Student learning of early embryonic development via the utilization of research resources from the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans

This study was undertaken to gain insights into undergraduate students' understanding of early embryonic development, specifically, how well they comprehend the concepts of volume constancy, cell lineages, body plan axes, and temporal and spatial dimensionality in development. To study student learning, a curriculum was developed incorporating resources from the Caenorhabditis elegans research community. Students engaged in a preactivity assessment, followed by instructional materials (IMs) emphasizing inquiry-based learning and a postinstruction assessment to gauge their learning. This study, conducted at two research sites with eight and nine students, respectively, shows that before instruction, most students confused embryonic cell cleavage, where total volume is constant, with regular cell division, in which total cell volume doubles. Despite their ability to construct a cell lineage tree, most of the study participants were not aware of its biological significance. All students correctly identified cells of anterior and posterior axis, but not cells of the dorsal and ventral axis. Although the students had no difficulty with the time dimensional aspect of development, most viewed an embryo as spatially two-dimensional rather than three-dimensional. Furthermore, this study indicates that combining authentic research resources with inquiry-based learning benefits student learning of key concepts in embryology.     

关于教育资源配置的比较研究

一、市场经济国家地区职业教育资源配置比较世界上市场经济国家地区职业教育资源配置大体可以分为三类：１主要由政府拨款如瑞典、香港、智利。瑞典职业教育经费由中央和地方政府共同负担，大体各占一半。国家负担职业学校昂贵的设备、部分校舍费用；地方政府负担与教学无关的费用。香港职业教育经费８０％以上由地方政府负担，其余由企业和社会团体捐助。智利的教育资金，来自中央政府的预算和各地区、社区的私人资助及各级各类教育机构的收入和捐赠。２由政府和企业分担如法国和联邦德国，政府和企业大约各担负一半。法国的学徒培训费…     

Bildung and educational action research: resources for hope in neoliberal times

This paper draws upon empirical research to provide insights into current teacher learning practices under broader neoliberal conditions, and how the latter might be resisted. The paper contrasts neoliberal approaches to teachers’ learning with the Nordic tradition of educational action research and ‘Bildung’ as alternative resources to guide teachers’ and principals’ collective learning practices in schools, and draws upon empirical research to provide evidence of the benefits and challenges of doing so. The paper draws upon research into the learning practices of primary teachers in Australia, early childhood teachers in Sweden, and principals in Finland. The research reveals the influence of more Bildung-informed conceptions of educational action research, even as these are challenged by existing administrative cultures, and neoliberal pressures. The research presents ‘resources for hope’ to promote collective learning based on democratic values, not in an idealized or abstract manner, but in a way which is simultaneously cognizant of empirical realities.     

Design of educational web pages

The methodological characteristics of teaching in primary and secondary education make it necessary to revise the pedagogical and instructive lines with which to introduce the new Information and Communication Technologies into the school context. The construction of web pages that can be used to improve student learning is, therefore, fundamental for teachers. Their creation must be proposed, above all, from the basis of the constructivist paradigm of learning as opposed to the current behaviourist designs. General lines are established which must be convenient for the construction of web pages for these educational levels.

Les caractéristiques méthodologiques de l'enseignement à l'éducation primaire et secondaire obligent à réviser les lignes pédagogiques et instructives avec lesquelles introduire les nouvelles Technologies de l'Information et la Communication à les contextes scolaires. La construction de pages Web qui peuvent être utilisées pour améliorer l'apprentissage des élèves est, par conséquent, fondamentale pour les professeurs. Leur création doit être proposée, au‐dessus de tout, à partir de la base du paradigme constructiviste de l'apprentissage par opposition aux dessins béhavioristes courants. On établit des lignes générales qui peuvent être adéquats pour la construction de pages Web à ces niveaux pédagogiques.

