Neste texto objetivamos historiar o processo de construção e implantação dos cursos de Licenciatura de Sociologia na Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, refletindo sobre a significação da elaboração de um programa de sociologia para o ensino médio efetuado por docentes do Departamento de Ciências Sociais. O programa foi solicitado pela COPERVES (Comissão Permanente de Vestibular) e será utilizado na UFSM como base para as provas do vestibular a partir de 2013. A elaboração deste programa tem como uma de suas consequências (...) (no âmbito de Santa Maria e região) a modificação da situação vigente de inexistência de indicação nos PCNs de conteúdos programáticos específicos de Sociologia para serem utilizados pelas escolas de ensino médio. Consideramos o conjunto de eventos que levou a criação de ambos os cursos em 2009 e da própria elaboração do referido programa em 2011 e 2012, como parte de um longo processo que modifica o status quo da formação profissional de sociólogos (no contexto dos cursos de Ciências Sociais), bem como do saber científico da Sociologia como campo disciplinar em relação as áreas afins. (shrink)

This paper examines physics and mathematics textbooks published in France at the end of the 1950s and at the beginning of the 1960s for children aged 11–15 years old. It argues that at this “middle school” level, textbooks contributed to shape cultural representations of both disciplines and their mutual boundaries through their contents and their material aspect. Further, this paper argues that far from presenting clearly delimited subjects, late 1950s textbooks offered possible connections between mathematics and physics. It highlights that (...) such connections depended upon the type of schools the textbooks aimed at, at a time when educational organization still differentiated pupils of this age. It thus stresses how the audience and its projected aptitudes and needs, as well as the cultural teaching traditions of the teachers in charge, were inseparable from the diverse conceptions of mathematics and physics and their relationships promoted through textbooks of the time. (shrink)

This article discusses the role of mathematics during physics lessons in upper-secondary school. Mathematics is an inherent part of theoretical models in physics and makes powerful predictions of natural phenomena possible. Ability to use both theoretical models and mathematics is central in physics. This paper takes as a starting point that the relations made during physics lessons between the three entities Reality, Theoretical models and Mathematics are of the outmost importance. A framework has been developed to sustain analyses of the (...) communication during physics lessons. The study described in this article has explored the role of mathematics for physics teaching and learning in upper-secondary school during different kinds of physics lessons. Observations are from three physics classes led by one teacher. The developed analytical framework is described together with results from the analysis of the 7 lessons. The results show that there are some relations made by students and teacher between theoretical models and reality, but the bulk of the discussion in the classroom is concerning the relation between theoretical models and mathematics. The results reported on here indicate that this also holds true for all the investigated organizational forms lectures, problem solving in groups and labwork. (shrink)

The language of physics is mathematics, and physics ideas, laws and models describing phenomena are usually represented in mathematical form. Therefore, an understanding of how to navigate between phenomena and the models representing them in mathematical form is important for a physics teacher so that the teacher can make physics understandable to students. Here, the focus is on the “experimental mathematization,” how laws are established through quantifying experiments. A sequence from qualitative experiments to mathematical formulations through quantifying experiments on electric (...) current, voltage and resistance in pre-service physics teachers’ laboratory reports is examined. The way students reason and justify the mathematical formulation of the measurement results and how they combine the treatment and presentation of empirical data to their justifications is analyzed. The results show that pre-service physics teachers understand the basic idea of how quantifying experiments establish the quantities and laws but are not able to argue it in a justified manner. (shrink)

Mathematics is a critical part of much scientific research. Physics in particular weaves math extensively into its instruction beginning in high school. Despite much research on the learning of both physics and math, the problem of how to effectively include math in physics in a way that reaches most students remains unsolved. In this paper, we suggest that a fundamental issue has received insufficient exploration: the fact that in science, we don’t just use math, we make meaning with it in (...) a different way than mathematicians do. In this reflective essay, we explore math as a language and consider the language of math in physics through the lens of cognitive linguistics. We begin by offering a number of examples that show how the use of math in physics differs from the use of math as typically found in math classes. We then explore basic concepts in cognitive semantics to show how humans make meaning with language in general. The critical elements are the roles of embodied cognition and interpretation in context. Then, we show how a theoretical framework commonly used in physics education research, resources, is coherent with and extends the ideas of cognitive semantics by connecting embodiment to phenomenological primitives and contextual interpretation to the dynamics of meaning-making with conceptual resources, epistemological resources, and affect. We present these ideas with illustrative case studies of students working on physics problems with math and demonstrate the dynamical nature of student reasoning with math in physics. We conclude with some thoughts about the implications for instruction. (shrink)

