The Centre for Studies in Science Education at the University of Leeds

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of aesthetic science activities on improving elementary school at-risk families’ children's positive thinking, attitudes toward science, and decreasing their anxiety about learning science. Thirty-six 4th-grade children from at-risk families volunteered to participate in a 12-week intervention and formed the experimental group; another 97 typical 4th graders were randomly selected to participant in the assessment and were used as the comparison group. The treatment for experimental group children emphasized scaffolding aesthetic science activities and inquiry strategies. The Elementary School Student Questionnaire was administered to assess all children's positive thinking, attitudes toward science, and anxiety about learning science. In addition, nine target children from the experimental group with the lowest scores on either positive thinking, or attitudes toward science, or with the highest scores on anxiety about learning science in the pre-test were recruited to be interviewed at the end of the intervention and observed weekly. Confirmatory factor analyses, analyses of covariance, and content theme analysis assessed the similarities and differences between groups. It was found that the at-risk families’ children were motivated by the treatment and made significant progress on positive thinking and attitudes toward science, and also decreased their anxiety about learning science. The findings from interviews and classroom observations also revealed that the intervention made differences in children's affective perceptions of learning science. Implication and research recommendation are discussed.     

英属哥伦比亚大学的国际化战略研究

国际化战略是英属哥伦比亚大学迅速成为世界顶尖大学的有效路径。笔者就该校国际化战略为切入点,对其国际化的战略目标与策略、实施现状、国际化特点等展开论述,指出我国大学应该国际化统筹大学发展的战略思路,拓展多元化的国际化合作机会,谋求实施团队的合作和新人培养。     

促对话，重探究： UBC研讨式课程的教学设计与策略分析

课程学习是研究生教育阶段学生培养的重要环节。以加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚大学教育学院一门研究生研讨式课程作为对象,综合运用案例研究、教学观察等方法,深入剖析研讨式课程的理论基础、教学设计和实践策略。研究发现,基于对话教学观和建构主义知识观所设计的研讨式课程,有利于打破以往研究生教学中教师唱独角戏、学习者主体缺失和沉默的课堂等魔咒,形成既有教学计划又有对话自由的课堂。在具体的教学实践中,综合运用积极学习教学法,还能更好地促进学生的投入与探究性学习。这对我国研究生课程建设的政策变革和课堂教学的实践探索有一定的启示意义。     

The Integrated Centre for Teacher Education at the University of Aveiro,Portugal

This article explains what the Integrated Centre for Teacher Education at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, intends to be. Its origin is set in the context of the existing trends of teacher education in Portugal. The aims of the Centre and the characteristics of its programmes are described. Problems which have emerged during the planning phase are also mentioned.     

Between the School and the Academy: The Struggle to Promote Teacher Research at Columbia University's Lincoln School, 1917–1935

This essay examines the development of a research faculty and culture at the Lincoln School, a laboratory school founded in 1917 by the Rockefeller General Education Board (GEB) at Teachers College, Columbia University. The school was dedicated to the production of education research by practicing teachers. The essay focuses in particular on the role played by the two men first charged by the GEB to organize and administrate the school, Abraham Flexner and Otis Caldwell, and some of the school's teachers. Flexner and Caldwell promoted a working environment marked by experimentation, academic freedom, and faculty collaboration. This leadership model created tensions between Flexner and Caldwell and some Teachers College faculty over the use of Lincoln School classrooms as a resource for education research. Over the twenty‐four years of the school's existence, Lincoln School teachers published hundreds of studies and textbooks focusing on curriculum development, child development, teaching techniques, and democratic school administration. In a profession where members are expected to be consumers rather than creators of knowledge, and practitioners rather than “experts,” the teachers and administrators of the Lincoln School defied many of the most foundational premises that have guided schools and the production of education research alike.     

A short history of the Science and Mathematics Education Centre at Curtin University

This article is presented in four parts. In the first part, I describe the foundation of the Science and Mathematics Education Centre (SMEC) at Curtin University. In the second part, I explain the development of SMEC’s teaching and research capacity under its three directors. In the third section, I describe how federal government support of SMEC as a national Key Centre for Teaching and Research in School Science and Mathematics provided enhanced postgraduate study opportunities for science and mathematics teachers throughout Australia by offering degree programs through distance education and face-to-face contact, short courses, and seminars. At the same time, research and teaching capacity of the academic staff was enhanced through the internationalisation of the programs being offered. In the final section, I describe current and future developments at SMEC.     

