The nature of learning at forest school: practitioners' perspectives

This paper investigates forest school practitioners perceptions of learning at forest school to identify the topics covered, the learning styles, and the philosophies underpinning its delivery, based on interviews with experienced forest school practitioners. Practitioners identified the focus of learning at forest school as social development: teamwork, relationships with others, self-knowledge, and learning to take risks. Children also engaged with nature and developed an attachment to the woods where forest school took place. Learning styles were kinaesthetic, sensory, and experiential. Forest school leaders saw themselves as facilitators of learning rather than teachers.     

The role of a sense of school belonging in understanding the effectiveness of inclusion of children with special educational needs

This review integrates theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence of a sense of school belonging (SOSB) to highlight its importance in understanding the inclusion efficacy research for pupils with special educational needs (SEN). Specifically, it examines the role of a SOSB on pupils' cognitive, affective, behavioural and social developmental outcomes. In addition, it considers the inclusion efficacy research regarding the outcome of mainstream and special education for pupils with SEN. In turn, the review synthesises the two areas of research on school belongingness and inclusion to suggest that a SOSB is important in understanding the relationship between school placement and developmental outcomes for pupils with SEN.     

Found my place: the importance of faculty relationships for seniors’ sense of belonging

ABSTRACT

While previous literature documents the importance of sense of belonging for a positive educational experience, much of this research is focused on students early in their college careers and incorporates a single measure of sense of belonging. In contrast, the current study sought to explore whether senior students’ faculty-related engagement influences their sense of belonging, particularly their feelings of institutional acceptance as one aspect of sense of belonging. This study utilizes data from 8939 seniors in the 2014 administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement to explore these relationships. Results suggest that increased student–faculty interaction, use of effective teaching practices, and participation in research with faculty have a positive impact on feelings of institutional acceptance for seniors. Furthermore, certain student demographics (first-generation, age, gender, race/ethnicity), college experiences (enrollment type, online learning, STEM major, college grades, living situation, Greek affiliation), and institutional characteristics (control type, minority-serving institution, selectivity, Carnegie type) also play a role in this aspect of belongingness. Institutions can use this information to increase programming and resources for improving student engagement with faculty.     

The place of forest school within English primary schools: senior leader perspectives

Focussing on the place of Forest School in English primary schools, we explore the perspectives of school leaders. We use Biesta's model of educational purpose as a critical lens to consider possible justifications for the inclusion of Forest School in the curriculum. Four distinct accounts, based on an analysis of in-depth interviews, illustrate a range of participant responses: risk, intervention, respite and the right thing. One of these, we contend, represents a tentative step towards a form of resistance on the part of a school leader in the face of current pressures to follow a diminished set of educational purposes.     

A sense of place in the science classroom

Place‐based science education engages with the laboratories of complex reality where natural processes combine with social practice, going beyond the physical world, to encompass the meanings and sense of attachment local residents feel for places. This brief report describes how a university science methods class in a primary teacher training programme situated scientific understandings in the rich cultural context of the historically rural and socio‐economically disadvantaged area of Galicia in north‐western Spain, where agrarian traditions continue to influence local culture. Focusing on student responses to two assignments, this brief report explores how the preparation of lesson plans related to food and environmental investigation projects served to integrate aspects of the natural, social and cultural environment to foster a critical pedagogy of place.     

A sense of belonging among Australian university students

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to explore what students perceive as essential factors influencing their sense of belonging. Gaining insight into what students perceive as influencing their sense of belonging enables design of interventions to foster that sense of belonging. Two hundred and nine students from a university in Sydney responded to the question: ‘What would help you to feel that you belong at Macquarie University?’ Results showed students most frequently identified people as instrumental in feeling that they belonged at university. Students also reported that places where there is respect, and where others are accepted, contributed to their feelings of belonging. Lastly, opportunities to interact with other students, such as within clubs, societies and at events, were reported by students to contribute to their feelings of belonging. Findings of the current study are discussed in relation to existing literature, to develop approaches that may enhance university students’ sense of belonging.     

