Exploring the Impact of Culture- and Language-Influenced Physics on Science Attitude Enhancement

“Culture,” a set of principles that trace and familiarize human beings within their existential realities, may provide an invisible lens through which reality could be discerned. Critically explored in this study is how culture- and language-sensitive curriculum materials in physics improve Pangasinan learners’ attitude toward science. Their cultural preference or profile defined their cultural dimensions, epistemological beliefs, and views on integration of culture and language in the teaching and learning processes. The culture- and language-influenced curriculum materials in physics were heavily influenced by Pangasinan learners’ cultural preference or profile. Results of the experimental participants’ pretest and posttest on science attitude measure, when compared, showed significant statistical difference. Assessment of science attitude enhancement favored the experimental group over the control group. Qualitative data gathered from postimplementation interviews, focus group discussions, and journal log entries indicated the same trend in favor of the experimental participants. The study yielded that culture and language integration in the teaching and learning processes of physics concepts allowed students to develop positive attitude to science, their culture, and native language.     

Doing Good and Feeling Bad: the work of women university teachers

Drawing on in‐depth interviews with 27 women academics in faculties of education in Canada, this article explores some of the consequences of the gendered division of labour in universities. Jean Baker Miller's phrase, ‘doing good and feeling bad’, characterised the women in the study. They reported working excessively hard, taking responsibility for supporting others, including colleagues and students, and being ‘good department citizens’. Yet they seemed disappointed by the results. Their ‘feeling bad’ is related to the reward system in academic life; a sense that there is an unequal division of labour, with women ‘working harder'; and an expectation that women will take greater responsibility for the nurturing and housekeeping side of academic life. The article explores ‘individual’ and ‘structural’ explanations for the findings and raises further questions about caring in university teaching, the situation of tokens and outsiders in university departments and the prospects for altering university priorities in these times of cutbacks and retrenchment.     

No more bullying: an analysis of primary school children’s drawings of school bullying

Bullying in schools is an international problem impacting negatively on children’s well-being. Children’s drawings can provide an insight into their emotional states. There is little published literature that uses children’s drawings to gain better understandings of the nature and impact of bullying. We report two studies using indicators of emotional distress to examine Australian primary school children’s drawings about bullying. In Study One, children’s drawings were examined using indicators of size, detail and line heaviness in terms of gender and developmental trends. The analysis showed no main differences for gender, however, there were clear developmental aspects to children’s depictions of school bullying. In Study Two, children’s self-reported victimisation was associated with the degree of detail and the relative distance between the protagonists represented in the drawings. The studies suggest that drawings could be used to counsel young people and help remediate the effects of bullying.     

The long‐day childcare context: implications for toddlers' pretend play

Forty‐eight toddlers aged 17 to 31 months attending long‐day childcare participated in this project, which examined some of the influences of the day‐care context on their emerging pretend play. Ninety minutes of video‐taped observations were collected for each participant as they engaged in free play with their same‐age peers and their pre‐school‐aged peers. The play environment was assessed on a number of dimensions, including the provision of play materials, the quality of care and staff attitudes toward play. Additionally, the participants' weekly attendance pattern was taken into consideration. The complexity of pretend play was coded in accordance with Westby's Symbolic Play Scale (1991 Westby C A scale for assessing children's pretend play 1991 in: C. E. Shaefer, K. Gitlin & A. Sandgrund (Eds) Play diagnosis and assessment New York Wiley 131 161  [Google Scholar]). Two components of the long‐day childcare context—play with pre‐school‐aged peers and the unsatisfactory provision of play materials—were found to be significantly influential on the participants' complexity of pretend play. An attendance of four or more days in childcare was also found to be favourable. A number of implications for educational programming in the day‐care context arise from these results.     

The Conceptualization and Development of the Practical Epistemology in Science Survey (PESS)

Research in Science Education - Various inquiry approaches have been promoted in science classrooms as a way for students to engage in, and have a deeper understanding of scientific discourse....     

