A Decade of Change?
of which is seen as central to enhancing life both materially and intellectually (Atkinson et al., 1993; Ekinsmyth and Bynner, 1994; Bynner and Parsons, 1997). For this reason both are designated core subjects of the National Curriculum, with national tests at the ages of 7, 11, 14 and 16 (DfEE, 1997). Government initiatives in the basic skills area indicate dissatisfaction with present numeracy and reading standards, and further study reveals all has not been well in this area for some time (ALBSU, 1994, 1995; Reynolds and Farnell, 1996; OfStEd, 1996, 1997a, 1999). A review of standards in literacy and numeracy (1948–94) indicated that there was a fall in attainment among Year 6 pupils nationally in number skills between 1982 and 1987 and a rise in their geometry, statistical and measures attainments (Brooks et al., 1995). The same review concluded that Britain also had a wider spread of mathematical attainment, compared with other industrial countries, mainly owing to the weaker performance of lower-attaining pupils. The review found standards in reading among Year 6 children to have changed little since 1945, apart from slight rises around 1950 and in the 1980s. The performance of England and Wales in international tests of achievement has indicated that pupils aged 8 and 9 came sixteenth in mathematics in a listing of twenty-six participating countries. This was a deterioration in the relative position in mathematics since the earlier survey in 1982 (Kays et al., 1996). While there are many difficulties inherent in achieving any degree of international comparability, the publicity surrounding these findings is a source of tension when reported baldly in the national press. Research carried out by the Secondary Heads’ Association (SHA) found that more than two-thirds of state school headteachers and one-third in the independent sector identified a sudden drop in test scores for those entering secondary education since 1992 (O’Leary, 1995). The decline was particularly obvious in literacy levels. The cause was identified as the introduction and revision of the National Curriculum, which disrupted primary teaching. A recent twenty-year follow-up study of pupils’ achievement in basic skills (1976–96) reveals a significant drop in performance in mathematics and reading comprehension. The drop in test results is set in a context for the A dcade of chnge?
The Adaptation of the Scale of Attitude Towards Computer Into Turkish for Middle and Secondary School Students
This study aimed to develop a Turkish scale, which is reliable, valid and meets the current requirements for assessing the attitudes of students towards computers. That is why, the scale of students’ attitude towards computers (SATC), which originally belongs to Teo (2008), was adapted into Turkish. When it comes to methodology part of the study, the scale was administered to a total of 1678 students enrolled in primary or secondary school located in Ankara. After Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed, it was ascertained that the scale consisted of 20 items and 3 factors (computer enjoyment, computer importance and computer anxiety). The Cronbach Alpha and Omega values of the scale were found out to be 0.83 and 0.95 respectively. The findings and implications based on these findings were discussed in a more detailed way in the full paper.
Fungal Biotransformations in Pharmaceutical Sciences
The regio- and stereoselective conversion of complex substrates represents one of the major advantage of microbial biotransformation. This chapter covers the biocatalytic capacities of fungi to derivatize bioactive small molecules, both from natural sources and from synthetic compounds. We focus particularly on sterol and taxane biotransformation. We also present examples at the interface of biotransformation and pathway engineering using recombinant organisms, with an emphasis on the production of lovastatin derivatives. Finally, we highlight selected studies on fungal xenometabolism which serves as a model to study the breakdown of drugs in mammals.