Inequality from the first day of school: The role of teachers' academic intensity and sense of responsibility in moderating the learning growth gap

The author used the concepts of academic intensity and sense of responsibility to examine whether children with low school readiness may be moderated by the amount of exposure to learning activities and the attitudes that teachers hold toward these children. Analysis of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Cohort revealed that children who experienced high levels of teachers' academic intensity and sense of responsibility displayed greater achievement growth than did their peers who did not receive this support. Furthermore, teachers' sense of responsibility moderated the association between school readiness and mathematics learning growth over the course of elementary school years, which contributed in reducing the learning growth gap engendered given low school readiness. Based on these findings the present study suggests a need for continuous support during the schooling years, as well as before the start of school, to compensate for a lower skill level at school entry.     

Exploring the dimensions of place: a confirmatory factor analysis of data from three ecoregional sites

Themes of place, situatedness, and locale are increasingly prominent in environmental education literature and practice. Sense-of-place research, which considers how people connect with places and the influence of those connections on engagement with the environment, may have important implications for environmental education. Prior place studies have proposed that people’s place connections have various dimensions. This paper explores four place dimensions, analyzing data from a survey (n?=?712) conducted in three ecoregional sites in which we investigated residents’ sense of place. We examine how our data fit a proposed typology of place dimensions – a four-dimension (biophysical, psychological, sociocultural, and political-economic) categorization based on previous conceptions of the dimensions of place. We use structural equation modeling to question whether a 4-factor conceptualization of the dimensions of sense of place is superior to plausible alternatives. In comparing the four-dimension model with alternative models, we find that the four-dimension model is the best fit for these data. Our findings suggest that environmental and place-based education may benefit from an understanding and consideration of this four-dimension conceptualization of place in program design, implementation, and evaluation.     

Sense of place in environmental education

Although environmental education research has embraced the idea of sense of place, it has rarely taken into account environmental psychology-based sense of place literature whose theory and empirical studies can enhance related studies in the education context. This article contributes to research on sense of place in environmental education from an environmental psychology perspective. We review the components of sense of place, including place attachment and place meanings. Then we explore the logic and evidence suggesting a relationship between place attachment, place meanings, pro-environmental behavior, and factors influencing sense of place. Finally, based on this literature we propose that in general environmental education can influence sense of place through a combination of direct place experiences and instruction.     

流动儿童的集体自尊及其与学校归属感的关系

为考查流动儿童集体自尊的特点及其与学校归属感的关系,选取719名流动儿童进行问卷调查.结果发现:(1)流动儿童的集体自尊存在显著的性别差异,女生的总体集体自尊、成员资格自尊水平显著高于男生;(2)小学阶段流动儿童的总体集体自尊、私密性集体自尊、公众性集体自尊水平显著高于初中阶段的流动儿童;(3)流动儿童转学次数越多,其总体集体自尊和私密性集体自尊水平越低;(4)流动儿童集体自尊与学校归属感显著正相关,具体体现在学校环境、教师行为、学校投入、同伴关系和学校融入;(5)流动儿童学校归属感对集体自尊具有显著的正向预测作用,预测力为36.4％.     

体验:高中生英语文化意识培养的有效途径

《高中英语课程标准》强调跨文化意识和跨文化交际能力的培养,而文化意识又是得体运用语言的保障。基于体验的英语文化意识培养就是教师在教学过程中通过创设一定的教学情境,使学生在亲历和体验过程中理解知识、发展能力,是高中生英语文化意识培养的有效途径。     

家庭因素对城镇初中生幸福感的影响研究

采用心理幸福感问卷、父母教养方式和家庭环境量表对950名城镇初中生进行问卷调查,发现(1)父母教养方式与城镇初中生的幸福感存在显著相关;(2)家庭环境与城镇初中生的幸福感呈显著相关;(3)母亲情感温暖理解、母亲惩罚严厉、父亲拒绝否认、家庭组织性、家庭知识性、父亲过分保护和父亲情感温暖理解能联合预测城镇初中生幸福感31.6%的变异量.从而得出,父母教养方式和家庭环境与城镇初中生的幸福感存在显著的相关,两者能够有效地预测城镇初中生的幸福感.     

