英语口语练习的任务设计、论证与实践

近年来,英语语言教学的相关研究指出,通过对语言练习＂任务＂的特征和实施条件进行加工处理,可使任务参与者的注意力聚焦到语言使用的准确性、流利性和复杂性上。该文通过个案的设计与实践分析,探讨任务设计与实践结果之间的联系和影响。采用Ellis的描述框架对该任务的设计和特征进行了描述和解释,并预测了实践的效果;将任务的实践效果与预测效果进行比较后,分析差距,对任务设计进行相应的修改处理并进行二次实验;并在设计、实践、分析、修改、二次实践与二次分析的全过程基础上,对英语口语教学的任务设计提出了相关建议。     

Quantitative skills as a graduate learning outcome: exploring students’ evaluative expertise

In the biosciences, quantitative skills are an essential graduate learning outcome. Efforts to evidence student attainment at the whole of degree programme level are rare and making sense of such data is complex. We draw on assessment theories from Sadler (evaluative expertise) and Boud (sustainable assessment) to interpret final-year bioscience students’ responses to an assessment task comprised of quantitative reasoning questions across 10 mathematical and statistical topics. The question guiding the study was: do final year science students graduate knowing the quantitative skills that they have, and knowing the quantitative skills that they do not have? Confidence indicators for the 10 topics gathered students’ perceptions of their quantitative skills. Students were assigned to one of four categories: high performance-high confidence; low performance-low confidence; high performance-low confidence; or low performance-high confidence – with those in the first two categories demonstrating evaluative expertise. Results showed the majority of students effectively evaluated their quantitative skills as low performance-low confidence. We argue that the application of evaluative expertise to make sense of this graduate learning outcome can further the debate on how assuring graduate learning outcomes can enhance student learning.     

以“课堂学习任务单”为支点重构品德课堂教学

当前课堂变革的核心精神是\"以学生的学习为中心\",学生学习的关键在思考,而推动思考的是一些具体的任务。基于这个起点,并结合品德新课程标准和课堂教学的实际需要,借助学科教学案例归纳了设计\"课堂学习任务单\"的三种基本类型,即螺旋上升式、递进式、并列式。这此基础上着重探讨了在任务单设计过程中,要讲究的设计策略,初步了解任务单在重构品德课堂教学中的价值。     

Characterising programme‐level assessment environments that support learning

This article outlines a methodology for characterising features of programme‐level assessment environments so that the relationship between features of the assessment environment and students’ learning response can be studied. The methodology was developed through the detailed case study of nine undergraduate degree programmes: one in each of three contrasting discipline areas in each of three contrasting universities. Each case study involved examination of course documentation, interviews with academics and interviews with students, following which each degree programme was coded in relation to a range of features of the assessment environment, such as the proportion of marks derived from examinations and the volume and timeliness of feedback on assignments. Programmes were found to differ profoundly in terms of variables that are known to have implications for student‐learning processes. They also differed widely in the extent to which they illustrated the application of conventional wisdom about curriculum design, embodied in national quality assurance guidelines and the Bologna Agreement. Programmes were found to have either a high volume of summative assessment or a high volume of formative‐only assessment, but never both at the same time. Programmes also differed in the mechanisms used to make goals and standards clear, having either highly explicit curriculum design or high volumes of written and oral feedback, but never both at the same time. The findings suggest that there are distinctive programme‐level assessment environments that operate in quite different ways despite all programmes studied being subject to the same quality assurance code of practice.     

