Research in the Department of Education at the State University of Utrecht‡

This study concerns students’ ideas about the superposition of electric fields. Two paper‐and‐pencil questionnaires were given to university students to investigate possible obstacles to a correct use of this principle.

The results confirm an expected difficulty about Gauss's theorem, i.e., the idea that only ‘internal’ charges create a field on a given closed surface. Another more surprising finding is that students are reluctant to admit that a field can penetrate into, or go out of, an insulator, particularly because ‘charges cannot move’.

These first findings are discussed in connection with common features of students’ reasoning about mechanics and about multivariable problems. Some directions of future research are proposed.     

The developmental trajectory of Borderline personality disorder and peer victimisation: Australian family carers’ perspectives

Victimisation is a traumatic experience linked to development of Borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, there is limited research investigating the developmental journey prior to BPD diagnosis. School environments offer an opportunity for BPD prevention and early intervention. A survey with 19 Australian family carers of people with BPD asked what they noticed during the person’s infancy, childhood and adolescence, and their experiences of seeking help during that time. Sensitivity was most noticeable during infancy; difficulty making friends, school refusal/truancy and being bullied were prominent concerns once the child was at school; and concerns about anger, moodiness and impulsivity were the strongest prompts to seek help during adolescence, though doctor or teacher recommendation to do so was uncommon. BPD family carers’ experiences suggest that improved focus on addressing bullying and communication is needed.     

Profile of Australian preschool children with speech sound disorders at risk for literacy difficulties

Abstract

Speech sound disorders are a common communication difficulty in preschool children. Teachers indicate difficulty identifying and supporting these children. The aim of this research was to describe speech and language characteristics of children identified by their parents and/or teachers as having possible communication concerns. 275 Australian 4- to 5-year-old children from 45 preschools whose parents and teachers were concerned about their talking participated in speech-language pathology assessments to examine speech, language, literacy, non-verbal intelligence, oromotor skills and hearing. The majority (71.3%) of children demonstrated lower consonant accuracy than expected for their age, 63.9% did not pass the language-screening task, 65.5% had not been assessed and 72.4% had not received intervention from a speech-language pathologist. The 132 children who were identified with speech sound disorder (phonological impairment) were more likely to be male (62.9%) who were unintelligible to unfamiliar listeners, and had poor emergent literacy and phonological processing skills, despite having typical hearing, oral structures, and intelligence. Children identified by parents and teachers with concerns may have a range of speech, language and communication needs requiring professional support.     

不同类型推理偏差和困难研究综述

心理学对推理困难的研究主要体现在演绎推理、归纳推理和类比推理等方面。不同类型的推理困难研究有自己的特点,但都有深厚的逻辑学渊源。国内学者对推理困难的研究比较零散,主要针对引起困难的原因进行探讨。文章从研究内容和研究方法等方面分析了推理困难研究的不足,对研究的发展趋势进行了预测。     

从话题到问题:教育研究方法刍议

文章分析了教育研究设计中话题与问题的定义与内涵,认为话题是研究者对于某项研究比较宽泛甚至是模糊的想法或念头,是研究者对某个问题情境的一般性的、未分化的认知,它为研究者进一步的提炼与调查奠定基础;研究问题则是对该研究情境中存在的疑难比较明确、清晰的认识.话题意味着研究的开始,话题需要经过提炼、聚焦便成为明确、清晰的研究问题.     

The Local Benefits and Burdens of Large‐scale Portfolio Assessment

This paper examines research on the use of portfolios in large‐scale assessments in the US. Overall, the research indicates that portfolio assessments produce many of the desired instructional benefits. However, the assessments also place considerable burdens on teachers, and these burdens do not appear to lessen during the first two or three years of implementation.

The author raises concerns about the long‐term sustainability of portfolio assessments without improvement in student performance, the use of portfolios in high stakes accountability contexts, and the difficulty of aligning specific scoring procedures with broader curricular goals.     

