education in the real life practice in the natural world should give more emphasis in the science education rather than studies on the papers in Japan. (Y. Tanaka)

Ground Validation Assessments of GPM Core Observatory Science Requirements

Science.gov (United States)

Petersen, Walt; Huffman, George; Kidd, Chris; Skofronick-Jackson, Gail

2017-04-01

NASA Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission science requirements define specific measurement error standards for retrieved precipitation parameters such as rain rate, raindrop size distribution, and falling snow detection on instantaneous temporal scales and spatial resolutions ranging from effective instrument fields of view [FOV], to grid scales of 50 km x 50 km. Quantitative evaluation of these requirements intrinsically relies on GPM precipitation retrieval algorithm performance in myriad precipitation regimes (and hence, assumptions related to physics) and on the quality of ground-validation (GV) data being used to assess the satellite products. We will review GPM GV products, their quality, and their application to assessing GPM science requirements, interleaving measurement and precipitation physical considerations applicable to the approaches used. Core GV data products used to assess GPM satellite products include 1) two minute and 30-minute rain gauge bias-adjusted radar rain rate products and precipitation types (rain/snow) adapted/modified from the NOAA/OU multi-radar multi-sensor (MRMS) product over the continental U.S.; 2) Polarimetric radar estimates of rain rate over the ocean collected using the K-Pol radar at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands and the Middleton Island WSR-88D radar located in the Gulf of Alaska; and 3) Multi-regime, field campaign and site-specific disdrometer-measured rain/snow size distribution (DSD), phase and fallspeed information used to derive polarimetric radar-based DSD retrievals and snow water equivalent rates (SWER) for comparison to coincident GPM-estimated DSD and precipitation rates/types, respectively. Within the limits of GV-product uncertainty we demonstrate that the GPM Core satellite meets its basic mission science requirements for a variety of precipitation regimes. For the liquid phase, we find that GPM radar-based products are particularly successful in meeting bias and random error requirements

Estimation of mental effort in learning visual search by measuring pupil response.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tatsuto Takeuchi

Full Text Available Perceptual learning refers to the improvement of perceptual sensitivity and performance with training. In this study, we examined whether learning is accompanied by a release from mental effort on the task, leading to automatization of the learned task. For this purpose, we had subjects conduct a visual search for a target, defined by a combination of orientation and spatial frequency, while we monitored their pupil size. It is well known that pupil size reflects the strength of mental effort invested in a task. We found that pupil size increased rapidly as the learning proceeded in the early phase of training and decreased at the later phase to a level half of its maximum value. This result does not support the simple automatization hypothesis. Instead, it suggests that the mental effort and behavioral performance reflect different aspects of perceptual learning. Further, mental effort would be continued to be invested to maintain good performance at a later stage of training.

Pedagogical terms of forming of healthy method of life of modern pupils

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Odarchenko V.I.

2012-10-01

Full Text Available The questions of conditioning forming of healthy method of life of pupils of general educational educational establishments are probed. In an experiment 156 pupils took part in age from 6 to 17 years. It is set that the characteristic feature of bodily condition of health of pupils is a result of the protracted unfavorable influence of socio-economic, ecological and pedagogical factors. An idea speaks out, that search of the new going near organization of an educational educate process at school it is necessary to send educations to humanizing. It will provide creation of optimum terms for spiritual growth of personality, valuable realization of psychophysical possibilities, maintainance and strengthening of health. It is well-proven that realization of the personality oriented approach taking into account basic valeological principles positively influences on the process of education of responsible attitude toward an own health as to the greatest individual and public value.

Effects of a Six-Session Introductory Psychology Programme on Year 9 Pupils' Interest in Psychology and Approaches to Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Norris, Emma; Chaves, Tahirah De Aguiar; Dunsmuir, Sandra

2015-01-01

Psychology is a popular UK A-level, despite many pupils having no previous taught experience of it. Prior introduction to psychology teaching could help pupils make more informed choices to study it. This study evaluates a six-session introduction to psychology programme for 20 Year 9 pupils called "Myth-Busting the Brain." A…

Effective Teaching of Able Pupils in the Primary School: The Findings of the Oxfordshire Effective Teachers of Able Pupils Project.

Science.gov (United States)

Eyre, Deborah; Coates, David; Fitzpatrick, Mary; Higgins, Chris; McClure, Lynne; Wilson, Helen; Chamberlin, Rosemary

2002-01-01

A review of British research on effective teaching of able students leads to a report on the Oxfordshire Effective Teachers of Able Pupils Project. This study found effective teachers shared similar beliefs about learning, had empathy with the needs of able children, created a secure classroom environment, held high expectations, used…

How Do Engineering Attitudes Vary by Gender and Motivation? Attractiveness of Outreach Science Exhibitions in Four Countries

Science.gov (United States)

Salmi, Hannu; Thuneberg, Helena; Vainikainen, Mari-Pauliina

2016-01-01

Outreach activities, like mobile science exhibitions, give opportunities to hands-on experiences in an attractive learning environment. We analysed attitudes, motivation and learning during a science exhibition visit, their relations to gender and future educational plans in Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Belgium (N = 1210 sixth-graders). Pupils'…

Scientific Conceptions of Photosynthesis among Primary School Pupils and Student Teachers of Biology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Darja Skribe Dimec

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Photosynthesis is the most important biochemical process on Earth. Most living beings depend on it directly or indirectly. Knowledge about photosynthesis enables us to understand how the world functions as an ecosystem and how photosynthesis acts as a bridge between the non-living and living worlds. It is, therefore, understandable that photosynthesis is included in national curricula around the world. The practice unfortunately shows that students at all school levels mostly learn about photosynthesis by rote. Consequently, they have difficulties understanding this vital process. Research also shows many misconceptions in relation to photosynthesis among students of different ages. Based on these, the main aim of our study was to explore the scientific conceptions about photosynthesis held by primary school pupils and student teachers of biology. Data were collected using a questionnaire containing seven biology content questions. The sample consisted of 634 participants, 427 primary school pupils (aged 11–14, and 207 student teachers of biology (aged 20–23. We found that the populations of primary school pupils and student teachers of biology differ greatly concerning scientific conceptions of photosynthesis. The student teachers showed good and complex understanding of photosynthesis, while pupils showed some misconceptions (location of chlorophyll and photosynthesis in a plant, transformation of energy in photosynthesis. Analysis of the development of scientific conceptions about photosynthesis with age showed that there is very little progress among primary school pupils and none among biology student teachers. More involvement of student teachers of biology in practical work at primary schools during their study was suggested to make student teachers aware of, and better understand pupils’ misconceptions.

Pupils Learning Preferences and Interest Development in Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Arikpo, Ofem U.; Domike, Grace

2015-01-01

This paper presents an overview of the extent pupils learning preference and interest development influences their learning in schools. Interest is refers to an individual's relatively enduring psychological predisposition (preference) to re-engage in particular classes of objects, available evidence indicates that, there are many factors that…

Changes in intraocular pressure and horizontal pupil diameter ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of topical 0.5% tropicamide, 1% atropine sulphate and 10% phenylephrine hydrochloride ophthalmic solutions on intraocular pressure (IOP) and horizontal pupil diameter (HPD) in the dog during the first hour after treatment. Forty clinically and ophthalmologically ...

