Providing English Language Support through Collegial Mentoring: How do we measure its impact?

As staff developmental initiatives become increasingly common in educational institutions, the evaluation of such programmes may need careful consideration. This paper describes a staff developmental initiative in which a one-on-one mentoring service was offered as part of a funded staff development project entitled 'Effective English Communication for Teaching and Research' (EECTR). EECTR provides language support to all academic staff in a Hong Kong university. The mentoring sessions typically require a discussion of the nature of academic writing. For evaluation purposes, feedback was collected through various questionnaires which indicated that the EECTR mentoring had been a fairly successful programme. However, these traditional measures could not tell the stakeholders the impact of the mentoring process on individual clients. Thus two additional measures were taken. First, three in-depth case studies were undertaken to ascertain how individuals saw the impact of mentoring. Additionally, interviews with clients were also conducted over a two-year period. With support from the data, this paper demonstrates how multiple measures of evaluation provided an opportunity to see the dynamic interaction between general perceptions of impact and individual learning within a programme.     

Can imagery training help children who have comprehension problems?

An experiment is reported that explored whether training in mental imagery would improve text comprehension in 9-year-old children. Two groups of children were compared: good and poor comprehenders. The groups were matched on a test of vocabulary and decoding, but differed on a comprehension test. The results showed that a three-session programme of training in imagery benefited the poor, but not the good, comprehenders, by comparison with a control group who merely answered questions about the same passages. The results are discussed in relation to possible causes of children's comprehension difficulties.     

Physical education and academic achievement—literature review 1997–2015

The purpose of this review was to organize the results of studies conducted during the last 18 years into a body of knowledge concerning the link between physical education (PE) and academic achievement (AA). Such knowledge may help in clarifying the role of PE in the schools, whose main focus is on improving the AA of the children. The term PE is used to denote those classes taught in the framework of a school curriculum in which physical activity is at the centre. The reviewed studies were divided into three categories: the ‘political’, in which a rationale is provided for PE in mainly achievement-oriented academic schools (n = 10); the ‘interventionist’, in which it is shown that PE given in accordance with a defined intervention programme influences AA (n = 10); and the ‘integrative’, in which it is determined how physical activity incorporated into the daily routine of academic studies contributes to AA (n = 5). The significance of the reviewed studies in each category is discussed, as well as the advantages and limitations of the studies. Ideas for future research on the link between PE and AA are proposed.     

Sima Wensen: A Pioneer for China-France Cultural Exchange

Januarv. 27th, 2014 marked a mon- umental date. 50..years ago today,.. China and France issued a joint communique- and declared the estab- lishment of diplomatic ties. On June 6th, 1964, China and France success- fully established diplomatic relations, which ushered in a new era for the diplomacy of new China.     

《乐庵语录》真伪考

<乐庵语录>一书被<四库全书总目>断定为伪书.本文从<乐庵语录>的传播源流、文本内容及序跋等方面进行了详细考辨,论证了该书的部分内容真实不伪,推论其全书也很难被证伪,从而推翻了<总目>的错误结论.