Building Ballet: developing dance and dancers in ballet

This thesis unpacks a commonly expressed phrase in the dance industry – ‘Teaching dance beyond the steps’ – by exploring teaching practices that develop dance and dancers in children’s ballet lessons. Exploring an area that is commonly practiced and often talked about, but rarely studied, this study shows how ballet education builds particular ways of moving as well as particular behaviours and dispositions deemed desirable in ballet. Enacting Legitimation Code Theory, this thesis undertakes a qualitative case study of children’s Royal Academy of Dance ballet classes through analysis of non-participant, video recorded observations of five consecutive classes at Grade 1 and Intermediate Foundation levels, teacher interviews, follow up observations, and curriculum documents. The LCT dimension of Specialization is used as an organizing framework and distinguishes between teaching that develops dance as epistemic relations, or what is being danced, and teaching that develops dancers as social relations, or who is dancing. The dimension of Semantics is used as an explanatory framework to explore change in both the dance and the dancer at different levels of expertise. Ballet dance is both precise, or highly detailed, and transferable, where steps, technique, musicality and artistry taught in specific exercises manifest in other danced contexts. Tools for analysing epistemological condensation and epistemic-semantic gravity are used to explicate how the teachers build complex, principled, durable ballet movement. When looking at the dancer, axiological-semantic density and axiological-semantic gravity are enacted to elaborate how teachers develop particular valorised actions and behaviours, or externalized ways of acting as a ballet dancer, and how these are subsumed by dispositions, or internalized ways of thinking, feeling and being. The findings in this thesis examine different teaching practices that build knowledge and knowers, dance and dancers, in ballet and how they change at different levels of expertise

Severity of Epilepsy and Parent-Perceived Cognitive Functioning in Children with New-Onset Epilepsy: A Prospective Study of Family Factors as Mediators and Moderators

Children with epilepsy are at risk for cognitive impairments. In addition to severity of epilepsy, family factors have been cited as influencing cognition in children. The relationship between severity of epilepsy and parent-perceived cognitive functioning as well as moderating and mediating effects of family resources, demands and functioning were examined. Data came from the Health-related Quality of Life of Children with Epilepsy Study (HERQULES). Multiple linear regressions were conducted to assess the relationship between severity of epilepsy and cognition, and moderating effects, while generalized estimating equations assessed mediating effects. Severity of epilepsy and parent-perceived cognitive functioning were inversely related. Family resources acted as a significant moderator in this relationship. Neither family demands nor family functioning had a significant mediating effect, which may be due to the lack of variation in this sample. Further research should replicate the moderating results and indicate the importance of family factors in managing epilepsy

A note on locally v-bounded spaces

[EN] In this paper, on the family O(Y ) of all open subsets of a space Y (actually on a complete lattice) we define the so called strong v-Scott topology, denoted by τ8v, where v is an infinite cardinal. This topology defines on the set C(Y,Z) of all continuous functions on the space Y to a space Z a topology τ8v. The topology τ8v, is always larger than or equal to the strong Isbell topology. We study the topology τ8v in the case where Y is a locally v-bounded space.Georgiou, D.; Iliadis, S. (2005). A note on locally v-bounded spaces. Applied General Topology. 6(2):143-148. doi:10.4995/agt.2005.1953.SWORD14314862Arens, R., & Dugundji, J. (1951). Topologies for function spaces. Pacific Journal of Mathematics, 1(1), 5-31. doi:10.2140/pjm.1951.1.5J. Dugundji, Topology, Allyn and Bacon, Inc., Boston, Mass. 1966.S. Gagola and M. Gemignani, Absolutely bounded sets, Mathematica Japonicae, Vol. 13, No. 2 (1968), 129-132.Gierz, G., Hofmann, K. H., Keimel, K., Lawson, J. D., Mislove, M. W., & Scott, D. S. (1980). A Compendium of Continuous Lattices. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-67678-9P. Lambrinos, Subsets (m, n)-bounded in a topological space, Mathematica Balkanica, 4(1974), 391-397.Lambrinos, P. T. (1975). Locally bounded spaces. Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society, 19(4), 321-325. doi:10.1017/s0013091500010415P. Lambrinos and B. K. Papadopoulos, The (strong) Isbell topology and (weakly) continuous lattices, Continuous Lattices and Applications, Lecture Notes in Pure and Appl. Math. No. 101, Marcel Dekker, New York 1984, 191-211.F. Schwarz and S. Weck, Scott topology, Isbell topology and continuous convergence, Lecture Notes in Pure and Appl. Math. No. 101, Marcel Dekker, New York 1984, 251-271

