Genotypic and environmental variation in cadmium, chromium, arsenic, nickel, and lead concentrations in rice grains

Genotypic and environmental variation in Cd, Cr, As, Ni and Pb concentrations of grains, and the relationships between these heavy metals and Fe, Zn were investigated using 9 rice genotypes grown in 6 locations for two successive years. Significant genotypic variation was detected in the five heavy metal concentrations in grains, indicating the possibility to reduce the concentration of these heavy metals in grains through breeding approach. The environmental effect varied with metal, with Pb and Ni having greater variation than the other three metals. There was significant genotype-environment （location） interaction of the concentrations of all five heavy metals in grains, suggesting the importance of cultivar choice in producing rice with low heavy metal concentrations in grains for a given location. Correlation analysis showed that Cd and As, Cr and Ni, and As and Pb concentrations in rice grains were closely associated, and that Ni concentration in grains was negatively correlated with Zn concentration.     

Metacognition and Self-Regulation in James,Piaget, and Vygotsky

This article investigates the intertwined constructs of metacognition and self-regulation as they emerge in the works and theories of James, Piaget, and Vygotsky. To coordinate this exploration, we use an interpretive framework based on the relation of subject and object. In this framework, James’s perspective on metacognition and self-regulation is aligned with the Self, Piaget’s with the other and object, and Vygotsky’s with the medium or agency of language. We explore how metacognition and self-regulation function within the realm of human behavior and development as described in the works of each of these theorists. Key questions or issues that emerge for current research are outlined, and the limitations and benefits of each theorist’s perspective vis-à-vis metacognition and self-regulation are discussed.     

Knowledge, Concepts, and Inferences in Childhood

The role of knowledge in children's inferences was investigated in 3 experiments. Experiment 1 examined developmental changes in the role of categorical membership, perceptual appearance, and item complexity in inferences for natural kind and artifact concepts. Preschoolers (5-year-olds), second graders (8-year-olds), and fourth graders (10-year-olds) were taught novel properties about target concepts and asked whether each of 4 probes had those properties. Probes varied in category membership and perceptual appearance relative to the target item. Item complexity also varied. Experiments 2 and 3 examined inferences with known and unknown concepts for familiar and unfamiliar properties. Older children's knowledge led to differential weighting of categorical information over appearance but only for known concepts and/or familiar properties. Preschoolers made no distinction between category and appearance for either known or unknown concepts. Additionally, as target item complexity increased, older children made more inferences than preschoolers. No differences between inferences about natural kind and artifact concepts were found. The role of theories and knowledge in children's drawing of inferences is discussed.     

Evil,virtue, and education in Kant

Abstract

For Kant, we cannot understand how to approach moral education without confronting the radical evil of humanity. But if we start out, as Kant thinks we do, from a morally corrupt state, how can we make moral progress? In response, I explore in this paper Kant’s gradualist and revolutionary accounts of moral progress. These differing accounts of progress raise two key questions in the literature: are these accounts compatible and which type of progress comes first? Against other views in the literature, I argue that gradual progress through a change of mores must come first and can gradually lead toward, as its ideal endpoint, a revolution in our disposition (or a change of heart) and the overthrowing of our radical evil. This has important implications for moral pedagogy.     

Risk,Safety, and Choice in Childbirth

In this column, the author explores current understandings of risk and safety in pregnancy and childbirth. An emphasis on risk management places the provider and hospital in control of women’s decisions related to pregnancy and birth and may make pregnancy and birth less safe for mothers and babies. Accepting that no life is risk free, women can let go of fear and make choices that take into account real, not imagined, or exaggerated risk and, in doing so, increase safety for themselves and their babies. The focus of maternity care becomes enhancing safety through evidence-based practice rather than managing risk.     

Theory,Practice and Performance in Teaching: Professionalism,intuition, and jazz

Accounts of the so-called 'crisis in professionalism' in teaching and teacher education in recent years have turned on the epistemological undermining of professional knowledge and the problems surrounding the synthesis of theory and practice which underpins teacher performance. It is argued that the concentration on performance in teaching and professional development is to be welcomed, provided that 'performance' is not defined in purely technicist or instrumental terms. In response to the trend towards evidence-informed policy and practice and mechanistic outcome-based educational effectiveness in contemporary educational debate, we conclude - drawing on the 'teaching as artistry' tradition and using arguments drawn from jazz music and insights gained from the jazz metaphor - that teacher professionalism can be enhanced through attention to the intuitive, improvisatory and existentialist spontaneity of teaching as artistic performance.     

Danish Education,Pedagogical Theory in Denmark and in Europe,and Modernity

There is often something wistful about pedagogic theory and pedagogical reflections. This may be in the nature of things: pedagogy tends to operate in the realm of ideals and ideal situations. At a time when education seems to have become exclusively a matter of money and allocation of resources in the public discourse we have found it urgent to rethink and discuss some basic tenets of pedagogy in modern society. They are centred round the notions of cultural production, social integration, and socialisation. At the same time we introduce the concept of parallel learning.     

