Education: the untapped resource in oil rich countries

This article raises the question of whether having a high value primary product resource, such as petroleum, makes a constructive contribution to economic and social development, and specifically to education. Although many scholars study the political and economic impact of oil on different societies, the impact on education remains an under‐explored area of comparative educational research. It first summarizes the general issues, then it discusses the educational case of Kazakhstan following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The article provides information about Kazakh history and development as a newly independent republic in Central Asia. The article argues the importance of bringing education into the center of the oil and natural resource rich development debate.     

Induction as an empirical problem: How students generalize during practical work

We examined how university students made generalizations when making morphological observations of insects. Five groups of two or three students working together were audio recorded. The results were analysed by an approach based on the work of Wittgenstein and on a pragmatic and sociocultural perspective. Results showed that students rarely made generalizations in terms of universal statements and they did not use induction or produced hypotheses for testing in an analytic philosophical sense. The few generalizations they made of this kind were taken from zoological authorities like textbooks or lectures. However, students used induction when in more familiar contexts. Moreover, when generalizations were analysed in the sense of Dewey, it became evident that students are fully capable of making generalizations by transferring meaning from one experience to another. The implications of these results for using induction and hypotheses testing in instruction are discussed.     

Epistemology,practical work and Academic skills in science education

This article discusses the inherent flaws in considering and using the epistemology of the natural sciences as equivalent to a pedagogic basis for teaching and learning in the natural sciences. It begins with a discussion of the difference between practising science and learning to practice science. It follows with a discussion and refutation of three commonly held motives for using practicals in science education. It concludes with the presentation of three new, better motives for their use.     

Group interactions in science practical work

This study explored the interactions of a highly motivated group of students doing traditional practical work in science. Interest focussed on the social construction of understanding and how this could be described. Despite considerable collaboration in constructing an understanding of the task the students rarely focussed on the concepts the practical work was intended to illustrate. Collaboration was described in terms of social behaviours and discourse moves which supported the use of cognitive strategies. Specializations: science practical work, collaborative group work, role of language. Specializations: science teacher education, conceptual change, learning environments, science reasoning.     

Media representation of the Middle East: constructive student engagement in an online environment

As educators interested in pedagogical uses of technology, we utilize the internet to improve students' knowledge and awareness of the world beyond our own national borders. Web-based technologies offer us resources for our courses and can play an important role in promoting a more active style of learning from our students. Yet when teaching about politically sensitive topics, or regions of the world that are less well known, we inevitably access information that is unfiltered, out-of-context, inaccurate, or biased. This paper will be an exploration of how we taught students to critically engage with each other and with online media sources through a class blog discussing the violence in Gaza during January of 2009. During the two-week project, the students investigated this new media landscape (from blogs to YouTube) increasing their levels of techno-literacy by searching beyond their ‘normal’ sources and by recognizing the political bias present in all online venues. Evidence will show how the students went from passive consumers of networked information to active citizen participants as they expressed their opinions, countered each other's sources, and worked out how to fundamentally disagree without losing civility. The paper will detail the pedagogical practices and challenges to creating online spaces for constructive argumentation about highly volatile issues.     

论沈阳市人口、资源、环境与可持续发展

本文从沈阳市人口、资源及环境等问题入手,论述了人口、资源、环境与经济的可持续发展之间的关系,并提出了沈阳市实现可持续发展的相应对策。     

运用团体社会工作帮助贫困大学生成长的思考

团体社会工作是一种专业助人方法,可以在帮助贫困大学生成长方面发挥很大作用,但目前在各高校具体实施团体社会工作方法帮助贫困大学生还存在一定困难,需要克服。     

运用团体社会工作帮助贫困大学生成长的思考

团体社会工作是一种专业助人方法,可以在帮助贫困大学生成长方面发挥很大作用,但目前在各高校具体实施团体社会工作方法帮助贫困大学生还存在一定困难,需要克服。     

企业实施ERP后的人力资源管理

企业资源计划系统(ERP)以其巨大的潜在经济效益在国内外得到广泛的应用。人力资源管理系统功能的完善和发挥对ERP的成功起举足轻重的作用,实施ERP后的人力资源管理必须进行相应的变革。文章分析了人在ERP中的主导地位和企业实施ERP对人力资源管理的要求,并对ERP环境下人力资源管理的发展趋势进行了探讨。     

