Science Teachers’ Views and Stereotypes of Religion,Scientists and Scientific Research: A call for scientist–science teacher partnerships to promote inquiry-based learning

Despite a growing consensus regarding the value of inquiry-based learning (IBL) for students’ learning and engagement in the science classroom, the implementation of such practices continues to be a challenge. If science teachers are to use IBL to develop students’ inquiry practices and encourage them to think and act as scientists, a better understanding of factors that influence their attitudes towards scientific research and scientists’ practices is very much needed. Within this context there is a need to re-examine the science teachers’ views of scientists and the cultural factors that might have an impact on teachers’ views and pedagogical practices. A diverse group of Egyptian science teachers took part in a quantitative–qualitative study using a questionnaire and in-depth interviews to explore their views of scientists and scientific research, and to understand how they negotiated their views of scientists and scientific research in the classroom, and how these views informed their practices of using inquiry in the classroom. The findings highlighted how the teachers’ cultural beliefs and views of scientists and scientific research had constructed idiosyncratic pedagogical views and practices. The study suggested implications for further research and argued for teacher professional development based on partnerships with scientists.     

DistanceRank: An intelligent ranking algorithm for web pages

A fast and efficient page ranking mechanism for web crawling and retrieval remains as a challenging issue. Recently, several link based ranking algorithms like PageRank, HITS and OPIC have been proposed. In this paper, we propose a novel recursive method based on reinforcement learning which considers distance between pages as punishment, called “DistanceRank” to compute ranks of web pages. The distance is defined as the number of “average clicks” between two pages. The objective is to minimize punishment or distance so that a page with less distance to have a higher rank. Experimental results indicate that DistanceRank outperforms other ranking algorithms in page ranking and crawling scheduling. Furthermore, the complexity of DistanceRank is low. We have used University of California at Berkeley’s web for our experiments.     

Performance contagion and human resource layout: New concepts in performance management

Job performance can be defined as the extent to which one exhibits behaviors that further the goals of the organization, and leaders try to manage the factors influencing the performance in an organization to guide it toward organizational goals. A main factor that influences the performance is emotions and behavior of other people. The influence of people on each other can be divided into physical and metaphysical contagions in the scientific literature. In this article, we introduce a new kind of metaphysical contagion that has a close relationship with individual and organizational performance. We name it performance contagion and introduce two kinds of factors (content and process) and subfactors. We conceptualize a new concept in performance management defined as human resource layout. Tools are suggested for applying the steps of this model to improve both individual and organizational performance.     

Sequence-dependent rotation axis changes in tennis

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of rotation axes during a tennis serve. A motion capture system was used to evaluate the contribution of the potential axes of rotation (minimum inertia axis, shoulder-centre of mass axis and the shoulder-elbow axis) during the four discrete tennis serve phases (loading, cocking, acceleration and follow through). Ten ranked athletes (International Tennis Number 1–3) repeatedly performed a flat service aiming at a target on the other side of the net. The four serve phases are distinct and thus, each movement phase seems to be organised around specific rotation axes. The results showed that the limbs’ rotational axis does not necessarily coincide with the minimum inertia axis across the cocking phase of the tennis serve. Even though individual serving strategies were exposed, all participants showed an effect due to the cocking phase and changed the rotation axis during the task. Taken together, the results showed that despite inter-individual differences, nine out of 10 participants changed the rotation axis towards the minimum inertia and/or the mass axis in an endeavour to maximise external rotation of the shoulder to optimally prepare for the acceleration phase.     

The Ideas of Parents and Children about the Importance of Developmental Skills among Palestinians in Israel Quelle importance les parents et enfants palestiniens d'Israe¨l attachent-ils aux aptitudes developpementales? Las Opiniones de los Padres y de los Niños sobre la Importancia de las aptitudes del Desarrollo de los Palestinos en Israel

