Globalisation and the politics of international tests: the case of Israel

Comparative international tests of students' achievements have become increasingly popular over the past decade. An outcome of this widespread practice is the tendency of various countries to evaluate their national status according to their pupils' international ranking in such achievement tests, partly due to the common belief that high ranking is an indication of the nation's future ability to compete in the global market. Using PISA 2000 and PISA 2006 data, the present study aims to show that the low achievements of Israeli pupils were to be expected, and that their average scores are a reflection of the economic and demographic characteristics of their country. Our findings suggest that the public debate in Israel on school achievements has been magnified out of all proportion. We also discuss the educational policy which derives proposals for educational reform from a conception of globalisation of education. This policy focuses on the setting of standards for educational achievements aimed at improving pupils' place on the international scale. Finally, we claim that the focus on the international grading of educational achievements deflects public attention from an understanding of the significance of inequalities within the country.     

Educate to hate: the use of education in the creation of antagonistic national identities in India and Pakistan

In states that are diverse, issues of national identity formation and who belongs and how they belong can, and often do, change over time. This article analyses how education was used as a tool to artificially create antagonistic national identities based on religious and ethnic definitions of who was Indian or Pakistani. It focuses in particular on how in India the BJP led government (1998–2004) and in Pakistan the government under General Zia‐ul‐Haq (1977–1988) rewrote the curricula and changed textbook content in order to create the ‘other’ in order to suit their ideology and the politics of the day. Drawing on the original textbooks, extensive fieldwork interviews in both countries and a study of recent literature the paper argues that fundamentalization in general and the fundamentalization of textbooks in particular are state controlled mechanisms through which to control society. They can also have serious international consequences, as two antagonistic national identities oppose each other's definition of history and self.     

Creating the “International Mind”: The League of Nations Attempts to Reform History Teaching, 1920–1939

After the First World War, the League of Nations, through its International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, attempted to reshape the teaching of history in its member states. The League's supporters realized that its long‐term success depended in part on supportive public opinion and that this, in turn, had implications for education. Aware of the strength of national loyalties, the League sought not to abolish the teaching of national history but to suffuse it with the spirit of the “international mind.” To this end, the League promoted revision of history textbooks and curricula, retraining of teachers, and rethinking of teaching methods. National governments responded by including some study of the League in history curricula but ignored the League's broader plans. Nonetheless, the League's attempt to internationalize the teaching of history opened up a debate that continues today as schools seek to strike a balance between claims of national and global history.     

小学科学课程:国际趋势与政策建议——基于10国课程标准的比较

我国小学科学课程标准实验稿颁布十余年来,纷争一直不断.研读国外小学科学课程标准文本,总结国外小学科学课程改革经验与发展趋势,有助于为我国标准的修订与完善提供借镜.综观国际经验,有关我国小学科学课程标准完善的建议主要为:完善课程目标维度,增加具体化的纵向目标;优化课程内容领域,合理设置课程模块;优化课程内容选择与组织,认真对待科学知识;优化课程内容呈现,指导教材编制;细化课程实施建议,为教师提供切实帮助;改进课程评价,制订具体可行的评价标准.     

高中物理课程标准教科书内容难度定量分析——以“量子理论”为例

从影响课程内容难度的三要素入手,讨论了各要素的赋值和内容难度的计算问题。以《普通高中物理课程标准(实验)》为参照,从文本角度对4个版本高中物理教科书中量子理论部分进行内容难度定量分析、比较,结果表明:4个版本教科书的内容难度均高于课程标准,并呈现如下顺序:教科版>人教版>沪科教版>鲁科版,教育行政部门和教师应根据所在地区、学校的情况和学生的认知特点选用教科书,灵活处理教学内容。     

Discursive construction of Pakistan's national identity through curriculum textbook discourses in a Pakistani school in Dubai,the United Arab Emirates

This study investigates Pakistan's secondary school children's constructions of their national identity in a Pakistani school in Dubai by drawing on data collected from students and teachers from the case school and analysing national curriculum textbooks used in the school. Informed by Foucault's concepts, the article problematises how the curriculum textbooks are employed as a technology of power for inculcating national consciousness in the students. The findings suggest that Pakistan's national curriculum textbooks deploy a specific version of Islam as a major technology, which then influences other national identity signifiers in the textbooks for shaping students' national identity. The school affords a crucial space for the complex interplay of these technologies, which construct students' ethnocentric national identities, encouraging social polarisation. This has implications for Pakistan's national social cohesion as well as the potential for subverting international peaceful coexistence and working relationships, particularly in the selected overseas study context.     

