Romantic Partner Selection and Socialization During Early Adolescence

This prospective study examined romantic partner selection and socialization among a sample of 78 young adolescents (6th–8th graders). Independent assessments of adolescent and romantic partner adjustment were collected before and after relationships initiated via peer nomination and self‐report. Prior to their relationship, adolescents and partners were significantly alike on popularity, physical attraction, and depressive symptoms. Controlling for initial similarity, partners’ popularity, depressive symptoms, relational aggression, and relational victimization significantly predicted changes in adolescents’ functioning in these areas over time. However, the magnitude and direction of change varied according to adolescents’ and partners’ prerelationship functioning. In general, adolescents who dated high‐functioning partners changed more than those who dated low‐functioning partners, and partner characteristics predicted greater change among low‐ versus high‐functioning adolescents. Results were consistent even when controlling for best friend characteristics. The current findings are among the first to demonstrate unique contributions of romantic partner characteristics to adolescents’ psychosocial functioning.     

The Development of Chemical Language Usage by “Non-traditional” Students: the Interlanguage Analogy

Research in Science Education - Students commonly find specialist scientific language problematic. This study investigated developments in chemical language usage by six non-traditional students...     

How to Assess and Categorize Teachers’ Views of Science? Two Methodological Issues

Research in Science Education - This paper addresses two methodological issues related to the assessment of teachers’ views of science. The first concerns the distinction between the...     

Computer-assisted foreign language learning: Effects of text,context, and gender on listening comprehension and motivation

A computer-based foreign language lesson was developed to study the effects of text, context, and gender on listening comprehension and motivation. A total of 109 fifth grade students responded to spoken commands, with text and a story absent or present. Presenting spoken language with text appeared to assist the development of listening skills. When text was present, students made fewer errors on the subsequent comprehension test and gave higher relevance and confidence motivation ratings than when text was absent. Girls demonstrated higher achievement than did boys and rated the lesson higher, indicating that girls tend to like different kinds of software than do boys. An interaction between context and gender regarding achievement was significant: Girls, but not boys, made fewer errors after a story-embedded lesson.     

Higher education policies in Brazil: 1970–90

Under the authoritarian regime, policies on higher education were mostly produced by the Excutive. First of all, an Educational Reform made up for the rapid expansion of a huge private sector where small teaching institutions prevail and which now absorbs over 60% of Brazilian students. The public sector, in turn, was substantially improved: the number of full time faculty increased and teachers in the federal universities were encouraged to apply for a M.A. or a Ph.D. and to get involved with research activities. Meanwhile, a dual funding system (teaching and research) emerged which was responsible both for the creation of graduate programmes all over the country and for the expansion of a research infrastructure. The civilian government (1985 on) brought policy making out of the bureaucracy and into the Congress. The new Constitution granted the university a degree of autonomy it had never enjoyed before which, however, is still to be regulated by further legislation. Policy initiatives driving at institutional differentiation and at performance assessment have systematically failed to become effective due to resistances within the university itself. Meanwhile financial stringency at a time of recession necessarily leads to reductions in funding, notably for research.     

幽默与笑话

A Barking Dog Does not BiteOne day Jack with his father went to see his granny who lived inthe countryside(乡下).At the door,a big dog began to bark.Jackwas afraid of the dog and wanted to run home.But his father said,“Don!t be afraid,my dear son.Don!t you know the proverb(谚语),‘A barking dog does not bite(吠犬不咬人)’?”“Oh,yes.‘said Jack,’I know the proverb,so do you,but doesthe dog know the proverb?”Wait Five MinutesTom came home very late because he had been busy with hisbusi…     

Implementation Effects of a Pre‐service Training Course for Secondary Education Teachers

A quasi‐experimental, treatment‐control group investigation was designed to test the effects of a pre‐service training course for secondary education teachers. Previous findings from teacher effects research and cognitive strategy instruction were translated into two direct instructional models: a model of executive acting directed at well‐structured skills and a model of strategic acting directed at higher‐level thinking strategies. Pre‐ and post‐training comparison of classroom observations by trained observers revealed significantly more effective instruction by the student teachers after training. No treatment effect was found for pupil engagement rates. The ratings from the supervising teachers did not show significantly better use of the recommended instructional skills by the trained student teachers than by the untrained student teachers.     

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Physlet-Based Materials in Supporting Conceptual Learning About Electricity

To provide a good understanding of many abstract concepts in the field of electricity above that of their students is often a major challenge for secondary school teachers. Many educational researchers promote conceptual learning as a teaching approach that can help teachers to achieve this goal. In this paper, we present Physlet-based materials for supporting conceptual learning about electricity. To conduct research into the effectiveness of these materials, we designed two different physics courses: one group of students, the experimental group, was taught using Physlet-based materials and the second group of students, the control group, was taught using expository instruction without using Physlets. After completion of the teaching, we assessed students’ thinking skills and analysed the materials with an independent t test, multiple regression analyses and one-way analysis of covariance. The test scores were significantly higher in the experimental group than in the control group (p < 0.05). The results of this study confirmed the effectiveness of conceptual learning about electricity with the help of Physlet-based materials.