Summarising an Explanation Text with a Visual Representation as the Guidelines: How Does this Work to Represent Meaning?

Metacognition has been popular in reading area, especially when it is related to comprehension and the representation of meanings. Combining metacognitive strategies to represent meanings from a text has been done by previous scholars to help readers construct meaning. In this paper, we present students’ drawings and writings as the results of successive visualisation and summarisation activities in the classroom. We intended to find out the extent to which students’ visual representations can be the guideline for them to write summaries. By employing qualitative research method, we collected visual representations and summaries from 26 undergraduate students studying at the English Education Department of Syiah Kuala University. To understand students’ drawings, we consulted some literature on visual literacy and multimodality; while for the analysis of students’ writings, we reviewed some literature on functional model to language. Based on the analysis, a productive visual representation leads to a strong summary, and vice versa. This result is further discussed in this paper

A study into the influence of head-teacher leadership on pedagogical practices within TAFE teaching units: A Multiple Case Study

The study explores the connection between head teacher leadership in TAFE and the culture of the teaching unit and analyses how such leadership may influence pedagogical models. Further, the study examines how institutes of TAFE respond to performance expectations brought about by government-instigated reforms within the VET sector. The study is set within the context of a rapidly changing Australian VET structure, changes in VET policies and the competitiveness agenda for the Australian government that links the VET institutions to Australia's economic prosperity

Teaching and Learning Functional Grammar in Junior Primary Classrooms

The teaching and learning of grammatics ('knowledge about grammar') with young school children is the focus of this study. Historical literature on the teaching of grammar is widely believed to show that a knowledge of grammar is not effective for improving students' literacy outcomes, usually specified in terms of writing. Under-scrutinised in this research are two issues which bear strongly on questions of effectiveness: the affordances of the kind of grammatical description taught, and the quality of pedagogy deployed in the teaching of grammatics. The thesis explores both these issues. Specifically, it investigates the teaching and learning of aspects of systemic functional grammar (developed by M.A.K. Halliday) within a pedagogic framework based on sociocultural constructivist theory (L.S. Vygotsky). The data for the project are drawn from two case studies conducted in Year 2 classrooms. 'Slices' of the case study data are used to analyse and interpret: ways in which to begin the study of a functional grammatics with young novices; benefits from knowledge about verbal Processes for children's improvement in expressive oral reading and punctuation of direct speech; the application of grammatical and genre knowledge in developing a critical reading of a narrative; and early moves in using the grammatics of Theme in one specific aspect of writing. A significant contribution is the project's incorporation of transcribed classroom talk, which is used to illuminate situated practices in teaching and learning grammatics, including the ways in which teacher talk and class discussion mediate the learning of grammatical concepts. Evidence is provided for the accessibility and utility of a grammatics drawn from systemic functional grammar, with the grammar's orientation to meaning in language being central to its potential. Attention to pedagogic design is also argued to be integral to the development of a productive grammatics for schools. The thesis recommends the principled design of forms of semiotic mediation used to teach grammatical concepts (including teacher talk), and the thoughtful and meaningful integration of grammatics with other dimensions of the English/literacy curriculum so that grammatics is taught 'in context' but also with a view to longer term development of a flexible, systematic understanding

Land use change alters malaria transmission parameters by modifying temperature in a highland area of Uganda

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73403/1/j.1365-3156.2000.00551.x.pd

The Health Effects of Climate Change: A Survey of Recent Quantitative Research

In recent years there has been a large scientific and public debate on climate change and its direct as well as indirect effects on human health. In particular, a large amount of research on the effects of climate changes on human health has addressed two fundamental questions. First, can historical data be of some help in revealing how short-run or long-run climate variations affect the occurrence of infectious diseases? Second, is it possible to build more accurate quantitative models which are capable of predicting the future effects of different climate conditions on the transmissibility of particularly dangerous infectious diseases? The primary goal of this paper is to review the most relevant contributions which have directly tackled those questions, both with respect to the effects of climate changes on the diffusion of non-infectious and infectious diseases, with malaria as a case study. Specific attention will be drawn on the methodological aspects of each study, which will be classified according to the type of quantitative model considered, namely time series models, panel data and spatial models, and non-statistical approaches. Since many different disciplines and approaches are involved, a broader view is necessary in order to provide a better understanding of the interactions between climate and health. In this respect, our paper also presents a critical summary of the recent literature related to more general aspects of the impacts of climate changes on human health, such as: the economics of climate change; how to manage the health effects of climate change; the establishment of Early Warning Systems for infectious diseases

Socioeconomic and behavioral factors leading to acquired bacterial resistance to antibiotics in developing countries.

In developing countries, acquired bacterial resistance to antimicrobial agents is common in isolates from healthy persons and from persons with community-acquired infections. Complex socioeconomic and behavioral factors associated with antibiotic resistance, particularly regarding diarrheal and respiratory pathogens, in developing tropical countries, include misuse of antibiotics by health professionals, unskilled practitioners, and laypersons; poor drug quality; unhygienic conditions accounting for spread of resistant bacteria; and inadequate surveillance

The teaching of narratives

This paper presents a case for the use of narrative as an instructional tool. Available literature on the narrative and reviewed within the last thirty years seems to suggest that narrative might be a significant tool of instruction. Given the variety of uses that researchers in narrative have explored so far, the paper suggests that the narrative has the potential to influence the school system and that the public might be better served by enhancing and encouraging students and teachers to continue the practice of using narrative in teaching and learning especially in the lower secondary school

Literacy across the curriculum: Using personal experience narratives and blogging with struggling writers

This article reports on research about middle school pupils using blogging and composing personal experience narratives in a literacies across the curriculum project. The research was conducted in a girl/ secondary school with pupils aged 14 and 15 in rural New South Wales) Australia. The project showed that the use of blogging and personal narratives encouraged the students to engage in writing

We can deliver pizzas, but, can and should VET 'deliver' education?

In the recent past, claims have been made that VET operators have failed to 'deliver' quality job-ready graduates with the skills required by industry (see Committee for Economic Development of Australia, 2016). This raises a number of questions: who is accountable for 'delivering' quality job-ready graduates for industry? As Australia's prominent public VET provider, should TAFE bear a major part of this responsibility? How do we 'deliver' quality graduates anyway? Likewise, educational provision in VET (and in other sectors) is often couched in terms of 'delivery'