Using Quilts and Quilt Picture Books to Celebrate Diversity with Young Children

Quilts, with their bright colors, puzzle-like patterns and comforting touch, naturally appeal to children. Quilts may cover beds, blanket naps, or serve some other function in childrens homes, and the family context of quilts makes them appropriate for exploring diversity with young children in the classroom. A rich and extensive collection of quilt-centered picture books is available that explores cultural, intergenerational and social awareness themes through engaging text and captivating illustrations. Quilts and quilt-themed picture books are useful additions to an early childhood environment that explores, celebrates and integrates diversity in the daily life of the young child.     

An Investigation of Factors Affecting the Degree of Naïve Impetus Theory Application

This study investigates factors affecting the degree of novice physics students application of the naïve impetus theory. Six hundred and fourteen first-year university engineering physics students answered the Force Concept Inventory as a pre-test for their calculus-based course. We examined the degree to which students consistently applied the naïve impetus theory across different items. We used a 2-way repeated measures ANOVA and linear regression to analyze data coded from incorrect student responses. It was found that there were statistically significant main effects for item familiarity and item requirement for explanation vs. prediction on the measured degree of impetus theory application. Student course grades had no significant effect on impetus theory application. When faced with items that were unfamiliar and predictive, students appeared to rely on non-theoretical, knowledge-in-pieces reasoning. Reasoning characteristic of naïve theories was more frequently applied when students were completing familiar problem tasks that required explanation. When considering all the above factors simultaneously, we found that the degree of naïve impetus theory application by students is attributable to variables in the following order: familiarity, prediction, and explanation.     

Time-place learning in the eight-arm radial maze

Rats (n=4) searched for food on an eight-arm radial maze. Daily 56-min sessions were divided into eight 7-min time zones, during each of which a different location provided food; locations were randomized across subjects before training. The rats obtained multiple pellets within each time zone by leaving and returning to the correct location. Evidence that the rats had knowledge about the temporal and spatial features of the task includes the following. The rats anticipated locations before they became active and anticipated the end of the currently active locations. The rats discriminated currently active locations from earlier and forthcoming active locations in the absence of food transition cues. After the rats had left the previously active location, they visited the next correct location more often than would be expected by chance in the absence of food transition cues. The rats used handling or opening doors as a cue to visit the first location and timed successive 7-min intervals to get to subsequent locations.     

Mainland immigrant and Hong Kong local students’ psychological sense of school membership

A Chinese version of the Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) scale was developed to find out the subjective PSSM of Mainland immigrant and local Hong Kong students. Five schools participated with 295 boys and 252 girls from Primary years 4, 5, and 6 taking part. Among those, 264 students were local Hong Kong students, while 283 were Mainland immigrant students who claimed that they had lived in Hong Kong for 7 years or less. The Chinese version of the PSSM scale was found to be reliable, and interestingly, Mainland immigrant students were found to have a significantly higher sense of school belonging, but had a lower feeling of rejection than Hong Kong students did. Results would be useful to understand how students feel towards support in school.     

The Influence of the Teaching and Learning Environment on the Development of Generic Capabilities Needed for a Knowledge-Based Society

The effect of the teaching and learning environment on the development of generic capabilities was examined through a survey of 1756 undergraduate students at a university in Hong Kong. The survey assessed students' perceptions of the development of the six capabilities of critical thinking, self-managed learning, adaptability, problem solving, communication skills, and interpersonal skills and groupwork. Students were also asked to rate the quality of nine facets of the teaching and learning environment. Structural equation modelling was used to test a model of the influence of teaching on the nurturing of the six capabilities. The model grouped the nine facets of teaching and learning under the three higher-order latent variables of teaching, teacher–student relationship, and student–student relationship. The model showed a good fit to the data, indicating that the teaching and learning environment had a significant impact on the development of the generic capabilities while the students were taking their degree. The teaching latent variable had the strongest effect on the development of all six of the capabilities. A suitable teaching environment was characterised by a focus on understanding, the active participation of students in learning activities, a coherent curriculum, and assessment which focused on analytical skills and self-learning capability. Strong student–student relationships nurtured communication and interpersonal skills. There was a mutually reinforcing effect between the type of teaching, teacher–student relationships and student–student relationships.     

The Use of Video Games by Kindergartners in a Family Child Care Setting

In this interpretive study of children’s social interactions in a family child care setting, children were seen to spend a significant portion of their time playing, watching others play, and distracted by video games. When children were focused on video games, their interactions with one another were disjointed, rushed, and ineffective. Because children’s interactions are considered to be important learning opportunities, the prevalence of video games in child care settings and the implications of their use should be studied more closely.     

Oral Insulin—Fact or Fiction?

Insulin is a major protein hormone secreted by the β-cells of the pancreas and is important for the control of diabetes. Insulin is usually administered to diabetic patients through subcutaneous injection. This mode of therapy has certain inherent disadvantages such as local pain, itching and insulin lipodystrophy around the injection site. Hence, pharmaceutical scientists have been trying to design an oral delivery system for insulin. Many challenges are associated with the oral delivery of insulin, relating to the physical and chemical stability of the hormone, and its absorption and metabolism in the human body. Here we discuss various strategies for the oral delivery of insulin that are being tried out, as well as methods used to improve the absorption of orally consumed insulin and to reduce its degradation by digestive enzymes. K Gowthamarajan is on the faculty of the Department of Pharmaceutics in JSS College of Pharmacy, Ootacamund. His research interests are in the area of designing drug delivery systems for peptides and proteins. He is currently involved in research on pharmaceutical applications of plant polysaccharides. Giriraj T Kulkarni is on the faculty of the Department of Pharmaceutics in JSS College of Pharmacy, Ootacamund. Currently, he is involved in research on pharmaceutical and biotechnological applications of plant polysaccharides. He has authored a book ‘Biotechnology and its Applications in Pharmacy’ for undergraduate and postgraduate students of pharmacy.