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.     

The Effectiveness of Cooperative and Individualistic Approaches in Teaching Mathematics and English

This paper reports an experimental study into the effects of cooperative and individualistic approaches in teaching Mathematics and English. The study was conducted at a Vacation Learning Camp (VLC) which was held for two weeks in one of the secondary schools in Singapore. This VLC was targeted at Secondary One pupils who were classified as below average based on general ability streaming.

The individualistic teaching approach was assumed to contribute to individual efforts while the cooperative teaching approach was expected to produce cooperativeness among the subjects. The results indicated that there were no significant differences in performances in the main effects classified as the treatment groups and the sex groups in both Mathematics and English; in Mathematics, the individualistic teaching approach was more effective for the male pupils whereas the cooperative teaching approach was more effective with females. However, in English, the results were reversed.

The female pupils in the cooperative group seemed to have improved in their attitude towards learning Mathematics whereas the male pupils in the individualistic group seemed to have a more positive attitude towards learning English.     

建构性的后现代主义

柯布(John B.cobb,Jr.)教授是世界著名过程思想家,建构性后现代主义理论代表人物之一,现任美国过程研究中心创会主任,美国中国后现代发展研究院院长,美国克莱蒙研究生院终身教授。他1952年毕业于芝加哥大学,获哲学博士学位。柯布教授多年来一直从事过程哲学、可持续经济的研究与应用,是一位具有世界影响的学者。已发表著作数十部,代表作有《后现代公共政策》、《建构性后现代哲学的奠基者》、《后现代科学》、《后现代精神》、《为了共同的福祉——面向共同体、环境和可持续未来的经济》等。他应邀于2005年10月28至31日到我校讲学,作了题为“Constructive Postmodernism”的精彩学术报告,以西方哲学话语对建构的后现代主义作了一番梳理,其中不乏独到、精辟之论,受到广大师生的热烈欢迎。这次报告的汉语翻译是我校柏敬泽教授。应师生要求柏教授将全文译成中文并注释,以便读者准确、深入地理解柯布教授的学术报告内容。现把两位学者的共同劳动成果刊登出来,以飨读者,一为庆祝“广西师范大学后现代文化研究中心”的成立,二使更多的人了解柯布教授的学术观点,增进国际、校际之间的学术交流。     

Changes in kinematics and arm–leg coordination during a 100-m breaststroke swim

The purpose of this study was to compare arm–leg coordination and kinematics during 100 m breaststroke in 26 (8 female; 18 male) specialist breaststroke swimmers. Laps were recorded using three 50-Hz underwater cameras. Heart rate and blood lactate were measured pre- and post-swim. Arm–leg coordination was defined using coordination phases describing continuity between recovery and propulsive phases of upper and lower limbs: coordination phase 1 (time between end of leg kick and start of the arm pull phases); and coordination phase 2 (time between end of arm pull and start of leg kick phases). Duration of stroke phases, coordination phases, swim velocity, stroke length (SL), stroke rate (SR) and stroke index (SI) were analysed during the last three strokes of each lap that were unaffected by turning or finishing. Significant changes in velocity, SI and SL (P < 0.05) were found between laps. Both sexes showed significant increase (P < 0.05) in heart rate and blood lactate pre- to post-swim. Males had significantly (P < 0.01) faster swim velocities resulting from longer SLs (P = 0.016) with no difference in SR (P = 0.064). Sex differences in kinematic parameters can be explained by anthropometric differences providing males with increased propelling efficiency.