Teachers’ perceptions of assessments of their mathematical knowledge in a professional development course

The purpose of the project reported in this article was to evaluate how assessing teachers’ mathematical knowledge within a professional development course impacted from the teachers’ perspective their learning and their experience with the course. The professional development course consisted of a 2-week summer institute and the content focus was geometry. We had decided to assess the mathematical learning of the teachers during this professional development course for various accountability reasons, but were concerned about possible negative by-products of this decision on the teachers and their participation. Thus, we worked to design assessment in ways that we hoped would minimize negative impacts and maintain a supportive learning environment. In addition, we undertook this evaluation to examine the impacts of the assessment, which included homework, quizzes, various projects, and an examination for program evaluation. Seventeen grade 5–9 teachers enrolled in the course participated in the study by completing written reflections and by describing their experiences in interviews. We learned that while our original intent was “to do no harm,” the teachers reported that their learning was enhanced by the assessment. The article concludes by describing the various properties of the assessments that the teachers identified as contributing to their learning of the geometry content, many of which align with current recommendations for assessing and evaluating grade K-16 mathematics students.

Assessing the counselling needs of high school students in Kenya

The Student Counselling Needs Scale (SCNS) was administered to 867 participants recruited from high schools in Kenya. The data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis yielding five factors: human relationships, career development, self development, social values, and learning skills were assessed. The findings highlighted the importance of using assessment instruments to identify students’ counselling needs in Kenya.     

固支Mindlin 板弯曲问题的辛本征解

Hamiltonian system for the problem on clamped Mindlin plate bending was established by introducing the dual variables for the generalized displacements in this letter. By separation of variables, the transverse eigen-problem was derived based on the sympletic geometry method. With the solved sympletic eigen-values, the generalized sympletic eigen-solution was derived through eigenfunction expansion. An example of plate with all edges clamped was given. The sympletic solution system was worked out directly from the Hamiltonian system. It breaks the limitation of traditional analytic methods which need to select basis functions in advance. The results indicate that the sympletic solution method could find its more extensive applications.     

Scaling behavior of nucleotide cluster in DNA sequences

In this paper we study the scaling behavior of nucleotide cluster in 11 chromosomes of Encephalitozoon cuniculi Genome. The statistical distribution of nucleotide clusters for 11 chromosomes is characterized by the scaling behavior of P（S） ∝ e^-αs＇ where S represents nucleotide cluster size. The cluster-size distribution P（S1＋S2） with the total size of sequential C-G cluster and A-T cluster S1＋S2 were also studied. P（S1＋S2） follows exponential decay. There does not exist the case of large C-G cluster following large A-T cluster or large A-T cluster following large C-G cluster. We also discuss the relatively random walk length function L（n） and the local compositional complexity of nucleotide sequences based on a new model. These investigations may provide some insight into nucleotide cluster of DNA sequence.     

Novel high torque bearingless two-sided rotary ultrasonic motor

Applications are limited at present because the currently available ultrasonic motors (USMs) do not provide suffi-ciently high torque and power. The conventional travelling-wave USM needs the bearing to support, which required lubricant. To solve the above problem, a bearingless travelling-wave USM is designed. First, a novel structure of the two-sided USM consisting of a two-sided teeth stator and two disk-type rotors is designed. And the excitation principle of the two-sided travelling-wave USM is analyzed. Then, using ANSYS software, we set up the model of the stator to predict the excitation frequency and modal response of the stator. The shape of the vibration mode was obtained. Last, the load characteristics of the USM are measured using ex-perimental method. The maximum stall torque and the no-load speed were obtained. The results showed that the characteristics of the two-sided USM are better than those of the conventional one-sided USM.     

Shunning the Bird’s Eye View: General Science in the Schools of Ontario and Quebec

This paper considers the adoption of general science courses in two Canadian provinces, Ontario and Quebec, during the 1930s. In Ontario, a few science teachers had followed the early general science movements in the United States and Britain with interest. During the 1930s, several developments made the cross-disciplinary, applied thrust of general science particularly appealing to Ontario educationists. These developments included a new demand for vocational education, renewed reservations about pedagogical rationales based on transfer of training, and a growing professional divide between high school science teachers and university scientists. Around the same time, scientists in the Quebec’s French-language universities were engaged in a concerted campaign to expand the place of science in the province’s francophone secondary schools. The province’s prestigious classical colleges, which were the scientists’ principal target for reform, privileged an inductive view of science that had little in common with the applied, cross-disciplinary emphasis of the general science courses gaining support in English-speaking school systems. In 1934, however, a popular American general science textbook was adopted in a workers’ cooperative devoted to adult education. Comparing the fate of general science within these two education systems draws attention to the fact that general science made inroads in francophone Quebec but had little influence in public and private schools. In light of the growing support general science enjoyed elsewhere, we are led to explore why general science met with little overt interest by Quebec scientists pushing for school science reform during the 1930s.     

