对提升高校教师科学素质的思考

2020年建成创新型国家是我国本世纪的宏伟目标,要实现这个目标,需要大批素质高能力强的创新型人才．高校教师既是创新型国家建设的主力军,又是培养建设创新型国家高素质人才的教育者,因此提升高校教师科学素质是我国建设创新型国家的迫切需要．目前我国高校教师的科学素质现状难以胜任创新型国家建设主力军和创新型人才培养的双重任务,必须采取有效措施和途径,提升高校教师的科学素质,为创新型国家建设做贡献．     

Learning Is Moving in New Ways: The Ecological Dynamics of Mathematics Education

Whereas emerging technologies, such as touchscreen tablets, are bringing sensorimotor interaction back into mathematics learning activities, existing educational theory is not geared to inform or analyze passages from action to concept. We present case studies of tutor–student behaviors in an embodied-interaction learning environment, the Mathematical Imagery Trainer. Drawing on ecological dynamics—a blend of dynamical-systems theory and ecological psychology—we explain and demonstrate that: (a) students develop sensorimotor schemes as solutions to interaction problems; (b) each scheme is oriented on an attentional anchor—a real or imagined object, area, or other aspect or behavior of the perceptual manifold that emerges to facilitate motor-action coordination; and (c) when symbolic artifacts are introduced into the arena, they may both mediate new affordances for students’ motor-action control and shift their discourse into explicit mathematical re-visualization of the environment. Symbolic artifacts are ontological hybrids evolving from things with which you act to things with which you think. Students engaged in embodied-interaction learning activities are first attracted to symbolic artifacts as prehensible environmental features optimizing their grip on the world, yet in the course of enacting the improved control routines, the artifacts become frames of reference for establishing and articulating quantitative systems known as mathematical reasoning.     

Validation of a self-perceived media competence instrument for pre-service teachers / Validación de un instrumento de autopercepción de competencia mediática para docentes en formación

Abstract

Key to guaranteeing the fundamental human rights of freedom of expression and information is the development of media competence, particularly in schools. Training teachers in the area of media competence is particularly important for developing these skills in the broader citizenry. In order to provide educators and educational policymakers with a useful diagnostic tool, we have designed a self-perception questionnaire. The questionnaire was applied to a sample of Peruvian education students (N = 501). On the one hand, the results confirm the construct’s coherence, validity and instrumental reliability. On the other hand, they allow us to propose a theoretically based update to the way in which this construct is interpreted and applied, confirming the multidimensionality of media competence. Finally, we use this empirical evidence to discuss the integral, transversal and ecological status of media competence.     

A Cross-Age Study of the Understanding of Three Genetic Concepts: How Do They Image the Gene, DNA and Chromosome?

The study was carried out with 175 Turkish students by using drawings at different ages understanding of gene, DNA and chromosome concepts. Students from 8th, 9th, 11th grades and, science and biology student teachers were simply asked to draw the structure of gene, DNA and chromosome in a cell and also to give explanations about these three concepts. Differences in understanding between the age groups were found to be significant for the concepts of gene and DNA. None of the groups exhibit sound understanding and regardless of the age levels, students in all groups had alternative ideas about the three concepts investigated.     

Association between attitudes of filial responsibility and parent caregiving behavior

Objective: To analyze the association between attitudes of filial responsibility and adult child caregivers’ behaviors in the Southern Region of Brazil.

Methods: Cross-sectional study with 100 child caregivers of older adults. The data were collected through an interview using the protocol of filial responsibility adapted and validated to Brazilian Portuguese. Filial Expectation and Filial Piety scales evaluated the attitudes of filial responsibility. Caring behaviors assessed were: instrumental support, emotional, financial support, and companionship. The variables that presented p< .20 value in the bivariate analysis were inserted into a multivariate Poisson regression model.

Results: Financial and emotional support behaviors were significantly associated with filial piety (p = .050 and p = .001, respectively) and filial expectation (p = .013 and p = .023, respectively). Providing companionship was associated with filial piety (p = .015).

Conclusion: Attitudes of filial responsibility are associated with some but not all caregiving behaviors. Brazilians caring for older parents show more similarities to Chinese than to Canadian caregivers. Furthermore, filial responsibility and caregiving behaviors are strongly affected by Brazilian social and cultural norms. Reasons are discussed.     

The Nature of Scientific Practice and Science Education

There is, broadly speaking, an agreement within the international science education community that comprehension of the nature of science (NOS) should be a key element in the scientific literacy of citizens. During the last few decades, several didactic approaches have emerged concerning what and how to teach NOS. Also, one of the basic objectives of science education is for students to become familiar with the skills typical of scientific practice; however, there is little reference to their need to also acquire meta-knowledge about scientific practice (i.e., an understanding of the nature of scientific practice). Among other reasons, this may be due to NOS being essentially identified in most of the predominant proposals with the nature of scientific knowledge. But why not plan the teaching of science to be in tune with real scientific practice for students to learn about the nature of scientific practice at the same time as they are learning science? The answer to this question has given rise to a proposal grounded in ten essential pedagogical principles for the teaching and learning of science in secondary school. These are the principle of formulating questions, the principle of creativity and imagination, the principle of experimentation, the principle of procedural diversity, the principle of errors as opportunity, the principle of modeling, the principle of cooperation and teamwork, the principle of argumentation and discussion, the principle of communication, and the principle of evaluation. The purpose of this article is to present the justification and fundaments of these principles.     

Pedro Gutiérrez Bueno’s Textbooks: Audiences, Teaching Practices and Chemical Revolution

Pedro Gutiérrez Bueno wrote two editions of a chemistry textbook between 1788 and 1802. The paper offers a comparative view of both editions taking into account Gutiérrez Bueno’s biography, his intended audience and the changes related to the so-called chemical revolution. Some conclusions are at odds with common images about scientific revolutions and the role of textbooks in science. The analysis aims to shed some light on the multiple historical forces shaping textbooks and the way in which scientific change is assimilated by their writers. This research was partially supported by the program BHA2002-04611-CO3-02     

RECOGNITION OF STUDIES,DIPLOMAS, AND DEGREES: THE YUGOSLAV EXPERIENCE

The differences, so far as Yugoslav legislation is concerned, between “equivalence” and “recognition” are mads clear, and the Yugoslav instances authorized to make decisions on questions of equivalence and recognition are stated and their procedures, briefly described. The 7 multilateral conventions and the 13 bilateral agreements on equivalence and recognition matters are listed. More is said about the various Yugoslav instances empowered to make decisions and to give Information on questions of equivalence and recognition.     

Books and articles of academic interest

Books and articles of academic interest     

‘Approaches to the Teaching of Special Relativity Theory in High School and University Textbooks of Argentina’

In this work, we presented an analysis of the representation of the special relativity theory (SRT) in the most used texts in high school, Polimodal level and university level in the teaching in the Argentine Republic, from a historic, epistemological and didactic perspective. The results show that none of the analyzed texts would allow a contextualized approach on such theory.