The effects of using children\u27s literature to teach positive character traits to elementary students

The purposes of this investigation were to determine (a) the effects of using children\u27s literature to increase positive character traits in elementary students; and (b) how character education can be taught to elementary students through the use of children\u27s literature. The researcher chose six character traits to be used throughout the study. Each week a variety of children\u27s literature pertaining to that week\u27s trait was read to the class. After readings, class discussions and role playing activities were held. Students were given a pre/post assessment to judge student learning of positive character traits throughout the study. The results of this study have shown that children\u27s literature is an effective tool to implement positive character traits in elementary students

Teaching and learning in a multilingual Europe: findings from a cross-European study

School classrooms within the EU are multilingual learning environments. The diversity of pupils in classrooms raises significant challenges for teachers, but to date, there are no data from large-scale surveys that compare views within and across European countries. A bespoke questionnaire was designed to examine views of current classroom learning environments with respect to the multilingualism. The questionnaire was piloted and subsequently completed by 2792 teachers across different European countries. Eleven countries provided sufficient data for analyses. Results from structural equation modelling showed that teachers’ attitudes could be reliably measured across Europe with the use of carefully devised questionnaire, whose loading and factor structure remained invariant across countries. Teachers’ views about multilingualism were most challenged by the numbers of children in their classes, not the percentage of multilingual pupils in the class. Countries differed in how they perceived multilingualism, with their differences leading to distinctive country clusters. Gender and education level (elementary vs. secondary) differences were also observed irrespective of country. These findings enhance our understanding of the role that the characteristics of teachers and their classrooms play in a multilingual setting across diverse European settings. The practical relevance of the results and new opportunities for teacher training are discussed

Correction: Teaching and learning in a multilingual Europe: findings from a cross-European study

The original version of the article unfortunately contained an error. In author’s personal details, middle names were not included in author Hanne B. Søndergaard Knudsen’s name, and the listed articles were therefore incorrect

Teaching and learning in a multilingual Europe: findings from a cross-european study

School classrooms within the EU are multilingual learning environments. The diversity of pupils in classrooms raises significant challenges for teachers, but to date, there are no data from large-scale surveys that compare views within and across European countries. A bespoke questionnaire was designed to examine views of current classroom learning environments with respect to the multilingualism. The questionnaire was piloted and subsequently completed by 2792 teachers across different European countries. Eleven countries provided sufficient data for analyses. Results from structural equation model- ling showed that teachers’ attitudes could be reliably measured across Europe with the use of carefully devised questionnaire, whose loading and factor structure remained invariant across countries. Teachers’ views about multilingualism were most challenged by the numbers of children in their classes, not the percentage of multilingual pupils in the class. Countries differed in how they perceived multilingualism, with their differences leading to distinctive country clusters. Gender and education level (elementary vs. secondary) differences were also observed irrespective of country. These findings enhance our understanding of the role that the characteristics of teachers and their classrooms play in a multilingual setting across diverse European settings. The practical relevance of the results and new opportunities for teacher training are discussed

Timed written picture naming in 14 European languages

We describe the Multilanguage Written Picture Naming Dataset. This gives trial-level data and time and agreement norms for written naming of the 260 pictures of everyday objects that compose the colorized Snodgrass and Vanderwart picture set (Rossion & Pourtois in Perception, 33, 217-236, 2004). Adult participants gave keyboarded responses in their first language under controlled experimental conditions (N = 1,274, with subsamples responding in Bulgarian, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish). We measured the time to initiate a response (RT) and interkeypress intervals, and calculated measures of name and spelling agreement. There was a tendency across all languages for quicker RTs to pictures with higher familiarity, image agreement, and name frequency, and with higher name agreement. Effects of spelling agreement and effects on output rates after writing onset were present in some, but not all, languages. Written naming therefore shows name retrieval effects that are similar to those found in speech, but our findings suggest the need for cross-language comparisons as we seek to understand the orthographic retrieval and/or assembly processes that are specific to written output

Genome-wide SNPs and re-sequencing of growth habit and inflorescence genes in barley: implications for association mapping in germplasm arrays varying in size and structure

