Influence of improved teaching practices on student satisfaction ratings for two undergraduate units at an Australian university

To track the quality of instruction delivered at the University of Western Australia, the university surveys all units using its Students’ Unit Reflective Feedback (SURF) metrics, and faculties use these metrics to benchmark student satisfaction. Consequently, teaching staff are actively encouraged to adopt teaching practices that will increase the average levels of these metrics. Using a ‘before-after’ approach, we compared these metrics before and after the implementation of improved teaching practices that addressed specific weaknesses identified through student responses for two undergraduate units. Despite the implementation of improved teaching practices, SURF scores did not increase significantly for the two units assessed, due possibly to the components of the academic programme covered by the SURF questions, the field-based nature of the units, and the difficulty in measuring an increase in the SURF scores of units which already score highly. This poor sensitivity of the SURF metrics to the implementation of improved teaching practices could have implications for their use for performance assessment by the university.     

Commentary: the coalition for improving maternity services:

A consumer advocate, two childbirth educators, and a certified nurse-midwife each provide commentary on the effectiveness of and potential uses for the Evidence Basis for the Ten Steps of Mother-Friendly Care.     

A method for personalising the blade size for competitors in flatwater kayaking

The intent of this project was to explore the feasibility of personalising the paddle blade size for individual flatwater kayakers based on their power output profiles. Twelve elite male kayakers performed on a kayak ergometer at the same intensity and resistance that they would normally experience while paddling at race pace for 500 m on the water. The kayak ergometer was instrumented so that power profiles could be determined from the instantaneous force and velocity of the representative centre point of the paddle blade. From the power profile information, the researchers calculated a personalised blade size that was expected to improve performance for those kayakers differing more than 5% from the calculated ‘ideal’ size. For the elite kayakers studied, it was recommended that seven of the paddlers should increase their blade size by approximately 5–10%. For the remaining five paddlers, the results indicated that their current blade sizes were within the expected measurement error of their predicted ideal value and should be retained. It is anticipated that this research will provide the theoretical rationale for elite kayakers to see the need to personalise their blade size based on their own muscle power profiles.     

汉语背景中文化、教育、职业和劳动概念的语源学分析

文化、教育、职业和劳动这四个概念,以及表达它们的汉字反映了劳动组织所植根的社会历史背景。因此,在汉语语境中对这几个概念进行语源学分析,了解其特定结构和形成过程,把握其蕴涵的精神实质,对于准确理解就业管理、职业世界和职业教育等都具有重要意义。     

The contribution of vocabulary knowledge and spelling to the reading comprehension of adolescents who are and are not English language learners

This study examined the contributions of vocabulary and spelling to the reading comprehension of students in grades 6–10 who were and were not classified as English language learners. Results indicate that vocabulary accounted for greater between-grade differences and unique variance (ΔR ² = .11–.31) in comprehension as compared to spelling (ΔR ² = .01–.09). However, the contribution of spelling to comprehension was higher in the upper grade levels included in this cross-sectional analysis and functioned as a mediator of the impact of vocabulary knowledge at all levels. The direct effect of vocabulary was strong but lower in magnitude at each successive grade level from .58 in grade 6 to .41 in grade 10 while the indirect effect through spelling increased in magnitude at each successive grade level from .09 in grade 6 to .16 in grade 10. There were no significant differences between the language groups in the magnitude of the indirect impact, suggesting both groups of students relied more on both sources of lexical information in higher grades as compared to students in lower grades.     

美国科技编辑概况

在美国 ,科技编辑是一个逐渐被认可的领域。美国的科技编辑们在什么环境下工作 ?他们做什么 ?有什么样的教育背景 ?用什么样的体例手册和其他资源 ?有什么组织为他们服务 ?他们对哪些话题和事件有职业兴趣 ?文章描述了美国科技编辑的概况 ,着重说明上面这些问题。本文的写作在很大程度上依赖于我为科技编辑委员会的期刊《科技编辑》做编辑的经验。本文中 ,“科学”具有广泛的含义 ,包括医学及其相关领域。的确 ,在美国许多科技编辑是医学编辑。　　 工作环境和工作类型在美国 ,有各种各样的媒体雇佣科技编辑 ,这些媒体包括杂志、图书、大众…     

Patterns of Instructional-design Factors Prompting Reflective Thinking in Middle-school and College Level Problem-based Learning Environments

Reflective-thinking skills are important in problem-based learning environments as they help learners become deeply engaged in learning. The literature suggests several instructional-design factors (e.g., environment, teaching methods, scaffolding tools) that may prompt reflection in learners. However, it is unclear whether these factors differ based on age or developmental stage. The results of this study indicate that middle-school students perceive the learning environment factor as more important to prompting their thinking, while college students perceive the scaffolding methods factor as more important. While the elements clustered into two factors, most college students disagreed with their helpfulness in prompting reflective thinking, a finding opposite to that obtained for middle-school students. Different patterns were also found between learners’ perceptions of the most helpful elements within each factor. Based on these results, suggestions are given for designing developmentally and age-appropriate PBL learning environments that support reflective thinking.     

Software to Promote Young Children’s Growth in Literacy: A Comparison of Online and Offline Formats

The primary goal of this research was to extend our understanding of the strengths and weaknesses inherent in online and offline early literacy software programs designed for young learners. A taxonomy of reading skills was used to contrast online software with offline closed system (compact disc) based programs with respect to number of skills taught, quality of instruction and scaffolding during instruction. Overall, online programs were more comprehensive and provided instruction for more skills than offline software at either the Kindergarten or Grade 1 level. However, offline programs demonstrated some developmentally appropriate selectivity in skills trained. Quality of instruction was variable within and across all programs. Scaffolding of instruction was also variable and surprisingly few programs, either online or offline, provided automatic movement across levels of difficulty. These outcomes have important implications for the selection of instructional materials by parents and educators involved in early literacy instruction and also for future software design.