In a famous 1960 paper, Wigner discussed “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences.” I suggest that the effectiveness of mathematics in producing successful new theories and surprising discoveries is even more unreasonable than Wigner claimed. In this paper, I present several historical case studies to support the claim that mathematics is often responsible for instigating scientific revolutions. However, that does not mean that mathematics is always the key to the universe, and other cases where mathematization was not (...) successful are discussed in order to problematize a naïve Platonism. (shrink)

For more than a century the notion of a pre-established harmony between the mathematical and physical sciences has played an important role not only in the rhetoric of mathematicians and theoretical physicists, but also as a doctrine guiding much of their research. Strongly mathematized branches of physics, such as the vortex theory of atoms popular in Victorian Britain, were not unknown in the nineteenth century, but it was only in the environment of fin-de-siècle Germany that the idea of a pre-established (...) harmony really took off and became part of the mathematicians’ ideology. Important historical figures were in this respect David Hilbert, Hermann Minkowski and, somewhat later, Albert Einstein. Roughly similar ideas can be found also among British theorists, among whom Arthur Eddington, Arthur Milne, and Paul Dirac are singled out. Although largely limited to the period 1870–1940, the paper also considers Max Tegmark’s recent hypothesis of the universe being a one-to-one reflection of mathematical structures. (shrink)

In physics education, equations are commonly seen as calculation tools to solve problems or as concise descriptions of experimental regularities. In physical science, however, equations often play a much more important role associated with the formulation of theories to provide explanations for physical phenomena. In order to overcome this inconsistency, one crucial step is to improve physics teacher education. In this work, we describe the structure of a course that was given to physics teacher students at the end of their (...) master’s degree in two European universities. The course had two main goals: To investigate the complex interplay between physics and mathematics from a historical and philosophical perspective and To expand students’ repertoire of explanations regarding possible ways to derive certain school-relevant equations. A qualitative analysis on a case study basis was conducted to investigate the learning outcomes of the course. Here, we focus on the comparative analysis of two students who had considerably different views of the math-physics interplay in the beginning of the course. Our general results point to important changes on some of the students’ views on the role of mathematics in physics, an increase in the participants’ awareness of the difficulties faced by learners to understand physics equations and a broadening in the students’ repertoire to answer “Why?” questions formulated to equations. Based on this analysis, further implications for physics teacher education are derived. (shrink)

We study the interconnection between Physics and Mathematics in concrete instances, departing from the usual expression for the Coulomb electric field, produced by a point-like charge. It is scrutinized by means of six epistemology-intensive questions and radical answers are proposed, intended to widen one’s understanding of the subject. Our interventions act along two complementary directions. One of them regards ontology, since questions induce one to look closely at the electric charge, from different perspectives, promoting reflections about its nature and reinforcing (...) the corresponding concept. Formal manipulations rely on the identification of concepts with symbols, and the other direction concerns the spatial extension of mathematical structures. Our questions and their somewhat unusual answers help disclosing information which is not present in many textbooks, and show that Mathematics can be used as an efficient epistemological tool in Physics teaching. (shrink)

In order to show how formal analogies between different physical systems play an important conceptual work in physics, this paper analyzes the evolution of Einstein’s thoughts on the structure of radiation from the point of view of the formal analogies he used as “lenses” to “see” through the “black box” of Planck’s blackbody radiation law. A comparison is also made with his 1925 paper on the quantum gas where he used the same formal methods. Changes of formal points of view (...) are most of the time taken for granted or passed over in silence in studies on the mathematization of physics as if they had no special significance. Revisiting Einstein’s classic papers on the nature of light and matter from the angle of the various theoretical tools he used, namely entropy and energy fluctuation calculations, helps explain why he was in a unique position to make visible the particle structure of radiation and the dual nature of light and matter. Finally, this case study calls attention to the more general question of the surprising creative power of formal analogies and their frequent use in theoretical physics. This aspect of intellectual creation can be useful in the teaching of physics. (shrink)

The process of the mathematization of physical situations through differential calculus requires an understanding of the justification for and the meaning of the differential in the context of physics. In this work, four different conceptions about the differential in physics are identified and assessed according to their utility for the mathematization process. We also present an empirical study to probe the conceptions about the differential that are used by students in physics, as well students’ perceptions of how they are expected (...) to use differential calculus in physics. The results support the claim that students have a quasi-exclusive conception of the differential as an infinitesimal increment and that they perceive that their teachers only expect them to use differential calculus in an algorithmic way, without a sound understanding of what are they doing and why. These results are related to the lack of attention paid by conventional physics teaching to the mathematization process. Finally, some proposals for action are put forward. (shrink)

