Living in space: A preschool aerospace curriculum

Outer space is a topic that is relevant to our future, promotes a universal sense of wonder and reinforces the idea that we all share one planet. Early childhood teachers, parents, grandparents and children all find the subject of outer space exploration fascinating. Space exploration weaves together all aspects of our experience and generates an enthusiasm to learn more. Space adventure also creates a new hero system for our children. Achievements and success are based on knowledge, skill and dedication to a common cause: the betterment of life for all people.     

Casting the assessment net wide: Capturing all student learning

North Georgia College and State University has joined a national effort to move away from the isolated approach to measuring student learning. Educators from three divisions offer their perspectives.     

Autonomy of Artistic Expression for Adult Learners with Disabilities

When an art tutor adopts the role of assistant to a disabled artist it is difficult not to move from helping with the physical handling of materials on the one hand into the actual creative process on the other, thus influencing how the artwork looks. Ecas is an Edinburgh‐based charity which promotes opportunities for physically disabled people to be self‐fulfilled and to participate in all aspects of society. They run, among other things, traditional art classes and computer classes. The use of computer technology (CT) in art seemed to offer the chance for self‐fulfilment for disabled artists by increasing control over artistic choices and providing for self expression with only minimal assistance required from others. Ecas decided to fund a research project in the form of a ten‐week pilot course and the data collected during the trial confirmed these possibilities and it was clear that adult learners with disabilities could benefit from CT in order to have greater autonomy in the creation of their art than before. In particular the program Corel Painter IX.5 and various graphics tablets proved to be a powerful arsenal for self‐expression without having to wait for a tutor to tape paper to a board, replenish paint, change brushes attached to a head pointer or any one of the many and varied problems disabled students had with traditional art materials.     

The Hidden Curriculum of Domestication

Four ethnically diverse faculty members in the field of education discuss the professional impact and personal affects of introducing critical themes of race, class, gender, and culture within their research and course offerings. Given that the professional outlook for university faculty of color in general, is grim, a willingness to imbue their research and courses with a critical interrogation of prevailing education topics and theories would seem to invite greater personal risk and professional jeopardy. The following dialogue introduces both the mechanisms by which critical faculty in general, and faculty of color in particular, can be conditioned to subordinate their critical impulses and the strategies they use to resist academic cultures of domestication.     

Gender differences in science achievement: Do school effects make a difference?

The problem of the underrepresentation of girls in science in Australian schools is often attributed to their poor performance. Yet the role of both the home and the school in affecting female science achievement is rarely examined empirically. The comprehensiveness of the Second International Science Study database provided an excellent opportunity to investigate the presence of gender differences in science achievement. Although previous studies of gender differences in science achievement have relied on methodology that has not adequately accounted for the school effects, this study used the design effect and hierarchical linear modeling (multilevel analysis) to explore whether there were significant gender differences. The relative contribution of schools to student achievement was examined, and school-level differences were found to contribute significantly toward explaining variations in student performance. Although statistically significant sex differences were found in physics achievement for 10-year-old, 14-year-old, and year-12 students, school effects were much more powerful in explaining student differences (9–19%) when compared with gender (3%).     

Predicting college grades: the value of achievement goals in supplementing ability measures

Achievement goal theory is an important theoretical framework for understanding achievement motivation. In previous studies, a mastery orientation has been shown to be related to students’ interest, while a performance orientation has been found to be predictive of academic performance outcomes such as course grades. In this study, the two mastery sub‐scores from the Multiple Goals Theory Measure (MGTM) of academic motivation, which was developed specifically from achievement goal theory, was found to be predictive of college grades for a sample of 257 undergraduates at a public university in the north‐eastern United States. Additionally, the results support a trichotomous model of achievement orientations comprising mastery approach, performance approach, and avoidance. The MGTM appears to hold promise as a diagnostic tool, but additional research is required on its resistance to faking and other threats to validity.     

Teacher education programmes delivered at a distance: An examination of distance student perceptions

Recent technological developments have greatly influenced the ways American universities deliver educational course offerings to students at a distance. The perception of pre-service teachers in distance education programmes is germane to the planning and delivery of distance education courses in teacher education departments in the future. The results of this American study revealed a differing perception between male and female students in the area of course structure, student/teacher interaction, overall course satisfaction and peer interaction. As a result of this study, recommendations are provided for teacher preparation programmes to improve distance education course offerings for prospective teachers in the USA and implications for educators involved in teacher preparation internationally.     

视角:“发达”还是“发展中”?(英文)

改革开放使中国获得了空前的发展,我国的综合国力得到了很大提高,尤其是城市的发展令外国人印象更为深刻。但从全国城乡总体来看,我们还不是一个工业化国家,经济实力和人民生活水平的人均数字都依然处在"发展中"国家的水平。那么,究竟发展到什么状态中国才算"发达"国家呢?来自"发达"国家的Brad,根据自己在中国生活过的体验和我们谈谈他对"发达"和"发展中"之间差别的认识。     

与Brad对话 妈妈不让我用化妆品(英文)

Flora看见别的女生使用化妆品,自己也很想试试,可妈妈不允许她用。妈妈认为学生根本没有必要使用化妆品,女孩子自然健康就很漂亮。     

Sexual abuse and the problem of embodiment.

In this paper, trauma, sexual abuse, and some of the potential resulting long-term effects, are explored in terms of the problem of embodiment and the formation of personal identity and psychological integrity. That is, what effect does severe sexual abuse have on an individual's, particularly a child's, sense of living in his or her body and, by extension, living in the world? First, trauma and dissociation are analyzed and linked to the development and maintenance of a "posttraumatic" sense of personal identity. Then, several disorders associated with sexual abuse--dissociation, multiple personality disorder, eating disorders, somatization disorder, self-mutilation, suicide, and suicide attempts--are examined in terms of their phenomenological coherence and relation to the problem of embodiment. This conceptual framework may be of use to clinicians and researchers assessing and treating the survivors of sexual abuse.