Intestinal helminth infections among primary school pupils in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

A study was carried out to determine the prevalence of intestinal helminth infections among primary school pupils in Ekwulumili Community, Nnewi South Local Government Area, Anambra State, Nigeria, between April and July 2012. Five primary schools were involved in the study namely, Bethel Nursery and Primary ...

Ambient Optomechanical Alignment and Pupil Metrology for the Flight Instruments Aboard the James Webb Space Telescope

Science.gov (United States)

Coulter, Phillip; Beaton, Alexander; Gum, Jeffrey S.; Hadjimichael, Theodore J.; Hayden, Joseph E.; Hummel, Susann; Hylan, Jason E.; Lee, David; Madison, Timothy J.; Maszkiewicz, Michael;

pupil initiatives in urban nature trail development: pmb moss

African Journals Online (AJOL)

.ritzburg is provided. Negotiations and procedures initiated by standard 9 pupils in stimulating authorities and the public to recog~ nise the need for urban trail development and metropolitan open space. (MOSS) are outlined. long-tenn ...

Brief Report Teachers' work as appreciated by pupils, parents ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Brief Report Teachers' work as appreciated by pupils, parents, department heads and principals. ... Open Access DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT Subscription or Fee ... one does contributes to job satisfaction which in turn leads to a high level of

Pupil dilation with intracameral lidocaine during phacoemulsification: Benefits for the patient and surgeon

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nikeghbali Aminollah

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Topical and/or intracameral administration of anticholinergic and/or sympathomimetic mydriatic agents which are usually used for pupillary dilation during cataract surgery, have some disadvantages such as slow onset of dilation and adverse ocular and systemic effects. We evaluated intracameral injection of preservative-free 1% lidocaine without using any preoperative or intraoperative mydriatics to induce pupil dilation in 31 consecutive eyes scheduled for phacoemulsification cataract extraction and intraocular lens implantation. Pupil diameter was measured before and 90 sec after intracameral lidocaine injection. After intracameral lidocaine injection, the mean pupil diameter was significantly greater than the baseline measurement (P< 0.001. No additional mydriatics were needed up to the end of the operations. Intracameral preservative-free lidocaine 1% has a rapid and effective mydriasis that could be a safe alternative to topical and intracameral mydriatics in phacoemulsification.

Olanzapine Overdose in a Pin Point Pupil with Altered Sensorium

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Naresh Midha

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Background:Olanzapine is a highly tolerable and easily affordable atypical antipsychotic drug which has been commonly prescribed in both inpatient and outpatient settings for several mental disorders. Olanzapine overdose is commonly seen in psychiatric patients, who attempt suicide by intoxicating themselves with their own prescribed medications. Increased olanzapine use is associated with increased incidence of overdosing. Case Presentation:We are reporting a case of olanzapine overdosage as a cause of pinpoint pupils and altered sensorium with exclusion of other differentials. The mainstay of managementof olanzapine overdose is general supportive and symptomatic measures. Discussion: Pinpoint pupils with altered sensorium and agitation are always an alarming situation for a clinician, because of differentials like organophosphorus poisoning, pontine hemorrhage and opium overdosing. Due to olanzapine overdosage, similar clinical picture can be confusing in the emergency department and early identification of such cases is helpful to decrease the risk of fatality. Conclusion: This case highlights the significance of olanzapine overdosing as a differential diagnosis for patients presented with altered sensorium and pinpoint pupils in the emergency department. Olanzapine overdosage is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Although there is no specific antidote for olanzapine overdose, appropriate history, assessment and early diagnosis are very useful for the better outcome.

Educational Applications for Blind and Partially Sighted Pupils Based on Speech Technologies for Serbian

Science.gov (United States)

Lučić, Branko; Ostrogonac, Stevan; Vujnović Sedlar, Nataša; Sečujski, Milan

2015-01-01

The inclusion of persons with disabilities has always represented an important issue. Advancements within the field of computer science have enabled the development of different types of aids, which have significantly improved the quality of life of the disabled. However, for some disabilities, such as visual impairment, the purpose of these aids is to establish an alternative communication channel and thus overcome the user's disability. Speech technologies play the crucial role in this process. This paper presents the ongoing efforts to create a set of educational applications based on speech technologies for Serbian for the early stages of education of blind and partially sighted children. Two educational applications dealing with memory exercises and comprehension of geometrical shapes are presented, along with the initial tests results obtained from research including visually impaired pupils. PMID:26171422

Educational Applications for Blind and Partially Sighted Pupils Based on Speech Technologies for Serbian.

Science.gov (United States)

Lučić, Branko; Ostrogonac, Stevan; Vujnović Sedlar, Nataša; Sečujski, Milan

2015-01-01

The inclusion of persons with disabilities has always represented an important issue. Advancements within the field of computer science have enabled the development of different types of aids, which have significantly improved the quality of life of the disabled. However, for some disabilities, such as visual impairment, the purpose of these aids is to establish an alternative communication channel and thus overcome the user's disability. Speech technologies play the crucial role in this process. This paper presents the ongoing efforts to create a set of educational applications based on speech technologies for Serbian for the early stages of education of blind and partially sighted children. Two educational applications dealing with memory exercises and comprehension of geometrical shapes are presented, along with the initial tests results obtained from research including visually impaired pupils.

Education in Science Centers: Evaluating School Visits to an Astronomical Observatory in Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pedro Donizete Colombo Junior

2009-03-01

Full Text Available The present article analyzes the activity “Guided Visit of School Groups” carried out at Astronomical Observatory of the Center for Scientific and Cultural Diffusion (CDCC of University of Sao Paulo (USP with K4 and K5 pupils. The objectives of this research were to identify influences of such activity on learning of astronomical concepts and on pupils’ motivation. The results demonstrate that pupils have difficulties to understand Solar System concepts and the distances involved, on the other hand, the activity motivates the pupils to return with their parents and friends to the Observatory. At last, the success of visits to science centers aiming at the learning of basic concepts and motivation comprises at least three moments: the one that precedes the visit, the visit itself and the return to the classroom.

Electronic Learning in the German Science Project "NAWI-Interaktiv"

Science.gov (United States)

Wegner, Claas; Homann, Wiebke; Strehlke, Friederike

2014-01-01

The German science project "NAWI-Interaktiv" is an example of innovative use of E-Learning and new media education. Since 2009, the learning platform provides learners and teachers with high-quality learning tools, teaching material, useful information and E-learning programs for free. This is to raise the pupils' motivation to learn…

Requirements, Science, and Measurements for Landsat 10 and Beyond: Perspectives from the Landsat Science Team

Science.gov (United States)

Crawford, C. J.; Masek, J. G.; Roy, D. P.; Woodcock, C. E.; Wulder, M. A.

2017-12-01

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and NASA are currently prioritizing requirements and investing in technology options for a "Landsat 10 and beyond" mission concept as part of the Sustainable Land Imaging (SLI) architecture. Following the successful February 2013 launch of the Landsat 8, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) have now added over 1 million images to the USGS Landsat archive. The USGS and NASA support and co-lead a Landsat Science Team made up largely of university and government experts to offer independent insight and guidance of program activities and directions. The rapid development of Landsat 9 reflects, in part, strong input from the 2012-2017 USGS Landsat Science Team (LST). During the last two years of the LST's tenure, individual LST members and within LST team working groups have made significant contributions to Landsat 10 and beyond's science traceability and future requirements justification. Central to this input, has been an effort to identify a trade space for enhanced measurement capabilities that maintains mission continuity with eight prior multispectral instruments, and will extend the Landsat Earth observation record beyond 55+ years with an approximate launch date of 2027. The trade space is framed by four fundamental principles in remote sensing theory and practice: (1) temporal resolution, (2) spatial resolution, (3) radiometric resolution, and (4) spectral coverage and resolution. The goal of this communication is to provide a synopsis of past and present 2012-2017 LST contributions to Landsat 10 and beyond measurement science and application priorities. A particular focus will be to document the links between new science and societal benefit areas with potential technical enhancements to the Landsat mission.

Family Integrants Obstructing Pupils' School Attendance and Girl ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study is hinged on finding out the family integrants obstructing pupils' school attendance, the girl – child education and proffering solution to it via counsellors' strategies. The samples were three hundred (300) parents and twenty (20) counsellors. This brought the total sample to three hundred and twenty (320).

Eating behavior and quality of life in high school pupils in Lviv

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S.L. Nyankovskyy

2018-02-01

decrease of viability index in group of children using computer for a long time (3 hours per day and more. In children go in for sport, there are significantly higher quality of life indexes determined by the scale of psychological health and by the scale of general health. Besides, in older children sleeping 8 hours per night, a sufficiently higher emotional stability is noticed determined by the scale of role-emotional functioning (p < 0.05. Conclusions. The diet of high school pupils does not meet the established standards. This may be a risk factor for gastroduodenal pathology in the future, and therefore requires systematic correction. In addition to rational nutrition, factors affecting the health status and the psycho-emotional status of high school pupils are controlled physical activity, regular outdoor exercise and limited use of the computer. The method of assessing the quality of life is a simple and informative mean for comprehensive study of the health status of high school pupils and can be recommended for widespread use in pediatrics.

The Enright phenomenon. Stereoscopic distortion of perceived driving speed induced by monocular pupil dilation.

Science.gov (United States)

Carkeet, Andrew; Wood, Joanne M; McNeill, Kylie M; McNeill, Hamish J; James, Joanna A; Holder, Leigh S

The Enright phenomenon describes the distortion in speed perception experienced by an observer looking sideways from a moving vehicle when viewing with interocular differences in retinal image brightness, usually induced by neutral density filters. We investigated whether the Enright phenomenon could be induced with monocular pupil dilation using tropicamide. We tested 17 visually normal young adults on a closed road driving circuit. Participants were asked to travel at Goal Speeds of 40km/h and 60km/h while looking sideways from the vehicle with: (i) both eyes with undilated pupils; (ii) both eyes with dilated pupils; (iii) with the leading eye only dilated; and (iv) the trailing eye only dilated. For each condition we recorded actual driving speed. With the pupil of the leading eye dilated participants drove significantly faster (by an average of 3.8km/h) than with both eyes dilated (p=0.02); with the trailing eye dilated participants drove significantly slower (by an average of 3.2km/h) than with both eyes dilated (p<0.001). The speed, with the leading eye dilated, was faster by an average of 7km/h than with the trailing eye dilated (p<0.001). There was no significant difference between driving speeds when viewing with both eyes either dilated or undilated (p=0.322). Our results are the first to show a measurable change in driving behaviour following monocular pupil dilation and support predictions based on the Enright phenomenon. Copyright © 2016 Spanish General Council of Optometry. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

The psichological peculiarity structure organization of pupils and students

OpenAIRE

N P Kirina

2009-01-01

The article considers age differences of the psychological structure of pupils and students organization baseol on the general-functional approach to studying the qualities of the personality, which gives an opportunity to study age pecularities of organization in detail.

MSE spectrograph optical design: a novel pupil slicing technique

Science.gov (United States)

Spanò, P.

2014-07-01

The Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer shall be mainly devoted to perform deep, wide-field, spectroscopic surveys at spectral resolutions from ~2000 to ~20000, at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. Simultaneous spectral coverage at low resolution is required, while at high resolution only selected windows can be covered. Moreover, very high multiplexing (3200 objects) must be obtained at low resolution. At higher resolutions a decreased number of objects (~800) can be observed. To meet such high demanding requirements, a fiber-fed multi-object spectrograph concept has been designed by pupil-slicing the collimated beam, followed by multiple dispersive and camera optics. Different resolution modes are obtained by introducing anamorphic lenslets in front of the fiber arrays. The spectrograph is able to switch between three resolution modes (2000, 6500, 20000) by removing the anamorphic lenses and exchanging gratings. Camera lenses are fixed in place to increase stability. To enhance throughput, VPH first-order gratings has been preferred over echelle gratings. Moreover, throughput is kept high over all wavelength ranges by splitting light into more arms by dichroic beamsplitters and optimizing efficiency for each channel by proper selection of glass materials, coatings, and grating parameters.

Observations of teachers in Ilorin, Nigeria on their practices of corporal punishment that are potentially injurious to their pupils' eyes.

Science.gov (United States)

Mahmoud, Abdulraheem Olarongbe; Ayanniyi, Abdulkabir Ayansiji; Salman, Medinat Folorunso

2011-01-01

To document the observations of elementary school teachers (ESTs) in Ilorin, Nigeria on their practice of some types of corporal punishment (CP) that could result in eye injuries among their pupils. A short battery of questions that explored ESTs' observations on attitudes to, and knowledge of some commonly used CP practices was self-administered on 172 consenting teachers from six sampled schools. The potentials for their pupils to sustain eye injuries while receiving such CP practices were inferred from the usage of items with sharp and protruding ends to administer CP, and the application of CP onto pupils' body parts that are in close proximity to the eye such as the head and face. Only 50 of the 172 ESTs favored the practice of CP of pupils by their teachers. Analyses of several potentially moderating variables on this response such as ESTs' ages, years of EST teaching experience, school, and class or grade that EST teaches did not prove significant. Over three-quarters of ESTs (80.2%) had ever observed that pupils were being disciplined by ESTs with a cane. About a fifth of them had also observed that ESTs applied CP to the head (19.8%) and the face (16.3%) of pupils. Findings suggest that ESTs' commonly employed CP practices have significant injurious potential to their pupils' eyes. It is recommended that CP be abolished in elementary schools, and instead alternative nonabusive methods of disciplining erring pupils by teachers be introduced.

