A review of teacher evaluation beliefs

Teacher evaluation beliefs have received a substantial amount of attention in the educational literature, but comparatively little attention from the belief research topics specially. As the driving force, evaluation resembles belief mention but lack the systemic description. On the base of the student-centered and teacher-centered philosophy, in the present paper, we provide a literature review to explore the essential factors of teacher evaluation beliefs (why, what, who, when and how), followed by the key problems of Chinese New Curriculum Reform as “why-aim”, “what-content”, “who-student-teacher relationship”, “how-method” and “when- time”. In line with the discussion of five factors of evaluation beliefs, we proposed six perspectives to inform educational researchers for the further researches

Developing the scales on evaluation beliefs of student teachers

The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to investigate the validity and the reliability of a newly developed questionnaire named ‘Teacher Evaluation Beliefs’ (TEB). The framework for developing items was provided by the two models. The first model focuses on Student-Centered and Teacher-Centered beliefs about evaluation while the other centers on five dimensions (what/ who/ when/ why/ how). The validity and reliability of the new instrument was investigated using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis study (n=446). Overall results indicate that the two-factor structure is more reasonable than the five-factor one. Further research needs additional items about the latent dimensions “what” ”who” ”when” ”why” “how” for each existing factor based on Student-centered and Teacher-centered approaches

Promoting a self-directed interactive model of teaching and learning

During the early teaching career of the author, she applied and promoted for many years, a self-directed interactive organizational model of teaching and learning in English courses taught in a rural secondary school. The hierarchical structure in this model includes “teacher”, “monitor students”, “tutor students”, “tutee students” and “at-risk students” as the members of the learning community, among which there emerged a holistic relationship that is not only interconnected but also interactive. This model enables the teaching and learning to have a “multi-centered structure” and a "three-dimensional feedback-promotion mechanism”. The model describes four stages of student development, which are described as “elaborative design”, “gradual maturity”, “independent operation” and “reinforcement and development”. The strategies incorporated into this teaching and learning model include: (1) selecting and clarifying the learning objectives; (2) selecting, preparing and making effective use of the monitors and tutors; (3) guiding the students to design and develop more and richer English learning activities; (4) cultivating positive learning climate in the class; (5) facilitating each student to make progress at the individual level

A qualitative study of in-service teacher evaluation beliefs

Evaluation is traditionally seen as judgment to help teachers assess the educational outcomes. However, evaluation also plays an important role in the development of teaching and learning process as a key driving element. As evaluation is often used as a tool, it offers little opportunity for these attributes (learning environment, behaviour, competence and attitude) to develop. Thirty-one Chinese in-service teachers were interviewed to ascertain their evaluation beliefs In the classroom. The result shows that in-service teachers define their evaluation in terms of who, why, what, how and when to evaluate. Implications of this research suggest in-service teachers should have an integral role in designing a curriculum and systems relevant to the evaluation context if educational researchers are all concerned with their beliefs

Tradition VS reform: a critical review of teacher evaluation beliefs in China

In context of Chinese New Evaluation reform devoting to change the negative aspects of traditional evaluation including evaluating aim, content, method and student-teacher relationship as well as testing system, we disclosed that the “top-to-down” political and educational system is the critical barrier to block the new theories putting into practice. In order to promote communication between top and down, this paper focuses on the evaluation (the driving force) to explore the relationship between teacher beliefs (why, what, who, when and how) in the classroom and the key problems of New Evaluation reform as “why-aim”, “what-content”, “who-student-teacher relationship”, “how-method” and “when- time”, and then explore some effective counter-measures to involve both top and down into harmony communication to promote Chinese education development

