The experiences of Chinese mainland students with English-medium instruction in a Macau University

While research on English-medium instruction (EMI) has proliferated in the past decades, little research has examined how students from a monolingual background actually experience EMI, or the learning processes involved in such experiences. Drawing upon in-depth interviews and student reflection journals, this study examines the experiences of Chinese university students currently studying in an EMI university in Macau. The findings show that while the students were satisfied with their learning in the EMI context, and they all expressed a perceived necessity for EMI, EMI presented major challenges to their learning and increased their study burden, and the students had experienced numerous frustrations, difficulties and challenges in the transition from the CMI context to the EMI context. The findings also indicate that the students took various measures to address these difficulties and frustrations. This study can provide a better understanding of the real learning needs of Chinese students in an EMI context, and the strategies used by them to address the difficulties and challenges experienced in the transition from the CMI context to the EMI context.     

English-medium instruction in law and the humanities in higher education: the role of teacher identity

ABSTRACT

Recent research on English-medium instruction (EMI) has examined university instructors’ professional identities in science and social science rather than in the humanities. To fill the gap, this qualitative case study explores the ways in which 13 university instructors in law and the humanities in Taiwan perceived their identity and exercised their agency as teachers. The findings indicated that these instructors had three ideal teacher identities, including educators in global and local contexts, subject matter instructors, and EMI instructors. Each determined teachers’ choice, design, and enactment of EMI practices, as well as their notions of language use and objectives. This study highlights the primacy of preferred teacher identities in the manifestation of teacher agency, identifies enabling and constraining effects of teacher agency, and emphasizes the significant roles of discipline-specific communities and ethnicity and nationality in EMI practices. As such, teacher identities should be taken into consideration in professional development to empower instructors to take actions that maintain their commitments to EMI.     

Primary schools and the delivery of relationships and sexuality education: the experience of Queensland teachers

Primary school provides an appropriate opportunity for children to commence comprehensive relationships and sexuality education (RSE), yet many primary school teachers avoid teaching this subject area. In the absence of teacher confidence and competence, schools have often relied on health promotion professionals, external agencies and/or one-off issue-related presentations rather than cohesive, systematic and meaningful health education. This study examines the implementation of a 10-lesson pilot RSE unit of work and an accompanying assessment task in two primary schools in South-East Queensland, Australia. Drawing predominantly from qualitative data, the research explores the experiences of primary school teachers as they engage with RSE curriculum resources and content delivery. The results show the provision of a high-quality RSE curriculum resource grounded in contemporary educational principles and practices enables teachers to feel more confident to deliver RSE and minimises potential barriers such as parental objections and fear of mishandling sensitive content.     

History,nation and school inspections: the introduction of citizenship education in elementary schools in late nineteenth-century Sweden

It was in the late nineteenth century that teaching in Sweden’s elementary schools began its transformation from a religious education to a broader, national citizenship education that included history and geography. International research has pointed to a connection between the introduction of school inspections and the reform of public education during this period. In Sweden, however, the practice of inspection has not been explored at any length. This article therefore considers the part played by school inspections in the implementation of a more extensive curriculum in Swedish elementary schools in the period 1860–1900, with a particular focus on the subject of history, using a study of inspection reports from the diocese of Uppsala. It is argued that school inspectors had a key role in initiating reform at the local level, but also that the move towards broader-based citizenship education was not a simple, straightforward process.     

中学教育名校集团化办学现状与对策——以长沙市为例

长沙名校集团化办学是以一所名校为核心,以若千所名校为依托,集合更多普通学校在共同或相近目标引导下,采取较为合理的形式,达到优质资源最大限度的共享和均衡的办学模式. 长沙名校集团办学取得显著成效的同时,也存在着校际恶习竞争、办学理念狭隘、教育内涵同质、教师编制局限等问题,显化生态、错位发展,优化布局、区位发展,强化特色、高位发展,活化编制、借位发展是推进中学教育名校集团化办学的有效途径.     