国际视野下的本科生学习结果评估——对“评估什么”和“如何评估”的分析与思考

当前,世界发达国家都很关注本科生的学习结果评估,并陆续开发出各种评估工具,推进评估实践。就评估的内容而言,各种评估工具主要关注学生学习的认知结果与非认知结果,并且因评估形式的不同,在评估内容的指向上存在着差异。就评估的机制而言,各国在组织、频率、参与者及结果使用等方面也表现一些共性与个性的特点。     

Struggling and juggling: a comparison of student assessment loads across research and teaching-intensive universities

In spite of the rising tide of metrics in UK higher education, there has been scant attention paid to assessment loads, when evidence demonstrates that heavy demands lead to surface learning. Our study seeks to redress the situation by defining assessment loads and comparing them across research and teaching intensive universities. We clarify the concept of ‘assessment load’ in response to findings about high volumes of summative assessment on modular degrees. We define assessment load across whole undergraduate degrees, according to four measures: the volume of summative assessment; volume of formative assessment; proportion of examinations to coursework; number of different varieties of assessment. All four factors contribute to the weight of an assessment load, and influence students’ approaches to learning. Our research compares programme assessment data from 73 programmes in 14 UK universities, across two institutional categories. Research-intensives have higher summative assessment loads and a greater proportion of examinations; teaching-intensives have higher varieties of assessment. Formative assessment does not differ significantly across both university groups. These findings pose particular challenges for students in different parts of the sector. Our study questions the wisdom that ‘more’ is always better, proposing that lighter assessment loads may make room for ‘slow’ and deep learning.     

Engaging with blended learning to improve students’ learning outcomes

When blended learning is embraced to enhance learning in engineering (architectural), design and architecture, we argue it is a best-practice instructional mode. Blended learning is the seamless amalgamation of carefully selected online modules with face-to-face instruction. This paper evaluates case studies of the introduction of blended learning in these disciplines. It demonstrates that students who do not engage with blended learning are academically disadvantaged. Alignment of the blended mode of delivery and the mode of assessment is next considered. Two case studies of the introduction of blended modes of assessment, for improved student satisfaction with feedback, are evaluated. Finally, the reliance upon non-faculty to provide both blended learning and assessment is evaluated using qualitative research methods to establish the barriers to adoption of what is now considered best educational practice.     

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts: a large-scale study of students’ learning in response to different programme assessment patterns

Audits of 23 degree programmes in eight universities showed wide variations in assessment patterns and feedback. Scores from Assessment Experience Questionnaire returns revealed consistent relationships between characteristics of assessment and student learning responses, including a strong relationship between quantity and quality of feedback and a clear sense of goals and standards, and between both these scales and students’ overall satisfaction. Focus group data helped to explain students’ learning responses but also identified ambivalent responses to the use of formative-only assessment, particularly when it was optional. Frequently, students were unclear about goals and standards, and found feedback unhelpful when assessment demands differed across modules, and when marking standards and approaches varied widely, making it difficult for feedback to feed forwards. The methodology underpinning the Transforming the Experience of Students through Assessment study described here has been used in more than 20 universities worldwide and is helping teachers to redesign assessment regimes, so that teachers’ efforts support learning better.     

美、德、日三国研究生创新能力培养方式比较与启示

在“新自由主义”理念下美国将培养创新精神作为研究生教育的核心价值理念,通过制定灵活的培养计划、拓宽学生的知识面以及采用民主的课堂教学来培养学生的创新能力;德国秉承了洪堡“教学科研相结合”的教育理念,构建产学研结合机制作为研究生的创新动力机制,从研究生的论文选题、导师遴选、课程设置等方面促进研究生创新能力的培养;而日本确立“科技创新立国”的战略之后,重建了多样化的研究生教育理念,通过多样化与综合化的课程设置、启发式的教学方式以及官产学研相结合的机制来保障研究生的创新。这些国家的做法给我国研究生创新教育提供了很多启发与借鉴。     

基于任务驱动的计算机专业毕业设计的实践

毕业设计是本科毕业生在大学阶段必须要经历的实践环节,学生只有顺利完成毕业论文才能够圆满结束四年的学习。本文分析了目前计算专业毕业设计存在的问题,将任务驱动法应用于计算机专业的毕业设计中,让学生带着任务主动地进行探索式学习,有助于激发学生的兴趣,培养其创新精神和实践能力。     

把握基于工作过程导向课程的关键——以应用文写作课程为例

基于工作过程导向的应用文写作课改,应强调知行合一原则,应通过调整课程设计逻辑思路、把握BAG法的关键要素等方法予以解决.     

