Biodiversity Education: A teacher's perspective

Reduction in biodiversity has been established as a global environmental issue, mainly over the last 10 years. However, there is disagreement amongst experts whether it is a natural phenomenon or strongly influenced by human activity. This article considers biodiversity as a controversial issue in the education of students of 11-18 years of age in schools, particularly in relation to science education. It includes a study of teachers' attitudes and approaches to biodiversity education in the UK and was undertaken using participatory appraisal methods with 'focus' groups of teachers. It was shown that the teachers in the study were frequently well informed, they considered biodiversity to be an important issue and although the formal science curriculum had a contribution to make it was also a matter that the whole institution could address. Suggestions for evaluating the possible indicators and outcomes of effective biodiversity education were made. In conclusion it was shown that while programmes included many of the essential components of knowledge for biodiversity education there was usually little attempt to ensure that students achieved a more coherent understanding of the complex issue or how to deal with matters that are truly controversial. The methodology provided a useful model for reflection on practice and professional development in many possible contexts.     

The same but different: the German Lehrplan and curriculum*

Discussions about the what, the when and the how of teaching and learning in schools deal in German-speaking countries with the term Lehrplan, while English-speaking countries discuss similar topics with the term curriculum. Yet, these two terms are not just exchangeable terms in two different languages, but imply also two different styles of reasoning or two different modes of thinking. By the examples of a Lehrplan designed by Georg Kerschensteiner for the Munich school in 1899 and two different Lehrpläne for the elementary school in the Swiss canton of Zurich, one from 1905, the other just currently being implemented, the paper discusses the question, what is being studied, when the notion of Lehrplan defines the research focus. Against this backdrop the paper askes in a concluding chapter, what can be gained by guiding research by the Anglo-Saxon notion and tradition of curriculum history and if and how comparative research is possible, regarding the tight coupling of language and concepts.     

Dispositions Toward Critical Thinking: The preservice teacher's perspective

This study examines the critical thinking (CT) dispositions of 202 preservice physical education students in the US. All were juniors or seniors and enrolled in physical education secondary teaching methods classes. Results provided evidence of a positive inclination toward CT on six of seven subscales and the total score of the California Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory (CCTDI). When compared with other university populations, the preservice physical education sample generated higher scores than community college students, but were generally outscored by students from a private 4-year university cohort. Knowledge of the CCTDI data can be used to assist physical education teacher educators as they prepare teachers capable of fostering CT in their students.     

同质异构:早期创造社自叙小说比较论

自叙小说渗有浓郁的情感色彩,这情感源于创造社三位作家的自身经历和特定时代背景,郭沫若的自叙传在表达情绪上洋溢着诗人般浪漫色彩,极力倾泻;郁达夫则表现为低声呻吟,概叹人生苦闷生活艰辛;张资平采用冷峻的客观描摹,让情绪从生活事象中流溢出来。此为三家传情的迥异之处。     

同质异构:早期创造社自叙小说比较论

自叙小说渗有浓郁的情感色彩,这情感源于创造社三位作家的自身经历和特定时代背景,郭沫若的自叙传在表达情绪上洋溢着诗人般浪漫色彩,极力倾泻;郁达夫则表现为低声呻吟,概叹人生苦闷生活艰辛;张资平采用冷峻的客观描摹,让情绪从生活事象中流溢出来.此为三家传情的迥异之处.     

辨析英语语法中几种形同异用现象

英语学习经常会遇到一些语法疑难问题，而又无法从书中找到满意的答案，深感困惑，特别是那些看上去外形完全相同，可用法不同、意义不同的句法结构，更让人百思不得其解。所以，本通过对比方法对它们加以分析。     

英语专业语言学课堂中教师语码转换的顺应性研究

课堂语码转换是特殊语言环境下的特殊言语交际策略,在英语专业本科阶段语言学课堂中语码转换就更有其特殊性.本文以Verschueren的语言顺应论为基础,根据笔者在师范类语言文学专业和理工类翻译专业执教过程中开展的的反馈调查进行分析,揭示顺应过程中发现:顺应有两种模式:被动顺应和主动顺应,教师对语言现实的主动顺应和学生对教师心理现实的被动顺应形成语言靠拢和语言偏离内在调节的语用选择基础.教师语码转换得到认同.     

