Building a Reading Culture in a Singapore School: Identifying Spaces for Change Through a Socio-spatial Approach

Research tells us that reading is correlated to academic achievement but how do we motivate students to read? How can schools build reading cultures? Through the case study of a government secondary school in Singapore, I examine how attention to the invisible network of resources that support reading can provide insight into students’ resources for reading, both at home and in school. Additionally, I explain, through the mapping of the school library as a reading space, how a socio-spatial approach that maps the physical, social and affective spaces of the library can provide a framework for strategic and focused action to cultivate a school’s reading culture.     

东盟图书馆联盟发展现状及对我国的启示

考察东盟各国国内和国家间图书馆联盟的发展现状,总结其3个特点：图书馆联盟的发展体现出东盟各国独特的政治经济文化背景,国际间图书馆联盟活动频繁,东盟各国内部的图书馆事业和图书馆联盟发展不平衡;指出东盟图书馆联盟的发展历程对我国图书馆建设有3点启示：争取各种国际基金、慈善组织和NGO组织等的资助,构建全国性的统一的图书馆联盟和超越图书馆联盟的公共文化服务机构联盟。     

Obesity prevention and health promotion during early periods of growth and development

Current problems of health - related fitness promotion in children and adolescents- economic, social, cultural and other environmental factors. A relationship between the environment and the child, beginning dining the gestation period that influences both positive and negative, health outcomes later in life.[第一段]     

Effects of an augmented reality-based mobile system on students’ learning achievements and motivation for a liberal arts course

ABSTRACT

Although Augmented Reality (AR) technology has already been adopted into mobile learning environments, additional effort must be put towards providing strong evidence that AR-based mobile systems are excellent educational tools that make a positive impact in or outside of the classroom. Our study utilized a similar AR-based mobile learning system developed to authentically teach a liberal arts course at a Taiwanese university. Under controlled study environments, we were able to design a system that could impart relevant concepts from the course to students outside of the traditional classroom setting. Experimental results demonstrated that students with the opportunity to learn through the proposed system demonstrated higher learning motivation, had better learning performance and comprehension abilities than those studying via the conventional outdoor instruction approach. Moreover, the questionnaire survey conducted after our study revealed that “confidence” was the most highly rated motivational factor among students who used the proposed system, suggesting that students were quite motivated to learn using the novel system supplemented with technological advances because they felt more sure of their knowledge and performance. Thus, we believe that using the proposed system can effectively improve the learning outcomes of students enrolled in the liberal arts course, with the particular benefit of boosting confidence in gaining new knowledge, which leads to an improvement of overall learning performance and motivation.     

苏联现代高等学校图书馆

<正> 目前苏联全国共有高等学校891所(其中综合性大学68所),在校学生人数已超过600万.这些高等学校分布于200多座城市.在高等学校的教学和科学研究活动中,图书馆起着重要的作用.图书馆工作的主要方向是积极参与教学过程,及时为学生提供必需的图书文献,为科学研究提供高效率的、全面的情报服务.因此,今日的高校图书馆已看作是同时执行公共图书馆、科学图书馆和学校图书馆多种职能的复合体.     

Cultural capital,habitus and reading futures: middle-class adolescent students’ cultivation of reading dispositions in Singapore

Abstract

The acquisition of cultural capital can only be understood in the light of the formation of habitus, including the socialisation process, and in the context of the field in which any such capital has value. Yet, the relation between cultural capital and habitus is seldom discussed in research. Drawing on the data from focus groups with 96 students and a survey of 5,779 students from six Singapore secondary schools, we analyze how reading as a form of cultural capital is distributed among High-SES, Mid-SES and Low-SES students in Singapore. We show how middle-class practices of intensive immersion in school-valued reading practices is a form of habitus that prepare some students better than others for engaged reading. The findings highlight how reading as a form of cultural capital is operationalized through students’ familial habitus and argues that making visible familial habitus provides insights for transforming institutional habitus for students’ reading futures.     

Structural and physiological changes of the human body upon SARS-CoV-2 infection

Since December 2019, the novel coronavirus(severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2)) has spread to many countries around the world, developing into a global pandemic with increasing numbers of deaths reported worldwide. To data, although some vaccines have been developed, there are no ideal drugs to treat novel coronavirus pneumonia(coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)). By examining the structure of the coronavirus and briefly describing its possible pathogenesis based on recent autopsy reports conducted by various teams worldwide, this review analyzes the possible structural and functional changes of the human body upon infection with SARS-CoV-2. We observed that the most prominent pathological changes in COVID-19 patients are diffuse alveolar damage(DAD) of the lungs and microthrombus formation,resulting in an imbalance of the ventilation/perfusion ratio and respiratory failure. Although direct evidence of viral infection can also be found in other organs and tissues, the viral load is relatively small. The conclusion that the injuries of the extrapulmonary organs are directly caused by the virus needs further investigation.     

Analyzing hierarchical relationships among modes of cognitive reasoning and integrated science process skills

The purpose of this research was to search for a learning hierarchy among skills comprising formal operations and the integrated science processes. Ordering theoretic and probabilistic latent structure methods were used to analyze data on five process skills and six logical thinking skills collected from 700 science students. Both linear and branching hierarchical relationships were identified within and across the two sets of skills. Most of them fit the logical hierarchies which have guided curriculum development and classroom practices in the past. But a few run counter to our present logic and understanding of these skills.     

Sports,physical practice,and the female body, 1980–1989: women’s emancipation in Romania under communism

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the promotion and practice of physical exercise and sport in relation to social class and the shifting roles of women in communist-governed Romania during the 1980s. Since sport played a central role in communist ideology, especially as a means of maintaining a healthy and growing workforce, the government encouraged physical activity through gymnastics at work (in the form of “production gymnastics”), in public wellness centers, and at home. In this study, the authors trace societal shifts related to changing policies and laws through corresponding shifts in the representation of female bodies engaged in sport and exercise by the media. Content analysis of Romanian magazine and newspaper articles published during the 1980s reveals how group physical exercises, such as maintenance gymnastics, were promoted to working-class women and how images of women became increasingly feminized and sexualized, thereby reinforcing new norms of feminine beauty.     

Motion controllers for learners to manipulate and interact with 3D objects for mental rotation training

Mental rotation is an important spatial processing ability and an important element in intelligence tests. However, the majority of past attempts at training mental rotation have used paper‐and‐pencil tests or digital images. This study proposes an innovative mental rotation training approach using magnetic motion controllers to allow learners to manipulate and interact with three‐dimensional (3D) objects. Stereovision allows learners to perceive the spatial geometric form of a 3D object. This approach allows learners to perceive 3D objects in space through stereovision and make mental rotation visible from each intrinsic and invisible mental rotation step using motion‐interaction methods. This study examines the effects of user training performance and perceptions. The results indicate that the proposed approach can improve user mental rotation ability effectively. Learners expressed high degrees of concentration toward the mechanism that included direct control and immediate feedback. The results also suggest that female testers perceive greater degrees of playfulness toward the mechanism and improve more through training than male testers.