In this paper, we discuss the history of the concept of function and emphasize in particular how problems in physics have led to essential changes in its definition and application in mathematical practices. Euler defined a function as an analytic expression, whereas Dirichlet defined it as a variable that depends in an arbitrary manner on another variable. The change was required when mathematicians discovered that analytic expressions were not sufficient to represent physical phenomena such as the vibration of a string (...) and heat conduction. The introduction of generalized functions or distributions is shown to stem partly from the development of new theories of physics such as electrical engineering and quantum mechanics that led to the use of improper functions such as the delta function that demanded a proper foundation. We argue that the development of student understanding of mathematics and its nature is enhanced by embedding mathematical concepts and theories, within an explicit–reflective framework, into a rich historical context emphasizing its interaction with other disciplines such as physics. Students recognize and become engaged with meta-discursive rules governing mathematics. Mathematics teachers can thereby teach inquiry in mathematics as it occurs in the sciences, as mathematical practice aimed at obtaining new mathematical knowledge. We illustrate such a historical teaching and learning of mathematics within an explicit and reflective framework by two examples of student-directed, problem-oriented project work following the Roskilde Model, in which the connection to physics is explicit and provides a learning space where the nature of mathematics and mathematical practices are linked to natural science. (shrink)

In this article, we conceptualize the under investigated and under theorized relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) and business responsibility. As an urgent social issue, IPV—understood as abuse of power within the context of an intimate partner relationship, mainly perpetrated by men and involving a pattern of behavior—has been studied for decades in many disciplines. A less common yet vital research perspective is to examine IPV as it relates to the business and to ask how organizations should engage with IPV. (...) In response to this question, we contribute a framework drawing from two distinctions in the business responsibility scholarship: the assumed role of the organization (responsibility to the firm/market; responsibility to the broader socio-political-economic environment); and the second focused on the approach to conceptualizing ethics (justice/fairness; ethics of care). Thus, we explicate four approaches to business responsibility and IPV, which serve the purposes of mapping three selected contributions, identifying limitations of these approaches, and opening up future research opportunities. (shrink)

Na primeira parte deste trabalho, apresento algumas considerações acerca das relações entre sentido único e sentidos diversos da vida, e, na segunda parte, outras considerações acerca das relações entre sentido da vida e morte.

RESUMO O presente artigo pretende explorar um tema ainda incipiente na literatura secundária referente ao estatuto do direito em Giorgio Agamben e ao peso do direito romano em seus trabalhos. Para isso lançamos mão do debate entre Agamben e Yan Thomas, um importante historiador do direito romano com quem Agamben teve um contato bastante intenso. Ao longo do artigo pretenderemos mostrar três coisas: em primeiro lugar, a relação de Agamben com a biopolítica, destacando, sobretudo, o aspecto articulatório da noção de (...) dispositivo que subjaz suas investigações. Em segundo lugar, a importância do ensaio Vita necisque potestas de Yan Thomas, que servirá para Agamben introduzir diferenças em relação a Hannah Arendt e Michel Foucault. Por fim, lançaremos luz sobre o estatuto do direito no pensamento de Agamben, que, é a nossa hipótese, comunga da visão thomasiana: o direito não seria uma realidade metafísica ou substancial, mas funcionaria por meio de artifícios e ficções, o que nos permite pensar o direito enquanto um autêntico dispositivo biopolítico. ABSTRACT This article intends to explore a still incipient theme in the secondary literature regarding the status of the law in Giorgio Agamben and the weight of Roman law in his works. To this end, we have used the debate between Agamben and Yan Thomas, an important historian of Roman law with whom Agamben had a very intense contact. Throughout the article we will show three things: firstly, the relationship between Agamben and biopolitics, emphasising the articulatory aspect of the notion of apparatus which underlies his investigations. Then we will point out the importance of the essay Vita necisque potestas by Yan Thomas, which will serve for Agamben to introduce differences in relation to Hannah Arendt and Michel Foucault. Finally, we will shed light on the statute of law in Agamben’s thought, which is our hypothesis, communes with the Thomasian view: law would not be a metaphysical or substantial reality, but would work through artifice and fiction, which enables us to think the law as an authentic biopolitical apparatus. (shrink)

There is a crucial debate concerning the nature of chess chunks: One current possibility states that chunks are built by encoding particular combinations of pieces-on-squares (POSs), and that chunks are formed mostly by “close” pieces (in a “Euclidean” sense). A complementary hypothesis is that chunks are encoded by abstract, semantic information. This article extends recent experiments and shows that chess players are able to perceive strong similarity between very different positions if the pieces retain the same abstract roles in both (...) of them. This casts doubt on the idea that POS information is the key information encoded in chess chunks, and this article proposes, instead, that the key encoding involves the abstract roles that pieces (and sets of pieces) play—a theoretical standpoint in line with the research program in semantics that places analogy at the core of cognition. (shrink)

