Paired peer learning through engineering education outreach

ABSTRACT

Undergraduate education incorporating active learning and vicarious experience through education outreach presents a critical opportunity to influence future engineering teaching and practice capabilities. Engineering education outreach activities have been shown to have multiple benefits; increasing interest and engagement with science and engineering for school children, providing teachers with expert contributions to engineering subject knowledge, and developing professional generic skills for engineers such as communication and teamwork. This pilot intervention paired 10 pre-service teachers and 11 student engineers to enact engineering outreach in primary schools, reaching 269 children. A longitudinal mixed methods design was employed to measure change in attitudes and Education Outreach Self-Efficacy in student engineers; alongside attitudes, Teaching Engineering Self-Efficacy and Engineering Subject Knowledge Confidence in pre-service teachers. Highly significant improvements were noted in the pre-service teachers’ confidence and self-efficacy, while both the teachers and engineers qualitatively described benefits arising from the paired peer mentor model.     

我国古代蒙学识字教材的历史沿革

首先通过界定，筛选出我国古代具有代表性的识字教材，并在此基础上将我国古代蒙学识字教材的发展历史分为雏形期；定型期；承袭期三个阶段。进而对每个阶段的识字教学思想、发展概况进行梳理，对其历史沿革过程中的规律进行总结。     

The effects of college students’ positive thinking,learning motivation and self-regulation through a self-reflection intervention in Taiwan

This quasi-experimental study examined the effects of a self-reflection intervention on college (college in this article refers to university-level education) students’ positive thinking, learning motivation and self-regulation in Taiwan. One hundred and two college students were selected to participate in an 18-week intervention forming the experimental group (EG) which emphasized providing main lecture, role-play, self-reflection activity, group discussion and group work. Another 179 college students from two other courses were selected as a comparison group. This study showed that supportive, resourced discussion with peers and instructor, self-reflection activities and assignment as a facilitative agent improved the EG students’ positive thinking, learning motivation and self-regulation. In addition, three structural equation models revealed that positive thinking had a strong and direct relation to Taiwanese college students’ pretest learning motivation (β?=?.85) and self-regulation (β?=?.77); learning motivation had a strong and direct relation to students’ pretest positive thinking (β?=?.86) and self-regulation (β?=?.81); and self-regulation had a strong and direct relation to students’ pretest positive thinking (β?=?.83) and learning motivation (β?=?.86). Instructional implications and research recommendations are discussed.     

Why some teachers easily learn to use a new virtual learning environment: a technology acceptance perspective

After a decade of virtual learning environments (VLEs) in higher education, many teachers still use only a minimum of its affordances. This study looked at how academic staff interacted with a new and unknown VLE in order to understand how technology acceptance and support materials influence (perceived and actual) task performance. In an experimental design, 36 participants were split into a control (online help) and experimental (instructor video) condition and completed five common teaching tasks in a new VLE. In contrast to most technology acceptance model research, this study found that perceived usefulness of the VLE was not related to (perceived) task performance. Perceived ease of use was related to intentions and actual behaviour in the VLE. Furthermore, no significant difference was found between the two conditions, although the experimental condition led to a (marginal) increase in time to complete the tasks.     

Maternal mediation in book reading, home literacy environment, and children’s emergent literacy: a comparison between two social groups

The researchers addressed two questions: (1) Does maternal reading mediation and family home literacy environment (HLE) relate to children’s emergent literacy (EL) level? and (2) Do the relationships among these variables differ as a function of socioeconomic strata (SES) level. A total of 94 5–6-year-old children, 47 from low SES (LSES) and 47 from high (HSES) families, and their mothers participated. Mother–child interactions while reading an unfamiliar book were videotaped and their verbal expressions were coded for extracting maternal mediation level. Children’s independent EL level was assessed prior to the interaction. Compared with the LSES group, HSES children showed higher EL levels and their homes had a richer literacy environment. Maternal mediation level differed by SES: LSES mothers paraphrased text more often; HSES mothers’ higher mediation level included a discussion of the written system and making connections beyond the text. In the HSES group, maternal mediation level and HLE related to children’s EL; no such relationships appeared in the LSES group. Results are discussed in terms of children’s socio-economic background and their reading experiences. Implications for researchers and educational practices about the relationships between children’s literacy development, SES, HLE, and parental mediation are discussed.     

互联网与高校德育管理工作软环境的优化

用先进的文化占领网络阵地,用正确的思想引导学生上网,充分发扬网络的优势,克服其弊端是思想政治教育的重要任务。同时网络为思想理论教育提供了一个全新的空间,使高校思想理论教育有可能利用这个空间提高时效性,扩大覆盖面,增强影响力,加强网络环境的建设,是优化高校思想德育教育软环境的又一关键环节。     

研究性学习在高职美术教学中的实践

本文针对高职教育美术教学的现状,探讨了研究性学习在美术教学中的实施策略和操作方法,证明了研究性学习在美术教学中具有增强学生合作精神、促进学生自主性学习、培养学生创新精神和实践能力等实际功效。     

Enacting Informal Science Learning: Exploring the Battle for Informal Learning

Informal Science Learning (ISL) is a policy narrative of interest in the United Kingdom and abroad. This paper explores how a group of English secondary school science teachers, enacted ISL science clubs through employing the Periodic Table of Videos. It examines how these teachers ‘battled’ to enact ISL policy in performative conditions at the micro-scale, and how this battle reflected macro-scale epistemological and political considerations. Data from the study suggests that for some, ISL was low stakes as it was seen to have negligible impact upon performance data. As a result, there was some resistance towards enacting ISL and conflict between the formal and informal curriculum processes. Nonetheless, analysis indicates that the informants highly valued ISL despite the requirement for them to justify it over more formal and ‘effective’ approaches to learning science.     

几何刚度矩阵的推导和应用

以虚功原理为基础有限元进行梁柱的分析，应用很少，主要是于在计算中，荷载很小时，计算结果就不收敛了。因而也就很难应用于工程分析中。以虚功原理为基础推导得出了几何刚度矩阵，分析了计算不收敛的原因，得出结论：不考虑节点力因位移产生的不平衡力对几何刚度矩阵的影响，是计算结果不收敛的主要原因。算例说明了当考虑了这个影响以后，计算结果和文献给出的计算结果符合良好。     

七元素调控宏观经济

经济哲学与宏观经济调控方略在经济发展中的重要性显而易见．回顾经济学流派的各种经济政策展示了调控的显著性，在当今国际经济一体化过程中，宏观经济政策的贫乏越加显现出来．创新是首要任务．以宏观经济指标理论，政策性和阶段性的宏观调控策略．宏观经济良性循环三大任务为综合目标的七元素调控宏观经济的数学模型是三率调控宏观经济的进一步深入和细致，我们分析了税收，存款利率，贷款利率，汇率，货币发行量，国债发行量，财政预算七元素与30个宏观经济指标变量间的经验关系，并由此建立粗略的阶段性的效益矩阵作为决策的基础．利用宏观经济指标对经济的贡献率确定加权系数，并建立线性的目标函数并求出离散组合优化值，为中国宏观经济的发展献一点调控策略。供政府部门的决策者参考．