Climate change and costs: investigating students’ reasoning on nature and economic development

The tensions between environmental protection and economic growth are critical to future well-being, and it is therefore important to understand how young people conceptualize these tensions. The aim of the present study is to explore students’ solutions to the dilemma of economic development and mitigating climate change, with regard to societal responses to the challenge of climate change. The study was conducted in China’s Green Schools. Green School is an international long-term programme with the aim of increasing students’ knowledge of environmental issues, and transferring this knowledge into positive actions to affect the wider community. The data were obtained through semi-structured pre- and post-interviews with 15–16-year-old students in three groups (12 students) from Green Schools in the Beijing area. The results show that students’ discussions focused exclusively on economic growth and social welfare. Students seem to believe that environmental problems are inevitable, nature is a ‘box’ of resources, and economic development is necessary in order to sustain and even improve nature. Therefore, there is no dilemma between economic development and environmental protection. The paper ends with a discussion on research and implications for teaching climate change.     

The Cognitive Neuroscience of the Teacher–Student Interaction

Pedagogy is the science and art of teaching. Each generation needs to explore the history, theory, and practice of the teacher–student interaction. Here we pave the path to develop a science that explores the cognitive and physiological processes involved in the human capacity to communicate knowledge through teaching. We review examples from our previous work in this research area and discuss a path to reveal the cognitive and cerebral mechanisms by which we teach, unfolding a complex operation such as teaching in its constituents and components.     

When victims don't cry: children's understandings of victimization, compliance, and subversion

How do children understand situations in which the targets of moral transgressions do not complain about the way they are treated? One-hundred and twenty participants aged 5, 7, 10, 13, and 16 years were interviewed about hypothetical situations in which one child ("transgressor") made an apparently unfair demand of another child ("victim"), who then responded by either resisting, complying, or subverting. In general, 5-year-olds judged compliance positively and resistance negatively and 7- to 16-year-olds judged resistance positively and compliance negatively; all but 16-year-olds judged subversion negatively. Most participants judged the transgressor's actions negatively, regardless of how the victim had responded. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for children's developing understandings of victimization.     

Language teacher education for intercultural understanding

Over recent decades language teaching and learning has undergone a redefinition of the subject and a rapid change in its methodology. Language programmes can now be delivered in technology‐based environments and communication at an international level can be a daily occurrence. This paper on the one hand analyses how these developments have extended and challenged the traditional roles and responsibilities of language teachers. On the other, it examines to what extent established models of language teacher education acknowledge and address the needs of language teachers today, in particular in relation to the integration of the intercultural dimension into language teaching and learning.

Au cours des récentes décennies l'enseignement–apprentissage des langues s'est vu redéfini et a connu une rapide évolution en matière de méthodologie. On peut aujourd'hui délivrer les cursus de langue par le moyen d'environnements technologiques, et il est devenu banal de communiquer internationalement de cette façon. Dans la présente étude nous cherchons d'une part à cerner les défis que présente cette évolution pour les rôles et responsabilités traditionnels des enseignants de langue. D'autre part nous demandons dans quelle mesure les modèles en vigueur en matière de formation des enseignants reconnaissent les nouveaux besoins de ceux‐ci, notamment en ce qui concerne l'intégration de la dimension interculturelle dans leur pratique.

Im Bereich Sprachenlehren und lernen haben sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten grundlegende Veränderungen ergeben, vor allem im Hinblick auf Methodologie. Sprachkurse können jetzt per Computer zu den Adressaten gebracht werden und Kommunikation über Grenzen hinweg wird potentiell zum alltäglichen Ereignis. Hier soll untersucht werden inwieweit diese Entwicklungen die traditionelle Rolle und den Verantwortungsbereich von Sprachenlehrer/innen erweitert und verändert haben. Darüberhinaus wird überprüft inwieweit die herkömmliche Ausbildung der Sprachenlehrer/innen den heutigen Anforderungen gerecht wird, vor allem im Hinblick auf die interkulturelle Dimension des Lehren und Lernens von Fremd‐ und Zweitsprachen.

En las últimas décadas la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de las lenguas ha pasado por una redefinición de su contenido y un rápido cambio en su metodología. Los programas de estudios se pueden realizar en entornos basados en las nuevas tecnologías y la comunicación a nivel internacional puede darse a diario. Este artículo de una parte analiza de qué manera estos cambios han ampliado y desafiado los papeles y las responsabilidades que los profesores de lenguas han tenido tradicionalmente. De otra parte, examina hasta qué punto los modelos que se han venido utilizando para la formación de profesores de idiomas reconocen y suplen sus necesidades en la actualidad, en particular en lo que se refiere a la integración de la dimensión intercultural en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de las lenguas.     

Improving the Validity and Reliability of a Health Promotion Survey for Physical Therapists

Purpose

Physical therapists (PTs) have a unique opportunity to intervene in the area of health promotion. However, no instrument has been validated to measure PTs’ views on health promotion in physical therapy practice. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the content validity and test-retest reliability of a health promotion survey designed for PTs.

Methods

An expert panel of PTs assessed the content validity of “The Role of Health Promotion in Physical Therapy Survey” and provided suggestions for revision. Item content validity was assessed using the content validity ratio (CVR) as well as the modified kappa statistic. Therapists then participated in the test-retest reliability assessment of the revised health promotion survey, which was assessed using a weighted kappa statistic.

Results

Based on feedback from the expert panelists, significant revisions were made to the original survey. The expert panel reached at least a majority consensus agreement for all items in the revised survey and the survey-CVR improved from 0.44 to 0.66. Only one item on the revised survey had substantial test-retest agreement, with 55% of the items having moderate agreement and 43% poor agreement.

Conclusions

All items on the revised health promotion survey demonstrated at least fair validity, but few items had reasonable test-retest reliability. Further modifications should be made to strengthen the validity and improve the reliability of this survey.Key Words: health promotion, physical therapy, validity, reliability     

Education and the Three ‘P's: policy,politics and practice A review of the work of S. J. Ball

Theories of organisation actually become ideologies, legitimisations for certain forms of organisation. They deploy arguments in terms of rationality and efficiency to provide control. The limits that they impose upon the conception of organisations actually close down the possibility of considering alternative forms of organisation. This is nowhere more clearly evident than in the current application of management theories to schools. Such theories marginalise empirical studies of school practice and dismiss the folk‐knowledge’ of teachers as irrelevant. They are as significant for what they exclude as for what they include (Ball, 1987, p. 5).