Framing ICT, teachers and learners in Australian school education ICT policy

It is well over 20 years since information and communication technologies (ICT) was first included as part of a future vision for Australia’s schools. Since this time numerous national policies have been developed, which collectively articulate an official discourse in support of a vision for ICT to be embedded in our schools, and routinely used by ‘digital’ learners and ‘competent’ teachers alike. The purpose of this paper is to critique how ICT, teachers and learners are positioned in this vision by an analysis of national school-education ICT policies from 1989 to the present day, including the National Goals of Schooling policies, the Learning in an Online World suite of policies, several Ministerial Statements relating to ICT and the recent A Digital Education Revolution policy. This paper suggests that determinist views of technology and a utopian vision underpin these representations, which creates a flawed, future vision for ICT in school education and its use by teachers and learners.     

Teacher perceptions of school culture and their organizational commitment and well-being in a Chinese school

This study aims to analyze and validate the dimensions and specific features of a school culture in a Chinese context. A sample of 181 teachers from a Chinese primary and secondary school in Beijing participated in a survey that measures school organizational cultural characteristics and teacher organizational commitment and well-being as outcomes of school culture. Specific cultural characteristics of this school and their impact on teacher organizational commitment and well-being were identified. The findings provide important information for understanding a school culture in the Chinese context. It enriches the theory related to school culture and the research findings that have been identified in the Western settings.     

ICT teacher training: Evidence for multilevel evaluation from a national initiative

This paper is one of a pair that re-examines the evidence from a national initiative to train all teachers in England to bring them up to the level of newly qualified teachers, who are required to know when to use and when not to use information and communication technologies (ICT) in their professional practice. Reanalysis of data gathered for the 2004 evaluation uncovers the complexity of such professional development. The effectiveness of contrasting approaches to ICT-related teacher training was analysed using the national survey of 496 trainees and experts' reports on 11 of the 47 training providers. multilevel evaluation of professional development was shown to be robust for ICT teacher training, including a significant correlation between the views of experts and those of teachers. The presence of the middle level of 'organisational support and change' emerged as a particularly discriminating factor, indicating that higher-quality teacher training supports change in the classroom and in the school. Therefore, we recommend that all five of Guskey's levels be consistently adopted for the evaluation of ICT teacher training, and that research should also adopt a multilevel model. A second paper delves deeper to describe and contrast the highest and lowest-rated approaches to ICT teacher training.     

ICT teacher training: Evaluation of the curriculum and training approach in Flanders

A policy-evaluation study was set up of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) teacher training in Flanders, focusing on the following questions: (a) What is the validity of the content and format of the teacher training, and (b) to what extent is the ICT teacher training linked to policies of schools? In-depth interviews were organised with respondents of primary, secondary, and adult education schools. The results indicate that ICT school policies are not well developed and reveal a partial match between policies, needs, and the actual in-service training. Innovative applications of ICT are not promoted. The supply-driven approach, the school-based nature, and follow-up activities are questioned.     

Second Life in higher education: Assessing the potential for and the barriers to deploying virtual worlds in learning and teaching

Second Life (SL) is currently the most mature and popular multi-user virtual world platform being used in education. Through an in-depth examination of SL, this article explores its potential and the barriers that multi-user virtual environments present to educators wanting to use immersive 3-D spaces in their teaching. The context is set by tracing the history of virtual worlds back to early multi-user online computer gaming environments and describing the current trends in the development of 3-D immersive spaces. A typology for virtual worlds is developed and the key features that have made unstructured 3-D spaces so attractive to educators are described. The popularity in use of SL is examined through three critical components of the virtual environment experience: technical, immersive and social. From here, the paper discusses the affordances that SL offers for educational activities and the types of teaching approaches that are being explored by institutions. The work concludes with a critical analysis of the barriers to successful implementation of SL as an educational tool and maps a number of developments that are underway to address these issues across virtual worlds more broadly.     

Digital competences and long-term ICT integration in school culture: The perspective of elementary school leaders

This study examines how the leaders of technology integration in educational institutions - school principals and ICT facilitators - assess systemic changes that occurred in their schools. The study collected the data from Israeli elementary schools towards the end of the third and the fourth years of the gradual National ICT program. The research questions explored (1) the predictors of the general school ICT culture and (2) changes over time in the general school ICT culture and its components. An online questionnaire was distributed to all elementary schools in the Northern District and filled out jointly by the school principal and ICT facilitator. A total of 392 questionnaires (91.2 % response rate) were analyzed. The following predictors explained 63 % of variance in general school ICT culture: the percent of teachers who frequently use ICT in lessons, using technology for enhance pedagogy, teachers’ digital competence, digital content use, its design by teachers, pedagogical update of class website, school portal update (negative predictor), e-communication within school staff, and teacher-parents e-communication. Regarding the impact of time, the results indicated that between the 3rd and 4th years of ICT integration significant changes still occur in the general school ICT culture and most of its components.     

The use of ICT in teaching religious education in primary school

Education and Information Technologies - The purpose of the present study is to investigate students’ understanding of Religious instruction and more specifically the understanding of the...     

Towards a model for research on the effects of school organizational health factors on primary school performance in Trinidad & Tobago

This article presents a model for research on the effects of school organizational heath factors on primary school academic achievement in Trinidad and Tobago. The model can be applicable for evaluating schools in other developing countries. As proposed, the model hypothesizes relationships between external factors (exogenous variables), school-level factors (endogenous variables), and school outcomes (student achievement and positive school climate). The endogenous variables are sub-scales of school organizational health. They include principal leadership, psycho-social environment, school–home–community relationships, teacher characteristics, curriculum quality, and school culture. These subscales are partially influenced by the Organizational Health Inventory OHI (Hoy and Feldman, 1987) and by school health indices set forth by the World Health Organization (1996). It is hoped that this school organizational health model can provide a conceptual tool for formulating a more comprehensive measure of healthy schools.     

基于校企联合培养新机制的工程训练中心建设探索

根据实验教学与实践教育省级示范中心建设的最新要求,大力发展校内中心加校外基地的联合培养模式,积极探索工程训练中心新思路和新方向。以加强实践教学的研究性、创新性和实效性为目标,将现代装备制造工程训练中心建设成具有涵盖完整现代工业体系内容的工程训练实验教学基地。     

期望理论与职校生自信心的培养

应用期望理论培养学生的自信心应做到：向学生传递良好的期望,树立学生的自信心;帮助学生设立恰当的目标,增强他们的自信心;让学生享受成功的体验,强化自信心。以把他们培养成为一名自己满意、家长满意、教师满意的社会人。     

实施培训制度创新 推进校长提高培训

将竞争机制引入校长管理制度,把培训评估与校长考核结合来,对培训基地实施动态资格审查,建立校长需求年度评估,建立教育行政部门、培训单位和学员的三方平等协商确立培训目标制度,创设现代培训模式,建立学员签定学习合同制度。这些制度的创设将增强校长提高培训的效益。     

论中小学组织文化对教师的专业支持

学校组织文化是影响教师发展的重要文化之一,并不是什么学校组织文化都能有利于教师的专业发展。激发教师高层次的需求、体现人本特色的制度设计、发挥教师的群体效能是支持教师专业发展的学校组织文化的三个特征,而文化认同、心态调适和专业活动则构成了支持教师专业发展的学校组织文化的机制。教师个体行为对专业支持文化的形成也起着重要作用。     

浅析职业学校技能训练的重要性

从能力培养目标、技能训练动因、提高技能训练水平等方面对职业教育中技能训练的重要性进行了分析.