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The European dimension in education has been a term increasingly used by the European Union and the Council of Europe to denote some of their educational policies and initiatives. It has also been a contested term in academic writing, as some researchers critique the elitist, exclusionary and Eurocentric educational implications it may have, while others welcome its pedagogic and intercultural potential. This article explores the possibilities of using the European dimension as a tool to alleviate ethnocentrism and traditional pedagogies in curricula and textbooks. To achieve this, the essay presents some principles which have been used for the development of History and Geography curricula with a European dimension in Greek Cypriot state primary schools in Cyprus. The curriculum development process drew upon the literature around the "political" history of the European dimension, as well as upon academic discussions of social constructivist approaches to the notion of Europe. The principles employed to guide the curriculum development process were structured under the perspectives of curriculum location, content and pedagogy. The curricular location principles were concerned with the European dimension as a cross-curricular innovation, the question of its form within subject-based curricula and of its contextualisation within existing educational localities and contexts. Concerning content, it is proposed that such curricula need to acknowledge the constructedness and fluidity of the frontiers of nation-states and of Europe, the multiplicity and hybridity of identities, as well as Europe's socio-cultural and conflictual past. Finally, the pedagogic principles encourage critical approaches to knowledge, the development of concepts and active learning through cooperation. (Contains 7 notes.)

The main purpose of the present study was to identify and examine the concerns of primary school teachers in Cyprus in relation to the recent implementation of a new mathematics curriculum and the use of new mathematics textbooks. An adaptation of the Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SoCQ) based on the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) was administered to a representative sample of teachers. According to the findings, the concerns of teachers largely focused on the task stage of the CBAM model. Furthermore, there were significant differences in the concerns of teachers across years of teaching experience but not across years of implementation.

Literature suggests that the type of context wherein a task is placed relates to students' performance and solution strategies. In the particular domain of logical thinking, there is the belief that students have less difficulty reasoning in verbal than in logically equivalent symbolic tasks. Thus far, this belief has remained relatively unexplored in the domain of teaching and learning of mathematics, and has not been examined with respect to students' major field of study. In this study, we examined the performance of 95 senior undergraduate mathematics and education majors in "symbolic" and "verbal" tasks about the "contraposition equivalence rule". The selection of two different groups of participants allowed for the examination of the hypothesis that students' major may influence the relation between their "performance" in tasks about contraposition and the "context" (symbolic/verbal) wherein this is placed. The selection of contraposition equivalence rule also addressed a gap in the body of research on undergraduate students' understanding of "proof by contraposition". The analysis was based on written responses of all participants to specially developed tasks and on semi-structured interviews with 11 subjects. The findings showed different variations in the performance of each of the two groups in the two contexts. while education majors performed significantly better in the verbal than in the symbolic tasks, mathematics majors' performance showed only modest variations. The results call for both major- and context-specific considerations of students' understanding of logical principles, and reveal the complexity of the system of factors that influence students' logical thinking.

Studied structures and relationships in one-step additive and multiplicative problems solved by 450 students in grades 2, 3, and 4. Results show that the facility ratio of the problems differs by structure, situation, and the sequence of data. The ability to solve one-step problems increases with age, but relative problem difficulty is grade independent. (SLD)

Studied the interpretation of mathematics in terms of algorithmic or coherent views of 1,287 teachers from 12 countries using responses to items from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Teachers from four high-achieving Asian countries were more likely to see mathematics as algorithmic than were teachers from four European countries. (SLD)

Investigates the effect of mental schemes corresponding to additive and multiplicative situations in the process of interpreting and solving problems. Classifies relative difficulties of problems according to their situations which are considered through a written test administered to pupils in grades 2, 3, and 4. Supports the assumption that there is a developmental pattern in pupils' thinking, depending on the problem situation. (Author/ASK)

Reports the results of a study aimed at changing prospective teachers' attitudes toward mathematics using a mathematics preparatory program designed and implemented over three years and employing questionnaires and interviews. Results showed significant improvement of attitudes, particularly toward the satisfaction from and the usefulness of mathematics. Contains 25 references. (Author/ASK)

Teachers' conceptions about assessment were studied through a questionnaire completed by 152 mathematics teachers in Greece and 610 teachers in Cyprus. Questionnaire responses produced a rather optimistic picture of teachers' views, but 10 semi-structured interviews that followed showed that teachers in both countries have a rather vague understanding of the relevant key concepts. (SLD)

