Connecting Mathematics and Mathematics Education

This open access book features a selection of articles written by Erich Ch. Wittmann between 1984 to 2019, which shows how the “design science conception” has been continuously developed over a number of decades. The articles not only describe this conception in general terms, but also demonstrate various substantial learning environments that serve as typical examples. In terms of teacher education, the book provides clear information on how to combine (well-understood) mathematics and methods courses to benefit of teachers. The role of mathematics in mathematics education is often explicitly and implicitly reduced to the delivery of subject matter that then has to be selected and made palpable for students using methods imported from psychology, sociology, educational research and related disciplines. While these fields have made significant contributions to mathematics education in recent decades, it cannot be ignored that mathematics itself, if well understood, provides essential knowledge for teaching mathematics beyond the pure delivery of subject matter. For this purpose, mathematics has to be conceived of as an organism that is deeply rooted in elementary operations of the human mind, which can be seamlessly developed to higher and higher levels so that the full richness of problems of various degrees of difficulty, and different means of representation, problem-solving strategies, and forms of proof can be used in ways that are appropriate for the respective level. This view of mathematics is essential for designing learning environments and curricula, for conducting empirical studies on truly mathematical processes and also for implementing the findings of mathematics education in teacher education, where it is crucial to take systemic constraints into account

Connecting Mathematics and Mathematics Education

This open access book features a selection of articles written by Erich Ch. Wittmann between 1984 to 2019, which shows how the “design science conception” has been continuously developed over a number of decades. The articles not only describe this conception in general terms, but also demonstrate various substantial learning environments that serve as typical examples. In terms of teacher education, the book provides clear information on how to combine (well-understood) mathematics and methods courses to benefit of teachers. The role of mathematics in mathematics education is often explicitly and implicitly reduced to the delivery of subject matter that then has to be selected and made palpable for students using methods imported from psychology, sociology, educational research and related disciplines. While these fields have made significant contributions to mathematics education in recent decades, it cannot be ignored that mathematics itself, if well understood, provides essential knowledge for teaching mathematics beyond the pure delivery of subject matter. For this purpose, mathematics has to be conceived of as an organism that is deeply rooted in elementary operations of the human mind, which can be seamlessly developed to higher and higher levels so that the full richness of problems of various degrees of difficulty, and different means of representation, problem-solving strategies, and forms of proof can be used in ways that are appropriate for the respective level. This view of mathematics is essential for designing learning environments and curricula, for conducting empirical studies on truly mathematical processes and also for implementing the findings of mathematics education in teacher education, where it is crucial to take systemic constraints into account

French Republicanism: A Comparative Analysis of the French Military Interventions in Libya in 2011 and in Syria in 2013

Using Ruth Wodak’s Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) of Critical Discourse Analysis, this thesis examines the ways in which French Republican ideas were synthesised with arguments relating to the Responsibility to Protect Doctrine in 2011 and 2013 to justify military intervention and international cooperation. Firstly, Nicolas Sarkozy had learned his lesson with Tunisia that the Arab Spring was more than just a minor wave of protests. Therefore, when the uprising began in Libya, Sarkozy relied on the Republican ideas of the universality of Liberty, Equality, and Human Rights. This was pitched perfectly to justify a military intervention along the lines of the Responsibility to Protect Doctrine, co-opting the support of the United States and the United Kingdom into the mission, as well as gaining the tacit approval of Russia. However Hollande, when approaching a similar situation in Syria, relied on a different side of the Republican ethos. In seeking to “punish” Syria rather than protect its citizens, Hollande fell succumbed to the more paternalistic trappings of French Republicanism, indulging in a more naked display of grandeur, designating France as a gendarme of the world. Ultimately, this was an inappropriate tactic to adopt. Hollande’s administration would antagonise Russia and misread the American intentions. This would lead to further embarrassment when events overtook President Hollande, and the United States and Russia organised their own agreement to deal with Syria’s chemical weapons

Advances in Fundamental Physics

This Special Issue celebrates the opening of a new section of the journal Foundation: Physical Sciences. Theoretical and experimental studies related to various areas of fundamental physics are presented in this Special Issue. The published papers are related to the following topics: dark matter, electron impact excitation, second flavor of hydrogen atoms, quantum antenna, molecular hydrogen, molecular hydrogen ion, wave pulses, Brans-Dicke theory, hydrogen Rydberg atom, high-frequency laser field, relativistic mean field formalism, nonlocal continuum field theories, parallel universe, charge exchange, van der Waals broadening, greenhouse effect, strange and unipolar electromagnetic pulses, quasicrystals, Wilhelm-Weber’s electromagnetic force law, axions, photoluminescence, neutron stars, gravitational waves, diatomic molecular spectroscopy, information geometric measures of complexity. Among 21 papers published in this Special Issue, there are 5 reviews and 16 original research papers

Realia, Style and the Effects of Translation in Literary Texts:: A Case Study of Cien Años de Soledad and its English and French Translations