Students with special needs and 1:1 computing: a teacher's perspective

To better understand the growing trend of 1:1 learning, researchers conducted an evaluation of a laptop initiative in 18 North Carolina high schools. The goal of the study was to provide information about the value of the initiative to enhance student learning, as well as to identify challenges to the successful implementation of 1:1 programs, strategies for meeting those challenges, and services and supports needed to enable successful programs throughout the state. This paper focuses on ways in which the initiative enhanced the learning experiences of students with disabilities in areas such as communication, reading ability, assessment, organisation and confidence. Data sources include teacher, student and administrator focus groups, which enable scholars to gain an array of insight regarding technology initiatives and students with special needs. Implications for educators and administrators are discussed.     

The same but different: The use of the personal Home Page by adults with Down Syndrome as a tool for self-presentation

Recent research has suggested that people with learning disabilities can manage their identities and define the circumstances under which they will present a self-image that is the same or different to other people with learning disability. This paper reports a survey of personal Home Pages written by people with Down Syndrome and investigates the extent to which they use the pages to accept or deny membership of the Down Syndrome group. Opportunistic sampling of the pages listed by five Web Crawlers revealed twenty personal Home Pages of adults with Down Syndrome. Thematic analysis of the content, form and language of the pages revealed similarities and differences in the way the page owners expressed and perceived their self-identity. The results suggest that the personal Home Page has the potential to allow adults with Down Syndrome to express multiple identities: identities that are the same and different to other people with Down Syndrome.     

Reflecting on the EFA Global Monitoring Report's framework for understanding quality education: A teacher's perspective in Eritrea

This paper considers issues concerning the quality of education in Eritrea using the Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report's (GMR) framework for quality education. Drawing on 2 years school-based professional experience in the country, the multiple factors affecting quality in schooling are discussed. The applicability of the GMR framework is then assessed. Given the recent militarisation of the Eritrean school system, it finds the framework seriously lacking, by failing to enable a critique of some of the issues that arguably go to the heart of the quality of education in the country.     

The meaning of student inquiry questions: A teacher's beliefs and responses

This research explores an American high school chemistry teacher's perspective on the meaning of student questions that originate from curiosity and engagement with subject matter. Ethnographic analysis of a teacher's reflective processes and decision-making approach suggests that questions hold contradictory meanings as powerful, conflicting pressures come to play in the everyday patterns of classroom discourse. Although thoughtful intellectual questions are valued as indicators of student attitudes and understandings, they nonetheless create an interruption to the normal flow of things. To the teacher, such interruptions pose threats to his control of classroom events and his ability to cover the content of his course. Although science educators might enthusiastically endorse the idea that classrooms should be characterized by a spirit of inquiry in which student questions are encouraged and respected, findings suggest that it can be difficult for this to happen in actual schools where particular teachers face specific institutional curricular pressures.     

Language learning,teaching and educational reform in rural Thailand: an English teacher's perspective

This article discusses English language teaching in Thailand through a biographical case study of a teacher working in a government school in the rural north-east. It explores a particular context of teaching and learning, showing how an individual comes to be a teacher and deals with the day-to-day demands of teaching, as well as reflecting on the place of English in a society where it is a foreign language. The article contends that case studies of this type have the power to illuminate the context of teaching, to enable us to come to a fuller understanding of the demands of being a teacher of English in societies where it is a foreign language, and thus to provide essential data on the realities of teaching in various contexts. This data may then be used to inform centralized programmes to reform English language teaching which at present rarely consult the principal change agents – teachers – prior to their implementation. Curriculum reform programmes in Thailand have been criticized for their lack of impact at the classroom level and the article maintains that, if these programmes are to be effective, they should be based on an understanding of the local contexts of teachers' work.