MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE: A STUDY IN AUDIENCE REACTION

In the light of the Children's Television Workshop research‐guided productions of Sesame Street and The Electric Company, relatively inexpensive production styles such as camera in the back of a classroom and the simple studio set with the camera on the teacher have drawn harsh criticism. A theoretical basis for this criticism has been that the available audiovisual message capacity is not being used to its full potential, particularly the visual portion, in the simpler, teacher‐centred styles.

Recent programming by TV College of the City Colleges of Chicago presented an opportunity to conduct an evaluation of two distinctly different instructional television production styles for adult open learning students. In this research a Miami‐Dade (Florida) Community College documentary film program which was part of the 30‐program series Man and Environment (M&E;) was compared with a program locally produced by TV College (TVC) which was broadcast back‐to‐back with the M&E program. This programing was part of the Miami‐Dade instructional design for the television course in Environmental Science

The M&E program. Individual Maladjustment, contains a wide variety of filmed sequences ‐‐ dramatic sequences, animated filmographs combining old photographs and newsreels, and man‐in‐the‐street interviews ‐‐ including specially filmed as well as stock footage from a variety of locations in the United States and the world. The voice‐over narration was professionally done and designed to integrate with the accompanying textbook. Some sequences contained synchronized sound. Music and sound effects combined with the picture to form a high quality documentary format program. The cost was estimated at S1,000 per minute     

STUDENT EVALUATION OF TEACHING IN AN AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITY ‐‐ STAFF PERCEPTIONS AND REACTIONS

At the University of Queensland staff have had the opportunity since 1982 to make use of a standardised questionnaire to students to get feedback on their teaching. The questionnaire was developed and is organised in such a way that it may be used in promotion applications, as evidence of teaching ability in the annual appraisal of probationary staff by the head of department, and for personal feedback. After one year of operation interviews were held with all those who had used the questionnaire. Their attitude to evaluation of teaching was overwhelmingly positive and differed sharply from the way they perceived their department's and the University's attitude to be. Staff, on the whole, acted on the feedback received from their students by changing the course organisation and content, aspects of classroom teaching or their attitude. Many felt more confident about their teaching as a result of the evaluation, and for many the questionnaires were the only source of feedback and encouragement.     

体育教学应重视"静位反射"的作用

人体固有的静位反射在运动过程中有着重要的作用，在一些体育技术课教学中，如果充分利用这些反射，往往可促进技术动作的掌握与提高，本文从运动生理学角度将这些反射作了阐述，意使其在体育技术课教学中能被引起足够的重视。     

PROPOSALS FOR MORE STABLE DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN SWITZERLAND

After the somewhat “explosive” increase in student numbers, the need for a more stable situation in higher education development is under discussion in many countries. Proposals for higher education reform in Switzerland, particularly regarding the optimal number of students, have been put forward by Dr. h.c. A.W. Roth, Member of the Swiss Council of Science. A summary of these proposals is given below.     

多媒体教学模式下对于教师素质的几点要求

多媒体教学因各方面都优于传统教学而深受广大师生的喜爱，但其是否能够提高课堂效率取决于教师如何应用多媒体，换言之，教师只有不断提高自身的素质才能在教学中成功利用多媒体。本文就教师应在哪些方面提高自身素质从而使得多媒体可以在教学中被充分利用进行了探讨。     

CALL FOR CHANGES IN UNIVERSITY CURRICULA IN THE UNITED STATES

Planning and development in university curricula is receiving attention in many discussions on the role of higher education in the context of lifelong education. The following article discusses this issue in the context of development trends in US higher education. It is an extract from an article entitled “A New American University?” which was written by Professor Steven Muller the President of Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Hospital.     