The Magnitude and Impact of Bullying among School Pupils in Muscat, Oman: A Cross-Sectional Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muna Al-Saadoon

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Research about bullying among school pupils in the Arab/Muslim population is scarce. This study evaluates the characteristics of bullying and its impact among school pupils in Oman via cross-sectional survey among eighth grade school pupils (n = 1,229 during the academic year 2006-2007. The participants were selected using stratified random selection among 6 administrative divisions of one the governorates in the country. Data were collected using self-completed structured questionnaires. This study found similar percentages of males and females (76% have experienced one form of bullying, and the majority of the incidents (80% occurred in the vicinity of the school. In almost half of the cases, the bullying was initiated by a student of the same age or older than the victim. The most common type of bullying encountered in this study was verbal (47.7%, followed by misuse (45.9%, physical (43.9%, and, finally, social isolation/exclusion (22.5%. Although the failure of an academic year was uncommon among victims of bullying, the number of pupils who missed 4–6 and ≥7 school days was higher among bullied pupils. If this study will withstand further research, educational initiatives are needed to mitigate the rate of bullying in Oman.

MODEL OF METHODS OF FORMING BIOLOGICAL PICTURE OF THE WORLD OF SECONDARY SCHOOL PUPILS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mikhail A. Yakunchev

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Introduction: the problem of development of a model of methods of forming the biological picture of the world of pupils as a multicomponent and integrative expression of the complete educational process is considered in the article. It is stated that the results of the study have theoretical and practical importance for effective subject preparation of senior pupils based on acquiring of systematic and generalized knowledge about wildlife. The correspondence of the main idea of the article to the scientific profile of the journal “Integration of Education” determines the choice of the periodical for publication. Materials and Methods: the results of the analysis of materials on modeling of the educational process, on specific models of the formation of a complete comprehension of the scientific picture of the world and its biological component make it possible to suggest a lack of elaboration of the aspect of pedagogical research under study. Therefore, the search for methods to overcome these gaps and to substantiate a particular model, relevant for its practical application by a teacher, is important. The study was based on the use of methods of theoretical level, including the analysis of pedagogical and methodological literature, modeling and generalized expression of the model of forming the biological picture of the world of secondary school senior pupils, which were of higher priority. Results: the use of models of organization of subject preparation of secondary school pupils takes a priority position, as they help to achieve the desired results of training, education and development. The model of methods of forming a biological picture of the world is represented as a theoretical construct in the unity of objective, substantive, procedural, diagnostic and effective blocks. Discussion and Conclusions: in a generalized form the article expresses the model of methods of forming the biological picture of the world of secondary school

Indoor environment and pupils' health in primary schools

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Dijken, F; Bronswijk, van J.E.M.H.; Sundell, J.

2006-01-01

Dutch children are legally bound to spend 15% of their time in a school setting. The indoor environment in Dutch primary schools is known to be substandard. However, it is unclear to what extent the health of pupils is affected by the indoor school environment. The paper aims to assess the

breakfast skipping and academic / social development of pupils

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Abasiama Akpan

“Assessment of the effects of skipping breakfast on the children by pupils was the basic ... concludes that since proper feeding is necessary for the child's academic and social development, the ... people feed influence their behaviour in a variety ... J. C. Duruamaku-Dim, Department of Curriculum & Teaching, Faculty of ...

Cognitive stimulation of pupils with Down syndrome: A study of inferential talk during book-sharing.

Science.gov (United States)

Engevik, Liv Inger; Næss, Kari-Anne B; Hagtvet, Bente E

2016-08-01

In the education of pupils with Down syndrome, "simplifying" literal talk and concrete stimulation have typically played a dominant role. This explorative study investigated the extent to which teachers stimulated abstract cognitive functions via inferential talk during book-sharing and how pupils with Down syndrome responded. Dyadic interactions (N=7) were videotaped, transcribed and coded to identify levels of abstraction in teacher utterances and to evaluate the adequacy of pupil responses. One-third of the teachers' utterances contained high levels of abstraction and promoted inferential talk. Six of the seven children predominantly responded in ways which revealed inferential thinking. Dialog excerpts highlighted individual, contextual and interactional factors contributing to variations in the findings. Contrary to previous claims, the children with Down syndrome in the current sample appear able to draw inferences beyond the "here-and-now" with teacher support. This finding highlights the educational relevance and importance of higher-order cognitive stimulation of pupils with intellectual disabilities, to foster independent metacognitive skills. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Comparison of Middle School Teachers' Pupil Control Ideology

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Paul; Garner, Arthur E.

1978-01-01

Compares pupil control ideology--discipline policy--of middle school classroom teachers with the intent of finding what attributes are needed for middle school teachers and the particular type classroom environment that facilitates optimum learning conditions for middle school children. (Author/RK)

Digital Materials Related to Food Science and　Cooking Methods for Preparing Eggs

OpenAIRE

沼田, 貴美子; 渡邉, 美奈; ヌマタ, キミコ; ワタナベ, ミナ; Numata, Kimiko; Watanabe, Mina

2009-01-01

We studied methods that were effective for teaching cooking to elementary school pupils using home economics materials. The subject was "Iritamago (scrambled eggs)". We researched the relationship between cookery science and experimental methods of making Iritamago. The various differences in condition and texture of Iritamago were compared among the different cooking utensils, conditions, and preparations of eggs. We created digital materials related to cookery science and the cooking method...

Raising the Achievement of Portuguese Pupils in British Schools: A Case Study of Good Practice

Science.gov (United States)

Demie, Feyisa; Lewis, Kirstin

2010-01-01

The aim of the research was to study the experiences of Portuguese heritage pupils in British schools. The main findings from empirical data suggest Portuguese children are underachieving at the end of primary education but the case study confirms that in good schools Portuguese pupils do well and have made huge improvements over the periods. The…

Showing You're Working: A Project Using Former Pupils' Experiences to Engage Current Mathematics Students

Science.gov (United States)

Musto, Garrod

2008-01-01

To help students view mathematics in a more favourable light, a number of former pupils were contacted and asked to give details of how they use mathematics in their daily lives. This information was gathered through an online questionnaire or visits to the school to talk to pupils--a booklet of responses was also given to students. Attitudinally…

Hearing-Impaired Pupils in Mainstream Education in Finland: Teachers' Experiences of Inclusion and Support

Science.gov (United States)

Takala, Marjatta; Sume, Helena

2018-01-01

Today, in Finland, the majority of hearing-impaired pupils attend regular schools. This is in line with inclusive policy. This study aims to investigate do these pupils receive support from teachers, what kind of support is given and how is inclusion functioning. A questionnaire was used with 109 Finnish teachers, with both closed- and open-ended…

Reliability of automatic biometric iris recognition after phacoemulsification or drug-induced pupil dilation.

