Making Connections: Learning and Teaching Chemistry in Context

Even though several studies have reported positive attitudinal outcomes from context-based chemistry programs, methodological obstacles have prevented researchers from comparing satisfactorily the chemistry-learning outcomes between students who experience a context-based program with those who experience a content-driven program. In this narrative inquiry we are able to address the question: how do the recalled experiences of a student and her teacher in context-based and concept-based chemistry programs compare? From the student’s unique perspective of experiencing both programs with the same teacher, we have constructed our collective account around four themes; namely, the extent to which the student makes connections between chemistry concepts and real-world contexts, developing research independence through engaging in extended experimental investigations related to contexts, learning chemistry concepts through contexts, and conceptual sequencing in a context-based program. The student reported real-world connections between chemistry concepts and contexts, found her engagement in the context-driven tasks interesting and productive, and identified connected sequences of concepts across the contexts studied. Despite difficulties for teachers who are required to shift pedagogies, the student’s lived experiences and outcomes from a context-based program provide some encouragement in working through these issues.     

Simulation framework for teaching in modeling and simulation areas

Simulation is the process of executing a model that describes a system with enough detail; this model has its entities, an internal state, some input and output variables and a list of processes bound to these variables. Teaching a simulation language such as general purpose simulation system (GPSS) is always a challenge, because of the way it executes the models and the abstraction level it can achieve, very different compared with most well-known programming languages. This article presents an open source simulation framework that implements a subset of entities of GPSS, which could help students to improve the understanding of this language. This tool also stores all entities of simulations in every single simulation time, which is very useful for debugging simulations, but also for getting a detailed history of all entities in the simulations, knowing exactly how they have behaved in every simulation time.     

Critical Chinese as an Additional Language education in Australia: A journey to voices,courage and hope

This article addresses key topics of Chinese as an Additional Language (CAL) education and classroom pedagogical practices. It reports on a 3-year ethnographic study within Australian schools to discuss dialogic pedagogical practices and students’ aspirations. Based on Freire’s conceptualisation of conscientização and banking education, the purpose of this article is therefore to unpack a journey to voices, courage and hope of a cohort of socially, linguistically and economically disadvantaged students in Western Sydney, one of the most culturally diverse regions in the country. Their experiences, responses, dreams and understanding of CAL education in multicultural Australia were thus captured. Our data shows that critical CAL education might point to some avenues for the educational equity agenda. By arguing that emancipatory and critical practices could enhance students to achieve consciousness and collective self-transformation, we aim to make a contribution to the literature on CAL and languages education, which all too often isolates from broader issues in educational theory. The article also adds to the limited research that engages with CAL classroom data. Our critical approach to CAL education illuminates the intersections between language and social inclusion. Considering the worldwide growing upheaval and scepticism around CAL education, we call for writing inclusive languages education and related pedagogical practices into the social inclusion agenda in Australia and internationally, for the teaching and learning of all additional languages.     

Towards Covid-19 Literacy

Covid-19 literacy, induced by the coronavirus disease (2019), is characterized as the understanding of Covid-19 as well as informed decisions based upon this understanding. This type of literacy is closely related to health literacy, scientific literacy, and scientific media literacy. It may be obvious to say that Covid-19 literacy is a key factor for governments to effectively manage the Covid-19 transition. However, lack of literature exists about Covid-19 literacy among university students. Therefore, the current study aimed to determine the Covid-19 literacy level among 4168 students from a Colombian university. The data were derived from students’ responses to a 25–item anonymous online self-reporting questionnaire. We found that 21–25-year age group, graduate students,?students enrolled prior to 2015, and medical students had a significantly higher mean score. Moreover, the Internet (86.8%) was the most popular source of information from which participants gained most information regarding Covid-19. Furthermore, 58.5% of the participants considered health workers as a source that can provide accurate information. Most importantly, the findings reveal the students’ knowledge about (1) the role of an eventual process of vaccination, (2) the test currently used as diagnostic for Covid-19, and (3) the fatality rate, three aspects of Covid-19 literacy that deserve more attention. The findings provide a useful basis for the formulation of policies and concrete actions in improving Covid-19 literacy.

     

Emotional climate of a pre-service science teacher education class in Bhutan

This study explored pre-service secondary science teachers’ perceptions of classroom emotional climate in the context of the Bhutanese macro-social policy of Gross National Happiness. Drawing upon sociological perspectives of human emotions and using Interaction Ritual Theory this study investigated how pre-service science teachers may be supported in their professional development. It was a multi-method study involving video and audio recordings of teaching episodes supported by interviews and the researcher’s diary. Students also registered their perceptions of the emotional climate of their classroom at 3-minute intervals using audience response technology. In this way, emotional events were identified for video analysis. The findings of this study highlighted that the activities pre-service teachers engaged in matter to them. Positive emotional climate was identified in activities involving students’ presentations using video clips and models, coteaching, and interactive whole class discussions. Decreases in emotional climate were identified during formal lectures and when unprepared presenters led presentations. Emotions such as frustration and disappointment characterized classes with negative emotional climate. The enabling conditions to sustain a positive emotional climate are identified. Implications for sustaining macro-social policy about Gross National Happiness are considered in light of the climate that develops in science teacher education classes.     

Teacher salaries in Latin America: A review

In this paper we use data from household surveys of 12 Latin American countries to assess how teacher salaries compare to workers in other occupations. The results show great variability from one country to another, ranging from an apparent underpayment of teachers in Bolivia by 35% relative to the control group, and a respective overpayment of 65% in Colombia. However, when statistical controls are introduced for the differential education, hours worked and gender composition between teachers and the comparison group, much of the earnings differential between the two groups disappears. On the basis of this finding, we cannot support the position that teachers are either overpaid or underpaid.     

茶叶香气成分的研究--乌龙茶与鲜茶香气成分的比较

报道了用同时蒸馏-萃取装置分别提取乌龙茶与鲜茶香气成分，测得乌龙茶的香气成分含量为3．65％．鲜茶的香气成分含量为2．40%。用GC／MS法分别从乌龙茶与鲜茶香气成分中分离并确定出42种和19种化学成分，并对香气化学成分及含量进行了对比。     

Teacher collegiality and electronic communication: A study of the collaborative uses of email by secondary school teachers in Uruguay

Teacher collegiality has been consistently highlighted in recent years as a crucial factor in the success of processes of educational change and professional development. Consequently, there is considerable interest both from researchers and practitioners, in investigating strategies capable of supporting interactions and collaborations between teachers. Research, mostly carried out in industry, suggests that computer‐mediated communication (CMC) technologies may support collegiality in a diversity of contexts. Following the technological developments of the last few years, which have driven down the costs and complexity of computers and telecommunications, CMC technologies are becoming increasingly available to schools around the world. One of the more widespread of these new CMC technologies is electronic mail. The aim of this article is to discuss some of the results of a research project that investigated the potential of electronic mail for supporting the development of collegiality and professional exchange among secondary school teachers in Uruguay. At the time of this study, relatively little research had been carried out into the use of electronic mail for professional purposes by schoolteachers, especially in Latin America. The evidence suggests that email may support the formation of communities of highly committed users, where seeking and sharing professional resources are accepted behaviours.