Place and Being

Do places matter educationally? When Edward Casey remarks: ‘The world is, minimally and forever, a place‐world’, we might take this statement as presupposing without argument that places exist as a given, that we know what a place is, a point that Aristotle would have never taken for granted and in fact neither does Casey. I find Casey's remark that we live in ‘a place‐world’ an immensely rich turn of phrase, forever packed with an infinite and diverse range of landscapes reflecting our being in the world, a maze of wonders, an orchestra of different subtle sounds where places are witnessed, mimicked and created. We submerge ourselves in the gamesome labour of place and learn to perceive and quiver in its light. I will discuss through a phenomenological perspective the self‐givenness of place experience, the unfolding of a life that is an aspect of one's own space and horizon. The relationship between place and being and the aesthetic way that I discuss this is central to this paper's analysis, a position that is at odds with those who favour a more macro theoretical perspective that eclipses place. My analysis focuses on a philosophical exploration of being‐in‐place, where place becomes being. Much is made of the thought that place is primarily an aesthetically lived experience where we create ourselves. An attempt is made to show how an embodied sense of being in place transforms places of learning. The paper attempts to acknowledge the kind of governing power of being that place interconnections can enclose, personalize and create.     

A Lifeworld Critique of ‘Nature’ in the Taiwanese Curriculum: A perspective derived from Husserl and Merleau‐Ponty

Learning about ‘nature’ has particular significance for education because the idea of nature is an important source of inspiring meaning‐rich experience and creation. In order to have meaningful experiences in learning and living, this paper argues for a personal subject‐related lifeworld approach to the learning of ‘nature’. Many authors claim that the lifeworld‐led learning approach helps to enrich educational experience. However, there can be various interpretations of the lifeworld approach, as the concept of lifeworld is diversely understood. This paper proposes a personal, subject‐related lifeworld approach from a Husserlian‐Merleau‐Pontian perspective. I suggest that it holds great potential for improving our current curriculum which suffers from meaning‐impoverishment. This paper comprises the following parts: the elucidation of the lifeworld approach to learning, a demonstration of the flaws of current curricula by discussing and analysing the Taiwanese curriculum guidelines, and an exposition of the contribution of the Husserlian‐Merleau‐Pontian lifeworld approach towards improving our current curriculum.     

体验学习视域下的社区教育方式研究

社区教育的发展告诉我们,社区教育的活力在于学习方式的不断变革和创新。近年来,体验学习方式在社区教育的尝试和应用,引发了我们对社区教育方式的新思考。体验学习方式坚持以学习者为中心,强调学习过程的反思性、开放性和合作性,对于改进社区教育方式具有积极意义。因此,把体验学习方式应用于社区教育,有助于进一步体现社区教育的取向、提升社区教育的品质、激发社区教育的活力、完善社区教育的载体。为此,我们需要用体验学习的理念指导社区教育工作,开展多维度的体验学习方式实践,探索基于网络环境的互动体验方式、基于实践基地的社会体验方式以及基于实训基地的培训体验方式,从而寻求社区教育的新途径和新方法。     

体验式学习理论及其对成人教育的启示

"体验式学习"是指在设定学习目标的前提下,学习者在真实或者模拟的环境中.进行切实的实践或体验,然后通过反思、感悟分享,实现自身知识、能力以及态度的提升与重构的一种学习方式.它以学习者为中心,注重体验和反思,强调体验和反思之间的平衡.它一般可以分为:制定目标、具体体验、反思观察、抽象概括、行动应用等环节,具有学员主体性、情境性、行动性、反思性等特征.本文论述了体验式学习的定义、理论发展、特点及其对成人教育的启示.     

Why do Muslim parents want Muslim schools?

Islam is a way of life, we try to do what the Prophet did. (Muslim teacher)

The small‐scale study focuses on a number of Muslim parents and practitioners who have rejected local primary community schools in favour of Muslim faith schooling. The rejection of the type of schools that we support and that we train our student teachers to prepare for prompts considerable concern. This concern has led us to question in what ways Muslim schools represent a challenge to our own educational beliefs and values. This study is an attempt to identify the source of that challenge and what it means to our understanding of ourselves as white educators and researchers and the work we do with trainee teachers. It leads us to question our perspective on a range of issues including diversity, inclusion, parental rights and ultimately the aims of education.     

What do Children Aged Four to Seven Know about the Digestive System and the Respiratory System of the Human Being and of Other Animals?

