How do elementary textbooks address fractions? A review of mathematics textbooks in the USA, Japan, and Kuwait

Textbooks play an important part in the design of instruction. This study analyzed the presentation of fractions in textbooks designed for the elementary grades in Kuwait, Japan, and the USA. The analysis focused on the physical characteristics of the books, the structure of the lessons, and the nature of the mathematical problems presented. Findings showed USA and Kuwaiti mathematics textbooks are larger than Japanese textbooks; this larger size is consistent with a great deal of repetition. The Japanese texts do not address fractions until the third grade; they use linear models and connect fractions with measurement. In the USA and Kuwait, fractions are introduced in the first grade. The Harcourt text uses concrete material to help students learn fraction procedures. For the Kuwaiti series, the lessons depend on using some pictorial representation of the area model to illustrate fraction ideas. All these textbooks focus on standard algorithms as the main computational methods.     

The influence of equipment variations on sliotar–hurley impact in the Irish game of hurling

The game of hurling is ranked as one of the fastest and most skilful field games in the world. It is played by a stick, hurley, made of ash wood and a ball, sliotar, made of a cork core or similar viscoelastic materials. Better standardisation of the game equipment requires analysing impacts to quantify precisely the effect of variations in equipment design on the resultant impact force at low and high striking speeds. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to use a high-speed camera to (1) characterise the impact dynamics in term of impact force magnitude and duration, and (2) investigate whether a relationship exists between the game equipment and the magnitude of the impact force. An air cannon unit (ACU) test rig was set up to cause the sliotar to strike the hurley at predetermined speeds. A high-speed camera operating at 12,500 frames per second (fps) was used to capture 32 experimental impacts covering a range of sliotar and hurley brands, impact locations and impact speeds. The factor ??sliotar brand?? was identified as the most significant factor for the impact force among other main factors and two-factor interactions at a constant speed and it had a significant effect with up to 27?% difference between sliotar brands. It was demonstrated that, at higher impact speeds, the force?Cdeformation curves of the sliotar brands varied significantly, even though similar force?Cdeformation curves have been reported at quasi-static compression and similar COR values at low impact speeds using the standard free-drop test. This is the first known study to characterise the unique, highly non-linear and anisotropic sliotar?Churley impact using high-speed camera technology. It highlights the need for a tighter standard for sliotar materials and manufacturing to increase uniformity between different brands and strongly suggests that the standard free-drop test is not sufficient to characterise and compare game equipment.     

Exploring physically active play in the early childhood curriculum from a complexity thinking perspective

This paper conceptualizes the teaching and learning of physically active play (PAP) in the early childhood curriculum. The conceptualization emerges from ‘doing complexivist bricolage’ and draws on complexity thinking features and concepts to position teaching and learning in PAP as children and teachers together exploring three different and coupled facets: fundamental movement patterns, group movement activities and group games. The three facets are different and coupled to highlight that they can be viewed as simultaneously separate and inseparable. This allows us to make sense of each facet and remind us that they are mutually influencing. Exploring fundamental movement patterns means focusing on exploring patterns and variations associated with one or more particular movement skills and balancing skills, and doing so in the context of individual activities, group movement activities or games. Exploring group movement activities involve children moving with their bodies as they engage in rhymes, songs and stories, thereby enabling children to develop both fundamental movement skills and literacy skills. Engaging in group games focuses on supporting children to learn the nature of games as socially constructed activities with some explicit rules agreed upon by players. I position teaching and learning as acts of joint exploration that embrace diverse learners (children and teachers) and different learning outcomes for individuals. In this joint exploration, the teacher plays two important roles: (1) fostering children’s and their own confidence and competence in PAP and (2) creating conditions that simultaneously constrain and enable as they follow, generate and sustain children’s interests in their explorations together. This approach enables teachers to respond to children’s interests and co-create learning situations with children in ways that are emergent and meaningful to all. When used in conjunction with mandated curriculum frameworks, it can open up possibilities for curriculum, teaching and learning for children and teachers.     

Reverse educational discrimination in Malaysian education

Former Director of the International Bureau of Education of Unesco in Geneva. Author of numerous publications in international and comparative education as well as in the fields of literacy, educational reform and planning.     

A data-mining approach to biomarker identification from protein profiles using discrete stationary wavelet transform

Objective: To develop a new bioinformatic tool based on a data-mining approach for extraction of the most infor-mative proteins that could be used to fred the potential biomarkers for the detection of cancer. Methods: Two independent datasets from serum samples of 253 ovarian cancer and 167 breast cancer patients were used. The samples were examined by surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF MS). The datasets were used to extract the informative proteins using a data-mining method in the discrete stationary wavelet transform domain. As a dimensionality re-duction procedure, the hard threshoiding method was applied to reduce the number of wavelet coefficients. Also, a distance measure was used to select the most discriminative coefficients. To find the potential biomarkers using the selected wavelet coefficients, we applied the inverse discrete stationary wavelet transform combined with a two-sided t-test. Results: From the ovarian cancer dataset, a set of five proteins were detected as potential biomarkers that could be used to identify the cancer patients from the healthy cases with accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of 100%. Also, from the breast cancer dataset, a set of eight proteins were found as the potential biomarkers that could separate the healthy cases from the cancer patients with accuracy of 98.26%, sensitivity of 100%, and specificity of 95.6%. Conclusion: The results have shown that the new bioinformatic tool can be used in combination with the high-throughput proteomic data such as SELDI-TOF MS to find the potential biomarkers with high discriminative power.     

