Pathways of China's PM2.5 air quality 2015-2060 in the context of carbon neutrality

Clean air policies in China have substantially reduced particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution in recent years,primarily by curbing end-of-pipe emissions.Howev...     

Social justice,capabilities and the quality of education in low income countries

The paper sets out a theoretical approach for understanding the quality of education in low income countries from a social justice perspective. The paper outlines and critiques the two dominant approaches that currently frame the debate about education quality, namely, the human capital and human rights approaches. Drawing principally on the ideas of Nancy Fraser and Amyarta Sen the paper then sets out an alternative approach based on a theory of social justice and of capabilities. The paper develops an overall understanding of how education quality can be understood in relation to the extent to which it fosters key capabilities that individuals, communities and society in general have reason to value. It then analyses three inter-related dimensions of the quality of education from a social justice perspective. Each dimension is considered in relation to contemporary policy debates and research including the work of EdQual. The first dimension, that of inclusion draws attention to the access of different groups of learners to quality inputs that facilitate the development of their capabilities, the cultural and institutional barriers that impact on the learning of different groups and priorities for overcoming these. The second dimension, that of relevance, is concerned with the extent to which the outcomes of education are meaningful for all learners, valued by their communities and consistent with national development priorities in a changing global context, whilst the third dimension, that of democracy considers how decisions about education quality are governed and the nature of participation in debates at the local, national and global levels. It is argued that a social justice framework can provide an alternative rationale for a policy emphasis on quality that encompasses but goes beyond that provided by human capital and rights approaches; that through emphasising the importance of context and through providing a normative basis for thinking about quality in relation to development, it provides a useful starting point for re-conceptualising education quality and how it can be evaluated; and, that it draws attention to the central importance of public dialogue and debate at the local, national and global levels about the nature of a quality education and quality frameworks at these levels.     

Content Validity Studies of Licensing Examinations

Can measurement specialists’current ideas about content validation be implemented with licensure examinations? Does pressure of litigation facilitate or inhibit conducting validity studies?     

Early education teachers’ conceptualizations and strategies for managing closeness with the class in child care

This study investigated teachers’ experiences of closeness during interactions with the group of children in child care. Structured interviews were conducted with 24 female teachers who were teaching children between the ages of three and five (mean age = 3.9) regarding their perceptions of closeness with the group of children in the class. Qualitative analyses of the interviews revealed a group solidarity domain of teacher–group relationships composed of three dimensions which comprise emotional solidarity, consensual solidarity, and functional solidarity, with emotional solidarity most dominant in the teachers’ perceptions. This group solidarity domain was interpreted as being consistent with qualities found in Grusec and Davidov’s group participation domain. The findings that, teachers’ closeness with the group of children in the class were dominated by the emotional dimension is similar to previous research results which report the predominance of personal and intimate interactions in relational closeness between teachers and individual children. Teachers described intentional strategies for managing close group relationships that made use of interactional histories between the teachers and children in the class. These discoveries provide a new perspective on teacher closeness with groups, an area of research not often investigated. It also provides insights into the importance teachers place on connecting emotionally with children when they are with the collective group in the classroom.     

Using Web-Based Key Character and Classification Instruction for Teaching Undergraduate Students Insect Identification

The purpose of the study was to determine whether undergraduate students receiving web-based instruction based on traditional, key character, or classification instruction differed in their performance of insect identification tasks. All groups showed a significant improvement in insect identifications on pre- and post-two-dimensional picture specimen quizzes. The study also determined student performance on insect identification tasks was not as good as for family-level identification as compared to broader insect orders and arthropod classification identification tasks. Finally, students erred significantly more by misidentification than misspelling specimen names on prepared specimen quizzes. Results of this study support that short web-based insect identification exercises can improve insect identification performance. Also included is a discussion of how these results can be used in teaching and future research on biological identification.