A Western perspective on inclusion in Chinese urban educational settings

During the past 20 years in China a higher priority has been given to overcoming barriers to learning by educators. Legislation in the mid-1980s to establish compulsory school attendence has brought many children and young people into school for the first time. Chinese policy makers have also responded to international debates on the values of inclusive education. Over the past twelve years I have observed significant changes in educational provision, particularly in the cities. In this paper I describe and discuss a series of lessons I saw in Shanghai primary schools and, putting my comments in the context of practice in the UK, I ask to what extent do developments in China represent a move towards greater inclusion. Obstacles remain in both countries.     

Psychometric analysis of a measure of socio-emotional development in adolescents

This is a psychometric analysis of an instrument to assess the socio-emotional development of school students, How I Feel (HIF), developed as a situational judgment test, with scoring based on expert judgments. The HIF test was administered in grades 4–9, 1999–2005. Internal consistency, retest reliability, and year-to-year stability were satisfactory, and the HIF instrument appears sensitive to intervention effects. Sex differences and associations with substance use and other instruments support construct validity. A significant negative trend was found across grades, attenuated in a group receiving socio-emotional training. The HIF test has limited discriminatory power among individuals with high socio-emotional maturity.     

National Assessment of Writing Proficiency Among Norwegian Students in Compulsory Schools

The paper reports and discusses a government‐initiated nationwide assessment of writing proficiency among Norwegian compulsory school students. A sample‐study of 7th and 10th grade students are discussed and reported with regard to challenges in measuring writing skills in a valid and reliable manner. For the 7th graders the results showed a greater proportion of narrative texts, and in contrast to more scientific oriented texts, was assessed as “lower than expected”; however, for the 10th graders the tendency was opposite with respect to central linguistic components. Low correlations between the raters were ascertained at both levels, indicating different views among teachers as to what can be expected of students' writing proficiency. The results are discussed in relation to the usefulness of the theoretical model as a basis for assessment of writing proficiency, as well as other obstacles to constructing valid and reliable writing tests.     

Distance education for dentists: Improving the quality of online instruction

Abstract

This study describes the development and the evaluation of quality assurance criteria for online dental education. These criteria were developed by the authors and evaluated by oral health professionals through an Internet survey. The survey indicated that oral health professionals ranked the creation of scientifically based, frequently updated courses that clearly define their educational goals and objectives as highly important.     

Introducing quantum mechanics in the upper secondary school: A study in Norway

The study reported in this paper is a survey (n=236) that examines how upper secondary students (18-19 years old) in Norway come to terms with the wave-particle duality as presented as part of a short introduction to quantum physics. The main conclusion is that this concept is poorly understood. Some students demonstrate clear and explicitly formulated misconceptions rooted in a classical physics world-view. Scholars in physics have stated that the concept of duality is unnecessary, but still included in school and university physics. It is argued that school physics should give a more explicit focus to the challenge that quantum physics presents to the classical worldview, thus introducing the importance of an affective dimension in the learning and teaching of quantum physics. This study replicates evidence from other studies that wave-particle duality does not introduce such a challenge.     

Literature Awareness Among Health Staff in Developing Countries

Abstract

Health professionals, although in principle a highly information-conscious group, are frequently observed to be poor users of literature and library services. The main reason for this lack of literature awareness is the tradition of oral transmission of knowledge found in a number of Third World countries. Since the practice of modern medicine is not conceivable without constant support from the professional literature, either for reference or continuing education purposes, it is suggested that national or regional programmes be launched to promote literature awareness, notably among medical and nursing students. This requires the active participation of faculty staff as well as policy and financial commitments of the governments concerned. Failure to heighten the literature awareness of coming generations of physicians and nurses, and in general to improve the situation in the sector of health information support could have serious consequences on the quality of medical care in large parts of the developing world.