Assessment and the ‘vocational school fallacy’ in Papua New Guinea

A Papua New Guinean innovation attempts to broaden the basis of secondary schooling to include practical community-oriented work, whilst avoiding the dangers identified in Foster's ‘vocational school fallacy’ thesis. The evidence suggests that tensions between the vocational/community dimensions of the project and the academic were increasingly resolved in favour of the latter. This arose from the difficulties of implementing new assessment techniques, together with pressures to maintain academic standards, and from teachers' conceptions of ‘legitimate’ schooling. However, in Papua New Guinea, aspects of the culture of schooling and of the culture of village communities provide more support for such innovations than in many other     

Internationalisation and indigenisation in Papua New Guinea’s universities: promoting authentic agency

ABSTRACT

In uncertain times for higher education learning communities, the risks of societal and epistemic dependence on a single globally dominant set of academic knowledge practices are evident. Nonetheless, many higher education institutions in developing nations struggle to achieve international presence unless they uncritically adopt these dominant practices, even where they recognise the need to use and promote local knowledge systems. We explore these dynamics in postcolonial Papua New Guinea, through an assessment of the intentions for internationalisation of the six PNG universities and barriers to agency. Our approach recognises the dialectical relationship between ‘internationalisation’ and ‘indigenisation’. We suggest that a pervasive but narrow view of indigenisation, emphasising the localisation of university staff, has hampered other forms of both indigenisation and internationalisation, producing more stasis than synthesis within PNG’s universities. Effective international agency by PNG universities, and their partners, requires more critical and continuous discourse between the international and the indigenous.     

Who is to retrain the teacher trainers?: A Papua New Guinea case study

The single most important factor to improve the quality of education in a developing country appears to be increased general and professional education of teachers. Initially, it seems that this may be appropriately addressed in the teachers' colleges. However, the teacher educators themselves, often have received their own education either from the universities of developed countries or from “expert” expatriates at home. Often the result has been an adapted western curriculum being offered in the teachers' colleges, which is inappropriate to the student teachers. As a means of obtaining increased insight into a developing country's context, this study sought to gain some understanding of how Papua New Guinea teacher educators and inservice teachers negotiate their western higher education at the University of Papua New Guinea. This may provide assistance to expatriate educators to provide an educational experience that addresses student learning needs with appropriate process and content.     

Village Elders’ and Secondary School Students’ Explanations of Natural Phenomena in Papua New Guinea

This research investigated the sources of explanations and understanding of natural phenomena in terms of the students’ cultural and school science experiences. The first phase involved interviews with eight village elders that probed their explanations and understanding of natural phenomena. The second phase involved the design, development and administration of two questionnaires on natural phenomena to 179 students in a rural boarding high school in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Most village elders gave explanations of many of the phenomena in terms of spirits, spells, magic, religion, and personal experiences. Most school-aged students choose scientific explanations of natural phenomena in terms of what they had learned in school or from personal experiences. However, many choose explanations of the same phenomena about spirits, spells and magic that came from the village, family or home. The study revealed that students’ ideas about natural phenomena are strongly governed and controlled by their school science knowledge in the school setting. It is likely that their own traditional knowledge cannot be identified in a school setting but that questionnaires in the students’ local language be given to students in their villages (as opposed to school). In addition, so as not to diminish the value of this traditional knowledge, science education programs are needed that are able to consider and harmonise traditional knowledge with school science.     

Logical reasoning ability in Papua New Guinea tertiary science‐as measured by the test of logical thinking

Difficulties encountered in science study by Papua New Guinean tertiary students, although similar to those of students elsewhere, are greater. This leads to wastage of valuable third‐world resources by excessive attrition among students. An appropriate means of early identification of an individual's problem areas and a measure of the effectiveness of teaching procedures used is essential. The TOLT was shown to be an instrument appropriate for use in the third‐world situation with students who are not first language English speakers.     

New Goals for a New School Year

Im a student of Senior 3and Ive set lots of new goals to achieve inthe new sem ester.First of all,Ill get up early in the m orning.In the past,I was usedto staying in bed for a little tim e longer, especially on weekends or onwinter m ornings. But from this autum n, Im determ ined to form a goodhabit of getting up early and then doing som e m orning exercises. Y ouknow,that will do m e good!O nly through these sports can I achieve m ygoalto becom e healthier and stronger.Secondly,Illm ake …     

New Moon Home for Man

In 1969, two American astronauts （宇航员） landed on the moon for the first time in history. They stayed there for 21 hours before returning to the earth. On December 4, NASA （美国宇航局） said they would send people to the moon again. But this time astronauts will build a moon base （基地） and stay there forever.[第一段]     

Are women really asking for it?

Childbirth educators and doulas express frustration that the vast majority of women choose standard obstetric care for labor and birth, even though the evidence shows that this care increases the likelihood that they will experience unnecessary intervention and morbidity. Women are preparing for childbirth by reading and taking classes, but they are unprepared for this reality. What responsibility do doulas and childbirth educators have in alerting women of the risk?     

Educating for the New Sweden?

