Self\u2010esteem and academic difficulties in preadolescents and adolescents healed from paediatric leukaemia

Adolescents with cancer may demonstrate problems in their self\u2010esteem and schooling. This study aims to screen the preadolescents and adolescents more at risk in their self\u2010esteem perception and schooling difficulties post\u2010five years from the end of therapy. Twenty\u2010five paediatric ex\u2010patients healed from leukaemia were recruited at the Haematology\u2010Oncologic Clinic (University of Padua). The mean age of the children was 13.64 years (Standard Deviation (SD)) = 3.08, range = 10\u201319 years), most were treated for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) (84%) and relatively equally distributed by gender. They filled in the Multidimensional Self\u2010Esteem Test, while parents completed a questionnaire on their child\u2019s schooling. Global self\u2010esteem was mostly below the 50 percentile (58.5%), especially regarding interpersonal relationships (75%). An independent sample t\u2010test showed significant mean differences on the emotionality scale (t = 2.23; degree of freedom (df) = 24; p = 0.03) and in the bodily experience scale (t = 3.02; df = 24; p = 0.006) with survivors of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) having lower scores. An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) showed significant mean differences in the bodily experience scale (F = 12.31; df = 2, p = 0.0001) depending on the survivors\u2019 assigned risk band. The parent reports showed that 43.5% of children had difficulties at school. Childhood AML survivors with a high\u2010risk treatment were more at risk in their self\u2010esteem perceptions. Preventive interventions focusing on self\u2010esteem and scholastic wellbeing are suggested in order to help their return to their normal schedules

Eye quietness and quiet eye in expert and novice golf performance: an electrooculographic analysis

Quiet eye (QE) is the final ocular fixation on the target of an action (e.g., the ball in golf putting). Camerabased eye-tracking studies have consistently found longer QE durations in experts than novices; however, mechanisms underlying QE are not known. To offer a new perspective we examined the feasibility of measuring the QE using electrooculography (EOG) and developed an index to assess ocular activity across time: eye quietness (EQ). Ten expert and ten novice golfers putted 60 balls to a 2.4 m distant hole. Horizontal EOG (2ms resolution) was recorded from two electrodes placed on the outer sides of the eyes. QE duration was measured using a EOG voltage threshold and comprised the sum of the pre-movement and post-movement initiation components. EQ was computed as the standard deviation of the EOG in 0.5 s bins from –4 to +2 s, relative to backswing initiation: lower values indicate less movement of the eyes, hence greater quietness. Finally, we measured club-ball address and swing durations. T-tests showed that total QE did not differ between groups (p = .31); however, experts had marginally shorter pre-movement QE (p = .08) and longer post-movement QE (p < .001) than novices. A group × time ANOVA revealed that experts had less EQ before backswing initiation and greater EQ after backswing initiation (p = .002). QE durations were inversely correlated with EQ from –1.5 to 1 s (rs = –.48 - –.90, ps = .03 - .001). Experts had longer swing durations than novices (p = .01) and, importantly, swing durations correlated positively with post-movement QE (r = .52, p = .02) and negatively with EQ from 0.5 to 1s (r = –.63, p = .003). This study demonstrates the feasibility of measuring ocular activity using EOG and validates EQ as an index of ocular activity. Its findings challenge the dominant perspective on QE and provide new evidence that expert-novice differences in ocular activity may reflect differences in the kinematics of how experts and novices execute skills

Young Children’s cliques : a study on processes of peer acceptance and cliques aggregation

A considerable amount of research has examined the link between children’s peer acceptance, which refers to the degree of likability within the peer group, social functioning and emotional wellbeing, at a same age and in a long term perspective, pointing out to the contribution of peer acceptance for mental wellbeing. Our study proposes a sociometric methodology that, differently from many studies focused on individual classifications of social status, moves to the analysis of affiliative social networks within the class group. This study describes how individual factors such as socio-emotional competence, temperament, and linguistic skills are related to positive reciprocated nominations (=RNs) and examines the cliques generated by reciprocal nominations according to similarities (socio-emotional competence, temperament and linguistic skills) among cliques’ members. Eighty-four preschool children (M age = 62.5 months) were recruited. The Sociometric Interview to assess RNs and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test - Revised (PPVT-R; Dunn & Dunn, 1981) to assess receptive language were administered; the Social Competence and Behaviour Evaluation Short Form questionnaire (SCBE-30; LaFreniere & Dumas, 1996) and the Quit Temperament Scale (Axia, 2002) were filled in by the teachers. Results showed that children with higher RNs presented higher scores in social orientation, positive emotionality, motor activity, linguistic skills and social competence (trend), and exhibited lower anxietywithdrawal. The analysis of cliques revealed that children preferred playmates with similar features: social competence, anger-aggression (trend), social orientation, positive emotionality, inhibition to novelty, attention, motor activity (trend) and linguistic skills. These findings provide insights about processes of peer affiliation, highlighting the role of socio-emotional functioning and linguistic skills.peer-reviewe

