Bliss - a conventionalized graphic symbol system bridging the gap between figurative drawing and traditional orthography

Viele Kinder haben beim Lesen- und Schreibenlernen in der Grundschule nachhaltige Schwierigkeiten. Im Mittelpunkt des Forschungsinteresses in den letzten Jahren standen phonologische Leistungen wie Lautanalyse und -synthese als zentrale Voraussetzung für den Lernerfolg im Anfangsunterricht. Vernachlässigt wurden hingegen Erfahrungen, die Kinder mit der Schrift und anderen grafischen Darstellungsformen bereits vor Schuleintritt gemacht haben. In unserem Projekt der Universität Siegen wurde die Wirksamkeit unterschiedlicher vorschulischer Ansätze zur Prävention von Schwierigkeiten im Schriftspracherwerb untersucht, insbesondere im Blick auf Kinder mit wenig Schrifterfahrung. Im Rahmen einer Feldstudie wurden von 1997 bis 2001 drei Interventionen (BLISS als logografisches Zeichensystem vs. Einführung in die alphabetische Schrift vs. phonologische Förderung ohne Schriftbezug) im Kontrollgruppenvergleich einander gegenübergestellt. Für das BLISS- und das Schrift-Angebot wurden umfangreiche Materialpakete entwickelt; die phonologische Förderung bestand aus einer verkürzten Version des Würzburger Trainingsprogramms von Küspert/Schneider (1999). An der Förderung beteiligt waren in vier Wellen insgesamt 179 Kinder sowie 637 Kinder in verschiedenen Kontrollgruppen. In den ersten beiden Jahren fanden die Fördermaßnahmen in Kindergärten statt, im dritten und vierten in Schulkindergärten. Von 140 Kindern liegen neben vorschulischen Prä- und Posttests vollständige Nacherhebungsdaten vor, die zu drei Messzeitpunkten im Laufe des ersten Schuljahrs erhoben wurden. Für alle drei Interventionsgruppen konnten spezifische Fördereffekte nachgewiesen werden. So kamen die phonologisch geförderten Kinder (allerdings nur diejenigen im Schulkindergarten) zu deutlich besseren Ergebnissen in den Synthese-, Analyse- und Anlautaufgaben als die beiden anderen Fördergruppen. Nach der Teilnahme an der Schrift-Förderung schnitten die betreffenden Kinder in den schriftbezogenen Aufgaben (im Schulkindergarten: signifikant) besser ab als die beiden Vergleichsgruppen. Die Kinder der BLISS-Gruppe konnten nach der Förderung einen hohen Anteil der ihnen gestellten BLISS-Aufgaben lösen; zugleich erzielten sie die besten Ergebnisse bei mehreren Aufgaben zur Struktur schriftsprachlicher Konzepte (Leserichtung, Wort- und Satzkonzept). Beim vertikalen Transfer auf den Anfangsunterricht im Lesen und Schreiben erwies sich kein Förderprogramm als überlegen. Allerdings waren in der BLISS-Gruppe die Ausgangsbedingungen etwas ungünstiger. Insofern könnte man ein vergleichbares Leistungsniveau der BLISS-Gruppe am Ende der Untersuchung aufgrund des höheren Lernzuwachses als einen leichten Vorteil dieser Fördermaßnahme interpretieren. Deutlicher ist die Überlegenheit der BLISS-Gruppe bei Kindern mit ungünstigen Voraussetzungen, nämlich bei den unteren 25% der normal eingeschulten Kinder sowie bei den im Schulkindergarten geförderten, vom Schulbesuch zurückgestellten Kindern. Innerhalb dieser Teilgruppe erreichten die am BLISS-Angebot beteiligten Kinder trotz schlechterer Ausgangsbedingungen im Vergleich zu den anders geförderten Kindern die besten Ergebnisse beim Wörterdiktat sowie bei den Leseaufgaben im ersten Schuljahr. In der vorliegenden Arbeit, die aufgrund des neuen Forschungsfeldes explorativen Charakter hat und nicht als Effektivitätsstudie verstanden werden sollte, werden neben Vergleichen von Fördergruppen und Teilgruppen auch individuelle Entwicklungsverläufe über 18 Monate anhand von Testergebnissen nachvollzogen. Die eigenen Erfahrungen aus dem Projekt wie auch eine Reihe weiterer Beispiele