The effect of the Horsham Greenpower Goblin Challenge on children's attitudes towards science,engineering and technology     

Anne Silver 《Education 3-13》2013,41(4):339-350

This research examines the effects of the Horsham Greenpower Goblin Challenge (HGGC), a hands-on science, engineering and technology (SET) project, on the attitudes of Year 5, primary-school children towards SET. The data collection centred on pre- and post-HGGC questionnaires using Likert scales and picture/word images of scientists and engineers. It was found that the HGGC did not significantly alter children's attitudes to SET and did not dispel previous negative images and attitudes. It was concluded that a greater understanding and acknowledgement of children's existing attitudes was required when designing initiatives aimed at dispelling negative and promoting positive images of SET.  相似文献   

Towards a broader understanding of authority in student–teacher relationships     

Gale Macleod  James MacAllister  Anne Pirrie 《牛津教育评论》2013,39(4):493-508

In this paper we problematise the notion of authority as it appears in discourse relating to school discipline. The account of authority that dominates is narrow and restricted, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for control. This prohibits full consideration of the range of relationships in which authority manifests itself. We draw on sociological and philosophical literature, and argue that a multi-dimensional concept of authority may offer a more nuanced framework for theorising student–teacher relationships in schools. We consider how each of the forms of authority outlined by Wrong (2002 Wrong, D. H. 2002. Power: its forms bases and uses, 3rd edn., London: Transaction Publishers.  [Google Scholar])—coercive, legitimate, competent, personal and authority by inducement—may have some application to the classroom setting. In particular we explore the concept of ‘personal authority' and its potential to enhance understanding of the contested and under-theorised concept of authority. We begin by exploring ways in which the current policy context presents challenges to particular forms of authority.  相似文献   

Multicultural early childhood education: practices and challenges in Malaysia     

Hooi San Phoon  Melissa Ng Lee Yen Abdullah  Anna Christina Abdullah 《The Australian Educational Researcher》2013,40(5):615-632

Multicultural early childhood education is necessary in a culturally diverse country like Malaysia. Preschool teachers play an important role in implementing multicultural education in the classroom. This paper reports the findings of a self-report questionnaire involving 854 preschool teachers in Malaysia. The preschool teachers disclosed their current multicultural education practices as well as the challenges they encountered when implementing multicultural education. While the majority of teachers claimed that they implemented multicultural education, a closer examination revealed that most of them used the tourist or contribution approach which focuses on only the outward manifestations of a culture when dealing with multicultural education. The transformation or anti-bias approach was used by only a small number of teachers. The teachers identified some challenges in multicultural education implementation, such as lack of instructional resources and the lack of stakeholder support. Thus, it is important to ensure teachers develop more critical understandings of multicultural education through teacher education training and programs. Other efforts to help teachers overcome challenges in implementing multicultural education include producing and developing more instructional materials and learning aids, which are suitable for young children and appropriate for the local context. Preschool teachers also need stakeholders to give more support and to acknowledge the importance of implementing multicultural early childhood education.  相似文献   

Aging Successfully: A Four-Factor Model     

Pai-Lin Lee  William Lan  Tung-Wen Yen 《Educational gerontology》2013,39(3):210-227

The study was designed to validate a model for a successful aging process and examine the gender differences in the aging process. Three hundred twelve participants who were 65 or older completed a Taiwan Social Change Survey that measures four factors that define successful aging process: including physical, psychological, social support, and leisure activity. Structural equation modeling analysis shows in addition to the three supporting variables, leisure activities is a significant factor related to successful aging process. The findings of the study verified that the proposed model is well supported by the data and fits well for both female and male populations. The findings of the study also suggest that, for gerontological researchers, leisure activities of old people deserve their attention when helping the old generation age well.  相似文献   

Health Literacy,Social Support,and Health Status Among Older Adults     

Shoou-Yih D. Lee  Ahsan M. Arozullah  Young Ik Cho  Kathleen Crittenden  Daniel Vicencio 《Educational gerontology》2013,39(3):191-201

The study examines whether social support interacts with health literacy in affecting the health status of older adults. Health literacy is assessed using the short version of the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults. Social support is measured with the Medical Outcome Study social support scale. Results show, unexpectedly, that rather than buffering the negative effect of low health literacy, social support has a more positive impact on physical health in older adults with high health literacy. Implications for improving the health status of older adults through health literacy and social support are discussed.  相似文献   

