Rethinking our underlying assumptions about what we do and why we do it: academic development as a case

In this paper, academic developers from universities in three countries explore underlying assumptions about what we as developers do and why we do it in relation to evaluating development programs. Through addressing three questions, key ideas emerge that highlight what is often overlooked in day-to-day practice: the fact that academic development has a ‘signature pedagogy’ defined by the ‘learning paradigm’; the potential role of different stakeholders in setting criteria for evaluation; and the inclusion of non-traditional academic development literatures (e.g., adult education, educational change, organizational development) to avoid perpetuating established practices. Our intent is to intellectually challenge ourselves and others to move beyond sharing program and evaluation activities to explore ideas and literature not often considered in our day-to-day work. While the context is academic development, we believe the questions and the answers that emerged are of value to all involved in staff and professional development.     

Robust asymptotic stability of interval fractional-order nonlinear systems with time-delay

This paper studies the global asymptotic stability of a class of interval fractional-order (FO) nonlinear systems with time-delay. First, a new lemma for the Caputo fractional derivative is presented. It extends the FO Lyapunov direct method allowing the stability analysis and synthesis of FO nonlinear systems with time-delay. Second, by employing FO Razumikhin theorem, a new delay-independent stability criterion, in the form of linear matrix inequality is established for ensuring that a system is globally asymptotically stable. It is shown that the new criterion is simple, easy to use and valid for the FO or integer-order interval neural networks with time-delay. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed scheme are tested with a numerical example.     

Science Teacher Education in Brazil: 1950–2000

This paper analyzes the most significant events occurring in Brazil’s educational, social and political areas over the last half century, viewed against a background of relevant worldwide events. The hypothesis presented here is that the relations between the country’s educational policies, the demands of the various segments of academia, and the public school system have always been strained. This strain has contributed positively to the evolution of academic knowledge and production, to the design of more modern curricular projects by institutional authorities, and to the initial recognition of the specific construction of school knowledge by the school system itself. However, the interaction of these major institutions lacks a crucial element—one that would lead to an effective change in the education of science teachers and produce a positive impact on Brazil’s schools—namely, the wholehearted participation of science teachers themselves. With this analysis, we intend to contribute by offering some perspectives and proposals for science teacher education in Brazil.     

网络评论促进大学生对外群体态度的实证分析

本研究采用行为实验的方法,探讨网络评论是否能够促进大学生对外群体成员的积极态度。研究结果表明:阅读网络评论的个体与外群体成员在现实生活中进一步接触的意愿更加强烈,与外群体成员有更小的社会距离;不同身份网络用户的评论对接触意愿及社会距离的影响存在显著差异。     

吐鲁番地区参考作物蒸散发模型适用性评价

吐鲁番地区干旱少雨,蒸发量远大于降水量,是中国水资源严重匮乏的地区之一。准确估算参考作物蒸散发量（ET₀）是吐鲁番地区农田灌溉系统设计和发展节水农业的基础。利用吐鲁番站2000—2015年作物生长季（4—10月）的气象资料,基于线性回归、均方根误差（RMSE）、平均绝对误差（MAE）和平均相对误差（MRE）评价指标,以FAO-56 Penman-Monteith （FAO-56 PM）模型为标准,评价Priestley-Taylor （P-T）、Hargreaves-Samani（H-S）、Jensen-Haise（J-H）、Turc、Makkink-Allen （M-A）、Trajkovic（Traj）、Makkink-Hansen（M-H）和Berti-Hargreaves（B-H）模型在吐鲁番地区的适用性,并分析各模型偏差原因。结果如下：1）所有模型在生长季期间均呈单峰型变化趋势;H-S、Traj和B-H模型高估月ET₀,其他模型均在不同程度上表现出低估现象。2）Traj温度模型模拟精度最高,其RMSE、MAE和MRE分别为6.38 mm、5.69 mm和4.29%; M-H辐射模型模拟精度次之,Turc辐射模型模拟精度最差。3）R_n和VPD是影响温度和辐射模型计算值偏差的主要气象因子。同时分析FAO-56 PM模型计算的ET₀和蒸发皿蒸发量之间的关系,为利用蒸发皿水面蒸发量估算吐鲁番地区ET₀提供参考。     

The Law of Inertia: How Understanding its History can Improve Physics Teaching

The law of inertia is a problem in teaching due to the impossibility of showing the proposition experimentally. As we cannot do an experiment to verify the law, we cannot know if it is correct. On the other hand, we know that the science based upon it is successful. A study in the history of mechanics has shown that there are different foundations for the law but also that the law plays the same role in the science since Newton. To avoid a statement of which we cannot be sure, the present paper proposes to understand the law through its function in the theory. In this case, we do not have to say how a free body moves, but rather that the rectilinear and uniform motion is the motion of reference in Newtonian mechanics.     

