Teaching style,ICT experience and teachers’ attitudes toward teaching with Web 2.0

Emphasis on 21^st Century Skills development has increased expectations on teachers to take advantages of emerging technologies to support student learning. Yet it is not clear whether teachers are well equipped with the necessary skills, support, and positive attitudes toward integrating them in their practices. Even though student-centered teachers are considered receptive to collaborative technologies and likely to use technology meaningfully in teaching, to what extent teaching style influences their Web 2.0 adaption requires further investigation. This study attempts to identify K12 teachers’ attitudes toward the use of Web 2.0 technologies in their teaching. 161 teachers from eight middle and high schools in both rural and urban locations of West Virginia participated in this cross sectional survey study. Overall, the findings indicate that while teachers are fairly proficient in their computer and internet skills and have fairly high computer self-efficacy, their workload and a structured and standardized curriculum were inhibitors of Web 2.0 adoption. Age, self-efficacy, workload, and views about Web 2.0 in teaching were observed to be significant factors predicting teachers’ likelihood to find Web 2.0 appealing for teaching. Teaching style was not a significant predictor. The findings suggest infrastructural improvements, workload adjustments, and increased professional development opportunities allowing teachers to observe, discuss, and practice Web 2.0 technologies in their particular disciplines.     

KDU e-Community Network

The democratization of education has brought forth an unprecedented demand for education by the masses, especially at the tertiary level. However, the availability of education is hampered by limited resources to provide pervasive and effective teacher–student interaction, changing lifestyle patterns, changing expectations of the students, and the problems associated with the great urban–rural divide and nonuniform access. The problem of availability of education is compounded by the tide of globalization and the Internet that demands not only high efficiency but also competitive delivery of services and goods in all sectors of our economy, including education. Education is not immune to these current trends. It is imperative that education institutions rise up to the challenge in meeting the demand of a more discerning, discriminating, mobile, and selective student population. It is imperative that education institutions reconsider the necessary ingredients to make learning effective, relevant, and fun for the students. Our company, Kolej Damansara Utama (KDU), has embarked on an education experiment begun almost 3 years ago to implement a student-centered, teacher-facilitated, Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-enabled and knowledge-based initiative. The goal of this experiment has been to create an active learning environment, and to promote learning for our students. The knowledge ecosystem, comprising students, teachers, administrators, parents, partner institutions, employers, and the community at large, forms the KDU e-Community Network (KCN). The KCN enables passive, interactive, collaborative, and constructive learning to take place as long as the stakeholder has a connection to the Internet.     

Pre-service teachers' reasons for choosing teaching as a career in Singapore

As the national teacher education institute in Singapore, the National Institute of Education (NIE) prepares all teachers seeking to be employed within the education service in Singapore. In the last decade, NIE's enrolment for initial teacher preparation programmes has grown significantly, with peaks in numbers during the recession years. There is also some evidence of attrition when beginning teachers complete their 3-year bond with the Ministry of Education, which sponsors their teacher education programme. It is thus important to determine empirically the reasons why pre-service teachers join the teaching profession, to see whether this can inform us about measures that can be taken to ensure they stay on in the profession. As part of a longitudinal study on beginning teachers' attitudes towards teaching and professional development, a research survey, the first of three data collections, was administered to whole cohorts of pre-service teachers entering NIE's three main teacher preparation programmes in July 2004. This paper presents the survey findings on pre-service teachers' reasons for choosing teaching as a career and discusses the differences between cohorts of different programmes. The implications of the study are discussed in terms of informing future policy and practice in the areas of teacher recruitment, retention and professional development.     

新加坡高中H2华文与文学新课程的评估研究

新加坡于2014年推行了新的H2华文与文学课程。为了考察新课标实施的状况以及实施可能带来的变化,教育部课程规划与发展司委托新加坡华文教研中心进行一项为期三年的评价性研究。研究主要分为学习评估与教学评估两方面,前者主要关注学生华语文状况与学习前后的语言能力表现;后者关注华语课堂的教学实践、教师对新课程的期望及调适等。本研究将对高中新课标的实施,从教师、学生、课堂教学以及教学效果各个方面进行全方位的扫描,并为教育决策者提供较为真实、全面的高中H2华文与文学教与学的状况信息。     

A longitudinal study of career maturity of Korean adolescents: the effects of personal and contextual factors

The purpose of this longitudinal study is to examine the effects of personal factors and contextual determinants on the career maturity change of Korean adolescents over a 5-year period. This study used data from the Korea Youth Panel Survey which was administered to 3,449 junior high students from Grades 8 to 12, starting in 2003. A linear mixed-effects regression was used to test the study model. The results showed the levels of Korean adolescents?? career maturity were significantly influenced by personal predictors (gender, work values, career efficacy, self-efficacy, career development activities, school achievement, sex-role stereotyping, pressure for academic achievement, and part-time experiences) and contextual predictors (career conversations with parents, relationships with friends, and private education expense). Among career-related variables, only work values affected the slope of the career maturity growth curve. Implications for career counselors and educators are discussed.     

