Literacy impact studies in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu

During 1998–99, two separate studies to evaluate the impact of new literacy programs on pupils’ achievement were conducted in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu primary schools by a team of local teachers, an external consultant and the staff of a regional program entitled Basic Education and Literacy Support (BELS). The studies were sponsored by the BELS Program as a part of its strategy to monitor the impact of its ideas and its in-service training for teachers on literacy education. The studies adopted a cross-sectional design, contrasting project schools with control group schools and included a sample of 19 schools, 10 in the first study in Solomon Islands and 9 in the second study in Vanuatu. Data on the literacy achievements of pupils at Years 3 and 4 in these schools were collected. This chapter reports on the design, fieldwork and findings of the two impact studies.     

Literacy Literacy

The paper argues that the term ‘literacy’ has become attached to too many disparate practices, and that renewed attention needs to be paid to how the acquisition and use of skills of written communication are conditioned by the core structures of the home, the classroom, and the state. It reviews the current usages of literacy and examines the agenda for further research in the central areas of reading and particularly writing. Attention is drawn to the contemporary engagement with literacy as a basic skill, and to the recent implementation in England of the “National Literacy Strategy.” The close parallels between the 19th and early 21st century literacy strategies are noted. If historians wish to apply their research to an interrogation of contemporary ideology and practice, greater attention should be paid to domestic instruction and to the role of government over time.     

Literacy in the secondary curriculum

The much‐signalled extension of the National Literacy Strategy from primary to secondary schools is now in full swing and many secondary teachers are actively looking for practical guidance on ways forward with this national priority. One way of providing such guidance is to outline a common language with which secondary teachers of all subjects can discuss the role of literacy within their subjects. This article puts forward one possible way of developing this common language, by building on the work of Freebody and Luke (1990) in Australia who suggest a literacy resource model. This model is applied to the teaching of literacy within the three core subjects of English, Mathematics and Science.     

Educational technology and the world wide web in the pacific islands

TechTrends - The United States and Japan are at the forefront of technological innovation, telecommunications and information management in the Pacific. This new era of “information”...     

中国和平文化生成的内在机理

和平文化是中华文化最核心的价值取向之一,古代中国和平文化的生成,不仅具有非常雄厚的物质经济、思想文化、价值观念基础,也有其基于自身地域特征和社会历史特性的内在规定性,并且它已经深植于我们的民族文化中,成为塑造中华民族和平性格的重要精神元素。     

Educational technology and the world wide web in the pacific islands

Conclusion The United States and Japan are at the forefront of technological innovation, telecommunications and information management in the Pacific. This new era of “information” and “communication” raises disturbing questions: Whose information will be disseminated and heard? Can diversity be respected in a world driven by CNN World News and MTV world music? We do not have answers to these questions, but those of us who disseminate innovation and technology into the Pacific must engage in these dialogues with indigenous peoples. Pacific Island cultures must be taken into account as educators and others move toward international dialogue about educational technology, learning and “voice.” We hope this essay stimulates further thought and discussion in this area, as well as an impetus for developing partnerships between Pacific Island communities and institutions of higher education. Her research interests include learning and teaching with multimedia and web-based materials. His research interests include technologies for self-determination and voice.     

The Implications of the 'New Literacy Studies' for Literacy Education

This paper deals with the following questions:

• 1 The ‘problem’: what is the ‘Literacy Debate’ and why do such apparently arcane accounts of language and literacy have such a high profile in popular media?
• 2 What are the New Literacy Studies (NLS) and what are the new understandings of language and of literacy on which NLS are based?
• 3 . What are the implications for literacy education?

     

Critical Literacy,Disciplinary Literacy: Reading the Engineering-Designed World

Globally, many people spend most of their time interacting with the products of engineering design as they wear clothes, drink clean water, use transportation systems, and more. Given the omnipresence of engineering design, whose material results are felt daily in people’s lives, it seems especially important that students learn to recognize and question how certain designs promote the welfare and interests of some while remaining inaccessible to others. In this article, we outline a vision for critical literacy instruction in engineering that simultaneously incorporates and challenges professional standards. We—an associate professor of literacy, an engineer, and a teacher at an engineering-focused high school—illustrate how critical literacy instruction might be enacted in the context of engineering design instruction in high schools. We describe how critical literacy can complement disciplinary literacy instruction in engineering as students use critically-focused, disciplinary lenses to move toward social justice.     

Literacy,Numeracy and Computer Literacy

Abstract

Prevailing hierarchical attitudes have prevented most British organisations changing to more successful democratically run organisational cultures. Many academics have played a part in this by themselves suppressing the lessons of best democratic practice. The human and economic cost of hierarchical working and teaching/ learning practices makes it morally incumbent on those who work in education to rationally and honestly evaluate evidence and voice the central and urgent need for top managers to take the lead in the culture change process required for high quality educational and industrial performance.     

The Vocational Turn in Adult Literacy Education and the Impact of the International Adult Literacy Survey

The authors critically examine some of the underlying epistemological and theoretical assumptions of the IALS. In doing so, they distinguish among two basic orientations towards literacy. First, the standard approach (of which IALS is an example) subscribes to the possibility of measuring literacy as abstract, cognitive skills, and endorses the claim that there is an important relationship between literacy skills and economic success in the so-called 'knowledge society.' The second, called a socio-cultural approach, insists on the contextual and power-related character of people's literacy practices. The authors further illustrate that the assumptions of the IALS are rooted in a neo-liberal ideology that forces all members of society to adjust to the exigencies of the globalised economy. In the current, contingent conditions of the risk society, however, it does not seem very wise to limit the learning of adults to enhancing labour-market competencies. Adult education should relate to the concrete literacy practices people already have in their lives. It should make its learners co-responsible actors of their own learning process and participants in a democratic debate on defining the kind of society people want to build.     

从PISA2015科学素养测评看数学素养的重要性

本文从PISA2015科学素养测评科学地解释现象、设计与评估科学探究实验、科学地解释数据和证据三个方面分析数学素养在科学领域的应用,并给出在学校教育中综合提升学生科学素养与数学素养的一些建议。     

信息教育中的教师信息素养及培养

在信息教育中，教师的作用是多方面的，一方面自身也需要接受信息教育；另一方面，教师又是学校教育的主要承担者，在学科教学中让学生接受信息教育，教师自身的信息素养关系到整个信息教育的成败。本文论述了教师信息素养的重要性和特征，还对如何提高我国的教师信息素养提出了若干建议。     

Literacy Perspectives on Computers in the Schools

No abstract available for this article.