Science Without Literacy: A ship without a sail?

This article argues that reading, writing and argument are central to any conception of science as it is currently constituted. Moreover, it is through the texts of science, popular accounts or journalistic reported versions that the majority of the public interact with and consider the implications of the findings that science presents. However, the study of the language of science, science's epistemic base and the cultural norms and values that underpin its practice are currently considered only marginal to the teaching of science. Rather, the specialised laboratories provided for science teachers and the narrow conception of science embodied in the curriculum gives pre-eminence to science as an empirical activity in the naive belief that this is central to understanding the nature of science. The consequent failure to recognise the centrality of language, literacy and argument to science education leaves the majority ill equipped to become critical consumers of science. Change requires a concerted attempt to reconceptualise the priorities for science education through a mix of new curricula, new strategies and last, but not least, new modes of assessment.     

Future apprenticeships in England: the role of mediation in the new model

Apprenticeship systems across the globe are having to adapt to changing international economic and social trends. England is no exception. This article examines the latest model of apprenticeship in England from the perspective of the ‘mediators’ who work at local and regional level with employers to construct and deliver the majority of current apprenticeships. The role of these actors is examined through a conceptual framework analysing different forms of mediation in the context of ‘the modern expanded state’. Their views were collected through 27 focus groups in nine regions of England in Spring 2016 and involving over 100 participants. These data suggest that the new apprenticeship model faces a number of challenges; notably how to engage small and medium-sized enterprises and how to better support the mobility and progression of apprentices. Participants advocated the development of regional and local networks comprising employers, FE colleges and other providers, HEIs and local government, as ways of sustaining the ‘apprenticeship market’, providing learner progression routes and stimulating employer demand for skills. The article concludes by suggesting a set of necessary local and national conditions if these networks are to have an impact on the successful development of the new apprenticeships.     

Languages discourses in Australian middle-class schools: parent and student perspectives

Much of the literature on social class and language study in schools argues that for middle-class parents and their children, languages are chosen for their capacity to offer forms of distinction that provide an edge in the global labour market. In this paper, we draw on data collected from interviews with parents and children in middle-class schools in Australia to demonstrate how a complex amalgam of elite, cultural identity and/or trade language discourses came into play to explain the choice (or not) to study a language and the choice of specific languages. For many of the parents languages provided a limited form of ‘civic multiculturalism’, as a means of better understanding and respecting the ‘other’. We argue that the value attributed to high status languages via this discourse, means their continued presence in schools hoping to attract middle-class parents, but their relative absence in schools with largely working-class populations, where more ‘practical’ concerns dominate.     

Phenomenological Aspects of Ecosystemics

This paper outlines key ideas in phenomenology and phenomenological psychology in order to clarify some of the processes which are used in ecosystemics. Occasionally writers take the view that a phenomenological approach indicates simply that we are concerned with an individual's experiences or that we are dealing with subjective perspectives. This paper shows that the important theoretical perspectives and specific techniques of phenomenological psychology provide the basis for important aspects of the ecosystemic approach.     

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN THE COMPUTER AGE

The author has presented a rapid overview of the uses of the new information technologies in various aspects of library management and utilization in the United States of America. As early as the 1950's, as concerned librarians had come to realise that manual methods would no longer suffice to cope with the demands being made on libraries, they turned increasingly to automation. Libraries were innovators with regard to the development of large databases and the users of innovations with regard to the development of communications technologies. The latter, the new information and communications technologies (NICT's), are playing increasingly important roles with regard to the operation of libraries in the areas of acquisitions, cataloguing, circulation, reference, administration, inter‐library links including shared cataloguing, resource sharing, and inter‐library loan (now thought of as document delivery). The introduction of these same technologies has required that changes be made in the way librarians are trained, that older practising librarians have their training upgraded, and that library clients be trained in techniques of computer use and information retrieval. For the future, the uses made of the NICT's are bound to expand, leading to increased electronic publishing and distribution and to greater integration of indexes and catalogues. University libraries will increasingly become parts of campus‐wide communications and information networks.     