Computer Use and Academic Development in Secondary Schools     

Sang Min Lee  William Brescia  Dan Kissinger 《学校用计算机》2013,30(3):224-235

Several studies provide preliminary evidence that computer use is positively related to academic performance; however, no clear relationship has yet been established. Using a national database, we analyzed how students’ school behavior (i.e., evaluated by English and math teachers) and standardized test scores (e.g., math and reading) are related to computer use for school work or other than school work for the tenth grade student. While controlling socioeconomic status (SES), home computer access, parental involvement, and students’ academic expectation variables, the students who used a computer for one hour per day showed more positive school behaviors and higher reading and math test scores. This article concludes with implications for future study to better understand the impact of computer use on adolescent academic development.  相似文献   

Sami Culture and Values: A Study of the National Mathematics Exam for the Compulsory School in Norway     

Anne Birgitte Fyhn 《Interchange》2013,44(3-4):349-367

Norway ratified the ILO convention 169 concerning indigenous and tribal people in independent countries in 1990. In accordance with the convention the education programs for the Sami shall address their value systems and their cultural aspirations. Our aim is to investigate the implementation of this convention. The focus is on how Sami values are reflected in the national mathematics exam for the compulsory school. In Sami traditional knowledge the term “knowledge” means knowledge as a process, not just the final outcome of a process. The tasks are analyzed with respect to four different Sami values. We present an overview of one complete exam and more profound analyses of three selected tasks. The analyses reveal that the tasks more or less reflect some Sami values. A stronger focus on modeling problems in school mathematics may open up for forms of teaching that focus on Sami values to a larger extent than today.  相似文献   

Resource allocations, knowledge network characteristics and entrepreneurial orientation of multinational corporations   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Christopher Williams  Soo Hee Lee   《Research Policy》2009,38(8):1376-1387

This paper analyses entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in multinational corporations (MNCs) and develops a new typology of MNC EO based on combining R&D and asset growth investment intensities as orthogonal resource allocations. A cluster analysis of US MNCs on these two dimensions reveals three types of entrepreneurial stance: conservative, aggressive-asset growth and balanced. Internal knowledge network characteristics are shown to vary by stance, with more aggressive stances linked to knowledge governance supportive of the entrepreneurship process. In linking entrepreneurial orientation to the knowledge network of the MNC, this paper identifies factors important to the strategic management and on-going renewal of MNCs. In addition, the vector of R&D investment vs. asset growth investment is an indicator of entrepreneurial aggression and presents a new method of understanding the international strategies of MNCs.  相似文献   

Concurrent droplet charging and sorting by electrostatic actuation   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Byungwook Ahn  Kangsun Lee  Romain Louge    Kwang W. Oh 《Biomicrofluidics》2009,3(4)

This paper presents a droplet-based microfluidic device for concurrent droplet charging and sorting by electrostatic actuation. Water-in-oil droplets can be charged on generation by synchronized electrostatic actuation. Then, simultaneously, the precharged droplets can be electrostatically steered into any designated laminar streamline, thus they can be sorted into one of multiple sorting channels one by one in a controlled fashion. In this paper, we studied the size dependence of the water droplets under various relative flow rates of water and oil. We demonstrated the concurrent charging and sorting of up to 600 droplets∕s by synchronized electrostatic actuation. Finally, we investigated optimized voltages for stable droplet charging and sorting. This is an essential enabling technology for fast, robust, and multiplexed sorting of microdroplets, and for the droplet-based microfluidic systems.  相似文献   

Mining knowledge from natural language texts using fuzzy associated concept mapping     

W.M. Wang  C.F. Cheung  W.B. Lee  S.K. Kwok 《Information processing & management》2008

Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques have been successfully used to automatically extract information from unstructured text through a detailed analysis of their content, often to satisfy particular information needs. In this paper, an automatic concept map construction technique, Fuzzy Association Concept Mapping (FACM), is proposed for the conversion of abstracted short texts into concept maps. The approach consists of a linguistic module and a recommendation module. The linguistic module is a text mining method that does not require the use to have any prior knowledge about using NLP techniques. It incorporates rule-based reasoning (RBR) and case based reasoning (CBR) for anaphoric resolution. It aims at extracting the propositions in text so as to construct a concept map automatically. The recommendation module is arrived at by adopting fuzzy set theories. It is an interactive process which provides suggestions of propositions for further human refinement of the automatically generated concept maps. The suggested propositions are relationships among the concepts which are not explicitly found in the paragraphs. This technique helps to stimulate individual reflection and generate new knowledge. Evaluation was carried out by using the Science Citation Index (SCI) abstract database and CNET News as test data, which are well known databases and the quality of the text is assured. Experimental results show that the automatically generated concept maps conform to the outputs generated manually by domain experts, since the degree of difference between them is proportionally small. The method provides users with the ability to convert scientific and short texts into a structured format which can be easily processed by computer. Moreover, it provides knowledge workers with extra time to re-think their written text and to view their knowledge from another angle.  相似文献