Long-term Development Program Research Articles

Mathematics and biology teachers’ tacit views of the knowledge required for teaching: varying relationships between CK and PCK

Background: The knowledge that is required for teaching includes subject matter content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Although CK and PCK are distinct components of the teachers’ knowledge, the distinction between those two components and the relationships between them are still underexplored. In a previous study, we showed that biology teachers that participated in a long-term professional development program view CK as an important component of the knowledge required for teaching biology, yet they see it as distinct from PCK. We wondered what are the views of mathematics teachers, who participate in a similar program, on the knowledge that is required for teaching and on the relationships between CK and PCK. In addition, we compared the participating mathematics and biology teachers’ tacit views of the knowledge required for teaching and on the relationships between CK and PCK. Results: We used the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT) as well as semi-structured interviews and a focus group, to elicit mathematics (n =13) and biology (n =16) teachers’ tacit views about the knowledge that is required for teaching. The results show that both mathematics and biology teachers view CK as a significant component of their teaching practice. However, whereas mathematics teachers tend to view CK and PCK as related entities, biology teachers tend to view them as separate. Conclusions: The main contribution of this study is in exposing that teachers from different disciplines may view differently the importance of high-level CK to their practice. The differences among the participating mathematics and biology teachers’ tacit views of the relationships between CK and PCK may aid in the design of professional development programs for mathematics and biology teachers. It is important to draw attention to the ability to recognize the tacit relationships between CK and PCK and to articulate these relationships in planning professional development programs.

The use of technology platforms as a policy tool to address research challenges and technology transfer

The paper analyses technology platforms (TPs) that are seen as a valuable policy instrument to assist a multi-stakeholder formulation and implementation of long-term research and development (R&D) programs in specific technology areas. TP are predominantly initiated by policy-makers to support a wide range of priority technologies through direct funding and indirect support measures, information and technology transfer at economy or industry level. The authors propose a theoretical approach to TPs as a science, technology and innovation policy concept. A taxonomy of TPs is offered that may be useful for policy-makers in designing the R&D support measures through assessing a platform’s risk level. The paper clarifies the position of TPs in the science, technology and innovation policy mix. Through a case-study of Russia’s newly established Technology Platforms, designed after the European Technology Platforms, the authors demonstrate the policy adoption and policy learning approach to application of this tool.

High Performance Concrete Experimental Structure

An experimental structure from high performance concrete was created within the scope of long-term research and development program of the Department of Concrete and Masonry Structures, Faculty of Civil Engineering, CTU in Prague that is focused on advanced cementitious composites. The intention was to build a structure of so called “CyclePoint” (resting place for bikers) interesting from architectural point of view and made from non-traditional, high durability material. Transfer of high performance concrete composition designed in the laboratory to the mixing plant construction company was accomplished. This required series of confirmation material tests. The technology of casting high performance concrete into the formwork of thin-walled precast elements was optimized. The use of engineered mix of fibres enabled the authors to design structures without main rebar reinforcement. The design was carried out using finite element based software and verified by loading experiments executed on structural elements in full-scale.

Mentoring and Facilitating Professional Engagement as Quality Enhancement Strategies: An Overview and Evaluation of the Family Child Care Partnerships Program

The importance of professional development training for individuals tasked with providing quality early child care is widely accepted. However, research assessing the impact of specific, long-term professional development programs on changes in caregiver behavior is largely absent, as is research about the processes and mechanisms of such training efforts that produce changes in child care practices. We specify the underlying activities and processes of a mentor–delivered quality enhancement and professional development program, Family Child Care Partnerships (FCCP), and present the results of two studies using implementation data to examine program effectiveness as measured by mentors’ observational assessments of the global quality of caregiving practices and providers’ self-reported professional engagement. Study 1 consisted of 365 family child care providers who were invited to participate in FCCP. Study 2 was a subsample of Study 1 and consisted of 109 providers. We used latent difference score modeling to examine changes in global child care quality from program entry to program departure and bivariate associations among changes in quality and professional engagement. Significant increases were found between pre- and post-enrollment assessments of caregiving quality and professional engagement. Increases in professional engagement were associated with increases in quality. Findings are discussed in the context of the limited information available to guide quality improvement and professional development in family child care and in light of recommendations that the early childhood care and education field develop methods of training that embed knowledge and skills development in practice.