The object of this paper is to learn what little children know about the inside of their bodies before they have studied these particular aspects at school. The data for our project were collected by means of drawings made by 342 Spanish children aged four to seven. They were required to depict where the food, drink, and air which enter their bodies go. In addition to this, we intend to study how the ideas of children evolve during three consecutive years. For this purpose, a group of 32 subjects was monitored. Our findings show that the children recognise specific organs in their own bodies which they associate with the intake of food and air. Furthermore, they usually extrapolate those organs to other animals they are familiar with. Their ideas about the digestive system are more adequate than the ones about the respiratory system, though their ideas improve as they become older, above all those concerning the digestive system. Taking these findings as a basis, this paper suggests some points to be taken into consideration for teaching purposes.     

Listening to learn: children playing and talking about the reception year of early years education in the UK

Recently in the UK there have been dramatic changes in the state provision of early years education and care, most notably the introduction of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority's ‘early learning goals’ in 1999 and ‘curriculum guidance for the foundation stage’ in 2000. Outlining the context in which these changes came to take place, this research begins to consider how we might understand children's experiences of this policy in practice in their reception year. Valuing children's potential as participants in research, a play‐based activity was designed to ensure that the process of generating data would be meaningful to the children as well as to the researcher. Analysis of the discourse highlights themes of early education that were of importance to the children. Further discussion of these themes offers insight into how concepts of work and play might be linked to the role of the adult‐in‐charge, potentially undermining opportunities for learning; and how concepts of the individual, normalisation and the individualised academic curriculum promoted by national policy stand opposed to a notion of community on which the children place great emphasis.     

感觉统合训练融入高专院校早教专业课程的策略研究

本文分析了高专院校早教专业课程建设现状和感觉统合训练融入到早教专业课程体系的意义,为了能够使高专院校早教专业课程的实践环节更丰富,本文尝试将感觉统合训练融入到高专院校早教专业的课程体系中,为了达到最佳效果,尝试提出了相应策略。     

Civic service through schools: an international perspective

Civic service, which refers to activities that seek to improve the local, national or international community either through community service or service learning, is widespread in secondary schools around the world. Despite this pervasive presence, there are few studies that approach the subject from a cross‐comparison perspective. This article addresses this gap by providing a comprehensive review of the international literature on civic service in terms of history, theory, research and practice. In terms of history and theory, the article brings together the work of several key proponents of civic service who, despite working in different countries and continents, placed civic service high in their educational agenda. In terms of research, it presents the most up‐to‐date research on the potential benefits and pitfalls of civic service. In terms of practice, it lists various limitations related to its implementation and presents possibilities for overcoming these. This section stresses the importance of establishing a respectful and honest relationship with intended beneficiaries to avoid fostering unhealthy social patterns, a key problem of many civic service programs. The article ends with areas for future research.     

自主性学习方法在高校美术欣赏课中的运用

自主性学习是遵循教育教学规律,在教育教学的实践中归结出的一种以学生为主体的自主性教育教学方法。它包括课前准备、课堂互动和课后提高三个环节。实践证明,这是提高高校美术欣赏课效果的有效方法。     

“It has very good intentions but it’s not quite there yet”: Graduates’ feedback of experiential learning in an MPharm programme Part 2 (TELL Project)

There is a paucity of studies assessing graduates’ perceptions of experiential learning and its effectiveness in preparing them for practice. This information would be important in informing changes to the experiential learning component of pharmacy education. We present Part 2 of a mixed-methods study involving graduates to obtain feedback on their experiential learning experience. Online survey responses and qualitative interviews provided suggestions on improving the experiential learning,which included adopting block placements which would allow for a better placement experience. Having a pre-registration trainee present was beneficial, highlighting the possible value of adopting a tiered-teaching model. Given the poor experience at certain placement sites, quality assurance measures should be adopted to ensure tutors and sites are suited and able to train students for the real-world. The majority wanted feedback from tutors, and indeed this should be formalised as it is a key component in the experiential learning cycle.     

高师美术教育中的研究性学习探微

在世界高等教育改革运动中，许多国家都在大力创建和发展研究型大学，并对本科生研究性学习能力的培养表现出前所未有的关注。本文结合国外研究型大学本科教育特点和我国高师美术院校本科教育现状，就如何把研究性学习纳入我国高师美术教育的必要性及具体举措进行探讨。