Debates About the Reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences

The author contemplates the fate of Russian science in the light of the reforms that are going on today, and the requirements of bringing it into conformity with this country’s traditions as well as with international practices.     

Libraries and Spatial Literacy: Toward Next-Generation Education

The role of the library is to assist citizens in skills development critical to national interest and empowerment as literacy ambassadors, in general. Specifically, the work by the Federal Geographic Data Committee (1994) indicates that spatial literacy is for every citizen and not just a set of workforce specialists. Hence, the use of maps in decision making and problem solving will become fundamental to all professions, including library professionals. Thus, a spatial literacy awareness and rationale for such as standard job ability is discussed as a future librarian workforce proficiency and knowledge transfer medium.     

Counseling With HEART: A Relationship Violence Prevention Program for College Students

Relationship violence is a salient concern on college campuses today, and psychoeducational groups may be an appropriate prevention format. This article describes a study measuring the impact of college student participation in the HEART (Help End Abusive Relationships Today) program, a series of group sessions designed to increase knowledge and awareness of relationship violence. Findings indicated significant changes for group participants postintervention. Implications and recommendations for college counselors are discussed.     

Language Acquisition Assisted by the Internet

Abstract

The authors focus on exploiting new methods of language acquisition with the help of the possibilities offered by the Internet. As a new option for computer‐assisted language learning, the Internet is considered to be a source for individual learning and problem oriented teaching in many other areas. Expanding knowledge in parallel in informatics and the English language is an asset. In addition to pointing out starting off sites for ESL teachers and introducing some interesting examples, some criteria of constructing language teaching WWW pages of our own are also listed.     

Teaching of biological inheritance and evolution of living beings in secondary school

The purpose of this investigation is to examine some solutions to the problems involved in the learning and teaching of biological inheritance and the evolution of living beings at the secondary school level. For this, we implemented a teaching programme which takes into account a constructivist approach to learning and analysed the progress in students' knowledge at different times (pre-test, post-test and retention test). Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the results show that the programme instilled a knowledge close to what might be considered adequate for this educational level. As a follow up, we propose certain disciplinary criteria for selecting and sequencing the content to be taught and discuss the educational circumstances which favour the construction of student knowledge on these topics.     

Science textbooks for lower secondary schools in Brunei: issues of gender equity

This paper is concerned with issues affecting equity in science education for girls and boys. In the paper the results of an investigation into the recently published (1998–2000) series of textbooks entitled Lower Secondary Science for Brunei Darussalam are presented. In the first part of the paper, background issues of continuing gender inequality in science education and of the nature and scope of textbook analyses are outlined. Then the representation of males and females in both illustrations and text in the Bruneian textbooks is discussed. From this analysis a picture emerges of the extent to which science is portrayed as a pursuit of equal appropriateness for both boys and girls. The paper concludes with a consideration of the implications of the findings presented within the wider context of gender and education in Brunei.