False Memories of UFO Encounters: An fMRI Investigation

The idea of ‘false memories’ for traumatic events has powered numerous controversies. For this reason, the present study was designed as an attempt to resolve this debate with the use of neuroscience by alleviating two major limitations that have hindered progress in the field: namely, a more specific and restricted definition of what constitutes a false memory; and alleviating concerns surrounding the lack of ecological validity of simulated cases by testing individuals claiming to have been abducted by space aliens. Our objective was to determine whether fMRI could distinguish between a false and a real memory and to identify the neural processes associated with these memories. Personality traits and/or cognitive abilities related to incidences of false memory were investigated, as well as, brain activation during 4 memory recall conditions: 1) self false memory; 2) self real memory; 3) other false memory; and 4) other real memory. A sample of 12 men and women who identified themselves as UFO abductees were used in the fMRI part of this experiment with their UFO abduction memory as the ‘self false memory’ condition. Results revealed higher scores on all cognitive and personality measures for the UFO group. We found evidence that the processing of real and false memories is correlated with different patterns of brain activity. In addition, main effects of self-referential processing and memory type (unusual content versus usual) were also tested. The results indicated that self-referential responding was mainly associated to prefrontal and limbic activations whereas the successful retrieval of unusual content was associated to multiple regions of the brain including but not limited to bilateral prefrontal and occipital activations, and right anterior cingulate. Significant interactions were also observed in four right hemispheric regions: the lateral globus pallidus; the superior frontal gyrus; the parietal supramarginal gyrus; and the limbic lobe with increased activation specifically linked to the condition “self false memory”. Our findings extended the line of false memory research to unusual false memories and revealed additional activations associated specifically to this type of memory

Smart Cities: Recent Trends, Methodologies, and Applications

Guest Editorial

Case studies of personalized learning

Deliverable 4.1, Literature review of personalised learning and the Cloud, started with an evaluation and synthesis of the definitions of personalized learning, followed by an analysis of how this is implemented in a method (e-learning vs. i-learning, m-learning and u-learning), learning approach and the appropriate didactic process, based on adapted didactic theories. From this research a list of criteria was created needed to implement personalised learning onto the learner of the future. This list of criteria is the basis for the analysis of all case studies investigated. – as well to the learning process as the learning place. In total 60 case studies (all 59 case studies mentioned in D6.4 Education on the Cloud 2015 + one extra) were analysed. The case studies were compared with the list of criteria, and a score was calculated. As a result, the best examples could be retained. On average most case studies were good on: taking different learning methods into account, interactivity and accessibility and usability of learning materials for everyone. All had a real formal education content, thus aiming at the core-curriculum, valuing previous knowledge, competences, life and work skills, also informal. Also the availability of an instructor / tutor or other network of peers, experts and teachers to guide and support the learning is common. On the other hand, most case studies lack diagnostics tests as well at the start (diagnostic entry test), during the personalized learning trajectory and at the end (assessment at the end). Also most do not include non-formal and informal learning aspects. And the ownership of personalized learning is not in the hands of the learner. Five of the 60 case studies can as a result be considered as very good examples of real personalized learning

Using Semantic Waves to Analyse the Effectiveness of Unplugged Computing Activities

We apply the notion of ‘semantic waves’ from Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), a powerful educational framework, to Computer Science Education. We consider two case studies exploring how a simple analysis can help improve learning activities. The case studies focus on unplugged activities used in the context of both teaching school students and teacher continuing professional development. We used a simple method based on LCT to analyse the activities in terms of their ‘semantic profiles’: changes in the context-dependence and complexity of the knowledge being taught.This led to improvements to the activities. We argue that ‘semantic waves’, or moves back and forth between concrete/simpler and abstract/complex knowledge, help show ways that an unplugged activity might be effective or not, and how small changes to the activities can make a difference in potentially offering a more fruitful learning experienc

A literature review of personalized learning and the Cloud

In order to provide effective application of the Cloud in education it is essential to know how the learning should and could – if needed – be adapted. In this respect the concept of ‘personalising learning’ is frequently used. But what exactly is personalising learning. And how can it be implemented in using the cloud? The aim of WG3 i-Learner of the School on the Cloud network is to investigate this from the point of view of the learner, whereas WG2 i-Teacher looks on the role of the educators, and WG4 i-Future on the technology. The document has two parts: - The first part starts with an evaluation and synthesis of the definitions of personalized learning (Ch. 3), followed by an analysis of how this is implemented in learning style (e-learning vs. i-learning, m-learning and u-learning, Ch. 4) and learning approach (Ch. 5). To implement this an appropriate pedagogy (Ch. 6) is needed. - The second part is an attempt on how to implement this onto the learner of the future (Ch. 7), as well to the learning process and to the learning place. Recommendations are made in Ch. 8

Widespread range expansions shape latitudinal variation in insect thermal limits

I thank the authors of previous studies on global variation in insect thermal tolerances who have generously provided open access use of their data sets.Peer reviewedPostprin