Teaching design of cultivating nursing students＇ creative thinking

Chinese nursing education levels have developed fast over the past few years. Many nursing educators are devoted to the research of nursing teaching. How to cultivate nursing students＇ creative thinking is one of the principle researches and has received increasing attention. In the course of nursing teaching, we renewed the teaching design based on the empirical education from nursing basics as follows. The teaching contents are enlarged to make students establish a sense of nursing development and dynamic study. The traditional teacher-centered teaching methods have been replaced by diversified students-centered methods from knowledge to activities. Evaluation of learning effect is developed to be a versatile comprehensive evaluation including students＇ Self-evaluation in accord with the multimedia teaching, group-evaluation in theoretical and discussion classes, and teachers＇ all-around evaluation. The new teaching design have embodied students＇ principal role and enhanced their abilities of creative thinking.     

Can we reliably compare student engagement between universities? Evidence from the United Kingdom Engagement Survey

Policy changes in the higher education landscape have given way to increased interest in the way students perceive engagement in UK higher education. This paper examines whether we can reliably distinguish between institutions and disciplines, and what key student and institutional variables are a predictor of engagement of undergraduate students. Using data from two waves of the United Kingdom Engagement Survey (UKES), a national survey of undergraduate student engagement, we constructed multilevel models for different aspects of student engagement. The results show that the vast majority of the variance of the models is at the student level, indicating that demographic characteristics seem to contribute most to differential aspects of engagement. Some variance at student level could be explained: females, distance learners, part-time students, and disabled student indicators were negative predictors of engagement, while indicators for Black and minority ethnic (BME) students and for students from Africa and Asia were positive predictors of engagement.     

Can Schools Survive in the Age of the Web?

英语时事类文章以其丰富的内容(涉及社会、科学、文化、体育、金融、生活、生物等方方面面)、多样的体裁(记叙文、说明文、议论文、广告等)以及鲜明的特性(新闻性、知识性等),多年来深受命题专家的青睐,牢牢占据各地高考试题的一席之地.通过阅读英语时事类文章,同学们不但可以随时了解天下大事,激发学习英语的兴趣,而且可以学到许多生动鲜活的英语语言知识,从而提高综合应用英语的能力.     

Student teachers as creative writers: does an understanding of creative pedagogies matter?

Teaching creative writing in primary schools requires an understanding of creative pedagogies that value autonomy and for educators to draw on their own experiences of the creative writing process to support the development of their pupils. This article draws on evidence from 58 undergraduate primary student teachers to further understand how their appreciation of creative pedagogies, combined with their experiences of creative writing, impacts on their approach to the teaching of writing in primary schools. Evidence from questionnaires and interviews reveals that factors such as freedom, choice and focusing on the personal aspects of writing are valued but often because they make writing fun for children, rather than because they develop children's creative behaviours and creative writing. Student teachers' own personal experiences of these factors affect whether they are likely to integrate them into their future practice in school. It is argued that if students experience creative writing that is underpinned by a creative pedagogy within their initial teacher education, they will be better equipped to teach creative writing and prepare children for being writers.     

Can the simple view deal with the complexities of reading?

We review the Simple View of Reading (SVR) model and examine its nature, applicability and validity. We describe the SVR as an abstract framework for understanding the relationship between global linguistic comprehension and word‐reading abilities in reading comprehension (RC). We argue that the SVR is neither a full theory of reading nor a blueprint for instruction. Nevertheless we argue that the model is helpful in conceptualising these broad skills and thus in planning for teaching and learning. We review empirical evidence concerning the SVR, suggesting that it provides a good fit to much scientific data on typical and atypical development, and variation among students across the school age range. We also indicate several areas in which we think the SVR is incomplete or in need of further empirical support. These include the way in which word decoding is conceptualised, the ways in which RC is measured, RC strategies, the role of reading fluency, reading with illustrations and second‐language reading.     

Can virtual environments enhance the learning of historical chronology?

Historical time and chronological sequence are usually conveyed to pupils via the presentation of semantic information on printed worksheets, events being rote-memorised according to date. We explored the use of virtual environments in which successive historical events were depicted as “places” in time–space, encountered sequentially in a fly-through. Testing was via “Which came first, X or Y?” questions and picture-ordering. University undergraduates experiencing the history of an imaginary planet performed better after a VE than after viewing a “washing line” of sequential images, or captions alone, especially for items in intermediate list positions. However, secondary children 11–14 years remembered no more about successive events in feudal England when they were presented virtually compared with either paper picture or 2-D computer graphic conditions. Primary children 7–9 years learned more about historical sequence after studying a series of paper images, compared with either VE or computer graphic conditions, remembering more in early/intermediate list positions. Reasons for the discrepant results are discussed and future possible uses of VEs in the teaching of chronology assessed.     

