3,300 research outputs found
From teaching physics to teaching children : beginning teachers learning from pupils
This paper discusses the development of beginning physics teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in the context of teaching basic electricity during a one-year Professional Graduate Diploma in Education course (PGDE) and beyond. This longitudinal study used repeated semi-structured interviews over a period of four-and-a-half years. The interview schedule followed a line of development through the secondary school electrical syllabus in Scotland. Fifteen student teachers were interviewed during the PGDE year. Six of them were followed up at the end of the Induction Year (their first year as a newly qualified teacher), and again two-and-a-half years later. Thematic analysis of the interviews showed that before the beginning teachers had taught any classes, their initial focus was on how to transform their own subject matter knowledge (SMK) about electricity into forms that were accessible to pupils. As the beginning teachers gained experience working with classes, they gave vivid descriptions of interacting with particular pupils when teaching electricity which showed the development of their pedagogical knowledge. This played a significant role in the teachers' change of focus from teaching physics to teaching children as they transformed their SMK into forms that were accessible to pupils and developed their general pedagogical knowledge
Denitrification and total nitrate uptake in streams of a tropical landscape
Author Posting. © Ecological Society of America, 2010. This article is posted here by permission of Ecological Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Ecological Applications 20 (2010): 2104-2115, doi:10.1890/09-1110.1.Rapid increases in nitrogen (N) loading are occurring in many tropical watersheds, but the fate of N in tropical streams is not well documented. Rates of nitrate uptake and denitrification were measured in nine tropical low-order streams with contrasting land use as part of the Lotic Intersite Nitrogen eXperiment II (LINX II) in Puerto Rico using short term (24-hour) additions of K15NO3 and NaBr. Background nitrate concentrations ranged from 105 to 997 ÎŒg N/L, and stream nitrate uptake lengths were long, varying from 315 to 8480 m (median of 1200 m). Other indices of nitrate uptake (mass transfer coefficient, Vf [cm/s], and whole-stream nitrate uptake rate, U [ÎŒg N·mâ2·sâ1]) were low in comparison to other regions and were related to chemical, biological, and physical parameters. Denitrification rates were highly variable (0â133 ÎŒg N·mâ2·minâ1; median = 15 ÎŒg N·mâ2·minâ1), were dominated by the end product N2 (rather than N2O), and were best predicted by whole-stream respiration rates and stream NO3 concentration. Denitrification accounted for 1â97% of nitrate uptake with five of nine streams having 35% or more of nitrate uptake via denitrification, showing that denitrification is a substantial sink for nitrate in tropical streams. Whole-stream nitrate uptake and denitrification in our study streams closely followed first-order uptake kinetics, indicating that NO3 uptake is limited by delivery of substrate (NO3) to the organisms involved in uptake or denitrification. In the context of whole-catchment nitrogen budgets, our finding that in-stream denitrification results in lower proportional production of N2O than terrestrial denitrification suggests that small streams can be viewed as the preferred site of denitrification in a watershed in order to minimize greenhouse gas N2O emissions. Conservation of small streams is thus critical in tropical ecosystem management.This research was part of the Lotic Intersite Nitrogen
eXperiment II (LINX II) funded by the National Science
Foundation (DEB-0111410). Additional support was provided
by the National Science Foundation to the Institute of
Terrestrial Ecology at the University of Puerto Rico and the
International Institute of Tropical Forestry (DEB-0218039 and
DEB-0620919) through the Luquillo Long Term Ecological
Research (LUQ LTER) program
Individual leader to interdependent leadership: A case study in leadership development and tripartite evaluation
This article is available open access through the publisherâs website at the link below. Copyright @ 2013 Sage Publications.The Problem - In this case study we see a move away from orthodox views of school leadership as âheadshipâ to a more contemporary model of educational leadership wherein we note a departure from functional, curricula-based school leadership toward more human resource development (HRD) approaches. The aim of this study was to consider the effectiveness of an educational development program for middle leaders within an educational establishment.
The Solution - We examined the impact of a bespoke higher education leadership development intervention in Leadership (and Change) on the formation and cohesiveness of a newly formed innovative leadership structure.
