A comparative analysis of the perceived influence of advanced placement and honors programs upon science instruction

These are two major models for advanced science instruction in American high schools, the traditional honors program and the Advanced Placement (AP) program of the College Entrance Examination Board. Using the self-reports of teachers who were experienced in teaching honors and AP courses to students of similar academic preparation and ability, the author examined the perceived influences of program format upon the use of basic teaching techniques, the laboratory experience, the pace of the course, curricular freedom, and student creativity. One of the most notable aspects of the AP program is the speed at which teachers move through the curriculum. In the rush to prepare students for the exam, most AP teachers adopt a strong lecture format and minimize student-centered activities such as laboratory experimentation, student projects, and student presentations. When laboratory work is not assessed on the national AP examination, such experiences are sacrificed to provide time for lecture. When laboratory experiments are assessed, however, teachers respond by allocating more time for laboratory work, and by upgrading their exercises to make them more quantitative and experimental than those used previously or those used in honors classes. Although AP is associated with a loss in curricular freedom and flexibility, teachers perceive no clear influence of program format upon student creativity.     

Career decision-making of high school students in Kenya

The aim of this study was to identify importantfactors that influence career decisionmaking of highschool students in Kenya. The study indicates thatrural students tend to seek help from parents andteachers more than urban students, and that parents,more than career teachers, play a major role in thecareer decision-making of students. Findings alsoindicate that gender, selfconcept and vocationalstereotyping are among the major factors thatinfluence career decisions of high school students inKenya.     

Dynamics of the frame in visual composition

The position of an object within a visual composition produces an effect on the observer. Does an observer see the object as strong and active if it is in the center of the picture, in one corner, “floating” off-center? Does the framing of the object or the field surrounding it give an object more meaning? Forty-four college students rated six framed, black-andwhite, single-object pictures. The 264 observations were subjected to principal axis factoring, resulting in four dimensions: activity, potency, evaluative, and verticality.     

Equity in access? The number of the books available in grade 1, 3 and 5 classroom libraries

Learning Environments Research - In this study, we examined students’ access to text, defined as the number of texts freely available to children in their classrooms. From 60 elementary...     

Preschool Teacher Uses of Video Technologies

This project was undertaken for the purpose of identifying media design and presentation features that facilitate the acceptance and use of video materials by preschool teachers who teach children with special needs. Information about teachers' awareness of, their preferences for and their uses of video materials and equipment was gathered from interviews, questionnaires and classroom observations. Teachers previewed a sampling of Sesame Street video segments and indicated the segments they thought were useful. The following design features figured prominently in the teachers' selections: segment length, production format, musical lyrics, curriculum relevance, content emphasis, interactivity, perceived interest to children, meaningfulness and simplicity of explanations. The results of a prototype videodisc tryout indicate that the teachers had no difficulty integrating video segments into their teaching routines.     

Primary humanities – a perspective from Northern Ireland

ABSTRACT

The word ‘humanities’ does not appear in the current Northern Ireland Curriculum (NIC). Geography and history are taught within an Area of Learning called ‘The World Around Us’ which also contains science and technology. The curriculum has a strong emphasis on an integrated, ‘connected learning’ way of teaching and learning. Religious Education is a separate subject that stands alongside, rather than within, the NIC, and the curriculum also includes a new Area of Learning – ‘Personal Development and Mutual Understanding’. The distinctive content and modes of teaching which the humanities subjects tend to encourage ought to be seen as particularly important in Northern Ireland – a part of the UK which has endured a complicated past and remains to a large extent segregated, both socially and educationally. This complicated past means that there is often wariness and reluctance on the part of teachers towards tackling controversial personal and social issues in the primary school.     

Development of the instrument of question-answer process (IQAP) and its application in examining salient characteristics between pre- and in-service teachers in senior high school chemistry class

The purpose of this study is to examine the salient characteristics of the ‘Question-Answer Process’ (QAP) in senior high school chemistry class between pre- and in-service teachers. We first developed the ‘Instrument of Question-Answer Process’ (IQAP), and then, applied it to compare salient characteristics of QAP between pre- and in-service teachers. Data collection consists of classroom observation and structured-interview. Participants are seven pre-service and seven in-service chemistry teachers. The results are: (a) Both pre-and in-service teachers ask most of the questions and students ask few questions; (b) Pre-service teachers ask more lower cognitive level questions, while in-service teachers ask more higher cognitive level questions; (c) Pre-service teachers tend to ask non-volunteer students while in-service teachers tend to ask volunteer students to respond; (d) Pre-service teachers tend to be ‘no feedback or ignore’ after students provide answers and both pre- and in-service teachers seldom guide students to reflect on answers; and (e) The frequency of authority of ‘student’ in pre-service teachers’ class is much higher than those in in-service teachers’ class, while the frequency of authority of ‘teacher and student’ is much lower than those of in-service teachers’ class.     

Toward a conceptual framework of the process of organized innovation technological within the firm

The literature concerning information flow and organizational design for technological innovation is summarized and a conceptual framework of the process of organized technological innovation within the firm is developed. The framework incorporates Rosenbloom's premise that corporate strategy can serve to cut across both internal and external boundaries of the firm and is shown to be consistent with the relevant organizational and planning literatures. The potential for using mathematical models to represent a firm's corporate strategy, budgeting and resource allocation activities is discussed. We argue that such models are needed to provide for policy analysis and could lead to a simulation capability that serves as a surrogate for real-life experimentation.     

反思与创新:学习型城市理念演进及未来

学习型城市的理念从西方起源,并在欧洲进行了非常好的实践与传播,取得了非常多的研究和实践成果.近年来,学习型城市在欧洲的发展趋缓,发展的重点转向亚洲,并由独自发展转向合作发展.为促进学习型城市的可持续发展,各国都在制定发展策略以应对复杂的未来.学习型城市要进行理念创新,保障学习型城市发展中的"共同利益";进行合作创新,为学习型城市的国际合作创造各种机会;进行体系创新,从西方学习的理念与中国现状相结合.通过建立可持续的社会、经济和环境发展理念,学习型城市的未来发展才更加具有活力.