The Challenge of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Local Level: Become Pragmatic or an Accelerator of a Good Governance?

The Challenge of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Local Level: Become Pragmatic or an Accelerator of a Good Governance?

Expansion of Biology Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) During a Long-Term Professional Development Program

Experienced teachers possess a unique teaching knowledge comprised of an inter-related set of knowledge and beliefs that gives direction and justification to a teacher’s actions. This study examined the expansion of two components of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of three in-service teachers in the course of a professional development program aimed at designing new teaching and learning materials suggested by the teachers themselves. The research presents an enlargement of previous PCK representations by focusing on a detailed representation of two main PCK domains: teaching and learning, including ten PCK components that emerged in the course of data analysis. This representation enabled revealing the unique PCK held by each teacher and to characterize the expansion of the two components of the participating teachers’ PCK during the long-term professional development program. Retention of major parts of the expanded PCK a year after termination of the program implies that designing and implementing new teaching and learning materials based on the teachers’ experiences, needs, and knowledge in a workshop format accompanied by biology and science education courses might provide a powerful means for PCK expansion. We recommend that designers of professional development programs be aware of the unique PCK held by each teacher in order to promote meaningful professional development of each teacher. Moreover, the PCK representations that were identified in the course of this study enabled clarifying the “orientation toward teaching science” category of PCK which appears to be unclear in current literature.

Inter-Communal Cooperation and Regional Development: The Case of Romania

Inter-Communal Cooperation and Regional Development: The Case of Romania Romania's local administrative-territorial organisation shows a high degree of fragmentation. The situation tends to worsen as some villages break away from the parent communes and form new administrative-territorial structures. Since their area is fairly small and adequate financial resources to sustain some coherent, long-term development programmes are missing, a solution would be for them to associate freely into inter-communal cooperation structures, which is a basic prerequisite for attracting European structural funds. Such a type of cooperation practice was experienced in this country at the beginning of the 20th century. Today, inter-communal cooperation could be achieved in two ways: by an association of local communities patterned on historical ‘lands’ (after the French model) and by the establishment of a town, of the metropolitan type, to polarise cooperation structures.

Decentralisation and local economic development: Effective tools for Africa's renewal

The objective of this article is to show the relationship between development policies and the outcomes of development efforts in Africa. In this connection, decentralisation is used as an example of development strategy and policies, with the level of development opportunities given to local communities, very much dependent on the centralisation/decentralisation paradigm. The article argues that during the colonial period in Africa, local communities had limited opportunities to participate in their own development under the centralised and monopolistic policies of the colonial administrative systems. This model largely explains the polarised development patterns associated with colonialism. The conclusion points to the idea that decentralisation needs to be an essential part of any effort to pursue the ideals of an African Renaissance in the various African countries. The concepts of developmental state, decentralisation and sustainable development need to interact constantly to link local economic development efforts to long-term national and regional development programmes in Africa.

Effects of a lower limb functional exercise programme aimed at minimising knee valgus angle on running kinematics in youth athletes

ObjectivesTo investigate the effectiveness of 8-weeks of lower limb functional exercises on frontal plane hip and knee angles during running in youth athletes. DesignPre- and post-intervention quantitative experimental. MethodsNineteen athletes (11 male, 8 female, 11.54 ± 1.34 years) from a long-term athletic development programme had 3-dimensional running gait measured pre and post an 8-week exercise intervention. Youth athletes randomised to control (upper limb strengthening exercises) or experimental (lower limb functional exercises aimed at minimising knee valgus angle) interventions completed the exercises during the first 10 min of training, three mornings a week. Pre- and post-parallel groups’ analysis provided estimates of intervention effects for control and experimental groups. ResultsDifferences in pre- to post-intervention changes in mean frontal plane angles between control and experimental groups were trivial for the left hip (0.1°) and right knee (−0.3°). There was a small beneficial decrease in right hip joint angle (0.4°) but a very large (ES = 0.77, CI 0.1–3.7) detrimental increase in left knee valgus angle (1.9°) between groups. ConclusionThe 8-week lower limb functional exercises had little beneficial effects on lower limb hip and knee mechanics in youth athletes aged 9–14 years.

