Evaluation of a school‐based sex education programme delivered to Grade Nine students in Canada

The effectiveness of a multidimensional Canadian sex education programme was evaluated using 240 Grade Nine students. The intervention was offered by representatives from various community groups and involved instructional classes on anatomy/physiology of the reproductive system and sexually transmitted infections, a video and group discussion on healthy relationships, a form of ‘peer education’ and discussion on teen pregnancy and HIV/AIDS, as well as a parent workshop and newsletter on teen sexuality. Respondents in the intervention and control groups completed a self‐administered questionnaire at baseline and one month after the programme. Compared with the control group, students in the intervention group showed positive changes in the areas of knowledge, sex‐role attitudes, sexual interaction values, and the perception that birth control is important. These results suggest that a collaborative effort of outside professionals from various community organisations and involvement of ‘peer educators’ to provide sexual health education in Grade Nine high school classes may be a useful strategy.     

Does attending a STEM high school improve student performance? Evidence from New York City

We investigate the role of specialized science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) high schools in New York City (NYC) in promoting performance in science and mathematics and in closing the gender and race gaps in STEM subjects. Using administrative data covering several recent cohorts of public school students and a rich variety of high schools including over 30 STEMs, we estimate the effect of attending a STEM high school on a variety of student outcomes, including test taking and performance on specialized science and mathematics examinations. While comparisons of means indicate an advantage to attending a STEM school, more thorough analysis conditioning on a rich set of covariates, including previous grade test performance, reduces or eliminates this advantage. Females and males in STEMs do better than their counterparts in Non-STEMs, but the gender gap is also larger in these schools. We also find that the black-white and Hispanic-white gaps are smaller in STEM relative to Non-STEM schools across almost all outcomes, but the Asian-white gap, in contrast, is larger in STEMs relative to Non-STEMs.     

New Method Integrates New Technology——a solution to English teaching for vocational school students

在这个信息爆炸的时代,当前中职英语教学不管在内容还是方式都是滞后的。传统的英语教学都是有书可依的,但是一套教材无论如何新鲜都新不过我们每天通过各种媒体接触到真实的英语材料。用这些真实而又现成的材料来进行大学英语教学,不仅具有强烈的时代气息,能吸引学生的求知兴趣,而更重要的通过这些材料的学习学生既掌握了语言,又扩大了知识面,其它各方面的能力也能得到了锻炼。本文主要探讨的就是针对中职学生所设计的一种没有固定材料,而是以真实材料,内容为本(content-based instruction),并结合各种以网络为基础(web-based)的现代化教学媒体的新型英语教学模式。文中对其实施论述了理论基础并提供了一个参考性的教学设计模型,此外文章还探讨了这种教学模式的可行性,教学中的教师和学生的角色以及如何评价学生等。     

Research on existing problems and solving strategies——of English listening teaching in junior high school-taking a Nanchang high school as the example

In this article,we have made a deep research on existing problems and solving strategies of English listening teaching in junior high school,the goal of which is to improve the English listening teaching in the future.     

Super Junior Let＇s Go on a Trip——《Boys in City Season 3》写真采集

去年夏天，Super Junior的十三位成员聚到一起，去到中国香港和中国澳门，完成了一次属于他们十三人的特别旅行。那么，就让我们一边听着SUJU新鲜出炉的四辑，一边跟随他们的脚步，展开一段惬意的夏日之旅吧！     

What Does Teaching in Samoan Bilingual Classrooms Look Like？ Observations as Evidence-Based From a New Zealand Professional Learning and Development Perspective

This paper reports on the instructional practice of teachers who have similar language and culture as their students in a bilingual cluster （Cluster A） involving three schools and seven teachers in delivering the curriculum to year 0 （5-year-old） to year 8 （12/13-year-old） students. The 30-40 minutes baseline observations conducted on teachers＇ instruction during a reading session were part of a Ministry of Education＇s （MOE） professional learning and development project （in progress） to increase student achievement in English literacy in these classrooms through evidence-based in-class facilitation. We hypothesized that teachers in these bilingual classes were perhaps not making optimal use of children＇s prior knowledge, particularly their linguistic and cultural strengths, to increase robust and in-depth oral discussions for understanding the texts during the reading lessons. The baseline observations were coded under exchanges known to enhance reading comprehension and specifically related to vocabulary, checking, incorporation, extended talk, awareness, and feedback, and were analyzed for the purposes of： （a） feeding back to teachers what their instruction looked like; （b） creating discussions around teachers＇ strengths and weaknesses that had arisen out of the instructional and student achievement data; and （c） identifying professional development needs for teachers and their students. It was found that teachers and students＇ discussions around a concept or word were limited and that students＇ oral strengths were not fully optimized for understanding. We report here the first phase involving Samoan teachers teaching Samoan students in Samoan bilingual classrooms. The second phase is in progress with the last phase starting midyear. The findings from these two phases will enable some discussions to be made around shifts in instructional practice, if any, their impact on student achievement and how these might be sustained.