BEGINNING PREKINDERGARTEN AND KINDERGARTEN TEACHERS’ BELIEFS AND PRACTICES: SUPPORTS AND BARRIERS TO DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICES

This study explores the beliefs and practices of nine beginning prekindergarten and kindergarten public school teachers and identified the sources of supports and barriers to their teaching. The teachers were graduates from one university's early childhood education program. Data were gathered using surveys, observations, and interviews. Overall, teachers professed to believe in and to use developmentally appropriate practices; they were also observed using more developmentally appropriate practices than developmentally inappropriate practices. Teachers reported a variety of sources of support and barriers to their teaching. Sources that were both supports and barriers were administration, co‐workers, curriculum requirements, parents, resources, and other. Sources reported only as supports were previous experiences, self, and continued education. Sources of barriers were class composition and school duties. In addition, teachers provided information about their teacher education program and on their expectations about teaching. The teachers suggested that teacher education programs needed to provide more field experiences and courses on classroom management. Some of the expectations the teachers had about teaching were unrealistic.     

EARLY YEARS EDUCATION AND CHILDREN WITH BEHAVIOURAL AND EMOTIONAL DIFFICULTIES: NURTURING PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT?

The involvement of parents in early years education has increasingly been advocated as a strategy for meeting the needs of young emotionally disturbed children. We summarise the ideal of parental involvement in the early years as expressed within recent government initiatives. We also draw on a case study of a nurture group in a primary school situated in an inner‐city area of severe deprivation. Against this background, we explore notions of the involvement of parents as a partnership. We suggest that, in providing education for young children with emotional and behavioural difficulties, the nurturing of parental involvement is inherently problematic.     

SHORT‐TERM PROGRAMS ON DEATH AND DYING AND AGING: A REVIEW OF SELECTED LITERATURE

Agencies and institutions dealing with the elderly have only limited time, money, and personnel with which to plan and implement educational programs. Yet a basic knowledge of aging and death and dying seems to be essential for those working with older adults. The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on short‐term educational programs on death and dying and aging in order to offer practitioners some guidance for efficiently structuring programs to bring about desired changes in these areas. From 15 selected studies, 3 aspects of such programs are reviewed and analyzed: the length of the intervention, the type of treatment, and the nature of the target group involved.     

MICROCOMPUTERS AND THE ELDERLY: NEW DIRECTIONS FOR SELF‐SUFFICIENCY AND LIFE‐LONG LEARNING

Since the development of the microcomputer in the early 70's, computer technology has expanded into the eductional lives of increasing numbers of persons. Computers, once seen only in wealthy industries, are now nearly as common as pencils and paper in our nations' schools. In addition to the rapid development of computer training programs at the post secondary level, the proliferation of such programs is now manifest at the secondary, elementary, and even preschool levels. While computers appear to offer a great deal of educational potential for our youth, their benefits have not as yet been explored among older adults.     

NATHAN AND DAVID IN II SAMUEL 12:1–13: AN ALTERNATIVE TEXT WITH COMMENTARY AND IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING

I am honored to give the opening address on the conference theme which deals with 100 years of Jewish education in North America. The topic of this session, “From Sunday School to Day School,” suggests that Jewish education has moved from a one-day-a-week enterprise to a full-time system of education. While there has been significant movement in this direction during the last half of the past 100-year period, this trend has to be placed in proper historical, religious, cultural and social perspective.     

RESPONSE: “SLEEPER TRANSITIONS” AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Abstract

In this article the authors present the results of their research of cooperation schools in the Netherlands. These schools are an exception in the dual educational system because they originate from a merger of a religiously neutral public school and a religious school. The data, provided by school principals, show key values of the cooperation schools. These values are compared to characteristics of public education. The authors also focus on the organization of religious education. This study is a first step in a broader research of Dutch experiments concerning the merging of different religious school identities.     

ASPIRATIONS AND YOUNG PEOPLE’S CONSTRUCTIONS OF THEIR FUTURES: INVESTIGATING SOCIAL MOBILITY AND SOCIAL REPRODUCTION

The United Kingdom’s Coalition government has introduced an education policy that is focused on increasing the opportunities to promote and advance social mobility for all children within state education. Raising young people’s aspirations through school-based initiatives is a prominent theme within recent policy texts, which are focused on improving educational outcomes and thus advancing social mobility. This article draws on qualitative data from paired interviews with 32 students in two academies to first investigate if our participants’ aspirations indicate a desire for intragenerational social mobility and second, to explore our participants’ perceptions of the influences of their family background on their aspirations for the future. Analysis of our data highlights the mismatch between our participants’ aspirations for the future and the government’s constructions of what they should aspire to, as articulated in policy texts. By investigating aspirations, as part of a wider project to understand social mobility qualitatively, our data shows the important role of family in shaping our participants’ varied and diverse aspirations that are frequently at variance with government policy.     

