There is much more to Mendeleev’s periodic table than meets the eye

Recognition of periodic trends in the properties of elements is important for understanding and predicting the role of trace metals in biology.     

Where there is no hope: a teacher’s experience with homelessness

Stereotypical notions of who experiences homelessness frame how educational institutions approach policy and program development. This life history of a teacher challenges assumptions by providing an in-depth look at a mother’s struggle to find stability.     

Time is even more important than money

喻彻谕茄碗扁缸痴漏屁铸T属;二六锰言轰品{{鑫云高{益祷去硫诚认赫拓偏黑{认碗漏五俞i后舀i)漏获讥痴赫痴…漏藏扭而蔚从{{布俞i而磁燕茹碱)娜踢瘫必痴益交i)韶夏淞涵痴诚球筛如命哑查;如磷或瘫而赫宕如嵌油余立丘贡备命才晶漏而坛;丧)瑞病而茄介注石t偏云偏碳…惠豁黑黑黑蕊希产添琳福稿诉,赤而翻品)弃福漏赫拓爪偏月点而、奋石俪。、示、,台舜而。p劫娜烹然糕森铆鲜吟卿份峥今扭 脚勿moll竹W.{吮黑Time is even more important than money@杨晓红     

Happy teacher’s day

阳光普照,园丁心坎春意暖雨露滋润,桃李枝头蓓蕾红———祝我们的老师,节日快乐Yourkindnesstoyourstudentengravesonmymind.您对学生的恩情永远铭记在我的心中。Arealteacherinalifetimeistheverybestofmyluck.能遇良师,实乃人生之大幸。Ican'tthankyouenoughforyourhelpwithmylearningandgrowth.衷心感谢您在学习和成长上对我的帮助。Thankyouformakinglearningnotajobbutajoy.感谢您使我们枯燥的学习变成快乐的享受。Icouldhaveachievednosuccesswithoutyouunselfishdedication.没有您无私的奉献,就没有我成功的今天。Iamnotyourbests…     

A comparative study on language teacher educators’ ideal identities in China: more than just finding a middle ground

This paper reports on a comparative study that investigates English language teacher educators’ ideal identities from the dual perspectives of language teachers and teacher educators in China. Drawing on data from focus and individual interviews, the findings of the study reveal a range of identities such as ‘practical expert,’ ‘model’ and ‘learner,’ which were perceived by the two parties (i.e. the languages teachers and teacher educators) as pivotal for an ideal language teacher educator. On the other hand, the two parties held differing views about some identities such as ‘researcher’ and ‘scholar’ due to the contextual influences in the higher education context. The study offers some useful implications for teacher educators to develop their professional identities and improve their effectiveness in educating teachers.     

There’s more to the multimedia effect than meets the eye: is seeing pictures believing?

Textbooks in applied mathematics often use graphs to explain the meaning of formulae, even though their benefit is still not fully explored. To test processes underlying this assumed multimedia effect we collected performance scores, eye movements, and think-aloud protocols from students solving problems in vector calculus with and without graphs. Results showed no overall multimedia effect, but instead an effect to confirm statements that were accompanied by graphs, irrespective of whether these statements were true or false. Eye movement and verbal data shed light on this surprising finding. Students looked proportionally less at the text and the problem statement when a graph was present. Moreover, they experienced more mental effort with the graph, as indicated by more silent pauses in thinking aloud. Hence, students actively processed the graphs. This, however, was not sufficient. Further analysis revealed that the more students looked at the statement, the better they performed. Thus, in the multimedia condition the graph drew students’ attention and cognitive capacities away from focusing on the statement. A good alternative strategy in the multimedia condition was to frequently look between graph and problem statement, and thus to integrate their information. In conclusion, graphs influence where students look and what they process, and may even mislead them into believing accompanying information. Thus, teachers and textbook designers should be very critical on when to use graphs and carefully consider how the graphs are integrated with other parts of the problem.     

‘It’s more than care’: early childhood educators’ concepts of professionalism

This article reports on the findings from a small-scale study of early childhood educators’ perceptions of their roles, responsibilities and ideas related to professionalism. Twenty-five early childhood educators from Canada (Ontario), Nigeria and South Africa participated in qualitative interviews to address the following questions: (1) In what ways do early childhood educators perceive of themselves as professionals? (2) How is the concept of professionalism impacted by values, beliefs and experiences? And (3) Do contextual variations exist in conceptualizations of ECE professionalism? Valuable insights were gained into the commonality of educators’ experiences and ideas across contexts, as well as the prominence of an ‘ethic of care’ as an inherent aspect of teacher professionalism. The study’s findings provide support for the literature advocating for care (and passion) as a social principle within education and socially constructed ideals of professionalism.     