Science.gov (United States)

Seyeddain, Orang; Kraker, Hannes; Redlberger, Andreas; Dexl, Alois K; Grabner, Günther; Emesz, Martin

2014-01-01

To investigate the reliability of a biometric iris recognition system for personal authentication after cataract surgery or iatrogenic pupil dilation. This was a prospective, nonrandomized, single-center, cohort study for evaluating the performance of an iris recognition system 2-24 hours after phacoemulsification and intraocular lens implantation (group 1) and before and after iatrogenic pupil dilation (group 2). Of the 173 eyes that could be enrolled before cataract surgery, 164 (94.8%) were easily recognized postoperatively, whereas in 9 (5.2%) this was not possible. However, these 9 eyes could be reenrolled and afterwards recognized successfully. In group 2, of a total of 184 eyes that were enrolled in miosis, a total of 22 (11.9%) could not be recognized in mydriasis and therefore needed reenrollment. No single case of false-positive acceptance occurred in either group. The results of this trial indicate that standard cataract surgery seems not to be a limiting factor for iris recognition in the large majority of cases. Some patients (5.2% in this study) might need "reenrollment" after cataract surgery. Iris recognition was primarily successful in eyes with medically dilated pupils in nearly 9 out of 10 eyes. No single case of false-positive acceptance occurred in either group in this trial. It seems therefore that iris recognition is a valid biometric method in the majority of cases after cataract surgery or after pupil dilation.

Effect of the challenger experience on elementary children's attitudes to science

Science.gov (United States)

Jarvis, Tina; Pell, Anthony

2002-12-01

This research explored how the Challenger experience influenced over 655 elementary boys' and girls' general attitudes to science and space during the 5 months after their visit by examining their responses to four different attitude scales. These were administered to the 10- to 11-year-olds immediately before and after the Challenger experience as well as 2 and 5 months later. Knowledge tests were also administered before and after the visit. A sample of children completed an existing measure of anxiety. Although there were mainly positive outcomes immediately after the Challenger experience, there were some negative effects. There were also noticeable differences between boys and girls. Some 24% of pupils were inspired to become scientists. There was also less fear of space travel with a greater appreciation of the use of science to protect the planet after the visit. Most girls improved and maintained their attitudes toward science in society. A sizeable number of pupils were relatively unaffected by the experience and there was a significant negative effect on a small group of anxious girls. There are indications that previsit preparation and careful choice of roles during the simulation are important.

Guided Reading: Young Pupils' Perspectives on Classroom Practice

Science.gov (United States)

Hanke, Veronica

2014-01-01

Guided reading is widely perceived to be tricky in English primary schools; prior research has found difficulties with teacher interpretation and implementation. The study reported here suggests that to understand the problems associated with it we should also take into account pupils' perspectives on their guided reading lessons. In this case,…

The role of teacher in motivating pupils to learn french in Slovenia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Darja Premrl

2011-12-01

Full Text Available French language teachers in Slovene elementary and high schools think that the teachers must motivate pupils with different approaches to work in the classroom. They also estimate that if the student isn't motivated to work in the classroom, teacher's effort could improve the motivation. Teachers, therefore, believe in their work, in their knowledge and competences to present French language to the pupils in the way they enjoy studying it, and that their way of work improves interest for the knowledge/learning of French language. Nevertheless, 78 % of teachers involved in this research think that a workshop about motivation with the examples from the good practice could be of great use to them. The analysis shows that teachers like to use student's book in their work and that they most often motivate pupils with their own excitement about the topic. The fact is that the motivation is a dynamic process which changes in time and in place. Teacher is a part of that process, but he/she is not the only one responsible for its outcome.

Interdisciplinary Science Courses for College General Education Requirements: Perspectives of Faculty at a State University.

Science.gov (United States)

Dass, Pradeep Maxwell

Science educators have been advocating a broader role for science education--that of helping all students see the relevance of science to their own lives. Yet the only experience with post-secondary science that non-science majors get is through a couple of science courses which are part of the general education requirements (GERs) for a liberal…

An Extra Radiator? Teachers' Views of Support Teaching and Withdrawal in Developing the English of Bilingual Pupils.

Science.gov (United States)

Williamson, John

1989-01-01

Explores the attitudes of British secondary school teachers toward withdrawal and mainstream support as ways of helping bilingual pupils develop competence in English. Suggests that the results allow for envisaging an ideal classroom situation for teaching bilingual pupils. (KO)

The relationship between competencies acquired through Swiss academic sports science courses and the job requirements.

Science.gov (United States)

Schlesinger, T; Studer, F; Nagel, S

2016-01-01

In view of the changes in and growing variety of sports-related occupations, it is highly relevant for educational institutions to know how well the educational contents of their sport science courses meet the professional requirements. This study analyses the relationship between the competencies acquired through academic sports science courses and the requirements of the relevant jobs in Switzerland. The data for this empirical analysis were drawn from a sample of n = 1054 graduates of different academic sport science programmes at all eight Swiss universities. The results show that academic sport science courses primarily communicate sports-specific expertise and practical sports skills. On the other hand, most graduates consider that the acquisition of interdisciplinary competencies plays a comparatively minor role in sport science education, even though these competencies are felt to be an important requirement in a variety of work-related environments and challenges.

Restart: The Resurgence of Computer Science in UK Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Neil C. C.; Sentance, Sue; Crick, Tom; Humphreys, Simon

2014-01-01

Computer science in UK schools is undergoing a remarkable transformation. While the changes are not consistent across each of the four devolved nations of the UK (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), there are developments in each that are moving the subject to become mandatory for all pupils from age 5 onwards. In this article, we…

''I Don't Think I Would Be Where I Am Right Now''. Pupil Perspectives on Using Mobile Devices for Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Walker, Ros

2013-01-01

Are pupils in the United Kingdom using mobile devices to help their learning? If so, what are they using and why? This article is based on research carried out by questionnaire, observation and pupil interviews at two English academies. One of the academies provides mobile devices for the pupils, and the other bans the use of mobile devices. The…

An inquiry approach to science and language teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Rodriguez, Imelda; Bethel, Lowell J.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of an inquiry approach to science and language teaching to further develop classification and oral communication skills of bilingual Mexican American third graders. A random sample consisting of 64 subjects was selected for experimental and control groups from a population of 120 bilingual Mexican American third graders. The Solomon Four-Group experimental design was employed. Pre- and posttesting was performed by use of the Goldstein-Sheerer Object Sorting Test, (GSOST) and the Test of Oral Communication Skills, (TOCS). The experimental group participated in a sequential series of science lessons which required manipulation of objects, exploration, peer interaction, and teacher-pupil interaction. The children made observations and comparisons of familiar objects and then grouped them on the basis of perceived and inferred attributes. Children worked individually and in small groups. Analysis of variance procedures was used on the posttest scores to determine if there was a significant improvement in classification and oral communication skills in the experimental group. The results on the posttest scores indicated a significant improvement at the 0.01 level for the experimental group in both classification and oral communication skills. It was concluded that participation in the science inquiry lessons facilitated the development of classification and oral communication skills of bilingual children.

The Eyes Have It: Sex and Sexual Orientation Differences in Pupil Dilation Patterns

Science.gov (United States)

Rieger, Gerulf; Savin-Williams, Ritch C.

