The effects of combining simulations and laboratory experiments on Zimbabwean students’ conceptual understanding of electric circuits

ABSTRACT

Background

Information Communication Technologies are increasingly present in the African educational system at all educational levels. However, their integration into pedagogical practices to improve the quality of teaching and learning across disciplines remains the exception.     

Starting the data conversation: informing data services at an academic health sciences library

Objective

The research obtained information to plan data-related products and services.

Methods

Biomedical researchers in an academic medical center were selected using purposive sampling and interviewed using open-ended questions based on a literature review. Interviews were conducted until saturation was achieved.

Results

Interview responses informed library planners about researchers’ key data issues.

Conclusions

This approach proved valuable for planning data management products and services and raising library visibility among clients in the research data realm.     

Teaching Science as a Process,Not a Set of Facts

Science & Education - The widespread misperception of science as a deliverer of irrefutable facts, rather than a deliberative process, is undermining public trust in science. Science education...     

Effective ranking and search techniques for Web resources considering semantic relationships

On the Semantic Web, the types of resources and the semantic relationships between resources are defined in an ontology. By using that information, the accuracy of information retrieval can be improved.     

The Impact of an Obstacle Course Sport Education Season on Students' Aerobic Fitness Levels

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if factor patterns of selected sports skills were similar for two samples, a skilled sample and one consisting of a wide range of skills. Comparisons were also made with kinesiological evidence regarding the patterning of basic sports skills. Data consisting of performance scores on various sports skills were available for 166 high school girls. Out of this sample, a smaller sample was drawn consisting of 69 girls who were above average in skill. Two factor models, alpha and incomplete image analysis, were used in the analysis of this data. The factor pattern of selected sports skills performed by subjects above average in skill was similar in many respects to that of a sample which included a wide range of skill. The primary difference lay in the clustering of overarm skills which appeared in the above-average factor pattern. The overarm and push patterns of the above-average sample resembled the patterns of skill obtained through kinesiological analysis. The structure of kicking, underarm, and sidearm skills remained obscure, based on the results of factor analytic techniques.     

The Assessment Skills and Knowledge Standards: Professionalizing the work of assessing student learning and development

A new set of standards to guide professional development in assessment among student affairs professionals and faculty members is poised to revolutionize how educators learn to conduct this essential work.     

Research engagement and educational decentralisation: problematising primary school English teachers’ research experiences in China

Teachers are encouraged to enhance professional competence through reflective practice and they are also asked to undertake research to generate evidence for their professional practices. This paper reports on an inquiry into a group of primary school English language teachers’ research engagement in the province of Guangdong on the Chinese mainland. The inquiry explored the effect of educational reforms on the participants’ research engagement through the use of an open‐ended questionnaire and group interviews. The inquiry revealed that research engagement had become an important part of the teachers’ professional lives. Emerging findings from the inquiry also problematised their research engagement as it was found to have been undermined by a competitive promotion mechanism, the teachers’ conceptualisations of research and challenges in the knowledge dissemination process. The paper ends with reflections on how to make teacher research “educational” for teachers and serve as an effective way for professional development.