Contemporary approaches to learning science: technologically-mediated practical work

This paper describes the current state of science education in Arab states and anticipates some of the challenges faced by those states as they reform their science education. After discussing problems of illiteracy, access and quality we provide contextual information about the structure of the educational systems and describe recent efforts to reform them. We focus on issues pertaining to science curriculum and textbooks, language, religion, student learning in science, science teacher education and science education research and summarise the challenges and opportunities for research faced in each area. We conclude the paper by proposing a set of policy and research recommendations that could aid in the development of lasting solutions for recurring problems.     

贫困地区校本课程资源的开发与利用

如果说国家课程注重基础性和统一性 ,校本课程则关注独特性和差异性。校本课程的开发 ,为教师提供了无限的表现与创造空间 ,让每一位教师都人尽其才。在课程开发与实施中 ,如何凸现学校和教师课程开发的主体地位 ,如何把握课程研究者和教师的关系则成为新课程实施成功的一个关键问题。请看下面的例子。一所山区学校 ,由于政府的投入 ,在原来极其简陋的校园里建起了两栋白色的崭新的楼房 ,一栋是教学楼 ,一栋是学生宿舍 ,在褐色的贫瘠的群山环抱中 ,特别的夺目。可是 ,校舍周围却是一片光秃秃的 ,显得很不相宜。校长很想借着新校舍落成大做“…     

论政府在构建创业环境中的作用

文章试从市场增进论视角对政府应该在大力促进市民观念更新,为营造良好的创业环境;大力推进经济体制改革,努力营造公平竞争的社会发展环境;大力发展社会主义民主政治,建设社会主义政治文明,努力维护社会公正环境;大力推进文化创新,营造适合基本经济制度和发展需要的文化氛围环境所发挥的作用作了分析和论述,旨在为政府的“和谐创业”决策寻求理论和实践的支撑。     

经济实用型计算机化教学环境的建构与实现

经济基础薄弱、硬件基础设施差、缺乏计算机化的教学环境等因素严重制约着中小学校开展信息技术教育。本文提出了一种性／价比较高的经济实用型计算机化教学环境建构模型，对模型中使用的关键技术－－显示器共享分配转换系统（简称DSU）进行了介绍，给出了其电路工作原理示意图。基于DSU的教学环境具有适应性强、操作简单、经济适用等特点。     

The assessment of practical work in school science

In this paper we provide an overview of the literature on understandings of drop out/opt out from science, technology and mathematics (STM) higher education programmes. After outlining the literature on students leaving higher education programmes in general, we then explore the research on drop out/opt out from STM programmes in particular, with an emphasis on research since 2000. We show that most of the research focuses on overcoming deficits in students' prior knowledge, but that a more specific focus on identities as an analytical framework for understanding young people leaving STM higher education programmes is also emerging. We show that it is important to shift from considering drop out as an individual problem for the student to regard it as a feature of the relationship between students and their study programmes. In the same way, measures to increase retention rates must shift from focusing on individual student adaptation to studies addressing institutional change. However, this change is difficult since it is entwined with fundamental conceptions of science and teaching.     

Producing the evidence: Science teachers' initiations into practical work

The quantity, quality and fitness for purpose of much school practical work has come in for some criticism. This paper reports on questionnaire and interview studies with trainee science teachers. The study examined the reasons and justifications that teachers give for the way in which they conduct practical work. The particular focus is on counter-normative behaviour and what the behaviour indicates about the status of empirical work and the purpose of evidence in science classrooms. The questionnaire was completed by 40 trainee teachers. The analysis of the questionnaire determined the number of teachers who had produced results fraudulently either on their own initiative or had been initiated into it by experienced teachers and/or laboratory technicians. From the questionnaire we were able to select a small sample who we interviewed in order to unpack further the questionnaire responses. In discussing our data, a case for the re-evaluation of practical work in science education will be made and it will be argued that science teacher behaviour is best understood anthropologically. Possible implications for mentoring and school based training are mentioned briefly.