2012-01-01

Recent research suggests profound sex and sexual orientation differences in sexual response. These results, however, are based on measures of genital arousal, which have potential limitations such as volunteer bias and differential measures for the sexes. The present study introduces a measure less affected by these limitations. We assessed the pupil dilation of 325 men and women of various sexual orientations to male and female erotic stimuli. Results supported hypotheses. In general, self-reported sexual orientation corresponded with pupil dilation to men and women. Among men, substantial dilation to both sexes was most common in bisexual-identified men. In contrast, among women, substantial dilation to both sexes was most common in heterosexual-identified women. Possible reasons for these differences are discussed. Because the measure of pupil dilation is less invasive than previous measures of sexual response, it allows for studying diverse age and cultural populations, usually not included in sexuality research. PMID:22870196

Threat but not arousal narrows attention: Evidence from pupil dilation and saccade control

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Henk eVan Steenbergen

2011-10-01

Full Text Available It has been shown that negative affect causes attentional narrowing. According to Easterbrook’s (1959 influential hypothesis this effect is driven by the withdrawal motivation inherent to negative emotions and might be related to increases in arousal. We investigated whether valence-unspecific increases in physiological arousal, as measured by pupil dilation, could account for attentional narrowing effects in a cognitive control task. Following the presentation of a negative, positive, or neutral picture, participants performed a saccade task with a prosaccade versus an antisaccade instruction. The reaction time difference between pro- and antisaccades was used to index attentional selectivity, and while pupil diameter was used as an index of physiological arousal. Pupil dilation was observed for both negative and positive pictures, which indicates increased physiological arousal. However, increased attentional selectivity was only observed following negative pictures. Our data show that motivational intensity effects on attentional narrowing can occur independently of physiological arousal effects.

Conserving Our Environment. Seychelles Integrated Science. [Teacher and Pupil Booklets]. Unit 13.

Science.gov (United States)

Brophy, M.; Fryars, M.

Seychelles Integrated Science (SIS), a 3-year laboratory-based science program for students (ages 11-15) in upper primary grades 7, 8, and 9, was developed from an extensive evaluation and modification of previous P7-P9 materials. This P9 SIS unit focuses on: (1) basic ecological and conservation concepts; (2) problems and complexities of…

Conserving Our Energy. Seychelles Integrated Science. [Teacher and Pupil Booklets]. Unit 11.

Science.gov (United States)

Brophy, M.; Fryars, M.

Seychelles Integrated Science (SIS), a 3-year laboratory-based science program for students (ages 11-15) in upper primary grades 7, 8, and 9, was developed from an extensive evaluation and modification of previous P7-P9 materials. This P9 SIS unit deals with: (1) the importance of energy in students' everyday lives; (2) energy forms and…

Conserving Our Health. Seychelles Integrated Science. [Teacher and Pupil Booklets]. Unit 12.

Science.gov (United States)

Brophy, M.; Fryars, M.

Seychelles Integrated Science (SIS), a 3-year laboratory-based science program for students (ages 11-15) in upper primary grades 7, 8, and 9, was developed from an extensive evaluation and modification of previous P7-P9 materials. This P9 SIS unit deals with conserving health, focusing on such body processes as breathing, digestion, excretion,…

Living Things Reproduce. Seychelles Integrated Science. [Teacher and Pupil Booklets]. Unit 6.

Science.gov (United States)

Brophy, M.; Fryars, M.

Seychelles Integrated Science (SIS), a 3-year laboratory-based science program for students (ages 11-15) in upper primary grades 7, 8, and 9, was developed from an extensive evaluation and modification of previous P7-P9 materials. This P8 SIS unit focuses on reproduction in animals and in flowering plants. Particular topics examined include the…

MOTIVATION AND COMMUNICATIVE ATTITUDES AMONG JAPANESE EFL PUPILS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rie Adachi

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This paper describes how gender and age affect Japanese pupils’ motivation for learning English and their attitudes to communication with people from different cultures. A new foreign language curriculum was introduced to Japanese elementary schools in 2011. Although each school can officially choose any foreign language in its own right, most elementary schools are now conducting English activity. However, as most homeroom teachers lack both experiences and qualifications for teaching English, this activity puts them under pressure. In addition, the number of foreign assistant language teachers (ALTs is not sufficient in most elementary schools. The writer surveyed fifth and sixth grade pupils’ motivation and their communicative attitudes in Japan during 2010, before the new course program, “foreign language activities,” began in 2011. The data were collected from three elementary schools in Japan via a questionnaire. The items on the questionnaire are related to motivational attitudes, orientations (reasons for studying a foreign language, communicative attitudes and some other variables relevant to learning foreign languages. The main focus of this study is to examine motivational and attitudinal variables among the pupils with regard to learning English, especially gender and age effects on these variables. The results show that girls generally have higher scores on motivation and communicative attitudes. Most previous studies have also shown that girls generally have a positive attitude toward learning a foreign language. This study argues that the reason behind this positive attitude toward learning English is due to their positive attitude toward communication in general. With regard to the age, there are a few differences between two school grades. As there is only one year difference in age between fifth and sixth grade pupils, the result is to be expected. The study suggests that Japanese elementary schools face a number of

Games, Game Flow, and Gender as They Affect Mathematics Achievement of Pupils in Nigeria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Aremu

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Game flow experience in the use of games has the potential of determining whether games used for learning would achieve the desired goal of improved achievement. With a subject like Mathematics, it is vital to ensure that if game based strategies are to be used, the games must possess this very important construct. Furthermore, the games must be able to produce the flow experience in both males and females, so that the observed gender gap in the learning of the subject would not be further widened. It is therefore important to investigate the gender differences in a game based learning environment for a subject such as Mathematics. This is the purpose of this research. This research investigated games, game flow, and gender as they affect Mathematics achievement of pupils in Nigeria. Through the use of Achievement of Pupils in Fraction-concepts Test (APFT and Game Flow Questionnaire (GFQ, data were collected. The result was a significant difference in mathematics achievements of pupils exposed to game based strategy and those exposed to modified conventional method of teaching. However, there was no significant difference in game flow experiences, as well as in mathematics achievement of male and female pupils exposed to game based strategy.

Prevalence for Private Tuition among Parents, Teachers and Pupils in Public Primary Schools in Machakos County

Science.gov (United States)

Kirigwi, Lucy Wambui; Maithya, Redempta

2016-01-01

Private tuition refers to tutoring offered outside mainstream teaching. The study sought to establish the difference in prevalence for private tuition among parents, teachers and pupils in public primary schools in Machakos County. The study employed descriptive survey design. The target populations were all teachers, parents and pupils of public…

The role of parental risk judgements, transport safety attitudes, transport priorities and accident experiences on pupils' walking to school.

