Verständnis mathematischer Fachbegriffe in der Studieneingangsphase

Beim Übergang von der Schule an die Universität treten insbesondere in mathematisch-naturwissenschaftlich geprägten Studiengängen Schwierigkeiten auf. Als besonders herausfordernd wird dabei die Mathematik angesehen. Gründe hierfür sind v. a. die Unterschiede zwischen Schul- und Hochschulmathematik. Besonders das mathematische Argumentieren gewinnt in der wissenschaftlichen Mathematik an Bedeutung, während das Anwenden von Kalkülen eher in den Hintergrund tritt (Heinze & Reiss, 2004). Um die Schwierigkeiten beim mathematischen Argumentieren zu untersuchen, ist es notwendig, die dazu notwendigen Fähigkeiten zu analysieren. Neben Metawissen über Beweisprozesse und Logik sind Problemlösekompetenz und elaboriertes Fachwissen Voraussetzungen für mathematische Argumentation (Brunner, 2014). Mit der Elaboration von Fachwissen geht ferner ein Mindestmaß an Verständnis mathematischer Inhalte und Begriffe einher. Die Untersuchung des mathematischen Begriffsverständnisses von Studienanfängern soll daher im Fokus des vorliegenden Beitrags liegen

La transición en matemáticas desde la educación secundaria a la universidad: ¿Entienden los universitarios los conceptos abstractos?

La transición en matemáticas desde la educación secundaria a la universidad es difícil para universitarios. Especialmente el entendimiento de conceptos abstractos, que es una de las premisas para razonar matemáticamente, causa problemas. En un estudio empírico con N=200 universitarios hemos analizados dos cuestiones: (1)¿Cómo es la comprensión de conceptos? (2)¿Hay diferencias de entendimiento entre los conceptos? Las probabilidades de acierto y el coeficiente de Alfa de Cronbach podrían enseñar que el conocimiento conceptual de los conceptos abstractos no es tan profundo como el de los concretos. Estos resultados muestran que la educación secundaria intenta tratar conceptos que aparentemente los estudiantes no pueden entender en profundidad, lo que haría necesario una cambio en el modo de impartir las clases en la enseñanza secundaria

Analysing the two-level game: international and national determinants of change in education policy making

Education policy making is often considered an exclusive domain of the nation state in western industrialised countries. Since the 1990s, however, international organisations (IOs) have started to play a greater role in the field of education by developing new forms of governance. As a consequence, the predominance of the nation state in education becomes an increasingly contested issue. Yet, it is not clear what kind of effects IO governance will have, whether it brings about greater convergence among national education policies by promoting uniform solutions for commonly shared problems, or whether national institutions continue to follow their own logic, thereby hindering equal responses to IO governance. In order to develop a better understanding of the dynamics in this two-level game, this paper sets out to develop an analytical framework for examining the interplay between international and national determinants of change in the field of education. We argue that IOs apply different governance instruments by which they seek to influence national education policy making. However, the degree to which nation states will respond to these international stimuli is likely to be mediated by national transformation capacities, most prominently veto players and nationally rooted ideas of education. Based on these basic assumptions, we develop a parsimonious model in which we assess the influence of IO governance on national education policy making mediated through national transformation capacities.Bildungspolitik wird in den westlichen Industrienationen häufig als ausschließliche Aufgabe des Nationalstaates betrachtet. Seit den 1990ern ist jedoch zu beobachten, dass internationale Organisationen (IOs) eine immer größere Rolle im Politikfeld Bildung spielen, indem sie neue Formen der Governance entwickeln. Dies führt dazu, dass die staatliche Vorherrschaft in der Bildungspolitik zunehmend in Frage gestellt wird. Dennoch ist bisher unklar, welche konkreten Effekte der Einfluss internationaler Organisationen hat. Zum einen wäre es möglich, dass sie einheitliche Lösungen für Probleme im Bildungsbereich vorschlagen, die von vielen Nationalstaaten geteilt werden, was zu einer größeren zwischenstaatlichen Konvergenz der Bildungspolitik führen könnte. Zum anderen wäre denkbar, dass nationale Institutionen ihrer eigenen Logik folgen, was eine Annäherung nationaler Pfade verhindern würde. Um ein besseres Verständnis der Dynamiken in diesem Zwei-Ebenen-Spiel zu ermöglichen, soll in diesem Arbeitspapier ein analytischer Rahmen entwickelt werden, anhand dessen das Zusammenspiel der nationalen und internationalen Determinanten von Wandel in der Bildungspolitik untersucht werden kann. Es wird angenommen, dass IOs mit Hilfe verschiedener Governance Instrumente versuchen, nationale Bildungspolitik zu beeinflussen. Allerdings reagieren Nationalstaaten nicht zwangläufig uniform auf diese internationalen Stimuli, sondern entsprechend ihrer Transformationskapazitäten. Diese werden hauptsächlich von nationalen Vetospielern und nationalen Leitideen von Bildung beeinflusst. Aufbauend auf diesen Annahmen entwickeln wir ein einfaches Modell zur Analyse des Wandels von Bildungspolitik, der durch IO Governance ausgelöst und durch nationale Transformationskapazitäten gesteuert wird

