Research and development of print materials at the Children's Television Workshop

The mission of research within The Magazine Group of the Children's Television Workshop is fourfold: (a) to ensure that each editorial product is comprehensible to and developmentally appropriate for its intended target audience, (b) to conduct formative and summative evaluations of editorial material for the Group's editors, (c) to keep all staff members of The Magazine Group apprised of the latest academic research in child development and education, and (d) to serve as an in-house advertising and market-research arm for the publisher. This article provides case studies of how research serves each of these functions and concludes with observations on how to optimize the effectiveness of print materials for children, parents, and elementary school teachers.     

Teacher Education Objectives: A Survey of Student Views

This article is a summary of the Survey of Teacher Education Objectives: The Views of Diploma in Education Students published as a monograph in 1982. A report of the previous study was published in 1981 and a summary of the report appeared in Vol. 4 No. 1 of this Journal.     

Practice makes better? A study of meditation learners in a classroom environment

The study investigates the effect of length of meditation history on various factors, namely learning motivation, learning outcome and classroom climate. Data were collected from working adult learners (n = 450) attending meditation classes in two large cities in Taiwan. The investigation categorized learners based on meditation experience, namely <1 year, 1–3 years, 4–6 years, 7–10 years and >10 years. The study investigated how experience affects learners in their perception of motivation, learning outcome and classroom climate, using one‐way ANOVA and post‐hoc analysis. Results showed a non‐linear ordered response—longer meditation experience does not in all cases increase benefits gained from meditation. A follow‐up group discussion with learners identified learning fatigue as a possible factor for the non‐linear results. In addition, through canonical correlation analysis, the study also showed that learning motivation and classroom climate is strongly correlated with learning outcome. The paper concludes with a discussion of results.     

对大学健康教育体系的研究

通过调查研究 ,分析了我国高校实施健康教育的现状及存在的认识不足、内容和方式方法简单、组织实施不规范等问题 ,进而构建了大学健康教育的目标、内容、途径和方法体系 ,以及管理机制。为强化高校健康教育工作 ,提出了新的发展思路和基本框架。     

伞形科植物染色体数目报告

 Chromosome numbers are reported for 26 species and varieties of Umbelliferae which belong to 3 subfamilies and 19 genera in this paper.  Of these, 13 counts are new records and some problems about chromosome numbers of Umbelliferae are simplydiscussed.     

Global and National Imaginings: Deparochialising the IBDP English A1 Curriculum

In this paper, I argue for the deparochialising of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) English A1 curriculum where teachers as curriculum-makers would critically assess text choice and where students have the opportunities to make critical readings and engage in conversations about issues raised by the text. Through the case study of the implementation of one English A1 curriculum in a Singapore school, I demonstrate the possibilities for a cosmopolitan literature curriculum that is attentive to both the global and the local.     

Readability and Basic Course Hybrid Textbooks in Human Communication: A Disparity of Reading Difficulty

Parents play a pivotal role in the gender development and sex-typing of children. It is important to discover whether gender role communication differences exist based on the sex of the child or parent. The present study aimed to discover differences in gender role messages communicated between mother-daughter, mother-son, father-daughter, and father-son dyads. Participants (n = 630) completed a modified version of Bem's Sex Role Inventory. Two key results were discovered: mothers communicate significantly more feminine messages to children, regardless of child sex; and the modified BSRI identifies respondents as weak vs. strong gender identity rather than masculine, feminine, androgynous, or undifferentiated.     

How to Help Teachers Develop Inquiry Teaching: Perspectives from Experienced Science Teachers

This study has two purposes: the first is to explore experienced science teachers’ perspectives on inquiry teaching, and the second is to categorize these perspectives into patterns. Fifteen junior high school science teachers experienced at inquiry teaching were selected, and a semi-structured interview was conducted to collect the teachers’ perspectives on inquiry and inquiry teaching. The findings indicate that these experienced science teachers hold multiple perspectives on inquiry and inquiry teaching. The two patterns generated from these teachers’ perspectives of inquiry and inquiry teaching were systematic-based inquiry instruction and learning-based inquiry instructions. Suggestions for science teacher educators are discussed in this paper.