A critical approach to Emotional Intelligence as a dominant discourse in the field of education

This article offers a critical analysis of emotional intelligence (EI) as a dominant discourse that establishes ways of understanding, managing, and learning about emotions in the field of education. The first section gives an overview of the recent interest in the emotional along with how the popularity of ideas associated with emotional intelligence derives from its ability to associate itself with other influential discourses that emerge from the brain sciences (neurology, cognitive psychology etc.). As part of this discussion, some of EI’s main qualities are questioned, for example, its neutrality, its potential to go beyond the dualist approaches that dominate traditional conceptions, and its proposal for a paradigm shift. The second part of the article examines the presence and impact of the discourse of emotional intelligence in the field of education in the form of mechanisms for measuring emotional intelligence and programmes of emotional intelligence or emotional literacy. The importance of educators’ emotional involvement is discussed, as is the problem of the subjectivating power of this discourse. It concludes with arguments that invite us to reflect and explore alternative ways of understanding and framing the emotional and emotional education

The Emotional Learning of Educators Working in Alternative Provision

Working with pupils who are on the edge of exclusion is not an easy job; in fact, it is more than just a job. This study investigates the emotional involvement of educators (teachers and mentors) working with pupils who have been permanently, or are at risk of being, excluded from mainstream education This article presents different forms of emotional learning that take place in educational practice. Specifically, it explores the emotional relationships that educators have with pupils and each other. It also draws on the concept of emotional geography (Hargreaves, 2001a, 2001b) to theorize the emotional interactions that the educators are expected to have with their pupils, because overcoming emotional distance is seen as a vitally important part of their work as educators of excluded pupils. The research shows that emotional learning is understood by educators as a dynamic process that they can play a part in shaping, rather than being a passive process in which they are silent actors, and that harmful experiences can have a constructive outcome

In situ surface coverage analysis of RuO₂-catalysed HCl oxidation reveals the entropic origin of compensation in heterogeneous catalysis

In heterogeneous catalysis, rates with Arrhenius-like temperature dependence are ubiquitous. Compensation phenomena, which arise from the linear correlation between the apparent activation energy and the logarithm of the apparent pre-exponential factor, are also common. Here, we study the origin of compensation and find a similar dependence on the rate-limiting surface coverage term for each Arrhenius parameter. This result is derived from an experimental determination of the surface coverage of oxygen and chlorine species using temporal analysis of products and prompt gamma activation analysis during HCl oxidation to Cl2 on a RuO2 catalyst. It is also substantiated by theory. We find that compensation phenomena appear when the effect on the apparent activation energy caused by changes in surface coverage is balanced out by the entropic configuration contributions of the surface. This result sets a new paradigm in understanding the interplay of compensation effects with the kinetics of heterogeneously catalysed processes

Landscape and agri-environmental scheme effects on ant communities in cereal croplands of central Spain

Agri-environmental schemes (AES) of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) aims at reversing the negative effects of agricultural intensification on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Landscape context may modulate, and even constraint, AES effectiveness. We evaluate AES effectiveness on ant abundance, diversity and community composition. Ants are an ecologically dominant group whose response to conservation efforts in farmland has been rarely evaluated, despite its role in weed control, particularly in Mediterranean farmland. Ants were sampled in the edge and in the centre of paired cereal fields, managed with and without AES in three study areas along a landscape complexity gradient. AES application had no significant effects on ant species richness or ant community composition. Richness increased in fields and landscapes with higher amounts of complex edges and decreased towards the centre of the fields. Specialist granivorous ants (harvester ants, Messor spp.) were the most abundant. Abundance of foraging ants increased with the amount of complex edges around fields and in the landscape. AES application increased ant abundance close to field edges but not in field centers. AES fields had less specialist granivorous foraging in their centers than in control field centers. Ant communities in Mediterranean cereal cropland were mostly constrained by the availability of complex edges, needed for nest building. AES increased the abundance of foraging ants, mostly specialist harvester ants, and its potential service of weed control, but close to field edges mainly. Measures promoting the abundance of stable edges rather than of ephemeral headlands in the landscape are essential to enhance the potential of AES for increasing ant-mediated ecosystem services of weed controlThis paper is a contribution to the EU Project QLK5-CT-2002–1495 ‘Evaluating current European Agri-environment Schemes to quantify and improve Nature Conservation efforts in agricultural landscapes (EASY)

Conceptualising routes to employability in higher education: the case of education studies

© 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This paper contributes to critical understandings of the significance of employability in current debates about the transformation of Higher Education (HE). We express our concerns about the implications of orientating HE to utilitarian demands in the light of a tendency to align discussions about the significance of studying at university with the idea of employability. The research underlying this article explores how the experience of UK university students in the context of education studies programmes shapes their conceptions of employability and their understanding of their subject of study. Ideas developed by Gert Biesta are used as a framework to discuss different forms in which thoughts about employability are articulated. The analysis of data that includes reflections on the experience of placement suggests that tensions between education as training for teachers and education as the possibility for change, point to the emergence of a new form of understanding employability that may have to work the boundary between both. We argue that lessons learnt from the case of education studies can be useful to other subjects and programmes of study that also share an interest in the theoretical study of a discipline or where a narrow career expectation is being challenged by broader possibilities