近二十余年我国学前教育学教材的内容分析

近二十余年,我国学前教育学教材建设取得了可喜的成绩。但到目前为止,尚无人专门对我国近二十年来的学前教育学教材作一专门研究。采用内容分析法对我国学前教育学教材建设进行纵向研究和比较研究,结果表明,二十年来学前教育学教材建设具有四个特点：学前教育学教材以合著为主,独著为辅;学前教育学教材涉及的主题广泛性有余,集中度不够;学前教育学教材的学科意识初现,研究有待展开;学前教育学教材的学术水平有待提高,学术服务意识需要加强。高校学前教育学课程论亟待成为一个被关注和研究的领域。     

Textbook Questions in Context-Based and Traditional Chemistry Curricula Analysed from a Content Perspective and a Learning Activities Perspective

In this study, questions in context-based and traditional chemistry textbooks were analysed from two perspectives that are at the heart of chemistry curricula reforms: a content perspective and a learning activities perspective. To analyse these textbook questions, we developed an instrument for each perspective. In total, 971 textbook questions were analysed. Textbook questions in context-based and traditional curricula appeared to differ significantly in their orientation on content and in the activation to engage students in certain learning activities. Although traditional curricula included more questions that stress traditional chemistry content and included more reproductive chemistry questions than context-based curricula, they were not always as traditional as we had expected. Context-based chemistry curricula focused more on chemistry content relating to societal/technological issues and chemistry theory development and also more questions were included that activate students to regulate their own learning. However, context-based chemistry curricula still included a considerable amount of traditional chemistry content and did not focus as much on higher order learning as we had expected. The developed instruments might be helpful in chemistry curricula design to gain insights into the content which is stressed and how students are activated by textbook questions to engage in learning.     

日本小学社会科教科书中的“传统与文化”

日本已将成为一个"文化创造型国家"确立为国家发展的方向。"传统与文化"教育被寄予了创建国际社会、日本社会、区域社会以及学校社会的重任。2008年修订的课程标准新增了有关传统与文化的课程内容。小学社会科教科书中"传统与文化"相关内容通过展现学生自主探究、学习传统与文化的过程来培养学生的民族认同感,这种内容组织方式是值得肯定的。但是,"传统与文化"内容仅限于三年级有关区域社会的变迁和发展单元与六年级的历史单元中,而且缺乏从传统文化在今天和未来的价值、传统文化对国际社会的影响这两个视角来组织,这将是日本"传统与文化"教育亟待解决的课题。     

The effects of discourses in regional contexts on the development of curriculum-based literacy standards for adolescents in schooling: a comparative study of South Australia and Ontario

This study analyses how discourses in regional contexts affect the development of curriculum-based literacy standards for adolescents in schooling. A comparative case-study research design enabled the influences of discourses at the regional level to be analysed. The case studies include the development of curricula to define a minimum literacy standard for the final years of schooling for adolescents in Ontario, Canada, and South Australia, Australia. Critical discourse analysis of key texts associated with the development of literacy standards in each region reveals how globally shared meanings about standard setting for schooling interact with other discourses operating in local contexts to produce curricula that define literacy standards. The results indicate that, while a global discourse about standards-based reforms may be foregrounded in curriculum, locally generated discourses can challenge key ideas associated with a simplistic discourse about standards. Discourses about literacy in Ontario and South Australia contest the assertion that literacy at the end point of schooling can be defined as a basic competency and local meanings associated with literacy are emphasised within the curriculum for each location. Language choices, involving particularly lexical cohesion, complex noun groups and nominalisation, are used to ensure that local meanings inform literacy standards for the endpoint of schooling.     

