SAUDI ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SCIENCE TEACHERS’ BELIEFS: TEACHING SCIENCE IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM

This study explored Saudi elementary school science teachers’ beliefs about the process of teaching and learning science. This involved the exploration of their views about the new Saudi science curriculum, which emphasizes critical thinking and problem solving. Comprehensive interviews were held in 8 schools with 4 male and 6 female—2 of whom were from private schools—science teachers. The interviews were analyzed to identify and assess common themes among their beliefs as well as associations between their beliefs and self-reported classroom practices. The findings revealed perceptual differences between teaching the old and the new science curricula and also that these science teachers were challenged by available class time, the student–teacher ratio, and the lack of laboratory space, equipment, and administrative support. It appears that the more interactive and group-oriented activities that formed the instructional foundation of the new curriculum have increased enjoyment for teaching science and led students to better comprehension of scientific concepts.     

Social media,legacy media and gatekeeping: the protest paradigm in news of Ferguson and Charlottesville

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the site of intersection between legacy and social media, whereby it asks how local legacy media (St Louis Post-Dispatch and Richmond Times-Dispatch) invoked social media (Facebook and Twitter) discourse within their coverage of the Ferguson (2014) and Charlottesville (2017) events. It thus explores how gatekeeping is manifested and, consequently, how the protest paradigm emerged in a news landscape of proliferating social media. Thematic textual analysis indicates that coverage of Charlottesville and Ferguson clearly relied on indulging the social media sphere in important ways. Common themes of social media as multipurpose platforms, as interfacing with law and order, and as reconciling material and digital modes culminating in social activism were revealed. The study shows that the protest paradigm that has long characterized legacy media’s coverage of social protest is not as “pure” as it may once have been, since a social media component is helping define the contours and content of legacy media’s landscape.     

Maternal Leptin,Adiponectin, Resistin,Visfatin and Tumor Necrosis Factor-Alpha in Normal and Gestational Diabetes

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common medical complication associated with pregnancy. The present study evaluates the changes in maternal adipocytokines (leptin, adiponectin, resistin, visfatin and tumor necrosis factor-alpha; TNF-α) in pregnancy complicated with GDM compared to normal pregnancy at 2nd and 3rd trimesters. The study included total number of 142 pregnant women classified into 4 groups: normal pregnancy (n = 33) and pregnancy with GDM (n = 24) both at 2nd trimester and normal pregnancy (n = 38) and GDM (n = 47) at 3rd trimester. Both GDM groups were significantly presented with elevated body mass index, fasting blood sugar and abnormal oral glucose tolerance test compared to their matched control. Results indicated reduction in maternal serum leptin and adiponectin in GDM compared to normal pregnancy at 3rd trimester. Elevated resistin and TNF-α were evident among pregnancy complicated with GDM at both tested trimesters. On the other hand, significant elevation in maternal visfatin was noted between GDM and matched control at 2nd trimester only. Significant increase in maternal leptin and visfatin and resistin was noted by advances in gestational period in healthy pregnancy. On the other hand, reduced adiponectin and elevated visfatin mean values were noticed in GDM at 3rd compared to 2nd trimester. It could be concluded that increased insulin resistance accompanies GDM is associated with suppressed leptin and adiponectin and increased resistin and TNF-α which might suggest their involvement in the development of GDM.     

Building community in academic settings: the importance of flexibility in a structured mentoring program

Academic mentoring is increasingly being used by many universities as a tool to enhance the quality of research‐led teaching, promote cross‐faculty collaboration and encourage a mentoring culture and community. This article reports on a pilot project established to investigate the benefits of building flexibility into a structured academic mentoring program at the University of Sydney. Twenty‐six academics from the Faculty of Business and Economics and the Faculty of Education and Social Work participated in the program. The mentors ranged in position from lecturer to professor and the mentees from associate lecturer to senior lecturer. Flexible arrangements were shown to be important in a variety of ways, from the pairing of mentor with mentee, to focussing on issues of work survival and life balance, research outcomes and career advancement. The project highlighted the lower number of male academics involved in formal mentoring, which merits further exploration. All participants reported positive outcomes, although refinement of the pairing process was recommended. A variety of unanticipated outcomes was reported by mentees.     