20世纪40年代中国乡土小说的生命书写

20世纪40年代,部分中国乡土作家深感思想启蒙之艰难和民族危机的深重,在关注乡村民众的苦难时,企图探究生命萎缩的文化根源,发掘具有理想色彩的生命活力。     

What do set facilitators bring to the party? (And do we need them?)

This account of practice discusses the learning of a set that met for five years as part of undertaking a research degree. It focuses on questions relating to the role of the facilitator that emerge from the experience of an action learning set that was first helped by an external facilitator and that, after 18 months, became self-facilitating. Key to our success as a set was the openness to the emergent learning about the process; each difficulty we faced (as a set and individually) was taken as an opportunity for deepening our learning about set dynamics and facilitation. This article shares some of the highs and lows of our journey, illustrating how we learned to be an effective set that became self-facilitating.     

Teachers’ and students’ perceptions of assessments: A review and a study into the ability and accuracy of estimating the difficulty levels of assessment items

In today's higher education, high quality assessments play an important role. Little is known, however, about the degree to which assessments are correctly aimed at the students’ levels of competence in relation to the defined learning goals. This article reviews previous research into teachers’ and students’ perceptions of item difficulty. It focuses on the item difficulty of assessments and students’ and teachers’ abilities to estimate item difficulty correctly. The review indicates that teachers tend to overestimate the difficulty of easy items and underestimate the difficulty of difficult items. Students seem to be better estimators of item difficulty. The accuracy of the estimates can be improved by: the information the estimators or teachers have about the target group and their earlier assessment results; defining the target group before the estimation process; the possibility of having discussions about the defined target group of students and their corresponding standards during the estimation process; and by the amount of training in item construction and estimating. In the subsequent study, the ability and accuracy of teachers and students to estimate the difficulty levels of assessment items was examined. In higher education, results show that teachers are able to estimate the difficulty levels correctly for only a small proportion of the assessment items. They overestimate the difficulty level of most of the assessment items. Students, on the other hand, underestimate their own performances. In addition, the relationships between the students’ perceptions of the difficulty levels of the assessment items and their performances on the assessments were investigated. Results provide evidence that the students who performed best on the assessments underestimated their performances the most. Several explanations are discussed and suggestions for additional research are offered.     

Review of Graph Comprehension Research: Implications for Instruction

Graphs are commonly used in textbooks and educational software, and can help students understand science and social science data. However, students sometimes have difficulty comprehending information depicted in graphs. What makes a graph better or worse at communicating relevant quantitative information? How can students learn to interpret graphs more effectively? This article reviews the cognitive literature on how viewers comprehend graphs and the factors that influence viewers' interpretations. Three major factors are considered: the visual characteristics of a graph (e.g., format, animation, color, use of legend, size, etc.), a viewer's knowledge about graphs, and a viewer's knowledge and expectations about the content of the data in a graph. This article provides a set of guidelines for the presentation of graphs to students and considers the implications of graph comprehension research for the teaching of graphical literacy skills. Finally, this article discusses unresolved questions and directions for future research relevant to data presentation and the teaching of graphical literacy skills.     

RSA公钥密码算法的研究与实现

RSA公钥密码算法的基础是欧拉定理,它的安全性依赖于大素数因式分解的困难性。RSA算法通常是先生成一对密钥。文章对生成密钥过程中所需参数进行分析和讨论,并结合实例对RSA公钥密码算法进行了实现。     

Developing inclusive practices through collaborative action research

This paper highlights the framework and discusses the results of an action research network which aimed to promote academic access in two general educational settings within which a pupil with blindness and a deaf pupil were educated respectively. The persons involved in this collaborative scheme were general teachers, a school counsellor, academic staff and student teachers. The findings of the study indicate that the implementation of the action research network resulted in the development of inclusive and collaborative thinking and the adoption of relevant teaching practices which promoted the children's access to the curriculum and supported the teachers' and student teachers' professional development. The outcomes of this action research network raise concerns about the access and the status of membership of children with special needs in general educational classroom and provide insights for the pivotal role of action research in understanding educational contexts and situations from a number of different perspectives.     