Gabriel García Márquez, in an interview with Plinio Apuleyo, described Cien Años de Soledad as a “poetical synthesis of the tropic”, which he accomplished by putting together “a few scattered elements, but united by a very subtle and real subjective coherence” (Apuleyo Mendoza, 1993, p. 17). Considering this idea, we could identify the two most important elements for the writer when conceiving the novel: first, the specific poetical language, which we could name as “style”, and second, that coherent subjective reality, which is reached, together with stylistic features, with elements of his local reality, some of which are referred to in this research as Realia. The poetical style of the novel is characterized by, among other stylistic features, the frequent use of a regional and familiar register, which contribute to build up its specific tone and atmosphere. The Realia refer to and describe a local reality at the same time that they participate in the configuration of the narrative world. Both elements, being language and culture specific respectively, could be problematic in a process of translation. Given the importance of these language features in the composition of the novel, the question about their interlingual transfer results relevant for the reception and interpretation of the novel in translation. How did translators achieve the transfer of such strong contextual-dependent elements? Could the readers of those translations experience the effect of nostalgia, familiarity and even intimacy as many of the Spanish version readers claim to feel each time they read the novel? My objective with this dissertation is to analyze stylistic issues and Realia used by Gabriel García Márquez in Cien Años de Soledad (1967) and their translation into French (1968) and English (1970). This analysis aims to determine the effect spectrum of the translation formulations in the recreation of the novel in both target languages (TLs). It is important to mention that even if this analysis is developed within some relevant issues of translation studies, its purpose is not to extensively discuss abstract translation theories. Additionally, being the focus linguistic constructions that could be problematic in a process of translation between the ST and the selected TTs, the selection of Realia and Style features follows this aim, leaving outside the analysis many other narrative elements of GGM’s fictional universe. Moreover, the analysis of style features is a mere observation and a hypothesis about the translations. I do not pretend to reduce the universe of style mechanisms used in the novel to the selected categories and annotations that I made in this thesis. These discussions, which exceed the borders of our proposal, are potential material for further research. How do we plan to achieve the objectives of our research? In a first moment, with a theoretical exploration of the key discussions and problematics about literary translation and about this specific novel. Later on, with the selection of examples of both Realia and Style features and their subsequent analysis as textual units using a comparative-descriptive model. And, additionally, by considering as causal conditions - following the causal model - the shifts, contrasts and modifications carried out by the formulations in both target texts as well as extra textual issues affecting the way the translators decided on these formulations. With the results of the comparative and causal analysis in hand, we are able to arrive at a characterization of the effect spectrum of the translation formulations in both translated texts.:CHAPTER I-Introduction CHAPTER II- The original is unfaithful to the translation: a theoretical approach on literary translation issues 1.Literary translation: a cultural and linguistic transfer 1.1. Issues of literary translation 1.1.1. Sense Vs. form or “les belles infidèles” 1.1.2. Source or target language orientation 1.1.3. Equivalence, adaptation, approximation 1.1.4. Untranslatability 1.2. Cultural- oriented approaches 1.2.1. Rewriting and manipulation 1.2.2. The restitution of meaning 1.2.3. Skopos or functional theory 1.2.4. The translator’s invisibility 1.2.5. Integrated approach on translation: linguistics, literature and culture 2. Narrative register in translation 2.1. Referential level: Realia 2.2. Textual level: Style 3. The literary translator: individuality and style 4. Cultural translation 4.1. Cultural translation: an overview 4.2. Cultural translation and interlingual translation 4.3. Cultural translation and the translation of Realia and style CHAPTER III- Hasta las cosas tangibles eran irreales: on magical realism and Cien Años de Soledad 1. Magical realism: The background of a term 2. Subverting the real: Magical realism and its neighboring genres 3. Magical realism’s style in Cien Años de Soledad 3.1. Local color and sense of absurdity 3.2. The ‘brick tone’ 4. Historical, social and literary contextualization of Cien Años de Soledad and its translations 4.1. The writer 4.2. The novel 4.2.1. Social, political and literary panorama during the sixties 4.2.2. The plot 4.2.3. Literary construction 4.2.4. Political dimension of CAS: between reality and realism 4.3. The translations: why focusing on the English and French version? 4.3.1. The English translation: socio-cultural context of TC1 and description of TT1 4.3.2. The French translation: socio-cultural context of TC2 and description of TT2 CHAPTER IV- Macondo era entonces una aldea de veinte casas de barro y cañabrava: Realia and the foundation of the fictional world 1. The definition of Realia 2. Categorization of Realia in the novel 3. Descriptive analysis: Realia in ST and in TTs 3.1. Natural environment: vegetation 3.2. Natural environment: animals 3.3. Natural environment: geography 3.4. Social interactions: social practices 3.5. Social interaction: oral traditions 3.6. Social interactions: Forms of address 3.7. Social interactions: Politics 3.8. Material heritage: Food 3.9. Material heritage: Tools 3.10. Material heritage: Constructions 3.11. Material heritage: Ritual objects 4. Formulation techniques for translating Realia in TTs 4.1. Formulation techniques 4.1.1. Elimination 4.1.2. Adapted formulation 4.1.3. General formulation 4.1.4. Descriptive formulation 4.1.5. Denotative formulation 4.1.6. Loan formulation 4.1.7. Inferred formulation 4.1.8. Textual functional formulation 4.1.9. Borrowing formulation 4.1.10. Combinations 4.1.11. Frequency of use 4.2. Orientation 4.3. Interferences 4.3.1. Literary interferences 4.3.2. Socio-Linguistic interferences 4.3.3. Semantic interferences 4.3.4. External interferences CHAPTER V- Las claves definitivas de Melquíades: Style and the fuzziness of reality 1. Hyperbolization- Outsized reality 1.1. Adjectivisation 1.2. Natural metaphors 1.3. Fixed locutions and statements 2. Orality effect- radio bemba 2.1. Swear words 2.2. Euphemisms 2.3. Irony 2.4. Colloquial lexical choices 2.5. Neologisms 3. Summary CHAPTER VI- Macondo era ya un pavoroso remolino de polvo y escombros : The effect spectrum of translation in the novel Cien Años de Soledad 1.Gregory Rabassa’s translation: fluent, standard, exoticizing 1.1. Formulation techniques and orientation in local unities 1.2. Influences, restrictions and priorities in Rabassa’s translation of Cien Años de Soledad 1.2.1. Influences: between the actual and the implied translator 1.2.2. Textual and extra textual restrictions 1.2.3. Rabassa’s translation decisions priorities 1.3. The effect spectrum of Rabassa’s translation 1.3.1. Fluency 1.3.2. Standard register 1.3.3. Exoticization: the foreign as magical 2. Claude and Carmen Durand’s translation: colloquial, foreignizing, functional 2.1. Formulation techniques and orientations in local units 2.2.Influences,restrictions and priorities in Durand’s translation 2.2.1. Influences: between the actual and the implied translator 2.2.2. Textual and extra textual restrictions 2.2.3. Priorities for the translation decisions 2.3. The effect spectrum of Durand’s translation 2.3.1. Colloquial register 2.3.2. Foreignising 2.3.3. Functional 3. Summary CHAPTER VII- Ya nadie podia saber a ciencia cierta dónde estaban los límites de la realidad: Final considerations 1. The borders of reality: magic and realism 2. Domestication, foreignization, exoticization 3. The translator’s voice in literary criticism 4. Summary and outlook BIBLIOGRAPH