Here we focus on Sweden as an advanced welfare state with a centralised educational system stressing modernisation and democratisation that was rapidly restructured into a deregulated, decentralised system based on vouchers and parental choice. The design was based on the collection of different kinds of data: policy texts, public statistics, in depth interviews with policy makers and administrators at different levels ( n = 12) and teachers and headteachers ( n = 42), surveys of students in Grade 9 in comprehensive schools ( n = 413) in different contexts. In the interviews we found different recurrent themes in the narratives dealing with changes in education governance and on the subjects, students and teachers, in the system. By means of this we could portray a field of different conceptions of relations between education governance and social inclusion and exclusion among actors in different positions in Swedish education. The study showed large differences in the context of schools in terms of social and cultural backgrounds among students. We also found distinct differences between students in different cultural contexts. Those in contexts dominated by students of 'foreign background' were more loyal to traditional schooling cultures compared to more sceptical students from other contexts. In sum, our studies show a transition in the education culture in Sweden. This was conceptualised as a change in hegemony in the former welfare state where no alternatives are present in the current discourse on restructuring.     

Good jobs – but places for women?

This article is concerned with men and women's experience of elite positions and with the extent to which such positions are seen as places for women, so as to provide an insight into their commitment to continuing in them. Senior management in universities are elite positions in terms of income; those who occupy them are relatively powerful internally, although relatively powerless in relation to the state and the market. Drawing on a purposive study of those at the top three levels (i.e. presidential, vice-presidential, and dean) in public universities, it finds little difference between men and women's perceptions of the advantages/disadvantages of these positions. However, in a context where roughly four-fifths of those in university senior management are men [O'Connor, P. 2014. Management and Gender in Higher Education. Manchester: Manchester University Press.], at the level of organisational narratives and at the interactional level, gender differences persist. These differences are reflected in variation in commitment to continuing in senior management positions.     

A New Way of Looking for Love

Are you tired of looking for love in all the usual places? Nowadays,millions of lonely singles are now going online instead.     

New N-Soliton Solutions for the Sawada-Kotera Equation

1　Introduction　Inthedevelopmentofsolitontheory ,thebilineartransformationsmethodinitiatedbyHirotaisapower fultoolforfindingexactsolutionstotheunderlyingnonlinearevolutionequations[1,2 ] .Thistechniquehastheadvantageofbeingapplicabledirectlyuponthenonlinearevolutionequations .Byusingthetransfor mationofdependentvariables,theequationunderconsiderationcanbetransformedintothebilinearderivativeequation .　Recently ,thebilineartransformedmethodhasbeensuccessfullyextendedandthenewmulti solitonsolu…     

Greetings for New Year’s Day

New Year’s Day is coming!Children all over the world are very happy.大家见面都互相祝福,我们一起来学新年问候语吧!     

My Plan for the New School Year

How time flies!A school year has nearly passed and a new school year is coming.What am I going to do in the new school year?Just as the old saying goes,“Well begun is half done”.So I’m going to make a planfor the new school year so that I can do better.As we all know,“No pains,no gains”.The harder you work,the better result you willget.I will try to be the best I can be.I know,for a middle school student like me,we stillcan not do much for our country now and the only thing we can do …     

Buying power? Some outcomes of income for women

Proponents of income generation as a development strategy for women assume it will foster independence and economic power. However, household relationships affect women's ability to control their income. Prevailing codes of gender relationships may place the husband in control of all income. Women's participation in income generating projects may be inhibited if they do not expect to control the proceeds of their effort. Case histories from eastern Kenya of the Giriama and Mijikenda demonstrate how husbands control not only income but even group membership and participation. While household heads control the labor and income of other household members, how they choose to exercise these rights may vary. The wife's participation is viewed as withdrawing labor and cash from the household, so the husband has a claim on her income. The arrangement usually functions to benefit the household and ensure its success. Conflicts arise when the wife perceives that the arrangement is not beneficial to the household. Cultural differences between different ethnic groups may result in very different patterns of expenditures of women's income. Women are invariably in a subordinate position, dependent on their husbands to fulfill their share of the household responsibilities. Income generation enthusiasts are often ill informed about the context in which their programs operate.     

Different for women? The challenges of doctoral studies

This exploratory study investigates gender-specific differences in the challenges of the doctoral experience through the observations of a counsellor working with doctoral students. The article first contextualises the study within the literature investigating doctoral attrition and gender equity, showing that identity transformation over the doctorate is problematic in particular aspects for women. We confirm that cultural expectations regarding women passivity, family nurturance and (at least symbolic) subordination to male authority can cause tensions between women's social relationships and academic performance which values assertiveness, clear communication and confident management of power relationships. We identify various conflicts between the female roles of the social sphere and the academic arena that problematise the identity transition of the doctorate from student to independent researcher.     

New algorithm for optimization of computer color matching

<正>1 Introduction In general,there are two methods of computercolor matching: reflective spectrum matching andtristimulus matching.The former would be the mostdesirable because the decisive factor in the color of atextile is its relfective spectrum. However,thisapplies only when the colorant and the textile materialsof the sample and the match are the same,which limitsthis method’s application in industry.What is nowpopular is tristimulus matching,a constrained color-matching approach,the best known being thetristimulus color- matching algorithm by Allen.     

A New University for the Open Society∗

The Central European University came into existence as a result of the post‐1989 political and economic changes that occurred in eastern and central Europe. It is a reflection of the emerging identity of this region in a formerly divided Europe. As this multi‐campus regional institution develops, it should evolve with the times but not turn its back on certain of the more traditional roles of universities.

     

Lowest Box Office for Tom Cruise's New Film

Tom Cruise,who is well-known for being handsome,may have felt very depressed recently.The film Lions for Lambs(《狮入羊口》)in which he stars(主演)has been put on in2215cinemasthroughout North America.