澳门特区免费幼儿教育政策研究

澳门特区自2007～2008学年开始实施15年免费教育,即9年义务教育、3年高中教育和3年学前教育免费.研究者运用网络调查及访谈法,对澳门特区免费幼儿教育政策进行研究,结果发现:(1)免费幼儿教育政策只适用于6家公办幼儿园和42家加入免费教育学校系统的私立幼儿园.(2)7家未加入免费教育学校系统的私立幼儿园需缴学费、补充服务费和选择性服务费,但可获政府发放的学费津贴和书簿费.家长很满意这一政策,并表示愿意继续送孩子上收费的私立幼儿园.(3)受访园(校)长、家长及教师对澳门的免费幼儿教育政策都很满意,教师特别满意政府推出的幼儿园教师津贴.(4)免费幼儿教育政策对私立园所的影响有所不同:有些私立园所为了生存而选择加入免费教育学校系统,有些私立园所则为了校政自主而选择不加入免费教育学校系统.客观上,高收费门槛令不同阶层家庭的幼儿自然分流.     

Confronting Challenges to the Liberal Arts Curriculum: Perspectives of Developing and Transitional Countries

Contemporary international higher education scholarship tends to focus on the global financial crisis,on massification,privatization,cross-border education,university ranking,and student mobility.However,few studies deal with the development of liberal arts programs around the world and they are often related to Western systems of higher education or that of the US,where liberal arts education has long been seen as a fundamental issue.Comparative studies,however,could help scholars to become aware of critical trends and reforms,also the impact they might have on a global society.     

John Dewey and the Artful Life

REPRESENTATIVE AMERICAN SPEECHES: 1952–1953. Edited by A. Craig Baird. New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1953; pp. 199. $1.75.

IT TAKES TIME: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE TEACHING PROFESSION. By Marie I. Rasey. New York: Harper &; Brothers, 1953; pp. 204. $3.00.

YOUR VOICE AND SPEECH. By Letitia Raubicheck. New York: Prentice‐Hall, Inc., 1953; pp. 376. $4.05.

HOW TO BE A SUCCESSFUL EMCEE. By Le‐Roy Stahl. Minneapolis: T. S. Denison and Co., 1953; pp. 200. $2.75.

GROUPS IN HARMONY AND TENSION. By Muzafer Sherif and Carolyn W. Sherif. New York: Harper &; Brothers, 1953; pp. 316. $3.50.

EFFECTIVE READING. By Lawrence H. Feigenbaun. New York: Globe Book Company, 1953: pp. 224. $2.00.

READING SKILLS. By William D. Baker. New York: Prentice‐Hall, Inc., 1953; pp. 120. $1.50.

WEBSTER'S NEW WORLD DICTIONARY. Cleveland and New York: World Publishing Co., 1953; pp. xxxvi+1724. $5.00 plain edges, $6.00 thumb‐indexed.

THE ROMANCE OF THE ENGLISH THEATRE. By Donald Brook. (Revised Edition). London: Rockliff (Macmillan), 1953; pp. 222. $4.50.

REPRESENTATIVE AMERICAN PLAYS, FROM 1767 TO THE PRESENT. Edited by Arthur Hobson Quinn. (Seventh Edition). New York: Appleton‐Century‐Crofts, Inc., 1953: pp. 1248. $6.50.

APPROACHES TO POETRY. By Walter Blair and W. K. Chandler. (Second Edition). New York: Appleton‐Century‐Crofts, 1953; pp. 734. $3.90.

POEMS FOR STUDY. By Leonard Unger and William Van O'Connor. New York: Rinehart, 1953: pp. xxi+743. $4.75.

THE BURLESQUE TRADITION IN THE ENGLISH THEATRE AFTER 1660. By V. C. Clinton‐Baddeley. London: Methuen &; Co., 1952; pp. xvi+152. $4.00.

THESAURUS OF ENGLISH WORDS AND PHRASES. Revised from Peter Roget by D. C. Browning. New York: E. P. Dutton &; Co., Inc., 1953; pp. 572. $3.75.     

A ‘whole-school/community development’ approach to preventing and countering bullying: the Erris Anti-Bullying Initiative (2009–2011)

This paper describes how a ‘whole-school/community development’ anti-bullying programme was designed, implemented and evaluated in an initiative in Erris, Co. Mayo, Ireland, involving local primary and post-primary schools and community groups. Students from seven participating schools (five primary, two post-primary) completed modified versions of the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire both prior to and following programme implementation. Thereafter, there were reductions in students' reports of involvement in bully/victim problems and increases in their reports of feelings about bullying and countering bullying that were consistent with an anti-bullying ethos. The sizes of these effects were modest, in some cases perhaps due to the significantly low incidence of students' involvement in bully/victim problems prior to the programme. This model is in continued use in Erris, and in its further development it is intended to seek out opportunities to implement and evaluate it in other locations.