Not just any path: Implications of identity-based motivation for disparities in school outcomes

Low-income and minority children aspire to school success and expect to attend college. These aspirations and expectations matter – predicting college attendance and graduation when present and failure to attend college otherwise. But aspiring to college does not necessarily result in relevant behavior; many children with high aspirations do not take sufficient action to work toward their school goals. This paper uses identity-based motivation theory (IBM, Oyserman, 2007, Oyserman, 2009a) to predict that school-focused expectations and aspirations predict action if at the moment of judgment, they are accessible (come to mind) and feel relevant. Relevance is operationalized in three ways. (1) Feeling congruent with important social identities (e.g., race-ethnicity, social class), (2) feeling connected with relevant behavioral strategies (studying, asking questions), and (3) providing an interpretation of difficulties along the way as implying task importance, not impossibility. Family assets and child savings are likely to influence each element of identity relevance.     

高等职业教育是实现现代职业本质的必要手段

职业是职业教育学的逻辑起点，研究高等职业教育首先要认识现代职业的本质，对现代职业进行跨学科的综合研究，可以看出：个人需要与社会需要是现代职业的本质需要，但双方存在着矛盾，而高等职业教育是协调双方需要的必要手段。     

Not just workshops any more: The role of faculty development in reframing academic priorities

Abstract

At most US colleges and universities, faculty development programmes have assumed a passive role waiting for interested faculty to come to them. For the most part, their activities have been limited to facilitating instructional workshops, managing faculty study leaves and sabbaticals, and providing remedial support for faculty who experience problems in their teaching. As higher education in the US faces political, social and technological challenges, faculty developers must play a more active role in institutional transformation. After providing an historical overview of faculty development in the US and describing the current situation in US higher education, this paper outlines four activities that faculty developers can undertake as change agents to help institutions accomplish the objective of institutional transformation and to foster a stronger academic culture.     

Not just skills: what a focus on knowledge means for vocational education

This contribution to the symposium on Michael Young’s article ‘Overcoming the crisis in curriculum theory: a knowledge based approach’, supports his contention that curriculum theory has lost sight of its object—‘what is taught and learned in schools’, and argues that this has particularly deleterious consequences for vocational education and training (VET). VET is unproblematically positioned as applied, experiential and work-focused learning, and it is seen as a solution for those who are alienated from or unsuccessful in more traditional forms of academic education. This article argues that rather than being a mechanism for social inclusion, VET is instead a key way in which social inequality is mediated and reproduced because it excludes students from accessing the theoretical knowledge they need to participate in debates and controversies in society and in their occupational field of practice. It presents a social realist analysis to argue why VET students need access to theoretical knowledge, how a focus on experiential and applied learning constitutes a mechanism for social exclusion and what a ‘knowledge rich’ VET curriculum would look like.     

Modulating misconceptions by musical means

This literature‐based, classroom‐tested novel innovation of educational song (with pedagogical scaffolding) may help engage students explore and address common resistant misconceptions in probability (e.g. all outcomes are equally likely) and in statistics (e.g. correlation must imply either causation or coincidence).     

Discussing education by means of metaphors

Abstract

Metaphors help us understand a concept by resorting to the imaginary because it is sometimes difficult to do so through the use of words alone. Thinkers have made use of metaphors to not only describe ‘falling in love’, ‘the pain of losing someone dear to us’, but also to describe particular concepts both in arts and sciences. In fact, the use of metaphors in some disciplines, particularly the sciences, is now regarded as something essential for the development of the field. We note that influential philosophers of education, such as Martin Buber, Paulo Freire, Michael Apple, Gert Biesta and Ilan Gur-Ze’ev have also made use of metaphors to discuss education and specific issues in educational contexts. In this article, we do two things: (i) we discuss the methodological importance of metaphors in helping us make better sense of concepts and particular problems; (ii) building on this methodological discussion, we critically discuss the problems posed by the current processes of ‘marketisation’ and ‘learnification’ in education. We conclude by arguing that metaphors do not provide us with ultimate answers to the problems we face; rather, they help us unveil a diversity of novel perspectives and a world of new possibilities.     

“后方法”视角下的英语教学

随着英语教学法的发展,人们对语言本质和语言教学的认识不断深化,外语教学走入了＂后方法＂时代。＂后方法＂的外语课堂教学观是在＂方法时代＂外语课堂教学观的基础上发展起来的新型的课堂教学观,科学地剖析了英语课堂的本质。从＂后方法＂视角来看待英语教学,教师可以得到重要的启示,增强外语教师教学法运用的反思意识,更加自主和灵活地运用教学方法。     

采用多种形式丰富历史教学

在历史课教学中,怎样才能激发学生学习历史知识的积极性,怎样根据教学内容的具体特点去探索新的教学方法,以更好的完成历史课的教学任务,这是摆在每一个历史课教师面前的课题.文章结合历史课的教学实际,从探索新的教学方法的角度,提出了一些看法.     

采用多种形式 丰富历史教学

在历史课教学中,怎样才能激发学生学习历史知识的积极性,怎样根据教学内容的具体特点去探索新的教学方法,以更好的完成历史课的教学任务,这是摆在每一个历史课教师面前的课题。文章结合历史课的教学实际,从探索新的教学方法的角度,提出了一些看法。     

不能以“认知方式”取代“筹划问题”

1952年我上小学时,读的语文课本就是人民教育出版社出版的。我当时年纪小,没太注意是哪里编的教材,后来才意识到,自己的童年生活与精神成长竟然和一个出版机构有如此紧密的联系。我们这一代人,以及我们的儿孙两代人,都是读着人教版教材长大的,如今人教社七十大寿了,饮流思源,受施勿忘,请接受我诚挚的感恩与祝贺。     

依据教材开发探究性实验

本文阐述了教师根据教材内容开发探究性实验来发展学生创新实验能力的具体教学策略。     

以思想工作方法改进绩效管理

通过分析绩效管理中存在的问题,提出以思想工作方法来改进绩效管理,即管理者在绩效管理中应通过确立成就员工的理念、营造绩效管理氛围、形成绩效沟通文化、不断优化绩效管理体系等工作,取得员工的认同,提升绩效管理成效.     

在小学语文教学中培养学生自主探究学习的尝试

改变学生的学习方式,倡导自主、合作、探究的学习方法,培养学生的综合创新素质,是本次课程改革重要着眼点之一。在教学过程中,教师要注意培养学生自主探究的意识和习惯,充分发挥学生的主动性、积极性、创造性,使学生成为学习的主体、认识的主体和发展的主体。