Snippets of physics

We continue our exploration of random walks with some more curious results. We discuss the dimension dependence of some of the features of the random walk, describe an unexpected connection between random walks and electrical networks and finally discuss some remarkable features of random walk with geometrically decreasing step-length.     

Momentum and kinetic energy: Confusable concepts in secondary school physics

Researchers and practitioners alike express concerns about the conceptual difficulties associated with the concepts of momentum and kinetic energy currently taught in school physics. This article presents an in‐depth analysis of the treatment given to them in 44 published textbooks written for UK secondary school certificate courses. This is set against some of the more contentious issues apparent in the literature concerned with the underlying physics and pedagogical arguments about how best to help students understand. The research evolved a set of criteria which were used to scrutinize how texts explain ideas and exemplify their applications. Despite the evident merits of many textbooks, the findings suggest that incomplete explanations are surprisingly prevalent, with several fundamental issues likely to be unclear to student readers, particularly those relating to when and where conservation might apply. Confusion exists between these difficult and somewhat overlapping ideas, arguably through the neglect of constructivist considerations. The commonly emphasized mechanistic, number‐crunching approach to the analysis of simple collision problems is judged to be un‐profitable, underlining the more general point that prevailing, accepted content and pedagogy may be the source of many misunderstandings. Implications are discussed and suggestions made for alternative treatments of these deceptively complex topics. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 739–761, 2009     

美国加州：阳光照耀的留学生活

在阳光照耀的美国加州,他生活了五个年头.除了学习.他也打过工,谈过恋爱,积累了众多在美国学习、生活和工作的经验,美国的大学里,聚集了众多来自世界各地的留学生.在这样一处充满世界色彩的地方,置身其中,会有着怎样的独特经历呢?应《课堂内外》高中版特邀,Edwin·T记录下他的留学生活,为可能或者梦想去美国留学的高中生,讲述他的种种感受。从本期开始,本刊将分多期连载该文。     

The importance of interplay between school-based and networked professional development: School professionals’ experiences of inter-school collaborations in learning networks

Previous literature has demonstrated that networks can be valuable sources of professional learning. In 2005 all Liverpool schools formed into ten Learning Networks with the aim of improving the quality, and entitlement of, continuing professional development (CPD) for staff as part of a whole-scale local authority initiative. The Liverpool Learning Networks Research explored professionals’ CPD experiences following this organizational change and whether it has enhanced their practice. Triangulated data, a large-scale survey and qualitative interviews conducted in 2007, seem to suggest that where professionals benefited from professional learning in a networked context, the quality of the networked CPD as well as a positive school culture and intra-school collaboration were all important contributors to the success of networked-CPD. This finding can usefully apply Turbill’s (Teacher learning for educational change. Open University Press, Buckingham, 94–114, 2002) model of professional learning to the intersection between school-based and networked-CPD, which suggests that it is at this intersection between internal and external domains that teacher learning can take place. Two scenarios, where this interplay between school-based and networked CPD is positive (enhancement) or negative (tension), are reported through five case studies of professionals underpinned by the survey data, where relevant.     

Encounters of the Traditional Kind: Reflections on the In‐Service Teacher Training of Traditional Filipino Arts

This article presents the second segment of a qualitative study on the integration of traditional arts in tertiary level art and design education in the Philippines. It is focused on the experience of artist‐teachers as participants in an in‐service teacher training programme that aimed to prepare the teachers for the trial integration of traditional Filipino arts in art and design courses. Taking the view of the participants, journals written by the artist‐teachers were sourced for their reflections about their encounter with traditional Filipino artists during field visits. This phase of the study takes the form of action research as it involves the participants in gathering data that could inform the methods and content of the learning of traditional Filipino arts in the schools of art and design. The findings reveal that artist‐teachers acknowledge the traditional artist as a valuable source of traditional knowledge and expertise. They also recognise their own essential role in the transmission of learning between the traditional artists and the students. The prerequisites of the course take the artist‐teachers beyond teaching in the classroom and extend their tasks to research.     

Research in Food Science Education: Measuring Gains in Critical Thinking in Food Science and Human Nutrition Courses: The Cornell Critical Thinking Test,Problem‐Based Learning Activities,and Student Journal Entries

Abstract: The Cornell Critical Thinking Test (CCTT) is one of the many multiple‐choice tests with validated questions that have been reported to measure general critical thinking (CT) ability. One of the IFT Education Standards for undergraduate degrees in Food Science is the emphasis on the development of critical thinking. While this skill is easy to list as a student‐learning objective, measuring gains in CT is relatively difficult. If the majority of the class time is spent discussing and solving ill‐defined problems, then will students become actively and meaningfully involved in their own learning and will there be any gains in CT skills? To measure gains using this format, the CCTT was administered as a pre‐ and posttest to Food Science and Human Nutrition students in an Experimental Foods class taught every fall over an 8 y period (2001–2008). Statistical analysis indicated that in 2 of the years (2002 and 2004), there were significant gains (P values 0.036 and 0.045, respectively) in CT scores. Furthermore, in both years, there were significant gains in the same 2 aspects of CT (deduction and assumption) and not in the other aspects. However, we suggest that completing several take‐home exams with many open‐ended questions, writing detailed laboratory reports, and documenting unsolicited student reflections in journal entries that comment on apparent gains in CT skills may be a better indication of actual gains in CT skills compared to the actual CCTT test scores.     

最好的时光

最好的时光,浸润在槐花香中,曾经就装在我一伸手就摸得到的右裤袋里。     

Dawn of science

It was traders who tilted the scale in favour of the new number system in the Arab world.