Science.gov (United States)

Mehdizadeh, Milad; Nordfjaern, Trond; Mamdoohi, Amir Reza; Shariat Mohaymany, Afshin

2017-05-01

Walking to school could improve pupils' health condition and might also reduce the use of motorized transport modes, which leads to both traffic congestion and air pollution. The current study aims to examine the role of parental risk judgements (i.e. risk perception and worry), transport safety attitudes, transport priorities and accident experiences on pupils' walking and mode choices on school trips in Iran, a country with poor road safety records. A total of 1078 questionnaires were randomly distributed among pupils at nine public and private schools in January 2014 in Rasht, Iran. Results from valid observations (n=711) showed that parents with high probability assessments of accidents and strong worry regarding pupils' accident risk while walking were less likely to let their children walk to school. Parents with high safety knowledge were also more likely to allow their pupils to walk to school. Parents who prioritized convenience and accessibility in transport had a stronger tendency to choose motorized modes over walking modes. Also, parents who prioritized safety and security in transport were less likely to allow pupils to walk to school. Elasticities results showed that a one percent increase in priorities of convenience and accessibility, priorities of safety and security, car ownership and walking time from home to school reduced walking among pupils by a probability of 0.62, 0.20, 0.86 and 0.57%, respectively. A one percent increase in parental safety knowledge increased the walking probability by around 0.25%. A 1 unit increase in parental probability assessment and worry towards pupils' walking, decreased the probability of choosing walking mode by 0.11 and 0.05, respectively. Policy-makers who aim to promote walking to schools should improve safety and security of the walking facilities and increase parental safety knowledge. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A cognitive perspective on Singaporean primary school pupils' use of reading strategies in learning to read in English.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Lawrence Jun; Gu, Peter Yongqi; Hu, Guangwei

2008-06-01

This study is conducted in Singapore, where learning to read in English is regarded as essential because it is offered as a First Language (L1) subject in the curriculum and is stipulated as the medium of instruction in the education system, and the mother tongues are offered as Second Language (L2) subjects, although the majority still learn English as an L2. The paper reports on the reading strategies used by Singaporean primary school pupils from a cognitive perspective, which is part of a larger study that aims to investigate these pupils' language learning strategies. The participants were 18 pupils from three neighbourhood primary schools, in grades Primary 4, 5 and 6. The data were collected from high- and low-proficiency pupils at each of the three grades in each school, who read two texts at each level. Grounded in an information-processing theory and based on successful experiences of scholars using think-aloud for data collection, we asked the pupils to read and report what they were thinking about while reading. The think-aloud protocols were recorded, transcribed verbatim, coded and analysed. The results suggest that participants' flexible and appropriate use of reading strategies varies according to language proficiency and grade level, with the high-proficiency group outperforming its lower-proficiency counterpart and the high-graders outnumbering the lower-graders in terms of the number of strategies that they used. These differences were also exemplified with qualitative findings from case studies. The use of reading strategies differs according to proficiency levels, and the quality of pupils' strategy-use patterns has more significant implications for understanding efficient reading among primary school pupils.

Criminal investigations: pupil pharmacological reactivity as method for assessing time since death is fallacious.

Science.gov (United States)

Orrico, Marco; Melotti, Roberto; Mantovani, Anna; Avesani, Barbara; De Marco, Roberto; De Leo, Domenico

2008-12-01

Determination of the time since death in the early postmortem period is one of the most critical issues to be faced by criminal investigators. One of the techniques is the evaluation of the pupil pharmacological reactivity. In the present work, we aim at identifying whether an objective and single method, based on pharmacological pupil reaction, is feasible or not. Between 2002 and 2003 calendar years, we observed 309 bodies, whose eyes have been each instilled apart, within 26 hours since death, with either a myotic substance or a mydriatic solution. Our results show that the real effectiveness of pupil pharmacological reactivity as method for assessing the time since death in early postmortem period is not only questionable but even highly misleading if not replaced by alternative objective physiological tests and appropriate professional judgments by the investigators.

AMTD: update of engineering specifications derived from science requirements for future UVOIR space telescopes

Science.gov (United States)

Stahl, H. Philip; Postman, Marc; Mosier, Gary; Smith, W. Scott; Blaurock, Carl; Ha, Kong; Stark, Christopher C.

2014-08-01

The Advance Mirror Technology Development (AMTD) project is in Phase 2 of a multiyear effort, initiated in FY12, to mature by at least a half TRL step six critical technologies required to enable 4 meter or larger UVOIR space telescope primary mirror assemblies for both general astrophysics and ultra-high contrast observations of exoplanets. AMTD uses a science-driven systems engineering approach. We mature technologies required to enable the highest priority science AND provide a high-performance low-cost low-risk system. To give the science community options, we are pursuing multiple technology paths. A key task is deriving engineering specifications for advanced normal-incidence monolithic and segmented mirror systems needed to enable both general astrophysics and ultra-high contrast observations of exoplanets missions as a function of potential launch vehicles and their mass and volume constraints. A key finding of this effort is that the science requires an 8 meter or larger aperture telescope.

Refractive errors progression among pupils in Hetian Road primary school of Shanghai: 1-year followed-up

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hui Shi

2013-12-01

Full Text Available AIM:To investigate the progression of refractive errors of pupils in Hetian Road primary school of Shanghai Zhabei community and analyze the relationship between refractive errors progression and relative factors. METHODS:All the 6-12 years old in-school pupils in Hetian Road primary school of Shanghai Zhabei community were invited in the study. The participates were examined first-visit in May 2011 and second-visit in May 2012. All the 303 pupils(606 eyeswere investigated the age, height(H, weight(W, uncorrected visual acuity(UCVA, diopter of spherical(DS, diopter of cylinder(DC, spherical equivalent(SE, axial length(AL, and corneal curvature(K. The progression of refractive condition was described and the relevant factors were analyzed.RESULTS:Among 606 eyes, the progression of average SE was -0.45±0.60D and the progression of average AL was 0.32±0.25mm. The progression of SE diopter was positively correlated with the progression of AL(r=0.409, PP=0.004. The youngest pupils with 6-8 years old, had the fastest progression of AL(0.39±0.24mm, PP>0.05. The incidence of poor sight(UCVACONCLUSION:Myopia is the main progression of refractive error in the pupils of Hetian Road primary school in Shanghai Zhabei community. AL and growth development is closely related to the progression of refractive errors.

The Impact of Single-Sex and Coeducational Schooling on Participation and Achievement in Science: A 10-Year Perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

McEwen, Alex; Knipe, Damian; Gallagher, Tony

1997-01-01

Examines the impact of government science education policy through the uptake of science A level subjects and patterns of attainment among boys and girls. Whereas recent evidence from Britain has been popularly interpreted as showing the educational advantage of single-sex schooling, the evidence of this study suggests that pupils are more likely…

Different Living Things. Seychelles Integrated Science. [Teacher and Pupil Booklets.] Unit 5.

Science.gov (United States)

Brophy, M.; Fryars, M.

Seychelles Integrated Science (SIS), a 3-year laboratory-based science program for students (ages 11-15) in upper primary grades 7, 8, and 9, was developed from an extensive evaluation and modification of previous P7-P9 materials. This P7 SIS unit is designed to: (1) help students develop an elementary understanding of how living things can be…

Air and Weather Seychelles Integrated Science. [Teacher and Pupil Booklets]. Unit 2.

Science.gov (United States)

Brophy, M.; Fryars, M.

Seychelles Integrated Science (SIS), a 3-year laboratory-based science program for students (ages 11-15) in upper primary grades 7, 8, and 9, was developed from an extensive evaluation and modification of previous P7-P9 materials. This P7 SIS unit focuses on: (1) the importance of air and air pressure in students' everyday lives; (2) oxidation…

Techniques and Measurements. Seychelles Integrated Science. [Teacher and Pupil Booklets]. Unit 1.

