Teachers as Theorists

This paper addresses the tensions that exist between policy-makers and practitioners about what learning and teaching should really be about. It adds to the collective reflection on what learning is about and how we should never stop engaging in reflection about it in an active, revolving and changing manner. Similarities between second language learning and generic learning intersperse the reflective account as the author looks through the lenses of her own disciplines of Linguistics and English as a Second Language. The reflection digs deep into the emotions of a critical pedagogue and is finally channelled into a ‘pedagogy of hope’ for a better future

Diseño de terminal para conexión desde el laboratorio de Ingeniería Eléctrica a UPVNET basado en Raspberry PI

[ES] A continuación se presentan una serie de documentos realizados para el diseño de un terminal para conectarse a UPVNET desde el laboratorio de Ingeniería Eléctrica, principalmente para realizar los test de la asignatura, basado en Raspberry Pi. En la memoria descriptiva se explica detalladamente el hardware y el software utilizado, así como el lenguaje de programación Python, base del proyecto desarrollado. Una vez hecho esto se procederá a explicar el código y se evaluarán otras alternativas que ofrece la Raspberry Pi en el laboratorio, antes de finalizar la memoria con una conclusión a modo de balance del trabajo realizado. Aparte de la memoria, los otros documentos son una valoración económica, un plano y los anexos a la memoria.Kadi Hanifi Lebtahi, N. (2016). Diseño de terminal para conexión desde el laboratorio de Ingeniería Eléctrica a UPVNET basado en Raspberry PI. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/69539.TFG

Epistemological moor-ing. Re-positioning Foucault, Bourdieu and Derrida theory to its Northern African origins

The question of why the works of Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu and Jacques Derrida are often attributed to France by HE lecturers and students when the origins or developments of their key ideas come from Africa is examined from critical and personal standpoints. The article joins the call for the decolonisation of the HE curriculum and gives detail to why the theory of these oft-cited thinkers and philosophers comes ‘out of Africa’ through an examination of their experiences in the Moorish regions of Tunisia and Algeria. Reasons for the attribution of the ideas to France are given including Eurocentrism, Wikipedisation of theory and the mythologization of France. This article is a response to the act of positioning theory which came from Africa as French in HE lectures. The authors consider why they might have done this including a deep reflection on the subject, listening to voices from Africa

Climate and vegetation structure determine plant diversity in Quercus ilex woodlands along an aridity and land use gradient in Northern Algeria

We studied the influence of environmental factors relating to climate, soil and vegetation cover on total species richness, species richness of different life-forms and species composition of plant communities occurring in Quercus ilex woodlands, across a 450-km long transect in Northern Algeria constituting a gradient of aridity and human use. We sampled vegetation and collected environmental data in 81 10 m × 10 m plots in five zones representing the largest Q. ilex woodlands throughout the study area, analysing them within an a priori hypothesis framework with the use of Path Analysis. Changes in plant diversity were mainly influenced by environmental factors related to precipitation and temperature regimes, as well as by total plant cover. In particular, changes in species composition were determined by factors associated with the temperature regime through their influence on both woody and annual herbaceous plant richness, and by factors related to the precipitation regime through their influence on perennial herbaceous plant richness, likely due to the differential tolerances of these functional groups to cold and water stress. Our results emphasize the importance of differences in environmental adaptability of the most important life-forms with regard to explaining compositional change (beta diversity) along aridity gradients, and the mediator role of total plant cover in relation to the effects of soil conditions on plant diversity.Ministerio de Ciencia y EducaciónComunidad de MadridUniversité des Sciences et de la Technologie Houari Boumedienn

Assessment of desertification sensitivity in Algeria

The map of desertification sensitivity is established by MEDALUS approach developed for the Mediterranean region on the basis on desertification sensitivity index, itself developed from several relevant factors known to influence the degradation processes (climate, vegetation, soil, human activities). The preparation of each layer is obtained from the geometric mean of the weighted parameters chosen to characterize and quantify this factor. Cartographic and alphanumeric data are captured and structured in a database, managed and analysed by a Geographic Information System. The output data have enabled the development of maps with small scale describing quality indexes. The maps about quality as well as the map of desertification sensitivity were anaLa carte de sensibilité à la désertification est établie selon la démarche MEDALUS éla- borée pour la région méditerranéenne sur la base des valeurs d'un indice de sensibilité à la désertification lui-même élaboré à partir de plusieurs facteurs pertinents connus pour leur influence sur les processus de phénomène (climat, végétation, sol, activités humaines). Les données cartographiques et alphanumérique sont saisies et structurées dans une base de données, gérées et analysées par un système d'information géographique (SIG). La préparation des couches climat, sol, végétation alimentant le SIG est obtenue à partir de la moyenne géométrique des valeurs pondérées des différents paramètres retenus pour caractériser et quant fier les facteurs. Les données en sortie ont permis l'élaboration de cartes à petite échelle portant un indice de qualité ; les différentes cartes de qualité ainsi que la carte de sensibilité à la désertification obtenues ont fait l'objet d'une discussion illustrant l'intérêt mais aussi les limites de la démarche suivie

Mises en défens et plantations : étude synchronique de deux techniques de restauration pour améliorer les communautés végétales et les propriétés du sol dans des steppes arides dégradées (Algérie)