建立高职教育课程标准的思考

目前 ,我国高职教育发展迅速 ,但课程建设仍存在一些问题。为了提高和保障高职教育质量 ,必须加强高职课程标准建设 ,制定高职教育课程标准 ,其目的是为了进一步完善国家职业标准体系 ,为高职教育和培训提供科学、规范的课程教学依据     

International language proficiency standards in the local context: Interpreting the CEFR in standard setting for exam reform in Luxembourg

ABSTRACT

In the field of second and foreign language learning, the Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR) is widely-used for setting language proficiency standards within European, and increasingly global, contexts. Few studies, however, have investigated the ways in which systemic, macro-level factors within national educational contexts may influence standard setting practices using the CEFR. In this paper, we explore this issue through an analysis of recorded discussions within standard setting sessions for the Épreuve Commune for English, a national English language examination in Luxembourg. The data reveals four key sources of influence on standard setting decision-making: Luxembourg’s unique language ecology, streamed schooling, the national curriculum, and an ongoing exam reform project. Through this analysis, we argue that Luxembourg functions as a critical case illustrating the tension between international standards of language proficiency and local realities.     

Comparative analysis on the nature of proof to be taught in geometry: the cases of French and Japanese lower secondary schools

This paper reports the results of an international comparative study on the nature of proof to be taught in geometry. Proofs in French and Japanese lower secondary schools were explored by analyzing curricular documents: mathematics textbooks and national curricula. Analyses on the three aspects of proof—statement, proof, and theory—suggested by the notion of Mathematical Theorem showed differences in these aspects and also differences in the three functions of proof—justification, systematization, and communication—that are seemingly commonly performed in these countries. The results of analyses imply two major elements that form the nature of proof: (a) the nature of the geometrical theory that is chosen to teach and (b) the principal function of proof related to that theory. This paper suggests alternative approaches to teach proof and proving and shows that these approaches are deeply related to the way geometry is taught.     

Political ideology and Taiwanese school curricula

Taiwanese textbooks play a central role in Taiwanese education. In the wake of the political reform and social protest movements of the 1970s and 1980s that prompted Taiwanese educational reform, critics have charged that traditional curricula tend to reinforce the dominant national Chinese cultural identity. The purpose of this article is to review recent research on the complex ideological processes in Taiwan’s school curriculum. The article begins with an overview of the political and social impact on social studies curricula in Taiwan from 1949 to the present, followed by a theoretical discussion of the interrelationship between school curriculum and political ideology using an analysis of Taiwanese textbooks as evidence. The article then suggests a number of classroom practices and methodologies for elementary and secondary school teachers in social studies classes.     

Quantitative Analysis of Representations of Nature of Science in Nordic Upper Secondary School Textbooks Using Framework of Analysis Based on Philosophy of Chemistry

The aim of this study was to assess how the different aspects of nature of science (NOS) were represented in Finnish and Swedish upper secondary school chemistry textbooks. The dimensions of NOS were analyzed from five popular chemistry textbook series. The study provides a quantitative method for analysis of representations of NOS in chemistry textbooks informed by domain-specific research on the philosophy of chemistry and chemical education. The selection of sections analyzed was based on the four themes of scientific literacy: knowledge of science, investigate nature of science, science as a way of thinking, and interaction of science, technology and society. For the second round of analysis the theme of science as a way of thinking was chosen for a closer inspection. The units of analysis in this theme were analyzed using seven domain specific dimensions of NOS: tentative, empirical, model-based, inferential, technological products, instrumentation, and social and societal dimensions. Based on the inter-rater agreement, the procedure and frameworks of analysis presented in this study was a reliable way of assessing the emphasis given to the domain specific aspects of NOS. All textbooks have little emphasis on the theme science as a way of thinking on a whole. In line with the differences of curricula, Swedish textbooks emphasize the tentative dimension of NOS more than Finnish textbooks. To provide teachers with a sufficiently wide variety of examples to discuss the different dimensions of NOS changes to the national core curricula are needed. Although changing the emphasis of the curricula would be the most obvious way to affect the emphasis of the textbooks, other efforts such as pre- and in-service courses for developing teachers understanding of NOS and pedagogic approaches for NOS instruction to their classroom practice might also be needed.     

