Gender disparities in science and engineering in Chinese universities

Gender disparities in science and engineering majors in Chinese universities have received increasing attention from researchers and educators in China in recent years. Using data from a national survey of college students who graduated in 2005, this study documents gender disparities in enrollment and academic performance in science and engineering majors, and explores gender disparities in initial employment experiences of science and engineering graduates. It finds that females lag far behind males in enrollment in science and engineering majors overall. However, females actually are more represented than males in some majors such as mathematics and chemistry though the reverse is true for other science and engineering majors. Also, in science and engineering majors, females perform better than males in both general course grades and in English competency tests. Male science and engineering graduates have a clear advantage over their female counterparts in initial employment after graduation: they have a high employment rate, a higher starting salary, and are more likely to be employed in such jobs as business management and technical specialist. The male advantage in employment rate and starting salary persists even after controlling for other factors.     

A System at Risk: College Outreach Programs and the Educational Neglect of Underachieving Latino High School Students

This literature review examines the ways in which college and university outreach programs impact Latino (and other minorities) high school students. This article demonstrates that the outreach programs outlined do aid in closing the gap of college enrollment for Latinos. However, a review of three representative programs—AVID, the University of California's Early Academic Outreach Program, and Upward Bound—reveals that the Latino students who exhibit the most need are summarily excluded from participating in the programs, thus leaving them on the margins of the educational system. One of the conclusions of this study is that the problem lies with the political nature of the programs, which causes them to have stringent eligibility criteria.     

理工科大学“双轨制”教学模式的实践--以能源工程类课程为例

随着世界范围内能源与环境可持续发展问题的日益严峻,培养相关人才的能源工程类学科已成为国内外大学争相开设的热门专业。我国高校在该学科本科教学中的教学理念、教学模式、课程设置和实践教学等方面尚存在一定不足。本文在分析国外知名大学能源工程类专业的课程设置和教学方法的基础上,结合我国高等教育国情和大连理工大学研究特色,提出了优化教学内容和教学模式的改革建议。     

市场化背景下理工院校人文教育的挑战与对策

在市场化背景之下,理工院校人文教育的客体（学生）和主体（学校）都面临着新的挑战。加强人文教育,理工院校需要以更高远的角度认识其意义、以更现实的题材充实其内容、以更多样的形式来渗透影响。     

Chronicling decentralization initiatives in the Philippine basic education sector

The Philippine school system is considered as one of the largest in the world with 41,989 public elementary and secondary schools and 7790 private schools under the supervision and regulation of the Department of Education (DepEd Fact Sheet, 2005). This paper chronicles various decentralization initiatives carried out by the basic education sector in the country specifically along the areas of education financing, teacher effectiveness, curriculum development, textbooks and instructional materials, and school–community dynamics and student learning and assessment. This discourse culminates with the discussion of the lessons learned from a decentralized system of education for better school operation and management.     

德国应用科技大学实践教学特色分析及借鉴

德国应用科技大学在人才培养方向上与我国高职院校相当。其坚持高级应用型人才培养方向,专业设置注重应用性、灵活性、区域性,重视职业实践,实践教学环节特色明显,应为我国高职教育借鉴。     

Developing as a teacher in the fields of science and technology

In universities, development as a teacher may be contradicted with developing as a researcher. Most previous studies have investigated pedagogical development merely as a result of pedagogical training and ignored the dual teacher-researcher identity. This study examines what kind of meaningful experiences are perceived to have triggered and influenced the process of developing as a teacher in the fields of science and technology. The data were gathered by interviewing 10 academics who had participated in a pedagogical training offered by a Finnish technical university between 1999 and 2009. Based on a narrative analysis utilizing dimensions of transformative learning, the results highlight the influence of the working environment and experiences, and imply that teacher development process in the fields of science and technology can be better understood in terms of becoming a teacher, rather than as a continual, conscious development process. The resulting teacher-researcher identity provides a basis for pedagogical development.     

大学生科技创新活动与大工程观的培养

大学生科技创新活动是培养学生创新精神和创新能力、工程设计和实践能力的重要平台。在分析大学生科技创新活动的内涵和现状、大工程观和大学生科技创新活动内在联系的基础上,提出用大工程观指导大学生科技创新活动,建议在大学生科技创新活动中加强工科学生人文素质的培养和引进＂产学研＂合作,培养具有大工程观的卓越工程师。     

Turkish pre-service science teachers' understanding of science and their confidence in teaching it

This study examines Turkish pre-service science teachers' understanding of science concepts and their confidence in its teaching. A total of 299 senior science education major students participated in the study. Data collection instruments included the Science Concepts Test, and the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument. Although findings of the study indicated that majority of the participants held misconceptions concerning fundamental science concepts, they generally felt confident about teaching it. The relationship that might exist among pre-service science teachers' confidence in their effectiveness in teaching and the number of the science courses completed in university is examined.     