芬兰普通高中的课程评价和课程管理

本文着重探讨了 1994年普通高中课程改革以后 ,芬兰普通高中课程评价的基本举措和特点 ,分析了国家级行政管理、省级行政管理、地方行政管理、校级行政管理的权限和方式、方法。     

The relative effectiveness of private and public schools: evidence from Kenya

ABSTRACT

This paper estimates the relative effectiveness of private and public primary schools in Kenya using data from 4,433 Grade 6 schoolchildren. Using ordinary least squares as a baseline model, we use the proportion of private schools in a district as an instrument in a Heckman two-stage correction framework, as well as propensity score matching models to correct for selection bias. There is a positive private school effect across all models. In the corrected models, we find that private school pupils outperform their public school counterparts by between .24 and .52 standard deviations.     

School teachers' perception about distributed leadership practices for inclusive education in primary schools in Bangladesh

This article reports on the third phase of a larger study that explored the perceptions of teachers about distributed leadership practices for inclusive education (IE) in primary schools involved in IE reform in Bangladesh. The Distributed Leadership Practice for Inclusive Education scale was developed specifically for this study to collect data. Participants for the present study were head teachers and teachers from 308 public primary schools. The results of this study indicate that teachers perceived that distributed leadership practices for IE were present in primary schools in Bangladesh. The findings indicate that teachers' perceptions about distributed leadership practices for IE have a significant positive correlation with their satisfaction about the implementation of IE policy.     

新课程背景下的中学体育德育评价理论研究

中学体育德育评价是体育德育不可缺少的组成部分,它对学生德育素质的发展起着定向、调节、激励、内省、肯定等多种促进作用。传统的体育德育评价存在着过于重视德育认知评价,而忽视体育德育实践评价的倾向。这种评价观违背了体育德育本质上是一种实践性教育的特性,不能有效地推动学生的体育德育实践,造成中学生德育的畸形发展,乃至双重人格现象大量存在。因此,新课程改革呼唤新的体育德育评价理论。     

The international,global and intercultural dimensions in schools: an analysis of four internationalised Israeli schools

Many educational systems worldwide are making substantial efforts to integrate an international dimension into local schools, fostering significant changes in the processes of instruction and learning as well as transformations at pedagogical and organisational levels. In this paper, we analyse data collected in four schools in Israel that the local press and educational authorities have acknowledged as schools that prominently and comprehensively incorporated international, global and intercultural dimensions. We employ a case-study approach based on interviews with principals and teachers; analysis of schools' websites and documents; and on-site observations, in order to analyse the expression of internationalisation, understand who is involved in the implementation process, and stimulate thinking about the broader impact of this process. We find that ideological and pragmatic reasons underlie schools' motivations to internationalise; their population and status comprise major factors in the decision regarding how, where, why, and when to integrate international and intercultural dimensions. The stakeholders interviewed perceive of internationalisation as offering both cosmopolitan capital to the students and a distinctive feature to the school. The schools demonstrate diverse internationalisation patterns that are neither monitored nor guided by any regulatory agency. These findings contribute to the identification of the factors promoting or delaying the internalisation process and to the understanding of the impact of this process on schools.     

试论高职高专学校校本课程的开发

校本课程开发的前提是更新教育观念；目标是培养高素质创业；原则是理论联系实际；重点是形成学校特色；难点是确定人才培养模式；关键是建立由高素质人员组成的研究队伍；基础是对教师进行“校本培训”。     

对我国民办教育的政策分析

营利性民办学校是社会主义市场经济条件下的产物，在我国教育资源仍然比较匮乏的背景下，适度鼓励发展营利性民办教育事业，对于教育的大众化以及普及化都具有十分积极和重大的意义。     

幸福的实现——课程的维度

幸福是人们追求的终极目标，具有相对性和抽象性的特征。幸福的实现受多种因素共同制约。要想通过学校教育实现人们的幸福，应将课程的设置、实施、评价进行合理地重构，重置课程目标，优化课程实施和评价方式。     

The governing of international schools: the implications of ownership and profit motive