A tale of two worlds: the interstate system and world society in social science textbooks, 1950–2011

There is a great and longstanding divide in visions of the international arena. Some assert that states are the most relevant actors in international politics, and others emphasise the importance of non-state actors as vehicles through which shared ideas and identities are enacted. Typically, cross-national scholarship adopts one of these positions and seeks to support the attendant theoretical claims; our approach is entirely different. We treat these varied conceptions of the international arena not as antecedent explanatory frameworks, but rather as outcomes to be explained in their own right. To this end, we draw on data consisting of 539 high-school social science textbooks (history, civics, social studies, and geography) from 73 countries published between 1950 and 2011, coded to shed light on how the international arena is discussed in national education systems. We use multilevel modelling to determine how characteristics of textbooks and countries are linked to different visions of the international arena. Stronger national emphases in books promote a vision of the interstate system, as does a country’s level of democracy. Emphases on world society emerge particularly in recent decades and in books and countries most exposed to educational and social globalisation. Our findings provide initial support for arguments that world society and the interstate system are distinct, leading to multiple forms of inequality in the international arena.     

论高校双语教学课程原版教材类图书的采购与利用——基于安徽大学的问卷和统计分析

推行部分学科课程双语式教学是教育部为拓宽本科学生专业视野,促进学科与学术前沿融合,加快高等教育与国际接轨而采取的重要举措。根据目前高校双语课程连续多年的教学实践,证明双语教学的实效性很大程度上依赖于原版英文教材的使用。文章以此为论点,对安徽大学部分开设双语课程时间较久的院系所用教材进行问卷调查,并予以统计分析,提出以下商榷性的结论或建议,以资高校采购与利用双语课程英文原版教材类图书时参考：制度上要严把双语原版教材类图书的选用关,加强教学与图书采购人员的信息沟通,注重发挥院系资料室的英文图书保障作用,建立双语原版教材类图书利用效益的最大化机制。     

Mapping generic skills curricula: outcomes and discussion

Generic skills development is increasingly being embedded into UK higher education curricula to improve the employability and lifelong learning skills of graduates. At the same time universities are being required to benchmark their curricular outcomes against national and employer standards. This paper presents and discusses the results of a study mapping the outcomes, delivery, learning and assessment of an embedded generic skills curriculum and benchmarking these against externally agreed standards. By collecting data from students, supervisors and curriculum documentation across the whole five year course in a UK medical school it evaluates the success of the generic skills programme in achieving its objectives. It goes on to discuss how data from the maps might also be used to encourage student learning. It recommends the adoption of this methodology to map embedded skills curricula with the aim of highlighting skills delivery for curriculum designers and skills development for students.     

Re-inventing ‘Europe’: the case of the European dimension in Greek-Cypriot geography and history curricula

‘Europe’ has been increasingly ‘invented’ and ‘reinvented’ in discussions about education, curricula and identities over the last five decades. The ‘European dimension in education’ was a term increasingly used by the European Union and the Council of Europe to denote their educational policies encouraging national educational systems to endorse a European dimension in order to prepare young people for an increasingly integrated Europe. However, it has also been a contested term in academic writing, as some researchers critique the elitist, exclusionary and Eurocentric educational implications it may have; others welcome its pedagogic and intercultural potential. This article presents the findings of a content analysis of the history and geography curricula and textbooks used in state Greek-Cypriot primary schools and explores the possibilities of using the European dimension as a tool to alleviate ethnocentrism and traditional pedagogies in these curricula and textbooks, by presenting the application of some principles which have been used for the development of a curricular intervention in the two subjects.     

Citizenship education in civics textbooks in the Japanese junior high school curriculum

This article discusses the types of citizenship education that are included in a sample of Japanese junior high school civics textbooks. Seven civics textbooks that have been authorized by the Ministry of Education for use in junior high school from the 2012 academic year were analysed in the context of fundamental issues in citizenship education and the national curriculum guidelines in Japan. In contrast to some previously published research, it is argued that the textbooks encourage, to a limited extent, active, participatory approaches by students with exercises and practical tasks to help students develop skills and gain the understanding required to live in contemporary society. It is suggested that the textbooks place some limitations on active learning especially in relation to students' political participation and that they reflect the struggle Japan is experiencing in the search for an inclusive national identity. Further work may serve to clarify the nature of potential contributions to citizenship education including that associated with students' involvement in whole school issues.