aus der aktuellen Literatur verdeutlichen, dass spielerische und kindgemäße Förderangebote zur Erleichterung des Schriftspracherwerbs in jedem Kindergarten und Schulkindergarten mit vertretbarem Aufwand möglich und lohnend sind. Dabei bieten sich - entgegen dem aktuellen Trend der Schriftspracherwerbsforschung - nicht nur phonologisch orientierte Zugangsweisen an, sondern auch solche, die vielfältige Anlässe zum Erforschen der Alphabetschrift und verwandter Notationssysteme schaffen.Many children fail in beginning reading and spelling instruction. Research over the last years has focused on phonological awareness as the main prerequisite for the acquisition of literacy. The role of experiences in traditional orthography and other graphic representational forms before school entry has been neglected. Therefore our research team at Siegen University started a project in 1997. The basis for this dissertation is not an efficacy but an exploratory study. The data analysis focuses on comparisons between the intervention groups and between subgroups as well as on the development of individual children over a period of 18 months. The investigation has been designed as a quasi-experimental field study with three different types of intervention (introduction to Bliss as a logographic symbol system vs. introduction to alphabetic writing vs. phonological training without reference to alphabetic writing) plus control groups. The main goal was to find out whether experience with graphic symbols can enhance the chances for success in reading and spelling instruction, moreover, whether children with limited experience of alphabetic writing benefit from experiences with Bliss symbols prior to their school entrance. 179 preschool children half a year before school entrance participated in four waves of the interventions and 637 children in various control groups. During the first two years the treatments took place in two kindergartens, during year three and four in several "Schulkindergarten"-groups. Complete data sets from 140 children, i. e. pre- and posttests before and after the treatment plus three follow-up-tests during the first year at school have been analyzed. Specific effects restricted to the specific treatments could be found within all three intervention groups. In contrast, none of the training groups showed superior reading or spelling results at the end of first grade. However, the starting conditions of the Bliss group prior to school entrance were less favourable. Therefore one could interpret a comparable level of achievement at the end of grade 1 as a slight advantage for the Bliss approach. Focusing on the subgroup of children within the lowest quartile (in terms of their early literacy competence), a noticeable difference between the Bliss group and the other groups could be found. Here, the children having participated in the Bliss intervention showed the best results in the word spelling and reading tasks at the end of the first school year. One important conclusion from the project evidence is the suggestion to increase efforts to promote early literacy within preschool settings. Besides phonological training it is possible and worthwhile for preschool settings in Germany to give young children a wider range of options for discovering letters, words, graphic symbols and other forms of written language before entering school. Keywords: Emergent Literacy, Blissymbols, Graphic Symbols, Phonological Awareness, Reading and Spelling, Learning Difficulties, Prevention. This research study has been funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and supported by the Ministry of Youth, School and Children of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia

Local Councillors and Citizens. An exploratory study of the interaction between councillors and citizens in 4 municipalities in the Meuse-Rhine Euregion

The aim of this study is to look into into role behaviour of local councillors and their relation with citizens in their municipality. As little is known about the actual interaction between councillors and citizens in local government the nature of the study is mainly explorative. The research focuses on councillors in 4 different municipalities in the 3 countries of the Meuse-Rhine Euregion: Valkenburg (Netherlands), Riemst (Belgium-Flanders), Visé (Belgium-Wallonia) and Übach-Palenberg (Germany). The study reveals that there are many similarities between the councillors in the different countries. All councillors receive input from citizens, always about specific and often even individual issues of citizens, and surprisingly they leave the initiative mostly to the citizens, instead of actively looking for input. We also found significant differences. We noticed different patterns of contacts between citizens and councillors in the municipalities and it seems that input by citizens is valued differently on the different sides of the border. Several questions for further research were identified.

Influence of Multiple Light Scattering on PDV Measurements in Presence of Ejecta

Author Institution: French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA)Slides presented at the 2018 Photonic Doppler Velocimetry (PDV) Users Workshop, Drury Plaza Hotel, Santa Fe, New Mexico, May 16-18, 2018

Multiple light scattering in metallic ejecta produced under intense shockwave compression

A roughened metallic plate, subjected to intense shock wave compression, gives rise to an expanding ejecta particle cloud. Photonic Doppler velocimetry (PDV), a fiber-based heterodyne velocimeter, is often used to track ejecta velocities in dynamic compression experiments and on nanosecond time scales. Shortly after shock breakout at the metal–vacuum interface, a particular feature observed in many experiments in the velocity spectrograms is what appear to be slow-moving ejecta, below the free-surface velocity. Using Doppler Monte Carlo simulations incorporating the transport of polarization in the ejecta, we show that this feature is likely to be explained by the multiple scattering of light, rather than by possible collisions among particles, slowing down the ejecta. As the cloud expands in a vacuum, the contribution of multiple scattering decreases due to the limited field of view of the pigtailed collimator used to probe the ejecta, showing that the whole geometry of the system must be taken into account in the calculations to interpret and predict PDV measurements. © 2018 Optical Society of America

Descobrir-se negro: uma narrativa sobre o Racismo Estrutural

Apresentamos a problemática da construção da identidade negra a partir da história de vida construída pela oralidade. O objetivo foi analisar o processo da construção da identidade negra através da narrativa de uma pessoa negra e demonstrar a potencialidade da narrativa de história de vida enquanto instrumento de ressignificação de determinados fatos. Trata-se de uma pesquisa descritivo-analítica de estudo de caso único. A análise dos dados seguiu a proposta da Análise de Conteúdo de Minayo. Concluímos que a narrativa da história de vida pode ser instrumento de ressignificação dos fatos passados, contribuindo para a organização das experiências vivenciadas marcadas pelo racismo e pelo preconceito racial

RACISMO ESTRUTURAL: VAMOS FALAR MAIS SOBRE ISSO

Na atualidade, torna-se relevante ampliar as discussões sobre o tema raça, racismo, preconceito e segregação racial. Estas questões fazem parte do cotidiano social e ganham destaque em diversas formas de expressão da sociedade. Vamos fundamentar nossa pesquisa a partir do conceito de racismo estrutural de Silvio Almeida. O objetivo deste artigo é refletir sobre o conceito de racismo estrutural e a sua relevância para pensar a realidade social brasileira. Trata-se de um estudo de revisão narrativa da literatura. O estudo partiu da seguinte questão norteadora: Qual a pertinência do conceito de racismo estrutural para pensarmos a sociedade brasileira? Os resultados mostram o caráter inovador que este conceito traz às reflexões étnico-raciais, sendo uma temática relevante e atual a ser abordada em pesquisas acadêmicas. A relação racismo e ideologia ganha destaque nas pesquisas acadêmicas. As demais relações que Silvio Almeida propõe em sua teoria também foram contempladas nos estudos encontrados

A Design Space Exploration of Creative Concepts for Care Robots: Questioning the Differentiation of Social and Physical Assistance

In an interdisciplinary project, creative concepts for care robotics were developed. To explore the design space that these open up, we discussed them along the common differentiation of physical (effective) and social-emotional assistance. Trying to rate concepts on these dimensions frequently raised questions regarding the relation between the social-emotional and the physical, and highlighted gaps and a lack of conceptual clarity. We here present our design concepts, report on our discussion, and summarize our insights; in particular we suggest that the social and the physical dimension of care technologies should always be thought of and designed as interrelated

Differential effects of tactile high- and low-frequency stimulation on tactile discrimination in human subjects

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) play important roles in mediating activity-dependent changes in synaptic transmission and are believed to be crucial mechanisms underlying learning and cortical plasticity. In human subjects, however, the lack of adequate input stimuli for the induction of LTP and LTD makes it difficult to study directly the impact of such protocols on behavior.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using tactile high- and low-frequency stimulation protocols in humans, we explored the potential of such protocols for the induction of perceptual changes. We delivered tactile high-frequency and low-frequency stimuli (t-HFS, t-LFS) to skin sites of approximately 50 mm²on the tip of the index finger. As assessed by 2-point discrimination, we demonstrate that 20 minutes of t-HFS improved tactile discrimination, while t-LFS impaired performance. T-HFS-effects were stable for at least 24 hours whereas t-LFS-induced changes recovered faster. While t-HFS changes were spatially very specific with no changes on the neighboring fingers, impaired tactile performance after t-LFS was also observed on the right middle-finger. A central finding was that for both t-LFS and t-HFS perceptual changes were dependent on the size of the stimulated skin area. No changes were observed when the stimulated area was very small (< 1 mm²) indicating special requirements for spatial summation.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results demonstrate differential effects of such protocols in a frequency specific manner that might be related to LTP- and LTD-like changes in human subjects.</p