Developing a Primary Science Methods Classroom

The purpose of this paper is to describe how and why a primary science methods classroom was conceived, designed, and developed for preservice and inservice teachers. Just as science educators believe that students learn best by constructing their knowledge of the natural world with the aid of a teacher and colleagues, science educators also believe that preservice and inservice teachers should learn in a collaborative and constructivist environment. Multiple dimensions relating to the dynamic processes of learning to teach, a ‘technical factor’ related to the physical and resource constraints that exist within a school, and sociocultural theory were used for the theoretical framework. A survey was given to 97 students who took a course in the classroom, six instructors were given a questionnaire, and three of these instructors were interviewed. These data sources sought to determine the effect of design features on student learning and instructor teaching. The results of the evaluation suggest students who used the classroom found their learning positively affected by the room design and instructors who taught in the classroom benefited by being able to teach in an inquiry and constructivist manner.     

Finding creativity and flow in a high-stakes assessment context

Remarks by the Minister for Education and Skills underscore the accountability that public institutions and the teaching profession carry for assuring the success of the nation's education enterprise. This article challenges assumptions about the nature of education that are critical to the accountability and testing regimens currently in favor internationally. While supportive of the goals of accountability systems, it argues that higher order pedagogies that reconcile competing historical trends between ‘progressive’ and ‘back to basics’ themes are very promising in an era of important new tools. These approaches include designing classroom ecosystems in ways that routinely elicit high performance and flow-like experiences in learning. Such designs, when successful, alter the terms of accountability and testing dialogues.     

改进高师英语课堂教学的探索

21世纪高师英语教学改革的主要目标是培养学生创新意识和创新能力.本文针对当前高师英语教学中存在的一些问题,就如何在高师英语课堂教学过程中培养学生分析问题、独立提出见解能力、创新能力及运用知识的能力作一探讨.     

How academic teachers perceive and facilitate creativity

We will present a case study result from a cross-disciplinary education called Medialogy, which is taught in the Technical and Science Faculty at Aalborg University. The aim of Medialogy is to facilitate creativity within technical solutions. The intention of this paper is to answer the following: how do the Medialogy teachers perceive creativity and how do they facilitate it? Many of the answers point to the pedagogical approach used in problem-based learning, which are perceived as an important element for the creative process. In this paper we will also argue the importance of including the social context (both at a macro and at a micro level) in the definition and use of creativity in engineering education.     

简析儿童的创造性及其培养

我国有关创造性培养的实践和研究所表现的局限反映出人们对儿童创造性特点缺乏全面的理解。根据国内外相关研究 ,儿童的创造常常表现为一些不符合常规的举动和语言。要保护和发展儿童的创造性 ,首先要创设充满尊重与接纳的心理环境 ,尤其要对儿童的“非常”表现给以理解和肯定 ;其次要提供能让儿童运用多种感觉通道进行自主探索的多种活动材料 ,并引导儿童扩展观察视角 ,尝试从多种不同的角度分析和比较事物。此外还需要以高水平的创造成果给儿童提供示范。     

Fostering of creativity within an imaginative curriculum in higher education

Psychology is frequently used as a foundation discipline in the training of adult educators because it addresses those questions which naturally emerge from an engagement with adult learning and teaching (Tennant, 1997). The professional context which forms the focus of this article is no different. By providing academic support for lecturers in a higher education institution in Ireland, there is a desire to develop a sustainable curriculum model whereby by working with them on designing and developing creative curricula in their various subject disciplines in the arts and sciences they, in turn, pass the benefits of this on to their students.     

Learning for well-being: creativity and inner diversity

This article explores the perspective that well-being and creativity can be nurtured in children through understanding and addressing the diverse ways in which children learn, communicate, and develop (inner diversity). In particular, our working hypothesis is that focusing children’s and young people’s learning towards the realization of their well-being supports and enables creativity. But it also requires, firstly, addressing how children perceive, engage with, and express creativity in different ways and, secondly, nurturing the development of core capacities to, in turn, underpin their capacity to develop key competences and skills in formal and non-formal learning settings. In recommending that education systems take the well-being of children as their central purpose, we are suggesting that there are capacities, ranging from personal qualities to behavioural skills, which are necessary for the development of the personal resources to enable lifelong and life-wide learning.     

Technology Integration and the Classroom Learning Environment: Research for Action

This article describes initial results of a collaborative action research endeavor between a regional university and a local school (Grade 6 level) using learning environments research to monitor alignment of classroom learning activities with a constructivist viewpoint while integrating technology into the curriculum. Student perceptions as measured by the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) were explored. Teacher logs, teacher interviews, and fieldnotes from team discussion groups and classroom observation provided further understanding of interactions in the classroom. A one-way analysis of variance in which the set of four classroom learning environment variables for the CLES, the set of five variables for each of the CLES-Mathematics and the CLES-Science and time of administration (prior to technology integration and after technology integration) yielded no significant changes in student perceptions of the classroom learning environment over the duration of the academic year. Interpretation of results led teachers to construct a new set of questions and a new plan of action to bring their classroom learning environment into closer alignment with a constructivist perspective for teaching and learning. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Influence of the Curriculum and Learning Environment on Group Learning Approaches Outside the Classroom