An intervention on supporting teachers’ understanding of and mediation of learning of stoichiometry in selected schools in the Zambezi Region

This study has been triggered by the results on stoichiometry questions in the Directorate of Namibian Examination Assessment’s (DNEA) scripts. As highlighted in the examiners’ reports, stoichiometry is an ongoing annual problem for most students in Namibia. It is against this background that I decided to explore the possibility of an intervention in the form of continuing professional development (CPD) and collaboration workshops to improve the understanding and the mediation of learning of stoichiometry by Physical Science teachers in the Zambezi Region of Namibia. The study was underpinned by an interpretive paradigm and within this paradigm a qualitative case study approach was adopted. Since this study was in a form of an intervention, a participatory action research (PAR) approach was employed within the community of practice (CoP). I used document analysis, workshop discussions, observations and videotaped lessons, interviews (semi-structured and stimulated recall interviews) and reflections to gather data. The study was carried out at three senior secondary schools and six Physical Science teachers were involved. The study drew on the theory of constructivism as a theoretical framework, namely, Piaget’s cognitive constructivism and Vygotsky‘s social constructivism as well as Shulman’s pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Within PCK, Mavhunga and Rollnick’s Topic Specific Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TSPCK) was used as an analytical lens (Appendix L) in this study. The findings reveal that the use of a diagnostic test on learners made the Physical Science teachers aware of the learners’ challenges and what was difficult for them to understand in stoichiometry. It also helped in their understanding of the use of prior knowledge, one of the tenets of TSPCK, to access what learners knew about stoichiometry. Further findings of the study illuminate that the Physical Science teachers’ subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and skills had shifted as a result of their participation in the intervention workshops. The findings of this study indicate that the CoP members acquired the professional transformations which were important breakthroughs in their careers. The study thus recommends that teachers should develop effective teacher professional development activities such as study teams, exemplary lessons, cluster teaching, and peer coaching where teachers are expected to examine their assumptions and practices continuously. The implication of my study is that the developed exemplary lesson during the intervention workshops by CoP members could be useful to other Physical Science teachers in the teaching of stoichiometry in all the schools in the Zambezi Region

Methods in Contemporary Linguistics

The present volume is a broad overview of methods and methodologies in linguistics, illustrated with examples from concrete research. It collects insights gained from a broad range of linguistic sub-disciplines, ranging from core disciplines to topics in cross-linguistic and language-internal diversity or to contributions towards language, space and society. Given its critical and innovative nature, the volume is a valuable source for students and researchers of a broad range of linguistic interests

Pomobabble: Postmodern Newspeak and Constitutional Meaning for the Uninitiated

A parody of postmodern writing