Pulling all the pedagogic pieces together to provide good electronic feedback: an example from science education

The aim of Nefreduca project was to develop digital science materials for chronically ill children and to assist them to cope more rationally with their illness. The Nefreduca system was developed in 2 stages.The first was a teaching-learning sequence about nutrition and kidney function, which was tested with the students and their teachers from the hospital school. The second phase was the construction of an automatic feedback system for Nefreduca. This paper reports the findings from both phases and makes the case that good feedback models must build upon on a good learning design that addresses students' misconceptions and introduces well structured e-activitie

Supporting science studies for children with long term health problems using Nefreduca

Children with long term health problems cannot always maintain their schooling and keep up with the curriculum (Prevatt et al., 2000; McDougall et al., 2004). They also spend prolonged periods in hospital where access to science teaching is very limited (Sobrino, Lizasoain & Ochoa, 2001). In order to address this problem, the Nefreduca project was designed to develop a short science curriculum for children in Spain with chronic kidney disease. The Nefreduca project was designed to develop a series of open source science inquiry based web learning materials for children with chronic kidney disease. In this paper the learning design strategies employed to build the Nefreduca platform are described , together with how the students' conceptions of the Kidney's role in the nutrition process were extended whilst trialling the Nefreduca materials. The students' notions of the kidney also changed after using the Nefreduca programme. Their answers illustrated a deeper understanding of the urine production process, it's constituency; and its connection to the blood filtration that occurs in the kidney. These findings suggest that the Nefreduca activities could serve as appropriate teaching material for scaffolding the students' mental models of the kidney

Scientific processes in PISA tests observed for science teachers

A research study, mainly based on the notion of 'scientific literacy' from PISA 2003 assessment framework, was carried out obtaining data from the administration of an open written questionnaire with items covering three central scientific processes: describing, explaining and predicting scientific phenomena, understanding scientific investigation and interpreting scientific evidence and conclusions, to 30 experienced in-service secondary school science teachers. The purpose was to analyse their views regarding the competences on the mentioned scientific processes assessed by Science PISA tests: which of the competences assessed were the most frequently identified by teachers, which of the competences they considered presenting difficulties for their students and, finally, which activities they used in their classes to promote similar competences. Our results indicated that teachers had different perceptions of one or other scientific processes considered relevant for scientific literacy in PISA framework. Their awareness of the expected students’ difficulties did not necessarily match the competences intended to be assessed by neither PISA nor what they thought to be assessed. Moreover, their views differed depending not only on the type of scientific process but also on the underlying subject. Concern about the students’ need of reading fluently with understanding and of paying special attention during the test time was also observed

Some problems encountered in the introduction of innovations in secondary school science education and suggestions for overcoming them

This paper discusses some problems in innovating in the context of the school system in Catalonia and Italy. The process leading to reform of secondary education is briefly described. The issue of teachers’ interpretations and reactions to the guidelines of reforms and innovations is focused on. For basic science education, two specific innovative teaching proposals about Energy and Motion/ Force are briefly described, together with a study of teachers’ interpretations of their rationale and guidelines. The main transforming trends of these interpretations are discussed: these indicate that since teachers are major actors in the school innovation process, unless they internalise the proposed approaches, no real, successful implementation in classroom practice will take place. Finally, some guidelines and recommendations are suggested, which will interest education policy makers and teacher education agencies.peer-reviewe

EBook proceedings of the ESERA 2011 conference : science learning and citizenship

This ebook contains fourteen parts according to the strands of the ESERA 2011 conference. Each part is co-edited by one or two persons, most of them were strand chairs. All papers in this ebook correspond to accepted communications during the ESERA conference that were reviewed by two referees. Moreover the co-editors carried out a global reviewing of the papers.ESERA - European Science Education Research Associatio

The 2019 and 2021 International Workshops on Alport Syndrome

In 1927 Arthur Cecil Alport, a South African physician, described a British family with an inherited form of kidney disease that affected males more severely than females and was sometimes associated with hearing loss. In 1961, the eponymous name Alport syndrome was adopted. In the late twentieth century three genes responsible for the disease were discovered: COL4A3, COL4A4, and COL4A5 encoding for the α3, α4, α5 polypeptide chains of type IV collagen, respectively. These chains assemble to form heterotrimers of type IV collagen in the glomerular basement membrane. Scientists, clinicians, patient representatives and their families, and pharma companies attended the 2019 International Workshop on Alport Syndrome, held in Siena, Italy, from October 22 to 26, and the 2021 online Workshop from November 30 to December 4. The main topics included: disease re-naming, acknowledging the need to identify an appropriate term able to reflect considerable clinical variability; a strategy for increasing the molecular diagnostic rate; genotype-phenotype correlation from monogenic to digenic forms; new therapeutics and new therapeutic approaches; and gene therapy using gene editing. The exceptional collaborative climate that was established in the magical medieval setting of Siena continued in the online workshop of 2021. Conditions were established for collaborations between leading experts in the sector, including patients and drug companies, with the aim of identifying a cure for Alport syndrome

Turner syndrome and sexual differentiation of the brain: implications for understanding male-biased neurodevelopmental disorders

Turner syndrome (TS) is one of the most common sex chromosome abnormalities. Affected individuals often show a unique pattern of cognitive strengths and weaknesses and are at increased risk for a number of other neurodevelopmental conditions, many of which are more common in typical males than typical females (e.g., autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder). This phenotype may reflect gonadal steroid deficiency, haploinsufficiency of X chromosome genes, failure to express parentally imprinted genes, and the uncovering of X chromosome mutations. Understanding the contribution of these different mechanisms to outcome has the potential to improve clinical care for individuals with TS and to better our understanding of the differential vulnerability to and expression of neurodevelopmental disorders in males and females. In this paper, we review what is currently known about cognition and brain development in individuals with TS, discuss underlying mechanisms and their relevance to understanding male-biased neurodevelopmental conditions, and suggest directions for future research