Pitfalls,Challenges, and Triumphs: Issues in an International Capacity Development Project

The subject of this article is the development of a Dutch technical assistance programme for the Technikon Northern Gauteng, higher education institution in South Africa. As this institution is classified as an institution in need of assistance, it was qualified to develop an assistance project in collaboration with the Joint Financing Programme for Co-operation in Higher Education (MHO) of the Netherlands. The project, thus, has run since 1997. It involves five sub-projects linked to five Dutch higher education institutions. One of these, the staff development project, undertaken in collaboration with the University of Maastricht, is detailed. On the whole, the assistance received has been useful to Technikon Northern Gauteng and the project is judged a success.     

数控加工试题库开发中的教学项目管理初探

数控加工试题库开发是三峡电力职业学院进行数控加工操作与理论教学整合教研课题中的一个重要子项目.此项目分项目计划、教学项目开发、后继行动三个阶段.本项目的主要成员由学生组成,其专业基础不同,层次各异,思维能力有别,所以各管理环节中难度较大的是项目的进度控制和质量控制.     

引领式在线教师培训模式在大规模培训中质量保证要素分析——以“国培计划”中西部远程培训北京大学项目为例

随着网络教育的快速发展以及大规模教师在职培训需求的不断扩张,教师远程培训模式不失成为一种低成本、大规模培训的重要渠道。北京大学的引领式在线教师培训模块已经实践了接近4年的时间,那么如何在大规模教师培训中发挥它的有效性,并保证培训质量成为下一步需要继续研究的课题,文章以中西部远程培训北京大学项目为例,从课程资源、教学支持、过程性评价、交流交互四个方面来说明在线教师培训质量保证问题。     

Technology Education in South Africa: Evaluating an Innovative Pilot Project

Researchers from Goldsmiths College were asked to undertake an evaluation of a three year curriculum initiative introducing technology education, through a learner-centred, problem solving and collaborative approach. The program was developed in a group of high schools in the North West Province of South Africa. We visited ten schools involved in the project and ten parallel schools not involved who acted as a control group. We collected data on student capability (demonstrated through an innovative test activity) and on student attitudes towards technology (demonstrated in evaluation questionnaires and in semi-structured interviews). Collectively the data indicate that in areas of knowledge and skill and in certain aspects of procedures (most notably problem solving) the project has had a marked impact. We also illustrate that greater consideration could have been given in the project to developing skills in generating and developing ideas and in graphic communication. Gender differences are noted, particularly in terms of positive attitudes illustrated by both boys and girls from schools involved in the project. Attention is drawn to the critical impact the project has had on transforming the pedagogy of the teachers from a teacher-centred didactic model, to a learner-centred, problem solving model. Some wider implications of the successes of this project are debated.     

Development in South African Primary Mathematics Teacher Educators’ Work with In-Service Teachers

This paper focuses, empirically, on the developments seen in a group of South African early grades’ mathematics teacher educators in the course of a university-provincial education department partnership project. This project sought to support the district Mathematics Subject Advisers to support, in turn, teachers to implement an intervention consisting of a sequence of four lessons focused on multiplicative reasoning. Outcomes based on pre- and post-tests administered by the Subject Advisers suggested substantial pre- to post-test improvement at the student level. Subject Adviser observations and reflections pointed to successes in engendering more dialogic conversations between mathematics teachers and mathematics teacher educators focused on mathematics and its teaching and learning. The ‘double move’ of increasing overlap between the subject adviser and teacher communities, coupled with evidence that implementing the intervention had enabled the Subject Advisers to develop their mathematical and pedagogical understandings, provides a useful way of considering development in the capacity of mathematics teacher educators to support mathematics teaching and learning.

     

The Role of External Professionals in Education about Sexual Orientation−towards good practice

Throughout England, young people in schools are entitled to a comprehensive programme of sex education as part of Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE). Current debate about the content of such a programme is informed by new government guidance on sex and relationship education as well as pre-existing concerns about homophobic bullying, sexual health and mental health. In an English local authority, an externally funded Young Gay and Bisexual Men's Development Worker provided educational activities to address sexual orientation and identity issues to four schools. An evaluation sought to identify whether successes had been achieved and why. A further aim was to identify useful learning about the role of external professionals in carrying out effective education about sexual orientation with young people in schools. The evaluation was developed within the context of a number of 'real-world' limitations. Nevertheless, a significant number of project successes (and areas for development) were documented. Successes included raising awareness of key issues among pupils and supporting teachers engaged in PSHE. Key factors contributing to success included: adequate preparation of teachers and pupils in schools; an appropriately skilled and experienced project worker; and a considered approach to building partnerships with schools and working with young people.     

Trainee teachers’ use of blogs as private reflections for professional development

A collaborative research project between Sheffield Hallam University and Nottingham Trent University in the UK investigated the use of blogs with trainee teachers as an alternative to reflective paper‐based diaries. An action research case study, involving focus groups of post‐graduate (secondary) trainee teachers (one group from each University) was undertaken to determine attitudes and perceptions of blogging as an appropriate tool to support reflective professional development. The findings indicate that the use of blogs by the trainee teachers had a positive impact overall, and provide concrete evidence of their development as emerging professional teachers. Unlike traditional paper‐based systems, blogs provided ongoing opportunities for the tutor to assist the trainees in their development as reflective practitioners. This paper seeks to share the findings of this research which the authors believe could be applicable to other areas of Higher Education.     

