Crafting multicultural science education with preservice teachers through service-learning

Many science educators, in the US and elsewhere, suppport the idea that all students should have fair and equal opportunities to become scientifically literate through authentic, real problem-based science education. However, this challenge requires teachers to find ways to help all students feel comfortable with, and connected to, science. Despite the general consensus around the ideal of science for all, science teacher education programmes have had little or no impact on preservice teachers' philosophies of teaching and learning, especially as it relates to serving underserved populations in science. In this paper, I explore community service-learning as one way of addressing the multicultural dimension of preservice education with the following three questions: In what ways does involving pre-service science teachers in community service-learning influence their views on multicultural science education, in theory and practice? What qualities of community service-learning make multicultural science education a realistic objective? How might service-learning be used to push our collective understanding of what an inclusive and liberatory multicultural science teaching practice could be? I explore these questions and propose further areas of research by using a case study involving service-learning from my own teaching-research with preservice students.     

Development and validation of an assessment of adult educators' reading instructional knowledge

The purpose of this paper is to describe briefly the development and utility of the Assessment of Reading Instructional Knowledge-Adults (ARIK-A), the only nationally normed (n?=?468) measure of adult reading instructional knowledge, created to facilitate professional development of adult educators. Developmental data reveal reliabilities ranging from 0.73 to 0.85 for five ARIK-A scales (alphabetics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and assessment) and 0.91 for the composite score; factor analytic data and expert review provide support for construct validity as well. Information on how to use the ARIK-A to determine mastery and relative standing is presented. With two alternate forms, the ARIK-A is a promising and needed tool for adult education practitioners within continuing education and professional development contexts.     

Becoming an Insider: Teaching Science in Urban Settings

The discourse of urban science education is often framed by discussions of achievement gaps and limited resources. Although these realities are part of the urban education landscape, they focus on deficits—what urban youth and their teachers and schools lack. We argue that it is more productive to frame urban science education as a function of place. Place, in the urban classroom, accounts not only for the physical spaces of the community but also for the historical and sociocultural dimensions that play out as people interact with and in place. We argue that becoming an insider within the multidimensions of place is critical to science teaching environments that value and sanction their students' unofficial and often non-dominant ways of knowing.     

Why We Watch Them Sing and Dance: The Uses and Gratifications of Talent-Based Reality Television

This study explores how talent-based reality shows with different thematic content influence gratifications obtained (GO) by viewers. Participants completed surveys regarding their reasons for watching reality programs, in general, and their reasons for watching specific talent-based reality shows (American Idol, Dancing With the Stars, and America's Got Talent). Results identified 2 gratifications not previously observed in other gratifications research (TV personalities and schadenfreude), and that correlations exist between the content of talent-based programs and GO.     

Chlorella vulgaris triggers apoptosis in hepatocarcinogenesis-induced rats

Chlorella vulgaris (CV) has been reported to have antioxidant and anticancer properties. We evaluated the effect of CV on apoptotic regulator protein expression in liver cancer-induced rats. Male Wistar rats (200∼250 g) were divided into eight groups: control group (normal diet), CDE group (choline deficient diet supplemented with ethionine in drinking water to induce hepatocarcinogenesis), CV groups with three different doses of CV (50, 150, and 300 mg/kg body weight), and CDE groups treated with different doses of CV (50, 150, and 300 mg/kg body weight). Rats were sacrificed at various weeks and liver tissues were embedded in paraffin blocks for immunohistochemistry studies. CV, at increasing doses, decreased the expression of anti-apoptotic protein, Bcl-2, but increased the expression of pro-apoptotic protein, caspase 8, in CDE rats, which was correlated with decreased hepatoctyes proliferation and increased apoptosis as determined by bromodeoxy-uridine (BrdU) labeling and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) assay, respectively. Our study shows that CV has definite chemopreventive effect by inducing apoptosis via decreasing the expression of Bcl-2 and increasing the expression of caspase 8 in hepatocarcinogenesis-induced rats. Project supported by Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, UKM Medical Center, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, and the Malaysian Ministry of Science and Technological Innovation (MOSTI)     

Judges' Use of Examinee Performance Data in an Angoff Standard‐Setting Exercise for a Medical Licensing Examination: An Experimental Study

Although the Angoff procedure is among the most widely used standard setting procedures for tests comprising multiple‐choice items, research has shown that subject matter experts have considerable difficulty accurately making the required judgments in the absence of examinee performance data. Some authors have viewed the need to provide performance data as a fatal flaw for the procedure; others have considered it appropriate for experts to integrate performance data into their judgments but have been concerned that experts may rely too heavily on the data. There have, however, been relatively few studies examining how experts use the data. This article reports on two studies that examine how experts modify their judgments after reviewing data. In both studies, data for some items were accurate and data for other items had been manipulated. Judges in both studies substantially modified their judgments whether the data were accurate or not.     

Factors affecting school choice: What do Malaysian Chinese parents want?

Aiming to explore factors affecting Malaysian Chinese parents in sending their children to either national secondary schools or Chinese independent schools, 494 parents were surveyed using a questionnaire. Results showed that parents who sent their children to Chinese independent schools have different priorities compared to those who sent theirs to national secondary schools—the former are concerned with teachers’ quality, chances of learning the Chinese culture and Mandarin while the latter are concerned with tuition fees and strategic location. In general, the finding that Malaysian Chinese parents take cultural and language factors into account when choosing a suitable school for their children is interesting because both are seldom listed as important.     

An investigation into high-achiever and low-achiever knowledge organisation and knowledge processing in concept mapping: A case study

This study used concept map content analysis and interviews to gain insights into the knowledge organisation and knowledge processing of pre-service teachers. Forty-eight preservice teachers of elementary science from a teachers’ training college in Sarawak, Malaysia, participated in this study. Correlations between achievement and five concept map characteristics showed that there were significant positive correlations (p<.01) between achievement and: the number of appropriate links; the average number of appropriate concepts per cluster; and, the hierarchy score of subjects’ concept maps, and significant negative correlations (p<.01) between achievement and: the number of inappropriate links; and, the average number of inappropriate concepts per cluster. Interviews with high-achievers and lowachievers revealed that there were differences in the way they processed knowledge during concept mapping. The high-achievers were more thorough than were the low-achievers in cognitive processing of knowledge, taking time to make sense of concepts, sort and group concepts, form relevant links between concepts, and organise concepts hierarchically. Active cognitive processing of knowledge seems to be related to more complex, well-integrated cognitive structures for the material learned.