Reluctant Appealer: China's Responses to Controversial Judgements at London 2012

A controversial judgement denotes that a decision made by referees is deemed to involve errors and those errors result in the athlete being disqualified or being given unreasonable scores in the match. While the athletes from other parts of the world were eager to raise appeals against controversial judgements at London 2012, those from China were reluctant. The argument here is that the reluctance was a duty of the Chinese Olympic delegation with the aim of relieving the concern of the international society that China was likely to become the Middle Kingdom in the Pacific Rim. A non-confrontational China at London 2012 was considered a placatory diplomatic gesture by the Chinese authorities.     

An Interview with Joseph Miller

Joseph Miller discusses his career as a librarian and editor of the Sears List. Topics include his education, work with the Sears List, as well as trends in cataloging, the future of cataloging, and the teaching of cataloging in library schools.     

Training in Decision-making Strategies: An approach to enhance students’ competence to deal with socio-scientific issues

Dealing with socio-scientific issues in science classes enables students to participate productively in controversial discussions concerning ethical topics, such as sustainable development. In this respect, well-structured decision-making processes are essential for elaborate reasoning. To foster decision-making competence, a computer-based programme was developed that trains secondary school students (grades 11–13) in decision-making strategies. The main research question is: does training students to use these strategies foster decision-making competence? In addition, the influence of meta-decision aids was examined. Students conducted a task analysis to select an appropriate strategy prior to the decision-making process. Hence, the second research question is: does combining decision-making training with a task analysis enhance decision-making competence at a higher rate? To answer these questions, 386 students were tested in a pre-post-follow-up control-group design that included two training groups (decision-making strategies/decision-making strategies combined with a task analysis) and a control group (decision-making with additional ecological information instead of strategic training). An open-ended questionnaire was used to assess decision-making competence in situations related to sustainable development. The decision-making training led to a significant improvement in the post-test and the follow-up, which was administered three months after the training. Long-term effects on the quality of the students' decisions were evident for both training groups. Gains in competence when reflecting upon the decision-making processes of others were found, to a lesser extent, in the training group that received the additional meta-decision training. In conclusion, training in decision-making strategies is a promising approach to deal with socio-scientific issues related to sustainable development.     

Developing High Quality Decision‐Making Discussions About Biological Conservation in a Normal Classroom Setting

The conservation of biodiversity is an important socio‐scientific issue that is often regarded as a precondition to sustainable development. The foundation for citizens’ understanding of conservation issues can be laid down in formal school education. This research focuses on decision‐making discussions about biological conservation issues among 131 15–16‐year‐old students, to address two main research questions:

1. Can peer group decision‐making discussions, in a normal science lesson setting, help develop students’ personal reasoning in relation to conservation issues?

2. Are there features common to high quality discussions about conservation which might be readily identified by classroom teachers?

Findings indicate the positive value of students taking part in these short decision‐making discussions guided by a structured framework and as part of their normal science classroom activities. Students increase their quality of personal reasoning, and modify their solutions to the issues. The study begins to uncover features about students both as individuals and as members of discussion groups, which can be associated with high quality decision‐making about conservation issues, and which teachers might realistically identify. The work calls for the need to cultivate these features and to integrate them appropriately with learning about the scientific concepts that underpin the theory and practice of conservation management. Such integration will facilitate the development of teaching strategies for dealing effectively with the complex topic of biological conservation; not just in terms of science content, but also in terms of how students are expected to engage with the issues.     

Curriculum development in outdoor education: Tasmanian teachers’ perspectives on the new pre-tertiary Outdoor Leadership course

The paper examines how outdoor education teachers in Tasmania, Australia have implemented and perceive a new pre-tertiary Outdoor Leadership curriculum document. It draws on an analysis of in-depth semi-structured interviews with 11 outdoor education teachers. The results revealed that teachers were generally welcoming of the new higher-order curriculum and associated assessment strategies. They also believed that the new course appealed to a broad range of students, including those primarily focused on tertiary entrance scores, and that students were benefiting from the new curriculum. However, the teachers’ support was tempered by strong critique around the lack of direction in the actual curriculum document, the failure to provide a teaching resource document, concerns around assessment strategies as well as the lack of adequate professional development. Despite these critiques, the apparent short-term success of the roll-out has come from a strong community of practice among the outdoor educators. The results of this curriculum change process are analysed using a socio-cultural model. They are also considered in light of curriculum change processes in other marginalized curriculum areas, such as health and physical education. The implications are discussed in light of the marginalization of outdoor education within education circles at a state and federal level.     

Hardwired for News: Affective Intelligence and Political Attention

Research on citizens’ inattentiveness to political news has built a theoretical base for understanding political judgment in the American electorate. The research, however, has a strong cognitive orientation with surprisingly little attention to the dynamic interaction between emotional and attentional factors. To broaden our understanding of these potential emotional influences, we assessed levels of enthusiasm, anger/aversion, and anxiety in response to brief summaries of 50 news stories of diverse character and provenance selected to be representative of quotidian news. The analysis reveals dramatic variation across news stories and across subjects responding to the same story on all 3 emotional dimensions. We also examine an unexpected inverse correlation between education and level of emotional response to news.     

A technique to perfuse cadavers that extends the useful life of fresh tissues: The Duke experience

The demand for laboratory‐based teaching and training is increasing worldwide as medical training and education confront the pressures of shorter training time and rising costs. This article presents a cost‐effective perfusion technique that extends the useful life of fresh tissue. Refrigerated cadavers are preserved in their natural state for up to 45 days with a daily working period of ten hours. Tissues maintain their color and natural consistency throughout this period. This new process for preservation of tissue opens the door to improved surgical training and to numerous research opportunities. Anat Sci Educ. © 2010 American Association of Anatomists.     

Evaluation of the Parent-implemented Communication Strategies (PiCS) project using the Multiattribute Utility (MAU) approach

We conducted a multiattribute utility (MAU) evaluation to assess the Parent-Implemented Communication Strategies (PiCS) project which was funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). In the PiCS project parents of young children with developmental disabilities are trained and coached in their homes on naturalistic and visual teaching strategies to enhance their children’s social-pragmatic communication skills. This report focuses on the evaluation process, the application of the MAU approach to evaluate the PiCS project, the results of the evaluation, and a discussion of the benefits and concerns related to the use of the MAU approach to conduct a comprehensive evaluation.     

How the structure and focus of teachers' collaborative activities facilitate and constrain teacher learning

What kinds of teacher collaboration are most likely to improve what teachers—and, ultimately, students—learn during their time in school? This study looks within and across different collaborative activities that occurred among one teacher team. Observational data analyzed through a sociocultural theoretical framework suggest how the structure and intended focus of collaborative activity can influence (1) how often and how concretely teachers discuss their teaching with colleagues; (2) which aspects of schooling collaboration will address; and (3) what opportunities for teacher learning are afforded and constrained. Intentionally focusing and structuring teachers' collaborative activity can improve its impact on schooling.