A critical evaluation of the usefulness of a coding scheme to categorise levels of reflective thinking

The use of reflective learning journals to encourage higher order learning outcomes is a growing area in higher education research and practice. However, without a unified and clear definition of reflection, identifying and assessing reflection is problematic for educators. In an attempt to address this issue, in 1999 Kember and colleagues devised a coding scheme based on the work of Mezirow, to identify and assess levels of reflective thinking in students' written journals. We evaluated the usefulness of this coding scheme in a business education context. Findings revealed that the scheme was useful in identifying categories of reflective thinking. Inter‐coder agreement was 0.802 which is satisfactory. On average, 65% of the journal content was coded as non‐reflection and 35% as reflection. A further outcome of the research was to refine the coding scheme and to provide suggestions for its application in teaching practice.     

The potential of student narratives to enhance quality in higher education

University policies are increasingly developed with reference to students’ learning experiences, with a focus on the concept of the ‘student voice’. Yet the ‘student voice’ is difficult to define and emphasis is often placed on numerical performance indicators. A diverse student population has wide-ranging educational experiences, which may not be easily captured within the broad categories provided by traditional survey tools, which can drown out the rich, varied and gradual processes of individual development. There is no single tool that can be used to measure students’ experiences. This paper draws on findings from four narrative inquiry studies, carried out in the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, to illustrate how a narrative approach could be used to complement performance indicators. This provides a richer context for educators’ understanding of students’ experiences and for supporting and setting institutional agendas.     

Situated learning,reflective practice and conceptual expansion: effective peer observation for tutor development

Despite tutors' importance, they often encounter inadequate professional development and support. This study describes the impact of peer observation of teaching activities on tutors' professional development using multiple data-sets over a three-year period. The data was analysed according to three themes: situated learning, reflective practice and conceptual expansion, in order to identify changes to teaching practice. Tutors reported that peer observation of teaching is an effective development activity that encouraged reflection on teaching and, for some, resulted in conceptual expansion and lasting change to teaching. Tutors found the situated aspect of the peer observation activity was an important factor, as it enabled them to observe how other tutors supported their students' engagement with the discipline-specific curriculum. Recommendations for future research and for the professional development of tutors in practice are provided.     

Seeing institutionally: a rationale for ‘teach the University’ in student and staff partnerships

ABSTRACT

Students as Partners (SAP) initiatives are often framed as opportunities to reanimate university education so that students become active participants in their learning, and change agents capable of transforming their institutions. Embedded in these framings is a view that students are also the primary ‘experts’ of their learning experiences. This shift marks curious terrain about how staff come into partnership when students are encouraged to understand themselves as experts at the very same time the purpose of universities is beset with multiple and contradictory narratives, and the whole notion of expertise – even for academics – has become unsettled by the politics of a post-truth era. If the advocacy of student expertise is to be understood as a radical intervention to the marketised neoliberal university, as is often claimed, we argue that the desire for expertise has a more compelling basis when students are engaged with what Gina Hunter calls learning to ‘see institutionally’. In this article, we both describe, and put to work, Jeffrey J. Williams’s idea ‘teach the university’ as one mechanism for students and staff working in partnership to ‘see institutionally’. We then examine the nascent efforts of our own SAP initiatives to make a case for why ‘the university’ – as idea and institution – deserves to be introduced to, studied and critically interrogated by students as part of a long tradition of inquiry. While a good many SAP initiatives aim to address where students are absent, under-represented or disempowered in the university, very few appear to take seriously that there is a field of scholarship about universities that lends credibility and contest to the notion of expertise. By staging a conceptual encounter between Williams, Hunter and our own partnership work, the potential for SAP is expanded as project that cares for the future university.     

Parental satisfaction with programmes provided for children with learning difficulties in Oman

This study aimed to explore parental satisfaction with programmes provided for children with learning difficulties (LD) in Oman. A sample was collected from 299 parents who filled out an electronic self-reporting questionnaire during the second semester of 2021. The researchers designed a 19-item questionnaire that was distributed over two domains: 14 items on parent satisfaction and five items on parent co-operation. The results revealed that parents' overall satisfaction with the effectiveness of the LD programmes in which their children were enrolled was high. The results also indicated statistically significant differences among the mean scores on parents' satisfaction over the age variable groups, in favor of the younger group, followed by the middle group, and lastly the older group. There were also statistically significant differences among the mean scores on parents' satisfaction according to the province locations, in favor of the capital city of Oman, Muscat, and its peripheral provinces, followed by the western provinces, and lastly, the eastern provinces. The study recommends conducting similar studies to investigate the satisfaction of school principals, specialists, teachers and children with LD to determine the effectiveness of Oman's LD programmes.