Universal Reasons for Low Participation in Chinese and Western Undergraduate Classrooms

This study regards low classroom participation as a global issue and investigates the universal reasons for this problem shared by the undergraduate students in China and in the west. Participating in class discussions and asking questions are instrumental for effective learning. This study regards low classroom participation as the phenomenal where students do not ask or answer questions during a lesson. The research was conducted by combining profound experiences and insights developed as an undergraduate student in the University of Waterloo and a teaching assistant in Soochow University with the understanding of both Chinese academic articles and western academic articles about this topic. This study reveals the reason why Chinese and western undergraduate classrooms experience low classroom participation is that their stakeholders focus on the competing goals. This study defines the stakeholders as the instructors, students and the post-secondary institutions

Electrospinning PVDF/EC fibre from a binary solvent system

The influence of the composition of a binary component solvent on the surface morphology and diameter distribution of poly(vinylidene fluoride)/ethyl cellulose (PVDF/EC) fibres produced by electrospinning technology was investigated. Acetone (56掳C) and N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) (203掳C) binary solvent system was introduced and electrospinning was performed by changing the solution concentration, the applied voltage and the volume ratio of NMP/acetone. The results show that the morphology of PVDF/EC electrospun fibres is greatly influenced by the solution concentration and the volume ratio of NMP/acetone. PVDF/EC fibres prepared from NMP/acetone binary solvent system is much better than that prepared with a single component solvent system, and is very diverse with the volume ratios of the binary solvent system. The morphology of the fibres changed from beads (starting mass ratio of 12 wt% or pure NMP solvent) to full developed fibres as mass ratio increased to 16 wt% with the volume ratio of NMP/acetone (6/4, 5/5, 4/6, 3/7). Beadless fibres were normally obtained within the voltage applied and their average diameter decreased with increasing the applied voltage. Copyright 漏 2012 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd