An investigation of the Movimento da Escola Moderna (MEM) pedagogy and its contribultion to learning to learn in Portuguese pre-schools

This study identifies how the Movimento da Escola Moderna model for pre-school education works in practice, and how it has supported (or constrained) effective learning processes associated with 'learning to learn'. The conceptual framework combines socio-cultural theories of learning with literature on learning to learn and the role of interactions in teaching-learning processes to identify effective learning processes in the early years. Adopting an interpretative approach to research, the study involves an in depth casestudy approach with ethnographic elements. Two classrooms, purposefully selected, provide detailed illustrative cases of the MEM pedagogy. Data included observations (participant observations and video recording), interviews (adults and children), and documents. The analysis combined a theoretically driven framework with grounded analysis. This research showed that relationships between the MEM model, its practice and the children's participation in processes that promote 'learning to learn', are not straightforward. Both classrooms provided 'communities of learning' where children were encouraged to self-regulate their learning and engage in collaborative activities, transforming their identity from 'child' to 'leamer', and their leading activity from 'playing with others' to 'learning with others' . It was found that the structural and dynamic quality of day-to-day practices sometimes had contradictory effects, which led to the identification of some conditions required to guarantee such change for all the children including the youngest and those less participative. The implications for further development of the MEM model and teachers' practices are discussed. These findings contribute to understand the role of pedagogy in mediating, from an early age, the development of a life-long learner

Phylogeny clusters

orthologos gene clusters used for phylogenetic reconstruction of four Radix species plus Biomphalaria glabrata as outgrou

asm_TlongiContigsFB_IFB_Q_W-MIRA

The transcriptome of four T. longispinosus female castes was sequenced on an Illumina HiSeq 2000. After read trimming, caste specific contigs were assembled using the CLC software package. With these contigs as input a meta-assembly was conducted with MIRA to obtain the final contig set

<i>Vitellogenin-like A</i>–associated shifts in social cue responsiveness regulate behavioral task specialization in an ant - Fig 1

<p>(A) In colonies with both age cohorts present (control), young workers preferably tended the brood, whereas old workers foraged. (B) Behavioral flexibility is age dependent. Young workers did not increase the frequency of foraging after old worker removal (left), whereas old workers increased brood-caring behavior following young worker removal. (C) Mean position of young workers did not depend on being together with old workers (solid line) or without old workers (dashed line). Vertical lines show standard error. (D) Old workers shifted their location towards brood pile in response to young worker removal (dashed line). Solid line shows positions of old workers when together with young workers.</p

Fertility of brood carers and queens was not influenced by <i>Vg-like A</i> knockdown.

<p>Mean ovary length (left) and yolk-enriched/transparent egg ratio (right) exhibited strong caste differences but were independent of <i>Vg-like A</i> knockdown (Orange: control; purple: <i>Vg-like A</i> knockdown). <i>Vg</i>, vitellogenin.</p

Cuticular hydrocarbon data of Temnothorax longispinosus and T. ambiguus

The file contains a table with information on experimental treatments, behavioural castes, and all CHC traits analysed. The second table contains information on the detailed CHC composition of each sample

Tissue-specific expression of <i>Temnothorax Vg</i> and <i>Vg-like</i> genes.

<p>mRNA of each gene was quantified via qPCR relative to <i>alpha tubulin</i> expression. A knockdown of <i>Vg-like A</i> (purple bars) reduced <i>Vg-like A</i> expression in the fat body. The expression of no other <i>Vg</i> or <i>Vg-like</i> gene was altered by a <i>Vg-like A</i> knockdown. Orange bars: control. qPCR, quantitative real-time PCR; Vg, vitellogenin.</p

Long-term <i>Vg-like A</i> knockdown increases nestmate care behavior via alterations in cue responsiveness.

<p>(A) Under <i>Vg-like A</i> knockdown, young brood carers increased adult nestmate care, which we did not find under short-term knockdown. Nestmate care was usually taken over by the old workers. (B) Young (i.e., 3 months old) and old (i.e., 1 year or older) workers from control or <i>Vg-like A</i>^<i>−</i> treatment were tested for preference for worker and brood CHC extracts. (C) In young workers, <i>Vg-like A</i> knockdown resulted in a change in cue responsiveness for brood and worker CHCs, whereas the knockdown did not affect old workers. In the control, young and old workers differed in the number of interactions with each extract (Binomial GLMM: <i>p</i> = 0.0003), whereas this was not the case under <i>Vg-like A</i> knockdown (Binomial GLMM: <i>p</i> = 0.32). CHC, cuticular hydrocarbon; GLMM, generalized linear mixed model; Vg, vitellogenin.</p

<i>Vitellogenin-like A</i>–associated shifts in social cue responsiveness regulate behavioral task specialization in an ant

<div><p>Division of labor and task specialization explain the success of human and insect societies. Social insect colonies are characterized by division of labor, with workers specializing in brood care early and foraging later in life. Theory posits that this task switching requires shifts in responsiveness to task-related cues, yet experimental evidence is weak. Here, we show that a <i>Vitellogenin</i> (<i>Vg</i>) ortholog identified in an RNAseq study on the ant <i>T</i>. <i>longispinosus</i> is involved in this process: using phylogenetic analyses of <i>Vg</i> and <i>Vg-like</i> genes, we firstly show that this candidate gene does not cluster with the intensively studied honey bee <i>Vg</i> but falls into a separate <i>Vg-like A</i> cluster. Secondly, an experimental knockdown of <i>Vg-like A</i> in the fat body caused a reduction in brood care and an increase in nestmate care in young ant workers. Nestmate care is normally exhibited by older workers. We demonstrate experimentally that this task switch is at least partly based on <i>Vg-like A</i>–associated shifts in responsiveness from brood to worker cues. We thus reveal a novel mechanism leading to early behavioral maturation via changes in social cue responsiveness mediated by <i>Vg-like A</i> and associated pathways, which proximately play a role in regulating division of labor.</p></div

Short-term knockdown of <i>Vg-like A</i> reduced brood care behavior.

<p>(A) Brood care frequency was influenced by an interaction between treatment (control, <i>Vg-like A</i>^<i>−</i>) and caste (GLMM: <i>p</i> < 0.0001). A down-regulation of <i>Vg-like A</i> decreased brood care behavior in young workers and brood carers but not in other castes. (B) Workers and larvae were tested (<i>n</i> = 65) in a full-factorial design regarding worker and larval treatment (control, <i>Vg-like A</i>^<i>−</i>) in individualized tests. Brood care conducted by workers was counted for 5 minutes every 15 seconds. <i>Vg-like A</i> knockdown–associated decrease in brood care can be explained by worker treatment but not by larval treatment. (C) <i>Vg-like A</i>⁻ brood carers exhibited lower light aversion. Brood carers of both treatments were individually transferred to half-darkened petri dishes. For 60 minutes, position (darkened or lighted site of the dish) was recorded every 5 minutes. Dashed line at 50%, i.e., same time spent on each site. GLMM, generalized linear mixed model; <i>Vg</i>, vitellogenin.</p