What��s Missing in Model-Based Teaching

In this study, the author investigated how four science teachers employed model-based teaching (MBT) over a 1-year period. The purpose of the research was to develop a baseline of the fundamental and specific dimensions of MBT that are present and absent in science teaching. Teacher interviews, classroom observations, and pre and post-student assessments were gathered. Using a Generate-Evaluate-Modify framework as a theoretical guide, the author identified three fundamental aspects of MBT that were not apparent in an analysis of the teaching methods. Drawing on these findings, the author hypothesizes the consequent impact of the absence of these aspects on MBT on students?? experiences and performance in science. Implications for core science teacher professional development activities on MBT are discussed.     

Frictions that activate change: dynamics of global to local non-governmental organizations for female education and empowerment in China,India, and Pakistan*

This article examines how non-governmental organizations create resources and spaces for girls and women’s education and empowerment in China, India and Pakistan – in the context of global expectations and local state relations as well as cultural norms. We examine the dynamics that foster female empowerment associated with educational attainment. Analysis showed that the five NGO’s responses to enabling and constraining local needs and demands gave rise to productive friction that activated positive development. We conclude that engaging local individuals as managers, teachers or facilitators who can negotiate with international actors and with the state is an effective foundation for maintaining a balance between being accountable to local contingencies and norms and to global social justice principles of the projects. These models indicated that “effective scale” might better be defined as a collaboration between the local and global, rather than “scaling up” in size.

International NGO partnerships with several of state organizations and local leadership can be a catalyst for fundamental change, subject to dynamic engagement with productive friction that activates educational empowerment and social change.     

A modified peer rating system to recognise rating skill as a learning outcome

The peer rating system used here advances the quantitative literacy goals outlined in the social sciences. We instituted a mid-semester intervention to teach rating skills and used an index to track longitudinal changes of skill mastery over the course of the semester. Seventy-four students in five advanced research classes followed the procedure of the existing peer rating system by completing reading assignments, writing reflections online, engaging in class discussions, rating their peers’ reflections and receiving feedback on their group effort. Peer ratings were then compared with each other and also with the instructor ratings to derive individualised indices of reliability and validity. These technical indicators enabled two rounds of assessment before and after a class-wide intervention. An omnibus test across the five classes showed a significant improvement in rating quality due to the intervention. Our courses not only met a quantitative learning outcome but also promised vocational competence.     

Establishment of engineering laboratories for undergraduate and postgraduate studies

The importance of the laboratories for the study of engineering problems is manifold. At the undergraduate level it provides an opportunity for the students to get an impression of the basic principles of engineering. At the postgraduate level it becomes an instrument for advanced level study and for the solutions to real-life engineering problems. Level of emphasis by an individual engineering institution on basic engineering, interdisciplinary aspects of engineering and relevance to international, national and local industrial trends effects the policy to establish the engineering laboratories. However, a core facility, for the teaching of the most basic principals of relevant field of engineering should be a common feature of all the laboratories associated with individual subject area. In this research paper an approach for establishing engineering laboratories is presented. It discusses the relation between the syllabus of appropriate level of study and the equipment required in the laboratory, physical planning for the laboratory, sequential and parallel approaches for establishing the laboratories, the functional capacity of laboratories, the organizational flexibility of the laboratories, the cost factor and the recurring expenditure. It suggests ways of utilizing the laboratory for effective teaching and research through optimal use of the above factors.     

Foreign Communications

Masami Ito, et al. Broadcasting in Japan (London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978—E4.95/$9.50, paper)

Ibrahim Elsheikh Mass Media and Ideological Change in Egypt (1950-1973) (Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam, 1977—about $40.00, paper)

Mass Media and Cultural Relationships by Anthony Piepe, Sunny Crouch and Miles Emerson (1978, 169 pp.—price not given)

Trade Unionism in Television by Peter Seglow (1978, 287 pp.—price not given)

Cuadernos de Comunicaci(5n (Communication Notes) (Comunicolgia Aplicada de Mexico, S.A. Comunal No. 7, Mexico 20, D.F.—about $55 per year/12 issues).

