Conceptual,pedagogical, cultural,and political dilemmas of implementing a constructivist workshop approach to teaching literacy

Approached as an epistemology, implementing a constructivist workshop approach to literacy can challenge the traditional paradigm of teacher-focused instruction and transform to one where students construct knowledge together and learn through active engagement in authentic reading and writing. This study illustrated how two third-grade teachers managed the conceptual, pedagogical, cultural and political dilemmas they encountered when they began implementing a constructivist workshop approach to literacy. This study validates the disquiet and discomfort teachers may feel as they utilize new curriculum, illustrates that a workshop approach requires an understanding/articulation of personal and curricular pedagogical and epistemological foundations, and encourages administrators to recognize that teachers need time and space to take risks and reflect on their work.     

基于建构主义教学观的高职商务英语写作实践教学模式研究

以建构主义学习理论为依据的实践教学是一种适合高职学生特点、体现高职教育本质的教学模式。本文结合商务英语写作的特点,分析了当前高职商务英语写作教学的现状,指出其尚未建立较为完整系统的实践教学模式,找出该方面存在的问题,阐述了在高职商务英语写作课上进行实践教学的具体方法。运用该方法需要转变教学理念,对教师和学生都是一个新的挑战。     

Dynamic assessment: supporting educational psychologists’ practice through the use of video during supervision

ABSTRACT

Dynamic assessment (DA) is appealing to educational psychologists (EPs) due to: its flexibility, allowing EPs to adjust materials and processes to fit the assessment context; its usefulness, revealing ideas about how the next steps for learning might be achieved; and its focus on strengths. In Feuerstein’s words, “it is the instances of success of the individual that are the focal point for analysis for the reasons of success and failure”. Given the appeal of DA, it is frustrating that it has not been taken up more by practitioners. This paper will explore what DA is, and what it is not, summarise its advantages, consider why it is not more widely used, and introduce one way in which EPs can receive support for DA; using video of an EP “doing” DA within supervision in order to reflect on “good” DA.     

浅谈建构主义理论在化学教学中的运用

该文从建构主义的教学模式与教学方法入手，提出在化学教学实践中，应注重构筑有利于全体学生全面发展的教学目标，创设问题情景，激发学生探究动机、自主学习设计、交互学习设计、自我评价以及强化练习。     

当代西方建构主义教学理论评析

当代西方建构主义教学理论在认识论、学习观、教学观等方面都有自己独到的见解 ,有明显的积极意义。但作为发展中的教学理论 ,它仍有其片面性和不完善之处。如忽视了间接经验、真理的绝对性和外部技能训练的必要性等 ,对建构主义教学理论本体和理论实践中的一些问题还不能很好地给予回答     

The limiting power of Cypriot primary school teachers' private reflections on practice

In a previous paper (Loizou, F. 2011. How Cypriot primary school teachers promote their professional development through reflective practice. Education 3–13 39, no. 3: 233–247.) I explored the concept of theories-in-use within a qualitative research study in order to analyse the role of reflection in bringing about change in the practice of 18 Cypriot primary school teachers. In this article, I build on the findings of this study in order to explore further why reflection onpractice which remains unexamined through professional exchange can have alimiting effect on professional development. In particular, I aim to examine which devices can develop in the unconscious in order to protect unsound theories-in-use and reinforce discrepancies between actions and espoused beliefs. Furthermore, I discuss why these devices block awareness of the need to change. Finally, I make hypotheses about when the above devices could have been developed in the Cypriot teachers' unconscious. The article concludes with suggestions about how the activation of the above devices can be limited or prevented.     

Responding to the challenges of student-staff partnership: the reflections of participants at an international summer institute

This article contributes to the growing scholarly literature about students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education by describing an initiative designed to support partnership and a study investigating international staff and student perspectives. The initiative – an international summer institute – is a four-day, professional development experience that brought together students and staff from seven countries to learn about partnership and develop specific partnership projects. Participants in the institute were invited to contribute to a qualitative study exploring their experiences of students as partners work and their perceptions of the institute’s capacity to support it. Given that much existing research on this topic tends to be celebratory, we focus here on the challenges participants ascribed to student-staff partnership, and on the features of the summer institute they thought particularly useful in helping them to navigate these difficulties. Looking beyond the summer institute, we consider the implications of these findings for those looking to support partnership more broadly.     