RESIGHTINGS OF TWO-BANDED PLOVERS (CHARADRIUS FALKLANDICUS) DURING THE BREEDING SEASON IN COASTAL CHUBUT, PATAGONIA, ARGENTINA

Abstract · We report resightings of individually-marked Two-banded Plovers (Charadrius falklandicus) breeding in northern Patagonia across two consecutive seasons in two beaches separated by approximately 65 km in a straight line: Playas Blancas (Península Valdés) and Playa Paraná (Puerto Madryn), Chubut province, Argentina. We captured and banded 24 adults at the nest while incubating during 2016. Nineteen banded individuals (ca. 80%) were resighted in 2017, 17 on the same site where they were banded, while 2 moved between survey sites. Only 32% were found breeding again while the remaining 68% were resighted resting or foraging, solitarily or in mixed flocks with other shorebird species. Among the resighted breeders, two adults were found paired with a different banded partner as in the previous year. The remaining breeders were paired with unbanded partners, and hence mate fidelity could not be assessed. Our findings add information to the scarce data on the breeding biology of this species suggesting that Two-banded Plovers exhibit site fidelity.Resumen · Avistamientos de Chorlos Doble Collar (Charadrius falklandicus) durante el período reproductivo en la costa de Chubut, Patagonia, Argentina Presentamos avistamientos de Chorlos Doble Collar (Charadrius falklandicus) anillados en dos playas de la provincia de Chubut, Argentina: Playas Blancas (Península Valdés) y Playa Paraná (Puerto Madryn) separadas entre si aproximadamente 65 km en línea recta. En la temporada 2016, se capturaron y anillaron 24 individuos adultos durante la incubación. La mayoría de ellos (19, ca. 80%) fueron avistados en la temporada 2017, 17 en el mismo sitio donde fueron anillados y 2 en el otro sitio de estudio. El 32% se observó anidando mientras que, el 68% restante, se observó en el área descansando o alimentándose en forma solitaria o en bandadas mixtas con otras especies de aves playeras. Entre los individuos reproductores en 2017, dos anidaron con parejas también anilladas aunque diferentes al año anterior. Los reproductores restantes se observaron con parejas no marcadas, por lo que no se pudo evaluar si estaban apareados con el mismo individuo que en la temporada anterior. Estos resultados aportan nuevos datos sobre la biología reproductiva de esta especie que se suman a los estudios previos en la zona, sugiriendo que los Chorlos Doble Collar muestran fidelidad al sitio reproductivo

Paths, patterns and factors that influence the entry of university graduates into the labour market

This article provides an overview of the literature that contributes to the study of the key factors that explain the process by which university graduates enter the labour market. It is approached from the standpoint of the Spanish experience but also discusses other European initiatives. Understanding this process is paramount for the modernisation of the university offering. The entry of university graduates into the labour market is characterised by complex and multiple interrelations of factors that include both contextual/social and individual/personal variables. This study argues that a multidimensional analysis of the process and the different variables involved contributes to the development of appropriate career plans and university employability strategies. The article focuses on discussing the personal variables that shape individual paths and presents an analysis of a number of categories and elements that are essential if the transition from university to the labour market is to take place successfully

Structural and reactivity insights in Mg–Zn hybrid chemistry : Zn–I exchange and Pd-catalysed cross-coupling applications of aromatic substrates

Expanding the synthetic potential of Mg-Zn hybrid organyl reagents (generated via transmetallation reactions), this study uncovers a versatile approach, involving a sequence of direct Zn-I exchange and Pd catalysed cross-coupling reactions which grants access to a wide range of asymmetric bis(aryls). By combining X-ray crystallography with ESI-MS and non-deuterium NMR spectroscopic studies, new light is shed on the heterobimetallic constitution of the intriguing organometallic species [(THF)4MgCl 2Zn(tBu)Cl] (1) and [{Mg2Cl3(THF) 6}+{ZntBu3}-] (2), formed through transmetallation of tBuMgCl with n equivalent amounts of ZnCl2 (n = 1 and 3 respectively). Operating by cooperative effects, alkyl-rich hybrid 2 can effectively promote direct Zn-I exchange reactions with aromatic halides in short periods of time at room temperature in THF solution. The structural elucidation of key organometallic intermediates involved in some of these Zn-I exchanges, provides new reactivity insights into how these bimetallic systems operate. Thus, while the reaction of 2 with 3 equivalents of 2-iodoanisole (3b) gives magnesium dizincate [{Mg(THF)6}2+{Zn(o-C 6H4-OMe)3}2 -] (4) which demonstrates the 3-fold activation of the tBu groups attached to Zn in 2, using 2-iodobenzonitrile (3i), only two tBu groups react with the substrate, affording [(THF)4MgCl(NC-o-C6H4)ZnI(o-C 6H4-CN)(THF)] (7). In 7 Mg and Zn are connected by an aryl bridge, suggesting that the formation of contacted ion-pair hybrids may have a deactivating effect on the outcome of the Zn-I exchange process. A wide range of homoleptic tris(aryl) zincate intermediates have been prepared in situ and used as precursors in Pd catalysed cross-coupling reactions, affording bis(aryls) 6a-s in excellent yields under mild reaction conditions without the need of any additive or polar cosolvent such as NMP or DMI