Preservice teachers’ work stress, self-efficacy, and occupational commitment in four countries

In this study, we examine the teaching-related stress, self-efficacy, and occupational commitment of preservice teachers from two culturally western and two culturally eastern countries. The sample included 1,187 participants from Canada (n?=?379), England (n?=?203), Hong Kong (n?=?211), and Thailand (n?=?394). Self-efficacy partially reduced (mediated) the effect of stress from student behavior and from workload on commitment in three of four contexts. Mediation tests with country as moderator revealed significant differences in the strength of the mediating effect across the four contexts. The results suggest that teachers’ self-efficacy changes the way in which work stress influences the commitment to continue teaching, although cultural milieu influences the nature of the relationship according to context.     

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.

Exploring the “Mixed Forest” of Qualitative Research

In this paper, some of the key epistemological issues in qualitative research are discussed in order to show that qualitative research is more than a label for all non-quantitative studies. Although qualitative techniques are used in many studies, including those in the quantitative tradition, we maintain that all qualitative research should adhere to the tenets of the qualitative paradigm. These tenets are discussed according to two key theoretical perspectives which underpin the qualitative approach. Both traditions of qualitative and quantitative research are valuable and complement each other because they provide different perspectives to an issue, and they also lead to the generation of different types of data which can contribute to better understanding of the issues under study.     

Pacing technology: advances in pacing threshold management

Over the last five decades,pacemaker therapy has undergone remarkable technological advances with increasing sophistication of pacemaker features.However,device longevity has remained one of the major issues in pacemaker design ever since the first endocardial pacing lead implantation in 1958.In addition to various hardware design to enhance device longevity,software-based solutions to minimize pacing energy and yet with good safety margin have also been developed.Together with desire and need of fully automatic pacing system in increasingly busy pacemaker clinic,several manufacturers have introduced different automatic threshold management algorithm.This article summarizes the current state-of-the-art management in pacing threshold in the modern pacemakers.     

When Nature of Science Meets Marxism: Aspects of Nature of Science Taught by Chinese Science Teacher Educators to Prospective Science Teachers

Nature of science (NOS) is beginning to find its place in the science education in China. In a study which investigated Chinese science teacher educators’ conceptions of teaching NOS to prospective science teachers through semi-structured interviews, five key dimensions emerged from the data. This paper focuses on the dimension, NOS content to be taught to prospective science teachers. Among a total of twenty NOS elements considered by the Chinese science teacher educators to be important ideas to be taught, five were suggested by no less than a half of the educators. They are (1) empirical basis of scientific investigation, (2) logics in scientific investigation, (3) general process of scientific investigation, (4) progressive nature of scientific knowledge, and (5) realist views of mind and natural world. This paper discusses the influence of Marxism, a special socio-cultural factor in China, on Chinese science teacher educators’ conceptions of NOS content to be taught to prospective science teachers. We argue the importance of considering ideological traditions (mainly those in general philosophy and religion) when interpreting views of NOS or its content to be taught in different countries and regions and understanding students’ conceptual ecology of learning NOS.     

The development and validation of an information literacy model for Hong Kong students: key issues in the professional development of teachers for capacity building

An information literacy (IL) framework has been proposed for Hong Kong students to adapt to the emergence of the knowledge‐based society, digital culture and globalisation. The aims of the study reported herein were to validate the proposed IL model and collect the views of practitioners and representative stakeholders on the possibility of its successful implementation. The findings of a survey, focus group discussions and in‐depth interviews indicate that the aims and scope of the IL model were recognised as being relevant. Three key issues of professional development in the IL education—the realisation of capacity building, obtaining the consensus and support of school principals and teachers, and allowing practitioners the flexibility to organise their own development—were identified from amongst the concerns of practitioners and representative stakeholders. Nine modules for teacher professional development are proposed here to address these issues.     

Improving Design & Technology Education in Hong Kong

This paper uses a critical perspective to review design criticism and theory studies in teacher education programmes in Hong Kong. The paper reports problems in Design and Technology theory teaching and learning in secondary schools through a brief survey, and tries to present a rationale for the importance of design theory and criticism in Design and Technology teacher education programmes.     

Going beyond textbooks: a study on seamless science inquiry in an upper primary class

This paper reports an initial study on investigating inquiry-based learning in science in an upper primary class guided by an inquiry-based learning model in a seamless learning environment. Two questions are addressed: (1) how students advanced their domain knowledge?; and (2) how students developed their inquiry skills? One teacher and 27 Grade-four students from a local primary school were involved in the study. Six inquiry-based learning lessons focusing on a scientific “rustproofing” learning unit were conducted in a seamless learning environment, initiated in a digital classroom and extended to online discussions on a social network platform. Qualitative data were collected and analysed over two weeks. The results show ways that the students advanced their domain knowledge and developed their inquiry skills.     

Confirmatory factor analyses of Chinese students' evaluations of university teaching

Chinese University of Hong Kong students (N = 844) selected a “good” and a “poor” teacher, and rated each using a Chinese translation of the Students' Evaluations of Educational Quality (SEEQ) instrument. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) models, based on a 3 × 2 design, were constructed to test the invariance of the SEEQ factor structure across 3 discipline groups (a between‐group comparison of ratings by students in arts, social sciences, and education; in business administration; and in engineering, medicine, and science) and across ratings of good and poor teachers (via within‐subjects comparison). The selected model imposed between‐group invariance constraints on factor loadings, factor correlations, and factor variances across the 3 discipline groups and within‐subjects invariance constraints on factor loadings across ratings of good and poor teachers. The results support the use of SEEQ in this Chinese setting, demonstrating the generality of North American research findings and the usefulness of CFA in this research area.