The Teaching Community: Recreating university teaching

Over the past 5 years, in two Australian universities, a model for the professional development of university teaching staff has been evolving. In the Faculty of Computing and Information Technology (FCIT) at Monash University and in First Year Engineering at Swinburne University, the Teaching Community approach has resulted in remarkable changes in university teachers' understanding of their role, their teaching skill and, most importantly, their enthusiasm and motivation for the teaching component of their work. At Swinburne the rapid uptake of the model has exceeded expectations, while at Monash FCIT the model continues to grow and evolve years after the initiating project expired. The Teaching Community model has proved effective in bringing educational development and in coping with imposed change. This paper traces the growth of the Teaching Community model, elaborates some of the successes experienced, makes some suggestions as to why it has been so powerful in bringing about change in an area well known for resistance and proposes conditions required for this on-site, low cost approach to improving tertiary teaching.     

Industrial Experience Projects: A Balance of Process and Product

Students in the final year of the Bachelor of Computing degree at Monash University must do a full year group project as a capstone subject. Each group of five or six builds a real system which is normally for a client outside the university. The project usually necessitates learning some skills that have not been taught in the course. Each group works on a different project. The emphasis is on management issues and the software development process as much as on the product, with a set of deliverables and deadlines throughout the year, and an assessment strategy reflecting this.     

Simulated consulting: A win-win experience in transport engineering education

Students undertaking a final year elective subject in transportation planning at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, worked on a practical project for which there was an interested outside 'client'. From the students' perspective, this was essentially a 'simulated' consulting project which focused on transport planning issues faced by an inner metropolitan municipality in Melbourne. The overall experience, from everybody's perspective, proved to be so positive that the model for the project will be used in the course in future years. This paper has been written to inform engineering educators of how the project was implemented and to highlight some of the educational issues which this type of experience raised. Of particular interest to educators are issues associated with the functioning of some of the student groups and the opportunities provided by projects of this nature to establish strong links with industry.     

Bones,boys, bombs and booze: an exploratory study of the reliability of marking dissertations across disciplines

The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability of the University’s Masters’ level (M‐level) generic assessment criteria when used by lecturers from different disciplines. A further aim was to evaluate if subject‐specific knowledge was essential to marking these dissertations. Four senior lecturers from diverse disciplines participated in this study. The University of Teesside’s generic M‐level assessment criteria were used and formatted into a grid. The assessment criteria related to the learning outcomes, the depth of understanding, the complexity of analysis and synthesis and the structure and academic presentation of the work. As well as a quantitative mark, a qualitative statement for the reason behind the judgement was required. Each lecturer provided a dissertation that had previously been marked. All participants then marked each of the four projects using the M‐level grid and comments sheet. The study found very good inter‐rater reliability. For any one project, the variation in marks from the original mark was no more than 6% on average. This study also found that subject‐specific knowledge was not essential to marking when using generic assessment criteria in terms of the reliability of marks. The authors acknowledge the exploratory nature of these results and hope other lecturers will join in the exploration to test the robustness of generic assessment criteria across disciplines.     

Interdisciplinary Teaching Within Engineering Education

This paper reports the development and implementation of a multi-disciplinary course called ‘sustainable development’ within engineering education at the University of Technology Eindhoven (TUE). In this course, students of different disciplines have to cooperate with each other in a project, with the aim of finding (more) sustainable solutions for an environmental issue or problem put forward by industry or (governmental) institutions (e.g. a zero-energy dwelling). The educational form is based on project-oriented education. The project group, which consists of six to eight students from at least three disciplines, is responsible for the results and the project. During their project, the students can rely on a tutor, who is primarily a process guide. Together with the principal, the tutor advises on whether or not the proposed working plan is realistic and can be realized within the given time of 160 h (two half-days over 20 weeks). At the end, the students have to present and defend their work before a committee, which consists of the tutor, the principal and a subject expert. Experience has shown that multi-disciplinary project work has been an excellent teaching method and addition to engineering education curricula, so improving not only knowledge but also interdisciplinary thinking and skills. Environmental issues need a multi-disciplinary approach, and this course bridges the gap between disciplines, so stimulating interdisciplinary work within engineering education.     

