通过电子邮件学习英文写作

通过电子邮件学习英文写作有着传统写作教学无法比拟的优势。本文认为，通过与课程相结合、跨文化的键友活动、电子论坛和写作实践室等四种途径进行写作实践，可以有效地解决目前英文写作量少质差的问题。本文探讨了使用电子邮件的基本原则和教师在其中的作用等问题。     

Connecting the dots: Theorizing and mapping learning entanglement through archaeology and design

Designing for digitally enhanced learning has increased in complexity. In response, this paper calls for a reconceptualization of technology—as the reconfiguring of space, place, materials, time and social relations—enrolled and refashioned in emergent learning activity. Such reconceptualization requires analytical tools, methods and processes to map heterogeneous assemblages of people, tools and tasks. Educational researchers and designers are in need of approaches and theories that move beyond deterministic accounts about the utility of individual learning technologies, to connect theory, research and practice. Our research shows that in learning to distinguish between elements that are open to alteration through design and those that are not, educational designers gain deeper insights into the flows of matter, information and humans characteristic of productive networked learning environments. And this, in turn, gives rise to valued qualities of emergent learning activity in alignment with current theories about learning. In this paper, we present a series of methods adapted from archaeology and design, illustrating their power in tracing the complex webs of dependence characteristic of productive learning entanglement, with the aim of supporting future design for learning.     

Connecting the curriculum through the national mathematics and science standards

Summary It is always important to remember that science and mathematics are forever tied together by context and application. Science is the application of mathematical theory and understanding, and mathematics is the language and primary tool of science. As teachers and teacher educators, we should help our students see the connection between content and concept, rather than their separation.Through the use of the Connections Matrix described in this article, the standards can be addressed in the classroom and connections established across the curriculum as an individual or with a partner. The process can be established as a regular part of the planning process and help guide educators to implement effective activities which embed the standards and connections within the curriculum, rather than as an add-on or supplemental program. In short, this is the right way to accomplish the goals of connecting the curriculum and implementing the national mathematics and science standards.     

Connecting past and present through case-comparison learning in history: views of teachers and students

History education frequently aims at developing active citizenship by using the past to orientate to the present and the future. A pedagogy for pursuing this aim is making connections between the past and the present by means of comparing cases of an enduring human issue. To examine the feasibility and desirability of this case-comparison teaching approach, students (n = 444) and teachers (n = 15) who participated in an implementation study conducted in the Netherlands were questioned about their experiences and views. Results show that both students and teachers felt that case-comparison in the context of an enduring human issue is feasible and not more complex than the usual history teaching in which topics are studied separately without explicitly making comparisons between past and present, even if some students thought that taking account of episodes from different historical periods concurrently required an extra learning effort. Both students and teachers believed that connecting past and present in history teaching enhances engagement and meaning making. They suggested a curriculum combining the case-comparison approach with the type of history teaching they were accustomed to. Mixed methods were used for data collection. Implications for further research on case-comparison learning in history are being discussed.     

Connecting children to nature through residential outdoor environmental education

Connecting to nature and spending time outdoors as children have been indicated as predictors of environmentally responsible behavior. This study examined whether a residential outdoor environmental education (ROEE) program contributed to the development of children’s connection to nature and their attitudes and involvement in spending time outdoors. Fifth-grade students (n = 163) in Pennsylvania enrolled in a multi-day ROEE program completed pretest-posttest surveys, compared with a control group (n = 72) not enrolled. Program evaluation critically examined the program’s encouragement of spending time outdoors by establishing connections to nature. Results indicated moderate success in the program’s effort to increase participants’ nature connection, but yielded mixed results on outcomes related to time spent outdoors. These findings offer encouragement of ROEE programs’ ability to foster connection to nature in participants.     

Connecting students to the real world: Developing gifted behaviors through service learning

Learning in today's classrooms can be disconnected from students' real world experiences. Providing students the opportunity to address real‐world problems may provide avenues for students to engage in their communities while developing academic skills and knowledge. Additionally, for students whose interests are piqued by the nature of their community's problems, these activities have the potential to offer students meaningful, motivating work in a supportive environment. This article explores how providing students with interest‐based service‐learning opportunities may help them develop and demonstrate gifted behaviors. In addition, methods for integrating student interests and service‐learning projects are presented. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