Case studies are presented of the out-of-class behaviour of two contrasting class groups of university students from departments with very different learning environments. One group displayed avoider behaviour, by working together to minimise the amount of work each individual had to do. The other class consisted of more coherent groups of students who socialised together and worked to reach a better understanding of conceptual material; we labelled this engager behaviour. The cases show that both the levels of social coherence of the groups and the out-of-class group learning approaches were strongly influenced by: the curriculum, the type of teaching, the nature of the assessment, the relationship between teachers and students, and the environment within the respective departments. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

课堂环境与学生创造力培养研究

学生创造力的培养是现代教育的重要目的,课堂是培养学生创造力的主渠道。深入探讨课堂环境与学生创造力之间的关系,营建安全、自由的课堂环境,有助于促进学生创造力的发展。     

A Cross-cultural Study of Classroom Learning Environments in Australia and Taiwan

This research is distinctive in that it not only provides an example of one of the few cross-cultural studies in science education, but also it used multiple research methods from different paradigms in exploring classroom learning environments in Taiwan and Australia. This article describes the validation and use of an English and Mandarin version of the What is Happening in this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire in junior high school science classes in Australia and Taiwan. When the WIHIC was administered to 1,081 students in 50 classes in Australia and to 1,879 students in 50 classes in Taiwan, data analysis supported the reliability and factorial validity of the questionnaire, and revealed differences between Taiwanese and Australian classrooms. Although the study commenced from a more positivistic framework, favouring a more objectivist view, as the study progressed, it employed an interpretative framework and drew on elements of constructivist and critical theory paradigms. This article outlines the researchers' use of multiple research methods including classroom observations, in-depth interviews and narratives. The themes which emerged from the data gathered using these methods helped to make sense of classroom environments that were created in each country.

     

引导大学生重视课堂学习的探索

课堂学习仍是现阶段大学生获取知识的重要途径,是高校育人的重要组成部分。随着社会的不断进步及多元化文化的冲击,出现了大学生不重视课堂学习的现象,这直接影响到学生知识水平和综合素质的提升,以及高校的育人环境,同时对教师的教学积极性也有不同程度的挫伤。文章旨在通过对现阶段大学生不重视课堂学习的原因进行剖析,探索出能够合理引导大学生回归课堂学习的途径,进而提高学生参与课堂学习的积极性。这既有助于提升学生课堂学习的效果,同时也有助于建立更为和谐的师生关系。     

努力提高生物课后作业的有效性和创造性

在新课程改革背景下,通过对课后作业的层次性、循序性和创造性进行解读,可以切实帮助学生提高高中生物课后作业的有效性,提高课堂教学质量．     

合理利用学具提高数学课堂教学效率

论述了在数学课堂教学中运用学具提高教学效率的意义。     

教育中,什么在妨碍创造

创造教育是重要的 ,但是 ,十分必要的是 ,应弄清楚现有的教育中有些什么在妨碍创造。事实上 ,妨碍创造与创造教育的因素并不少 ,如独立个性的缺乏 ,社会本位的强旺 ,教育民主的贫弱等等。这些障碍不消除 ,创造教育将实际上离我们很远     

论课堂教学对学生个性的培养

课堂教学要培养学生的个性，让学生个性发展的主动权牢牢地掌握在自己的手中，就要树立“人人平等”的思想，营造宽松的课堂氛围；正视学生间的差异，给予“人人成功”的机会；关注学生的自主性，培养学生的主动精神；鼓励学生大胆创新，发展学生的创造能力。     

课堂教学策略对中学生科学创造力的影响

以广东省两所普通高中的学生为调查对象,采用《青少年科学创造力测验》和《中学课堂教学策略感知量表》,测量中学生的科学创造力水平、教师的课堂教学策略实效以及课堂教学策略对中学生科学创造力的影响情况,研究发现,中学课堂教学策略中的教学动机策略维度和教学方法策略维度能够正向预测学生的科学创造力水平。为了优化课堂教学策略,促进学生科学创造力的发展,教师可以通过教学动机策略维持学生认知与情感的开放性、制造学生情感与认知的冲突;通过教学方法策略引导学生从多个角度发现和解决问题、训练学生复杂的思维过程和想象力、提升学生解决真实问题的能力。     

浅谈在职教课堂上培养和激发学习动机

结合职业技术学校课堂教学实践，阐述了培养和激发学生的学习动机所采取的方式和方法。     

Fostering creativity in the early childhood classroom

Most early childhood teachers would tell you that creativity is important; and that creativity should be considered an integral part of every early childhood classroom. Yet, too often, it is slighted in some areas or limited to being a part of art education. How can creativity can be nurtured and developed in all cognitive and social aspects of an early childhood classroom? The key to this fostering of creativity is for each teacher to examine his or her own filters that can help to foster, or hinder, as the case may be, creativity in that classroom setting. By examining adult attitudes, classroom atmosphere, and children's activities and materials, and adjusting, where necessary, to incorporate certain positive elements for creativity, early childhood educators are more likely to establish a trusting, flexible, and safe environment that allows and stimulates the creative process in an atmosphere of respect.     

化学课堂教学中"学习策略"教育初探

本文结合初等教育专业化学学科教学实际，从化学课程教学的各个环节和过程，探究落实化学“学习策略”教育的一般途径和措施。