What Do Graduates Earn? The Starting Salaries and Earnings Prospects of University Graduates 1960–1986

This paper examines the long term pattern of starting and early-career salaries of U.K. university graduates relative to average non-manual earnings. Salary statistics collected by several university careers services are aggregated to create a new data-set which records starting salary trends at aggregate, faculty and subject levels, and data from the 1960,1970 and 1980 graduate cohort surveys are used to extend the investigation to later years. Considerable differences in remuneration across subjects are reported but the paper demonstrates that graduate starting salaries, generally, have been substantially below average non-manual earnings throughout the period since 1960. Further, graduates' relative position has deteriorated over time: whilst at the start of the period graduates six years into their careers could, in most subjects, expect to earn more than the average non-manual wage, by the end of the period, this was no longer generally so. The paper offers an explanation of graduate salary trends, viewing these as the result of changing demand and supply forces in the graduate labour market, and it concludes by addressing some of the key policy and planning issues to which an awareness of salary levels is relevant.     

Analyzing Neutral Responses on Environmental Issues: The Case of the 1991 British Columbia Assessment of Science

Abstract

One troublesome aspect of survey research is the large number of respondents who choose a neutral response on forced-choice questionnaires. Neglecting the high percentages of neutral responses on some environmental issues may distort the picture of respondents' attitudes toward the environment and compromise much valuable information on the issues. With the data from the 1991 British Columbia Assessment of Science (D. Bateson et al., 1991), canonical analysis of contingency tables was used to investigate the nature of neutral responses on 8 environmental issues. The findings showed that many neutral responses may not be truly neutral. The students' attitudes toward the 8 environmental issues also changed from Grades 6 to 10. Some areas of concern for environmental education are exposed, and their causes discussed.     

高校“教学型”教职:制度设计与发展路径--基于加拿大英属哥伦比亚大学案例分析

加拿大英属哥伦比亚大学十分重视对"教学型"教职的制度设计及师资培养,一是为了突破长期存在的"重学术,轻教学"的困境;二是为了提高整体的教学水平和人才培养质量,实现内涵式发展。参与晋升"教学型"教职的教师需要在教育领导力、教学创新以及社会服务方面取得卓越成就。严格的晋升制度审查决定着教师能否成功晋升这一职位。加拿大英属哥伦比亚大学的成功经验为我国高校教师发展提供了借鉴经验:要充分重视教职设置的科学性,通过教师教学学术能力的提升,促进教师教育领导力培养和社会服务能力获得,以此促进高校教师队伍整体水平的提高。     

The Centre for Academic Services University of Sussex,England

Audio-visual techniques in educational technology are receiving unusually close attention at the University of Sussex. A new department known as the Centre for Academic Services has been established there, charged with the task of co-ordinating the use of audio-visual media throughout the university. The aim is to experiment with and develop appropriate teaching techniques.     

The impact of a new university in a developing region: the case of the University of Northern British Columbia

This article analyses the impact of a new university, the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC), on a developing region. The educational, population, social, cultural, and economic effects of the coming of UNBC are assessed. The article compares the expected impacts with the actual, or likely, impacts. In doing so it makes comparisons with the impact of other universities previously built in other parts of the circumpolar north. The article concludes by arguing that impact of UNBC will not be as great as it might have been largely because it is not seen as part of a general regional development plan, but also because of a starting size that is too small in terms of programme range, a government focus on access issues, and intra-regional rivalry.     

The Human in the Machine: Reflections on mentoring at the British Open University

Mentoring has had a key role in the British Open University's intricate distance education system for more than 30 years. However, it has changed very substantially as the system's technology has changed. In this article, after providing some definitions, I review the early history and the changes that have put mentoring online. I describe my own experience as a tutor in the university's online MA in Open and Distance Education, and explain Salmon's model for e-moderating (e-mentoring) developed in the university's Business School. Finally, I reflect on mentoring online today: what is essential for us to understand is how the best of 'old-fashioned' mentoring face-to-face can be built into online mentoring together with the best of what the technology enables us to do. Mentors must learn to weave ideas online, with their students, empowering them to do likewise. The mentor, 'the human in the machine', is indispensable.