Bringing the Text to Life and Into Our Lives: Jewish Education and the Arts

This article explores how arts-based learning can facilitate understandings of Jewish religious texts. Through practical examples drawn from our own research, from the worlds of dance, drama, and the visual arts in education, we demonstrate the ways in which arts can allow for the transmission of information and knowledge, as well as offer a “transformative” learning experience; a student can bring the text to life while bringing the text into his or her life. We stress the primary importance and centrality of sacred text within Jewish tradition and assert that the written text should serve in Jewish education as the starting point. The ultimate goal, however, is to enable learners' personal connection with texts. We argue that learning through the arts opens up opportunities for multiple shared interpretations of text, as well as accentuation of the “affective” dimensions of Jewish textual learning. By becoming more aware of the varied possible paths for generating learning activities, educators might choose learning strategies that enable an integration of both the cognitive and affective domains. The examples of Arts Reflective learning demonstrate possibilities for the structuring of “teaching towards transformation.”     

从教育评价制度中看文理分科问题

日前，教育部就20个重大教育问题向社会征求意见，其中高中文理分科该不该取消问题引发热烈讨论。本文试从教育评价制度的角度出发，揭示取消文理分科的本质所在，并从中得出我国的教育评价制度改革的趋势。     

The Value of the Arts

The value of the arts is often measured in terms of human creativity against instrumental rationality, while art for art's sake defends against a utility of art. Such critiques of the technical and formulaic are themselves formulaic, repeating the dualism of the head and the heart. How should we account for this formula? We should do so by investigating its determination within metaphysical and social relations, ancient and modern, and by comprehending the notion of freedom carried therein. This opens up the value of the arts to a modern metaphysics and modern notion of freedom. This value, and this freedom, find currency in a notion of philosophical and political education, and especially in a modern conception of liberal arts education, where freedom is to learn.     

Making Visible the Behaviors that Influence Learning Environment: A Qualitative Exploration of Computer Science Classrooms

The authors conducted ethnographic research to provide deep understanding of the learning environment of a selection of computer science classrooms at a large, research university in the United States. Categories emerging from data analysis included (1) impersonal environment and guarded behavior; and (2) the creation and maintenance of informal hierarchy resulting in competitive behaviors. Both of these categories describe patterns of recurring communication taking place in the classroom learning environments. We identify particular and recognizable types of discourse, which, when prevalent in a classroom, can preclude the development of a collaborative and/or supportive learning environment. Alternative communication choices, both explicit and implicit, can lead to a more balanced and supportive climate for learning. An example of a successful effort to alter traditional patterns of interaction, without compromising the quality of learning, in a higher education astrophysics class is presented.     

Justifying the Arts: The Value of Illuminating Failures

This paper revisits how late 20th‐century attempts to account for conceptual and other difficult art‐work by defining the concept ‘art’ have failed to offer a useful strategy for educators seeking a non‐instrumental justification for teaching the arts. It is suggested that this theoretical ground is nonetheless instructive and provides useful background in searching for a viable approach to justification. It is claimed that, though definition may fail and grand theories not coalesce, one would be wise to emulate Passmore (1954, 1990) who argues for an aesthetic approach to works of art and who proceeds like the fox, from a specific work that becomes more complex through analysis. His approach is employed in describing a performance series by the Cellist of Sarajevo, which raises further questions regarding what it means to start from a specific art‐work and how doing so exemplifies Fleming's (2006) suggestion that in justifying the arts we connect them to our ethical lives. Passmore's strategy is then extended to the aesthetic experience of reading this essay and the paper concludes with the author's personal anecdote in response to Higgins' (2008) call for genuinely aesthetic defences of aesthetic education.     

约翰生《诗人传》:博雅教育的典范之作

英国19世纪诗人和教育家马修·阿诺德形成博雅教育的理念之时,他极力推荐约翰生的《诗人传》作为学习的教材。不可否认,《诗人传》本身是一部饱含思想深度和广度的作品,然而,这与阿诺德和约翰生在教育观、批评实践和审美情趣以及文学功能等方面的契合是密不可分的。约翰生在教育理念上把道德修炼和心灵改造放在了比科学更为重要的位置,这一点正与后来人阿诺德反对自己所处社会中"科学至上"的观点如出一辙。阿诺德关注诗歌形式及其风格,特别欣赏约翰生在《诗人传》中的批评方式:能够指出诗歌存在缺陷,并提供例证;完全认同约翰生所强调的诗人诗作的道德教育功能,即诗人及其作品应该对人类有益,对社会有用。     

The Effects of Visible Link-Types on Learning in the Hypertext Environment:

No abstract available for this article.     

做好我院"十一五"发展规划的点滴体会

我国高等教育,尤其是高等职业教育,正呈现蓬勃发展态势。我院作为一所高等职业技术学院的优秀学校,必须认真思考如何抓住当前的机遇,制定好具有前瞻性、全局性的发展规划,作为学院建设与发展的行动纲领,以保证我院各项事业健康、快速、和谐、可持续发展。     

Learning by Passion: The Literary Arts Tradition and the Mass Media

The question as to whether books and reading still have a future, is discussed in both the general press and by (literary) authors themselves. The impact of the modern mass media, especially television, is thought to be considerable in this context. Television and books appear as opposites, symbolizing irreconcilable cultural epochs. That opposition is shown here to be prejudiced, which clears the way for an understanding of the continuity within the literary arts and humanities of the West from ancient Greece to the present. Various forms, such as, the tragedy, the novel, the cinema, and television, play a part in that tradition, and as such they have a contribution to make to education. The educational significance of this tradition lies in its essential contribution to the development of the faculty of practical judgment: phronesis or prudence.     