Energy demand modeling for Uzbekistan

The paper is devoted to energy demand forecasting in Uzbekistan. Studies show that in spite of the abundant reserves of hydrocarbons, low energy efficiency can have an adverse impact on energy security in Uzbekistan in the future. Oil and gas are the main primary energy source and they ensure energy security of Uzbekistan. Energy demand forecasting is essential in order to develop an effective energy policy. Such forecast can be useful to plan oil and gas production volumes, to identify priorities for the industrial modernization and to create favorable conditions for sustainable economic development in the future. Author proposes model based on translog function for developing medium-and long-term development programs in energy sector and the modernization and technological re-equipment of industry.

Yemen: Descending into Despair

Yemen: Descending into Despair

Evaluation of a Long-Term Transformational Leadership Development Program

This study represents a multi-method, multi-source, and longitudinal evaluation of a leadership development program in Germany. For the development of transformational leadership, the methods of leadership feedback, training, and coaching were combined into a program. The effects of this program were evaluated at three, six, nine, and twelve months after training. Altogether, 25 leaders participated in the program. The results revealed that transformational leadership (subordinate assessment) improved six months after training and later on. Also, leaders' performance (leaders' supervisor ratings) and Organizational Citizenship Behavior (subordinate assessment) improved over time.

Early Childhood Education Policy Development in China

Abstract Great progress in the field of early childhood education policy in China has been made in 2010. In the light of the National Plan for Medium and the Long-term Program for Education Reform and Development, the Chinese government has made a series of efforts aimed at promoting the development of early childhood education. The new policies include an increase in the 3-year early childhood program enrollment; the clarification of the governments’ main responsibilities for the provision of early childhood education; an increase of funding for early childhood education, (especially for disadvantaged children); the strengthening of teacher capacity; and the strengthening of program quality and management amongst other changes. Each province has developed a 3-year Action Plan to implement the policy. The challenges for the implementation of the new policy are also discussed.

The Kyoto protocol and regional economic development

Issues of a complex approach to the climate problem and the country’s economic development are considered with regard to the natural and socioeconomic characteristics of a specific region. The authors characterize the emissions of greenhouse gases at the Baikal natural site and prove the necessity to take into account climatic factors in medium-term and long-term regional development programs.

Lack of transformation in sport and the long-term athlete development programme

Lack of transformation in sport and the long-term athlete development programme

The Impact of Professional Development to Infuse Health and Reading in Elementary Schools

Background: Elementary classroom teachers must overcome a number of instructional barriers, including time constraints and professional preparation, if they are to deliver effective health education and enhance health literacy among youth. Purpose: This study examined the direct impact of a long-term professional development program on integrating health education and literacy instruction on third-grade teachers' confidence and practice and its indirect effect on student learning. Methods: Data on confidence and implementation of instructional and assessment practices were collected from 16 teachers. Students (n=99) from their classrooms and from four comparison classrooms (n=101) completed pre- and post-program constructed response assessment. Results: Significant increases were seen in teachers' confidence in describing health education standards, determining if students achieved the standards and using rubrics to guide scoring practices. Children's books were used to integrate instruction and most teachers increased the time spent on integration activities. Students in their classrooms scored significantly higher than students in comparison classrooms on health knowledge and skills. Discussion: These results confirm our belief that by increasing awareness and understanding of standards-based health education and assessment, and by showing teachers how they can use children's books as the context for teaching and reinforcing health concepts and skills outlined in the standards, their confidence about teaching health can increase. Translation to Health Education Practice: Integrating health and language arts instruction may be the key to overcoming some of the factors teachers report as barriers to teaching health education.