A theory of planned behavior framework was employed to investigate the impact of corporate social responsibility perceptions on the job choice intentions of American, Chinese, and Lebanese college students. Attitudes toward CSR, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control explained moderate levels of the variance in job choice intention in all three countries. Attitudes toward CSR, which entailed individual evaluations of CSR, were positively related to job choice intentions among Lebanese and American respondents, but not Chinese respondents. Subjective norm, the importance (...) accorded the views of significant others, was most strongly related to job choice intentions among Chinese respondents. Perceived behavioral control, the perceived degree of control over one’s actions and outcomes, had the strongest relationship to job choice intentions among American respondents. The authors concluded that respondents in the three countries did not differ in the extent to which they intend to work for socially responsible firms but tended to derive their intentions in different ways. Implications for tailoring CSR and recruitment efforts across countries are derived based on the findings. (shrink)

ABSTRACT:This paper explores how corporations, through their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities, can help to effect positive developmental change. We use research on institutional change, deinstitutionalization, and institutional work to develop our central theoretical framework. This framework allows us to suggest more explicitly how CSR can potentially be mobilized as a purposive form of institutional work aimed at disrupting existing institutions in favor of positive change. We take the gender institution in the Arab Middle East as a case in point. (...) Our suggestion is that the current context of the Arab Spring, which combined with increasingly obvious endogenous institutional contradictions, has created a fertile ground for shaping change processes within the gender institution. Finally, we provide concrete examples of CSR initiatives that regional corporate actors can engage in for positive developmental change supporting women. (shrink)

Este artículo representa una parte de una tesis de magíster asociada al proyecto Fondecyt de Iniciación nro. 11170810, "Primacía del ser o primacía del ente. Un estudio comparado entre Enrique de Gante y Duns Scoto", que estudia la relación de la noción de universal entre Avicena, Enrique de Gante y Duns Scotus. En este extracto, luego de una breve exposición sobre la vida de Enrique, serán abordados los conceptos de esencia, ser de esencia y ser de existencia, equivalentes a la (...) noción de universal y sus modos de ser en Avicena. A continuación, se presentan las nociones de “res a ‘reor, reris’” y “res a ratitudine”, así como la relación de estas con las esencias. Y por último será analizado el lugar propio de las esencias, junto con la pregunta sobre la posibilidad de cambio de dichas esencias. (shrink)

In the current paper, our aim is to explore the latent power dynamics surrounding corporate social responsibility in developing countries. To do this, we synthesize an analytic framework that borrows from both cross-cultural management literature as well as feminist considerations of power. We then use the framework to examine three streams of CSR literature. Our analysis uncovers the prevalence of arguments and discussions about indigenous and power-over themes rather than more generative, endogenous, and power-to themes. The paper concludes with the (...) suggestion for more space in the CSR literature for examining the realities and potentialities of local SME CSR expressions to counterbalance the overwhelming focus on MNCs. Such counterbalancing can better lead to the recognition that power and domination are not the only important dynamics to examine in CSR research. Just as important is the need for a more nuanced consideration of the role and contributions of different actors to the continuously unfolding CSR discourse. (shrink)

O texto tem como eixo central discutir sobre a complexidade existente no trabalho docente em Educação Física, cuja responsabilidade do professor inclui o cuidado quanto com as implicações éticas e pedagógicas no trabalho com o corpo do outro, seja ele professor universitário, seja ele professor em escola. Dessa forma, através de entrevista semiestruturada e análise qualitativa, foi realizada uma pesquisa com 13 estudantes do curso de Licenciatura em Educação Física de uma instituição de ensino particular da cidade de Caxias do (...) Sul – RS com o objetivo de saber como os professores universitários têm conduzido as aulas no curso de Educação Física no que diz respeito à problematização de questões de cunho ético vinculadas ao trabalho dos futuros professores com o corpo dos alunos nas escolas. (shrink)

Experts in all fields are able to see what is invisible to others. Experts are also able to see what is visible to all—and this is explored by Bilalić and Gobet. We question the method of normalizing all subjects in an experimental condition, and asking experts to behave as if they were novices. We claim that method leads Bilalić and Gobet to a nonsequitur.

O meu interesse é justamente o de pensar o direito enquanto um dispositivo biopolítico. Isto é, não tanto como algo oposto, diverso ou complementar às técnicas de regulação das populações, mas antes pensar o direito em sua articulação com a vida.

Este artigo parte de uma proposta terapêutica psicanalítica de cura pela fala e das premissas dos estudos a respeito de um performativo para conjurar referenciais e tecer considerações acerca do feitiço, tomando-o na sua dimensão de acontecimento singular e de natureza imprevisível. Esta discussão ocorrerá debruçada sobre os meios de um capitalismo e pautada a partir das ambivalências de uma ideia de fetiche. No ensejo desta discussão, são retomadas algumas colocações que elaboram sobre os interstícios entre magia e política para (...) indicar a importância de uma dimensão incapturável no fazer científico. (shrink)