Building preschool teachers’ capacity for teaching Chinese to ethnic minority children in Hong Kong: A qualitative study

ABSTRACT

Teaching Chinese to second language learners is a challenge for preschool teachers in Hong Kong so effective teacher professional development programmes are urgently needed to enhance their knowledge and skills. An Integrative Model Teacher Professional Development Programme which incorporates three theoretical underpinnings (i.e., culturally responsive teaching, meaningful and pleasurable learning, and effective teaching of Chinese as a second language) is designed to equip preschool teachers with knowledge, skills, and awareness in teaching Chinese to ethnic minority students. Through qualitative interviews with 15 in-service preschool teachers who joined the Programme, teachers’ perceptions and changes in three theoretical areas of teaching Chinese to ethnic minority students were explored. Particularly, teachers increased their awareness of ethnic minority cultures, developed empathy with ethnic minority children and their families, gained knowledge of implementing culturally responsive teaching and meaningful and pleasurable learning of Chinese. The role of teacher sharing in effective professional development was highlighted.     

Structural Equation Modeling With Unknown Population Distributions: Ridge Generalized Least Squares

This article proposes 2 classes of ridge generalized least squares (GLS) procedures for structural equation modeling (SEM) with unknown population distributions. The weight matrix for the first class of ridge GLS is obtained by combining the sample fourth-order moment matrix with the identity matrix. The weight matrix for the second class is obtained by combining the sample fourth-order moment matrix with its diagonal matrix. Empirical results indicate that, with data from an unknown population distribution, parameter estimates by ridge GLS can be much more accurate than those by either GLS or normal-distribution-based maximum likelihood; and standard errors of the parameter estimates also become more accurate in predicting the empirical ones. Rescaled and adjusted statistics are proposed for overall model evaluation, and they also perform much better than the default statistic following from the GLS method. The use of the ridge GLS procedures is illustrated with a real data set.     

改革学生成绩管理办法 创建新的人才评价模式

传统的学生学习成绩管理办法已经不适应当今人才培养的客观要求。为此,改革学生成绩管理办法,创建新人才培养评价模式,势在必行。一是要扩大平时成绩在学习成绩评定中的比重;二是把素质教育内容实行量化考核,并纳入学生综合成绩评价体系。     

Semantic categorization of digital home photo using photographic region templates

In this paper, a semantic categorization method in generic home photos is proposed. In recent years, the semantic categorization of image has been a challenge due to the proliferation of digital home photos. Our approach is to detect semantically meaningful concepts contained in a photo. The proposed method incorporates an intermediate level of concepts, called local concept, so that it catches well semantic meaning of local regions of image as bridging the semantic gap of the low-level features and high-level category concepts. To detect the local concepts from the home photo, region segmentation by photographic region template and concept merging is also proposed. The efficacy of the proposed semantic categorization method was demonstrated with 3828 general home photos. The experiment results showed the proposed categorization method would be useful to detect multiple semantic meaning of the home photos.     

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追溯图书馆绩效测度的历史演变过程 ,界定图书馆绩效测度的含义和类型 ,对图书馆绩效测度有影响的论著进行分析和论述 ,最后指出图书馆在执行绩效测度时应注意的几个问题。     

逞反讽之妙笔 掘人性之荒诞——《黄金时代》的文化意味阐释

笔者认为《黄金时代》最深邃的文化意味就是通过男女主人公的性爱纠葛和现实境遇 ,揭示了不仅仅存在于文革时期 ,而且存在于中国传统文化乃至全部人类文明中的种种难以克服、无法超越的荒诞现象 :诸如真相与假相、存在与虚无、有知与无知、有罪与无罪、情爱与性欲、梦想与现实、美好与丑恶之间无法厘清理顺的畸形矛盾、荒诞冲突和无以复加的混乱纠缠。在一向自以为“万物之灵长”的人类面前 ,在一向以理性、有序自诩的人们面前 ,揭示出如此多的不容置疑的荒诞现象 ,无疑具有触目惊心 ,发人深省的效果     

创业不问出处？家庭出身与农民创业的关系研究

农民的决策行为受到家庭因素的制约,而家庭出身将如何影响到农民的创业行为,这仍旧是一个悬而未决的重要研究问题。本文基于上海财经大学千村调查的数据,就体制内精英家庭出身与农民创业之间的关系进行了分析,并得到以下研究结论：家庭出身的优越性将显著提高农民的创业动机,相比于普通出身或寒门出身,那些出身于体制内精英家庭的农民更倾向于选择创业。同时,体制内精英家庭出身对农民创业的影响还受到家庭社会地位的制约,即在那些社会地位较高的家庭,体制内精英家庭出身对农民创业所产生的积极效应更为明显。进一步分析表明,个体人力资本将影响到农民创业与否的选择,过高或过低的人力资本均将降低农民创业的动力,但人力资本对于精英家庭出身的调节效应并不显著。本文从精英家庭出身入手,探索家庭层面的非市场力量对农民创业的作用机制,不仅有利于挖掘农民创业的内在动因,而且拓展了农村精英的研究维度,为传统精英理论的发展提供新的研究视角。     

Release monitoring of single cells on a microfluidic device coupled with fluorescence microscopy and electrochemistry

A method for monitoring the biological exocytotic phenomena on a microfluidic system was proposed. A microfluidic device coupled with functionalities of fluorescence imaging and amperometric detection has been developed to enable the real-time monitoring of the exocytotic events. Exocytotic release of single SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells was studied. By staining the cells located on integrated microelectrodes with naphthalene-2,3-dicarboxaldehyde, punctuate fluorescence consistent with localization of neurotransmitters stored in vesicles was obtained. The stimulated exocytotic release was successfully observed at the surface of SH-SY5Y cells without refitting the commercial inverted fluorescence microscope. Spatially and temporally resolved exocytotic events from single cells on a microfluidic device were visualized in real time using fluorescence microscopy and were amperometrically recorded by the electrochemical system simultaneously. This coupled technique is simple and is hoped to provide new insights into the mechanisms responsible for the kinetics of exocytosis.     

Evaluation of small‐group teaching in human gross anatomy in a Caribbean medical school

Although there are a number of medical schools in the Caribbean islands, very few reports have come out so far in the literature regarding the efficacy of small‐group teaching in them. The introduction of small‐group teaching in the gross anatomy laboratory one and a half years ago at St. Matthew's University (SMU) on Grand Cayman appears to have had a significant positive impact on the academic achievement of students in anatomy. This study surveyed the responses of the students to the small‐group learning method in gross anatomy at SMU using a structured questionnaire. The results show that our students prefer this small‐group learning method over a completely self‐directed method in the gross anatomy lab because the study materials were carefully chosen and the study objectives were demonstrated by the resource person. However, teacher‐centered teaching was deliberately avoided by fostering problem‐solving skills in the anatomy lab sessions. Another aim of the small‐group teaching at SMU was to develop the interpersonal and communication skills of the students, which are important in their later education and career. Anat Sci Ed 1:19–22, 2008. © 2007 American Association of Anatomists.