Where are the boundaries of mathematics education (policy)? : Comparing two school districts and their subject-matter contexts

To achieve ambitious and equitable mathematics education, districts will likely have to extend their improvement efforts beyond the bounds of classroom teaching and learning. However, the literature has yet to explore the boundaries that determine which policies are relevant (or not) to mathematics, or how the subject-matter acts as a context for such framing. To that end, I conducted a comparative case study of two school districts through interviews with district leaders, observations of policymaking, and collection of artifacts. Mediated by the size and segmentation of districts' organizational structures, I found that districts' policy boundaries were shaped by the dominant mathematics-related discourses circulating in the district and its local community, including discourses related to accountability and the subject's epistemology. Discourses related to equity and pedagogy were more contested, and also less influential in boundary framing. Though there was some attention to inquiry-oriented instruction at one district, both districts' boundaries around mathematics were primarily constrained to issues of achievement. Subject-neutral policies were sometimes implemented in mathematics-specific ways, but other subject-neutral policies--including equity-minded efforts--never crossed into mathematics. These findings suggest that researchers and educational leaders interested in reshaping districts' policy boundaries should attend to how the subject-matter interacts with policies--even seemingly subject-neutral ones--to constrain policy enactment.Includes bibliographical references

「改革と緊縮財政下での公共サービス組織の効率性評価 : 英国病院、ニュージーランド地区保健委員会、および日本の国立大学の事例」

東京都立大

Performance comparison of an AI-based Adaptive Learning System in China

Adaptive learning systems stand apart from traditional learning systems by offering a personalized learning experience to students according to their different knowledge states. Adaptive systems collect and analyse students' behavior data, update learner profiles, then accordingly provide timely individualized feedback to each student. Such interactions between the learning system and students can improve the engagement of students and the efficiency of learning. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of an adaptive learning system, "Yixue Squirrel AI" (or Yixue), on English and math learning in middle school. The effectiveness of the Yixue's math and English learning systems is respectively compared against (1) traditional classroom math instruction conducted by expert human teachers and (2) BOXFiSH, another adaptive learning platform for English language learning. Results suggest that students achieved better performance using Yixue adaptive learning system than both traditional classroom instruction by expert teachers and another adaptive learning platform

HO CHI MINH’S VIEW ON THE TRAINING OF CADRES OF ETHNIC MINORITIES IN VIETNAM

During his revolutionary activities, Ho Chi Minh paid particular attention to ethnic minorities - political subjects mainly in highland, remote and border areas. Appreciating the critical position of the mountainous region - which has a vital role in terms of economy, politics, foreign affairs and national defence; is the location of a “revolutionary base”, “where many ethnic minorities live”, “a place contiguous with neighbouring countries”. Ho Chi Minh always cares about this strategic area and gives special affection to the people of Vietnam's ethnic minorities. In particular, Ho Chi Minh took great care in training ethnic minority cadres to “make the ethnic groups gradually manage their affairs”.  Article visualizations

A large multi-ethnic genome-wide association study identifies novel genetic loci for intraocular pressure.

Elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) is a major risk factor for glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness. IOP heritability has been estimated to up to 67%, and to date only 11 IOP loci have been reported, accounting for 1.5% of IOP variability. Here, we conduct a genome-wide association study of IOP in 69,756 untreated individuals of European, Latino, Asian, and African ancestry. Multiple longitudinal IOP measurements were collected through electronic health records and, in total, 356,987 measurements were included. We identify 47 genome-wide significant IOP-associated loci (P < 5 × 10-8); of the 40 novel loci, 14 replicate at Bonferroni significance in an external genome-wide association study analysis of 37,930 individuals of European and Asian descent. We further examine their effect on the risk of glaucoma within our discovery sample. Using longitudinal IOP measurements from electronic health records improves our power to identify new variants, which together explain 3.7% of IOP variation

QUALITY OF PERSONNEL ETHNIC MINORITY IN THE MOUNTAIN AREA OF VIETNAM IN THE TIME OF PROMOTING INDUSTRIAL, MODERNIZING THE COUNTRY

