The Effect Teaching Experience Has on Perceived Effectiveness of Interactive Television as a Distance Education Model for Elementary School Science Teacher’s Professional Development: Another Digital Divide?

The first year of a 5 year professional development project for elementary teachers in two mid-western states integrated a bridge of two distinctly different distance education networks (T-1 and fiber optics) to provide science professional development for elementary school teachers in rural communities. Interactive television (ITV), the title given to the distance component, consisted of a series of twenty-four, 2 h presentations by scientists and content specialists. It provided expansion to the science pedagogical content knowledge of the elementary teachers involved. Eighty-five teachers in 38 school districts from the two states completed individual surveys following the final ITV session. Analysis of variance of participants post-session survey scores yielded differences (p < 0.05) on the subscales measuring perceived effectiveness of using distance education for professional development purposes and years of teaching experience. Teachers with over 20 years of classroom experience perceived the use of distance education technologies for science professional development to be more effective than teachers with 16–20 years of classroom experience. These results might suggest another digital divide.     

How Globalization Can Cause Fundamental Curriculum Change: An American Perspective

Globalization, unlike 20th century social and economic developments, will cause fundamental rather than merely incremental educational change. `Globalization' refers to a complex of technological and economic factorsincluding the global spread of communicationtechnology networks, and the global integration ofproduct and labor markets.I argue that (1) there is a powerful new alliance among elites and educational consumers for fundamental change; (2) globalization destabilizes the internal processes of school organizations that constrain fundamental change,motivating educators to innovate; (3) globalization erodes the institutional categories of public discourse that hold standard school practice in place, allowing a `shadow institution' of non-standard educational agencies to form; and (4) new synthetic visions of educational institutions in better accord with models of rational action in networked environments, are being formulated; and (5) these are now guiding a convergence of piecemeal innovations towards a fundamentally transformed institutional pattern.     

Counseling and information services for adult learners in the English-speaking Caribbean

Conclusion The preceding overview of counseling and information services for adults in the English-speaking Caribbean indicates that there is a considerable amount of activity which varies, of course, from country to country. What is also evident is that such services are rarely offered in a very formal way, that often they are voluntary, that there is at present very little coordination of activity, and that, except in very few cases, those providing such services have not been specifically trained for this task. The thrust for the future must be toward securing personnel trained to provide service of this kind and toward developing better coordination among the agencies and individuals involved, while at the same time seeking to expand such services and increase the number of persons with whom direct contact is made.     

Analysis of Satisfaction and Perceived Learning of Science in Different Distance Education Delivery Modes for Rural Elementary School Teachers Involved in a Professional Development Project

The Science Co-op is a local systemic change project that connects eight regional clusters of elementary schools in rural Missouri and Iowa in the USA. These clusters are comprised of 38 school districts distributed over 40,000 square miles and include more than 1,400 teachers and 20,000 elementary school students. The project stresses inquiry science in the classroom and involves investigating science ideas using a constructivist approach and cross-curricular connections. Within the frameworks of the Science Co-op project a technology known as Interactive Television (ITV) allows for almost real-time interaction (a 3–5 second delay) within the state boundaries of Missouri and Iowa, respectively. The primary goals of the ITV sessions are to enhance the science content and science pedagogical knowledge among the population of elementary school teachers that they may have lacked in their prior education, and to reinforce and extend instructional strategies emphasized in this local systemic change project. In this study the participants' self-reported learning and reactions to live ITV sessions and videotaped, delayed broadcast of ITV sessions were compared. Regression analysis results show teaching experience's influence on overall satisfaction with ITV (p<0.05) while mode attended, perceived technical difficulty, preferred mode, and perceived new skills or content learned in the session entered the regression equation at p=.000. Further t-tests suggested p>0.05 for perceived new skills and content learned on the different modes of communication.     

Listening and reflecting: an introduction to the special issue

The topic of listening has been broadly neglected in educational studies. This special issue presents studies on the connections between listening and reflecting in educational contexts.

基于双螺旋知识结构的知识转移模型探究

信息时代的知识呈现出爆炸式的增长,与知识活动相关的研究开始备受人们的关注,人们期望通过对知识活动的研究,能更有效地使用知识、创造价值。对知识转移活动进行探究,在分析相关概念、经典理论的基础上,提出知识转移活动的理论模型,即基于双螺旋知识结构的知识转移模型,分析模型中知识转移过程中的内部转移过程和外部转移过程及其作用机制,并以斯德哥尔摩症候群为例,从知识转移的角度,利用该模型分析其显隐性知识的转移过程。     

How the reason for a school move relates to school adjustment

Several authors have suggested reasons for children transferring to new schools, and they have hypothesized that the reasons may affect the nature and tenure of the transition process. The present study investigated the reasons parents of 451 elementary school children gave for changing schools and demonstrated that the reasons influenced children's ability to adjust to their new schools. Specifically, children transferring because their old school closed were more competent academically and had a higher average socioeconomic status than did the other groups. On the other hand, those transferring because of changing households had poorer academic performance and more stressful life events on average than the other groups. Finally, reasons for moving not only vary according to race, but the effects of the reasons are different for each racial group. Implications for school personnel seeking to integrate transfer students into their schools effectively are discussed.     

Maximal heart rate declines linearly with age independent of cardiorespiratory fitness levels

There have been many conflicting observations between the linear or curvilinear decline in maximal heart rate (HR_max) with age. The aim of this study was to determine if linear or curvilinear equations would better describe the decline in HR_max with age in individuals of differing cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) levels. Treadmill cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPX) results from participants (1510 men and 1134 women; 18–76 years) free of overt cardiovascular disease were retrospectively examined using cross-sectional and longitudinal study designs. Participants completing ≥2 CPX with ≥1 year between test dates were included in the longitudinal analysis (325 men and 150 women). Linear and quadratic regressions were applied to age and HR_max for the whole cohort and respective CRF groups (high, moderate, and low, relative to age and gender normative values). To test for differences among linear, quadratic, and polynomial equations, the change in R² (cross-sectional analysis) and Bayesian information criterion (BIC) (longitudinal analysis) from the linear to the more complex models were calculated. The quadratic or polynomial regression in the cross-sectional analysis, marginally improved the variance in HR_max explained by age compared to the linear regression for the whole cohort (0.2%), moderate fit group (0.3%), and low fit group (0.8%). With no improvements in the high fit group. BIC did not improve for any CRF category in the longitudinal analysis. In conclusion, the minimal differences among linear, quadratic, and polynomial equations in the respective CRF groups, emphasizes the use of linear prediction equations to estimate HR_max.