How Do Beginning Primary School Teachers Cope with Science? Toward an Understanding of Science Teaching Practice

This study emerged from a consideration of how some beginning primary school teachers cope when faced with teaching science. Primary teachers typically lack science content knowledge and therefore the science pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) that enables them to teach science. Aspects of a group of beginning primary school teachers' science teaching practices were consequently examined in order to understand better the basis of their practice. In particular, science PCK and its relationship to activities that work were considered, illuminated by findings about activities that work from a separate study with practicing teachers. The main assertion arising from this study is that activities that work have a close relationship with science PCK. A number of implications for primary science curriculum emerge from this assertion, such as considerations for preservice teacher education science courses and the nature of the primary science curriculum.     

The impact of an intensive multisensory reading program on a population of learning-disabled delinquents

The high prevalence of learning disabilities in the juvenile delinquent population has been well documented, but attempts to remediate and have an impact on recidivism of this population of delinquents has produced limited results. The present study is a replication of the remediation phase of the 1976 LD/JD Project with methodological refinements to control for treatment integrity and strength of treatment. Delinquents in two detention facilities were screened for a developmental reading disorder. Subjects were selected for the study based on normal intelligence, full English proficiency, and a discrepancy of 15 points between reading achievement and IQ. Subjects in the treatment group received 90 minutes of remedial reading instruction per day using a multisensory (Orton/Gillingham) approach. A comparison group received 45 minutes of daily reading instruction in the regular classroom. There was no significant difference between the two groups in mean age of first arrest, mean age, and mean hours of reading instruction. Based on pre- and posttesting in reading and arrest records one year following release, the treatment group made significantly greater growth in reading (.33 year growth vs −.05 year growth per 10 hours of instruction) and had a significantly lower rate of recidivism (41 percent vs 63 percent) than the comparison group. Results were discussed in terms of hours of instruction necessary to improve reading, intervening treatment variables, and cost effectiveness of remedial program.     

概观C++及Java程序设计语言的特征

随着计算机技术的发展，程序设计语言也越来越多，其中C 、Java可以说是目前应用最为广泛的语言，其原因与它们优良的特性密不可分。本着重探讨这两种程序语言的特征，分别总结和阐述了它们优越于其他语言的、自身所独有的特点及为实现这些特点而采取的有效机制。     

Using the standard Wald confidence interval for a population proportion hypothesis test is a common mistake

Employing a Wald confidence interval to test hypotheses about population proportions could lead to an increase in Type I or Type II errors unless the hypothesized value, p0, is used in computing its standard error rather than the sample proportion.     

Beginning student teachers' opinions about teaching primary science

Conclusions Beginning student teachers have already acquired very definite views about teaching science before they begin their teacher training course. These views are generally similar to the views espoused by science educators, but are contrary to the classroom practices of many teachers. Their views seem to have origins in what the students perceive to have been meaningful and enjoyable learning experiences for themselves in their own schooling; and to a lesser extent for children they have observed. Female students who have studied more science at high school tend to favour the use of worksheets in experimental work. Several interesting questions arise from these findings: When these students begin to teach as qualified teachers, will they still espouse the same opinions? If so, does that mean that there is a ‘new wave’ of teachers entering the service who are more committed to hands-on activity work than their older colleagues? If not, what aspects of the teacher training process have caused them to change their opinions? Will these present students be using hands-on strategies themselves after they have been teaching for some time? That is, do system and school constraints effectively prevent teachers from using such strategies? Can secondary science teachers do more to influence positively their students' opinions about teaching science, such as engendering more positive attitudes to science, incorporating more hands-on work, and relying less on printed worksheets in laboratory work? This exploratory work has highlighted the concern expressed by Morrissey (1981) in that there is a great need for long term longitudinal studies of student teachers' attitudes to teaching science, with a particular focus on their teaching behaviours after graduation.     

Students using posters as a means of communication and assessment

Poster sessions are widely used as a medium for the communication of results by professionals at conferences and by students to their peers. The authors have introduced poster sessions into undergraduate mathematical modelling courses. This has given our students an interesting and challenging task and it has caused us to devise a scheme for the assessment of posters.This paper surveys the use of poster sessions with undergraduates, outlines the rationale for using posters with mathematics students, describes our experiences and proposes criteria to use in the assessment of student posters.     

Blocking in landmark-based search in honeybees

Two experiments tested blocking in landmark-based search in honeybees. Honeybees in the experimental group were trained in Phase 1 with a single landmark in a constant spatial relation to the target (sugar water). In the compound training second phase, the landmark used in Phase 1 (blocking landmark) and a new landmark (blocked landmark) were presented at constant spatial relations to the target. The blocking and blocked landmarks differed from each other in color and position, and the blocking landmark retained the same spatial relationship to the target as in Phase 1. In Experiment 1, the control group experienced only Phase 2 training with two landmarks. In Experiment 2, the control group was trained with a different landmark in a different position in Phase 1. Blocking was found in both cases.     

Motor control and sequencing of boys with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) during computer game play

The motor control of 49 unmedicated boys clinically diagnosed with ADHD, case‐matched with 49 non‐ADHD boys, was assessed while playing Crash Bandicoot I, a Sony^TM Playstation platform computer video game. In Crash Bandicoot participants control the movements of a small‐animated figure through a hazardous jungle environment. Operationally defined measures of motor control were designated by (1) the stage of the game completed (ie, the number of obstacles successfully passed) before losing the figure's ‘life’, (2) the level of complexity that the stage represented and (3) the time taken to get to that point during the video game play. These measures were assessed under contrasting conditions of low or high working memory and distracter loads. Four tasks were administered (totalling 12 trials), incorporating both with and without distracter conditions. For those trials with the distracter, a segment of the television show The Simpsons was simultaneously played on a television screen adjacent to the computer game monitor. A 5‐way MANOVA revealed that ADHD boys took less time to complete their trials under the direct condition (ie, no working memory load) on Crash Bandicoot, compared to their matched non‐ADHD peers. When the task required additional working memory, however, the ADHD boys took significantly longer. Cumulative frequency plots of game performance revealed that in terms of the number of obstacles completed, the control participants successfully navigated more obstacles on the low working memory load task than the ADHD participants, but that the performance of the two groups was less distinguishable on the high working memory load task. The findings have implications for assessment and management of children with ADHD.