Technology‐rich inquiry science in urban classrooms: What are the barriers to inquiry pedagogy?*

What are the barriers to technology‐rich inquiry pedagogy in urban science classrooms, and what kinds of programs and support structures allow these barriers to be overcome? Research on the pedagogical practices within urban classrooms suggests that as a result of many constraints, many urban teachers' practices emphasize directive, controlling teaching, that is, the “pedagogy of poverty” (Haberman, 1991 ), rather than the facilitation of students' ownership and control over their learning, as advocated in inquiry science. On balance, research programs that advocate standards‐based or inquiry teaching pedagogies demonstrate strong learning outcomes by urban students. This study tracked classroom research on a technology‐rich inquiry weather program with six urban science teachers. The teachers implemented this program in coordination with a district‐wide middle school science reform. Results indicated that despite many challenges in the first year of implementation, students in all 19 classrooms of this program demonstrated significant content and inquiry gains. In addition, case study data comprised of twice‐weekly classroom observations and interviews with the six teachers suggest support structures that were both conducive and challenging to inquiry pedagogy. Our work has extended previous studies on urban science pedagogy and practices as it has begun to articulate what role the technological component plays either in contributing to the challenges we experienced or in helping urban science classrooms to realize inquiry science and other positive learning values. Although these data outline results after only the first year of systemic reform, we suggest that they begin to build evidence for the role of technology‐rich inquiry programs in combating the pedagogy of poverty in urban science classrooms. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 128‐150, 2002     

Culturally Responsive Literacy Practices in an Early Childhood Community

Early childhood educators continue to see an increase in their culturally diverse student population. As our country continues to grow as a multicultural nation, it is imperative that our early childhood classrooms embrace this rich diversity and provide experiences that affirm all students, families and communities. We (teacher educators) synthesized the current research into the following five frameworks that we believe embody the foundation of culturally responsive teaching (CRT) in an early childhood setting: (a) developing a culturally responsive classroom community, (b) family engagement, (c) critical literacy within a social justice framework, (d) multicultural literature, and (e) culturally responsive print rich environments. In this article we situate each framework within the larger context of research. Next we move beyond discussing CRT practices by offering ideas on how culturally responsive classrooms look and how to implement this pedagogy and in an early childhood setting with real classroom practices.     

寻索后后现代城市的灵性与正义

西方全球化发展,形成"受伤城市",后现代极端自由主义文化,形成自我中心主义(Egoism),引致城市精神文化与道德崩落.当代西方城市文化的困境,是马克思早年所谓的"异化"(alienation),城市建筑中,人都用铁窗、铁闸把自己锁在屋内,结果形成"枷锁城市"(carceral city).一个正义的城市,必须有义人传统,要解决当代城市这些问题,须了解城市是一个"他者共在的世界",由此寻索一个城市和谐文化的方向.蒲伯(Martin Buber)提出的"我一你"思想模式,关键就是要把"他者"视为一个完整的存在,人与人须建立一种真诚的关系.这人与他者间建立和谐关系的思想,在中国文化来说,就是"仁义"的理念.仁是人性中一种对"他者"的"感通",义则是正直合宜的行为.设计一个后后现代的城市,必须考虑一个文化的空间,建造一个有仁义感通的精神文化.     

Explicating factual and subjective science knowledge: knowledge as a mediator of news attention and attitudes

Communication scholars have conflicting views on the relationship between exposure to science news and knowledge, and its subsequent influence on attitudes. Such mixed sentiments could arise from the vague definition of knowledge. Therefore, this paper explicates science knowledge into factual knowledge and subjective knowledge. It also compares the mediating roles of both types of knowledge between news attention and public support for science and technology (S&T). A survey of 967 Singaporeans showed that news attention was positively related to both factual and subjective knowledge. The findings revealed a stronger relationship between subjective knowledge and news attention than factual knowledge and news attention. Additionally, factual knowledge was positively related to public support for S&T, but subjective knowledge was negatively related to public support for S&T. The contrasting directions of these associations demonstrate that factual and subjective knowledge are two distinct dimensions of knowledge. Practically, the findings can inform policymakers and communication practitioners about effective public education and engagement initiatives. This study also provided guidelines for newsmakers in news reporting about S&T.     

Effect of terrain and building structures on the airflow in an airport

The aim of this study was to perform computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations on the airflows at the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA). In particular, the effects of hangar buildings and terrain were studied to explore the effects of turbulence on flying aircraft, especially during landing. The CFD simulation showed that significant differences in wind speeds may occur between the north and the south runways on the western part of the HKIA under typhoon conditions with a strong north to northwesterly wind. Simulation also showed that the hanger buildings between the two runways on the western side and the nearby terrain could be causing the observed difference in the wind speeds. The results also indicated that these obstacles could cause significant wind speed variations at the western end of the south runway. This may affect the operation of landing aircraft. The CFD results for a typical typhoon case were analyzed and found to match the wind data recorded by an aircraft landing that day.     

Youth in a global world: attitudes towards globalization and global citizenship among university students in Hong Kong

Despite the wealth of theoretical literature on globalization and global citizenship, empirical studies on the topic are lacking, especially in the context of pedagogical needs in relation to global citizenship education. In order to address this gap, a study was conducted in Hong Kong to investigate the attitudes of university students towards various dimensions of globalization and global citizenship. The initial results indicate that Hong Kong university students are generally quite aware of globalization's impact on the economy and personal consumption choices and that while there is considerable apathy towards international affairs, there is also a great interest in cross-cultural service learning opportunities that is not being met by the available programmes. Moreover, this study finds almost no association between age, gender, and religion and any of the measured dependent variables on attitudes towards globalization and global citizenship, the only exception being the factor of past intercultural experiences, where a significant difference in measured attitudes was found between respondents who had and respondents who had not participated in such experiences before. Explanations of the findings and the implications of findings for policy and future research are discussed.     

Compare the moderator for pre-test-post-test design in peer tutoring with treatment-control/comparison design

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Previous meta-analyses on peer tutoring have mainly included studies using treatment-control/comparison design and excluded studies that adopted...     

Chinese Malaysian Adolescents' Social‐Cognitive Reasoning Regarding Filial Piety Dilemmas

This study examined the social‐cognitive reasoning of 52 Chinese Malaysian preadolescents (9–12 years old; M = 11.02, SD = 0.94) and 68 adolescents (13–18 years old; M = 14.76, SD = 1.39) in resolving filial dilemmas within the personal and moral domain. Preadolescents deferred to parental authority, whereas adolescents endorsed filial obligation reasoning to justify compliance in the personal domain. Both appealed to filial obligation, pragmatic, or welfare and safety reasoning to justify compliance but fairness or rights reasoning to justify their noncompliance, for the moral issue. Distinctions between authoritarian and reciprocal filial piety reasoning were revealed. Findings demonstrated complex decision‐making and cognitive reasoning processes among Chinese Malaysian adolescents as they negotiate their filial obligations and autonomy development.