The understanding of pupils in schools in England between the ages of 11 and 16 about air and air pollution has been studied using a closed-form questionnaire with over a thousand students. Items for the questionnaire were derived from the results of an earlier open-form questionnaire completed by a smaller number of students. The ideas explored…

In this paper I examine the impact of the new 'knowledge economy' on contemporary doctoral education. I argue that the knowledge economy promotes a view of knowledge and knowledge workers that fundamentally challenges the idea of a university as a community of autonomous scholars transmitting and adding to society's 'stock of knowledge'. The paper…

The present study is concerned with how educators might support students in developing a better awareness and understanding of themselves as learners. The context for the paper is widening participation within higher education and the growth of first-year 'introductory' modules, which are taught to large numbers of students, including both…

Policy conceptualizations of the global knowledge economy have led to the channelling of much Higher Education and Research and Development funding into the priority areas of science and technology. Among other things, this diversion of funding calls into question the future of traditional humanities and creative arts faculties. How these…

Students' ignorance of civics is often viewed with alarm, as in interpretations of the 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP); yet adults' incomplete knowledge of government is considered by many to be reasonable and acceptable. We show that aggregate distributions of political knowledge are actually quite similar for students and…

The various issues like do mentors have a responsibility to take a new look at the chemistry curricula in light of the challenges and expectations of the 21st century workplace, and should our graduates possess other valued characteristics are discussed. Every academician has the responsibility to prepare chemists for the 21st century by…

An essay review of "Assessing Children's Mathematical Knowledge: Social Class, Sex and Problem Solving" by Barry Cooper and Mirad Dunne, Philadelphia: Open University Press, 2000; "Talking Mathematics in School: Studies in Teaching and Learning," Ed. Magdalene Lampert and Merrie L. Blunk, New York: Teachers College Press, 1998; "Reconstructing…

Research in nanotechnology has advanced rapidly in recent years. Several researchers, however, warn that there is a paucity of research on the ethical, legal, and social implications of nanotechnology, and they caution that ethical reflections on nanotechnology lag behind this fast developing science. In this article, the authors question this…

Nowadays, it is widely accepted that knowledge and learning are the core of competitiveness, international division of labour and agglomeration and exclusion phenomena. Yet we are still in need of a better understanding of the processes which allow access by individual regions both to codified knowledge and RTD networks as well as tacit knowledge…

This study was conducted to assess the perceptions of school psychologists regarding myths and misconceptions pertaining to traumatic brain injury (TBI). A sample of 304 school psychologists in the state of North Carolina was surveyed on 11 common myths and misconceptions about TBI. Results indicated that this group performed significantly better…

Two studies investigated the interaction between utterance and scene processing by monitoring eye movements in agent-action-patient events, while participants listened to related utterances. The aim of Experiment 1 was to determine if and when depicted events are used for thematic role assignment and structural disambiguation of temporarily…

This article offers an explanation of standardized tests so that parents may understand the significance of their children's tests scores. Definitions of terms such as "percentile ranking," "norming group" and "criterion-referenced" are given. The author also questions the validity of high-stakes tests as a true…

This study investigated the dental health knowledge and oral hygiene practices of 95 students with visual impairments and 286 sighted students in Taiwan. It found that the students with visual impairments were less knowledgeable about dental health and less frequently completed oral hygiene practices than did the sighted students.

The development of reading skills is regarded as the highest priority area in contemporary education. Yet for many students who are deaf or hard of hearing, this is the academic area of greatest difficulty. Adding to this problem is the current demand that all students master higher levels of knowledge in content areas. In an effort to support…

A number of theories of second language L2 acquisition acknowledge a role for explicit L2 knowledge. However, the testing of these theories remains problematic because of the lack of a widely accepted means for measuring L2 explicit knowledge. This article seeks to address this lacuna by examining L2 explicit knowledge from two perspectives.…