Intentional Communication and Graphic Symbol Use by Students with Severe Intellectual Disability

Communicative intent is an important construct in pragmatic theory that is based, in part, on the study of language acquisition among normally developing children. This article discusses communicative intent in persons with severe intellectual disability in the context of intervention studies reporting the acquisition of graphic symbol use.     

谈写生色彩

成人高校开设各种实用美术类专业,教学中发觉学生对写生色彩入门颇感困难,究其原因,除学生实践少以外,理论知识也处于模糊状态。一般初学者观察色彩的习惯是从物体的固有色角度出发。掌握写生色彩规律,除了有理论知识,更重要的是不断实践、逐渐积累自己的经验。文章就如何学好理论知识,加强教学实践环节,进行了探讨。     

Expressed Readiness of Australian Schoolchildren to Act as Bystanders in Support of Children who are Being Bullied

Promoting interventive action on the part of student bystanders witnessing peer victimisation is currently seen as a promising way of reducing bullying in schools. A video depicting bullying in the presence of bystanders was viewed by late primary (n = 200) and early secondary school students (n = 200). Some 43% of the students indicated that they were likely to help the victim. Questionnaires were employed to assess student attitudes towards victims, beliefs about the expectations of parents, friends, and teachers, perceived self‐efficacy, and social desirability response set. Multiple regression analysis identified as significant predictors of expressed intention to intervene: attending primary school, having rarely or never bullied others, having (reportedly) previously intervened, positive attitude to victims, and believing that parents and friends (but not teachers) expected them to act to support victims. Implications for action to reduce bullying in schools are discussed.     

Discipline knowledge and confidence to teach science: self-perceptions of primary teacher education students

There has been renewed debate in recent years about the relatively poor science discipline background knowledge of primary and preschool teachers, and their lack of confidence to teach science stemming from this. A reaction from teacher educators, such as recommended by theDiscipline Review of Teacher Education in Mathematics and Science Report, has been to provide more explicit science discipline units in pre-service teacher education courses. However, a few studies have cast some doubt on the notion that more science discipline studies (Skamp, 1989; Stepans & McCormack, 1985). This paper reports on pre-service students' perceptions of their cofidence to teach science before and after a science education unit adapted from the PECSTEP work (Kirkwood, Bearlin & Hardy, 1989), which included only a small amount of physical science, and took an explicit gender approach emphasising the students as learners. Specializations: primary teacher education, teaching strategies in science.     

Attempted and completed incidents of stranger-perpetrated child sexual abuse and abduction

OBJECTIVE: To establish the prevalence, typology and nature of attempted or completed incidents of stranger-perpetrated sexual abuse or abduction of children "away from home". METHODS: A questionnaire was completed by 2,420 children (83% response rate) aged 9-16 years in 26 elementary and high schools in North-West England. RESULTS: Of these children, 19.0% (n=461) reported that they had been the victims of any attempted or completed sexual abuse or abduction incident away from home at some point in their lives. Of these children, 161 (6.7% of the original sample) reported that the "last" incident had been perpetrated by a stranger. Based upon these last incidents, four main types of attempted or completed CSA or abduction incident were identified: indecent exposure (40.8% of victims), touching (25.8%), and abduction (23.1%), each occurring on their own; and incidents involving multiple types of act (10.2%). The majority of these abductions (91.1%) and touching incidents (50.9%) were attempted as opposed to completed. Rates of victimization were generally higher among girls than boys (10.4% vs. 4.2%, p<.001). A sizeable minority of victims had experienced sexual abuse or abduction previously (28.8%). The large majority of incidents were carried out by males (88.2%). Most incidents occurred when children were accompanied by their peers (67.9%). Many victims were frightened by their experience (46.9% very frightened) and the large majority made a disclosure (79.9%). Only a minority of incidents were reported to the police (33.3%). CONCLUSIONS: Incidents of attempted and completed stranger CSA and abduction are distinct from CSA and abduction by known persons, go against stereotypes, are complex, and give rise to a number of key issues that may have implications for prevention and intervention. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Professionals involved in child protection should undertake work to reduce the risk of existing victims of CSA or abduction becoming victims of stranger CSA or abduction, and the risk of attempted incidents becoming completed ones. They also need to encourage the disclosure and reporting of attempted and completed stranger CSA and abduction incidents.