Building a bridge : LEGO as a kinaesthetic tool to facilitate play-based learning in early childhood and beyond

Play-based learning has long been identified as a rich pedagogical tool for the holistic development of children. However, within schools, there is pressure for educators to deliver instruction through more teacher-directed approaches to meet external regulatory requirements including national testing. This conceptual chapter seeks to understand how careful design of play-based experiences, along with consideration of the teacher facilitation within the classroom setting, can impact the learning outcomes. Using the popular toy LEGO, we examine the use of kinaesthetic learning tools to bridge the gap for play-based learning between Early Childhood and formal school settings

Tinkering, Play-Based Learning and Children’s Funds of Knowledge in the Post-Digital : Responding to the Problem of Technology Integration in ECEC

This thesis addresses the well documented and ongoing problem of integrating digital technologies in Early Childhood Education and Care [ECEC] pedagogy, a problem which has been complicated in recent times by young children’s immersion in the digital as mode of social practice, a phenomenon increasingly referred to as the ‘post-digital’. Current understandings of the post-digital are sometimes described as messy, where it is claimed that borders between the digital and non-digital have now become so blurred that it is difficult to distinguish between where children’s digital and non-digital activities begin and end (Apperley et al., 2016; Jandrić et al., 2019; Pettersen, Arnseth, et al., 2022). The aim of this research was to examine the capacity of tinkering with unplugged technologies as a form of play-based learning to support children’s lived experiences in the post-digital in response to the problem of digital technology integration. This aim recognises that play-based learning is a significant pedagogy in ECEC and that tinkering affords opportunities for such play. The term unplugged technologies in this thesis refers to formerly working digital artefacts which no longer function such as decommissioned computer keyboards, computer mice, computer cases, as well as video gaming controllers. Unplugged technologies offer opportunities for children to engage with technologies that educators may view as more appropriate for learning because they can be hands-on rather than relying only on working digital technologies for learning. This thesis employed Actor-Network Theory [ANT] (Latour, 2005) as a model of social constructivism to work within an ontology that considers the material, non-material and humans equal in terms of capacity to exert agency. This theoretical perspective enabled the constitutive actants of the problem of digital integration to be examined through a methodology of participatory co-design where three educators collaborated with myself-as-researcher to design and implement stages of play-based learning in the form of tinkering with unplugged technologies. The findings suggest that educators identified a number of Learning Outcomes as per Australian national and state curricula arising from children’s tinkering with unplugged technologies. Through data analysis informed by ANT (Latour, 2005), children’s Learning Outcomes were traced to a range of actants which jointly co-constituted manifestations of children’s lived experiences in the post-digital. Manifestations were represented by children creating their own versions of technologies in the form of ‘iPad’, ‘computer’ and ‘gamer’. Manifestations of children’s lived experiences in the post-digital were examined in terms of their composite actants to illustrate how a variety of actants operate within a network of activity to shape a response to the problem of integration of digital learning opportunities into ECEC. Two actants were found to be more influential than others in the three manifestations of children’s lived experiences in the post-digital, these being play-based learning and children’s own funds of knowledge. Understanding the various actants in tinkering networks with unplugged technologies can alert educators to entry points for technology integration in ECEC, thereby providing a more helpful and stable starting point for educators than descriptions of children’s post-digital play as entangled and messy

Piracy and making the the Spanish Pacific world

Piracy and the Making of the Spanish Pacific World offers a new interpretation of Spanish colonial rule in the Philippine islands. Drawing on the rich archives of Spain’s Asian empire, Kristie Patricia Flannery reveals that Spanish colonial officials and Catholic missionaries forged alliances with Indigenous Filipinos and Chinese migrant settlers in the Southeast Asian archipelago to wage war against waves of pirates, including massive Chinese pirate fleets, Muslim pirates from the Sulu Zone, and even the British fleet that attacked at the height of the Seven Years’ War. Anti-piracy alliances made Spanish colonial rule resilient to both external shocks and internal revolts that shook the colony to its core. This revisionist study complicates the assumption that empire was imposed on Filipinos with brute force alone. Rather, anti-piracy also shaped the politics of belonging in the colonial Philippines. Real and imagined pirate threats especially influenced the fate and fortunes of Chinese migrants in the islands. They triggered genocidal massacres of the Chinese at some junctures, and at others facilitated Chinese integration into the Catholic nation as loyal vassals. Piracy and the Making of the Spanish Pacific World demonstrates that piracy is key to explaining the surprising longevity of Spain’s Asian empire, which, unlike Spanish colonial rule in the Americas, survived the Age of Revolutions and endured almost to the end of the nineteenth century. Moreover, it offers important new insight into piracy’s impact on the trajectory of globalization and European imperial expansion in maritime Asia

The gift of joy

Joy arises suddenly and in an overpowering surge, an unexpected release, an overflow from within. An ordinary experience of joy is something like a positive emotional response to an event or state of affairs——a response which, however, remains confined to the present and does not impinge on how we relate to ourselves and the world we experience in a more encompassing way. Deep joy is related to moments of fullness and expresses a feeling of self-sufficient unity with what one is experiencing. The feeling of completeness, of unification with what one experiences, and of integration of the present moment within one's own life are certainly among the most characterizing aspects of joy. Jean-Luc Marion's major innovation in phenomenology relates to the ways in which he thinks about phenomena that resist intentional constitution by the self

Is the Evergrande crisis spilling beyond China?