Driving with Homonymous Visual Field Defects: Driving Performance and Compensatory Gaze Movements

Aim of this pilot study was to assess the driving performance and its relationship to the visual search behavior, i.e., eye and head movements, of patients with homonymous visual field defects (HVFDs) in comparison to healthy-sighted subjects during a simulated driving test. Eight HVFD patients and six healthy-sighted age- and gender-matched control subjects underwent a 40-minute driving test with nine hazardous situations. Eye and head movements were recorded during the drive. Four out of eight patients passed the driving test and showed a driving performance similar to that of the control group. One control group subject failed the test. Patients who passed the test showed an increased number of head and eye movements. Patients who failed the test showed a rightwards-bias in average lane position, probably in an attempt to maximize the safety margin to oncoming traffic. Our study supports the hypothesis that a considerable subgroup of subjects with HVFDs show a safe driving behavior, because they adapt their viewing behavior by increased visual scanning

Specific effects of Ca2+ ions and molecular structure of β-lactoglobulin interfacial layers that drive macroscopic foam stability

β-Lactoglobulin (BLG) adsorption layers at air–water interfaces were studied in situ with vibrational sum-frequency generation (SFG), tensiometry, surface dilatational rheology and ellipsometry as a function of bulk Ca2+ concentration. The relation between the interfacial molecular structure of adsorbed BLG and the interactions with the supporting electrolyte is additionally addressed on higher length scales along the foam hierarchy – from the ubiquitous air–water interface through thin foam films to macroscopic foam. For concentrations 30 mM Ca2+, micrographs of foam films show clear signatures of aggregates which tend to increase the stability of foam films. Here, the interfacial layers have a higher surface dilatational elasticity. In fact, macroscopic foams formed from BLG dilutions with high Ca2+ concentrations where aggregates and interfacial layers with higher elasticity are found, showed the highest stability with much smaller bubble sizes

Mantle cell lymphomas with concomitant MYC and CCND1 breakpoints are recurrently TdT positive and frequently show high-grade pathological and genetic features

Chromosomal breakpoints involving the MYC gene locus, frequently referred to as MYC rearrangements (MYC - R+), are a diagnostic hallmark of Burkitt lymphoma and recurrent in many other subtypes of B-cell lymphomas including follicular lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and other high-grade B-cell lymphomas and are associated with an aggressive clinical course. In remarkable contrast, in MCL, only few MYC - R+ cases have yet been described. In the current study, we have retrospectively analysed 16 samples (MYC - R+, n = 15, MYC - R-, n = 1) from 13 patients and describe their morphological, immunophenotypic and (molecular) genetic features and clonal evolution patterns. Thirteen out of fifteen MYC - R+ samples showed a non-classical cytology including pleomorphic (centroblastic, immunoblastic), anaplastic or blastoid. MYC translocation partners were IG-loci in 4/11 and non-IG loci in 7/11 analysed cases. The involved IG-loci included IGH in 3 cases and IGL in one case. PAX5 was the non-IG partner in 2/7 patients. The MYC - R+ MCL reported herein frequently displayed characteristics associated with an aggressive clinical course including high genomic-complexity (6/7 samples), frequent deletions involving the CDKN2A locus (7/10 samples), high Ki-67 proliferation index (12/13 samples) and frequent P53 expression (13/13 samples). Of note, in 4/14 samples, SOX11 was not or only focally expressed and 3/13 samples showed focal or diffuse TdT-positivity presenting a diagnostic challenge as these features could point to a differential diagnosis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and/or lymphoblastic lymphoma/leukaemia

Addiction Research Consortium: Losing and regaining control over drug intake (ReCoDe)—From trajectories to mechanisms and interventions

One of the major risk factors for global death and disability is alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use. While there is increasing knowledge with respect to individual factors promoting the initiation and maintenance of substance use disorders (SUDs), disease trajectories involved in losing and regaining control over drug intake (ReCoDe) are still not well described. Our newly formed German Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) on ReCoDe has an interdisciplinary approach funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) with a 12-year perspective. The main goals of our research consortium are (i) to identify triggers and modifying factors that longitudinally modulate the trajectories of losing and regaining control over drug consumption in real life, (ii) to study underlying behavioral, cognitive, and neurobiological mechanisms, and (iii) to implicate mechanism-based interventions. These goals will be achieved by: (i) using mobile health (m-health) tools to longitudinally monitor the effects of triggers (drug cues, stressors, and priming doses) and modify factors (eg, age, gender, physical activity, and cognitive control) on drug consumption patterns in real-life conditions and in animal models of addiction; (ii) the identification and computational modeling of key mechanisms mediating the effects of such triggers and modifying factors on goal-directed, habitual, and compulsive aspects of behavior from human studies and animal models; and (iii) developing and testing interventions that specifically target the underlying mechanisms for regaining control over drug intake