The Influence of an Inclusive Education Course on Attitude Change of Pre‐service Secondary Teachers in Hong Kong

Since the mid‐1990s in Hong Kong there has been a slow but obvious shift from expecting students with disabilities to be educated in segregated special schools to providing more opportunities for them to be educated alongside their mainstream peers. Pre‐service teacher training institutions have begun to offer modules of study in order to assist mainstream teachers in coping with greater diversity in their classes. The main purpose of this paper is to examine the adequacy of an inclusive education module on the attitude change of pre‐service teachers in Hong Kong. A convenience sample of over 200 pre‐service secondary teachers in a B.Ed. (Honours) Programme at one university participated in the study. Data were obtained through a three‐part questionnaire to find out whether there were any substantial changes in their attitudes, concerns and confidence for inclusion before and after taking a module of study on inclusive education. Findings and implications are drawn in light of preparing teachers to cater for diversity in the schools in Hong Kong.     

Acquiring Color Names via Linguistic Contrast: The Influence of Contrasting Terms

Linguistic contrast of the form "It's not X; it's Y" is often used by adults to correct children's naming errors. The present studies examined whether such linguistic contrast could help preschoolers learn a novel color name. In Experiment 1, a novel color term was contrasted only once with 1 or 2 familiar color names. Contrasting a new color term with children's own label for the stimulus color helped 5-year-olds learn the new term, but contrasting the new term with randomly chosen familiar color terms did not. For 4-year-olds, neither kind of contrast helped much. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that when the contrastive information was presented more than once, even 3- and 4-year-olds performed much like the 5-year-olds in Experiment 1. Together, these findings suggest that contrasting a new term with a child's own term facilitates the acquisition of the new term, perhaps because it gives the child specific information about how two terms are related in meaning.     

The Principle of Mutual Exclusivity in Word Learning: To Honor or Not to Honor?

According to Markman and Wachtel, children assume that nouns pick out mutually exclusive object categories, and so each object should have only one category label. While this assumption can be useful in word learning, it is not entirely reliable. Therefore, children need to learn when to and when not to make this assumption. 6 studies examined whether knowledge about hierarchical organization of categories and about cross-language equivalents for object labels can help children limit their use of this assumption appropriately. These studies revealed that adults as well as children resisted assigning 2 novel names to the same object in some situations. By age 4, children also seemed to know enough about categorization to accept 2 names for an object if the names picked out categories from different levels of a hierarchy (e.g., animal and lemur) but not if they picked out categories from the same level (e.g., lemur and seal). Moreover, monolingual as well as bilingual children seemed to know enough about languages to accept 2 names for the same object if the names clearly came from different languages. Together, these findings suggest that even preschool children can make use of knowledge about language and categorization to fine tune the mutual exclusivity assumption in order to use it effectively in word learning.     

Reading comprehension,working memory and higher-level language skills in children with SLI and/or dyslexia

This study examined (1) whether working memory and higher-level languages skills—inferencing and comprehension monitoring—accounted for individual differences among Chinese children in Chinese reading comprehension, after controlling for age, Chinese word reading and oral language skills, and (2) whether children with specific language impairment (SLI) or dyslexia showed deficits in these skills. Eighty-two Cantonese Chinese-speaking children between the age of 7; 8–9; 5 were assessed. Regression analyses on the full sample offered support for the first question. The children were also classified into four groups: Typically-developing (TD; N = 34), specific language impairment-only (SLI-only; N = 18), SLI-dyslexia comorbid (SLI-D; N = 22) and dyslexia-only (D-only; N = 8). Pair-wise comparisons focusing on the second question revealed that both the SLI-only and the D-only group performed worse than the TD group in reading comprehension after controlling for age and nonverbal intelligence. The SLI-only and the D-only group showed a different profile of deficits: only the SLI-only group performed worse than the TD group in working memory, comprehension monitoring, and inferencing. The SLI-D comorbid group did worse than the SLI-only, but not the D-only group, in reading comprehension. The SLI-D comorbid group did not do worse than either single diagnosis group in the higher-level language skills associated with reading comprehension. These findings suggested adopting different intervention approaches for reading comprehension difficulties in children with SLI versus children with dyslexia.     

Steering a Future Through Scenarios: Into the Academic Library of the Future

Scenario planning as a strategic tool for future planning was explored. The case study showed how the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Library applied the process to draw up its preferred future, and illustrated the importance of involving all stakeholders in every stage for the shared future to be acceptable to all.     

