新技术在远程开放教育中的运用

本文以教师的视角,阐述了开放远程教育中教学法的变化,即不涉及政策和管理问题。尽管年轻人对初级高等教育的需求尚未减少,与此同时,成年人为了使自己在职场上不被落伍,对继续教育的需求亦不断增加。在美国,有大约40％的成年人参加过正规的成人教育活动。目前,电视传输的形式大为减少,而网络传输的形式却在迅速发展。越来越多的年轻人正运用新的方式,即通过新一代多媒体互动技术开展学习,这种学习方式的转变预计会增加更多的交互式远程学习活动。这一流行的教学法模式具有建构主义特征,而新技术使得建构主义远程教学成为可能。设立和推动学习共同体对于大多数远程教育者来说是一种新的挑战。本文的目的是想激发对于这一论题的讨论和探究。然而在作出结论前,本文对于有些人关于远程开放教育不能适应新技术和教学方法提出了质疑假定。笔者在这一问题上的观点要显得更为乐观。     

Intention and Meaning in Young Children's Drawing

In this article I present some ideas, based on qualitative research into young children's drawing, related to the developing discourse on young children's thinking and meaning making. I question the relationship between perception and conception and the nature of representation, challenging traditional ideas around stage theory and shifting the focus from the drawings themselves to the process of drawing, and thus to the children's own purposes. I analyse examples of my observations (made in naturalistic settings within a nursery classroom) to reveal the range of representational purposes and meaning in children's drawing activity. My analysis shows that, rather than being developmentally determined, the way children configure their drawings is purposeful; children can recognise the power of drawing to represent, and that they themselves can be in control of this. I explore aspects of the process, including transformation and talk to show the importance of understanding drawing in its specific contexts. I show how children's drawing activity is illuminated by the way in which it occurs and the other activities linked to it, presenting drawing as part of children's broader, intentional, meaning‐making activity. As an aspect of the interactive, communicative practices through which children's thinking develops, representation is a constructive, self‐directed, intentional process of thinking in action, through which children bring shape and order to their experience, rather than a developing ability to make visual reference to objects in the world. I suggest that in playing with the process, children are actively defining reality rather than passively reflecting a given reality.     

Factors affecting the quality of transnational higher education in China: a qualitative content analysis on Chinese host universities’ self-appraisal reports

In response to the increasing literature on transnational higher education in host countries, this paper aims to identify prominent factors affecting the quality of transnational higher education in China, as perceived and reported by Chinese host universities. A qualitative data analysis was conducted on 122 self-appraisal reports on transnational higher education programmes submitted to China’s Ministry of Education in 2017 by 112 Chinese host universities. The analysis identified and examined relationships between four interrelated factors: low foreign language proficiency among students, shortage of a sustainable supply of highly qualified teachers, low quality of curriculum design and implementation and deficiencies in institutional regulations. The findings are discussed in the context of the literature, revealing two issues in transnational higher education in China: using local Chinese teachers to teach the imported foreign courses and outsourcing foreign language teaching. The paper concludes with some limitations of the study and implications for future research.     

Different perspectives: Spatial ability influences where individuals look on a timed spatial test

Learning in anatomy can be both spatially and visually complex. Pedagogical investigations have begun exploration as to how spatial ability may mitigate learning. Emerging hypotheses suggests individuals with higher spatial reasoning may attend to images differently than those who are lacking. To elucidate attentional patterns associated with different spatial ability, eye movements were measured in individuals completing a timed electronic mental rotation test (EMRT). The EMRT was based on the line drawings of Shepherd and Metzler. Individuals deduced whether image pairs were rotations (same) or mirror images (different). It was hypothesized that individuals with high spatial ability (HSA) would demonstrate shorter average fixation durations during problem solving and attend to different features of the EMRT than low spatial ability (LSA) counterparts. Moreover, question response accuracy would be associated with fewer fixations and shorter average response times, regardless of spatial reasoning ability. Average fixation duration in the HSA group was shorter than LSA (F(1,8) = 7.99; P = 0.022). Importantly, HSA and LSA individuals looked to different regions of the EMRT images (Fisher Exact Test: 12.47; P = 0.018); attending to the same locations only 34% of the time. Correctly answered questions were characterized by fewer fixations per question (F(1, 8) = 18.12; P = 0.003) and shorter average response times (F(1, 8) = 23.89; P = 0.001). The results indicate that spatial ability may influence visual attention to salient areas of images and this may be key to problem solving processes for low spatial individuals. Anat Sci Educ 10: 224–234. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists.     