Organisational critical success factors in adoption of e-banking at the Woolwich bank

The provision of banking services on the Internet (e-banking) is growing but there is a lack of research related to the organisational issues involved in its adoption. This paper brings theory and practice together by synthesising the existing literature with real-life experience of a UK bank. Two questions motivated this research. First, what is the experience of organisations in adopting e-banking? Second, what are the organisational factors which are critical to the success in e-banking adoption? A case study research approach was used to investigate organisational critical success factors in e-banking adoption at The Woolwich bank. The factors found to be most critical for success in e-banking included: understanding customers, organisational flexibility, availability of resources, systems security, established brand name, having multiple integrated channels, e-channel specific marketing, systems integration, systematic change management, support from top management, and good customer services. We concluded that banks need to implement considerable organisational changes in order to web-enable themselves. The main focus of their e-commerce strategy should be to integrate the e-banking channel with other service delivery channels to maximise benefits.     

Effect of simultaneous sodium oxalate and methionine feeding with and without Varuna (Crataeva nurvala hook & Frost) therapy on urolithogenesis in guinea pigs

The effect of sodium oxalate and methionine supplementation on stone-related constituents of urine was studied in 18 adult male guinea pigs. Their serum and tissue chemistry and histological changes in urinary tract and liver were also studied. The calciuretic effect of methionine was blocked by oxalate. The decrease in uric acid and citric acid, caused by oxalate, was offset by methionine. Oxalate-induced crystalluria and calcium and oxalate deposition in kidney tissue were lessened by methionine. Administration of Varuna, an indigenuous drug, to oxalate and methionine-supplemented animals prevented either totally or partially most of the urolithogenic effects of oxalate and methionine.     

Accounting for the effects of increased high school graduation expectations on pupil performance and resource allocation: results from New York State

Increases in high school graduation requirements are prompting interest in the consequences for students, taxpayers, and educators. This study examines the experiences of New York State school districts that increased student participation between 1992 and 1996 in a statewide testing program that historically has been designed for college-bound students. The study includes statistical comparisons based on the universe of school districts in the State as well as the results of an intensive set of selective case studies. The results show that many different types of districts moved to increase participation levels during the study period and that increases in participation levels were associated with (a) modest declines in the percentage of students passing the exams; (b) unchanged drop-out rates; (c) increases in spending that were similar in magnitude to increases found in districts with little or no increase in participation; and (d) increases in professional staffing levels in core instructional areas. Implications for policy are explored.     

Peace Journalism for Conflict Reporting: Insights from Pakistan

ABSTRACT

This study proposes a classification framework for conflict journalism with respect to its potential for conflict escalation and de-escalation in Pakistan—a country marred by a number of deadly conflicts. While building on the existing literature, the study proposes the varying levels of intensity of a conflict and the resulting escalatory and de-escalatory coverage as important factors in the process. Through content analysis and focus group discussion, it was found that de-escalatory coverage is inversely proportional to the intensity of a conflict in terms of its perceived threats to national security. Secondly it was found that the coverage was spread across a range of thematic frames though certain perspectives got more prominence as compared to others. Noting the variations in the presence of peace journalism, the study concludes that critical pragmatic approach to peace journalism is better suited to address queries relating to its theory and practice than other approaches because it accommodates the retention of peace as a value and at the same is pragmatic and hence honors the requirements of journalistic profession.     

Effective Integration of ICT in Jordanian Schools: An Analysis of Pedagogical and Contextual Impediments in the Science Classroom

A series of interviews and classroom observations were conducted with a group of in-service science teachers, students, school principal, and computer lab supervisors, from a “Discovery” female school in Jordan to assess their utilization of information and communication technology (ICT) in teaching science. The study also intended to determine how these participants were using ICT and if they had any internal and external impediments in the way of the effective integration of ICT in the teaching of science. Results showed that some participants were using ICT creatively in their science teaching. However, despite considerable political pressure to increase ICT use in the classroom, most expressed frustration at the lack of ICT tools, support from the school, from the Ministry of Education, and from the surrounding community. The article proposes possible resolutions to help these participants overcome their impediments. Some of the suggested resolutions for the internal impediments include involving teachers in preparing the school’s time-table, equipping the school with more ICT tools and offering more training courses for teachers. However, the suggested resolutions for the external impediments involve (1) The Ministry of Education to rethink the administration of board examinations, (2) The school to sacrifice scoring higher in board examinations for preparing more creative and more versatile students’ perspectives.