Towards a pragmatic science in schools

This paper contrasts naive beliefs about the nature of science, with science as it appears from sociological and philosophical study, feminist critique and insights from multicultural education. I draw implications from these informed views to suggest how school science might be modified to project a pragmatic view of science to its students that allows students to know science and its relationships to themselves and society in multi-faceted ways. From these perspectives, pragmatic school science is situated within a values framework that questions how we know. Pragmatic school science also requires that the naive inductivist views that permeate school science inquiry methods at present be modified to recognise that observations and inquiry are guided by prior knowledge and values; that new knowledge is tentative; that some knowledge has high status, as it has been constructed consensually over a long period; but that even high status knowledge can be challenged. For implementation of these reforms, yet still to embrace the need for some students to appropriate understanding of discipline knowledge required for advanced science education, a broad set of aims is required.     

The role of reading comprehension in word meaning acquisition during reading

The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of reading comprehension on the acquisition of word meanings from context and to compare it to the effects of local context characteristics, such as proximity and directness of context clues. The study also examined the effects of prior topic and enabling concept knowledge. Sixth-grade students were pretested on their knowledge of target vocabulary from two expository passages appropriate for their grade and reading level. The students were then familiarized with selected main concepts from one passage and, subsequently, read both experimental passages. Half of the target words appeared in an informative context, while the rest appeared in an less-informative context. A comprehension test and a vocabulary posttest followed the reading of each passage. Hierarchical Regression analyses indicated that reading comprehension level and prior main concept knowledge facilitated vocabulary learning from context. In comparison, the effect of presence or absence of informative context clues was not significant. These findings, underline the need for a reconceptualization of context to take into account the mental representation that readers construct in addition to the printed text that surrounds an unfamiliar word.     

华罗庚科普教育思想研究

引言华罗庚(1910—1985),江苏金坛人,现代世界著名数学家,在数学领域作出了无比卓越的贡献,同时,他又是一个富于实践的科普教育家,他不遗余力地撰写了许多科普著作和大量科普文章,身体力行地进行科学普及实践和教育教学;他关于在中国普及应用数学方法的工作与研究,具有开创性,影响深远,成效巨大;他对中国数学事业的组织领导,特别是对数学普及工作的组织领导,具有重大的特殊贡献;他所倡导的数学教学改革,独具特色;他是中国数学竞赛活动的创始人之一,为造就一代英才作出了巨大贡献。遗憾的是,他的科普教育思想和方法一直未引起教育界的足够重视。事实上,华罗庚教授竭尽全力所倡导的科普教育是当今科学教育的先河之一,研究华罗庚教授的科普教育教学思想和方法,不仅是丰富现当代中国教育思想的工作,而且是对当今教育教学改革及实践具有指导意义的事情。     

Rocket science: an exploration of what information is of meaning to educational psychologists when evaluating their work

Evaluation is a central feature of educational psychologists’ (EPs) work. Different evaluation tools have been used in the published literature but a consistent approach is yet to emerge. Informed by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, this research asks what information EPs find meaningful when they evaluate their work. Six EPs working in a local authority educational psychology service were interviewed about their experiences of their work and how they knew they had made an impact. A diverse range of information drawn upon as evidence that there had been change was described. It is thus proposed that a tool which enables EPs to collate different types of information from a number of sources may be useful when evaluating their practice.     

俄-汉主观情态的语用意义分析研究

情态(модальность)是人类语言中一个重要的语法范畴。无论是在俄语里,还是在汉语中,句子都具有情态性(модальность),而主观情态(субъективнаямодальность)是其中一个体现说话者的表达意愿和交际意义的重要构成部分。情态在语言中特殊功能,从语用学角度,即информация是语者对该客观要素所持有的主观思想(субъективнаямысль),在俄汉语中,该主观情态的语用特征均需要通过命题的情态动词和情态副词的基本功能和附加功能来实现主观的更深层次的情态意愿。     

科学教学中的"探究"释义

根据教学论,科学教学中的“探究”可有三层含义:作为教学目标,指学生应掌握的科学探究技能,要理解的科学探究特性;作为教学原则,指激发学生积极探究未知、主动建构意义的基本教学要求;作为教学方法,指学生在教师指导下所采用的类似科学探究过程的学习方式或程序。     

意群在英语阅读理解中的作用

学生在英语阅读理解中的障碍，主要源于对句子意群的把握不得要领。通过对干扰意群定位的6个问题的分析，可有效提高学生的英语阅读理解能力。     

市场经济条件下科普性期刊的创新与发展

针对科普性期刊的特性、内容与弊病,论述了在市场经济条件下,科普性期刊应如何牢牢树立起市场意识、策划意识、改革意识、从而取得创新与发展。     

古代汉语使动用法的句式特征、句式意义和语用限制条件

使动中作述语的名词、形容词等可视为古代词多功能性的表现。使动结构是一种准句式,它与同义的使字式有句式转换、传承关系,其句式意义是：由于某个相关事物的影响,致使宾语发生述语显示的非自主性改变或活动。使动的句义构成是理解、辨识它的依据,而宾语发生改变或活动的非自主性则是其自身立句以及与多数使字式分工的条件。     

Secondary science teachers' attitudes toward and beliefs about science reading and science textbooks

