A Course in Applied Chemistry at a Third World University

Summaries

English

An outline is given of a programme in applied chemistry within a classical chemistry department of a university located in a Third World country with certain specific needs. The curriculum has been specifically designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills used by chemists in Jamaican industry. Industry personnel were invited to participate fully in the development of the curriculum as well as in actual instruction. In this way, an attempt was made to bridge the gap between the ‘academic’ and the ‘real’ world.

The Third World has experienced a perennial shortage of skilled professional scientists, including chemical engineers. The role of the applied chemist, as envisaged by the authors, has assumed greater importance in the light of this shortage. The programme outlined can probably serve as a basis for discussion in other developing countries contemplating similar programmes.     

Bullying and victimization among Turkish adolescents: the predictive role of problematic internet use,school burnout and parental monitoring

Education and Information Technologies - This study aims to examine the paths between excessive Internet use, school burnout and parental monitoring and their predictor effects in peer bullying and...     

Tension Between Visions of Science Education

The aim of this study is to contribute to an understanding of how curricular change is accomplished in practice, including the positions and conflicts of key stakeholders and participants, and their actions in the process. As a case, we study the treatment of energy in Swedish secondary curricula in the period 1962–2011 and, in particular, how the notion of energy quality was introduced in the curricula in an energy course at upper secondary school in 1983 and in physics at lower secondary school in 1994. In the analysis, we use Roberts’ two competing visions of science education, Vision I in which school science subjects largely mirror their corresponding academic disciplines and Vision II that incorporates societal matters of science. In addition, a newly suggested Vision III represents a critical perspective on science education. Our analysis shows how Vision II and III aspects of science education have gained importance in curricula since the 1980s, but in competition with Vision I considerations. Energy quality played a central role in providing Vision II and III arguments in the curricular debate on energy teaching. Subsequent educational research has found that Swedish teachers and students struggle with how to relate to energy quality in physics teaching, which we explain as partly due to the tension between the competing visions.     

Impacts of a university–school partnership on middle school students' fractional knowledge: A quasiexperimental study

In this quasiexperimental study, the authors investigated the effects of university within school partnership model, within which faculty members acted as teacher-researchers to improve fractional knowledge among middle school (Grades 5–8) students. Students in nine Grade 6 mathematics classes from two public middle schools in Turkey were assigned to two conditions: University within school model instruction and traditional instruction. Pre- and posttest data showed that the students exposed to instruction through the university within school partnership model significantly outperformed their traditional instruction peers on the fractions test. Results indicated that students made significant gains in fractional knowledge in the experimental classrooms and in different subgroup populations. It was suggested that a substantial amount of mathematical infusion through partnership could have a positive impact on middle school students' fractional knowledge. The educational implications of the study were also discussed.     

Biased grades? Changes in grading after a blinding of examinations reform

Abstract

Group differences in average grades prior to and after a step-wise introduction of blinded examinations at Stockholm University are examined. Relative to students with ‘native’ names, students with ‘foreign’ names appear to experience weak positive bias in the grading of their examinations, but the estimated effect is sensitive to model specification. No substantial effects of blinding examinations with respect to male-female gaps are found. The results suggest that examiners – when the names of students are disclosed to them – if anything have a weak tendency to positively discriminate for students perceived to have an immigrant background, but they do not appear to discriminate on the basis of gender.     

Designing,implementing and maintaining a first year project course in electrical engineering

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