1,721,020 research outputs found
Outdoor Journeys Bolognese
No full textThis presentation details the processes by which learning outside the classroom was incorporated into a primary school in Marano, Italy. First, nascent conceptions of outdoor learning in Italy will be considered, as will the inclusive “for all students” nature of the project. A combination of case study and action research was employed to allow a rich mix of data collection sources, such as interviews with teachers, classroom discussions, and ethnographic fieldnotes. The findings suggest that the way teachers structure their outdoor learning sessions is central to the programme’s success and failure
Designing Retrofit Solutions for 1 Euro Houses in Italy: Enhancing Viability Through Energy Efficiency, Comfort, Sustainability, and Affordability
Get PDFIn rural regions of Italy, underutilised and abandoned dwellings are increasingly being offered for the symbolic price of one euro. This initiative seeks to address the challenges of rural depopulation, stimulate local economies, and safeguard vernacular architectural heritage. However, these properties are aften characterised by outdated spatial configurations and significant structural degradation, rendering retrofitting efforts particularly complex. As such, the careful and context-sensitive redesign of one-euro houses is imperative to transform them into viable contemporary living environments that comply with current standards of energy performance, comfort, safety, sustainability, efficiency, and affordability. This research investigates creative and innovative retrofitting strategies aimed at delivering cost-effective, scalable, and environmentally responsible architectural interventions. <br/
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Multicase study of nature-kindergarten practices: exploring three examples in Denmark, Finland and Scotland.
Get PDFNature kindergartens are a type of early-childhood education that, relative to other
settings, are based outdoors, season-round. They are founded on the belief that direct and
immediate experiences with ‘quotidian nature’ (Kahn & Kellert, 2002, xvii) are beneficial
in early childhood. More commonplace in Nordic nations and Germany, nature
kindergartens are more recently evident worldwide and, hence, timely to research them.
By evidencing a descriptive account of ‘nature kindergartens’, this study sought
distinctions and commonalities between examples to inform why practice may look the
way it does. Existing knowledge presented an opportunity to explore why sharing a label
does not infer similar practice arrangements. With its social constructionist lens, this
inquiry considered how patterned behaviours and socialised practices (embedded in
adults and emergent or developing in children) might guide variations in nature-kindergarten
practices.
Theoretical tools, namely Bourdieu’s (1977) concept of habitus and Heft’s (1988)
version of affordance theory, are used to endorse the position that the use of nature
environments for early-childhood education are subject to wider considerations. Using
these concepts, nature-kindergartens practices, including that which was seen, heard,
smelt, tasted and touched by participants were interpreted for the ways different groups
construct season-round relations with nature.
The research design and questions were established using preliminary
investigations or ‘scoping’ of 15 nature kindergartens in six countries ahead of the
selection of three case settings: one Danish case, one Finnish and one Scottish. By
‘looking between’ in preference to comparison, the inquiry extends our understanding of
nature kindergarten as sites of social and cultural construction, where educational
practices cannot be disjoined from their wider societal, cultural and natural influences.
The multicase study (Stake, 2006) framed the collection of data through time-sampled
observations, interviews and conversations with adult and child participants. Other
peripheral data, including photographs and field journals, were collected. The author
shared 53 days with participants at the three case locations and coded the observed
practices using thematic analysis (Boyatzis, 1998). Children’s own words, metaphor,
poem extracts and colloquial phrases have been used to further contextualise the writing.
The study findings describe nature kindergartens as a distinctive form of early-childhood
education through evidencing locally relevant relationships with nature. For
those under study, spending a preschool year variously shivering and sweating, exhausted
and exhilarated, eating berries and eating snow evidenced differences and similarities in
season-round relations with nature. This study, by deepening our understanding of
nature-kindergarten practice, evidences how socialised practices can play a constitutive,
rather than causal, role in practice looking the ways it does. Together, the findings
contribute a foundation for the early-childhood education and outdoor-learning fields to
place increased emphasis on the role of nature kindergartens in lifelong relations with the
outdoors. Longitudinal and multicase research in this area is of great interest, yet
currently sparse
The British youth expedition: cultural and historical perspectives
No full textThe UK has a long tradition of expeditions, a strong cultural idea that has become a common element of non-formal education. According to the Young Explorers Trust (Young Explorers Trust, 2009), over 600 youth expeditions leave the UK each year. At home, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award groups, Scouts and Guides, among many other youth organisations, account for innumerable journeys. The expedition idea also contributes towards the UK version of the gap year. The numbers involved increase considerably if recreational trips and their associated informal educational benefits are added to the list. Expeditions have sea-faring as well as land-based traditions. The Sail Training Association and Ocean Youth Trusts, along with a fleet of other “tall ships” built specifically for youth, take thousands to sea each year. The iconic re-creation of the historical voyages of Drake from 1978–1980 and Raleigh from 1984-1988 have also left a legacy of expeditions, now largely on land, both at home and abroad. The word “expedition” is important. “Expedition” conjures up something specific that is somehow different from “journey”, “trip” “travelling”, “touring”, “backpacking” or “voyage”. It also feels different from related words used in other cultures, such as “wanderlust”, “tramping”, “trail walking”, “walkabout” or “safari”. For some, “expedition” implies a wilderness setting. For others, it means contrasting cultures and landscapes
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Smartwatches, Bodies, and Landscapes
No full textThe body is the means by which all experience is made possible; it is the pivot that the world turns its face towards. But what does it mean to have a body at a time when digital technology has become so profoundly entangled with our ways of being? This is a crucial question to address in the context of outdoor education – a discipline whose pedagogical foundations revolve around experiential learning. In this chapter, the authors aim to shed some light on the issue by focusing on the use of data-tracking smartwatches during an educational expedition in the Welsh mountains. In doing so, they highlight how the use of this technology can affect one’s embodied experience of the self and surrounding environment, the relation between the two, and, crucially, the opportunities and pitfalls this presents from an educational standpoint
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