Am I their cup of tea? Vice-principals’ perception of suitability for principalship

This paper attempts to address the principal shortage issue from the concept of fit perceived by job applicants. It links vice-principals’ perception of suitability for principalship to their conception of how well they can match with the selection criteria set out by school hiring bodies. Based on evidence collected from aspiring principals in Hong Kong, the study found that the respondents believed their suitability for a principal position was generally measured against four criteria by school hiring bodies; namely generic managerial skills, communication and presentation skills, knowledge and experience, and religious value orientation. Respondents were confident about their capability in the first three attributes, but were less assured about the last one. The results further showed that respondents’ perceived deficiency in the religious related attribute affected their confidence in being considered a suitable candidate. Implications of the findings for policy makers and practitioners are discussed.     

Conceptions of good teaching and how they influence the way adults and school leavers are taught

Seventeen lecturers in three departments in a university were interviewed about their conceptions of good teaching, their perceptions of the differences between adult and full-time students, and the actual strategies and methods they employed in their practice of teaching the two student groups. Results showed that there were common perceptions of the way adult students differed from their full-time adolescent counterparts. However, they reacted differently to those perceived differences. Three major types of accommodation were found: catering for weakness, treating both groups in the same way, and remediating weaknesses. The lecturers' conceptions of good teaching could be categorized into two main categories: transmissive and facilitative. Cross-tabulation of the teaching conception of the individual lecturers with their orientation to accommodation showed that those holding a transmissive conception tended to cater for the weakness of their students or make no distinction between teaching adult and full-time students. Those perceiving teaching as facilitating learning were more likely to try to remediate the weaknesses of their students.     

Turning Crisis into Opportunity: Nature of Science and Scientific Inquiry as Illustrated in the Scientific Research on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome

Interviews with key scientists who had conducted research on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), together with analysis of media reports, documentaries and other literature published during and after the SARS epidemic, revealed many interesting aspects of the nature of science (NOS) and scientific inquiry in contemporary scientific research in the rapidly growing field of molecular biology. The story of SARS illustrates vividly some NOS features advocated in the school science curriculum, including the tentative nature of scientific knowledge, theory-laden observation and interpretation, multiplicity of approaches adopted in scientific inquiry, the inter-relationship between science and technology, and the nexus of science, politics, social and cultural practices. The story also provided some insights into a number of NOS features less emphasised in the school curriculum—for example, the need to combine and coordinate expertise in a number of scientific fields, the intense competition between research groups (suspended during the SARS crisis), the significance of affective issues relating to intellectual honesty and the courage to challenge authority, the pressure of funding issues on the conduct of research and the ‘peace of mind’ of researchers, These less emphasised elements provided empirical evidence that NOS knowledge, like scientific knowledge itself, changes over time. They reflected the need for teachers and curriculum planners to revisit and reconsider whether the features of NOS currently included in the school science curriculum are fully reflective of the practice of science in the 21st century. In this paper, we also report on how we made use of extracts from the news reports and documentaries on SARS, together with episodes from the scientists’ interviews, to develop a multimedia instructional package for explicitly teaching the prominent features of NOS and scientific inquiry identified in the SARS research.

精准医学发展趋势:从定量成像到放射组学（英文）

放射学(影像学)及影像引导的介入手段能提供多参数的形态学及功能信息,在精准医学中扮演着越来越重要的角色。因此,放射科医生需要理解影像表型,并将这些表型与潜在的疾病相关联,进而描述图像特征。但是为了能理解并描述异质性实体肿瘤的分子表型(基因组学信息),就需要通过活检取得这些组织更进一步的序列信息。因此,放射科医生为了能获得详尽的影像表型,需要从不同视图和角度采集图像,而这就产生了大量的数据。从所有这些影像数据中提取有意义的细节非常具有挑战性,并衍生出了大数据这个命题。因为影像组学有对诊断支持提供有意义的诠释性和预测性信息的潜力,所以近年来对于影像组学的关注越来越多。影像组学是传统的计算机辅助诊断、深度学习和人类技能的结合,因此它能被用来定量描述肿瘤表型。本文对影像组学流程的概览、基于不同手段(如计算机断层扫描(CT)、磁共振成像(MRI)和正电子发射计算机断层扫描(PET))的影像组学研究结果、面临的挑战和影像组学对于精准医学潜在的贡献等方面进行了讨论。     

On a Pedestal: effects of intellectual‐giftedness and some implications for programme planning

The popular notion that gifted children are immune from adjustment problems because of their high intelligence has relegated this research area to a secondary concern. In this study, self‐esteem, social isolation, locus of control, alienation and anxiety as indices of psychosocial adjustment were explored among the gifted and nongifted adolescents in three secondary schools. The findings suggest that some gifted adolescents are more susceptible than the nongifted to various dysphoric and adjustment crises. The author contends that preventive guidance is necessary to assist gifted adolescents in developing appropriate coping skills. The conclusions are brought together in a discussion of some implications for gifted programme planning.     

