Identifying Chinese Secondary Teachers' Needs for Professional Development Abroad

China is at a crucial point for reforming its education system and seeks professional development abroad for selective secondary teachers. In this study, 13 experienced Chinese physics teachers undertook an intensive four-week professional development program in Australia. Early discussion with the participants and two surveys (i.e., mid-evaluation and end-evaluation surveys) aimed to gather qualitative responses for determining their needs for professional development. Data highlighted the essential nature of school visits for observing teaching practices, accurate translations, and the inclusion of physics-based excursions. Yet, apart from addressing personal and social needs, it was concluded future professional development must focus on delivering advanced content knowledge related specifically to the Chinese Curriculum Standards, and current pedagogical approaches and theories that branch beyond the transmission approach employed in China. The information in this study aims to assist other tertiary institutions conducting professional development programs for Chinese teachers

Angels, tooth fairies and ghosts: thinking creatively in an early years classroom

This chapter offers an evaluation and interpretation of the creative thinking and collaboration that took place in a class of five year olds in an English primary school during the academic year 2004–05. This school was committed to developing itself as a creative learning community by participating in a creativity-training programme, Synectics, more usually employed in an adult business context. This school wanted to develop its capacity for creative teaching and learning. This intent was in tune with national and international developments in education where strenuous efforts were being made to extend the reach of creative education which had for a long time been more or less exclusively associated with the arts. The chapter offers an outline of these developments to set the research in context. The research described is a case study and second phase of an evaluation of the project EXCITE! (Excellence, Creativity and Innovation in Teaching and Education) and was carried out by researchers from the Open University. Previous research suggests that when children first start school, they are already competent creative thinkers and storytellers and that both creative and narrative modes of thinking involve abductive rather than deductive inferential reasoning. It is argued that although children may need training in paradigmatic (deductive) modes of thought, they do not necessarily need further training in narrative modes of thought. The examples of young children’s thinking discussed in chapter support this argument. The Synectics creativity-training programme does not claim to ‘teach’ creative thinking per se. The evidence presented suggests that when teachers use Synectics tools and techniques to inform practice, these allow them to create a positive, emotional climate that allows young children to use analogy and metaphor to construct creative explanations and narratives through collaborative discussion

How unusual are the Shapley Supercluster and the Sloan Great Wall?

We use extreme value statistics to assess the significance of two of the most dramatic structures in the local Universe: the Shapley supercluster and the Sloan Great Wall. If we assume that Shapley (volume ~ 1.2 x 10^5 (Mpc/h)^3) evolved from an overdense region in the initial Gaussian fluctuation field, with currently popular choices for the background cosmological model and the shape and amplitude sigma8 of the initial power spectrum, we estimate that the total mass of the system is within 20 percent of 1.8 x 10^16 Msun/h. Extreme value statistics show that the existence of this massive concentration is not unexpected if the initial fluctuation field was Gaussian, provided there are no other similar objects within a sphere of radius 200 Mpc/h centred on our Galaxy. However, a similar analysis of the Sloan Great Wall, a more distant (z ~ 0.08) and extended concentration of structures (volume ~ 7.2 x 10^5 (Mpc/h)^3) suggests that it is more unusual. We estimate its total mass to be within 20 percent of 1.2 x 10^17 Msun/h; even if it is the densest such object of its volume within z=0.2, its existence is difficult to reconcile with Gaussian initial conditions if sigma8 < 0.9. This tension can be alleviated if this structure is the densest within the Hubble volume. Finally, we show how extreme value statistics can be used to address the likelihood that an object like Shapley exists in the same volume which contains the Great Wall, finding, again, that Shapley is not particularly unusual. It is straightforward to incorporate other models of the initial fluctuation field into our formalism.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure

DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH TEACHING-LEARNING ACTIVITY FOR 8th GRADE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL IN SMP NEGERI 4 KARANGANOM, KLATEN

ABSTRACT AULIA FILIQ ASMARANI, 2011, DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH TEACHING-LEARNING ACTIVITY FOR 8th GRADE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL IN SMP NEGERI 4 KARANGANOM, English Diploma Program, Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts, Sebelas Maret University. This final project was written based on the writer’s job training activities as an English teacher in SMP Negeri 4 Karanganom. By observing the class and teaching directly at the 8th grade class, the writer could write the final project completely. The purpose was to describe the English teaching-learning activity conducted in SMP Negeri 4 Karanganom. Besides, the writer also discussed the solution to the problems faced by both the teacher and the students during English teaching-learning activity. There were some problems during English teaching and learning activities for 8th grade students in SMP Negeri 4 Karanganom. The difficulty faced by the teacher was class management, which were noisy student, lazy student, and passive student. The difficulties faced by the students were lack of grammar and vocabulary. In this final project report, the writer presented the solutions to those problems. These solutions were expected to be able to make the process of study run well and better

Large-scale assembly bias of dark matter halos

We present precise measurements of the assembly bias of dark matter halos, i.e. the dependence of halo bias on other properties than the mass, using curved "separate universe" N-body simulations which effectively incorporate an infinite-wavelength matter overdensity into the background density. This method measures the LIMD (local-in-matter-density) bias parameters $b_n$ in the large-scale limit. We focus on the dependence of the first two Eulerian biases $b^E_1$ and $b^E_2$ on four halo properties: the concentration, spin, mass accretion rate, and ellipticity. We quantitatively compare our results with previous works in which assembly bias was measured on fairly small scales. Despite this difference, our findings are in good agreement with previous results. We also look at the joint dependence of bias on two halo properties in addition to the mass. Finally, using the excursion set peaks model, we attempt to shed new insights on how assembly bias arises in this analytical model.Comment: 30 pages, 21 figures ; v2 : added references (sec. 1, 5), clarifications throughout ; v3 : clarifications throughout, version accepted by JCA

Grouping & regrouping using Mixintools: An exploratory study

On a regular basis, teachers find it necessary to place children into groups for instruction. Random assignment is typically the norm when group composition is immaterial to the task. When member-sensitive groups need to be created, teachers might associate specific assignment with colours, numbers or other coding systems. Mixintools offers the teacher a strategy for creating groups in an enjoyable, expedient and variable fashion. Or does it? The purpose of this research was to determine whether the resource had any value from the perspective of both the teacher and the student. Data were sourced from three primary schools and one university teacher education class regarding the usefulness of Mixintools. Results indicated a mixed response. Reasons for this are reported

Henry James Rides Again

This essay explores Henry James\u27s friendship with Alice Bartlett, a favorite companion in equestrian adventures during James\u27s 1873 residence in Rome. Reading James\u27s travel essay Roman Rides in the context of the mutual friendship of James, Bartlett, and the Emersons suggests that Bartlett profoundly influenced James, albeit in oblique, unacknowledged, and sometimes belated ways. Roman Rides, to which Bartlett provided impetus, presents a textual response to the Roman Campagna that reflects James\u27s early engagement with Emersonian Transcendentalism. This response reverberates, in transmuted form, in the fiction of the late, modern James, as revealed in the tale The Great Good Place

Spartan Daily, September 28, 1937

Volume 26, Issue 4https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/2644/thumbnail.jp