Las características metodológicas de la enseñanza en educación primaria y secundaria hacen que sea necesario replantear las líneas pedagógicas e instructivas con las que introducir las nuevas Tecnologías de Información y la Comunicación en los contextos escolares. En este sentido resulta fundamental para el docente la construcción de páginas Web que puedan ser utilizadas para mejorar el aprendizaje de los alumnos. Particularmente se debe proponer su creación, ante todo, desde las bases del paradigma constructivista del aprendizaje, frente a los diseños conductistas actuales. Se establecen en esta investigación las líneas generales que deben ser convenientes para la construcción de páginas Web para estos niveles educativos.

Die methodologischen Merkmale, in Primärer und Sekundärer Ausbildung zu unterrichten, machen es notwendig, die pädagogischen und instruktiven Linien zu revidieren, mit dem die neuen Informations—und Kommunikationstechnologien in den Schulkontext einzuführen. Die Kreation von Webseiten, die benutzt werden können, um den Schülern das Lernen zu erleichtern, ist deshalb wesentlich für Lehrer. Ihre Schaffung muß vor allem von der Basis des constructivist‐Paradigmas des Lernens im Gegensatz zu den aktuellen behaviourist‐Designs vorgeschlagen werden. In dieser Untersuchung werden allgemeine Linien begründet, die für die Konstruktion der Webseiten für diese pädagogischen Niveaus günstig sein müssen.     

The Images for Teaching Education Project: developing multimedia resources within an integrative educational framework

The University of Exeter heads a consortium which has developed multimedia resources primarily for initial teacher education. Amongst a range of resources produced are Critical Encounters in Secondary Education , which deals with critical incidents in the classroom and how to deal with them, Multimedia in the Learning Environment , which deals with both the nature of multimedia and how it may be used in support of a range of approaches to teaching and learning and English Chalklands which deals with interpretational and judgemental responses to landscape. The resources are described and discussed in the context of the educational framework which has been developed to guide their use.     

Learning about the educational uses of the internet by producing an educational web site in an interdisciplinary and virtual team

ABSTRACT

In this paper we describe the use of an interactive software package designed to raise issues and questions about the role of information technology within the primary classroom and to highlight the partnership aspects inherent within a teacher tutor/mentor approach to the supervision of school placements. Data were collected from a variety of people concerned in the exercise: teacher tutors, university liaison tutors and student teachers. These data concerned not only the efficacy of the materials themselves, but also the effect or impact of the exercise upon the school placement experience. A number of issues emerged from our exploration into this exercise revealing attitudes towards information technology in education. These concerned ownership of learning and questions of expertise, access to partnership and co‐professionality, staff and student attitudes towards information technology and towards partnership and implications for the future. Our data suggest that learning becomes powerful when the learner takes ownership. Information technology can enable the shift towards creator and is a powerful means of achieving that.     

Using blogs in qualitative educational research: an exploration of method

When compared with wider social research, qualitative educational research has been relatively slow to take up online research methods (ORMs). There is some very notable research in the area but, in general, ORMs have not achieved wide applicability in qualitative educational contexts apart from research that is inherently linked to the Internet, for example, research on educational technologies or students' online behaviour. This paper demonstrates how ORMs can be useful in qualitative research projects. It describes how on-going, reflective, qualitative data were collected using a popular, community-based online tool – blogs. The research project that utilized this approach aimed to trace how a group of international students in the United Kingdom responded to their new environment over six months. This article attempts to provide a new understanding on the use of blogs as a tool for data collection.     

Valuing epistemic diversity in educational research: an agenda for improving research impact and initial teacher education