Receptive sign vocabulary tests: tests of single-word vocabulary or iconicity?

First-, fourth-, and ninth-grade hearing students were administered randomly selected items from the Carolina Picture Vocabulary Test (CPVT; Layton & Holmes, 1985) to determine the degree to which signs used in the CPVT are iconic (see note) and can actually convey a sign's meaning at the moment of testing, thus providing an inflated vocabulary score. Hearing students were tested because they had no prior sign knowledge or experience. Results indicate that the signs used in the CPVT are sufficiently iconic to enable students unfamiliar with signs to identify a test picture; 73% of their responses were correct when chance selection was 25%. Such findings signal potential problems with existing receptive sign vocabulary tests; consequently, test results should be interpreted cautiously. Note: Not all signs are iconic. Iconic signs have semantic features nested in their formation, location, and movement that visually convey enough information to manifest word meaning. Formation, location, and movement are also called cheremic features of sign.     

What Can the Study of Genetics Offer to Educators?

This article explores the potential contribution of modern genetic methods and findings to education. It is familiar to hear that the “gene” for this or that behavior has been discovered, or that certain skills are “highly heritable.” Can this help educators? To explore this question, we describe the methods used to relate genetic variation to individual differences in high‐level behaviors such as academic skills and educational achievement. These methods include twin studies and genome‐wide association studies. We address the key question of what genetic data imply about the ability of educators to optimize educational outcomes for children across the range of abilities.     

Creative accounting? The critical and creative voice of students

University accounting education typically develops the technical skills that students require to enter into the world of commerce. However, in the context of the rapidly changing socioeconomic environment, and a proliferation of corporate and financial collapses, there have been calls for educators to provide a more contextual appreciation of accounting practice. The changing nature of work has also generated calls for the development of generic skills in students, such as creativity and critical thinking. We outline our efforts to offer third-year university students the opportunity to use creativity in response to their major assessment task. This task required students to explore the ethical dimension of a recent corporate collapse and present their understanding in a modality of their choice. Our analysis of the creative experience of students suggests that such a creative approach to assessment opens up possibilities for a transformative educational experience. While this article focuses on accountancy students, this type of assessment has potential application for other disciplines.     

Can You Get the Answer?

Jim，John，Jerry，andJoetogetherboughtabasketof１４４apples．Jimreceived１０moreapplesthanJohn，２６morethanJerry，and３２morethanJoe．HowmanyapplesdidJimreceive？Canyougettheanswer？(答案见第62页)CanYouGettheAnswer?答案：Jim：５３（John：４３；Jerry：２７；Joe：２１）Can You Get the Answer?!四川@陈普贤…     

Can creative podcasting promote deep learning? The use of podcasting for learning content in an undergraduate science unit

This paper examines the effect of a podcasting task on the examination performance of several hundred first‐year chemistry undergraduate students. Educational researchers have established that a deep approach to learning that promotes active understanding of meaning can lead to better student outcomes, higher grades and superior retention of knowledge over time. We attempted to promote such an approach by setting a task that involved student collaboration, contextualisation of content, and communication through new media, specifically creative podcasting. Examination results were used as a source of empirical evidence of changes in understanding and retention that occurred for students who completed this task. In comparing results across 2 years on similar questions related to the podcasting topics, we found a statistically significant improvement after introduction of the podcasting task on the questions related to one of the topics on which students had actively created their own podcasts (“acids & bases”), but not on the other (“oxidisation and reduction”). Improved learning outcomes in the form of better understanding and retention over time in at least one case suggest that under some circumstances creative podcasting may indeed help to promote a deep learning approach.     

Can telecollaboration contribute to the TPACK development of pre-service teachers?

This study examines the suitability of telecollaboration practices to enhance ICT integration in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)-based units by analysing the number and type of episodes related to students’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) produced in a telecollaboration whose aim was the design of a technology-enhanced CLIL unit. Results revealed a high number of episodes focusing on the domains and intersections of the TPACK framework, that pedagogical content knowledge was the main focus of attention and prompted most of the suggestions for change in the unit and that telecollaboration promoted collaboration and made participation more equal. Consequently, telecollaboration showed a great potential for directing students’ attention to their TPACK even though the scarcity of episodes focusing on the TPACK intersection also indicated there is ample room for more teacher training efforts to prepare pre-service teachers for technology integration.