Solving Hitchcock’s transportation problem by a genetic algorithm

IntroductionTheHitchcock’sTransportationProblem(HTP)canbeformulatedasaclassiclinearprogrammingprobleminwhichthesetofconstraintsisofaspecialstructure[1,2].TheHTPisapracticaltransportationprobleminproductiondistributionsector.Alotofpracticaltrans-portationandassignmentproblems,suchastheminimumcostroadnetworktrafficflowproblemwithsolidchargeinlogistics,canbeformulatedinthisway,anditisclearlythattheHTPmaybehasmorethanoneoptimalsolution.Itisveryimportantforadecision-makertoselectafavorableone…     

Student-to-teacher violation and the threat to a teacher’s self

This paper is based on a study of fourteen Norwegian K-12 teachers who have been violated by students in schools. One key theme emerged during the process of analysis: the threat to the teachers’ self. This threat appears to be intensified due to lack of support. The findings in this small-scale Norwegian study indicate that student-to-teacher violation can have a serious impact on teachers’ perceptions of their individual and professional self. The findings disclose that the teachers’ self is affected leading to changed, weakened and disrupted experience of teachers’ self-understanding. This knowledge may influence how teachers can continue working when critical incidents occur.     

Characterizing a highly accomplished teacher’s noticing of third-grade students’ mathematical thinking

This study investigated a highly accomplished third-grade teacher’s noticing of students’ mathematical thinking as she taught multiplication and division. Through an innovative method, which allowed for documenting in-the-moment teacher noticing, the author was able to explore teacher noticing and reflective practices in the context of classroom teaching as opposed to professional development environments. Noticing was conceptualized as both attending to different elements of classroom instruction and making sense of classroom events. The teacher paid most attention to student thinking and was able to offer a variety of rich interpretations of student thinking which were presented in an emergent framework. The results also indicated how the teacher’s noticing might influence her instructional decisions. Implications for both research methods in studying noticing and teacher learning and practices are discussed.     

The sociocultural factors that influence a novice teacher’s LGBT activism

Despite growing support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in the United States, the Southeastern region continues to pass legislation that discriminates against those who do not fit normative notions of sexuality and gender. This opposition affects LGBT students and the teachers who identify as LGBT activists. This study of two years of data is an analysis of one novice teacher’s efforts to advocate on behalf of LGBT students despite the resistance that she faced from sociocultural factors influencing her students, classroom, and her teaching practices. An examination of the social, cultural, and political limitations she faced suggest that research advocating curricular changes and findings suggesting that teachers resist sexuality- and gender-based topics ignore the many sociocultural factors acting on educators in the Southeastern US as they strive to be LGBT activists.     

‘It’s more foreign than a foreign country’: adaptation and experience of Mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong

Recent years have witnessed an increasing number of Mainland students crossing the border to pursue tertiary studies in Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. In contrast to those who have chosen to study in foreign countries, such as United States, United Kingdom or Germany, the Mainland group are studying and living in a society that is both familiar and strange to them due to unique political and sociocultural relationships between Hong Kong and the Mainland. Previous research has mainly focused on Mainland students’ motivations for choosing Hong Kong as their academic destination, but questions as to how they adapt to the university setting and host society have been under-researched. Adopting a qualitative approach, this study reports on the findings of focus groups exploring Mainland students’ adaptation to life and study in Hong Kong. Findings revealed that linguistic adaptation, social network, political identification and discrimination were the most significant acculturative stressors reported by Mainland students. Implications for how Mainland students can best adjust and how universities can better support them are discussed.     

A narrative analysis of a teacher educator’s professional learning journey

This article reports on a narrative analysis of one teacher educator’s learning journey in a two-year professional development project. Professional development is conceived of as the complex learning processes resulting from the meaningful interactions between the individual teacher educator and his/her working context. Our analysis indicates that the capacity to manage such interactions contributes strongly to teacher educators’ experience of vulnerability. We analytically describe three strategies (building positive self-esteem, sustaining moral commitment and purpose, and strategical compliance) to cope with this vulnerability and their impact on processes of professional development as well as the outcomes of it. Understanding the role of the working context – and vulnerability as a structural characteristic of that context – in professional development processes adds to existing knowledge of teacher educators’ professional lives and development.     

Is underestimation less detrimental than overestimation? The impact of experts’ beliefs about a layperson’s knowledge on learning and question asking

Although prior research has shown that experts tend to overestimate or underestimate what laypersons actually know, little is known about the specific consequences of biased estimations for communication. To investigate the impact of biased estimations of a layperson’s knowledge on the effectiveness of experts’ explanations, we conducted a web-based dialog experiment with 45 pairs of experts and laypersons. We manipulated the experts’ mental model of the layperson by presenting them either valid information about the layperson’s knowledge or information that was biased towards overestimation or underestimation. Results showed that the experts adopted the biased estimations and adapted their explanations accordingly. Consequently, the laypersons’ learning from the experts’ explanations was impaired when the experts overestimated or underestimated the layperson’s knowledge. In addition, laypersons whose knowledge was overestimated more often generated questions that reflected comprehension problems. Laypersons whose knowledge was underestimated asked mainly for additional information previously not addressed in the explanations. The results suggest that underestimating a learner during the instructional dialog is as detrimental to learning as is the overestimation of a learner’s knowledge. Thus, the provision of effective explanations presupposes an accurate mental model of the learner’s knowledge prerequisites.