The Stakeholders - The leadership development intervention was designed through a tripartite collaboration including a university, senior school leaders, and staff. The intervention was designed to shift leadership from individual leader agency to interdependent human leadership agency. Through tripartite evaluation we uncover leadership development praxis that transcends the boundaries of conventional educational leadership and reemphasizes the benefits of bridging the academic/practitioner divide and the application of theory to praxis
Adult Development: Capturing New Ways of Thinking About the Life Course
We outline first a brief overview of a four-fold typology of developmental theory (biological, psychological, sociocultural an integrative models). We then discuss work that illustrates two of these frames: the sociocultural, which includes racial and ethnic, and relational aspects of development; and the integrative, focusing on time, development as narrative, and spiritual development. We close with a commentary on the current developmental literature and how this literature challenges our practice as adult educators
Developing construction graduates fit for the 4th industrial revolution through fieldwork application of active learning
Up the ANTe: Understanding Entrepreneurial Leadership Learning through Actor-network Theory
This paper explores the role of educators in supporting the development of entrepreneurial leadership learning though creating peer learning networks of owner-managers of small businesses. Using actor-network theory as a lens we think through the process of constructing and maintaining a peer learning network (conceived of as an actor-network) and frame entrepreneurial leadership learning as a network effect. Our paper is of significance to theory and practice in terms of understanding the dynamics, challenges and opportunities surrounding the construction and ongoing maintenance of networks and how to stimulate entrepreneurial leadership learning
Developing reading-writing connections; the impact of explicit instruction of literary devices on the quality of children's narrative writing
The purpose of this collaborative schools-university study was to investigate how the explicit instruction of literary devices during designated literacy sessions could improve the quality of children's narrative writing. A guiding question for the study was: Can children's writing can be enhanced by teachers drawing attention to the literary devices used by professional writers or âmentor authorsâ? The study was conducted with 18 teachers, working as research partners in nine elementary schools over one school year. The research group explored ways of developing children as reflective authors, able to draft and redraft writing in response to peer and teacher feedback. Daily literacy sessions were complemented by weekly writing workshops where students engaged in authorial activity and experienced writers' perspectives and readers' demands (Harwayne, 1992; May, 2004). Methods for data collection included video recording of peer-peer and teacher-led group discussions and audio recording of teacher-child conferences. Samples of children's narrative writing were collected and a comparison was made between the quality of their independent writing at the beginning and end of the research period. The research group documented the importance of peer-peer and teacher-student discourse in the development of children's metalanguage and awareness of audience. The study suggests that reading, discussing, and evaluating mentor texts can have a positive impact on the quality of children's independent writing
Learning physics in context: a study of student learning about electricity and magnetism
This paper re-centres the discussion of student learning in physics to focus
on context. In order to do so, a theoretically-motivated understanding of
context is developed. Given a well-defined notion of context, data from a novel
university class in electricity and magnetism are analyzed to demonstrate the
central and inextricable role of context in student learning. This work sits
within a broader effort to create and analyze environments which support
student learning in the sciencesComment: 36 pages, 4 Figure
Spatial evolution of short pulses under coherent population trapping
Spatial and temporal evolution is studied of two powerful short laser pulses
having different wavelengths and interacting with a dense three-level
Lambda-type optical medium under coherent population trapping. A general case
of unequal oscillator strengths of the transitions is considered. Durations of
the probe pulse and the coupling pulse () are assumed to be
shorter than any of the relevant atomic relaxation times. We propose analytical
and numerical solutions of a self-consistent set of coupled Schr\"{o}dinger
equations and reduced wave equations in the adiabatic limit with the account of
the first non-adiabatic correction. The adiabaticity criterion is also
discussed with the account of the pulse propagation. The dynamics of
propagation is found to be strongly dependent on the ratio of the transition
oscillator strengths. It is shown that envelopes of the pulses slightly change
throughout the medium length at the initial stage of propagation. This distance
can be large compared to the one-photon resonant absorption length. Eventually,
the probe pulse is completely reemitted into the coupling pulse during
propagation. The effect of localization of the atomic coherence has been
observed similar to the one predicted by Fleischhauer and Lukin (PRL, {\bf 84},
5094 (2000).Comment: 16 pages revtex style, 7 EPS figures, accepted to Physical Review
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