An international collaborative investigation of beginning seventh grade students' understandings of scientific inquiry: Establishing a baseline

Although understandings of scientific inquiry (as opposed to conducting inquiry) are included in science education reform documents around the world, little is known about what students have learned about inquiry during their elementary school years. This is partially due to the lack of any assessment instrument to measure understandings about scientific inquiry. However, a valid and reliable assessment has recently been developed and published, Views About Scientific Inquiry (VASI; Lederman et al. [2014], Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 51, 65–83). The purpose of this large-scale international project was to collect the first baseline data on what beginning middle school students have learned about scientific inquiry during their elementary school years. Eighteen countries/regions spanning six continents including 2,634 students participated in the study. The participating countries/regions were: Australia, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Mainland China, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. In many countries, science is not formally taught until middle school, which is the rationale for choosing seventh grade students for this investigation. This baseline data will simultaneously provide information on what, if anything, students learn about inquiry in elementary school, as well as their beginning knowledge as they enter secondary school. It is important to note that collecting data from all of the approximately 200 countries globally was not humanly possible, and it was also not possible to collect data from every region of each country. The results overwhelmingly show that students around the world at the beginning of grade seven have very little understandings about scientific inquiry. Some countries do show reasonable understandings in certain aspects but the overall picture of understandings of scientific inquiry is not what is hoped for after completing 6 years of elementary education in any country.     

Library Anxiety among Undergraduate Students: A Comparative Study on Egypt and Saudi Arabia

The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study of library anxiety among a group of Arab students in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The paper also investigated the factors that affect the students' level of anxiety while using academic libraries. The study tried to compare the difference in the level of anxiety in the two countries using a scale (LLPB) developed by the researchers which fit the culture in the Arab region. The study adopted a mixed methods approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with several students in Saudi Arabia and Egypt to determine the main factors that lead to having a level of anxiety in the libraries. In the second stage, a questionnaire was sent to students to measure what factors have a greater impact on the level of anxiety. The data showed that Egyptian students are more anxious about using the libraries than the Saudi students. The results also indicated that there is a need to train students on how to use the libraries and also change students' perception regarding the library to reduce the level of anxiety. This study was conducted in Egypt and Saudi Arabia the level of library anxiety and the factors that may affect the students may vary in other countries.     

An exploration of Naquib al-Attas’ theory of Islamic education as ta’dīb as an ‘indigenous’ educational philosophy

Abstract

This paper explores the ‘indigenous’ philosophy of education of Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, a Malay-Muslim scholar who’s theoretical work culminated in the establishment of a counter-colonial higher education institution. Through presenting al-Attas’ life and philosophy and by exploring the arguments of his critics, I aim to shed light on the challenges and paradoxes faced by indigenous academics working at the interface of philosophy and education.     

Establishment of engineering laboratories for undergraduate and postgraduate studies

The importance of the laboratories for the study of engineering problems is manifold. At the undergraduate level it provides an opportunity for the students to get an impression of the basic principles of engineering. At the postgraduate level it becomes an instrument for advanced level study and for the solutions to real-life engineering problems. Level of emphasis by an individual engineering institution on basic engineering, interdisciplinary aspects of engineering and relevance to international, national and local industrial trends effects the policy to establish the engineering laboratories. However, a core facility, for the teaching of the most basic principals of relevant field of engineering should be a common feature of all the laboratories associated with individual subject area. In this research paper an approach for establishing engineering laboratories is presented. It discusses the relation between the syllabus of appropriate level of study and the equipment required in the laboratory, physical planning for the laboratory, sequential and parallel approaches for establishing the laboratories, the functional capacity of laboratories, the organizational flexibility of the laboratories, the cost factor and the recurring expenditure. It suggests ways of utilizing the laboratory for effective teaching and research through optimal use of the above factors.     

What is an objective structured practical examination in anatomy?

Assessing teaching‐learning outcomes in anatomical knowledge is a complex task that requires the evaluation of multiple domains: theoretical, practical, and clinical knowledge. In general, theoretical knowledge is tested by a written examination system constituted by multiple choice questions (MCQs) and/or short answer questions (SAQ). The assessment of practical knowledge (three‐dimensional anatomical concepts) involves oral, spot, or objective structured practical examinations (OSPE). Finally, the application of anatomical knowledge to patients is tested mainly through objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE). The major focus of this study is the OSPE. Although many schools challenge students using this tool in practical examinations in the early phase of the curriculum, the true meaning of OSPE is frequently forgotten and it becomes, in reality, a spot examination. This article, for the first time, describes how the concept of the OSPE has evolved and is currently being used to assess the practical domain of anatomical knowledge in a problem‐based curriculum at Alfaisal University College of Medicine. In addition, it describes the main differences from the spot examination, which is normally used in traditional medical curricula. The authors believe that the OSPE remains the most efficient tool to assess the practical aspects of anatomical knowledge in a system where basic knowledge is integrated with the clinical or functional part of anatomy. However, this contention only holds true if the OSPE process revolves around structured objectives. Anat Sci Educ 6: 125–133. © 2012 American Association of Anatomists.     

A competence-based industrial learning approach for factories of the future

Manufacturing industry can improve its competitiveness through innovation and technological excellence, and appropriate Industrial Learning can help to achieve this goal through allowing the manufacturing workforce to acquire new skills related to the advanced developments in information and communication technologies. This raises the need for new Industrial Learning tools and methods from the viewpoint of learning content, learning processes, and delivery mechanisms. In this paper, we present a generic competence-based approach for Industrial Learning developed in the framework of ActionPlanT project. The approach is composed of (i) an Industrial Learning model which serves to represent and understand competence-based learning, and (ii) a methodology which implements through a number of steps the Industrial Learning actions defined using the Industrial Learning model in industrial organisations. Both the model and the methodology are presented in details. A metrics-based method for evaluating the implementation of the learning actions defined using the approach is also described.