试析梁漱溟教育思想与实践的三次转变

随着梁漱溟人生经历的变化和思想的成熟，他的教育思想与实践也经历了三次较为明显的转变；前期是经师阶段，即为学术而教育，以教育促学术；后来是人师阶段，即为青年而教育，以教育促进青年发展；最后是教育家阶段，即为乡村教育，以教育促进乡村建设。每一次转变既有着强大的时代背景，也有着梁漱溟的个人认识背景，从中可体悟最后一代儒家知识分子对中国社会、民族和教育的思考与追求。     

Identifying transcendence in educating for public service: reflections on qualifying to teach as a pedagogic example

In this critically reflective piece, I describe the design of a foundations of education course and my first year teaching experience. I discuss thematic statements of issues that emerged as I came to construct the meaning of my experience and evolving ideas about teaching for public service professions. These included that:

• Questioning is not ‘normal’ for everyone;

• The experience of classroom safety may be different for student participants than for teacher participants;

• Reflection is a situated responsibility; and

• Assessment and authority interact within the context of learning in a formal classroom.

Discussing these issues helped me in framing teaching for public service as itself a transcendent public act, one that crosses boundaries of time and space and that requires embodied, rather than idealistic, understandings of qualifying to teach.     

Implementation of open educational resources in a nursing programme: experiences and reflections

The IMPOER project (implementation of open educational resources, OER) aimed to implement OER in a nursing programme at Dalarna University, Sweden. The university and its nursing programme have long engaged in e-learning, and the nursing programme has recently been awarded the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities E-xcellence Associates Quality Label. The quality award was based on the creation of a roadmap for the continuous development of e-learning and the implementation of OER. The results of the study illustrated that overall, the students and the educators were positive about using OER. They considered that this approach was a new way of learning, and they appreciated the fact that OER were free and easy to access. However, they felt overwhelmed by the amount of material that was available and they were concerned about quality. If the use of OER is to be sustainable, a change in attitudes and practices among students and teachers is likely needed regarding the use of resources on the web.     

基于建构主义理论的大学英语课堂中的合作式竞争学习

在研究学习与环境关系的问题时,"课堂结构"是影响学生学习动机的重要外在因素之一,对其研究的重点是如何,组织学习以及哪种方式更有效,其中包括竞争式、合作式、个性式学习。建构主义理论中包含了个人建构主义、社会建构主义。本文基于建构主义理论,解读我国非英语专业大学英语课堂所采用的合作式竞争学习方式。     

Writing in/of/and educational leadership: reflections of a journal editor

In this article, I deal with a journal’s relation to its field and issues involved in writing and publishing, especially in educational administration and educational leadership. Some issues discussed include: the social construction of the field; the conservatism of educational administration and, later, educational leadership; status hierarchies in the field; the false dichotomy of theory/practice; and the hegemony of the quantitative.     

From question to inquiry: operationalising the case study for research in teaching

Case studies are widely used, particularly by researchers in education. While they are widely used, and have provided some of the most penetrating and challenging research in education and its practice, they may lack coherence and direction. A structure, is therefore, suggested for the operationalisation of case study research in teaching and in education more generally which involves consideration of the selection of case subjects, the choice of analytical focus and the varieties of form which the study itself may actually take. Using this structure, it is possible to give direction and coherence to the study while allowing its design to pursue any of a broad range of trajectories.     

