Teacher perceptions and attitudes that foster or maintain sex role differences

In an attempt to determine the nature of sex role differences as perceived by teachers, a survey of 60 secondary school teachers was conducted. The results revealed teacher perceptions of traditional male-female student behavior in the classroom, teacher preference for male teachers and male students, and the reluctance of most teachers to facilitate sex role behavior changes. Other evidence cited supports the claim of proponents that males and females are socialized differently-toward the maintenance of traditional sex role behavior. How the education system can aim for a new role balance allowing greater independence, integrity, and freedom from misconceptions about the other sex is discussed.

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Résumé Dans le but de déterminer la nature des différences de rôle attribuables au sexe comme les professeurs le voient, une étude a été entreprise auprès de 60 professeurs d'école secondaire. Les résultats ont révélé les perceptions par les professeurs de conduite traditionnelle masculine et féminine en classe, la préférence de la part des professeurs pour étudiants mâles et enseignants mâles, et la répugnance de la majorité des professeurs de faciliter des changements dans la conduite attribuable au sexe. D'autres témoignages cités supportent l'affirmation des partisans de la différence sociale entre hommes et femmes-vers le maintien de la conduite traditionnelle relative aux sexes. La présente étude discute de quelle manière le système éducationnel peut être orienté vers un nouvel équilibre des rôles permettant plus d'indépendance et d'intégrité et moins de conceptions erronées à propos du sexe opposé.

     

Minitab Menus-Do They Help or Hinder?

A comparison of the levels of difficulty experienced by students in the use of Minitab through its menu interface and its command language showed no advantavge in using the menus.     

Quality education and the role of the teacher in Fiji: mobilising global and local values

Abstract

This article reports on the findings of original field research carried out in the small island developing state of Fiji, in the South Pacific. A North-South research partnership was built upon previous collaboration between team members and, in so doing, pioneered the blending of Pacific and Western research approaches sensitive to a postcolonial positioning. The study interrogates practitioner perspectives on: the nature and quality of teachers and teaching in Fiji; the challenges of teachers’ work and lives; priorities for successful qualitative reform; and theoretical implications for the processes of education policy transfer and qualitative improvement. The analysis draws upon work on the politics of aid and international development, revealing tensions between existing learner-centred policy frameworks and emergent neoliberal and performativity oriented initiatives influenced by international surveys of student achievement, related league tables and the experience of the regional reference societies of Australia, New Zealand and India.     

A process model of writing development across the life span

In this article, we provide an overview of writing development from a product perspective and from a process perspective. Then we discuss modifications of the most influential process model of skilled adult writing to explain beginning and developing writing, including a proposed developmental sequence of the emergence of cognitive processes in writing. Next we report the results of two recent dissertations by the second and third authors supervised by the first author aimed toward contrasting developmental issues: (a) specifying the algorithms or rules of thumb beginning and developing writers may use during on-line planning; and (b) investigating the further development of writing processes among skilled adult writers. In the first study, development was conceptualized as a linear process across age groups. In the second study, development was conceptualized as a horizontal process within skilled adult writers who expanded their expertise. Finally, we consider the developmental constraints and the instructional constraints on writing development and argue for a model of writing development in which endogenous and exogenous process variables interact to determine the outcome of the writing development process.     

Policy considerations based on a cost analysis of alternative test formats in large scale science assessments

This article compares the costs of four assessment formats: multiple choice, open ended, laboratory station, and full investigation. The amount of time spent preparing the devices, developing scoring consistency for the devices, and scoring the devices was tracked as the devices were developed. These times are presented by individual item and by complete device. Times are also compared as if 1,000 students completed each assessment. Finally, the times are converted into cost estimates by assuming a potential hourly wage. The data show that a multiple choice item costs the least, and that it is approximately 80 times as much for an open ended item, 300 times as much for a content station, and 500 times as much for a full investigation item. The very large discrepancies in costs are used as a basis to raise several policy issues related to the inclusion of alternative assessment formats in large scale science achievement testing. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 615–626, 2000     

Globalisation and education

This paper analyses the links between globalisation and education. The growth of the global economy has increased opportunities for those countries with good levels of education, but has made growth more difficult for countries with weak levels of education. Countries with good human resources, high savings and good economic policies (chiefly in East and Southeast Asia) have attracted foreign investment and technology, and have experienced fast growth in exports of manufactures and in output per capita. Developed countries find it increasingly difficult to compete with such economies unless they invest in good education, training and skills, leading to high rates of innovation and productivity. Countries with weak levels of human resources have found it more difficult to succeed—and many, especially in Africa, have experienced falling per capita incomes. Globalisation has made it more difficult to build up educational levels in these countries, as public expenditure has been cut during adjustment. Hence virtuous and vicious cycles of development have emerged, with a good spread of education leading to high growth and generating resources for further development of education and, conversely, countries with poor human resources having low or negative growth and reduced potential for building up their educational systems.     

Reflections on the First International iPED Conference,Coventry TechnoCentre,UK, 10–11 September 2006

Through reflection on the First International iPED Conference 2006, and its overarching theme of ‘Pedagogical Research and Academic Identities’, this paper considers the achievement of the wider aims of the conference, which were to facilitate dialogue between researchers in order to explore the conference themes collaboratively, and to provide networking opportunities which would enable participants to build alliances. The abstracts for all papers mentioned are available via the conference website www.coventry.ac.uk/iped2006.     

Public Library Services for Veterans: Selected Brief Case Studies

Public libraries across the country design and deliver programs for military veterans and their families, often collaborating with other organizations and agencies. The examples were assembled from both general and specialized interviews with librarians, and literature and Internet searches, with summaries of programs assembled and written by multiple researchers. The specific limitations on the listing in this article are clearly outlined in the first section. Overall, however, the article provides a good introductory overview of what’s going on in veteran’s programs and services in America’s public libraries in over seventy libraries in forty states. We hope this list of what public libraries have organized or are doing will supply other public librarians with ideas on how to provide new services or enhance their existing ones.     

临床经验性论文的优化对策

比较全面地探讨医学期刊编辑对临床经验性论文的优化对策，包括消除消极的思维定势，提高编辑的知识“势能”，打好编辑的临床功底，增强编辑的选题组稿意识，编出期刊栏目的特色和转变偏颇的办刊观念等优化措施。这在实践意义上有助于医学编辑提高对临床经验性论文的认识，并采取有效措施提高论文和期刊质量，同时进一步丰富了科技写作、科技编辑方法论和编辑学研究的内容。     

科技期刊国际化进程中的问题及思考

科技期刊的国际化是国家发展的需要，是期刊可持续性发展的需要。探讨科技期刊国际化进程中的几个问题，主要包括调整、优化结构，提高质量，实现编委、作者、审稿国际化，办好英文期刊。