Treatment of zinc deficiency without zinc fortification

Zinc (Zn) deficiency in animals became of interest until the 1950s. In this paper, progresses in researches on physi-ology of Zn deficiency in animals, phytate effect on bioavailability of Zn, and role of phytase in healing Zn deficiency of animals were reviewed. Several studies demonstrated that Zn is recycled via the pancreas; the problem of Zn deficiency was controlled by Zn homeostasis. The endogenous secretion of Zn is considered as an important factor influencing Zn deficiency, and the critical molar ratio is 10. Phytate (inositol hexaphosphate) constituted up to 90% of the organically bound phosphorus in seeds. Great improvement has been made in recent years on isolating and measuring phytate, and its structure is clear. Phytate is considered to reduce Zn bioavailability in animal. Phytase is the enzyme that hydrolyzes phytate and is present in yeast, rye bran, wheat bran, barley, triticale, and many bacteria and fungi. Zinc nutrition and bioavailability can be enhanced by addition of phytase to animal feeds. Therefore, using phytase as supplements, the most prevalent Zn deficiency in animals may be effectively corrected without the mining and smelting of several tons of zinc daily needed to correct this deficiency by fortification worldwide.     

Perceptions of Business Students' Feature Requirements in Educational Web Sites

There is paucity of original research that explains phenomena related to content organization and site design of educational Web sites. Educational Web sites are often used to provide Web‐based instruction, which itself is a relatively recent phenomenon for business schools, and additional research is needed in this area. Educational Web sites are designed with a different set of criteria as compared with other sites, such as those having an e‐commerce or marketing focus. More research is needed to build a theoretical foundation for feature requirements in educational Web sites. As in any new approach to teaching and learning, critical issues need to be examined before Web‐based instruction is fully integrated into teaching processes. When developing educational Web sites, features that support pedagogy should be given primary consideration. It is therefore important to identify key elements that will have maximum impact on learning. Using Q‐sort analysis (a type of Factor Analysis), this study investigated feature requirements of educational Web sites as perceived by business students. Based on the analysis of user requirements in relation to several variables that were identified from a review of literature, group characteristics emerged from students' responses. Similarities and differences between groups were investigated, and implications of these results for development of educational Web sites are presented in this study.     

Predicting the academic achievement of Puerto Rican and Mexican-American ninth-grade students

The study examines the predictive value of several variabls on ninth-grade grade point average for Mexican-American and Puerto Rican high school students. English and Spanish proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and understanding the language as well as the use of Spanish or English in the home represented the language variables. The students' immigration status, gender, place of geographic residence, and mother's education were also included. Gender andimmigration status significantly predicted GPA. English proficiency was significantly different for the two groups, and the more English-proficient Mexican-Americans did more poorly in high school. No other language variables were significant predictors of the students' GPA in the study.     

Training Teachers to Use Food to Teach Science

ABSTRACT:  In January 2006, every science department chair in U.S. public, private, and parochial high schools received information on food science, including a DVD, poster, and experiment guide developed by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), IFT Foundation, and Discovery Education. To promote the experiments and to encourage implementation of the program's components in secondary schools, the IFT K-12 Career Guidance Committee presented a teacher training session at the national IFT Annual Meeting + Food EXPO® in Orlando, Florida, on Monday, June 26, 2006. Twenty Orlando-area science teachers were treated to 3 h of activities, during which they performed and learned how to teach 3 experiments from the areas of physics, chemistry, and biology, demonstrated by the committee. In addition, to extend the effects of the session beyond the Orlando area, IFT member Food Science Ambassadors were invited to the training session so that they could become proficient in demonstrating the experiments, and to equip them with the knowledge to host a training session in their own geographical area in the future. Fifteen Food Science Ambassadors attended the session. After lab time, K-12 Career Guidance Committee members and IFT Student Association (IFTSA) chapter presidents led small groups of teachers on tours of the EXPO floor to learn more about how science is applied in the food industry.     

Native science,intercultural education and place‐conscious education: an Ecuadorian example

This paper explores ways to bring together local and global knowledge systems in the context of education. It first discusses the concepts of native science and of intercultural education, key ideas in Ecuadorian indigenous education today. Both of these concepts seek to unite the local and the global in new ways. It explores the views of Ecuadorian indigenous educators and leaders around issues of education and science. The primary need voiced by these individuals is that of defending their communities against various kinds of encroachment, economic as well as cultural, and the enterprise of education is viewed within this reality. Finally, the paper discusses the paradigm of place‐conscious education, which the author argues is a unifying conceptual framework that speaks to the concerns voiced by these educators as well as those of educators elsewhere.     

Confronting the “Acid Test”: Educators’ Perspectives on Expanding Access to Advanced Placement at a Diverse Florida High School

This study examines educators’ perspectives on accountability mandates designed to expand access to the College Board's Advanced Placement (AP) classes to traditionally underserved students at a diverse suburban high school in Florida, Palm Crest High School. Consistent with Elmore (1979), district and site-based administrators focused on the “forward mapping,” of implementation and identified teacher “gatekeeping” as well as parental expectations as chief barriers to opening up AP enrollment. Teachers, however, found implementation problematic—accountability levers had contradictory provisions and overall neglect nonacademic barriers to college access for low-income African American and Hispanic students. The current value-added model of incorporating student exam performance as a key component of teacher evaluations complicates the advocacy associated with increasing low-SES students’ participation in AP classes as educators strive to maintain high pass rates amid open-enrollment policies. We argue for increased support systems to enhance students’ preparedness for taking college-level courses while in high school, leading to increased college attendance and degree completion.     

Aiding culturally responsive assessment in schools in a globalising world

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - Across the world, teachers’ classroom assessment tasks and responsibilities are becoming more diverse due to increased migration. In...     

Looking Beyond ‘Skills’ and ‘Processes’: Literacy as Social and Cultural Practices in Classrooms

This article explores the thinking and research that has led to a view of literacy as social and cultural practices. Literacy is described not as an internal cognitive state or a universal set of skills and processes that individuals must learn, but as social and cultural ways of doing things through the use of text. This view adds to our understanding of literacy by switching the focus to the ways in which individuals, groups, communities and societies put literate practices to work. For teachers, this means thinking about the sorts of literacies they are trying to produce through their programmes. This implies studying classrooms and preschools as social and cultural settings where particular practices count as good work – asking which kinds of texts, ways of talking, reading, writing and behaving are preferred and why.