Grant‐maintained schools: Making a difference without being really different 1

Homo Sollers Beats Homo Sapiens. The Fourth Edinburgh Medal Address. Heinz Wolff. Pp. x, 44. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, on behalf of the City of Edinburgh District Council in association with The Edinburgh International Festival of Science and Technology, 1993. £4.95 in paperback. ISBN 0 7486 0442 1.

The Multicultural Dimension of the National Curriculum. Edited by Anna S. King and Michael J. Reiss. pp 297. London: The Falmer Press, 1993. £12.95. ISBN 0750700696 paperback. Also available in hardback.

Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals. By Iris Murdoch Pp. 512. Index. London: Chatto and Windus 1992. £20.00. ISBN 0 7011 3998 6.

World Yearbook of Education 1993; Special Needs Education. Edited by Peter Mittler, Ron Brouillette and Duncan Harris (Series Editor). Pp x 276. Index. London. Kogan Page. 1993. £32.00. ISBN 0 7494 0854 5. 11th in the series World Yearbook in Education.

The European and American University since 1800; historical and sociological essays. Edited by Sheldon Rothblatt and Björn Wittrock. pp. xi. 370. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press. 1993. £37.50. ISBN 0 521 43165 4 hardback.

Learner Managed Learning. Edited by Norman Graves. Pp x, 185. Index. Leeds: Higher Education for Capability and World Education Fellowship, 1993. £13.95 flexicover, ISBN 0–9521325–08.

Conflict in Child and Adolescent Development; edited by Shantz C. U. and Hartup, W. W. Pp. 453. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. £40/$59.95 hardcover only. ISBN 0–521–40416–9. Cambridge Studies in Social and Emotional Development.

Children's Learning Difficulties: A cognitive approach by J. Dockrell and J. McShane. Pp. viii, 245. Index. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993. £40 hard cover; £12.99 flexicover. ISBN 0–631–17016–2 hc; 0–631–17017–0 fc.

The Schoolhome: Rethinking Schools for Changing Families by Jane Roland Martin. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London: 1992. 237 pp. ISBN 0–674–79265–3. Price: $24.95.

Assessing the National Curriculum Edited by Philip O'Hear and John White. Pp 138. Index. London: Paul Chapman Publishing Ltd. 1993 £11.95 Paperback. ISBN 1 85396 232 5

Partnership in Initial Teacher Training: Talk and Chalk, Clare Hake, pp 36, London, Institute of Education, Tufnell Press £3.95 ISBN 1 872767 46 X The London File: Papers from the Institute of Education.

The Promise and Perils of Educational Comparison by Martin McLean. Pp. 40. London: Institute of Education, University of London, 1992: The London File ISBN 1 872767 31 1, £3.95

Case Studies in Teaching in Higher Education by Peter Schwartz and Graham Webb. Pp. 162; London: Kogan Page, 1993. £16.95; ISBN 0–7494–0972‐X.

Educational Values for School Leadership by Sylvia West. Pp x, 160. London: Kogan Page 1993. £14.95. ISBN 0 7494 0839 1. The Management and Leadership in Education Series.

Equality and Achievement in Education by James S. Coleman. Pp xi, 340. Boulder, San Francisco &; London: Westview Press 1993. £30.50 hardcover: £13.50 paperback. ISBN 0–8133–7791–9 hc;‐1860–2 pbk. Social Inequality Series #1.

Children in Time and Place, developmental and historical insights, edited by Elder, G., Modell, J., Parke, R.: pp. 289, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993. £35.00 hardback, ISBN 0 521 41784 8