Perceptions and Attitudes toward Brain Donation among the Chinese People

Postmortem human brain donation is crucial to both anatomy education and research. The China Human Brain Banking Consortium was established recently to foster brain donation in China. The purpose of this study was to gain information about the public perception of and attitudes toward brain donation and to identify factors that may impact the willingness to participate in brain donation among the Chinese people. A specifically designed questionnaire was delivered to community residents in Changsha (the capital city of Hunan province) with a total of 1,249 completed forms returned and statistically analyzed. The majority of the participants considered that brain donation would help medical research and education, and 32.0% of respondents agreed that the brain donation would help change the traditional Chinese funeral belief in keeping the body intact after death. However, participants aged over 60 years old were less supportive of this concept. Among all participants, 63.7% stated that they were not knowledgeable about brain donation, while 26.4% explicitly expressed a willingness to participate in brain donation. Age, gender, monthly household income, and knowledge about brain donation significantly affected the willingness. Compared with other age groups, a higher proportion of participants aged over 60 years old preferred to be informed by a medical college. To promote brain donation in China, especially among the elderly, better communication of its medical benefits and a reinterpretation of the Confucius view of the human body should be provided. Efforts are also needed to provide appropriate forums and sources of brain donation information to targeted communities and society in general.     

An Assessment of Visitor Attitudes toward Resource Use and Management

Abstract

The Morro do Diabo State Park environmental education program was developed, implemented, improved, and modified using the Planning-Process-Product (PPP) evaluation model. Questionnaires, interviews, and observation were used to assess the needs and the available resources and to clarify goals and objectives to guide the design of activities. The program targeted school children and consisted of a slide show and a guided visit to the park. Formative evaluation provided educators with continuous feedback to improve activities. Summative evaluation used systematic measurement through an experimental design involving 144 students from fifth to eighth grades, randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. A written questionnaire was completed on three occasions: pretest, posttest, and retention. The results demonstrated that the program was effective and the objectives achieved. Other indirect outcomes based on community involvement also were assessed and confirmed the program's success.     

高校师生对计算机辅助英语教学的态度对比研究

众多研究表明,计算机辅助英语教学（CALL）并不能保证提高语言教学质量。质量提高的关键是师生的态度和使用技术的方法。为了解近一两年高校计算机辅助英语教学（CALL）的运用和师生对CALL各方面的态度差异,笔者对四所高校的外语教师和非英语专业学生进行了问卷调查和访谈。通过整理分析,发现了目前CALL中存在的问题。本文的调查结果为高校英语教学中的网络多媒体运用提供了一些新的参考。     

Attitudes toward Statistics Assessments

Although statistics instructors have attempted to improve the cognitive aspects of instruction, particularly with respect to assessments, relatively little attention has been paid to non-cognitive issues, including students' attitudes, feelings, beliefs, perceptions, motivations, and interests. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to determine (1) the methods of statistics assessments that students most prefer; (2) the methods of statistics assessment that students feel induce the least amount of anxiety; (3) the methods of statistics assessments that students most rate as inducing higher-order thinking; (4) the characteristics of students with the most negative overall attitudes toward statistics assessments; and (5) how students rate performance assessments and authentic assessments. Findings revealed that students appear most to prefer statistics examinations in which at least limited supporting material is permitted. Interestingly, assessments in which some form of supporting material is allowed appeared to be more popular than are examinations with no time constraints. However, examinations that are untimed and in which supporting material is allowed were regarded best as inducing the least amount of anxiety, as increasing levels of performance, and as promoting higher-order thinking. Overall, students tended to rate performance assessments the most highly. Unfortunately, authentic assessments were not rated as highly as were performance assessments. Canonical correlation analyses suggested that age, the number of college-level mathematics courses, the number of years elapsed since students' last statistics class, and levels of statistics anxiety are determinants of these attitudes. The implications of these findings are discussed, and recommendations for future research are presented.     