Microstructured multi-well plate for three-dimensional packed cell seeding and hepatocyte cell culture

In this article, we present a microstructured multi-well plate for enabling three-dimensional (3D) high density seeding and culture of cells through the use of a standard laboratory centrifuge to promote and maintain 3D tissue-like cellular morphology and cell-specific functionality in vitro without the addition of animal derived or synthetic matrices or coagulants. Each well has microfeatures on the bottom that are comprised of a series of ditches/open microchannels. The dimensions of the microchannels promote and maintain 3D tissue-like cellular morphology and cell-specific functionality in vitro. After cell seeding with a standard pipette, the microstructured multi-well plates were centrifuged to tightly pack cells inside the ditches in order to enhance cell-cell interactions and induce formation of 3D cellular structures during cell culture. Cell-cell interactions were optimized based on cell packing by considering dimensions of the ditches/open microchannels, orientation of the microstructured multi-well plate during centrifugation, cell seeding density, and the centrifugal force and time. With the optimized cell packing conditions, we demonstrated that after 7 days of cell culture, primary human hepatocytes adhered tightly together to form cord-like structures that resembled 3D tissue-like cellular architecture. Importantly, cell membrane polarity was restored without the addition of animal derived or synthetic matrices or coagulants.     

批判教育学中的政治、理论与现实(上)

编者按:究竟如何理解英美的批判教育学思潮,尤其是近年来其阵营内部存在纷纷攘攘、似大有碎片化的趋势,本刊特约请当代批判教育学的代表人物之一,世界知名学者、教育思想家阿普尔教授,加州州立大学助理教授韦恩·欧,对批判教育学的历史、目前内部不同取向间的分歧,以及在当代保守主义复兴语境中所面临的挑战和应对策略,予以全面的梳理和分析.批判教育学对于中国教育学界并不陌生,但是,对于它的历史缘起、理论全貌和时代境遇,我们少有系统和整体的关注,本文对于我们的价值不仅在于可略补此憾,更重要的是,它会启发我们反思,在中国时下教育改革的潮流中,我们的教育政治、文化和经济内涵是什么?教育在社会的现实变革、社会的发展远景中究竟应该扮演什么角色?因本文篇幅较长,分上篇、下篇两次刊发,敬请读者谅解.     

Hydrogel discs for digital microfluidics

Hydrogels are networks of hydrophilic polymer chains that are swollen with water, and they are useful for a wide range of applications because they provide stable niches for immobilizing proteins and cells. We report here the marriage of hydrogels with digital microfluidic devices. Until recently, digital microfluidics, a fluid handling technique in which discrete droplets are manipulated electromechanically on the surface of an array of electrodes, has been used only for homogeneous systems involving liquid reagents. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that the cylindrical hydrogel discs can be incorporated into digital microfluidic systems and that these discs can be systematically addressed by droplets of reagents. Droplet movement is observed to be unimpeded by interaction with the gel discs, and gel discs remain stationary when droplets pass through them. Analyte transport into gel discs is observed to be identical to diffusion in cases in which droplets are incubated with gels passively, but transport is enhanced when droplets are continually actuated through the gels. The system is useful for generating integrated enzymatic microreactors and for three-dimensional cell culture. This paper demonstrates a new combination of techniques for lab-on-a-chip systems which we propose will be useful for a wide range of applications.     

The Incredible Years Parent Program for Chinese Preschoolers With Developmental Disabilities

Research Findings: The objective of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of Incredible Years Basic Parent Training (IYPT Basic) in a community clinic setting in Hong Kong. IYPT Basic is a Western program developed to promote children’s academic, social, and emotional regulation skills and to reduce conduct problems among typically developing children. The program has not been tested in non-Western cultures, where the challenges for parents of children with developmental disabilities can be different. The IYPT Basic was adapted slightly to accommodate cultural characteristics in Hong Kong. Parents of 52 preschoolers with developmental disabilities were randomly assigned to either the IYPT Basic or a waitlist control. Parent and child dyads were assessed before and after the 12-week intervention/waitlist period via self-reports and spouse/kin reports and videotape coding by observers blind to the intervention/waitlist status. Significant intervention benefits included (a) increase in positive and reciprocal parent –child interaction, (b) reduction in parental stress, and (c) decrease in oppositional behavior among the children. The parents’ attendance, satisfaction, and homework compliance was high. Practice or Policy: IYPT Basic, when implemented with cultural sensitivity, can be effective for —and well received by—Chinese parents of preschoolers with developmental disabilities in a community setting.     

Curriculum analysis and education for sustainable development in Iceland

The article explores how the Icelandic public school curriculum for early childhood, compulsory and upper secondary school deals with education for sustainable development. As the curriculum does not often mention the term sustainability, a key with which to investigate signs of education for sustainable development in the three curricula was created. The key encourages a holistic view of sustainable development, where economic, environmental and social factors are not treated as separate entities. It was designed to reflect the goals of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014) with research on environmental education and education for sustainable development in mind. The key has seven characteristics: values, opinions and emotions about nature and environment; knowledge contributing to a sensible use of nature; welfare and public health; democracy, participation, and action competence; equality and multicultural issues; global awareness; and finally, economic development and future prospects. Using the key, a variety of signs and indicators that provide a space for teachers and schools to deal with issues of sustainable development were identified.