Balancing the tensions and meeting the conceptual challenges of education for sustainable development and climate change

This paper addresses one of the key challenges for work on education, sustainable development and climate change: the overall conceptualisation of central ideas such as Environmental Education (EE), Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Climate Change Education (CCE). What do these concepts mean in diverse contexts and amongst diverse actors? The paper draws on evidence from Denmark, Singapore, Canada and the UK to highlight both the similarities and differences found within national discussions around these essentially contested concepts and their relationships to policy and practice. It further argues that such debates about how EE, ESD and CCE are conceptualised remain highly relevant, not just to academic work itself, but also to wider international discussions regarding both the current and potential relationships between conceptual understanding, policy and practice.     

An individual learning journey: learning as becoming a vocational teacher

In this paper, I address a perceived gap in the lifelong learning literature. There is very little research which addresses how learning should be construed, when individuals transition across a longitudinal span of their working life. This transition which could be viewed as a process of ‘becoming somebody’, often oversimplifies the full complexity of individuals’ learning experiences. Using a sociocultural perspective, the paper explores the lived experiences of individuals in the process of becoming a vocational teacher, in order to help conceptualise the individuals’ learning through their working life. The study draws upon data from a completed research on a group of vocational education trainee teachers learning to teach. This paper argues that learning varies significantly from individual to individual, time to time, context to context and also in different stages of individuals’ lives. This transition could be viewed as an individual learning journey, through understanding the interrelationship between individuals and the contexts, across the individuals’ lives. Drawing from this understanding, the individual’s agency is presented as a way that individuals construct their own lifecourse through the actions and choices they made within the opportunities and constraints of the context. The findings of the study also contribute to the understanding of changes, from the individual learner’s perspective, which could be useful for policy and practice relating to lifelong learning.     

An initial examination of Singaporean seventh and eighth graders’ views of nature of science

Research in nature of science (NOS) among Asia-Pacific countries such as Singapore is arguably scarce. This study aimed to survey Singaporean secondary school students’ views of NOS with a newly developed instrument named Students’ Views of Nature of Science (SVNOS), which included various key aspects of NOS that are generally agreed upon by the science education community. Moreover, the relations between some demographic factors, including gender and grade, and students’ views of NOS were explored.

Sample, design and method

In total, 359 Singaporean seventh and eighth graders were invited to participate in this survey. The reliability, validity and structure of the SVNOS instrument were ensured by confirmatory factor analysis. A two-way multivariate analysis of variance was then conducted to determine the interaction effects between the gender variable and the grade-level variable.

Results and conclusion

The results indicated that the SVNOS instrument is reliable and valid to assess students’ views of NOS regarding seven distinct NOS dimensions. The male students were more prone to have constructivist-oriented views of NOS in the most of the SVNOS dimensions, while the female students conveyed more non-objective views of NOS. In addition, the eighth graders revealed more empiricist-oriented views of NOS than the seventh graders in several SVNOS dimensions. This result seems to contradict the results of previous studies that students’ views of NOS may reflect a developmental trend with their increasing educational experiences.     

Correlation of axial impact forces with knee joint forces and kinematics during simulated ski-landing

Abstract

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture, during ski-landing, is caused by excessive knee joint forces and kinematics, like anterior tibial translation, internal tibial rotation, and valgus rotation. It is not well understood how these forces/kinematics are directly related to ski-landing impact. In the present study, we applied simulated ski-landing impact to knee specimens, and examined joint force/kinematic responses and their correlations with impact force. Ten human cadaveric knees were subjected to axial impact loading at 70° of flexion to simulate ski-landing impact. Impact was repeated with incremental magnitude until ACL failure. Axial impact forces, anterior-posterior and medial-lateral tibial forces were measured using a tri-axial load cell. Anterior-posterior tibial translation, internal-external tibial rotation, and valgus-varus rotation were determined using a motion-capture system. We found positive correlations of axial impact force with anterior tibial force, medial tibial force, anterior tibial translation, internal tibial rotation, and valgus joint rotation. Axial impact forces were more strongly correlated with anterior tibial forces (R ² = 0.937 ± 0.050), anterior tibial translation (R ² = 0.916 ± 0.059), and internal tibial rotation (R ² = 0.831 ± 0.141) than medial tibial force (R ² = 0.677 ± 0.193) and valgus joint rotation (R ² = 0.630+0.271). During ski-landing, these joint forces/kinematics can synergistically act to increase ACL injury risk, whereby the failure mechanism would be dominated by anterior tibial forces, anterior tibial translation, and internal tibial rotation.