Human resources are the most significant asset, a decisive factor for the existence and development of every country. Human resource development has become an urgent task not only of each country but also of each region and region according to the characteristics of geography, population and requirements of economic development orientation - society. In the mountainous areas of Vietnam, ethnic minority human resources are considered a central factor, playing a decisive role in socio-economic growth and development. Human resource training is a fundamental factor determining socio-economic development in ethnic minority areas in mountainous areas; it plays a decisive role in the education, professional and technical qualifications of human resources, training people capable of leading and gathering ethnic minority communities in production organization and social management; create human resources capable of applying new scientific and technological achievements in parallel with promoting indigenous knowledge and experiences of ethnic minorities in socio-economic development, and at the same time capable of solving new problems, problems arising in practice, production and social life.  Article visualizations

Utilisation agricole de plantes aquatiques, notamment en tant qu'amendement des sols, dans la province de Thua Thien Hue, Centre Vietnam. 1. Inventaire, abondance et caractérisation chimique des plantes aquatiques disponibles localement

Agricultura Use of Aquatic Plants, mainly as Soil Amendment, in the Thua Thien Hue Province, Central Vietnam. 1. Inventory, Abundance and Chemical Characterization of Collected Plants. The use of aquatic plants for various purposes, and notably as organic amendment for sandy soils with low inherent fertility is a frequent empirical practice in Central Vietnam. In the Thua Thien Hue Province, the Tam Giang lagoon covering 22,000 ha represents a source of exogenous biomass potentially important for agriculture. The present study makes an inventory of the submerged macrophytes and the algae occurring in the lagoon during the period of February-April 2005. Twelve species of macrophytes (belonging to the Potamogetonaceae, Najadaceae, Cymodoceaceae, Hydrocharitaceae, Ceratophyllaceae, and Haloragaceae families) and five of algae (belonging to the Ulvaceae, Cladophoraceae, Characeae, and Gracilariaceae families) were identified. Their abundance varies significantly following species and location in the lagoon. Indeed, the salt concentration, the water depth and the type of sediments in which the macrophytes are anchored are submitted to large variations depending on position in the lagoon. The highest values of fresh biomass measured for monospecific vegetal mats were observed for Vallisneria spiralis (3.1 kg.m-2), Najas indica (2.9 kg.m-2), Halodule tridentata (2.5 kg.m-2) and Cymodoceae rotundata (2.3 kg.m-2). The concentrations of main elements were determined in samples of all plant species. In the macrophytes, the following ranges of element concentrations (in % of dry matter) were found: N 1.0 to 3.5; P 0.08 to 0.45; K 1.0 to 4.2; Mg 0.3 to 1.4; Ca 0.7 to 2.8; Na 0.7 to 7.6. These variations indicate that the fertilization capacity of aquatic plants when they are used as soil amendment can vary to a large extent according to the species. Even more contrasted element concentrations were found for the algae. The Na concentrations in the collected plants can be partly explained by the salinity level met in the sampling areas

Perceived Audit Quality, Earnings Management and Cost of Debt Capital: Evidence from the Energy Listed Firms on Vietnam's Stock Market

This study examines the impact of perceived audit quality and accrual-based earnings management on cost of debt capital of the energy listed firms on Vietnam's stock market. Our data set includes 29 energy companies on Vietnam stock markets (HNX and HOSE) in the period from 2010 to 2016. We used FEM and REM estimator to test our hypotheses. The results confirm that there is no significant statistical association between accrual-based earnings management and cost of debt. There is a negative association between audit quality, firm size, return on assets and cost of debt while firm leverage and the tangible asset has a positive association. Moreover, global financial crisis has no statistically significant influence on the cost of debt capital. The research results have implications for regulators and investors about the stability of the economy in emerging markets. Keywords: cost of debt, earnings management, audit quality, energy enterprises, Vietnam. JEL Classifications: M42; G32 DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.699

Endangered fish species and seed release strategies in Vietnam

World economic growth has led to considerable changes in the ecosystem in many places and has raised concerns on global resource management particularly aquatic animal resources and their living environment. In Vietnam, aquatic animal resources play an important role in the national economy and are one of the targets for economic development. However, under high population pressure, high demand for seafood has resulted in unfavorable living environment. Aquatic animal resource has been over-exploited and in some places reported to be declining; hence some species have become extinct or endangered. This paper provides a list some endangered freshwater, brackishwater, and marine species. Moreover, the seed production activities and the release strategies for resource conservation of the government of Vietnam are also presented