In March 2017, sea surface temperatures off Peru rose above 28 °C, causing torrential rains that affected the lives of millions of people. This coastal warming is highly unusual in that it took place with a weak La Niña state. Observations and ocean model experiments show that the downwelling Kelvin waves caused by strong westerly wind events over the equatorial Pacific, together with anomalous northerly coastal winds, are important. Atmospheric model experiments further show the anomalous coastal winds are forced by the coastal warming. Taken together, these results indicate a positive feedback off Peru between the coastal warming, atmospheric deep convection, and the coastal winds. These coupled processes provide predictability. Indeed, initialized on as early as 1 February 2017, seasonal prediction models captured the extreme rainfall event. Climate model projections indicate that the frequency of extreme coastal El Niño will increase under global warming.
Over the past few decades, the pursuit of teachers-as-researchers has become an ideal for developing teacher autonomy to which many in the world of curriculum development and language teacher education try to promote (Benson, 2001). Nevertheless, research into how teachers learn to do research has been scarce, and there are pressing needs for research-based accounts of how teachers gain their professional autonomy through research (Borg, 2009). This article reports on a collaborative action research project carried out by a group of university researchers with a group of senior secondary school English teachers in an attempt to promote teacher autonomy in the Chinese context. It first introduces the background and rationale for the project. Then it describes the project along with the research questions and data collection methods. Based on the analysis of the data obtained, the article looks into the processes that teachers go through in learning to do research and examines the impact the project has on the participating teachers. Then it further discusses issues related to such collaboration and concludes with the conditions that are essential for effective university–school collaborations.
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