Suitable grazing during the regrowth period promotes plant diversity in winter pastures in the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : The original contributions presented in this study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding authors.Vegetation is a crucial component of any ecosystem and to preserve the health and stability of grassland ecosystems, species diversity is important. The primary form of grassland use globally is livestock grazing, hence many studies focus on how plant diversity is affected by the grazing intensity, differential use of grazing time and livestock species. Nevertheless, the impact of the grazing time on plant diversity remains largely unexplored. We performed a field survey on the winter pastures in alpine meadows of the Qinghai- Tibetan Plateau (QTP) to examine the effects of grazing time on the vegetation traits. Livestock species, grazing stocking rates and the initiation time of the grazing were similar, but termination times of the grazing differed. The grazing termination time has a significant effect on most of the vegetation traits in the winter pastures. The vegetation height, above-ground biomass, and the Graminoids biomass was negatively related to the grazing termination time in the winter pastures. In contrast, vegetation cover and plant diversity initially increased and subsequently decreased again as the grazing termination time was extended. An extension of the grazing time did not have any effect on the biomass of forbs. Our study is the first to investigate the effects of grazing during the regrowth period on vegetation traits and imply that the plant diversity is mediated by the grazing termination time during the regrowth period in winter pastures. These findings could be used to improve the guidelines for livestock grazing management and policies of summer and winter pasture grazing of family pastures on the QTP from the perspective of plant diversity protection.The Fundamental Research Funds of China West Normal University, the Gansu Provincial Science and Technology Program and the Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan.http://frontiersin.org/Ecology_and_Evolutionam2023Mammal Research InstituteZoology and Entomolog

Antibiotic-Induced Disruption of Gut Microbiota Alters Local Metabolomes and Immune Responses

Gut microbiome plays an essential role in modulating host immune responses. However, little is known about the interaction of microbiota, their metabolites and relevant inflammatory responses in the gut. By treating the mice with three different antibiotics (enrofloxacin, vancomycin, and polymixin B sulfate), we aimed to investigate the effects of different antibiotics exposure on gut microbiota, microbial metabolism, inflammation responses in the gut, and most importantly, pinpoint the underlying interactions between them. Although the administration of different antibiotics can lead to different effects on mouse models, the treatment did not affect the average body weight of the mice. A heavier caecum was observed in vancomycin treated mice. Treatment by these three antibiotics significantly up-regulated gene expression of various cytokines in the colon. Enrofloxacin treated mice seemed to have an increased Th1 response in the colon. However, such a difference was not found in mice treated by vancomycin or polymixin B sulfate. Vancomycin treatment induced significant changes in bacterial composition at phylum and family level and decreased richness and diversity at species level. Enrofloxacin treatment only induced changes in composition at family presenting as an increase in Prevotellaceae and Rikenellaceae and a decrease in Bacteroidaceae. However, no significant difference was observed after polymixin B sulfate treatment. When compared with the control group, significant metabolic shift was found in the enrofloxacin and vancomycin treated group. The metabolic changes mainly occurred in Valine, leucine, and isoleucine biosynthesis pathway and beta-Alanine metabolism in enrofloxacin treated group. For vancomycin treatment metabolic changes were mainly found in beta-Alanine metabolism and Alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism pathway. Moreover, modifications observed in the microbiota compositions were correlated with the metabolite concentrations. For example, concentration of pentadecanoic acid was positively correlated with richness of Rikenellaceae and Prevotellaceae and negatively correlated with Enterobacteriaceae. This study suggests that the antibiotic-induced changes in gut microbiota might contribute to the inflammation responses through the alternation of metabolic status, providing a novel insight regarding a complex network that integrates the different interactions between gut microbiota, metabolic functions, and immune responses in host

Severity of enterovirus A71 infection in a human SCARB2 knock-in mouse model is dependent on infectious strain and route

Enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) is a major etiological agent of human hand, foot and mouth disease, and it can cause severe neurological complications. Although several genotypes of EV-A71 strains are prevalent in different regions of the world, the genotype C4 has circulated in mainland China for more than 20 years. The pathogenicity of different EV-A71 clinical isolates varies and needs to be explored. In this study, hSCARB2 knock-in mice (N = 181) with a wide range of ages were tested for their susceptibility to two EV-A71 strains with the subgenotypes C4 and C2, and two infection routes (intracranial and venous) were compared. The clinical manifestations and pathology and their relationship to the measured viral loads in different tissues were monitored. We observed that 3 weeks is a crucial age, as mice younger than 3-week-old that were infected became extremely ill. However, mice older than 3 weeks displayed diverse clinical symptoms. Significant differences were observed in the pathogenicity of the two strains with respect to clinical signs, disease incidence, survival rate, and body weight change. We concluded that hSCARB2 knock-in mice are a sensitive model for investigating the clinical outcomes resulting from infection by different EV-A71 strains. The intracranial infection model appears to be suitable for evaluating EV-A71 neurovirulence, whereas the venous infection model is appropriate for studying the pathogenicity of EV-A71