The influence of context on science curricula: Observations, conclusions and some recommendations for curriculum development and implementation

The genesis of this project and book was our experiences of teaching science and science education at various levels in developing countries; in the Pacific and the Caribbean. These experiences along with numerous conversations with other teachers and educators who had worked in Africa and elsewhere left us with something of a sense of despair. We constantly confronted Western or foreign science curricula which were plainly alien to science learners in non-Western contexts. We witnessed numerous curricula reforms and professional development initiatives, many of which seemed doomed to failure. In fact Helu-Thaman (1991) referred to the ‘wreckage’ of aid-funded curricula initiatives all around the Pacific. Probably the most alarming aspect in all of this was the role of the foreign expert. Someone, normally ‘aid-funded’, who turned up for a short period of time to tell the locals what they should be doing! The naiveté of some of these people was truly remarkable (or perhaps they just didn’t care?). Failure of the program or reforms was generally attributed to the locals not ‘seeing it through’ or not quite understanding the new curriculum initiatives. There was little effort made to take into account local conditions or the views of local experts, especially teachers

Science education in context: An overview and some observations

This book presents an international perspective of the influence of educational context on science education. By this we mean the context in which the teaching and learning takes place, rather than the use of a context-based approach to learning and teaching (Pilot & Bulte, 2006). The focus is on the interactions between curriculum development and implementation in non-Western and non- English-speaking contexts (i.e., outside the UK, USA, Australia, NZ, etc.)

Regioselective reactions of 3,4-pyridynes enabled by the aryne distortion model.

The pyridine heterocycle continues to play a vital role in the development of human medicines. More than 100 currently marketed drugs contain this privileged unit, which remains highly sought after synthetically. We report an efficient means to access di- and trisubstituted pyridines in an efficient and highly controlled manner using transient 3,4-pyridyne intermediates. Previous efforts to employ 3,4-pyridynes for the construction of substituted pyridines were hampered by a lack of regiocontrol or the inability to later manipulate an adjacent directing group. The strategy relies on the use of proximal halide or sulfamate substituents to perturb pyridyne distortion, which in turn governs regioselectivities in nucleophilic addition and cycloaddition reactions. After trapping of the pyridynes generated in situ, the neighbouring directing groups may be removed or exploited using versatile metal-catalysed cross-coupling reactions. This methodology now renders 3,4-pyridynes as useful synthetic building blocks for the creation of highly decorated derivatives of the medicinally privileged pyridine heterocycle

Palladium-catalyzed acetylation of arenes.

A simple method for the preparation of aryl methyl ketones is reported. The transformation involves the Pd-catalyzed coupling of an acyl anion equivalent, acetyltrimethylsilane, with aryl bromides to afford the corresponding acetylated arenes in synthetically useful yields. The methodology is tolerant of heterocycles and provides a new method for arene functionalization

Sync or sink? Interpersonal synchrony impacts self-esteem

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Innovation and Productivity in U.S. Industry

macroeconomics, U.S. industry, productivity, manufacturing, textiles, chemicals