Research in education draws upon a wide range of epistemological traditions due in part to the wide range of problems that are investigated. While this diversity might be considered a strength of the field, it also makes researchers who work within it vulnerable to being divided into those worth listening to and those who should be ignored by ‘end-users’. These people and groups who are interested in the outcomes of educational research, such as policy makers and system providers, increasingly expect research findings to be accessible, and to inform questions of the ‘what works’ variety. Under this imperative, research processes that elaborate the complexity of educational problems, and the provisional, partial and contingent nature of solutions, tend to be dismissed as unnecessarily complex and inaccessible. Epistemological diversity in educational research also presents challenges for inducting teacher education students into the profession. We outline some of these challenges in a discussion of epistemological diversity in research in education. We also describe differences in how research traditions construct educational problems. We argue that crossing epistemic boundaries is a necessary condition of the educational practices of teachers and of those preparing to join their ranks. We compare and contrast knowledge-producing processes in education and identify the repertoires of capabilities and habits of mind associated with different epistemologies or ‘angles’. We suggest that the impact of educational research, including its contribution to teacher education programs, policy and public debate about issues in education, might be enhanced through a heuristic suite of four angles that are each understood to be necessary but not sufficient on their own. We provide a brief worked example of how such a heuristic might be applied to make sense of the diverse bodies of research regarding student engagement in school.     

服务于学习化社会的教育资源共享——论陕西远程教育教学资源库构建的价值

学习化社会是一个以终身教育体系为基础,能够充分满足全民终身学习多样化需求的社会。陕西省远程教育教学资源库的构建对建立学习化社会具有极为重要的价值,它能整合全省优质资源,实现教育资源最大限度地共享;它将优势资源与区域发展相结合,促进本土特色教育资源与经济的发展;它可以为学习化社会搭建教学资源平台;此外,远程学习不仅能满足全体社会成员的学习需要,而且也实现了学习者个别化学习的需求,成为学习化社会的重要途径。     

Open educational resources: an analysis of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities student preferences

The cost of college tuition and textbooks continues to rise and can function as a barrier to education for many students. This study evaluated Minnesota State Colleges and Universities students’ attitudes towards different types of learning material (e.g. commercially printed textbooks, eBooks and open educational resources (OERs)) and class type preferences (e.g. on-campus, hybrid and online). In addition, students indicated that they had ever chosen not to purchase a required textbook as well as how much they pay on average for a single textbook and approximately how much they paid for textbooks in the most recent semester. Cost was noted as a common deterrent; however, a more frequent reason provided by students for not buying a textbook was being able to adequately complete assignments without the textbook. This indicates that instructional method might be more of an issue than cost. OERs would lower these costs, but few students have been exposed to this kind of learning material and the overall impact on teaching quality is still largely unknown. The differences between two-year institutions and four-year institutions are examined and ideas to remedy the problem are noted.     

Testing a web information portal for people with learning disabilities

This paper contributes to an incremental base of research exploring usability issues related to information and communication experiences and needs of individuals with learning difficulties. A web portal designed specifically with the intended users in mind (i.e. individuals with learning difficulties) has been developed and piloted through a Rix Centre (UEL (University of East London) ) initiative in collaboration with a number of schools and adult service organisations. Seven individuals aged 14–16 years and identified with mild learning difficulties participated in the study. Assessment of findings includes evidence of participant self-directed interest and initiated use of web technologies, recognition and competent utilisation of basic navigation tools, and simple task completion within the web portal itself. Areas of noted interest warranting further exploration include participant behaviour in regard to limited length, depth, and frequency of individual web site browsing; participant difficulty with advanced navigation skills and eye–hand coordination connected to directed cursor movement and mouse manipulation; and web content readability levels. Additionally, further consideration exploring a user's degree of real information acquisition is necessary better to ensure meaningful and relevant web experiences for individuals with learning difficulties.     

Twenty-two testable hypotheses about phronesis: Outlining an educational research programme

The concept of phronesis enters educational discourse at various levels of engagement, and it continues to fascinate and frustrate educational theorists in equal measure. This article begins by charting the vagaries of three educational discourses on phronesis, and by eliciting insights from the recently burgeoning wisdom research within psychology. Mindful of the fact that making progress in the educational study of phronesis is not only a conceptual or philosophical endeavour but also an empirical one, the article elicits and illustrates 22 testable (but as yet mostly untested) hypotheses about phronesis from the Aristotelian and neo-Aristotelian literatures and hence lays the foundation of an educational research programme on phronesis. A serviceable conceptualisation will need to offer ways to evaluate the educational credibility of each hypothesis in real life, rather than just serving as a new philosophical plaything.     

