FROM COVERT PROCESSES TO OVERT OUTCOMES OF REFUTATION TEXT READING: THE INTERPLAY OF SCIENCE TEXT STRUCTURE AND WORKING MEMORY CAPACITY THROUGH EYE FIXATIONS

This study extends current research on the refutation text effect by investigating it in learners with different levels of working memory capacity. The purpose is to outline the link between online processes (revealed by eye fixation indices) and off-line outcomes in these learners. In science education, unlike a standard text, a refutation text acknowledges readers’ alternative conceptions about a topic, refutes them, and presents scientific conceptions as viable alternatives. Lower and higher memory span university students with alternative conceptions about the topic read either a refutation or a non-refutation text about tides. Off-line measures of learning revealed that both groups of refutation text readers attained higher knowledge gains. During the reading process, refutation text readers fixated for longer on the refutation segments while reading the parts presenting the scientific information (look-froms). Non-refutation text readers looked back to the informational parts for longer. Look-froms (positively) and reading time (negatively) predicted learning from refutation text, indicating that the quality, not quantity, of reading was related to it. In contrast, learning from non-refutation text was predicted only by working memory capacity. The refutation effect is discussed and educational implications are drawn.     

TEACHING IN CONTEXT: ENHANCING THE PROCESSES OF TEACHING AND LEARNING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGE MATHEMATICS

Teaching in context can be defined as teaching a mathematical idea or process by using a problem, situation, or data to enhance the teaching and learning process. The same problem or situation may be used many times, at different mathematical levels to teach different objectives. A common misconception exists that assigning/teaching applications is teaching in context. While both use problems, the difference is in timing, in purpose, and in student outcome. In this article, one problem situation is explored thoroughly at different levels of understanding and other ideas are suggested for classroom explorations.     

The DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN CAPACITY IN MALAWI: THE ROLE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Faced with accelerating poverty, the Malawi government has re-awakened its commitment to the development of human capacity and the role of development in this context. This paper explores the relationship between development and science and technology. It goes on to review the country’s science and technology needs and how these justify taking developmental action. It concludes that strategies designed to increase access to education should not be limited to the primary sector, but should also include secondary curricula and university science and technology programmes. Drawing on the arguments in the article and personal experience, the authors suggest promoting the development of human capacity in Malawi by creating special “science schools” in the secondary sector and increasing the number of scholarships for university science students.     

THE DEVELOPMENT OF KNOWLEDGE: VALIDATION PROCESSES AND TRUTH CRITERIA IN SIX FIELDS OF STUDY

The validation processes and truth criteria employed in a field of study govern both the knowledge to be learned and how it is applied. To determine what validation processes and criteria are used, professors from three major research universities in six matched pure and applied fields of study: physics and engineering in the natural sciences; psychology and education in the social sciences; and English literature and English language in the humanities, were interviewed. Analysis of the professors' statements suggests differences and similarities across fields of study in validation processes and the criteria by which truth is judged. A comparison of these views provides insight into possible differences as to how decisions are made in different disciplines and the nature of knowledge in them.     

认知关联视角下语境在言语交际中的动态研究

从认知语言学的视角出发,以斯佩伯和威尔逊（Sperber＆Wilson）关联理论为基础,分析了语境要素在言语交际中的作用,强调语境研究的视角应转向语境的认知研究。通过对动态语境的概念、动态语境在言语交际中的特点等作初步的分析,指出语义受语境的制约,而语境本身就处于动态的变化当中。交际的核心不在于言语,而在于意义的理解,语义分析法只能在初步语境中实现．而言语分析及交际分析应该在动态语境中完成。在言语交际中强调动态语境突出了动态的语言形式,从而对言语交际的分析更加深入。     

教育经济学的发展:关注人力资源的全面开发和能力构建--中国教育与人力资源发展高级国际研讨会评述

2004年8月26日至27日,由北京大学教育学院、教育经济研究所主办的"中国教育与人力资源发展高级国际研讨会"在北京大学英杰交流中心隆重召开.来自美国哥伦比亚大学、德国卡塞尔大学、日本东京大学、加拿大多伦多大学、以色列巴以拉大学、印度国家教育规划和管理研究院、世界银行、福特基金会、中国教育部、中国教育电视台、国家教育发展研究中心、上海教科院、中国社科院、中国科学院、北京大学、清华大学、北京师范大学、香港中文大学、华中科技大学、西安交通大学和西南师范大学等国内外专家学者参加了会议,与北京大学教育学院、教育经济研究所的师生们济济一堂,对中国未来教育与人力资源的发展进行了广泛而深入的探讨.     

从经济全球化看中国农业发展的方向

经济全球化对优化中国农业的资源配置，提高优势农产品在国际市场的竞争力具有巨大的促进作用。但是，由于农业是中国的弱势产业，经济全球化对中国的农业发展也会带来较大的负面影响。中国的农业发展方向应从提高非农化程度，优化农业产业结构，提高农民组织程度等入手，调整农业政策，才能跟上经济全球化的步伐。     

I. CHILDREN IN INSTITUTIONAL CARE: DELAYED DEVELOPMENT AND RESILIENCE

Children exposed to institutional care often suffer from “structural neglect” which may include minimum physical resources, unfavorable and unstable staffing patterns, and socially emotionally inadequate caregiver‐child interactions. This chapter is devoted to the analysis of the ill effects of early institutional experiences on resident children's development. Delays in the important areas of physical, hormonal, cognitive, and emotional development are discussed. The evidence for and against the existence of a distinctive set of co‐occurring developmental problems in institutionalized children is weighed and found to not yet convincingly demonstrate a “postinstitutional syndrome.” Finally, shared and nonshared features of the institutional environment and specific genetic, temperamental, and physical characteristics of the individual child are examined that might make a crucial difference in whether early institutional rearing leaves irreversible scars.     

二本院校法学专业的应用能力培养与特色拓展

为了培养和提升法学专业学生的专业能力、竞争力和社会适应能力,适应社会发展的需求,应用型本科院校法学专业应当努力改变长期存在的同质化与平庸化现象。为此,需要从几方面着力改进和加强。首先,强化学生对各种文本材料的专业处理能力,以形成基本的职业实践应用能力;其次,整合研究社会急需的有着广阔发展空间的法律专题,并对学生开展此领域的学习和实践;再次,拓展学生的知识结构,在法学专业能力的基础上形成更为宽泛的社会管理能力。     

ACCURACY AND SPEED OF MEMORY IN DEPRESSED AND ORGANIC AGED

Forty‐three subjects aged 50 and over were tested on a Sternberg recognition‐memory task to explore the relative effects of depression and altered brain function on short‐term memory in later life. Organic, depressed, and control subgroups were compared on accuracy and speed of response. Speed‐of‐memory scanning was differentiated from other speed‐of‐response components; separate estimates of memory efficiency and subjective response criteria were calculated from accuracy data by signal‐detection methods. Organic subjects performed much less accurately and quickly than others, showing great variability of response speeds. Depressed subjects performed less accurately and quickly than controls, particularly on negative trials, but did not differ in rate of memory scanning. Depression was associated with poorer memory efficiency and laxer response criteria (greater tolerance for false‐positive errors). Slower and less accurate responding was also associated with a poorer educational background. Many performance differences were best accounted for by the additive effects of depression and educational background, rather than by either variable individually. The association of laxer criteria with depression alone, however, was discussed in terms of a possible acquiescent response bias in depression.