Foreword for the Special Issue (Piezoelectricity, Acoustic Waves and Devices Applications)

Piezoelectricity, acoustic waves, and devices applications have been traditionally interwoven from the early days when practical applications of theory of piezoelectricity and acoustic waves started with piezoelectric resonators. The last few years have aroused growing interests in piezoelectricity, acoustic waves, and devices applications due to their important roles in intelligent structures and transducers, which in turn motivated extensive research in the field of solid mechanics. For this…     

IJEVG and CDQ Editors’ Joint Statement on the Special International Issues

Editorial

IJEVG and CDQ Editors’ Joint Statement on the Special International Issues     

Introduction to Special Issue—STEM Workforce: STEM Education and the Post-Scientific Society

Journal of Science Education and Technology - An assumption is often made that STEM shortages can be remedied by either increasing the number of STEM graduates or...     

International Police Co‐operation and the Associations for the Fight Against White Slavery

White Slavery occupied the imagination of the European and American middle‐class for more than a generation. From the 1880s onwards philanthropists organised a campaign to suppress the trafficking of girls and young women. The governments and the police could not ignore this campaign. International agreements were signed in 1904 and 1910 and specialised branches of police were set up in major European cities. Intensified surveillance and researches by the police demonstrated that a White Slave Trade as described in the media and by philanthropic organisations hardly existed. White Slave Trade was more a vehicle for philanthropists to gain influence on governments as far as moral issues were concerned. For the police and the governments the fight against White Slavery brought a lot of benefits as well: they presented themselves as moral institutions, upholding the needs of the public. Referring back to their superiors, the police could gain more autonomy and importance.     

For Better or for Worse? Positive and Negative Parental Influences on Young Children's Executive Function

Despite rapidly growing research on parental influences on children's executive function (EF), the uniqueness and specificity of parental predictors and links between adult EF and parenting remain unexamined. This 13-month longitudinal study of 117 parent–child dyads (60 boys; M_age at Time 1 = 3.94 years, SD = 0.53) included detailed observational coding of parent–child interactions and assessed adult and child EF and child verbal ability (VA). Supporting a differentiated view of parental influence, negative parent–child interactions and parental scaffolding showed unique and specific associations with child EF, whereas the home learning environment and parental language measures showed global associations with children's EF and VA.     

‘Special sport’ for misfits and losers: educational triage and the constitution of schooled subjectivities

This paper investigates the recent move by the federal government in Australia to manage more closely the primary sector of education through the use of national performance standards. The increasing importance placed on such benchmarks in Years 3, 5 and 7 raises questions about the perceived need to survey and thereby manage the education systems by using this technology as a means of achieving the goals of performativity - accountability and competition. Setting this agenda in a globalized context, it is acknowledged that although the mechanisms for setting and raising standards are very different across the world, the discourse resonates. The paper documents the specifically Australian, and more particularly Queensland, responses to the culture of performance. In this imperative to improve educational outcomes by using national tests, the paper raises persistent questions about the suitability of such tests for children who, for a host of reasons, are different from the monocultural able-bodied mainstream. Through its argument that inclusive practices in primary education are being jeopardized by creeping standardization practices, and despite policy rhetoric to the contrary, the paper demonstrates the seemingly unstoppable forces of performativity evidenced through national standards.     

International Institute for Collaborative Cell Biology and Biochemistry—History and Memoirs from an International Network for Biological Sciences

I was invited to write this essay on the occasion of my selection as the recipient of the 2012 Bruce Alberts Award for Excellence in Science Education from the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB). Receiving this award is an enormous honor. When I read the email announcement for the first time, it was more than a surprise to me, it was unbelievable. I joined ASCB in 1996, when I presented a poster and received a travel award. Since then, I have attended almost every ASCB meeting. I will try to use this essay to share with readers one of the best experiences in my life. Because this is an essay, I take the liberty of mixing some of my thoughts with data in a way that it not usual in scientific writing. I hope that this sacrifice of the format will achieve the goal of conveying what I have learned over the past 20 yr, during which time a group of colleagues and friends created a nexus of knowledge and wisdom. We have worked together to build a network capable of sharing and inspiring science all over the world.