FIRST- AND SECOND-GENERATION IMMIGRANT ADOLESCENTS’ MULTIDIMENSIONAL MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE SELF-CONCEPTS AND THEIR ACHIEVEMENT IN MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE

This study, drawing on data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2007, examined the predictive effects of multiple dimensions of mathematics and science self-concept??positive affect toward mathematics and science and self-perceived competence in mathematics and science??on mathematics and science achievement among 1,752 first- and second-generation immigrant adolescent students in Canada. First- and second-generation immigrant adolescent students?? self-perceived competence in mathematics had positive predictive effects on their mathematics and science achievement. In contrast, first- and second-generation immigrant adolescent students?? positive affect toward mathematics had negative predictive effects on their mathematics and science achievement. While first- and second-generation immigrant adolescent students?? self-perceived competence in science had no significant predictive effect on their mathematics achievement, it had a positive predictive effect on their science achievement. Positive affect toward science had positive predictive effects on second-generation immigrant adolescent students?? mathematics and science achievement, whereas it had no significant predictive effects on first-generation immigrant adolescent students?? mathematics and science achievement. Implications of the findings for policy and practice are discussed.     

TUITION AND THE OPEN‐DOOR: A RELATIVE PERSPECTIVE

This research was initiated to explore the effects of changing tuition rates on the open‐door policy of U.S. community junior colleges. Tuition trends in the two‐year colleges of 50 states were assessed using data gathered from the 1975 and 1980 editions of the AACJC Directory, 1980 Fact Book for Academic Administrators, and recently published journal articles. The relationship between tuition rates and enrollment levels in each state were analyzed. The analyses point to a trend of continuous increase in tuition rates for U.S. public two‐year colleges since 1951. Even though the percentage of increase in tuition for recent years has been higher for two‐year colleges than for four‐year colleges, there remains a substantial difference between the average annual tuition of the two types of institutions. There appears to be a negative correlation between tuition and enrollment at two‐year colleges for 1974‐1975 (—.27) and for 1979‐1980 (—.21). Based on these findings, it would appear that further increases in tuition might serve to close college doors for those not able to afford the rising costs of education. Suggestions are offered for internal and external actions to help maintain open access despite rising tuition costs.     

MEASUREMENT AND COMPUTATION OF THE PSEUDO-RESONANCE AND ANTI-RESONANCE

This paper presents a phenomenon of“Pseudo-resonance”of beams androds discovered from experiments and computations,and gives the definition of“Pseudo-resonance”.The relationship of distribution between the frequency of pseu-do-resonance and that of anti-resonance is found,and an analytic solution for thetransfer function between any two points on a beam or rod is established.The law ofdistribution of the anti-resonant frequencies,as well as the relation between the fre-quency distribution and the nodes of vibration is also proposed.     

COMPARE AND CONTRAST FIRST AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

语言习得是指一个人习得语言的过程。儿童与成人之间的区别导致第一语言和第二语言习得的差异。本文从语言认知和情感因素两方面做深入分析，对第一语言和第二语言习得的差异进行比较和对照。     

TRAINING MATH AND SCIENCE TEACHER–RESEARCHERS IN A COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT: IMPLICATIONS FOR MATH AND SCIENCE EDUCATION

In this mixed-methods study, the effect of training teacher–researchers in a collaborative research environment is examined for a cohort of teachers enrolled in a Math and Science Partnership (MSP) master’s degree program. The teachers describe changes in their research views and in their application of research in practice, and detail the challenges they faced during the process. The findings of the study suggest training teachers as researchers is likely to encourage teacher interest in conducting and applying theory in math and science classrooms. The results of this study have implications for bridging the gap between theory and practice in math and science education in general.     

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS’ KNOWLEDGE OF MODEL FUNCTIONS AND MODELING PROCESSES: A COMPARISON OF SCIENCE AND NON-SCIENCE MAJORS

This study aimed to: (a) understand practicing teachers’ knowledge of model functions and modeling processes, (b) compare the similarities and differences between the knowledge of science and non-science major teachers, and (c) explore the possible reasons for the similarities and differences between the knowledge of these 2 groups. A 4-point Likert scale questionnaire was developed and used to measure the knowledge of 187 practicing elementary school teachers (94 science majors and 93 non-science majors) on model functions and modeling processes. The author selected 10 target teachers to conduct think-aloud interview and to explore their ranking. One month after completing the questionnaire, 28 volunteer teachers were selected for a follow-up interview to better understand the reasons for their responses. The results show that these teachers tend to agree or strongly agree with the items about model functions and modeling processes. The only significant difference between science and non-science majors was for the item “generating new ideas.” Qualitative analyses of the follow-up interviews and think-aloud results showed that teacher education and professional development did not focus on understanding and using models. Science-major teachers tended to formulate their responses with reference to specific models, while the non-science major teachers’ responses contained acquiescence bias. Finally, implications for science education are discussed.     

PAIRWORK AND GROUPWORK

不同的分组讨论和分角色操练是复习和加速记忆所学知识的一种动态的学习方式,但各有利弊。科学的分析和运用此教学方案将会产生创造性 的教学效果。     

CAMEL AND DROMEDARY

The camel lives on the steppes of Asia.These are huge plains where it hardly ever rains.Thanks to its thick coat,the camel can tolerate extremely high and low temperatures.     

林志颖AND赛车

在萤光幕前,林志颖始终是个宠儿。赛场上,林志颖也是最具人气的车手。明星光环带给他的,是不断超越前进的动力。到底赛车有什么魅力,让Jimmy如此执着而且充满了热