TEACHING FOR STATISTICAL LITERACY: UTILISING AFFORDANCES IN REAL-WORLD DATA

It is widely held that context is important in teaching mathematics and statistics. Consideration of context is central to statistical thinking, and any teaching of statistics must incorporate this aspect. Indeed, it has been advocated that real-world data sets can motivate the learning of statistical principles. It is not, however, a straightforward task to take a real-world example and incorporate it into a lesson that will teach important statistical principles. This paper considers issues involved in using real data to exemplify statistical ideas and examines pre-service teachers’ attempts to design teaching activities using such data. Pre-service teachers were supplied with a topical data set and asked to plan lessons that would teach some key statistical idea to year 6 students. The lessons were analysed using a hierarchy for teaching statistical literacy, and great variation was found in the level of statistical thinking demanded in the planned lessons. Teachers who had completed a preliminary activity helping them to think carefully about what might be taught from real data in general produced lessons with stronger statistical content. A key requirement for having lessons with deep consideration of statistical ideas is to identify the actual affordances for teaching contained within a data set; the planning process then benefits from explicit attention to making that content evident in the teaching activities.     

CRISIS PREPAREDNESS IN SCHOOLS: EVALUATING STAFF PERSPECTIVES AND PROVIDING RECOMMENDATIONS FOR BEST PRACTICE

The current study investigated the content of school crisis plans and perceptions of crisis preparedness among school staff in six public elementary schools. Surveys were administered to 72 teachers, administrators, and other school staff members measuring their perceptions of crisis preparedness and performance of activities related to crisis response (i.e., trainings, familiarity with crisis plans, etc.). Respondents indicated positive perceptions of preparedness for the occurrence of a crisis at each of their schools; however, they reported lower participation in preparedness activities and provided inconsistent answers on response procedures. Regression analyses found that reading the crisis plan was a significant predictor of feelings of preparedness for fire, death, suicide, and extreme weather events. Researchers additionally found that school crisis plans lacked many of the components recommended by best practice. These findings and implications for educators are discussed.     

CREDENTIALS NEEDED FOR TEACHING BIOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY IN THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Biology and chemistry instructors at 50 institutions within th North Carolina Community College System were surveyed concerning the types of courses they teach, the diversity of students in their courses, their own academic preparation, how they would have altered their academic preparation for their current position, their preceived value of secondary school teaching in their current position, and additional comments about preparation for teaching in the community college. Personel officers at these institutions were surveyed on degrees they require for hiring biology and chemistry instructors, additional qualifications they seek in instructors, and whether they believe secondary school teaching experience to be of benefit for someone considering a community college teaching position.

Major concerns in hiring an instructor are a stong academic preparation in the teaching field and a second major or minor in a related science field. An additional concern is the ability to address the special needs of the diverse student population found in the community college setting. The instructors suggest that programs in science education can help teachers improve their instructional techniques, and 7 6% of the instructors who have taught in secondary schools indicate that this experience had been beneficial in their community college teaching.     

关于高师历史学专业教学改革的思考

目前高师历史学专业教学陷入了困境,面临着严峻的挑战。本文根据社会发展对人才需求的情况,提出了历史学专业教学改革的目标,并着重对教学改革的途径进行了探讨。     

CONTENT FOR TEACHING SUSTAINABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS IN PHYSICS AT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

Understanding energy with a focus on sustainable development requires further knowledge beyond traditional conceptual understanding. This paper presents the result from one main investigation and two smaller follow-up studies. The main study (step 1) consists of an interpreting, iterative analysis of statements made by experts on contents for physics education on energy with focus on sustainable energy systems gathered from a questionnaire, which results in subject-specific contents for physics teaching presented as a category system of objectives. The categories from step 1 are used as means for analyses in steps 2 and 3, which involve the study of educational material and one physics class. The results show that the content of physics for upper secondary, in order for students to reach insight, should comprise certain physical concepts and relations not only in ‘limited contexts’ but also in relation to greater contextual connections, in which problematisation and insight in solutions for the future is necessary. These parts should have a similar weight according to the statements of the experts. This is not to be found in either the typical educational material (textbooks) or in one physics class, which has been studied.