Transitioning to higher education: journeying with Indigenous Maori teen mothers

Young women giving birth to children or teen mothers are often on the fringes of society. To facilitate the journeys of these young women towards higher education, a number of organisations have been established. Taking Indigenous knowledge as our theoretical lens, our qualitative data were based on interviews with Indigenous Māori teen mothers and teen parent organisations. Our empirical study investigated organisational practices which support teen mothers in their quest for higher education. We make a dual contribution, firstly by extending and enriching scholarship on teen mothers, specifically Indigenous teen mothers, to facilitate understandings of their journey; and secondly we develop a model representing the challenges and successes of their journey and present organisational practices to enhance transitioning to higher education. We suggest that the integration of Indigenous knowledge opens up new avenues for a more sophisticated understanding of organisational practices intertwined with the journeys of teen mothers.     

'It's Like We're a Normal Way and Everyone Else is Different': Australian children's constructions of citizenship and national identity

The more people are urged to 'think globally' and to see themselves as 'citizens of the world', the more taken-for granted notions of national belonging (national identity) are called into question. Nowhere has this been more evident than in Australia where, in recent times, a number of events have caused Australians to think most carefully about what it means to be Australian. While there have been plenty of opportunities for adults to debate these issues, little attention has been paid to the way children are now conceptualising their senses of 'belonging'. Do children see themselves as global citizens, an identity they are increasingly encouraged to embrace through mass media, mass communications and the Internet, or do they see themselves as belonging to an entity called 'Australia', or are they juggling with both identities? This study examines how 28 young Australian children are thinking about what it means to be 'Australian' and 'a citizen' in global times.     

The Life and Fiction of Antonia Forest

summary In this article, the life and writings of Antonia Forest, who died in 2003, are considered. An attempt is made to put her books into their literary, cultural and religious contexts, and to examine possible reasons for the critical reception of her books during the last 30 years of the twentieth century; from neglect and even disapproval to unstinting praise.     

School entrance age, social acceptance, and self-perceptions in kindergarten and 1st grade

Concerns about the effect of school entrance age have generally focused on academic achievement. The effect of school entrance age on the social acceptance and self-perceptions of kindergarten and 1st-grade students was examined in two studies. In Study 1, the social acceptance and competence of 476 children was assessed in kindergarten and first grade through peer nominations and ratings, teacher ratings, and report card grades. In Study 2, a subgroup of 116 students was interviewed in kindergarten and first grade to assess their perceptions of their school adjustment, loneliness at school, cognitive and physical competence, and peer and maternal acceptance. Few differences were found related to school entrance age. Teachers' ratings and peer nominations generally described initial social problems for the youngest children which were overcome by first grade. There were no differences in self-reported school adjustment, loneliness, perceptions of competence, or acceptance related to school entry age.     

Highly accurate deterministic lateral displacement device and its application to purification of fungal spores

We have designed, built, and evaluated a microfluidic device that uses deterministic lateral displacement for size-based separation. The device achieves almost 100% purity and recovery in continuously sorting two, four, and six micrometer microspheres. We have applied this highly efficient device to the purification of fungal (Aspergillus) spores that are spherical (∼4 μm diameter) with a narrow size distribution. Such separation directly from culture using unfiltered A. niger suspensions is difficult due to a high level of debris. The device produces a two to three increase in the ratio of spores to debris as measured by light scatter in a flow cytometer. The procedure is feasible at densities up to 4.4×10⁶ spores∕ml. This is one of the first studies to apply microfluidic techniques to spore separations and has demonstrated that a passive separation system could significantly reduce the amount of debris in a suspension of fungal spores with virtually no loss of spore material.     

Formalist thinking and language arts instruction: teachers’ and students’ beliefs about truth and caring in the teaching conversation

Two studies illustrate the concern that the connection between teachers’ beliefs and their instructional practices can be a troublesome one if beliefs are informed by formalist thinking related to truth and caring in the teaching conversation. Twenty-seven middle school language arts teachers and 216 8th grade students were asked what they thought would constitute appropriate responses to a middle school student’s request for feedback about his poem. In spite of their training and experience, the instructional strategies of the teachers were guided by formalist beliefs about what they believed to be sound pedagogy. As a consequence, they minimized the importance of what the student actually said in his poem. Honest criticism and instruction were minimized. Teachers interpreted caring as helping the child to feel good about his work and about himself independent of the work’s merits. In contrast, students called out for honesty and for academic instruction and interpreted caring as receiving academic help. Few expressed formalist principles, and most argued that their teachers need not surrender truth, criticism, or instruction to express care and concern. They also revealed that they could, and would, see through their teachers’ efforts at impression management. Findings are interpreted within a framework provided by S. Cavell (1969)’s criteria for reciprocal conversation.