非英语专业学生的英语学习态度研究

本文主要基于一些过去阻碍学生英语学习的因素以及学生对英语学习的看法,对某所大学12个专业的412名学生的调查结果进行了分析。结果表明绝大多数学生对英语学习的态度是积极的,但存在专业和性别的差异。给今后的非英语专业学生的英语教学带来一些启示。     

非英语专业大学生英语学习态度的调查报告

在素质教育日益深化的今天,研究大学生对英语学习的态度,对于全面改进大学英语教育具有很重要的实践和指导意义.学习者的态度与策略是制约外语学习成败的关键因素.通过问卷调查后的数据处理与分析,探讨了大学生学习英语的动机、态度、情感、方式等一系列问题,并试图就所发现的问题提出了教学建议和学习策略.     

ACES' Members Attitudes toward Women and Work

A 50-item questionnaire designed to assess information on attitudes about women and work was mailed to a sample of ACES members. Responses from 128 males and 64 females were analyzed. On the basis of an earlier survey of school counselors, it was expected that females would be better informed and express more positive attitudes than males. It was also expected that younger members would express more positive attitudes than older ones. It was found that, in general, ACES members are well informed and express positive attitudes. However, substantial numbers of members made incorrect or unfavorable responses to at least 25 percent of the items. Such responses appeared as likely to occur for either sex and irrespective of age, but men appeared to be misinformed about more fundamental matters than women.     

Attitudes of Parents and Teachers toward Mainstreaming

A questionnaire measuring attitudes toward mainstreaming was completed by teachers and parents at two primary schools, one of which had initiated a mainstreaming program in Year 1 classes. Results indicated that attitudes of parents and teachers at this school were more negative than those of their counterparts at the school with no mainstreaming program. Despite this apparent relationship between contact with disabled children and a negative attitude towards mainstreaming, a significant association was found between amount of experience with disabled children and a positive attitude towards mainstreaming. Among explanations proposed for these discrepant findings is the suggestion that attitudes expressed prior to experience with mainstreaming may not be an accurate guide to views held after its implementation.     

Measurement of Attitudes toward Nursery Schools

This study investigated mathematical behaviors on inequality tasks using two alternative response measures in preschool subjects. With the sympton response, one response measure, age groups five, six, and seven significantly differed from age groups three to four. Using the verbal response, the second measure, age groups six and seven significantly differed from age groups three, four, and five. Developmental notions in the acquisition of mathematical tasks of inequality on conserving behavior were supported. With the symptom response other significant main and interaction effects were noted and described.     

Parental Attitudes toward Videogames at School

Despite research having highlighted the positive outcomes of the use of videogames to learn, their integration into school contexts remains rare. Literature recognizes the importance of user’s technology acceptance to predict the intention to use and the adoption of new technology in several settings. So far, investigations have primarily focused on students’ and teachers’ opinions, while only a few studies have considered the role of parents. This study aimed to investigate the role of the dimensions of the technology acceptance model on parental preference (254 Italian parents) for the adoption of videogames in primary or secondary schools. Results revealed that 71% of the variance of parental acceptance of videogames is explained by perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, learning opportunities, and parental game expertise. Initiatives aimed to increase parental understanding of videogames as educational tools are encouraged.     

Attitudes of intellectually gifted youth toward school

This article focuses on the attitudes of intellectually gifted students toward school. The average WISC‐R IQ was 127, the average Stanford Binet was 140. The School Attitude Measure (SAM) was administered to 119 students, grades four through nine, participating in an enrichment program. The SAM scores for this group of students were well above average; most were significantly higher than the standardization sample. The results are discussed.     

我国对待网络语言的态度及原因分析

随着网络的不断开发与运用,网络语言也日渐流行并深入到我们的日常生活中来。网络语言已成为社会共同关注的问题。它在使用过程中形成了鲜明的个性化特征。本文阐述了我国国民对网络语言的不同态度,以及这些态度形成的主要原因。