There are in excess of 5000 English-medium international schools worldwide. This article reports a study of the governing of such schools that explored in particular the implications of ownership and profit motive. The research entailed a questionnaire-based survey of international school head teachers and interviews with representatives of accrediting organisations, owners and head teachers of international schools. Governors in all settings found maintaining a strategic as opposed to an operational role difficult. The distinction between privately owned for-profit and not-for-profit categories of international schools could be unclear. It could change over time and private owners may gain financially personally in not-for-profit institutional settings. Head teachers in privately owned schools, even those schools operated for financial profit, viewed the governing arrangements positively, perhaps because they often had considerable autonomy over educational matters even though they may be excluded from the governing of financial/resource matters. This arrangement has implications for the governing model. Governing bodies of community-owned schools, which in the sample were all not-for-profit, were typically fully elected or self-perpetuating or a hybrid of the two. Fully elected boards, especially fully elected parent boards, and fully self-perpetuating boards can be problematic and the hybrid model has distinct advantages.     

英国贵族精神与精英教育传统探析

英国是一个典型的贵族社会,英国贵族体制是一笔古老的政治遗产。英国贵族经过长期的发展演变,形成了一个相对稳定的社会阶层。英国贵族子弟成为社会精英的最好途径就是接受公学教育,一般在历经公学教育、大学教育和大陆游学后,跻身宗教界、政界、法律界、经济界者居多,成为英国社会各领域的精英人物。     

新课程理念对职业学校教研的影响

职业教育作为我国教育事业的重要部分,如何将新课程理念贯彻在职业教育中,实现以就业为导向,提高职业技能为核心,深化教育教学改革的目标?本文从教学研究的角度进行了初步的探讨和研究,以期对我国职业教育改革的进一步深化有所裨益。     

A comparison of student teacher learning from practice in university-affiliated schools in Helsinki and Johannesburg

In a comparative study of student teachers in Finland and South Africa, the researchers aimed to capture students’ views of how and what they had learned from practice in two university-affiliated primary schools. With data from survey questionnaires, we found that students in the two customized programmes accentuated different domains of teacher knowledge. The newly established teaching practice school in Johannesburg afforded closer integration of university and school practicum experiences for students than the well-established school in Helsinki. The authors conclude that an innovative teacher education model can be re-invented in a significantly different context and also add new dimensions to the original.     

试论英国公学对学生非智力因素的培养

本文主要针对英国公学对学生开展的非智力因素的培养展开论述,揭示其精英教育特征。英国公学之所以能成为世界著名的私立中等教育机构,不仅因为其傲人的教学佳绩,还因为它培养出了全面发展的社会精英,这与其重视对学生非智力因素的培养密切相关,通过论述期望对我国中学素质教育的发展提供借鉴和参考。     

Environmental education in Ecuador: conceptions and currents in Quito's private elementary schools

While key conceptions and the status of environmental education (EE) have been reported at various international, regional, national and local levels, those in play in the schools of Quito (Ecuador) are still relatively unknown. Of particular interest to this study are private schools: they are considerable in number in Ecuador and elsewhere, yet remain largely underrepresented in national and local studies. Therefore, a survey with a focus on conceptions of EE was administered to teachers (74) and pupils (748) of the third-, fourth- and fifth-years (7–10?years old) of elementary education, in 22 private schools in Quito. Using Sauvé's categorization of conceptual currents in EE, findings suggest a strong conservationist theme among teachers whereas pupils approach EE from both conservationist and naturalist perspectives. In terms of the status of EE, implementation is still limited to classrooms and in teacher professional education and development. Consideration of diverse conceptual currents is strongly recommended in teacher professional development, and the strengthening of EE-related partnerships between schools, homes and communities.     

中职法律课堂教学改革之我见

中等职业学校法律基础知识教学备受关注,如何将中职生培养成为遵纪守法的优秀劳动者,使法律课程的教育功能落到实处,值得思考和探索。只有改革观念、拓展思路,创建新的课堂教学模式,才能有效达成中职学校法律教学的目标。