Promoting Social,Emotional, and Spiritual Learning in Congregational,and Day Schools

Outcomes in the inter- and intra-personal realms are central to the goals of Jewish education, yet educators often struggle to address them in a meaningful way. In this article, we describe what we learned from facilitating an online community of practice for congregational school leaders and day school educators seeking to enhance their work in promoting social, emotional, and spiritual growth. First, we provide a rationale for the importance of outcomes in these arenas. Then, we describe the intervention, which included webinars, mentoring, and an action-research component for participants. Finally, we share what we learned about (a) participants’ conceptualizations of socio-affective elements in the Jewish educational context and (b) the supports and challenges encountered by participants in enhancing the socio-affective dimension of their work.     

The construction,expression, and consequences of difference in education practice,policy, and research

In this essay, I discuss three key ideas related to the construction and treatment of “difference” in and around schools and schooling. First, just as difference is most commonly located within marginalized populations at the intersections and along the lines of race, disability, social class, national origin, sexuality, sex, language, and religion, such “locating” is done by those socialized and reinforced to view themselves as normal and the norm against which they compare those different from them. Therefore, normalcy operates to maintain positions of superiority for some and inferiority for others. Next, the situation of disability at the intersection of non-dominant identities can be a powerful tool for disrupting normative spaces, practices, and beliefs. Finally, I call for critical action that exposes the negative construction of and consequences of difference in the academy, noting how epistemologies, methodologies, publication outlets and formats, and sentence structures that fall outside what we associate with normalcy, and those who employ them, are also sorted along lines of competence and incompetence, leading to the dismissal or exclusion of disabled scholars, scholars of color, and those scholars engaging in more public praxis outside the academy walls.     

扎实扎好建配管努力搞好用教研

通过对小学师资队伍现状的分析，提出网络环境下小学教师应具备的基本素质并对小学师资队伍建设的途径进行探讨。     

Spatial thinking in science,technology, engineering,and mathematics: Elementary teachers' beliefs,perceptions, and self-efficacy

Fostering students' spatial thinking skills holds great promise for improving Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. Recent efforts have focused on the development of classroom interventions to build students' spatial skills, yet these interventions will be implemented by teachers, and their beliefs and perceptions about spatial thinking influence the effectiveness of such interventions. However, our understanding of elementary school teachers' beliefs and perceptions around spatial thinking and STEM is in its infancy. Thus, we created novel measures to survey elementary teachers' anxiety in solving spatial problems, beliefs in the importance of spatial thinking skills for students' academic success, and self-efficacy in cultivating students' spatial skills during science instruction. All measures exhibited high internal consistency and showed that elementary teachers experience low anxiety when solving spatial problems and feel strongly that their skills can improve with practice. Teachers were able to identify educational problems that rely on spatial problem-solving and believed that spatial skills are more important for older compared to younger students. Despite reporting high efficacy in their general teaching and science teaching, teachers reported significantly lower efficacy in their capacities to cultivate students' spatial skills during science instruction. Results were fairly consistent across teacher characteristics (e.g., years of experience and teaching role as generalist or specialist) with the exception that only years of teaching science was related to teachers' efficacy in cultivating students' spatial thinking skills during science instruction. Results are discussed within the broader context of teacher beliefs, self-efficacy, and implications for professional development research.     

Educational Risk and Resilience in African-American Youth: Context, Self, Action, and Outcomes in School

This study examined the empirical validity of a model of human motivation as it applies to school success and failure in 3 independent samples of 10-to 16-year-old African-American youth. Specifically, we assessed how indicators of context, self , and action relate to measures of risk and resilient outcomes in school in 3 different samples, using 3 different measurement strategies. Correlational and path analyses on the 3 data sets supported the empirical validity of the model. African-American youth's experience of their parents' school involvement predicted a composite of self-system processes, which in turn predicted the subjects' reports of their engagement in school. Engagement then predicted school performance and adjustment. The data supported a reciprocal path from action to context, suggesting that youth who show more disaffected patterns of behavior and emotion in school experience less support from their families than those reporting more engaged patterns of action. Implications for program and policy decisions are discussed.     

开放与远程教学的趋势、创新与机遇——在“2008世界开放与远程教育论坛”上的主题报告

大学总是位于国际主义的最前列。可以这么说,他们的兴趣与活动的首要受益人一直是发达世界的大学。有人认为,国际化使得发达国家的大学能够吸引并留住世界上最好的人才。在过去,这些机构培养的许多思想家认为,国际间的了解将终结全世界的冲突。虽然有的人会坚持说还没有实现,但是有的人则争辩说,通过联合国与其他区域性联盟的撮合,这些国际交流直接或间接地促成了日益密切的国际协作,而这些国际交流的起源则至少可以回溯到一百年前。     

利益相关者与大学的责任、制度、资源

大学是一个利益相关者组织。在“利益相关者组织”的分析框架下,利益相关者的期望和要求规定了大学责任,为大学指明了发展的目标方向;利益相关者的作用、地位和权利制约和规范着大学制度,为大学创设了发展的机制平台;利益相关者的物质和精神付出充实和丰富着大学资源,为大学提供了发展的能量和动力。同时,大学的发展也带动了利益相关者的发展。