Air quality: a comparison of students' conceptions and attitudes across the continents

A closed‐form questionnaire was used to explore the ideas of school students about the composition of air, the causes and consequences of air pollution and the extent to which the students would accept various courses of action to reduce air pollution. Items for the questionnaire were derived from the results of interviews and an earlier open‐form questionnaire. More than 3000 students aged 11 to 17 years and from Australia, Hong Kong and the UK were surveyed. There was a degree of similarity between students from the different countries in their knowledge about air composition and air pollution. In terms of attitudes, however, there were differences in students' opinions about the acceptability of actions to improve air quality. Path analysis of the data appeared to show that Hong Kong students are more amenable to education as an instrument to influence their attitudes. For the other countries, the acceptability of actions for environmental protection was related to the degree of concern about air quality     

Lexical prosody as an aspect of oral reading fluency

The purpose of the study was to determine whether the lexical compounding, suffixation, and part of speech aspects of lexical prosody rendered while reading text aloud are predictive of children’s developing oral reading fluency and reading comprehension skills. Ninety-four third grade children were recorded while reading aloud a grade-level passage targeting lexical prosody contrasts related to suffixation, compounding, and part of speech. Children also completed assessments on reading fluency, word reading efficiency, and reading comprehension skills. Prosodic measurements of pitch and amplitude for each syllable of the targeted words, and spoken head word length in ms for targeted compound words, were carried out. Spectrographic analyses indicated that children generally displayed appropriate prosody for each lexical prosody contrast examined. The extent to which children made these prosodic distinctions between syllables was related to their reading fluency and comprehension skills. The study finds that, in the oral reading of connected texts, children’s use of lexical prosody is an aspect of general reading prosody that is predictive of reading fluency.     

Higher education in Kenya: an assessment of current responses to the imperative of widening access

Higher education is a key factor in a nation’s effort to develop a highly skilled workforce for competing in the global economy. In this paper, current trends in accessibility, equity, participation and financing of higher education in Kenya are examined. The paper explores the challenges which need to be confronted and discusses the way forward for reforming higher education policies in Kenya to widen access and advance equity by suggesting a number of strategies. It highlights the need for programmes and policies focusing on improving access to quality secondary education experiences; increasing aspirations and application to higher education; and the improvement of policies on financial support to disadvantaged students through the already existing Higher Education Loans Board. It concludes with a number of recommendations including a new revenue allocation particularly to the rising numbers of higher education aspirants from low income, rural, ethnic minorities and women.     

Drawing: An Image‐Making Approach

This paper is based on a lecture given at the University of Oporto in Portugal to mark the opening of the Lugar Do Desenho, Oporto in 1999. It describes a method of teaching drawing from observation that was developed by the authors for first year fine art students at Coventry University and as a short refresher course for seconded art teachers. It continues to be offered as one of three options in the inaugural drawing module of the visual arts programme. Its holistic approach is designed to encourage flexibility and invention as a way of enlarging the drawing vocabulary of students. The paper describes the thinking behind the course and how it sets about fulfilling its aims of broadening students understanding of observational accuracy and equipping weaker students in particular for the difficulties they might encounter when trying to make a coherent image.     

‘What’s in a name? The power of the English language in secondary school science education’

Cultural Studies of Science Education - The global dominance of the English language has led to intense debates with the emergence of studies of English as a lingua franca. These debates can be...     

Initiatives and resistances in english-speaking African countries

In 1989, there were 10 English-speaking African countries, plus Mozambique, with on-going population education programs within the school system. 7 other countries had programs in the planning stages. School programs were preceded after out-of-school and informal programs of the 1970s. Countries have designed population education in their own terms. The generalized goals of population education for the region were to expand awareness of population-related issues and problems; to develop skills, values, and attitudes which will enable people to make rational and timely decisions; and to behave in meaningful and socially desirable ways and improve the quality of human life. Population education has been accepted in most education curriculum in African countries, but fertility regulation in an action program is limited to a few countries. Although attention has been directed to mortality, teen pregnancy, drug use, and AIDS, there has been little discussion of the status of women, child labor, and female circumcision. Family-life education and population have been linked because of the acceptability of the term and the reality that the family is the basic unit of society. Anglophone African strategies have encompassed a central location for the population program within government, a pilot phase, an integration into other subjects, a life-long approach, and community participation; each of the aforementioned topics is discussed. Constraints in program design and implementation were identified as the lack of political support; the absence of a firm and consistent policy; the perceived conflict between population education and cultural values; the limited, sporadic financial support; the shortage of resources; poor attention to the importance of horizontal and vertical information transmission; and lack of coordination between agencies with population education programs. Future needs are for program expansion and a focus on groups at-risk, prominent policy support at the decision-making level, and teacher-training. Curriculum must be renewed periodically with a focus on its appropriateness for adolescents. Adolescent sexuality, contraception, and the spread of AIDS must be addressed, both formally and informally for those who are illiterate. Sustainability requires institutionalizing population education within the ministry of education with a stable budget and staff.     

Factors related to the decision of men and women to continue taking science courses in college

The purpose of this study was to determine the importance of the transition between a student's initial collegiate science experience and the decision to continue in science, and whether the reasons students give to explain their success or failure in their first course are related to that decision. Attribution theory provided the framework for investigating these factors. The results showed that for unsuccessful students, the plan to continue in science was unrelated to gender, mathematical aptitude, performance in the first science course, or attributions to luck, effort, ability, or task difficulty. For successful students, the plan to continue in science was directly related to attributions to ability, and inversely related to task difficulty. The results demonstrate the importance of a sense of competence for students who continue in science.     

Students' perceptions of academic dishonesty in the chemistry classroom laboratory

Although the literature on both academic dishonesty and scientific misconduct is extensive, research on academic dishonesty has focused on quizzes, exams, and papers, with the virtual exclusion of the classroom laboratory. This study examined the distinctions undergraduate chemistry majors made between academic dishonesty in the classroom laboratory and scientific misconduct in the research laboratory. Across the spectrum of undergraduate chemistry courses, from the introductory course for first‐semester chemistry majors to the capstone course in instrumental analysis, we noted that students believe the classroom lab is fundamentally different from a research or industrial lab. This difference is so significant that it carries over into students' perceptions of dishonesty in these two environments. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 47–64, 2004