This study investigates whether Evergrande transmits shocks to regional and global equity markets using the vector autoregressive (VAR), asymmetric dynamic conditional correlation (ADCC), and exponential generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (EGARCH) models. The results show that Evergrande has caused notable and enduring shocks to both domestic and foreign equities markets. The spillover test further supports the idea that the Evergrande crisis has spread to important markets. The findings have practical implications for regulators, sovereign wealth managers, institutional and retail investors, and policymakers trying to come up with ways to deal with external shocks

Effect of induction mode on 3D printing characteristics of whey protein isolate emulsion gel

This study mainly explored the influence of different induction modes such as NaCl and Transglutaminase on the 3D printing characteristics of whey protein isolate emulsion gel. The properties of gel were characterized from rheological properties, microstructure, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermal stability and other aspects, and the relationship between 3D printing molding characteristics of gel and its applicability as a diet for dysphagia was discussed. Strain and frequency sweep showed that the addition of NaCl made gel difficult to be extruded during printing, while the addition of TG could get the opposite result. From a microscopic point of view, too high concentration of NaCl would lead to the disordered aggregation of proteins, which would reduce the structural strength of gel and make the water binding unstable. The addition of TG made the gel network have an orderly three-dimensional structure, making the water binding more stable. Both NaCl and TG can cause the secondary structure of protein to be more orderly and the thermal stability to be reduced, and the texture characteristics such as hardness, resilence, springiness, gumminess and chewiness to be reduced. During 3D printing of emulsion gel containing high concentration of NaCl, unsmooth extrusion filaments and pattern collapse occurred. TG can significantly improve the accuracy of 3D printing products. This study provided a basis for the application of whey protein isolate emulsion gel in 3D printing

For flux sake : Isotopic tracer methods of monitoring human carbohydrate metabolism during exercise

Isotopic tracers can reveal insights into the temporal nature of metabolism and track the fate of ingested substrates. A common use of tracers is to assess aspects of human carbohydrate metabolism during exercise under various established models. The dilution model is used alongside intravenous infusion of tracers to assess carbohydrate appearance and disappearance rates in the circulation, which can be further delineated into exogenous and endogenous sources. The incorporation model can be used to estimate exogenous carbohydrate oxidation rates. Combining methods can provide insight into key factors regulating health and performance, such as muscle and liver glycogen utilization, and the underlying regulation of blood glucose homeostasis before, during, and after exercise. Obtaining accurate, quantifiable data from tracers, however, requires careful consideration of key methodological principles. These include appropriate standardization of pretrial diet, specific tracer choice, whether a background trial is necessary to correct expired breath CO2 enrichments, and if so, what the appropriate background trial should consist of. Researchers must also consider the intensity and pattern of exercise, and the type, amount, and frequency of feeding (if any). The rationale for these considerations is discussed, along with an experimental design checklist and equation list which aims to assist researchers in performing high-quality research on carbohydrate metabolism during exercise using isotopic tracer methods

Are vocabulary and word reading reciprocally related?

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine if word reading and vocabulary are reciprocally related. Method We followed a sample of 172 English-speaking Canadian children (82 girls, 90 boys; Mage = 75.87 months at the first measurement point) from the beginning of Grade 1 until the beginning of Grade 3 and assessed them three times on vocabulary and word reading. Results Results of cross-lagged analyses revealed only unidirectional relations: word reading in Grade 1 predicted vocabulary in Grades 2 and 3. Conclusion These findings suggest that once children reach a basic level of proficiency in word reading this allows them to be independent readers and enhance their vocabulary

Developing effective health coaches : Experience gained in a clinical trial of a health coach intervention

Objective To identify the characteristics of an effective health coach and describe how these characteristics can be developed. Methods A qualitative descriptive design was used to obtain insights from a convenience, homogenous sample of health coaches, social workers, and research staff members collaborating as members of a team providing a health coaching telehealth intervention for lay caregivers. Individual interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results The 11 study participants interviewed were predominately married (75 %), female (92 %) and Caucasian (83 %). Ages ranged from 27 to 66 with an average age of 42 years. The sample was highly educated, with five having attained a terminal degree (PhD or DNP). The participants described three themes of characteristics that contributed to the success of health coaches: personal characteristics, professional characteristics, and program characteristics. Conclusions These characteristics expand what is known about attributes that contribute to successful health coaching. Most can be trained or used in developing programs and interventions. Practice implications Our findings suggest that many of the core skills of an effective health coach can be developed through individual training, program design, and peer support. Innate personal characteristics such as trustworthiness, integrity, and compassion are hard to influence but can be identified in the hiring process

Behaving versus thinking positively : When the benefits of cognitive reappraisal are contingent on satisfying basic psychological needs

A contextual view of emotion regulation argues that no single strategy is inherently effective at reducing negative affect and promoting positive affect. Rather, effectiveness depends upon the person and situation. We collected daily-diary data from 186 university students (40 men, 133 women, 13 with missing data) for an average of approximately 21 days. We measured strategies that varied in terms of the extent they were likely to be integrative, i.e., allowed one to integrate difficult experience into the sense of self and meaning (e.g., mindfulness) versus non-integrative, i.e., focused on feeling more positive or less negative emotion (e.g., positive reappraisal). Multi-level modelling was used to assess whether the effectiveness of three emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal, mindfulness, expressive suppression) depends on whether a person's psychological needs (for connection, competence, and autonomy) have been met. Cognitive reappraisal was most effective (associated with less negative affect and more positive affect) for people reporting lower need satisfactions; but was far less effective for people reporting higher levels of need satisfaction in their lives. These results are discussed considering recent advances in self-determination theory and emotion regulation