Student Perceptions of Chemistry Laboratory Learning Environments, Student–Teacher Interactions and Attitudes in Secondary School Gifted Education Classes in Singapore

This study investigated the chemistry laboratory classroom environment, teacher–student interactions and student attitudes towards chemistry among 497 gifted and non-gifted secondary-school students in Singapore. The data were collected using the 35-item Chemistry Laboratory Environment Inventory (CLEI), the 48-item Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) and the 30-item Questionnaire on Chemistry-Related Attitudes (QOCRA). Results supported the validity and reliability of the CLEI and QTI for this sample. Stream (gifted versus non-gifted) and gender differences were found in actual and preferred chemistry laboratory classroom environments and teacher–student interactions. Some statistically significant associations of modest magnitude were found between students' attitudes towards chemistry and both the laboratory classroom environment and the interpersonal behaviour of chemistry teachers. Suggestions for improving chemistry laboratory classroom environments and the teacher–student interactions for gifted students are provided.     

Curriculum stasis: the disconnect between music and technology in the Australian curriculum

Technology is a dominant mediating factor impacting on current human behaviour and social change, which both acts on and is acted upon by other phenomena. This changing social landscape, along with new expectations and requirements, drives our educational priorities and curriculum agenda. There is no denying the prevalence of technology found in the statements and guidelines of the national Australian Curriculum. Further, the National Review of School Music Education identified the importance of technology in school music education in 2005. The curriculum guidelines illustrate an understanding of technology in Music and the Arts that is both vague and limiting. In 2015 we are at a point of curriculum stasis, an equilibrium that highlights a disconnect between music, technology and Australian music education. This article investigates current secondary school Years 7–10 (ages 11–15 years) Music and Arts curriculum statements concerning the use of technology and compares this to the general capability information and computer technology (ICT) curricula. There is wide recognition that digital technology is essential in teaching and learning, but this is not reflected in contemporary Australian Arts and Music curricula.     

High Possibility Classrooms as a pedagogical framework for technology integration in classrooms: an inquiry in two Australian secondary schools*

Understanding how well teachers integrate digital technology in learning is the subject of considerable debate in education. High Possibility Classrooms (HPC) is a pedagogical framework drawn from research on exemplary teachers’ knowledge of technology integration in Australian school classrooms. The framework is being used to support teachers who teach various stages of schooling to take ‘pedagogical steps’ in their practice with technology. This article focuses on the use of the HPC conceptual framework in a study of seven teachers and their students at two secondary schools in New South Wales, Australia. Analysis confirms the practicality of this conceptual framework for technology integration in secondary school classrooms. This inquiry has implications for addressing the reluctance of teachers to integrate technology in curriculum. The article concludes by suggesting that more schools might consider using conceptual frameworks like HPC to support secondary school teachers to enhance student learning with technology.     

Flipping the Coin: Towards a Double-Faced Approach to Teaching Black Literature in Secondary English Classrooms

Critiquing two approaches that English teachers use to teach Black, or African-American, literature in the secondary classroom – one that centralises races and the other that ignores it – this article proposes a hybrid approach that combines both. This double-faced approach recognises the culturally specific themes that give the text and the Black author their unique voice while also recognising commonalities that bridge the text to others – despite the race of the authors. To demonstrate the feasibility of the double-faced approach, the article concludes with an examination of three texts through the lens of this ‘race both matters and doesn’t matter’ perspective.     

中国二线城市白领女性休闲现状研究——以泉州市为例

随着国民经济的高速发展,我国二线城市中白领女性的队伍不断壮大。在众多的一线城市中,休闲是白领女性日常生活的重要组成部分,但是二线城市白领女性的休闲生活质量普遍偏低。本研究选取泉州作为中国二线城市的代表,采用问卷调查结合深度访谈的方法调查了泉州市白领女性的休闲现状,将调查数据通过SPSS13.0进行频率分析和相关性分析,得出了二线城市白领女性休闲行为的基本特征和规律。在此基础上,向休闲活动提供商、政府和社会,以及白领女性供职单位三方提出了建议,以期通过三方面的共同努力来提升中国二线城市白领女性的休闲生活质量。     

炼油废水H-O-R工艺中试运行探索

模拟茂石化炼油废水生化处理系统 ,在二沉池中加入软性纤维添料 ,使之具有反硝化脱氮的功能后 ,用H -O -R工艺 (即水解酸化 -好氧 -脱氮 )的方式运行 ,不但使泥水分离效果更好 ,而且改进了传统的脱氮工艺 ,弥补由于原工艺中构筑物的原因造成废水无法回流脱氮的缺陷。中试运行结果表明 ,COD、Oil、Ar -OH、NH3 -N、S2 -的降解率分别达到 90 % ,97% ,99% ,84 % ,99% ;当供给适量C源、DO <1mg/L、温度在 2 5～ 4 0℃时 ,NOx -N降解率可达 75～ 90 % ,各污染指标均达到国家和DB4 4 / 5 6 - 92地方排放标准     

论我国中高职衔接的模式

目前,我国中高职衔接模式仍偏重于学制衔接。本文依据我国中高职衔接的具体情况,将其划分为学制衔接模式与非学制衔接模式(内涵式衔接)加以论述,并指出内涵式衔接应成为我国中高职衔接发展的重要方向。     

The Challenge in Teaching Biotechnology

Agriculture, industry and medicine are being altered by new biotechnologies. Biotechnology education is important because todays students and citizens will make decisions about the development and application of these new molecular biologies. This article reports an investigation of the teaching of biotechnology in an Australian state, New South Wales (NSW). In NSW few students were electing to answer examination questions related to biotechnology, suggesting that few students were studying the topic. This study looks at why electives relating to biotechnology are chosen or not chosen by students and teachers, with the intention of developing a greater understanding of the requirements for provision of a successful unit of study in this subject. Data was obtained through a survey of secondary science teachers, interviews with teachers and two case studies of the teaching of a biotechnology unit. Teachers reported a range of obstacles to the teaching of biotechnology including the difficulty of the subject matter and a lack of practical work that was suited to the content of the teaching unit. If biotechnology is worth learning in school science, then further research is needed to identify ways to promote the effective teaching of this topic, which teachers regard as important for, and interesting to, students but which most teachers choose not to teach.     

试论我国中、高职农科专业课程衔接

实现中、高职教育农科专业课程的有效衔接,是推动农科职业教育步入良性发展轨道的客观要求.本文对当前我国中、高等职业教育农科专业课程开发的现状进行分析,指出课程内容重复、专业技能倒挂等问题,并对建立中、高等职业教育农科专业课程的有效衔接机制进行阐述.     

Linking a learning progression for natural selection to teachers' enactment of formative assessment

Learning progressions, or representations of how student ideas develop in a domain, hold promise as tools to support teachers' formative assessment practices. The ideas represented in a learning progression might help teachers to identify and make inferences about evidence collected of student thinking, necessary precursors to modifying instruction to help students advance in their learning. The study reported in this article took the novel approach of using a learning progression for natural selection to support teachers' enactment of formative assessment. Sources of data include interviews and videotapes of six high school biology teachers leading assessment conversations around the same formative assessment questions. Results indicate that while teachers picked out and made inferences about student ideas related to the learning progression during assessment conversations, they did not use all parts of the learning progression in the same way. Furthermore, several of the teachers seemed to use the learning progressions simply as catalogs of misconceptions to be “squashed” rather than drawing upon the developmental affordances offered by a learning progression. Results are framed in terms of the utility of learning progressions as supports for classroom practice. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 1181–1210, 2012