A response to Scott's concerns about the relevance of environmental education research: applying social–ecological systems thinking and consilience to defining research goals

In William Scott's plenary address at the World Environmental Education Conference, he expressed concerns about the relevance of environmental education research in a world facing global environmental and demographic change. In responding to Scott's concerns, I argue that addressing challenges related to development and the environment requires examining EE goals at multiple levels as well as bridging diverse disciplines. I further suggest that integrating social‐ecological systems and other approaches in environmental education research may provide a means for consilience among potentially divisive environmental education practice and research traditions. In so doing, I hope to spark debate about possibilities for an environmental education research agenda and learning organisation that spurs action relevant to concerns about the environment, individuals, and their communities.     

大学英语写作策略训练研究

探索大学生英语写作自主是完善大学英语写作教学的一种有益尝试。从学习者写作策略训练的理论层面探讨学习策略的内涵及意义、国内外学者对写作策略的研究、学习者写作策略训练的内容以及在策略训练中应注意的问题等,以期对完善大学英语写作教学提供参考。     

Concerns based adoption model (CBAM): Basis for an elementary science methods course

This study assessed the effectiveness of conducting an elementary science methods course based on the Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) upon the concerns and attitudes of pre-service elementary teachers (PSTs). PSTs were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups. The three groups included a traditional science methods course, a course based on the theoretical development of concerns, and a course based on the actual measured concerns about teaching an elementary science methods course. Hypotheses were tested to determine if the traditional or either concerns based science methods course was more effective in improving attitudes or advancing PST concerns about teaching science. Two instruments—; The Stages of Concern Questionnaire and the Science Teacher Attitude Scales—; were used to gather pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest data. Analysis of study results indicated that PST attitude toward science and science teaching improved and concerns about teaching science shifted from lower to higher stages of concern in all three treatment groups as predicted by Concerns Theory. However, none of the methods courses proved superior in affecting concerns or attitudes of pre-service teachers. The study concludes that either one semester is too short a time to affect the desired shifts in attitudes and concerns, or that the diagnostic instruments currently available to measure concerns and attitudes are not sensitive or specific enough to measure subtle changes of interest in a research study. The author suggests that research instruments be developed specifically for preservice teachers for this purpose.     

《比较文学概论》教学刍议

比较文学是一门多元动态发展的学科,在学科定义、研究方法、研究对象等方面都没有定论,这给教师在教学上带来了极大的困难.文章对比较文学概论的教学中遇到的一些问题,如学科定义问题、方法对象问题、影响研究问题以及实践运用问题,提出了一些看法以及具体解决的方法.     

农村普通高中英语学习策略调查与分析

由一所农村普通高中学生学习策略的调查,进行认真分析与研究,从中发现了英语教学和英语学习中所存在的一些问题,进而对所发现问题进行初步的探讨。     

Enriching the Student Learning Experience: Linking Student Development and Organizational Perspectives

Founding About Campus Executive Editor Patricia M. King discusses her concerns about what she sees as the unnecessary split between the institutional and the individual approach to supporting student learning and provides a forward‐looking model to merge the two.     

Students' conceptions of fluids

This article describes a research study concerning students' conceptions and reasonings about fluids and pressure in static situations. After a preliminary survey involving interviews and observations in class, some written questions were answered by various groups, totalling 428 Italian and French pupils in upper secondary school, 458 first‐year university students in Belgium and 58 teachers‐in‐training. After briefly illustrating some results from previous research on this topic, the article introduces the guidelines and objectives of the current research, describes and discusses its results, highlighting some categories of the more diffuse conceptions and tendencies of reasoning, and supplies a few suggestions for teaching. It is shown, among other things, that the notion of hydrostatic pressure is strongly connected to the idea of weight and associated with all the ambiguities that usually go with the latter. Moreover, a critical point appears to be the difficulty in connecting local actions and global effects, the need for systemic reasonings that are capable of producing the mechanism with which to establish a situation of equilibrium.