Steppes of arid Mediterranean zones are deeply threatened by desertification. To stop or alleviate ecological and economic problems associated with this desertification, management actions have been implemented since the last three decades. The struggle against desertification has become a national priority in some of these countries. In Algeria, several management techniques have been used to cope with desertification. This study aims to investigate the effect of two management techniques on vegetation, soil properties and pastoral value after four years of implementation. The two techniques were grazing exclosure which was widely set up in degraded steppes and plantations (consisting in plantation and grazing exclosure) in deeply degraded ones. 49 phytoecological and soil samples have been studied. Results showed that plant diversity, composition, vegetation cover and pastoral value were significantly higher in protected areas. Management techniques also affected soil surface elements (percentage of sand, coarse soil elements, bare silty crust, and bare ground), organic matter and soil nitrogen content. We also demonstrated that important differences between both techniques remain: plantation technique on heavily degraded soil results in a higher pastoral value of plant communities whereas grazing exclosure technique on lesser degraded soil favours plant diversityLe processus de désertification menace depuis de nombreuses années les milieux steppiques arides du bassin méditerranéen. Afin d'arrêter ou atténuer les problèmes écologiques et économiques associés à cette désertification, des actions de gestion ont été mises en œuvre depuis les trois dernières décennies. Cette lutte est devenue pour certains pays une priorité nationale. En Algérie, plusieurs techniques de gestion visant à limiter le surpâturage ont été utilisées parmi lesquelles la plantation d'Atriplex canescens provenant d'Amérique centrale et la mise en défens de larges surfaces. Cette étude synchronique compare l'impact de ces deux pratiques de gestion après quatre ans de mise en œuvre sur la flore, la valeur fourragère et plusieurs paramètres édaphiques. Les 49 relevés phytoécologiques effectués montrent des modifications de la composition floristique, ainsi que des augmentations de la diversité, du recouvrement de végétation et de la valeur pastorale avec la protection des parcelles. L'ordination des résultats sur un plan factoriel permet de caractériser les trajectoires des différentes formations en fonction du mode de gestion qui leur est appliqué. Ces résultats mettent en évidence des groupements à richesse modérée et haute valeur pastorale dans les plantations, alors que les mises en défens conduisent à des formations à richesse élevée mais à valeur pastorale plus faible. Les paramètres édaphiques mesurés sont également affectés par la gestion: diminution de la fraction sableuse, des éléments grossiers, de la pellicule de glaçage, du sol nu et augmentation de la teneur en matière organique et azote total. Les conséquences de ces deux modes de gestion en termes de restauration et de réhabilitation écologiques sont discutées

Effects Of Length, Complexity, And Grammatical Correctness On Stuttering In Spanish-Speaking Preschool Children

Purpose: To explore the effects of utterance length, syntactic complexity, and grammatical correctness on stuttering in the spontaneous speech of young, monolingual Spanish-speaking children. Method: Spontaneous speech samples of 11 monolingual Spanish-speaking children who stuttered, ages 35 to 70 months, were examined. Mean number of syllables, total number of clauses, utterance complexity (i.e., containing no clauses, simple clauses, or subordinate and/or conjoined clauses), and grammatical correctness (i.e., the presence or absence of morphological and syntactical errors) in stuttered and fluent utterances were compared. Results: Findings revealed that stuttered utterances in Spanish tended to be longer and more often grammatically incorrect, and contain more clauses, including more subordinate and/or conjoined clauses. However, when controlling for the interrelatedness of syllable number and clause number and complexity, only utterance length and grammatical incorrectness were significant predictors of stuttering in the spontaneous speech of these Spanish-speaking children. Use of complex utterances did not appear to contribute to the prediction of stuttering when controlling for utterance length. Conclusions: Results from the present study were consistent with many earlier reports of English-speaking children. Both length and grammatical factors appear to affect stuttering in Spanish-speaking children. Grammatical errors, however, served as the greatest predictor of stuttering.Communication Sciences and Disorder

Classification of Types of Stuttering Symptoms Based on Brain Activity

Among the non-fluencies seen in speech, some are more typical (MT) of stuttering speakers, whereas others are less typical (LT) and are common to both stuttering and fluent speakers. No neuroimaging work has evaluated the neural basis for grouping these symptom types. Another long-debated issue is which type (LT, MT) whole-word repetitions (WWR) should be placed in. In this study, a sentence completion task was performed by twenty stuttering patients who were scanned using an event-related design. This task elicited stuttering in these patients. Each stuttered trial from each patient was sorted into the MT or LT types with WWR put aside. Pattern classification was employed to train a patient-specific single trial model to automatically classify each trial as MT or LT using the corresponding fMRI data. This model was then validated by using test data that were independent of the training data. In a subsequent analysis, the classification model, just established, was used to determine which type the WWR should be placed in. The results showed that the LT and the MT could be separated with high accuracy based on their brain activity. The brain regions that made most contribution to the separation of the types were: the left inferior frontal cortex and bilateral precuneus, both of which showed higher activity in the MT than in the LT; and the left putamen and right cerebellum which showed the opposite activity pattern. The results also showed that the brain activity for WWR was more similar to that of the LT and fluent speech than to that of the MT. These findings provide a neurological basis for separating the MT and the LT types, and support the widely-used MT/LT symptom grouping scheme. In addition, WWR play a similar role as the LT, and thus should be placed in the LT type

Using Critical Pedagogies From Adult Education to Inspire and Challenge Higher Education Students

This interdisciplinary paper is about applying Adult Education methods of learning and teaching to higher education. I argue that higher education students need to be stimulated via interactive methods that improve their motivation and lead them to question the value system/s that exist around them. A Freirean approach as used in the teaching of Adult Literacy and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) was applied to a group of ‘elite’ students at the University of Birmingham who were taking a language foundation course. As a sociolinguist and ESOL practitioner from a black perspective, I argue that the understanding of concepts of language and racism, imperialism and social class can best be facilitated using such an approach. Taking groups of students through this learning journey is challenging for higher education practitioners and the results add a relatively new dimension to the collective reflection on learning and teaching in higher education today