Automatic scoring of non-native spontaneous speech in tests of spoken English

This paper presents the first version of the SpeechRater SM system for automatically scoring non-native spontaneous high-entropy speech in the context of an online practice test for prospective takers of the Test of English as a Foreign Language ® internet-based test (TOEFL ® iBT). The system consists of a speech recognizer trained on non-native English speech data, a feature computation module, using speech recognizer output to compute a set of mostly fluency based features, and a multiple regression scoring model which predicts a speaking proficiency score for every test item response, using a subset of the features generated by the previous component. Experiments with classification and regression trees (CART) complement those performed with multiple regression. We evaluate the system both on TOEFL Practice data [TOEFL Practice Online (TPO)] as well as on Field Study data collected before the introduction of the TOEFL iBT. Features are selected by test development experts based on both their empirical correlations with human scores as well as on their coverage of the concept of communicative competence. We conclude that while the correlation between machine scores and human scores on TPO (of 0.57) still differs by 0.17 from the inter-human correlation (of 0.74) on complete sets of six items (Pearson r correlation coefficients), the correlation of 0.57 is still high enough to warrant the deployment of the system in a low-stakes practice environment, given its coverage of several important aspects of communicative competence such as fluency, vocabulary diversity, grammar, and pronunciation. Another reason why the deployment of the system in a low-stakes practice environment is warranted is that this system is an initial version of a long-term research and development program where features related to vocabulary, grammar, and content will be added in a later stage when automatic speech recognition performance improves, which can then be easily achieved without a re-design of the system. Exact agreement on single TPO items between our system and human scores was 57.8%, essentially at par with inter-human agreement of 57.2%. Our system has been in operational use to score TOEFL Practice Online Speaking tests since the Fall of 2006 and has since scored tens of thousands of tests.

Объективные и субъективные причины кризиса российской экономики

The article presents basic reasons of world economic crisis and their negative influence on economic development of Russia including Kaliningrad region. One could find substantiation of forming new financial-economic model as long-term development program for Russia.

The Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) Education and Outreach (E/PO) Program

During the pre-launch phase of NASA’s THEMIS mission, the Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) program successfully brought the excitement of THEMIS to the public, students and teachers through a variety of programs. The Geomagnetic Event Observation Network by Students (GEONS) was the main effort during this time, a project in which 13 magnetometers were placed in or near 13 rural schools across the country. High school teachers and a few middle school teachers at these and/or neighboring schools took part in a long-term professional development program based around space science and the magnetometer data. The teachers created week-long to semester-long projects during which their students worked on THEMIS lessons that they, their colleagues, and the E/PO team created. In addition to this program, THEMIS E/PO also launched the only Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) Great Explorations in Mathematics and Science (GEMS) site in Nevada. This site provides a sustainable place for teacher professional development using hands-on GEMS activities, and has been used by teachers around the state of Nevada. Short-term professional development for K-12 teachers (one-hour to two-day workshops), with a focus on the Tribal College and Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) communities have reached hundreds of teachers across the country. A Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) ViewSpace show on auroras and THEMIS was created and distributed, and shown in over a hundred science centers and museums nationwide. The THEMIS E/PO program developed and maintained a THEMIS E/PO Website for dissemination of (1) information and multimedia about the science and engineering of THEMIS, (2) updated news about the mission in language appropriate for the public, (3) the GEONS data, the GEONS teacher guides with classroom activities, and (4) information about the THEMIS E/PO program. Hundreds of thousands of visitors have viewed this website. In this paper, we describe these programs along with the evaluation results, and discuss what lessons we learned along the way.

