Learn something new in 20 minutes: Bite Size sessions to support research and teaching

The School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at The University of Sheffield run an innovative series of informal 20‐minute Bite Size sessions to help staff and students teach, research, collaborate and communicate more effectively. The sessions have two clear strands: one focused on teaching and the other on research. The remit is not to teach people how to use something in their work or study, but to let them know why they should use it and how they can employ it. By introducing participants to the possibilities and how they can apply ideas and technologies in their work and study in an enthusiastic manner, it is possible to send them away with at least the intention to explore and experiment. The evidence shows that this organic approach is working – staff and students are starting to use many of the tools that Bite Size has covered. Any kind of widespread change within organisations can be hard to deliver, but by bringing champions on your side and delivering sessions in a convenient, informal and timely manner; good practice and ideas can spread naturally. H.S.     

Effect of frequency response on language learning

Conclusion The number of errors in the recognition of unfamiliar phonemic contrasts increases with high or low frequency limitation. This increase in errors is not the same for all phonemic contrasts, but the contrasts are affected in the same manner by either limitation. Consonants are affected more, and German shows a much clearer picture than does French. Rank ordering contrasts according to numbers of errors give support to a concept of“order of difficulty” of recognition of foreign phonemic contrasts.     

Influences on children’s environmental cognition: a comparative analysis of New Zealand and Mexico

This paper investigates Mexican and New Zealand children’s conception of the environment and their understandings of environmental issues, focusing on how personal experiences, culture and school-based environmental education (EE) programmes influence their perspectives. Sixty Year 5 children (age 9–11) from three schools in Dunedin (New Zealand) and three schools from Ensenada (Mexico), their teachers and school principals were interviewed. The study found that children from both cities had limited opportunities for contact with nature. Most children understood the environment as nature, and did not typically link environmental problems to human activities or social causes. Rarely were children critical of the effect of socio-economic structure on the environment. The analysis shows that children’s understandings of the environment are connected to their personal experiences and mediated by culture. Children from Ensenada had a more global perspective on environmental issues but a more passive attitude towards their local environment, participating in fewer environmental activities than children from Dunedin. In both countries, children from schools with an EE programme did translate environmental practices learnt at school into environmental practices at home. Based on our results, EE could be improved by considering the cultural context, enhancing children’s contact with nature, encouraging critical thinking and more environmental activities.     

颜习斋：17世纪的哲学家

颜习斋,名元,中国17世纪的哲学家.他对中国汉朝以后的学术进行了批评,通过<存学编>,提出了自己的哲学思想和教育主张.