教学实践的应然形态:关注情境的智慧性教学

理论、技术和实践是人类的三种主要活动,有着各自不同的内在逻辑。智慧性教学恢复了实践的应然形态,教学是教师运用实践智慧赋予每一情境以教育意义的临场创造。在情境中展开教学,这就不同于"去情境化"的技术性教学实践,后者将教学窄化为执行某一外在目标的技术手段。反思性教学实践同样看到了实践情境的复杂性、特定性,但在具体描述这种实践形态时,突出了"反思"两字,容易给人造成一种错觉,认为在教学现场有一个慎思过程,使之成为一个有着"实践的身体、理论的头脑"的混合体。     

建构主义理论指导下的高职英语口语支架式教学模式探索

建构主义理论指导下的支架式教学模式在外语教学中具有重要的理论和应用价值。在深入分析当前高职英语口语教学中存在的主要问题的基础上,尝试将支架式教学模式引入高职英语口语教学中。通过创设真实情境、组织协作学习等措施,探索能够激发学生的主动性、潜能和创新精神,提高高职英语口语教学效果的新途径。     

Teachers' perspectives on environmental education in multicultural contexts: Towards culturally-responsive environmental education

This inquiry explores teachers' perspectives on enacting environmental education in a Québec urban locale with high student diversity. Participating in focus groups and interviews, teachers from three schools discussed their experiences incorporating environmental education into their multiculturally-diverse classrooms. Challenges included value clashes, a lack of common lived experiences, and reconciling contradictory educational perspectives and political policies, which often placed teachers in paradoxical positions. Findings suggest moving toward practices of culturally-responsive environmental education that demand more than awareness but include interactive dialogue. Teachers need support from beyond the classroom and the capacity to develop curriculum facilitating the inclusion of students' culture.     

Latino bilingual teachers: the struggle to sustain an emancipatory pedagogy in public schools

This study examines how socially conscious bilingual Latino educators, specifically prepared to teach underserved children, resist multiple layers of hegemonic structures. The participants are five beginning Spanish bilingual teachers who teach in urban and semi-rural elementary schools. The study explores how their resistance unfolds as they develop and become critical educators and how their presence in schools provides children with the potential to develop social consciousness. This participatory research design uses dialogue as a tool to identify the problem, to facilitate the emergence of voice, to construct new knowledge, and to take action. Several themes surface: (1) the isolation of bilingual teachers, (2) the manifestations of power relations among students, (3) the use of a culturally bound pedagogy, (4) the countering of hidden curriculum through critical pedagogy, and (5) development of identity and voice for both students and teachers. The participating Latino teachers linked their social consciousness with an emergent critical pedagogy, which sustained them as they encounter many obstacles in their new profession.     

Returning history to the educational formation of health professionals in Australia

History has practically vanished from allied health professional education. We ask, what kind of problem does a ‘history of the professions’ pose for health sciences curriculum? What are the implications of graduates being unschooled in the history of their profession? Literature on knowledge in the curriculum, is used to interrogate how historical knowledge has come to be constituted in professional education fields. We develop a sketch of two particular health professions – occupational therapy and physiotherapy – and ask why it might be difficult to include a history of the profession in these curricula. Our view is that by helping students to cultivate an historical imagination, they can see how their experiences are framed by a fascinating collision of ideas, politics and practices. Furthermore, attention to history can help students better situate their own uncertainties about transitioning to practice enabling them to tackle professional quandaries with hindsight, foresight and insight.     

Social and emotional learning in the classroom: promoting mental health and academic success

Numerous studies conducted in different countries have focused on empirical research and literature reviews on prevalence, consequences, and strategies relative to cyberbullying; however, there is a lack of research regarding cyberbullying from a cross-cultural perspective. This article reviews recent research on cyberbullying and presents information on prevention and intervention from an international perspective.     

从建构主义探索提高大学生英语听说能力的教学方法

近年来,建构主义的理论思想受到了教育界的广泛关注,得到了越来越多教育界工作者的研究与认同,已经成为教育工作中重要的理论基础支柱之一。建构主义知识观在提高学生的英语听力方面起着重要的作用。本文阐述建构主义知识观对英语听说能力培养的借鉴作用,结合现在大学生英语听说能力现状,以建构主义为基础提出相应的教学建议,建构语言交流的情景,给学生创造更多的听说机会,发挥其主动性;改变教师在课堂上的角色,从知识的传播者向学生的合作者转变。