Remaking Chinese identity: hegemonic struggles over national education in post‐colonial Hong Kong

Following the resumption of Chinese sovereignty in 1997, the Hong Kong Government has introduced a new national education project which aims at building nationalism and patriotism. With an active involvement of the state and civil society in promoting national education in recent years, there have been certain drastic changes in the school system—reforms in the curriculum with more weight to national identity and China’s topics, more nationalistic or patriotic extra‐curricular activities and rituals, and more training for teachers to conduct national education. Informed by a Gramscian notion of hegemony, this paper analyses the advent of and struggles over the national education policy and illustrates the collaboration and contests among various groups in the nation‐building project—with the controversies over display of the national flag and liberal studies curriculum as examples.     

Learning the ropes – the transition from a teacher to an administrator

ABSTRACT

New vice-principals (VPs) inevitably experience high levels of uncertainty when assuming the position, and undergo a process of socialisation, involving engaging with both professional and relational sources of support in schools, to adjust to their changing role. Drawing on socialisation theories, this exploratory study proposes that novice VPs would rely on the school’s structural feedback mechanism, peer affirmation and principal’s sponsorship in their adaptation process; the first of these is professionally oriented whereas the remaining two are relationally oriented. The study further argues that VPs would experience varying degrees of dependence on these factors corresponding to the stage of their development in the socialisation process. Findings of the study, informed by a Hong Kong data set covering VPs in their first, second, and third years of tenure respectively, support these propositions. Peer affirmation appears to be a continuous source of support to VPs in all tenure groups and it stands at odds with principal’s sponsorship. The effects of the structural feedback mechanism and principal’s sponsorship on VP’s transition are only evident in the 2-year group, with the former being positive and the latter negative. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

MAGNETISM TEACHING SEQUENCES BASED ON AN INDUCTIVE APPROACH FOR FIRST-YEAR THAI UNIVERSITY SCIENCE STUDENTS

The study investigated the impact on student motivation and understanding of magnetism of teaching sequences based on an inductive approach. The study was conducted in large lecture classes. A pre- and post-Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism was conducted with just fewer than 700 Thai undergraduate science students, before and after being taught the concepts, in three academic years. For 2005 and 2006, overall, the students had a better understanding of concepts associated with electricity, but a majority of the students seemed not to understand magnetism after the teaching. Drawing on these findings, the teaching sequences of the magnetism topic were developed, and then implemented in the academic year 2007. The teaching sequences included demonstrations and visuals to help students infer rules and theories for themselves (inductive method). In addition, interactive notes, information on historical science discoveries about magnetic phenomenon, questions, student discussions, and magnetism problems were used to support student learning during lectures. Students in the academic year 2007 performed significantly better after the teaching. In addition, the students had a positive perception towards the teaching sequences, which allowed them to be involved more actively during lectures.     

Secondary school vice‐principals: Commitment,challenge, efficacy and synchrony

The study sought to investigate Hong Kong secondary school vice‐principals’ job facets leading to overall job satisfaction, and to differentiate the satisfaction of vice‐principals of different career orientations and gender groups. The findings indicated that there are four main facets of satisfaction, in rank order of influence on overall satisfaction, ‘professional commitment’, ‘level of personal challenge’, ‘sense of efficacy’ and ‘sense of synchrony’. The study also found that vice‐principals who aspired to the principalship exhibited a higher degree of professional commitment, a stronger sense of efficacy, and experienced lower levels of stress associated with personal challenge than vice‐principals who did not aspire to a principalship.     

The impact of peer competition and collaboration on gamified learning performance in educational settings: a Meta-analytical study

Education and Information Technologies - This study is a meta-analytical study that examines the effectiveness of gamification in learning performance in educational settings (n = 29;...