延安精神的时代价值

党的几代领导人一直强调在新的历史时期,要继承、恢复和发扬延安精神。新中国刚刚成立,毛泽东同志就在一封电报中提出,希望“全国一切革命工作人员永远保持过去十余年在延安和陕甘宁边区的工作人员中所具有的艰苦奋斗的作风。”(《人民日报》1949年10月27日)党的十一届三中全会后不久,邓小平同志就强调指出,要实现建设社会主义现代化强国的宏伟目标,“我们一定要宣传、恢复和发扬延安精神,解放初期的精神,以及六十年代初期克服困难的精神。”(《邓小平文选》第2卷,第369页)2002年春,江泽民同志在陕西考察工作时指出,“无论过去、现在和将来,…     

The Act of Looking: Wofgang Iser's Literary Theory and Meaning Making in the Visual Arts

In his account about reading novels, Wolfgang Iser argued that the work of art is not the text itself but the experience that emerges as a reader interacts with the text. Yet, he clarified that the aesthetic object is not based only on the subjective input of the reader but also determined by specific signs that a text presents. This article draws from Iser's theories to examine the process through which five teenagers discover meaning in an abstract sculpture by artist Isamu Noguchi. The author shows how the young viewers arrived at a series of readings that were elicited by the qualities of the work and that built upon each other in a sort of snowballing process. The article also illustrates how the sort of meaning that an artwork can yield stretches throughout the whole experience and can therefore not be translated into a discursive statement.     

Educational Television as Part of a Learning Environment: dilemmas for the Dutch Open School broadcasts

What to do if you want to make an educational programme for 40% of the population and only 2% of them are watching? You can choose between giving up and a total face‐lift. The makers of the thematic educational broadcasts for Dutch television (TELEAC) chose to renew their product. The research activities reported here were undertaken to support the process of redesigning the programme through construction principles that can help to improve thematic educational television directed at independent learning. Three investigations were carried out: consultation with experts in the field of education, mass communication, and television programme design; consultation with educationally related groups; consultation with the audience at home. The results were interpreted in the light of an educational theory of self‐directed adult learning to produce proposals and suggestions on four main topics: context and image; content; form; and appeal to the audience     

为了更好地学习：增进教育测评有效性的基本原则

对于学习的测评、为了学习的测评、作为学习的测评是教育测评的3种范式,它们之于课程与教学目标的达成相辅相成、互为补充,共同组成以学习为本的测评。增进教育测评有效性的基本原则主要有:寓测评于教与学,探索多维度的测评方法,选择易于促进学习的测评方法,不同测评项目的评价标准协同一致,让学生知晓评价标准,学习过程中持续测评学生,允许学生参与测评过程,分析与报告学生的学习结果,提供反馈以促进学生的学习。为促进学生更好地学习,需要根据课程与教学目标选择适当的测评范式、手段、工具和策略。     

美术课中充分发挥情感的作用

情感教育是一种春风化雨,润物细无声的教育,在美术教学中要重视学生的情感教育,充分挖掘美术课教学中的情感因素,发挥情感的功能。美术课上,教师要有意识创设愉快的师生互动交流氛围,了解学生的情感世界,使师生的心灵更加贴近。     

The New Faces of Head Start: Learning from Culturally Diverse Families

In all communities, rural and urban, the increase of culturally diverse families served requires that Head Start programs support family childrearing practices and build upon cultural strengths to enhance social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development of the Head Start children. This study augments information, in both theory and practice, about Head Start programs which are based on culturally sensitive, child-centered, curriculum models and authentic parent involvement. The study revisits two family literacy projects that have both a participatory focus and include participants from marginalized groups. In these contexts, research findings reveal family childrearing practices which may be supported and built upon to enhance social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development of children in Head Start programs. Practice based on the findings has shown Head Start programs can build rapport through an informal, non- threatening environment, in which staff help parents to feel welcomed and comfortable so that they share the important sociocultural meanings in their lives. This non-threatening environment which enhances multidirectional participatory learning is seen in family literacy groups working in partnership with Head Start.     

The Implications of Coteaching/Cogenerative Dialogue for Teacher Evaluation: Learning from Multiple Perspectives of Everyday Practice

In this article, personnel evaluation is reconceptualized in terms of coteaching, an epistemology and methodology for teaching and learning to teach that is grounded in the collective (societal) motivation of preparing the next generation of citizens. Coteaching engages all participants (teachers, student teachers, supervisors, evaluators, and researchers) in the effort of helping students to learn. Central to coteaching are cogenerative learning sessions in which those who share a classroom experience (teachers and students) collectively construct local theory with the intent of improving the learning of students. Because our studies have been conducted in urban schools, in which often the least qualified teachers end up teaching, our work is particularly relevant to improving teaching in these most needy contexts.