Science textbooks are dominant influences behind most secondary science instruction but little is known about teachers' approach to science reading. The purpose of this naturalistic study was to develop and validate a Science and Reading Questionnaire to assess secondary science teachers' attitudes toward science reading and their beliefs or informed opinions about science reading. A survey of 428 British Columbia secondary science teachers was conducted and 215 science teachers responded. Results on a 12-item Likert attitude scale indicated that teachers place high value on reading as an important strategy to promote learning in science and that they generally accept responsibility for teaching content reading skills to science students. Results on a 13-item Likert belief scale indicated that science teachers generally reject the text-driven model of reading, but they usually do not have well-formulated alternative models to guide their teaching practices. Teachers have intuitive beliefs about science reading that partially agree with many research findings, but their beliefs are fragmented and particularly sketchy in regard to the cognitive and metacognitive skills required by readers to learn from science texts. The findings for attitude, belief, and total scales were substantiated by further questions in the Science and Reading Questionnaire regarding classroom practice and by individual interviews and classroom observations of a 15-teacher subsample of the questionnaire respondents.     

Helping science methods students construct meaning from text

Conclusion The pursuit of meaning through reflection is an ultimate goal of teacher education. The reading reaction sheet strategy is one way to help methods students construct meaning about science teaching and learning, and is applicable to other college courses where considerable reading is expected. Furthermore, through instructor modeling (Kyle, Abell, & Shymansky, 1989; Yeany & Padilla, 1986), preservice teachers are more likely to employ techniques for reading in the content area in their own teaching. Thus the reading reaction sheet strategy illustrates the integration of research in reading, writing, and science education and its application to classroom practice.     

Writing film: making inferences when viewing and reading

This article discusses the ways in which short films on video might be integrated into the English curriculum. I argue that shorts can be used to scaffold writing, and further than this, that students can learn a great deal about narrative form by shuttling between the two media of print and film. The article focuses on a ‘worked example’, being an account of an INSET session using a short film called Father and Daughter.     

Addressing controversies in science education: a pragmatic approach to evolution education

Science education controversies typically prove more intractable than those in scientific research because they involve a wider range of considerations (e.g., epistemic, social, ethical, political, and religious). How can educators acknowledge central issues in a controversy (such as evolution)? How can such problems be addressed in a way that is ethically sensitive and intellectually responsible? Drawing in part on pragmatic philosopher John Dewey, our solution is politically proactive, philosophically pragmatic, and grounded in research. Central to our proposal is (1) steps toward creating a philosophical “total attitude” that is democratic, imaginative, and hypothetical; (2) a deeper understanding of how scientific theories can be pragmatically true; and (3) an assessment of differing pedagogical approaches for teaching evolution in the classroom.     

Construction of meaning in the authentic science writing of deaf students

This study examines how students construct meaning through writing during authentic science activities. To determine how well students understood science concepts, we analyzed 228 writing samples from deaf students in grades 6 through 11 as well as the explanatory and reflective comments of their teachers. The analyses indicate that certain process writing strategies were differentially useful in helping deaf students to construct meaning and in allowing teachers to evaluate the constructed meaning. Three instructional conditions and two teacher variables were found to play roles in determining the accuracy and adequacy of the writing: (1) the writing prompts the teachers used, (2) the focus for the writing, (3) follow-up to the initial writing activity, (4) the teacher's content knowledge, and (5) the teacher's ability to interpret student writing. The authors recommend future applications of writing-to-learn strategies and suggest directions for further research and changes in teacher education.     

The influence of pictures on the derivation of meaning from children's reading materials

This discussion is a review of experimental work designed to determine whether pictures have an effect upon the derivation of meaning from the text printed in children's reading materials. Many reading schemes emphasize the use of illustration, but for a number of different purposes ranging from the provision of a referent for a specific word, to the provision of' contextual support, and the generation of motivation for reading. Experimental studies of the interactions between pictures arid words in the cognitive system go some way to supporting three uses of illustration in (a) the provision of meanings against which the print may be compared, (b) in the development of an organized understanding of the meaning of the text, and (c) in the enhancement of subsequent recall. The danger of distraction arising from the pictures has also been investigated, and been found to lead to decoding errors in young children presented with one word at a time. An analysis of mutual interference effects between pairs of pictures and words leads to the conclusion that the cognitive representations of meanings arc organized in a semantic system common to pictures and words. Thus, any decoding errors due to interference effects are of more than local importance—they can affect comprehension and influence the stored representation.     

用教育科学理论指导阅读教学实践

阅读教学是语文教学的重要组成部分。听说读写的训练虽各有要求和渠道，但一个共有凭借便是阅读教学。阅读能力不仅是写作能力和听说能力的基础，也是从事学习和工作的基础能力，被称为“智慧之源”。推进语文教学改革，应该转变阅读教学观念，吸收传统精华，创新阅读教学方法，以提高阅读教学质量。     

北京大学科普教育基地工作的探索与实践

高校实验室将科教仪器、场馆设施、教学科研成果等科技资源向社会开放,有利于提升我国科普能力、提高公众科学素质、增强自主创新意识,也有利于高校自身提高教学科研水平、促进实验室资源开放共享、扩大社会影响力。通过阐述北京大学科普教育基地在科普教育理论研究、实验室科普项目开发、大型科普活动组织、科普读物出版等方面的实践与探索,旨在与兄弟高校同行广泛交流、合作共进,为高校实验室建设与科普事业的发展贡献力量。