¿Pueden los MOOC cerrar la brecha de oportunidades?: La contribución del diseño pedagógico social inclusivo

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are open courses made available online at no cost to the user and designed to scale up, allowing for a large number of participants. As such, they are a disruptive new development which has the potential to widen access to higher education since they contribute to social inclusion, the dissemination of knowledge and pedagogical innovation. However, assuring quality learning opportunities to all cannot be simply reduced to allowing free access to higher education. On the contrary, it implies assuring equitable opportunities for every participant to succeed in their learning experience. This goal depends on the quality of the learning design. To be successful, a massive open online learning experience has to empower learners and to facilitate a networked learning environment. In fact, MOOCs are designed to serve a high heterogeneity of profiles, with many differences regarding learning needs and preferences, prior knowledge, contexts of participation and diversity of online platforms. Personalization can play a key role in this process. In this article, the authors describe the iMOOC pedagogical model and its later derivative, the sMOOC model, and explain how they contributed to the introduction of the principles of diversity and learner equity to MOOC design, allowing for a clear differentiation of learning paths and also of virtual environments, while empowering participants to succeed in their learning experiences. Using a design-based research approach, a comparative analysis of two course iterations each representing each model is also presented and discussed.Los cursos en línea abiertos y masivos (MOOC) son cursos abiertos disponibles en línea sin costo para el usuario y diseñados para ampliarse, permitiendo un gran número de participantes. Como tales, son un nuevo desarrollo disruptivo que tiene el potencial de ampliar el acceso a la educación superior, ya que contribuyen a la inclusión social, la difusión del conocimiento y la innovación pedagógica. Sin embargo, garantizar oportunidades de aprendizaje de calidad para todos no puede reducirse simplemente a permitir el acceso gratuito a la educación superior. Por el contrario, implica asegurar oportunidades equitativas para que cada participante tenga éxito en su experiencia de aprendizaje. Este objetivo depende de la calidad del diseño de aprendizaje. Para tener éxito, una experiencia de aprendizaje en línea abierta y masiva debe empoderar a los alumnos y facilitar un entorno de aprendizaje en red. De hecho, los MOOC están diseñados para servir a una gran heterogeneidad de perfiles, con muchas diferencias con respecto a las necesidades y preferencias de aprendizaje, conocimiento previo, contextos de participación y diversidad de plataformas en línea. La personalización puede jugar un papel clave en este proceso. En este artículo, los autores describen el modelo pedagógico iMOOC y su derivada posterior, el modelo sMOOC, y explican cómo contribuyeron a la introducción de los principios de diversidad y equidad en el diseño MOOC, lo que permite una clara diferenciación de las rutas de aprendizaje y también de entornos virtuales, al tiempo que permite a los participantes tener éxito en sus experiencias de aprendizaje. Usando un enfoque de design-based research, también se presenta y discute un análisis comparativo de dos iteraciones del curso, cada una representando cada modelo

The skills assessment at university: to be an active part in the future educational choices

The assessment of the competences (or skills assessment) wants to be an integrated action of orientation, motivation and support, with the aim of support students into the building of their learning project through the analysis of core competences owned. The assessment of competence is centered on the subject because he is considered as the protagonist of his story and the main maker of his own adaptation to the life environment. In the 2012/2013 academic year, a pattern of Assessment of competences, has been offered to the first year’s students of some Department of the University in Naples Federico II. The service is developed into a guided auto assessment course of selfcompetences, formed by different steps through which every student has the possibility to be an active protagonist into an auto consciousness process. The auto assessment is operated by students that, autonomously and free to decide, chose to follow the pattern of his assessment

How Does Knowledge Transfer from Foreign Subsidiaries Affect Parent Companies' Innovative Capacity

The paper addresses reverse knowledge transfer (RKT) from foreign subsidiary to parent company. Specifically, it aims at investigating to what extent the effectiveness of such a transfer is influenced by: (i) the organizational mechanisms employed for transferring knowledge; (ii) the subsidiary’s role, its autonomy, and its relationships with the local context. The empirical analysis considers 162 transfers of best practices possessed by foreign subsidiaries and transferred back to their Italian parent companies. Results confirm that the impact of RKT on the parent company’s innovativeness is greater when: (i) person-based mechanisms are employed for transferring knowledge; (ii) subsidiaries are competence-creating; and (iii) knowledge developed by subsidiaries benefits from local external linkages.External linkages; organizational mechanisms; parent company's innovativeness; reverse knowledge transfer, subsidiary’s characteristics

Teacher Training in Linguistic Diversity within Inclusive Education: Cooperation between Non-governmental Non-profit Organizations and Educational Institutions. Situation in Three European Countries

