Faculty Liaisons: an embedded approach for enriching teaching and learning in higher education

This paper explores the experiences of a group of academic developers who support educational development work as Faculty Liaisons at a large, research-intensive university. These academic developers inhabit complex ‘third spaces’, providing support through an embedded partnership relationship that requires lateral movement across functional and organizational boundaries to create new professional spaces, knowledge, and relationships. The authors utilize narrative inquiry and auto-ethnographic approaches to present an interpretive qualitative analysis of their experiences supporting Faculty and University projects across complex and evolving organizational boundaries. From this analysis, they highlight key roles and responsibilities associated with their blended context and identify challenges that academic developers who occupy third spaces within academic organizations face as they negotiate competing interests, identities, and requirements associated with the diverse range of their projects and the blended experience of working in scholarly and administrative, central- and Faculty-based roles. The lessons they have learned from these experiences will be of particular interest to academic developers who are experiencing the flux of change within higher education settings that are impacting teaching and learning practices both for faculty in the classroom and for those across the institution who support them.     

Teacher self‐efficacy and successful intelligence among Chinese secondary school teachers in Hong Kong

This study assessed perceptions of self‐efficacy and successful intelligence among 220 Chinese prospective and in‐service secondary school teachers in Hong Kong. Teacher self‐efficacy in six domains – teaching highly able learners, classroom management, guidance and counselling, student engagement, teaching to accommodate diversity, and teaching for enriched learning – was related to the three triarchic dimensions (analytical, creative, and practical) of successful intelligence. Each of the three triarchic abilities was found to contribute independently and in combination to the prediction of the six domains of teacher self‐efficacy. Practical abilities were the most significant predictor of self‐efficacy beliefs in five domains. Teaching teachers for successful intelligence, in strategies to enhance teacher self‐efficacy, is discussed.     

Relationships amongst cultural dimensions,educational expenditure and class size of different nations

Many studies have concentrated on investigating educational expenditure and pupil–teacher ratio to see how these two factors can influence the quality of education. This study chooses to examine these two educational factors from a different perspective. If educational expenditure and pupil–teacher ratio really have a significant impact on the quality of education as many studies have claimed, it is important to step back and understand why some regions choose to have high/low educational expenditure and high/low pupil–teacher ratios. This study found that culture has an important impact on these two educational factors. Hofstede's cultural dimensions, namely Power Distance and Individualism, were applied and results showed that these two cultural dimensions, when applied to 43 regions around the world, demonstrated a significant impact on educational expenditure and pupil–teacher ratio.     

区域网络教研平台的功能框架研究

本文通过确定网络教研功能总体目标,对常规教研的功能性分析,设计功能模块与构建网络教研平台三个步骤对区域网络教研平台的功能框架进行研究,阐明网络教研平台可实现的教研功能、平台包含的功能模块以及在平台中各功能模块之间的关系,对于我国基础教育实践中的相关问题具有一定的指导意义。     

北京谱仪主漂移室的径迹拟合

本文作出了北京谱仪主漂移室的径迹拟合程序包,阐述了该程序包的原理,并运用e~+e~-→i/Ψ→μ~+μ~-蒙得卡罗事例进行检验,动量分辨符合要求.该程序包目前已用于北京谱仪J/Ψ物理的研究之中.     

Promoting elementary students’ epistemology of science through computer-supported knowledge-building discourse and epistemic reflection

This study examined the role of computer-supported knowledge-building discourse and epistemic reflection in promoting elementary-school students’ scientific epistemology and science learning. The participants were 39 Grade 5 students who were collectively pursuing ideas and inquiry for knowledge advance using Knowledge Forum (KF) while studying a unit on electricity; they also reflected on the epistemic nature of their discourse. A comparison class of 22 students, taught by the same teacher, studied the same unit using the school’s established scientific investigation method. We hypothesised that engaging students in idea-driven and theory-building discourse, as well as scaffolding them to reflect on the epistemic nature of their discourse, would help them understand their own scientific collaborative discourse as a theory-building process, and therefore understand scientific inquiry as an idea-driven and theory-building process. As hypothesised, we found that students engaged in knowledge-building discourse and reflection outperformed comparison students in scientific epistemology and science learning, and that students’ understanding of collaborative discourse predicted their post-test scientific epistemology and science learning. To further understand the epistemic change process among knowledge-building students, we analysed their KF discourse to understand whether and how their epistemic practice had changed after epistemic reflection. The implications on ways of promoting epistemic change are discussed.