Secondary school learners’ contextualized knowledge about reflection and refraction: a case study from South Africa

Background: The development of context-based science curricula has been identified as one of the most effective curricular innovations to develop interest and better conceptual understanding of many areas in science. However, such a curriculum can be more fruitful if it starts with the assessment of learners’ contextualized knowledge about the science topic in hand.

Purpose: The focus of this paper is to investigate secondary school learners’ knowledge of the optical phenomena of reflection and refraction in relation to certain contexts.

Sample: The sample for the study consisted of two Grade-11 intact groups of 70 learners in total at a selected senior secondary school in the Mthatha District of the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa.

Design and methods: The study focused on exploring the learners’ conceptions about the optical phenomena of reflection and refraction. The data were collected from three two-tier questions, which exposed the learners to certain contexts which could be explained using optics principles. The first tier of each question was a context-based multiple-choice question and in the second tier, the participants were asked to justify their answers to the first tier.

Results: Majority of the participants failed to correctly interpret the given contexts using optics principles. Moreover, only a few learners could justify their scientifically acceptable answers with scientifically acceptable explanations.

Conclusions: The participants experienced serious conceptual difficulties when they were required to apply the optics concepts in the real-world contexts presented to them. Moreover, the participants’ conceptual difficulties about reflection and refraction were also found to be associated with their inability to understand correctly the optical processes involved in vision.     

Mechanisms of anterior cruciate ligament injuries in elite women’s netball: a systematic video analysis

This study involved a systematic video analysis of 16 anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries sustained by elite-level netball players during televised games in order to describe the game situation, the movement patterns involved, the player’s behaviour, and a potential injury mechanism. Eight of the ACL injuries were classified as “indirect contact” and eight as “non-contact”. Two common scenarios were identified. In Scenario A the player was jumping to receive or intercept a pass and whilst competing for the ball experienced a perturbation in the air. As a result the player’s landing was unbalanced with loading occurring predominantly on the knee of the injured side. In Scenario B the player was generally in a good position at ground contact, but then noticeably altered the alignment of the trunk before the landing was completed. This involved rotating and laterally flexing the trunk without altering the alignment of the feet. Apparent knee valgus collapse on the knee of the injured side was observed in 3/6 Scenario A cases and 5/6 Scenario B cases. Players may benefit from landing training programmes that incorporate tasks that use a ball and include decision-making components or require players to learn to cope with being unbalanced.     

Transcultural football. Trajectories of belonging among immigrant youth

Football can play different roles in the lives of immigrant youth. It can be a site for leisure, sport performance and socialization. Even more critically, it can be a place where to negotiate sense of belonging to a local community and to gain access to national sporting cultures. Football can also represent forms of exclusion and discrimination. This article aims to elucidate the meanings that participation in football hold for black immigrant males in a country of recent immigration such as the Republic of Ireland. The article discusses the findings of a long-term ethnographic study with a youth team based in a working-class area of Dublin, the Irish capital. The youth football club plays a special role as a term of identification for the local community. Teenage players of different African backgrounds are presented with the challenge of acquiring different levels of inclusion. They can attempt to appropriate cultural codes that define local working-class men on and off the pitch or they can practice forms of ‘resistance’ that emphasize their own racialized positioning in Irish society. Overall, these dynamics affirm the importance of grassroots football as a venue for young people’s transcultural encounters.     

澳大利亚中小学生读写与数学能力评估研究

澳大利亚中小学生读写与数学能力评估是国家教育部从2008年开始实施的一项重要的全国性教育质量评估.这项评估由澳大利亚课程、评估及报告局全面负责管理,原则上要求所有在校的3、5、7、9年级的学生都参加考试,并伴有明确且详细的时间安排.评估内容注重基础性和应用性,设计了可供横向和纵向比较的工具,发布了详细且易读的评估报告.虽然这项评估从实施开始就褒贬不一,但是它的很多经验值得我国在建构和完善基础教育质量监测体系中借鉴.