Enabling Factors of Preservice Science Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Nature of Science and Nature of Scientific Inquiry

Science & Education - The goal of this study was to explore the influencing factors of pre-service science teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for targeted aspects of nature of...     

Negative instructor communication behaviours: exploring associations between instructor misbehaviours and the classroom learning environment

Learning Environments Research - Given the array of positive outcomes associated with building and maintaining a positive learning environment, the purpose of this study was to explore associations...     

留学申请中的一些问题

前面谈到,决定留学是否成功的两个基本条件是"财"和"才",至少应具备其中之一,留学才具有可能性.对于绝大部分大学生同学来说,他们的"才"是不低,但又难以到达让别人给奖学金的水平,所以'财"的问题好象更为突出.因为这一条件的制约,上文提到的留学几个热门国家和地区中,欧洲大陆尤其是法国、德国应该是大部分大学生同学们的重点考虑目标.     

A study of emerging teacher practices in internet-based lesson plan development

In this paper we describe two aspects of an Internet-based lesson plan development project called Science On-Line-Earth and Space Science for the Classroom. First, we discuss the design of the Science On-Line (SOL) Project, which focuses on building a community of practice, appropriate task and setting, and contact with the scientific workplace. Second, we examine strategies teachers used as they approached the task of creating Internet-based science lesson plans for the World Wide Web. Based on the analysis of data gathered during the various project phases, results show that the teacher-developed strategies have varying degrees of effectiveness in facilitating Internet-based lesson plan design, information-gathering, and organization. We describe how the strategies began to evolve into formulated practices for Internet-based lesson development within the SOL teacher community. The SOL investigation develops a case study of the strategies and emerging practices in the context of the creation and pilot-testing of Internet-based lesson plans. This case study may serve as an exemplar of tested Internet-based lesson development strategies and practices for the educational community.     

Bridging the Research-to-Practice Gap in School-Based Consultation: An Example Using Case Studies

Intervention integrity or adherence describes qualities of carrying out an intervention plan and in research is fundamentally linked to experimental validity questions addressed by measurement of independent and dependent variables. Integrity has been well described in conceptual writing but has been a continuing thorny subject in research and practice with some possibility of misunderstandings. In consultation practice, in contrast to research, adherence questions may be best viewed as a triage situation in that teams examine risks and costs of decisions and plan for sufficient intervention implementation checks accordingly. Furthermore, in consultation practice the measurement of intervention adherence is not necessarily needed for internal validity arguments if internal validity evidence is a key characteristic of prior research used in problem solving. However, adherence estimates remain critical for many aspects of decision making. As much thought and resources may be dedicated to the measurement of intervention adherence as are dedicated to the measurement of dependent variables or outcome measures for both consultation practice and research depending on the decision purpose.     

Validating racism and cultural respect: testing the psychometric properties and educational impact of perceived discrimination and multiculturation for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students

Within the field of quantitative research, the diverse and negative effects of racial discrimination have become increasingly documented across a number of outcome variables (including physical, mental, and social wellbeing); however, research on the direct effects of racism is less evident within educational settings. The present investigation explored the negative impact of perceived racial discrimination, in addition to perceptions of cultural respect (Multiculturation) on both objective (e.g., student grades) and subjective (e.g., importance of school) schooling outcomes for a sample of Indigenous Australian and non-Indigenous Australian high school students. Perceived racial discrimination was found to be one of the strongest negative predictors of a number of outcomes for Indigenous Australian students, and Multiculturation was also found to have substantial positive relations with the subjective schooling outcomes for the same group of students. That the results were also generalisable to the non-Indigenous students suggests that attempts to combat racism and promote respect may benefit all members of society.     

Development and construct validation of the sensitivity to feedback scale

A scale measuring individual levels of sensitivity to feedback was developed. Factor analysis revealed four factors — Sensitivity to Attention, to Socially Desirable Feedback, to Socially Undesirable Feedback, and Anticipation of Response. Sensitivity to feedback is positively correlated with self‐monitoring, self‐esteem, and interaction involvement; negatively correlated with communication apprehension.     

An investigation of proportional time spent in various communication activities by college students

This article examines ethics of consultants from the perspective of counter‐rational organizational theory. First, a set of four ethical questions, derived from Kohlberg, are presented. Second, a real consulting scenario is described, and the author's intervention is outlined. Finally, the implications of the case to consulting practice are discussed.