Technology education teacher development in solomon islands: Enhancing teachers’ perceptions and classroom practices

Technology education in the Solomon Islands is in the process of change with the curriculum being developed into a more broad technological literacy approach, comprising of technological knowledge, technological practices, and the nature of technology. This paper is based on a two-year study (2005 and 2006) with secondary technology education teachers in the Solomon Islands. The first year of the research revealed that technology teachers in the Solomon Islands held narrow perspectives of technology and technology education, with views centering on narrow technical aspects. Classroom practices were teacher-dominated and authoritarian. Most teaching approaches included rote learning. A professional development programme based on the principles of teacher reflection, teacher support, and on-going professional development was undertaken. Workshop days were interspersed with classroom practice. The programme focussed on developing teachers’ views of the nature of technology and learning in technology education, assisting teachers in planning for effective technology teaching and introducing the concept of assessment for effective technology learning. It impacted on teachers’ perceptions and classroom practices. Changes included the teachers’ perceptions of technology and technology education, the teachers’ teaching documents, the teaching pedagogy, the teachers’ assessment practices and the students’ learning styles

Delaying chloroplast turnover increases water-deficit stress tolerance through the enhancement of nitrogen assimilation in rice.

Abiotic stress-induced senescence in crops is a process particularly affecting the photosynthetic apparatus, decreasing photosynthetic activity and inducing chloroplast degradation. A pathway for stress-induced chloroplast degradation that involves the CHLOROPLAST VESICULATION (CV) gene was characterized in rice (Oryza sativa) plants. OsCV expression was up-regulated with the age of the plants and when plants were exposed to water-deficit conditions. The down-regulation of OsCV expression contributed to the maintenance of the chloroplast integrity under stress. OsCV-silenced plants displayed enhanced source fitness (i.e. carbon and nitrogen assimilation) and photorespiration, leading to water-deficit stress tolerance. Co-immunoprecipitation, intracellular co-localization, and bimolecular fluorescence demonstrated the in vivo interaction between OsCV and chloroplastic glutamine synthetase (OsGS2), affecting source-sink relationships of the plants under stress. Our results would indicate that the OsCV-mediated chloroplast degradation pathway is involved in the regulation of nitrogen assimilation during stress-induced plant senescence

Competition and Cooperation in Divisible Good Auctions: An Experimental Examination

An experimental approach is used to examine the performance of three different multi-unit auction designs: discriminatory, uniform-price with fixed supply, and uniform-price with endogenous supply. We find that the strategies of the individual bidders and the aggregate demand curves are inconsistent with theoretically identified equilibrium strategies. The discriminatory auction is found to be more susceptible to collusion than are the uniform-price auctions, and so contrary to theoretical predictions and previous experimental results, the discriminatory auction provides the lowest average revenue. Consistent with theoretical predictions, bidder demands are more elastic with reducible supply or discriminatory pricing than in the uniform-price auction with fixed supply. Despite a lack of a priori differences across bidders, the discriminatory auction results in significantly more symmetric allocations.Divisible good, Auctions, Experimental economics