CNHUPO: Pioneer and Vigorous Roles for Proteomics Investigation in China

Proteomics investigation in China has been almost paced with international movement of proteomics. The kickoff of China Human Proteome Organization (CNHUPO) could be backdated to October 2002. CNHUPO was formally established in 2003. Dr. Fuchu He from Beijing Proteome Research Center and Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine was elected as its inaugural president. CNHUPO is a unique academic organization of proteomics in China, and it has effectively united with most scientists working in this area. Since participating in Human Proteome Organization (HUPO) and Human Proteome Initiatives (HPIs), CNHUPO has made great contributions for launching and developing several initiative projects, especially Human Liver Proteome Project (HLPP). On behalf of the embryonic CNHUPO, Dr. He proposed the HLPP blueprint in Second Workshop of HUPO in Washington (April, 2002) and First World Congress of HUPO in Versailles (November, 2002) (1). The HLPP strategies and goals were widely accepted and supported by the international colleagues of HUPO. Since then, China has become one of the leading countries in the studies of human liver proteome. The CNHUPO members are also playing active roles in many committees of HUPO. Most importantly, CNHUPO successfully hosted the HUPO 3 World Congress in Beijing (October, 2004) and the HUPO 2 Initiatives Roundtable (October, 2005). Except for international meetings, CNHUPO has annually organized national conferences since 2003 and regularly held different kinds of training courses of proteomics. For a better education in this field, CNHUPO has contributed much to advocating sponsored many young talents to attend international and domestic proteomics conferences. Furthermore, CNHUPO has implemented several program project grants related to proteomics in China during the last six years and advocated to establish the Chinese National Mediumand Long-term Program for Scientific and Technological Development on Protein Science Investigation (2006–2020). Due to a full collaboration of CNHUPO and the journal editors, the research achievements of Chinese proteomics were published in the special issue of “Proteomics in China” (2). With the efforts of CNHUPO, in recent years, several research centers focusing on proteomics sciences have been successively founded throughout major academic institutions and universities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Changsha, Guangzhou, Xian, Tianjin, Xiamen, and HongKong (Fig. 1). These centers have steadily become the core facilities of proteomics nationwide and firm stood the frontier of proteomic research worldwide. In last three years, the scientists from CNHUPO have made great contributions to the published papers in the peer journals of proteomics. There have been three major proteomics projects carried out by CNHUPO in the last five years, Chinese Human Liver Proteome Project (CNHLPP), Human Disease Proteomics (HDP), and Development of Proteomic Technology (DPT). With the efforts of more than 80 laboratories in China, the pilot phase of CNHLPP was accomplished in 2005, resulting in the first protein profiling of Chinese normal human liver with 6788 unique proteins, which is the largest proteomic database of human liver so far. HDP, aiming at the proteomic characterizations in cancer and other life-threatening diseases, was first funded by the National Basic Research Program from big proteome project of Chinese Ministry of Science & Technology (MOST) at the beginning of this century. During the period of HDP implementation, the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) appeared in China in spring, 2003. Chinese proteomic scientists have made important contributions to control the infectious disease, including the first SARS-CoV proteome that was identified using two-dimensional LC-MS/MS; the differential proteomes of Vero E6 cells with/without infection of SARS-CoV were quantitatively resolved, and the immune assay for SARS diagnosis was developed within a short period based upon the proteomic database (3). Seeking cancer biomarkers is an important frontier of HDP. A group of Chinese scientists invented a new approach to screen the lung cancer biomarkers from the conditioned medium for culturing the primary cell or tissues of lung cancer through proteins resolved by SDS-PAGE and identified by nano-ESI-MS/MS (4). A combination of CD98, fascin, polymeric immunoglobulin receptor/secretory component and 14–3-3 was first proposed for evaluation of the risk of lung cancer development. Additionally, during screening From the ‡State Key Laboratory of Proteomics, Beijing Proteome Research Center, Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine, Beijing 102206 and §Beijing Genomics Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100318, China ‡ To whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail: hefc@ nic.bmi.ac.cn. § To whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail: siqiliu@ genomics.org.cn. 1 The abbreviations used are: CNHUPO, China Human Proteome Organization; HLPP, Human Liver Proteome Project; SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome; HDP, human disease proteomics; DPT, development of proteomic technology. HUPO Views