Background: The benefits derived from supervised aerobic exercise in people living with human immunofeficiency virus– HIV (PLWH) have not yet been clearly identified. Objective: To evaluate the impact of supervised aerobic exercise on immunological, cardiorespiratory, pulmonary, hemodynamic and mental parameters of PLWH. Methods: A systematic review was carried out in accordance to PRISMA guidelines. PubMed, Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) were screened up to August 2021, for the identification of English written randomized trials, with participants aged 18 years and older, at any stage of the disease, with or without co-morbidities. The risk of bias assessment was conducted according to the Cochrane Collaboration's tool for assessing risk of bias. Meta- analyses were conducted using continuous, inverse variance, random-effects model. Results: Ten studies were suitable for meta-analysis based on inclusion criteria. Supervised aerobic exercise appeared to have beneficial effects on depressive symptoms [mean difference (MD)= −4.18 (confidence interval (CI)= (−6.55)–(−1.81), Z = 3.46, p = 0.0005, I2=0%, n = 2], forced expiratory volume in 1 sec [MD = 0.70, CI = 0.39–1.00, Z = 4.41, p < 0.0001, I2=0%, n = 2], and on the maximum oxygen uptake [MD = 1.38, CI = −0.02–2.78, Z = 1.94, p = 0.05, I2=94%, n = 4] of PLWH. No exercise effect was found for CD4 T-cell count (p = 0.16, n = 5), systolic blood pressure (p = 0.91, n = 2) and diastolic blood pressure (p = 0.72, n = 2). Conclusions: Supervised continuous aerobic exercise may improve lung function, depressive symptomatology and aerobic capacity of PLWH, however, the small number of available studies and the high heterogeneity concerning VO2max demonstrate the need for more research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthy midlife cognitive function (CF) reduces the risk of cognitive decline in older age. Evidence suggests that chrononutrition behaviours, such as time-restricted eating (TRE), positively affect CF possibly through a bioenergetic switch towards ketone use by the brain, DNA repair, and antiinflammatory action(1,2). However, misalignment between preferred and actual food intake timing might disrupt the circadian rhythm, negatively affecting CF(3). This study investigated associations between chrononutrition behaviours, including eating misalignment, and cognitive outcomes in adults aged 45-65 living in Cyprus. The following behaviours were derived from the Chrononutrition Profile Questionnaire(4), as a weighted aggregate score of working and non-working days: breakfast skipping, largest meal of the day, morning latency (time between waking and first eating event), evening eating (last eating event in the waking day), evening latency (time between last eating event and sleep onset), night eating (waking in the night to eat) and eating window (time between the first and last eating event)(4). Misalignments were calculated by subtracting reported aggregate behaviour from preferred. Computerized neurocognitive remote testing was used to derive standard normalized age-matched scores for composite memory, psychomotor speed, cognitive flexibility, complex attention, and global neurocognitive index(5). Education, marital status, smoking, body mass index, chronic disease diagnosis, Greek-Orthodox fasting, sleep, physical activity, and Mediterranean diet adherence were also assessed, the latter three using validated questionnaires. Cognitive outcome scores were divided into tertiles and analyzed using ordinal logistic regression. Each chrononutrition variable, divided into categories(6,7), was independently regressed against each cognitive outcome, with the significant pairs then examined in multivariable models, adjusting for sociodemographic variables that were independently significantly associated with each cognitive outcome. Two-hundred-seven participants were analyzed (58% female, median age: 52 yrs, 75.6% University graduates). Morning latency misalignment was associated with higher neurocognitive index (Odds Ratio (OR) of eating later than preferred by 30-90min: 2.28; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.10-4.71 & OR of eating later than preferred by > 90min: 1.95; 95% CI: 1.03-3.68) and with higher cognitive flexibility score (OR of eating later than preferred by 30-90 min: 2.21; 95% CI: 1.07-4.60). An eating window longer than preferred by >120 mins was associated with a lower psychomotor speed score (OR: 0.16; 95% CI: 0.04−0.06). Evening eating between 20:00-22:59 vs. before 20:00 was associated with a higher complex attention score (OR: 2.04; 95% CI: 1.06-3.93). The study findings on delaying the first eating episode and having a shorter eating window support previous findings that TRE is associated with better CF(2,3). The association of evening eating with better CF might be related to unexplored aspects of the overall diet quality and the evening meal or other residual confounders and needs further exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]