通过强化新闻宣传助推国家开大山西分部建设

电大的新闻宣传工作像电大教育发展一样,处于一个前所未有的发展时期。新闻宣传工作是广播电视大学尤为重要的工作,它是电大适应社会发展和教育发展的需要,是电大事业发展的必然要求．是凝心聚力的基本要求。近年来,山西电大新闻宣传工作取得了一定成绩,但也存在一些不足。我们明确电大新闻宣传应该注意的问题,明确今后电大新闻宣传工作的目标,通过强化新闻宣传．助推国家开大山西分部建设。     

Research Study on an Applied Interdisciplinary Product Development Course for College Sophomores

This research compares the industry readiness, product development skill level, and overall knowledge gains of students taking an undergraduate research course (treatment) to those who did not (control). This 2‐semester Applied Interdisciplinary Product Development (AIPD) course for sophomores brought together interdisciplinary teams of food science, nutrition, and packaging science students in a hands‐on setting to create healthy food products for children, complete with retail packaging. A Subject Knowledge Assessment (SKA) was used to evaluate the mean percent difference value (MPDV) of food science, nutrition, packaging science, and general product development knowledge gained through the course. SKA results indicated that the MPDV were significantly different (α = 0.05) between the treatment and comparison groups in the overall score and in every subject area score except packaging science. Data from an Exit Questionnaire (EQ) was used for evaluation of attitudes pertaining to product development knowledge and skills, department engagement, and pedagogy. EQ results indicated that mean scores between the treatment and comparison groups were significantly different (α = 0.05) in 7 of the 9 statements on product development knowledge and skills, both statements pertaining to pedagogy, and the statement pertaining to department engagement. Overall, the research project was considered a successful intervention for educating sophomores at the University. Overall, the research project was considered a successful intervention for educating sophomores in the Food, Nutrition and Packaging Science department at Clemson University. The student‐lead teams were held to a greater degree of accountability for their success in terms of education gleaned and value of experience gained as metric for the University and other IFT Accredited programs.     

近十年学科课程研究范式的跨学科分析——兼谈与一般教育研究范式的比较

以近十年“人大复印报刊资料”转载的学科课程研究文献为样本,采用内容分析法统计发现：学科课程研究中思辨、实证、行动三种范式运用相对均衡,且以质性研究为主;变化趋势为思辨研究下降,实证和行动研究上升;各学科课程研究范式体现一定学科特色,但与一般教育研究范式差距甚大。要注重研究规范性,加强队伍建设,实现高水平发展;倡导研究融合性,建立学科教育学,推动研究深入发展;尊重学科差异性,立足学科本质特点,鼓励研究特色发展;加强期刊引导性,创办高水平期刊,引领研究可持续发展;强调基金支持性,加大立项指导力度,促进研究健康发展。     

Partnerships for learning: extending knowledge and understanding of creative writing processes in the ITT year

This article explores the idea that in order to improve the ways we teach children to write creatively it is worth exploring how we, as teachers and writers, do that ourselves. It describes some of the stages of a curriculum development project undertaken in the Portsmouth and Southampton Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) English teams, begun in 2004. The project was supported by funding from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and was designed to foster a range of learning activities for trainee teachers in the area of teaching creative writing to pupils in schools. The project that was developed had multiple aims: subject knowledge development in trainee English teachers; pedagogic exploration amongst all teachers involved looking at how the difficult area of teaching creative writing might be better addressed. This article evaluates the aims of the project and some of the outcomes and argues for recognition of the training year as a vital area for exploring issues in teaching, beyond competence. The article draws on a variety of sources, including participant observation notes made in writing workshops, responses to a questionnaire completed by project participants and excerpts from writing collected across the project produced by teachers and pupils.     

TELEVISION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW CURRICULUM: ETHNIC MUSICS

The study of non‐European musics is not widely established in the United Kingdom. A project at the University of Cambridge to establish an Ethnomusic Audio‐Visual Archive has made use of television to record performance material, lecture presentations and self‐instructional material, and the medium has in turn influenced the development of material for this new subject area     

Critical reflections of action research used for professional development in a Middle Eastern Gulf State

This article describes and critically reflects on an action research project used for professional development purposes in a Middle Eastern Gulf State. The aim of the project was to improve professional development experiences for a group of in‐service teacher educators, who were English as Second Language advisers. The initial discussion highlights different ideological and methodological approaches to action research and identifies core characteristics that were framed to evaluate the project. Second, the background to the local context is described followed by the action research project, the methodology and outcomes. Using an evaluative framework, the subsequent discussion describes the successes of this project. These include encouraging reflection in a collaborative environment, promoting a culture of learning and supporting the participant’s reconstruction of professional knowledge situated in practice. Finally, there is a critical reflection around a number of challenges, tensions and questions that emerged from the project, centred on the loss of core democratic values underpinning action research. These concerns highlight power relationships and the ownership and control of research, which become more apparent in mandatory situations and hierarchical contexts.     

An Experiment in Multinational Collaborative Learning and Group Work Using the Internet

In this paper we describe a pedagogic experiment, intended to support and encourage interactive group discussion among students from different universities, in different countries, in what we call Internet Seminars. In an Internet Seminar students and teachers cooperate via the Internet to research and discuss a common subject. In the case discussed here, the chosen subject, 'Teleworking' was selected as one which would have particular resonance with the medium of the seminar, and also as being a topic which is not, as yet, part of the mainstream teaching curriculum. The aims of the seminar, however, were not only or even primarily concerned with the subject material. We also hoped to encourage and help the students develop the transferable skills of project planning, research, team-working and communication, with the added stimulus of working in a multinational context. We describe the form of the seminar, report on its outcomes, and comment on the successes and failures of our approach. © 1999 IFIP, published by Kluwer Academic Publishers