On equitable cake-cutting, or: caring more about caring

It is obvious that the values of women differ very often from the values which have been made by the other sex. It is the masculine values that prevail.
Virginia Woolf
A Room of One's Own
Getting hold of the difficulty deep down is what is hard. Because if it is grasped near the surface, it simply remains the difficulty it was. It has to be pulled out by the roots, and that involves our having to think about these things in a new way. The change is as decisive as for example, that from the alchemical to the chemical ways of thinking. The new way of thinking is what is so hard to establish.
Wittgenstein
Culture and Values     

教育信息化视野下连接式教学的实现

随着教育信息化步伐的快速前进,利用现有技术,可以架起教师与学生、专业知识、学习资源、模范教学和其他专业学者等之间的多条桥梁,使得之前孤立的、不连贯的教学变为连接式、合作式、协调且连续的教学,即"连接式教学"模式。文章提出了"连接式教学"新型模式,并透过教育信息化的视野,分析连接式教学的实现。     

Learning through action: Parallel learning processes in children and adults

Experiential learning has become an essential part of many educational settings from infancy through adulthood. While the effectiveness of active learning has been evaluated in youth and adult settings, few known studies have compared the learning processes of children and adults within the same project. This article contrasts the active learning processes of children and adults by chronicling a service learning project in the United States in which 19 university students implemented an anti-bias curriculum with 112 young children. Findings are interpreted in relation to David Kolb's model of experiential learning. Implications for classroom practice and theory are discussed.     

Postgraduate supervision: E-mail as an alternative

Abstract

Supervisors at higher education institutions cannot ignore the possibilities created by technology, and for the sake of this article, e-mail, as an aid for supervision on postgraduate level. After completing the modules for the Magister Technologiae (M Tech): Education qualification, students are required to complete a dissertation of limited scope. Many of these students cannot visit their supervisors on a regular basis, because of the time and costs involved in travelling far distances. The only time when some academics meet the students is when they attend the workshops on proposal writing. In this article the authors argue that e-mail supported supervision should be considered as an alternative to traditional one-on-one supervision. The research on which this article is based followed a qualitative design. Data were collected by means of open-ended questionnaires which were sent by e-mail to the participants and their responses were e-mailed back to the authors. The findings indicate the satisfaction of the students with e-mail supervision which enabled them to complete their studies in the prescribed time. The use of e-mail in supervision was found to create opportunities for further study even on postgraduate level.     

Connecting initial teacher education and continuing professional learning through action research and action learning

This paper reflects our commitments as teacher educators to develop the skills, knowledge and interests amongst ‘nearly qualified teachers’ to establish action learning as an integral part of their professional practice. We outline the development of an undergraduate unit that is endeavouring to achieve this at Edith Cowan University, Western Australia. Key principles and characteristics of action research and action learning are used as a framework for critical reflection on the unit. Attempting to provide learning experiences that adhere to these principles within the context of initial teacher education courses is identified as a challenging process. Planned developments in which we seek to enhance the extent to which teacher education can be seen to embrace and promote action research and action learning are discussed.     

Failing with grace: kids,Improv and embodied literacies

In this article, we explore the idea that comedy, with its often unorthodox ways of looking at, experiencing, and responding to the world, offers untold possibility for classroom literacy instruction. The article focuses on the potential of Improv comedy as socio‐materialist literacy in the classroom. It provides an account of Improv as a form of embodied literacy that operates as an assemblage created collectively between many people, practices, and material objects. We present findings from interviews with professional comedians regarding the possibilities of comedy for language and literacy instruction with elementary school children. The article then examines a moment from the subsequent classroom phase of the study to look at ways Improv can help students create stories and ways that laughter can be used to create a cohesive assemblage based around students' spontaneous creation of texts. The aim of the article is to provide educators with a practical means to apply socio‐materialist literacy in their classrooms through Improv, which will, in turn, allow students to create collectively generated texts and assemblages.     

Connecting learning to the world beyond the classroom through collaborative philosophical inquiry

This study explored the impact of facilitating collaborative philosophical inquiry (CPI), in the tradition of “Philosophy for Children,” on connectedness pedagogies. The study employed an experimental design that included 59 primary teachers in 2 groups. The experimental group received an intervention that comprised training in CPI and the comparison group received training in Thinking Tools (graphic organisers), a subset of the CPI training. Lessons were coded on four variables of connectedness pedagogies, across the two groups, at three time-points. Teacher interviews were conducted to gather participants’ perspectives. Between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) on particular measures of pedagogy revealed that CPI significantly broadened teachers’ pedagogical repertoires, in ways that included drawing on students’ background knowledge and preparing a problem-based curriculum which connects students to the world beyond the classroom.