Association tests and outdoor ecology education

This paper deals with the analysis of written associative responses in the context of a week-long outdoor ecology education at a National Park (treatment). Firstly, 12–13 year old pupils were instructed to respond freely to two selected key words (“Environment” and “Conservation”) by listing all words that they associate with them. All observed associations were categorized into a preselected cluster of 8 (or 9) domains. Secondly, the same procedure was applied in a followup survey: For both key words, participation in the education programme influenced frequencies as well as the choice profiles themselves indicating an increase in positive emotional and conservational associations. Advantages and limitations of the method are discussed.     

Introducing Large-Scale Innovation in Schools

Education reform initiatives tend to promise higher effectiveness in classrooms especially when emphasis is given to e-learning and digital resources. Practical changes in classroom realities or school organization, however, are lacking. A major European initiative entitled Open Discovery Space (ODS) examined the challenge of modernizing school education via a large-scale implementation of an open-scale methodology in using technology-supported innovation. The present paper describes this innovation scheme which involved schools and teachers all over Europe, embedded technology-enhanced learning into wider school environments and provided training to teachers. Our implementation scheme consisted of three phases: (1) stimulating interest, (2) incorporating the innovation into school settings and (3) accelerating the implementation of the innovation. The scheme’s impact was monitored for a school year using five indicators: leadership and vision building, ICT in the curriculum, development of ICT culture, professional development support, and school resources and infrastructure. Based on about 400 schools, our study produced four results: (1) The growth in digital maturity was substantial, even for previously high scoring schools. This was even more important for indicators such as vision and leadership” and “professional development.” (2) The evolution of networking is presented graphically, showing the gradual growth of connections achieved. (3) These communities became core nodes, involving numerous teachers in sharing educational content and experiences: One out of three registered users (36 %) has shared his/her educational resources in at least one community. (4) Satisfaction scores ranged from 76 % (offer of useful support through teacher academies) to 87 % (good environment to exchange best practices). Initiatives such as ODS add substantial value to schools on a large scale.     

Equity and Access: All Students are Mathematical Problem Solvers

Often mathematical instruction for students with disabilities, especially those with learning disabilities, includes an overabundance of instruction on mathematical computation and does not include high-quality instruction on mathematical reasoning and problem solving. In fact, it is a common misconception that students with learning disabilities are not strong problem solvers in general. This article highlights the inherent problem solving strengths that students with learning disabilities possess; how they use those skills to address everyday barriers and challenges, and how teachers can relate these skills to academic mathematical instruction. Additionally, practical classroom examples, suggested teaching strategies, and questions for further examinations are discussed.     

Short- and long-term outreach at the zoo: cognitive learning about marine ecological and conservational issues

Although zoos envision themselves as environmental education institutions and governmental policies require that students become environmentally responsible citizens, it is surprising, that little research is done with regard to school field trips to the zoo. Many students are not aware that their everyday life affects marine environments that may enhance through spatially disconnection from marine ecosystems. A zoo field trip may overcome this disconnection. Considering knowledge as prerequisite for environmental attitudes and behavior, our study focused on cognitive learning of high school students at an instructional zoo field trip about marine ecology and conservation, by applying two cooperative learning settings. The study followed a quasi-experimental design, applying multiple-choice pre-post-retention tests. The results show satisfying short- and long-term knowledge achievement. Our cooperative learning settings seems to be a suitable approach for zoo field trips to facilitate a satisfying cognitive outcome concerning marine ecology and conservational issues.     

Empirical evaluation of an educational conservation programme introduced in Swiss secondary schools

This paper surveys the consequences of pupils' participation in a conservation education programme by monitoring changes in their relevant knowledge as well as in their environmental perception. The programme in question is an extra-curricular education unit about an endangered migrant bird (Apus apus; Apodidae) which was initiated by a state-wide conservation agency and offered free of charge to all secondary schools of the German-speaking part of Switzerland. An activity package was provided to the participating classes and individually introduced by the classroom teacher during an entire school year. The programme highlighted the bird's natural history and also focused on the individual involvement of pupils who built artificial nest-boxes and watched the bird's breeding and feeding behaviour at appropriate outdoors sites. A bilingual approach was included by sharing these observations with pupils of (French-speaking) Senegal, this country being the wintering region of the rd. bi Based on an instrument measuring environmental perception, i.e. individuals' preservation and conservation preferences (from an attitudinal and behavioural point of view) and built on construct validation procedures published in a previous study, the influences of the education programme were evaluated on a pre-/post-test basis. The post-test was delayed for at least a month after experiencing the education programme in order to exclude short-term effects. The programme had a significant positive effect on the specific knowledge level and on two of the five environmental perception subscales. The results are discussed in the context of other related outdoor ecology education programmes.     

Book reviews

International Review of Education -     

Persistent Reusable Java Virtual Machine unter z/OS und Linux

Zusammenfassung Die Nutzung von Java zur Entwicklung von Anwendungen für Hochleistungstransaktionssysteme stellt besondere Anforderungen an die Isolation und das Leistungsverhalten in der transaktionalen Ausführung. In dem vorliegenden Beitrag wird eine neuartige Technologie beschrieben, die verbesserte Isolationseigenschaften und eine erhebliche Leistungssteigerung erm?glicht. Die Persistent Reusable Java Virtual Machine erweitert eine normale Java Virtual Machine um gemeinsam genutzte Klassen und um eine Reset-Funktionalit?t, die eine serielle Wiederverwendbarkeit erm?glicht. In einer Benchmark-Untersuchung unter z/OS wurde hiermit ein Performance-Gewinn um einen Faktor 325 im Vergleich mit einer normalen JVM erreicht. Für das Erstellen von Transaktionsanwendungen unter dem Betriebssystem z/OS sind Enterprise Java Beans damit eine ernstzunehmende Alternative zu bisherigen Programmiermodellen.

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The use of Java for the development of new applications in high-end transaction systems generates special isolation and performance requirements. A new technology offering improved isolation and a significant performance improvement is discussed in this article. The Persistent Reusable Java Virtual Machine extends a regular Java Virtual Machine by adding the facility to share classes and by providing a reset functionality, which permits serial reuse of the JVM. A z/OS benchmark demonstrated a performance improvement by a factor of 325, compared to a regular JVM. Thus the use of Enterprise Java Beans has to be considered as a serious alternative when developing new transactional applications under the z/OS operating system.

     

Themenheft: Electronic Commerce

Ohne Zusammenfassung