Class composition as a frame of reference for teachers? The influence of class context on teacher recommendations

Teacher recommendations are an important factor in the process of track placement, but research has shown that they are biased by pupils’ social background. Pupils from higher socio‐economic backgrounds are more likely to get the advice to enrol in an academic track than pupils from lower socio‐economic backgrounds, irrespective of prior achievement. Previous studies looked primarily at individual pupil or parent characteristics and their influence on teacher recommendations. However, in this article, the authors argue that the class context forms the frame of reference within which a teacher forms his/her recommendation for pupils. Therefore, this article investigates class composition effects on teacher recommendations at the transition between primary and secondary education in Flanders. More specifically, we look at the socio‐economic, ethnic and ability composition of a class. Multilevel logistic models were tested on data collected in 36 primary schools in the cities of Ghent and Antwerp in May 2015. The results show that only the ability composition of the classroom exerts a frame‐of‐reference effect on teacher recommendations for academically versus practically oriented tracks. A pupil with a low individual ability in a low‐ability class was more likely to get the advice to enrol in an academically oriented track than an equally able pupil in a high‐ability class. This study demonstrated the limited importance of class composition in teacher recommendations, but calls for more research on teacher bias in the process of track assignment.     

Conflict,education and the global south: New critical directions

This paper seeks to provide a starting point for a broader discussion on the development of a critical research agenda in the field of ‘Education and Conflict Studies’. We begin the paper with a brief overview of the field of Education and Conflict drawing on a series of recent ‘overviews’ of the field and locate this within the context of the changing geo-political situation that emerged in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. This is followed by explaining what we understand by a critical research agenda and why we think it necessary. Thirdly, we explore a series of potentially interesting areas of inquiry that are currently absent or undeveloped within the field and which relate particularly to its ‘global’ dimension. Finally, we conclude by making some more reflective comments on our approach, its potential for making a positive contribution to both theory and practice within the field of Education and Conflict, and the need for more critically informed, but policy relevant research in this emerging area of inquiry.     

Evidence for the interchangeability of an avoidance behavior and a negative occasion setter

Recent research on avoidance behavior provided evidence that such behavior can function as a negative occasion setter. We tested this hypothesis further by investigating whether the modulatory function of a stimulus occasion setter transfers selectively to a relation previously modulated by an avoidance behavior, and whether the modulatory function of an avoidance behavior transfers selectively to a relation previously modulated by a stimulus occasion setter. The three experiments reported in this article provided evidence to support this hypothesis. Furthermore, the results of Experiment 1 suggested that the presence of counterconditioning trials is not a necessary condition for an avoidance behavior to function as a negative occasion setter. All three reported experiments support the occasionsetting account of avoidance behavior.     

The Need for Support in Secondary Schools in the Netherlands in the Implementation of Environmental Education

In 1993 a new comprehensive curriculum for secondary education was introduced in the Netherlands. In that curriculum learning objectives related to environmental education are formulated. This paper describes: (1) the present situation regarding EE in schools in the northern part of the Netherlands on the subject level, as regards the relative importance attributed by teachers to the different objectives of environmental education. (2) the constraints and the need for support when teachers want to pay more attention to the various objectives of environmental education. Teachers pay most attention to the objectives of EE that are aimed at improving the knowledge of the relationship between man and the environment and the environmental problems and their causes. They seem to underestimate the objectives aimed at skills and attitudes. Teachers show only a slight tendency to change their current practice towards more environmental education. The main reasons are described. A considerable number of teachers are willing to use support to implement environmental education if that is offered, but more than half have made no decision yet. The kind of support wanted by teachers differs with different objectives. The paper concludes with a discussion of the prerequisites of a supporting programme for the implementation of environmental education.