Teachers’ roles in infants’ play and its changing nature in a dynamic group care context

Using a qualitative research approach, this article explores teachers’ roles in infants’ play and its changing nature in an infant group care setting. Three infant teachers in a child care center were followed over three months. Observations, interviews, ongoing conversations, emails, and reflective notes were used as data sources. Findings revealed that the teachers took on various roles: observer, play follower/play partner, facilitator, commentator/interpreter, play supporter, play leader, play interrupter, safety/conflict manager, multiple-responder, and multiple-role taker. The nature of the teachers’ roles developed and changed over time in relation to the infants’ rapid growth, group dynamics, and infant–teacher relationships. This study suggests that infant teachers’ practice is complex, changing, and developmental as the group care context is dynamic and multilayered.     

A theoretical framework and model towards media-rich social presence design practices

Educators are seeing rapid developments in online instruction with regard to not only available technologies, but also in design and teaching practices. Developing and maintaining social presence in an online environment is paramount to the success of a learning environment. This article touches upon some historical perspectives of social presence and proposes a theoretical framework and design guide towards media-rich social presence practices for future research. The design guide in this article adds to the historically text-based social presence applications by posing media-rich, higher-level thinking questions based upon a grounded theoretical framework.     

Learning,behaviour and reaction framework: a model for training raters to improve assessment quality

This paper proposes a training model for raters, with the goal to improve the intra- and inter-consistency of evaluation quality for higher education curricula. The model, termed the learning, behaviour and reaction (LBR) circular training model, is an interdisciplinary application from the business and organisational training domain. The following three novel features adapt it to the context of tertiary education: individualised training, training on-demand and continual training. To demonstrate the applicability of the LBR model, we conducted a case study of raters involved in an undergraduate course at a Taiwanese university. A comparative analysis of intra- and inter-evaluation consistency showed the model to be an effective training instrument.     

Connectionism and learning to read: Steps towards a psychologically plausible model

We consider the prospects and need for a psychologically plausible connectionist model of the development of word recognition skills. We present an outline of the Seidenberg and McClelland (1989) distributed, developmental model of word recognition and naming. We emphasize certain incompatibilities between this model and the assumptions underlying it and psychological evidence from studies of children learning to read. In particular, we emphasize the importance of phonological skills as precursors and facilitators of learning to read. We argue that it may be possible to develop a connectionist model of the development of word recognition skills which, by having a built in knowledge of phonology, will be more consistent with evidence from studies of both normal and dyslexic children.     

The attitude towards nature,and incidence of sexual intimacy among students at a South African University

The authors, of the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, surveyed 60 male university students of mean age 21.37 years and 79 female students of mean age 20.13 years with the goal of gaining insight into their sex behavior and their attitudes toward sexuality. The home language of 83% of the women and 85% of the men was Afrikaans, while the remaining subjects had English as a home language. One student was married, three were engaged to be married, and two lived together with a person of the opposite sex. 51 students were in steady relationships and 82 were single. 82% of the men and 90% of the women choose to have sex with someone of the same race. The study found a relatively low occurrence of sexual intercourse and promiscuity, and a very high percentage of subjects regarded themselves as heterosexual and as morally and religiously conservative. 97% of the men and 99% of the women regarded themselves as being heterosexual, and 3% of men and 1% of women regarded themselves as being bisexual. 6.6% of men and 1.34% of women, however, reported having had sexual contact with someone of the same sex. 37% of the men and 32% of the women reported having ever had sexual intercourse with a person of the opposite sex. These percentages are notably lower than those found by other investigators and the authors believe that a higher proportion of students at the university are actually sexually active than that suggested by this survey's findings. Among those sexually active, 17% of men and 18% of women were involved in sexual relationships with more than one partner. 68% of the sexually active men and women report using condoms often, 14% of men and 8% of women use contraceptives on an irregular basis, and 18% of men and 25% of women never use contraceptives. The birth control pill and condom were the most widely used methods. 85% of men and 86% of women felt that both partners should be responsible for taking precautions against unwanted pregnancy. These findings indicate that the overwhelming majority of subjects in this study are not at high risk for contracting AIDS.     