Science.gov (United States)

Brophy, M.; Fryars, M.

Seychelles Integrated Science (SIS), a 3-year laboratory-based science program for students (ages 11-15) in upper primary grades 7, 8, and 9, was developed from an extensive evaluation and modification of previous P7-P9 materials. This P7 SIS unit is designed to: (1) introduce students to and familiarize them with working in the school laboratory;…

Food and Growth. Seychelles Integrated Science. [Teacher and Pupil Booklets]. Unit 7.

Science.gov (United States)

Brophy, M.; Fryars, M.

Seychelles Integrated Science (SIS), a 3-year laboratory-based science program for students (ages 11-15) in upper primary grades 7, 8, and 9, was developed from an extensive evaluation and modification of previous P7-P9 materials. This P8 SIS unit examines: (1) the role played by bones, muscles, and teeth and the importance of developing and…

Heat and Molecules. Seychelles Integrated Science. [Teacher and Pupil Booklets]. Unit 10.

Science.gov (United States)

Brophy, M.; Fryars, M.

Seychelles Integrated Science (SIS), a 3-year laboratory-based science program for students (ages 11-15) in upper primary grades 7, 8, and 9, was developed from an extensive evaluation and modification of previous P7-P9 materials. This P8 SIS unit deals with: (1) changes in temperature which make matter expand and contract (and how this affects…

Magnets and Electricity. Seychelles Integrated Science [Teacher and Pupil Booklets]. Unit 8.

Science.gov (United States)

Brophy, M.; Fryars, M.

Seychelles Integrated Science (SIS), a 3-year laboratory-based science program for students (ages 11-15) in upper primary grades 7, 8, and 9, was developed from an extensive evaluation and modification of previous P7-P9 materials. This P8 SIS unit focuses on: (1) elementary concepts in magnetic theory and the role magnets and magnetism play in…

Acids and Alkalis. Seychelles Integrated Science. [Teacher and Pupil Booklets]. Unit 9.

Science.gov (United States)

Brophy, M.; Fryars, M.

Seychelles Integrated Science (SIS), a 3-year laboratory-based science program for students (ages 11-15) in upper primary grades 7, 8, and 9, was developed from an extensive evaluation and modification of previous P7-P9 materials. This P8 SIS unit focuses on: (1) the uses of acids and bases (alkalis) in students' everyday lives, stressing their…

A Study of the Relationship between Academic Achievement Motivation and Home Environment among Standard Eight Pupils

Science.gov (United States)

Muola, J. M.

2010-01-01

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between academic achievement motivation and home environment among standard eight pupils. The study was carried out on 235 standard eight Kenyan pupils from six urban and rural primary schools randomly selected from Machakos district. Their age ranged between 13 and 17 years. Two…

Primary Education in Vietnam and Pupil Online Engagement

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Quynh Thi; Naguib, Raouf N. G.; Das, Ashish K.; Papathomas, Michail; Vallar, Edgar A.; Wickramasinghe, Nilmini; Santos, Gil Nonato; Galvez, Maria Cecilia; Nguyen, Viet Anh

2018-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the disparities in social awareness and use of the internet between urban and rural school children in the North of Vietnam. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 525 pupils, aged 9-11 years old, randomly selected from seven urban and rural schools, who are internet users, participated in the…

Emotive hemispheric differences measured in real-life portraits using pupil diameter and subjective aesthetic preferences.

Science.gov (United States)

Blackburn, Kelsey; Schirillo, James

2012-06-01

The biased positioning of faces exposed to viewers of Western portraiture has suggested there may be fundamental differences in the lateralized expression and perception of emotion. The present study investigates whether there are differences in the perception of the left and right sides of the face in real-life photographs of individuals. The study paired conscious aesthetic ratings of pleasantness with measurements of pupil size, which are thought to be a reliable unconscious measure of interest first tested by Hess. Images of 10 men and 10 women were taken from the left and right sides of the face. These images were also mirror-reversed. As expected, we found a strong preference for left-sided portraits (regardless of original or mirror-reversed orientation), such that left hemifaces elicited higher ratings and greater pupil dilation. Interestingly, this effect was true of both sexes. A positive linear relationship was also found between pupil size and aesthetic ratings such that pupil size increased with pleasantness ratings. These findings provide support for the notions of lateralized emotion, right-hemispheric dominance, pupillary dilation to pleasant images, and constriction to unpleasant images.

Everything is ok on YouTube! Quality assessment of YouTube videos on the topic of phacoemulsification in eyes with small pupil.

Science.gov (United States)

Aykut, Aslan; Kukner, Amber Senel; Karasu, Bugra; Palancıglu, Yeliz; Atmaca, Fatih; Aydogan, Tumay

2018-01-22

Usage of YouTube as an educational tool is gaining attention in academic research. To date, there has been no study on the content and quality of eye surgery videos on YouTube. The aim of this study was to analyze YouTube videos on phacoemulsification in eyes with small pupil. We searched for the phrases "small pupil cataract surgery," "small pupil phacoemulsification," "small pupil cataract surgery complications," and "small pupil phacoemulsification complications" in January 2015. Each resulting video was evaluated by all authors, and Krippendorff's alpha was calculated to measure agreement. Videos were classified according to pupil size (small/very small) in the beginning of the surgery, and whether pupillary diameter was large enough to continue surgery safely after pupillary dilation by the surgeon in the video (safe/not safe). Methods of dilatation were also analyzed. Any stated ocular comorbidity or surgical complications were noted. A total of 96 videos were reviewed. No mechanical intervention for pupillary dilatation was performed in 46 videos. Fifty-eight operated eyes had no stated ocular comorbidity. Ninety-five operations ended successfully without major complication. There was fair agreement between the evaluators regarding pupil sizes (Kα = 0.670) but poor agreement regarding safety (Kα = 0.337). YouTube videos on small pupil phacoemulsification have low complication rates when compared to the literature, although no reliable mechanical dilatation methods are used in almost half of these videos. Until YouTube's place in e-learning becomes clearer, we suggest that viewers be cautious regarding small pupil phacoemulsification videos on YouTube.

Prevalence and pattern of intestinal parasites among pupils of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Conclusion: Intestinal parasitic infestation remains a very common health issue among the children particularly in the public schools. Distribution of free antiparasitic drugs to pupils at the beginning of every term should be incorporated into the school health program. Key words: Intestinal Parasites, Ascaris lumbricoides, ...

Contradictions around Differentiation for Pupils with Dyslexia Learning English as a Foreign Language at Secondary School

Science.gov (United States)

Rontou, Maria

2012-01-01

This article deals with differentiation of teaching methods and extra time in class for pupils with dyslexia by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in two Greek state secondary schools. Activity theory is applied to analyse the contradictions that emerge around the issue of differentiation for pupils with dyslexia from data compiled from…

Using of Video Modeling in Teaching a Simple Meal Preparation Skill for Pupils of Down Syndrome