Godwin C. Chu, Syed A. Rahim, and D. Lawrence Kincaid Institutional Exploration in Communication Technology (Honolulu: East West Communication Institute, East-West Center, 1978 —$3.00, paper)

P. Gould and J. Johnson, An Experiment in the Classification of Television Programs, October 1978, $3.00, paper), and the paper written for laymen, #5 (P. Gould, How Should We Classify Television Programs? October 1978, $2.50, paper)

Journalism Training: An Interim Report by Robert Amerson and John Herbst (30 pp. $1.75)

An Analysis of Ten International Radio News Broadcasts in English to Africa by Douglas A. Boyd and Donald R. MacKay (16 pp., $1.25)

A Look at the World's Radio News by Bert Cowlan and Lee M. Love (39 pp., $2.25)

Education for Communication Development: The Global View by Robert Lindsay (27 pp., $1.75)

A Brief Study on News Patterns in 16 Third World Countries by Edward T. Pinch (15 pp., $1.25)

International Telecommunications and the Requirements of News Services by Ithiel de Sole Pool and Stephen Dizard (19 pp., $1.25)

Foreign News in Nine Arab Countries by Gehan Rachty (21 pp., $1.25)

International News Wires and Third World News in Asia by Wilbur Schramm, et al. (79 pp., $4.00)

The Multinational News Pool by Roger Tatarian (19 pp., $1.25)

International Conferences: Process and Effects by Rosemarie Rogers, et al. (March 1978, 53 pp., $3.00)

Hemisphere Communications in Historical Perspective by James Nelson Goodsell (September 1978, 18 pp., $1.25)

Kaarle Nordenstreng and Herbert I. Schiller, eds. National Sovereignty and International Communication (Norwood, N.J.: Ablex Publishing Corp., 1979—$21.50)

Rosemary Righter's Whose News? Politics, the Press and the Third World (London: Andre Deutsch/New York: Times Books, 1978—$12.50)

Frank Barton The Press of Africa: Persecution & Perseverance (New York: Holmes & Meier/Africana Publishing Co, 1979—$29.50)

Godwin C. Chu, ed. Popular Media in China: Shaping New Cultural Patterns (Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1978—$12.00)     

How many equivalent resistances?

It is straightforward to construct the set of equivalent resistance for circuits constructed from a bunch of four or five equal resistors. But as the bunch size increases it becomes difficult to find the order of the set of equivalent resistances. Even the computer programs runs out of memory. Here we present an analytical result using simple mathematical machinery. The size of the set is shown to be less than 2.618 ⁿ .     

Oxygen free radical modified DNA: Implications in the etiopathogenesis of Systemic lupus erythematosus

The present study was designed to probe the possible role of singlet oxygen and superoxide anion radical modified DNA in the etiopathogenesis of Systemic lupus erythematosus. These species were generated by the exposure of riboflavin to 365 nm UV light. Modified DNA showed single strand breaks, hyperchromicity at 260nm and decrease in Tm. The modified DNA induced high titer antibodies in experimental animals. The antibodies showed reactivity with various nucleic acid polymers, a property commonly associated with Systemic lupus erythematosus anti-DNA autoantibodies. Systemic lupus erythematosus sera showed preferential binding of modified DNA over native DNA in direct binding and competitive binding solid phase immunoassays and band shift assays. The results suggest for the possible involvement of the singlet- superoxide modified DNA as a potential trigger for anti- DNA autoantibody production in SLE and thus in the etiopathogenesis of the disease.     

建立知识社会

人类社会正经历着向知识社会的转变;知识正日益成为经济发展和社会进步的核心因素.身处全球迈向知识社会的进程之中,我们目睹和亲历着世界性的合作、竞争、流动和创新.技术变革无疑是这一进程的强大驱动力之一;而在技术不断取得极大进步,知识与信息以空前的数量产生和极快的速度传播的同时,也存在着知识鸿沟或数字鸿沟现象.     

Challenging the myths about madaris in Pakistan: A national household survey of enrolment and reasons for choosing religious schools

There is speculation about madaris in Pakistan as sources of terrorists and about levels and reasons for enrolment, but a dearth of empirical data. We studied madarsah enrolment among 53,960 representative households; 853 focus groups of parents discussed enrolment choices. In 2004, 2.6% of all children (3.8% of school-going children) aged 5–9 years attended a madarsah. Children from urban and less educated households were more likely to attend a madarsah, but there was no difference by sex of the child or household vulnerability. Parents chose madaris because they offered an Islamic education. Our findings challenge misconceptions about madaris in Pakistan.