Researching and developing interdisciplinary teaching: towards a conceptual framework for classroom communication

Calls for teaching and learning that cross subject boundaries have been making themselves heard in recent Higher Education literature in different national contexts. Communication is pivotal in any such learning encounter: it is in the process of negotiating meaning across disciplines that its rewards and challenges lie. And yet, the question of what characterises interdisciplinary classroom communication in the sector is little researched and little understood. How such interaction differs from that in the monodisciplinary university classroom is under-theorised. Adapting Applied Linguistic theory in Intercultural Communicative Competence (Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.) and drawing on a taxonomy of academic disciplines (Becher, T., & Trowler, P. R (2001). Academic tribes and territories.Buckingham: Society for Research in Higher Education/Open University Press.), the article proposes a model of Communicative Competence as a conceptual tool to shape thinking in developing and researching interdisciplinary teaching and learning in the university classroom.     

Subject leaders in secondary schools and informal learning: towards a conceptual framework

Much of the emphasis on the learning of subject leaders in secondary schools is placed on what Eraut (2000) terms ‘organised formal learning events’. This article attempts to redress the balance by focusing on the somewhat neglected area of their informal learning about the role, which is predominantly based in the workplace. It is argued that informal learning consists of three components: implicit learning, learning through experience and non-taught or deliberative learning (following Eraut, 2004). Such forms of learning can be underpinned by theoretical notions of cognitive, affective and behavioural developments. A model of work-based informal learning is proposed that also tries to incorporate the memories of relevant past and current events. It is hoped that this model might be useful as a framework for the future analysis of the learning of subject leaders.     

Habermas,lifeworld and rationality: towards a comprehensive model of lifelong learning

Major supranational organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the European Union, and the World Bank have used lifelong learning as a strategy to boost economic competitiveness both at individual and national levels. In the literature related to lifelong learning this is characterised as the economistic model of lifelong learning. The humanistic model of lifelong learning, which appears as an alternative of the economistic model, takes education and learning as a fundamental human right for all individuals irrespective of their age, gender and class. However, this model is criticised as a vague, rhetorical and utopian ideal with little potential for informing educational policy decisions at national level. Using some key Habermasian conceptualisations, mainly the colonisation of the lifeworld and communicative rationality, this paper argues that three major dimensions of human learning informed by Habermas – transformative, citizenship and intersubjective – can contribute towards the development of a more comprehensive model of lifelong learning.     

论国际关系学的特点及其科学性问题--兼评中国国际关系学的现状与前景

国际关系学是一门年轻的社会科学学科 ,其知识体系和研究方法中存在很多不足之处 ,因此该学科目前尚处于“前科学阶段” ,相对于其他比较成熟的社会学科 ,其科学性更容易受到人们的质疑。中国国际关系学界对该学科的科学性认同水平较低 ,是导致研究水平难以提高的主要原因。正确认识国际关系学的科学性 ,加强科学研究方法的学习和创新 ,才能改变中国国际关系学的落后现状 ,使之更加专业化、科学化。     

氢键对物质性质的影响及应用

氢键不属于化学键,也不属于范德华力,是介于化学键和范德华力之间的一种由氢原子参与成键的特殊键型。氢键的键能较小,但其存在却对物质的性质,结构等方面有很大影响。故对氢键的研究应用也为人们所关注。     

氢键对物质性质的影响及应用

氢键不属于化学键,也不属于范德华力,是介于化学键和范德华力之间的一种由氢原子参与成键的特殊键型.氢键的键能较小,但其存在却对物质的性质,结构等方面有很大影响.故对氢键的研究应用也为人们所关注.     