What progress has been made in meeting the needs of seriously maltreated children? The course of 200 cases through the Boston Juvenile Court

OBJECTIVES: The study examined child, parent, and case characteristics in a sample of 200 cases of serious child maltreatment brought before the Boston Juvenile Court (BJC) on Care and Protection petitions in 1994. Whether recent changes in Massachusetts law have been effective in reducing delays in adjudication and helping children achieve permanent placements more quickly was also examined. METHOD: Data were abstracted from court records by the research team. The 200 cases were followed prospectively for 4 years. Retrospective data on the families' previous involvement with the protective service system were also abstracted from the records. Data from the 1994 cases were compared to that obtained from a sample of cases brought before the BJC in 1985-1986. RESULTS: Children permanently removed from parental custody in the 1994 sample required less time post-disposition to achieve permanent placements. However, overall, time frames for the 1994 cases remained remarkably similar to those in 1985-1986: children were in the protective service system an average of 5 years; cases required an average of 1.6 years in court; and half of the children permanently removed from parental custody were still in "temporary" foster care at 4-year follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Although some improvements have occurred since 1985-1986, the system still fails to meet the needs of seriously maltreated children to achieve permanent placements promptly. The implications of the findings for system reform are discussed.     

Behind the Rhetoric: women academic staff in colleges of higher education in England

The paper is based on research into the position of women academic staff in a sample of colleges of higher education in England. This reveals a pattern of entrenched sexual inequality in these institutions, especially at middle and senior management levels. A similar pattern has been found in the university and polytechnic sectors of higher education. However, in the colleges there is an even greater disjunction between the sexual distribution of students and staff. The research is related to recent literature on equal opportunities in education. It is argued that the formal curriculum of equal opportunities is continually subverted by a hidden curriculum of unequal opportunities. Finally, several approaches to positive intervention are suggested.     

Effect of intersolution interval,chlordiazepoxide, and amphetamine on anticipatory contrast

Previous experiments have shown that the intake of a 0.15% saccharin solution is suppressed if saccharin access is followed by access to 32 % sucrose in brief daily pairings. The present experiments found that: (1) the degree of suppression was not altered when no time elapsed between presentation of the two solutions each day (15 sec had been the minimum in previous experiments and was used as the control in this experiment); (2) the degree of suppression was not altered by chlordiazepoxide (6, 12, or 20 mg/kg), although the drug had large appetite-stimulating effects; (3) suppression was not influenced by amphetamine (0.25 or 0.50 mg/kg); and (4) contrast could be established or eliminated, even after extended training, by manipulating the sequences of solutions presented (saccharin-saccharin or saccharin-sucrose). The results were interpreted in terms of a contrast effect based on the learned anticipation of a preferred substance. The chlordiazepoxide data suggest that this contrast is different from successive negative contrast, and the intersolution interval data suggest that the occurrence of contrast rather than a reinforcement effect is not due to a time gap between presentations of the two solutions.     

Theory and legitimacy in professional education: a practitioner review of reflective processes within programmes for new academic staff

The authors review research literature on coherent theoretically based approaches to the use of reflective processes within programmes of initial professional education for new academic staff. Employing a novel methodology that incorporates practitioner perspectives, they establish a framework that highlights the role of personal and social factors, and also pedagogic and theoretical considerations, in shaping reflective processes. The included studies identified participants who had engaged in certain categories of reflection. Certain fundamental outcomes, however, such as changes in professional commitment, were never seen across an entire cohort. The article thus discusses the intended learning outcomes that programmes might legitimately seek to meet.

Dans cet article, nous examinons la littérature de recherche portant sur les approches théoriques cohérentes sur l’usage des processus réflexifs dans le cadre de programmes d’éducation professionnelle initiale pour le personnel académique novice. A l’aide d’une nouvelle méthodologie incorporant les perspectives du praticien, nous établissons un cadre qui met en lumière le rôle des facteurs sociaux et personnels, de même que les considérations théoriques et pédagogiques, mettant en forme les processus réflexifs. Les études visées par l’article ont permis d’identifier des participants s’étant engagés dans certaines catégories de réflexion. Des conséquences fondamentales, telles que le changement au niveau de l’engagement professionnel, n’ont cependant pas été observés pour l’ensemble de la cohorte. Nous discutons donc des objectifs d’apprentissage que les programmes pourraient, de façon légitime, chercher à atteindre.