The purpose of this study is to investigate parents' ideas about child development among Palestinians in an urban community in Israel. Parents and children were asked to indicate how important they believed a set of developmental skills was for children. Forty-eight Palestinian mothers, 48 Palestinian fathers, and 57 first-born children participated in the study. The parents were interviewed to determine their ideas about child development using the Developmental Timetable Questionnaire (Hess et al. , 1980). In addition, the children were interviewed to determine the importance of two categories of skills taken from the same questionnaire: social skills and school-related skills. The results of the study suggest that both mothers and fathers value school-related skills as the most important and cultural skills as the least important. More specifically, while examining differences across gender, parents of first-born girls emphasise school-related skills, independence, politeness, and compliance as the most important for girls, while parents of first-born boys emphasise the importance of being emotionally mature and socially skilful. The study revealed no significant differences across the gender of the parents. Male and female children value school-related more than social skills as well. These results are discussed in relation to the characteristics of the sample. Le but de cette étude est de cerner l'idée que se font les parents du développement des enfants au sein d'une communauté urbaine de palestiniens en Israël. On a demandé aux parents et aux enfants de dire àquel point ils considèrent comme importantes pour les enfants une série d'aptitudes développementales. 48 mères, 48 pères et 57 premiers et premières-nées palestiniens ont participé à l'étude. L'étude auprès des parents visait à déterminer leur conception du développement infantile à l'aide du Developmental Timetable Questionnaire (Questionnaire développemental) (Hess, Kashiwagi, Azuma, Price & Dickson, 1980). En outre, les questions posées aux enfants visaient à déterminer l'importance de deux catégories d'aptitudes découlant du même questionnaire: aptitudes sociales et aptitudes scolaires. Les résultats de l'étude suggèrent que les mères et les pères favorisent les aptitudes scolaires au-delà des aptitudes culturelles. Plus spécifiquement et lorsqu'il s'agit de considérer les différences entre les sexes, les parents de premières-nées privilégient les aptitudes scolaires, l'indépendance, la politesse et le respect alors que pour les premiers-nés, l'accent est mis sur l'importance de la maturité émotionnelle et d'une bonne maîtrise des aptitudes sociales. L'étude n'a révélé aucune différence majeure entre les pères et les mères. Les enfants, filles ou garçons, privilégient également les aptitudes scolaires au-delà des aptitudes sociales. Ces résultats font l'objet d'une discussion à la lumière des caractéristiques de l'échantillon. El propósito de esta investigación es estudiar las opiniones de los padres sobre el desarrollo infantil de los palestinos en una comunidad urbana en Israel. Se les preguntó a los padres y a los niños que indicarán lo importante que pensaban que eran un conjunto de aptitudes para el desarrollo de los niños. En la investigación tomaron parte 48 madres palestinas, 48 padres palestinos y 57 primogénitos. Los padres fueron entrevistados para determinar sus opiniones sobre el desarrollo de los niños usando el " Developmental Timetable Questionaire " (Cuestionario del Programa del Desarrollo) (Hess, Kashiwagi, Azuma, Price & Dickson, 1980). Adémas, los nin~os fueron entrevistados para determinar la importancia de dos categorías de aptitudes tomadas del mismo cuestionario: las aptitudes sociales y las aptitudes relacionadas con el aprendizaje. Los resultados de la investigación indican que tanto los padres como las madres valoran las aptitudes relacionadas con el aprendizaje como las más importantes y las aptitudes culturales como las menos importantes. Más concretamente, al examinar las diferencias entre los sexos, los padres de las niñas primogénitas hacen hincapié en las aptitudes relacionadas con el aprendizaje, la independencia, la cortesía, y la conformidad como lo más importante para las niñas, mientras que los padres de los niños primogénitos hacen hincapié en la importancia de ser maduro emocionalmente y socialmente hábil. La investigación no reveló diferencias importantes entre los sexos de los padres. Los niños y las niñas valoran las aptitudes relacionadas con el aprendizaje más que las aptitudes sociales. Estos resultados son analizados en relación con las características de la muestra.     

Achievement-oriented beliefs and their relation to academic expectations and school achievement among Qatari students

This study investigated the relation between motivational goals and university intentions, school valuing and school achievement. The premise of this study is that motivational goals play a key role in academic values and achievement. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to establish the construct validity of the motivational measures drawn from the Inventory of School Motivation (ISM): mastery (effort and task), performance (competition and social power), social solidarity (social concern and affiliation), extrinsic (praise and token). A set of eight regression analyses was conducted to examine the relations among these eight motivational measures, future goals to attend college, the value of school and six school subjects. Eight regression equations revealed that effort and task were the most significant predictors of the dependent variables of university intention, valuing school and school achievement scores. Students in Qatar exhibited ‘effort and task’ in goal motivation in relation to students’ beliefs regarding future academic goals and achievement scores in school subjects. As Qatar is a highly gender-segregated society, analyses were also conducted by gender.     

Consistencies and Inconsistencies Between Science Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices

To gain a better understanding of teachers’ beliefs about teaching, as compared with their in-reality classroom practices, case studies were constructed with four science teachers in different schools in Egypt. The main aims of this article were to provide an answer to the research question, ‘To what extent do science teachers’ beliefs correspond to their practices?’ and to explore the contextual factors that can explain the difference, the consistency or inconsistency, between teachers' beliefs and practices. The study collected data for each teacher using semi-structured interviews, notes taken while observing classes, and teachers’ notes, journals, and lesson plans concerned with STS lessons. The data were analysed using the constant comparative method around common themes, which were identified as distinctive features of teachers’ beliefs; these same themes were then compared with their practices. Results showed that a few of the in-service science teachers’ pedagogical beliefs aligned with constructivist philosophy. Some of the teachers’ beliefs were consistent with their practices, especially the traditional beliefs, while some of teachers’ practices were conflicted with their beliefs in different contexts.