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Considerations in applying association mapping (AM) to plant breeding are population structure and size: not accounting for structure and/or using small populations can lead to elevated false-positive rates. The principal determinants of population structure in cultivated barley are growth habit and inflorescence type. Both are under complex genetic control: growth habit is controlled by the epistatic interactions of several genes. For inflorescence type, multiple loss-of-function alleles in one gene lead to the same phenotype. We used these two traits as models for assessing the effectiveness of AM. This research was initiated using the CAP Core germplasm array (n = 102) assembled at the start of the Barley Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP). This array was genotyped with 4,608 SNPs and we re-sequenced genes involved in morphology, growth and development. Larger arrays of breeding germplasm were subsequently genotyped and phenotyped under the auspices of the CAP project. This provided sets of 247 accessions phenotyped for growth habit and 2,473 accessions phenotyped for inflorescence type. Each of the larger populations was genotyped with 3,072 SNPs derived from the original set of 4,608.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Significant associations with SNPs located in the vicinity of the loci involved in growth habit and inflorescence type were found in the CAP Core. Differentiation of true and spurious associations was not possible without <it>a priori </it>knowledge of the candidate genes, based on re-sequencing. The re-sequencing data were used to define allele types of the determinant genes based on functional polymorphisms. In a second round of association mapping, these synthetic markers based on allele types gave the most significant associations. When the synthetic markers were used as anchor points for analysis of interactions, we detected other known-function genes and candidate loci involved in the control of growth habit and inflorescence type. We then conducted association analyses - with SNP data only - in the larger germplasm arrays. For both vernalization sensitivity and inflorescence type, the most significant associations in the larger data sets were found with SNPs coincident with the synthetic markers used in the CAP Core and with SNPs detected via interaction analysis in the CAP Core.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Small and highly structured collections of germplasm, such as the CAP Core, are cost-effectively phenotyped and genotyped with high-throughput markers. They are also useful for characterizing allelic diversity at loci in germplasm of interest. Our results suggest that discovery-oriented exercises in AM in such small arrays may generate a large number of false-positives. However, if haplotypes in candidate genes are available, they may be used as anchors in an analysis of interactions to identify other candidate regions harboring genes determining target traits. Using larger germplasm arrays, genome regions where the principal genes determining vernalization sensitivity and row type are located were identified.</p

An Amateur-Radio-Based Open-Source (HW/SW) VLF/LF Receiver for Lower Ionosphere Monitoring, Examples of Identified Perturbations

The ground-based monitoring of the lower ionosphere by studying the perturbations of the subionospheric propagation of very-low-frequency/low-frequency (VLF/LF) signals is important in the research of a wide variety of geophysical and Sun/space extreme phenomena. Such perturbations are identified as anomalies in the signal received from the VLF/LF transmitters operating worldwide for military purposes, time code broadcasting, etc. Especially for the study of local ionosphere-influencing phenomena, such as earthquakes, volcanoes, typhoons, etc., the monitoring of several subionospheric propagation paths is necessary. However, it is very difficult to find in the market (or reproduce) hardware (HW) for wide-band VLF/LF receivers that could receive many different transmitters, while the involved software (SW) is mainly proprietary. Aiming to provide a low-cost and easy-to-build alternative for the scientists involved in this research field, we suggest a VLF/LF receiver setup based on amateur radio open-source HW and SW. Its key components are the so-called &ldquo;mini-whip&rdquo; active antenna and the freeware &ldquo;SpectrumLab&rdquo; and &ldquo;GPS2Time&rdquo;. The full HW schematics and all settings of the employed SW configuration for the proposed VLF/LF receiver setup are provided in the article. To check the reliability of the proposed receiver setup, two almost identical VLF/LF radio receivers were installed in the prefecture of Attica in Greece, in June and September of 2021, respectively. Examples of ionospheric perturbations due to different phenomena (solar flares, earthquakes, and a magnetic storm) are provided to show the ability of the proposed receiver setup to provide reliable data for ionosphere-related research