Manipulative Skills (manipulative + skill)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Gazing at the Hand: A Foucaultian View of the Teaching of Manipulative Skills to Introductory Chemistry Students in the United States and the Potential for Transforming Laboratory Instruction

CURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 3 2005
STEPHEN DEMEO
ABSTRACT Many studies of chemistry have described the rise of the academic chemical laboratory and laboratory skills in the United States as a result of famous men, important discoveries, and international influences. What is lacking is a perspective of the manifestations of the balances of power and knowledge between teacher and student. A Foucaultian analysis of the teaching of manipulative skills to the introductory student in high school and college in the United States during the later half of the 19th and into the 20th century has provided such a perspective. The analysis focuses on the body, specifically students' hands, and how this body has been redescribed in terms of time, space, activity, and their combinations. It is argued in the first part of this article that the teaching of manipulative skills in the chemistry laboratory can be characterized by effects of differential forms of power and knowledge, such as those provided by Foucault's ideas of hierarchical observation, normalization, and the examination. Moreover, it is evident that disciplinary techniques primarily focused on the physical hands of the student have been recast to include a new cognitive-physiological space in which the teaching of manipulative skills currently takes place. In the second part of this article, the author describes his own professional development as a laboratory instructor through a series of reflective statements that are critiqued from a Foucaultian perspective. The personal narratives are presented in order to pro- vide science educators with an alternative way for their students to think about the relationship between one's manipulative skills and the quality of their data. The pedagogical approach is related to the maturation process of the chemist and contextualized in the current paradigm of laboratory practice, inquiry-based science education. [source]


Gait dynamics of Cebus apella during quadrupedalism on different substrates

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 2 2010
Kristian J. Carlson
Abstract Primates are distinguished from many mammals by emphasizing arboreal lifestyles. Primate arboreal adaptations include specializations for enhancing balance and manipulative skills. Compliant gait and diagonal sequence (DS) footfalls are hypothesized mechanisms for improving balance during arboreal quadrupedalism (AQ), while simultaneously permitting vertical peak force reductions sustained by limbs, particularly forelimbs (FLs). Capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) are arboreally-adapted quadrupeds that use both lateral sequence (LS) and DS footfalls. As tool-users, capuchins experience selective pressures for FL manipulative capabilities, which seemingly conflict with encountering substantial locomotor stresses. We evaluate kinetic and 3-D kinematic data from 172 limb contacts of two adult males on terrestrial and arboreal substrates to address questions about C. apella gait compliancy, kinematics of LS and DS footfalls during quadrupedalism on different substrates, and whether capuchins reduce FL vertical peak forces relative to hind limb (HL) forces more than other primates that use tools or those that do not. Lower vertical peak forces during AQ are consistent with compliant gait, but mixed kinematic results obscure how the reduction occurs. Forearm adduction angle is one consistent kinematic difference between terrestrial and arboreal quadrupedalism, which may implicate frontal plane movements in gait compliancy. Major differences between DS and LS gaits were not observed in kinetic or kinematic comparisons. Capuchins exhibit low FL/HL vertical peak force ratios like several anthropoids, including tool-users (e.g., chimpanzees), and species not considered tool-users in free-ranging conditions (e.g., spider monkeys). Additional selective pressures besides simply tool use appear responsible for the relative reduction in primate forelimb forces. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Intimate social behavior in infant interactions in Cebus apella,

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 1 2009
Gayle Byrne
Abstract The development and individual stability of three intimate social behaviors (Lipsmacking, Carrying Attempts, and Facial Inspection) were examined for 43 group-housed Cebus apella infants from birth to 2 years of age. Occurrence of these behaviors was scored from 10-min videotape samples recorded three times a week over that time. Frequency of Lipsmacking and Carrying Attempts by adult males, adult females, and juveniles were all highest in early months and decreased to low levels by the end of the first year. Facial Inspection of partners by infants, in contrast, first began at 3,4 months and increased over time, at least to adult males and juveniles. Correlational analyses indicated stable individual differences in these interactions with infants and outlined a relationship between these intimate behaviors and more general social patterns reported previously for these animals. Results suggest that adult males may play a special role in affording juveniles opportunities for social learning of foraging and manipulative skills. Am. J. Primatol. 71:77,85, 2009. Published 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]