科技史与理工科高校思想政治教育

在理工科高校,开设科学技术史选修课是加强大学生思想政治教育的重要举措之一。应该结合理工科大学生的专业特点,充分发挥科技史在理工科高等院校思想政治教育中独特的重要作用。     

Outcomes for engineering students delivering a STEM education and outreach programme

University science outreach programmes are used to encourage more school students to select science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects in further education and pursue science-related careers. The benefits of science outreach programmes are often espoused from the perspective of programme participants. Little attention, however, is given to what university students delivering the programmes gain from the experience. This paper seeks to illustrate the benefits of engineering students delivering STEM outreach programmes in schools. It reports on a qualitative case study of the experiences of two STEM Education and Outreach team members from a regional university in Australia. Content analysis of interview data highlighted not only the participants’ motivations and perceived benefits of being involved in the STEM programme but also revealed the skills and attributes honed throughout the experience. Involvement in the STEM outreach programme resulted in the development of social and personal responsibility generic graduate attribute skills, evidenced through their motivations to be involved, the demonstration of understanding of teaching and learning, and application of science communication skills. This study demonstrates that designing and delivering STEM outreach programmes assists in the development of skills that will be beneficial when pursuing careers in engineering in the future.     

美国大学食品科学专业本科人才培养模式的基本特征

对美国大学食品科学专业的分布、专业设置、课程设置、学分要求等情况作了综述,可为我国食品科学专业本科人才培养模式的建立和改革提供参考。     

Towards coherent science and technology education

The integration of science and technology education has been a topic of worldwide debate. However, the focus of the debate has been too much on the degree of integration of subjects at the expense of such important but related issues as the nature of the constituting disciplines, educational levels (state, school, classroom), and the objects of integration. Integration should be seen from the perspective of curricular coherence. Coherent science and technology education (CSTE) should pay attention both to uninterrupted learning on the part of students and to the nature of the constituting disciplines. This paper describes a study exploring CSTE practice in nine junior‐secondary schools in the Netherlands. It recommends a framework to promote CSTE by stakeholders at the state, school, and classroom levels.     

Activity matters: Understanding student interest in school science

A genuine interest in science is an important part of scientific literacy, and thus a critical goal for science education. Recent studies, however, have found that school science has not been effective in meeting this goal, an important reason for which is the lack of knowledge about what makes science interesting (or not) to the students. Using instructional episodes as the unit of analysis, this study investigated the effects of learning environment elements (content topic, activity, and learning goal) on student interest in science. The findings indicated that when judging the interestingness of an instructional episode, students focused primarily on the form of activity rather than content topic and learning goal. Activities that were “hands‐on” in nature and allowed for engagement with technology elicited higher interest. This study highlights the need to place more emphasis on the role of activity in constructing interesting learning environments, and in the mean time, suggests that student science interest could be improved by making changes to relatively easy‐to‐manipulate aspects of learning environments, such as those examined in the study. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 515–537, 2012     

理工类高校人文社会科学发展战略的思考

理工类高校要实现向综合性大学转型的目标,必须抓住当前发展人文社会科学的历史机遇,进一步转变观念,科学规划,准确定位,通过实施"机制创新,名师引领,特色集成,开放合作"等发展战略,实现人文社会科学的创新发展.     

论理工科校长学习范式的超越

理工科专家成为大学校长后，面临着系统学习高等教育学的艰巨任务。认清高等教育学等文科的学习特点，努力超越原有的学习范式，是理工科校长迅速提高高等教育学理论水平、真正成为教育专家的有效途径。     

Creative arts outreach initiatives in schools: effects on university expectations and discussions about university with important socialisers

ABSTRACT

For youth in disadvantaged schools, university expectations and participation are often limited by access to social and cultural capital that support expectations. This study investigated the utility of creative arts outreach initiatives (CAI) in supporting students’ university expectations and building cultural capital in homes, schools and neighbourhoods in the southwest corridor of Perth, Western Australia. Cultural capital was operationalised as discussions about university with parents, teachers and friends as important socialisers. The CAI provided task-based programs that connected students with industry professionals and university academics to access new social and cultural capital, develop skills that satisfied learning objectives and increase navigational capacity for higher education participation. Multi-group latent growth models were estimated for university expectations across 3 time points and university discussions with important socialisers at time 3 using a propensity-score matched sample comprising 176 students aged between 11 to 18 years from eight high schools (program group?=?88, control group?=?88, females?=?64%). Results indicated stability in levels of university expectations for program participants and increased discussions about university with parents, teachers and friends. Findings support the inclusion of people-rich, co-curricular creative arts programs such as CAI in disadvantaged schools to build social and cultural capital that supports and potentially widens higher education participation in this region.