La presente tesi di dottorato di ricerca internazionale si propone, attraverso un lavoro di ricerca svolto in tre differenti paesi europei, di descrivere la situazione, relativa alla capacità delle organizzazioni no-profit di cooperare con gli insegnanti nella formazione di studenti di diversa madrelingua. In questo periodo di rapidi e drammatici cambiamenti derivanti da trasformazioni geopolitiche in tutto il mondo il settore non profit, con la sua politica flessibile e indipendente, può contribuire alla stabilizzazione di una situazione che richiede grande attenzione educativa. Per la ricerca è stato applicato un metodo misto di ricerca, in particolare il modello QUAN - QUAL - Risultati - Interpretazione. I partecipanti alla ricerca sono stati: organizzazioni no-profit (NPO) che operano nell'area di studenti di diversa madrelingua in tre aree geografiche (la Repubblica Ceca, la Sicilia in Italia, la Comunità Autonoma di Castilla-León in Spagna); insegnanti con esperienza di scuole materne, primarie e secondarie delle stesse aree geografiche. I nostri risultati rivelano che le NPO sono pronte a svolgere diverse funzioni (formazione degli insegnanti, mediazione tra scuola/insegnante e famiglia/studente, consulenza, fonte di ispirazione per gli insegnanti, ecc..), come partner per le scuole e gli insegnanti nell'istruzione di studenti di diversa madrelingua in tutti e tre i paesi. Tuttavia, le NPO ritengono che la cooperazione con gli istituti di istruzione formale abbia alcuni punti deboli (ad esempio: diversi approcci e strategie di finanziamento, scambio di opinioni e buone pratiche, una più ampia comunicazione reciproca, ecc..) e dovrebbe essere perseguita in modo più approfondito a vari livelli (ad esempio: scuola, Stato, insegnanti, NPO). Di conseguenza essi identificano le strategie che potrebbero rafforzare questo partenariato. Il fatto che la situazione non è ideale è supportato anche da dati ottenuti attraverso interviste con gli insegnanti durante le quali gli insegnanti stessi hanno confessato di non avere quasi nessuna esperienza con il settore non-profit. Tuttavia, hanno espresso la loro disponibilità a tale collaborazione.The dissertation thesis seeks to map a situation in three European countries relating to potential of non-profit organizations to cooperate with teachers in education of students with a different mother tongue in a period of rapid and dramatic changes resulting from geo-political transformations around the world, to which it is necessary to react promptly. Non-profit sector with its flexible and independent policy may contribute to stabilization of a situation. For the research itself, a mixed method research design was applied, particularly QUAN – QUAL - Findings - Interpretation model. Participants of the research were: non-profit organizations (NPOs) which work in the area of students with different mother tongue in three geographical areas (Czech Republic, Sicily in Italy, Castilla-León Autonomous Community in Spain); and teachers with experience from kindergarten, primary and secondary schools from the same geographical areas. Our findings reveal that NPOs are ready to play several roles (teacher training institution, mediator between school/teacher and family/student, counsellor, source of inspiration for teachers etc.) as partners for schools/teachers in education of students with different mother tongue in all three countries. Nevertheless, NPOs feel that cooperation with formal education institutions has its weak points (e.g. different funding approaches and strategies, exchange of opinions and good practices, wider mutual communication, etc.) and should pursued in greater depth at various levels (e.g. school, state, teachers, NPOs). Thus, they identify strategies which might empower this partnership. The fact that the situation is not ideal is also supported by data obtained through interviews with teachers during which teachers confessed to have almost none experience with non-profit sector. However, they expressed their openness to such collaboration

Teacher Training in Linguistic Diversity within Inclusive Education: Cooperation between Non-governmental Non-profit Organizations and Educational Institutions. Situation in Three European Countries

Esta tesis examina la colaboración entre las las organizaciones no gubernamentales sin ánimo de lucro centradas en los alumnos con una lengua materna diferente y los centros escolares de tres zonas geográficas europeas: República Checa, Italia y España. Responde a tres preguntas de investigación: (1) ¿Qué servicios ofrecen las organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro a los profesores? (2) ¿Cómo ven las organizaciones no lucrativas la cooperación actual? (3) ¿Conocen los profesores la existencia de organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro en este ámbito y están interesados en dicha cooperación? Se emplea un enfoque de métodos mixtos, aplicando un cuestionario a 34 organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro (9 checas, 19 españolas, 6 italianas) y entrevistando en profundiad a 15 profesores de lost res países. Los resultados revelan el amplio potencial de las organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro como socios en la educación, abarcando importantes temas de la educación intercultural y estrategias que podrían potenciar dicha asociación.This thesis examines the collaboration between non-governmental non-profit organisations focusing on pupils with a different mother tongue and schools in three European geographical areas: the Czech Republic, Italy and Spain. It answers three research questions: (1) What services do non-profit organisations offer to teachers? (2) How do non-profit organisations view current cooperation? (3) Are teachers aware of the existence of non-profit organisations in this field and are they interested in such cooperation? A mixed methods approach is used, applying a questionnaire to 34 non-profit organisations (9 Czech, 19 Spanish, 6 Italian) and in-depth interviews with 15 teachers from three countries. The results reveal the broad potential of non-profit organisations as partners in education, covering important issues in intercultural education and strategies that could enhance such partnership