3-溴丙酮酸对秀丽隐杆线虫的毒性和代谢的影响（英文）

目的:通过3-溴丙酮酸(3-BrPA)处理秀丽隐杆线虫(Caenorhabditis elegans),观察3-BrPA对线虫的毒性和生存周期的影响。通过秀丽隐杆线虫RNA干扰(RNAi)和突变株,分析3-BrPA对线虫糖酵解途径己糖激酶家族和药物代谢的关键酶细胞色素P450(cytochrome P450,CYP)家族的影响。创新点:首次报道了3-BrPA对秀丽隐杆线虫有毒性作用,己糖激酶是3-BrPA对线虫作用的重要靶点,而CYP-35A家族是线虫代谢3-BrPA的主要酶类。方法:用不同浓度的3-BrPA处理秀丽隐杆线虫,每24 h监测一次存活率;用实时荧光定量聚合酶链反应(qPCR)检测代谢相关基因的表达;通过RNAi沉默己糖激酶家族基因hxk-1、hxk-2和hxk-3;计算3-BrPA处理hxk家族RNAi株和细胞色素P450 cyp-35家族突变株后的致死中浓度(LC50)。结论:3-BrPA对线虫有明显的毒性效应(图1);与对照组比较,3-BrPA处理组的线虫平均寿命明显缩短(图2);3-BrPA处理线虫后hxk-1、hxk-2和hxk-3的信使RNA(mRNA)表达明显升高(P<0.05,图5);3-BrPA处理hxk RNAi株后的LC50均减小(P<0.05,表5);3-BrPA处理cyp-35突变株后的LC50也均减小(P<0.05,表6)。综上所述,3-BrPA的毒性与其对秀丽隐杆线虫己糖激酶代谢的影响密切相关;CYP-35家族在线虫中对3-BrPA代谢中起着关键作用。     

甲醛对秀丽隐杆线虫毒性效应的研究

为阐明甲醛染毒的毒性效应,利用模式生物秀丽隐杆线虫进行运动能力和寿命等生物学指标的研究。结果显示,甲醛染毒组与对照组相比,其头部摆动频率、身体弯曲频率、寿命和半致死时间均有所下降,且与甲醛染毒浓度存在量效关系。本文为理解与阐明甲醛的毒性效应提供了实验资料,有助于深入开展甲醛毒性机理的研究。     

Open educational resources: removing barriers from within

Enthusiasts and evangelists of open educational resources (OER) see these resources as a panacea for all of the problems of education. However, despite its promises, their adoption in educational institutions is slow. There are many barriers to the adoption of OER, and many are from within the community of OER advocates. This commentary calls for a wider discussion to remove these barriers to mainstreaming OER in teaching and learning and argues for a rethinking of the idea of ‘open’ to make it more inclusive by redefining the concept. It reminds us of the original thinking behind OER – which was to create universally available educational resources that can improve the quality of teaching and learning. This commentary posits arguments against conflating OER and open education, questions the narrow definitions of OER, and raises issues around how to be more flexible and open to mainstreaming OER and removing barriers from within the OER movement.     

Adoption of open educational resources (OER) textbook for an introductory information systems course

Open educational resources (OER) can make educational resources widely available to all students and educators for free; however, OER are still untried in many academic programmes in higher education. This article reports a case of adoption of an open access textbook for an introductory information systems course and discusses the process and suggestions of adoption of an OER textbook based upon the authors’ own experience. The study indicates that the process of adoption of an open access textbook demands more intellectual work on the instructors’ side in comparison with the adoption of a new commercial textbook. The study suggests that discipline-based communities of practice (CoP) can ease the workload problem in the process of adopting OER textbooks. The findings are important in encouraging the OER community to shift from project-based OER textbook development to discipline-based CoP for effective OER textbook adoption.