Discursive institutionalism: towards a framework for analysing the relation between policy and curriculum

Discourse approaches in education policy analysis have gained prominence in the last decade. However, though the literature on policy discourses is growing, different conceptions of the ‘discursive’ dimension and its potential for empirical analysis related to the field of curriculum policy have not yet been fully researched. To address this gap in education policy research, this article explores the framework of discursive institutionalism. Using background and foreground ideas and coordinative and communicative discourses on three analytically distinct levels, this article proposes and discusses a framework for empirically analysing, explaining and understanding education reforms on the transnational and local levels. The introduced conceptual framework represents an integration of discursive institutionalism (DI) and curriculum theory (CT) to provide a more multifaceted set of concepts to explore the lending and borrowing of transnational education policies and their application at both national and local levels. These concepts have been applied as analytical tools in a research study on the most recent curriculum reform in Sweden, and they may serve as an example of how different ideas, discourses and levels can be distinguished in research studies to maintain the complexity of education reforms.     

Fostering pedagogical reasoning and dynamic decision-making practices: a conceptual framework to support learning design in a digital age

Educational technology research and development - Digital learning environments are dynamic systems that require learning designers to leverage environmental conditions and the needs of their...     

Lessons learned: towards a framework for integration of theory and practice in academic development

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I describe an approach to the integration of theory and practice at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and organizational levels. The results of the research projects in which I have been involved over the last ten years are used to illustrate how these three levels have facilitated the identification of three tensions. These tensions together create a framework that can help academic developers better understand how to approach the challenges of advocating for the integration of higher education theory with academic practice in their own institutional environments, and how this integration is linked to existing higher education literature.     

通用组合式教育机器人动力学模型及其快速仿真算法(英文)

为实现具有开放结构的组合式教育机器人自动建模与动态仿真,建立了教育机器人的动力学模型及其仿真算法.首先,将教育机器人抽象为多体系统,利用牛顿一欧拉法建立其通用的动力学模型,并结合教育机器人的结构特点,以构件绑定方法对机器人模型进行了简化.其次,基于稀疏矩阵计算技术,对计算机仿真中常用的增广动力学求解算法和直接投影修正算法进行改进,以此作为教育机器人的仿真算法,提高仿真速度和精度.最后,通过一个算例验证了模型和改进算法的有效性.该研究为实现教育机器人仿真平台奠定了动力学基础.     

Gifted underachievement within a self-regulated learning framework: Proposing a task-dependent model to guide early identification and intervention

Current theoretical and operational definitions of underachievement require that students show sustained suppressed academic achievement. Yet, early detection may allow for effective intervention before underachievement becomes a chronic issue. While existing identification procedures were not designed to detect underachievement before low academic performance occurs, the integration of self-regulated learning (SRL) into these practices may promote earlier identification and intervention. This conceptual paper (a) anchors gifted underachievement within Zimmerman's SRL model, (b) examines existing gifted literature investigating SRL components to demonstrate the benefits of applying an SRL model, and (c) proposes a comprehensive measurement and intervention technique to capture important motivational variables at the task level. By measuring SRL processes and underachievement at a task-specific level, we can target interventions to specific needs, address underachievement before it becomes a persistent problem, and help learners reach their academic potential.     

Parent‐implemented reading interventions within a response to intervention framework

This study tested the effects of parent‐implemented reading interventions on four elementary students’ reading fluency. Student participants had been receiving a Tier 2 reading intervention, but they were not responding favorably to the Tier 2 intervention. A consultant conducted brief experimental analyses of reading interventions and identified a Tier 3 intervention for each student. Then, the consultant trained the students’ mothers to implement the interventions at home. The interventions were tested via a multiple baseline design across students. During the intervention phase, the consultant monitored parents’ treatment integrity and assessed students’ oral reading fluency for novel, grade‐level progress monitoring passages. Visual analysis indicates that all four students demonstrated increases in oral reading fluency for instructional passages and novel progress monitoring passages after intervention implementation. In addition, single‐case design effect sizes indicate strong effects for instructional passages for all four students, moderate effects for novel progress monitoring passages for two students, and strong effects for novel progress monitoring passages for two students. Finally, parents implemented interventions with moderate to high integrity, and parents rated the interventions as acceptable. Results are discussed in terms of implications for research and practice as they relate to parent‐implemented interventions within a response to intervention framework.