Structure and Agency in Adolescents’ Expectations of Pursuing Post-secondary Education

Research in Higher Education - Past studies have supported the view that parent background and family socioeconomic status determine the post-secondary educational expectations of adolescents. They...     

专题:港澳图书馆学术专题(二)[程焕文编委组织]-香港文化研究资料与广东文献-香港中文大学图书馆馆藏之香港古典诗文资料介绍

<正> 粤港关系密切,文化同源。自辛亥革命起,广东人口大量迁移香港,当中不乏前清翰林、前国民政府之军政要员及书香世代之硕学鸿儒。他们到港或开坛讲学、作育英才,或结社唱酬、谈文说艺,或搜集文献、钻研学问,莫不以倡教化、开民智、兴艺文为志业,于香港留下大量宝贵的文化遗产。     

Developing Faculty Research Skills: Lessons Learned

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this reflective commentary is to describe and analyze how efforts were made to engage polytechnic nursing faculty in a multi-institutional, interprofessional research project, and the effectiveness of methods used. We describe the professional development and project management activities provided along with our reflection as to their effectiveness. The faculty members worked at a polytechnic, a small vocational and technical institution in Western Canada with approximately 14,000 full-time students, where faculty were not required to participate in research. Assumptions were made about their interest, knowledge, and ability regarding the research process. These assumptions led the investigators to implement professional development activities that were not effective. Spontaneous informal, anecdotal feedback from some faculty members to the authors, and the authors’ own observations, informed the results. Assumptions about novice faculty research skills may not be accurate; therefore, an effort should be made to perform a pre-assessment of these skills, to create a lesson plan, to assess the effectiveness of teaching strategies, and to evaluate the effectiveness of supportive measures in order to address learning needs.     

Differential contribution of psycholinguistic and cognitive skills to written composition in Chinese as a second language

Reading and Writing - This study examined the contribution of the constructs of orthographic processing (orthographic choice and orthographic choice in context), syntactic processing...     

Building preschool teachers’ capacity for teaching Chinese to ethnic minority children in Hong Kong: A qualitative study

ABSTRACT

Teaching Chinese to second language learners is a challenge for preschool teachers in Hong Kong so effective teacher professional development programmes are urgently needed to enhance their knowledge and skills. An Integrative Model Teacher Professional Development Programme which incorporates three theoretical underpinnings (i.e., culturally responsive teaching, meaningful and pleasurable learning, and effective teaching of Chinese as a second language) is designed to equip preschool teachers with knowledge, skills, and awareness in teaching Chinese to ethnic minority students. Through qualitative interviews with 15 in-service preschool teachers who joined the Programme, teachers’ perceptions and changes in three theoretical areas of teaching Chinese to ethnic minority students were explored. Particularly, teachers increased their awareness of ethnic minority cultures, developed empathy with ethnic minority children and their families, gained knowledge of implementing culturally responsive teaching and meaningful and pleasurable learning of Chinese. The role of teacher sharing in effective professional development was highlighted.     

The role of stroke knowledge in reading and spelling in Chinese

The present study examined the types of orthographic knowledge that are important in learning to read and spell Chinese words in a 2‐year longitudinal study following 289 Hong Kong Chinese children from Grade 1 to Grade 2. Multiple regression results showed that radical knowledge significantly predicted children's word reading and spelling performance across the years. Stroke knowledge contributed both concurrently (Grade 1) and longitudinally (Grade 2) to children's spelling performance after controlling for rapid naming, phonological awareness, morphological awareness and radical knowledge. These findings support the significance of radical knowledge in Chinese reading and spelling and the specific role of stroke order knowledge in Chinese spelling. The findings have implications for the design of an effective curriculum for teaching children to spell Chinese characters.     

Reliability and validity evidence for the EARLI literacy probes

The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of scores from six early literacy probes developed for use with preschool‐age children. The literacy probes were administered to 84 preschoolers at three time points over a 6‐month period. Also, a criterion measure of early literacy skills was administered to a subset of students. Results indicated that the probes demonstrate adequate reliability for screening decisions, moderate to strong concurrent relationships with a criterion measure, and developmentally appropriate changes in children's early literacy skills over time. These results add to the growing body of evidence supporting the technical adequacy of general outcome measurement for use in monitoring the progress of preschoolers' academic skill development. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Hip extension during the come-out of multiple forward and inward pike somersaulting dives is controlled by eccentric contraction of the hip flexors

Abstract

A modelling approach was used in the present study to investigate the role of the hip muscles during the come-out of forward and inward multiple somersaulting dives in a pike position. A planar two-segment model was used to simulate the somersault and come-out of three commonly performed dives from a 3-m springboard: forward two-and-one-half somersault pike dive (105B), forward three-and-one-half somersault pike dive (107B), and inward two-and-one-half somersault pike dive (405B). Three simulations were run for each dive: (1) hip angle was constrained to be constant, (2) hip torque was removed after 0.1 s, and (3) hip angle was constrained to a typical come-out time history used by elite divers. Simulation results indicated that hip flexion torque was required both to maintain a rigid pike position during somersault (range = 205.5–282.3 Nm) and to control the hip extension movement during the come-out (peak torque range = 355.8–548.1 Nm) in forward and inward multiple somersaulting dives. Coaches and divers should be aware that dry-land exercise drills producing hip extension movement by concentric actions of the hip extensor muscles do not replicate the neuromuscular control during the come-out of fast rotating dives.