Significance of context in university students' (meta)cognitions related to group work: A multi-layered,multi-dimensional and cultural approach

This article examines the significance of context in university students' development of (meta)cognitions related to a specific group assignment. For this purpose context was conceptualised at two levels: class (Business, Science) and small groups within class (culturally diverse, non-diverse). Diverging trends in (meta)cognitions emerged at class and small group levels, which reflected affordances and constraints of the learning contexts. The value of incorporating a cultural angle in research on group work was confirmed. Overall, the findings highlight the usefulness of a multi-layered learning contexts design for enhancing our understanding of the developing nature of students' multi-dimensional experiences of group work.     

Inclusive education for students with refugee experience: whole school reform in a South Australian primary school

In recent years, there has been an increase in students with refugee experience in the UK, the US, Europe and Australia. These students face many barriers to education, and appropriately educating this diverse student population presents many challenges to schools and education departments. We argue that a whole of school approach that includes school structures, culture and pedagogy is needed to provide equity for students with refugee experience. This approach to reform requires that the ‘structures and programs [that] are designed for a dominant group’ (DETE, South Australian Curriculum Standards and Accountability Framework, South Australia 2001), and which disadvantage minority groups, are challenged and changed. Implementing such change raises many practical difficulties, and there are few documented examples of good practice. This prompted the authors’ ethnographic study of a South Australian primary school, with a New Arrivals Program, which positions itself as taking a whole of school approach to educational reform for refugees. This paper reports on the structural changes the school has implemented in its class organisation, staff roles and curriculum. We consider the effects of government funding and neoliberal education policy on these reforms.     

ClinicalAccess: A Clinical Decision Support Tool

ClinicalAccess is a new clinical decision support tool that uses a question-and-answer format to mirror clinical decision-making strategies. The unique format of ClinicalAccess delivers concise, authoritative answers to more than 120,000 clinical questions. This column presents a review of the product, a sample search, and a comparison with other point-of-care search engines.     

Primary student teachers' conceptions of the nature of science

An understanding of current views of the nature of science continues to be regarded as an important outcome of school science. Studies of the conceptions of the nature of science held by primary school teacher education students is therefore important. This article reports the conceptions held by 73 preservice primary teachers. There were elements in the conceptions of the nature of science articulated by this group which clearly were not in accord with modern views. For example, one in five, in many instances, chose responses which would be unacceptable to many modern philosophies of science. Further, many chose 'don't know' as a response to a variety of specific propositions about science, ranging from a low of 1.5% to 3.15% of respondents. The responses of school leavers and mature age students did not differ in any substantial way. In addition, the use of newspaper science reports is described as a novel means to probe conceptions of the nature of science.     

爱是一个古老的故事,但它却是万古常新

经典代表: 说起经典的爱情小说,怎么能不提简·奥斯汀和她的《傲慢与偏见》,这部主要针对一个有着五位性格迥异的女儿的家庭展开,以爱情为主要线索,涉及婚姻、金钱、地位等话题,全书情节富有喜剧性,语言机智幽默,是奥斯汀小说中最受欢迎的一部.