论创新教育与中学生创新意识的培养

人的素质的高低取决于创新意识水平和创新能力的高低。创新意识是整个创新活动的心理起点，有了创新意识就会产生强烈的动机和创造欲望，培养中学生的创新意识对其一生的发展是至关重要的。中学生正处在心理、生理的突变时期，这一时期不仅是中学生世界观形成的关键时期，也是培养创新意识的关键时期。实施创新教育，需要教育创新、制度创新和管理创新。     

Diversity between and within: approaches to teaching about distant place in the secondary school curriculum

This study outlines some challenges of teaching about distant place and demonstrates how different strategies can influence school students’ framings of diversity. The analysis is based on an interpretive case study of 13–14?year-old students learning about Japan in a UK school. Their changing representations of Japan were tracked in detail over a 10?week period of study. The findings show that students’ representations of Japan were multi-stranded, demonstrating different levels of sophistication depending on the aspect of the country under consideration. Learning activities that enabled contact with the lives of young people from the distant place or that involved multiple images were shown to challenge stereotypes and to encourage more nuanced understandings of diversity between and within.     

Exploring interconnections between local ecological knowledge,professional identity and sense of place among Swedish fishers

The ecological knowledge of those who interact with ecosystems in everyday-life is situated in social and cultural contexts, as well as accumulated, transferred and adjusted through work practices. For them, ecosystems represent not only places for living but also places for working and defining themselves. This paper explores psychological aspects linking LEK/IEK/TEK to identity and sense of place in the context of fishery practices and management in Sweden. We analyse how knowledge of local ecosystems connect to fishers’ professional identity and their attachment to place by using the Person-Process-Place framework in integration with the Structure-Dynamic-Function framework on professional fishers in Sweden. On the basis of our results we conclude on the significance of physical as well as social and cultural features of fishing places for attachment and meaning as they are important for fishers’ local and professional identities, and also for ecological knowledge generation. Furthermore, fishers’ understanding of ecosystems complexity enhances their attachment and promotes positive emotions and behaviours for proximity maintenance.     

高速交通港站区旅游地方感建设研究

高速交通正在改变旅游。速度对旅游时空产生差异性压缩,因而从旅游者角度研究高速交通港站区的符号功能,以解决“急速停止”所带来的心理失衡。高速交通港站区可定位于符号商业区,它是城市旅游者产生地方感的新场所,堪称阈限景观,不可只注重物质功能而忽视旅游的文化建设。将港站区与城市既有的地方感场所连接,可形成若干适合旅游者的城市剖面,帮助旅游者接近城市的历史渊源所在及不断增长的城市真实。     

A school wide approach to leading pedagogical enhancement: An Australian perspective

This paper presents how some Australian schools are changing their approaches to leading the teaching and learning in their diverse and multi-characteristic contexts. Experiences of these schools shows that the development of a school wide approach to pedagogy and its implementation needs to be firmly embedded in the leadership of learning. Drawing on recent research conducted in the Sydney Catholic Education Office system in Australia (Crowther et al. in Leading and Managing 18(2):1–33, 2012) there is evidence of relationship between the development and implementation of a school wide approach to pedagogy and student achievement. There is also evidence to support leadership that is based on a mutualistic relationship between teacher leaders and the principal. This paper focuses on the way schools have used their visions and pedagogical frameworks to enhance whole of school quality outcomes. It highlights the power of teacher leaders taking responsibility for pedagogical development and implementation. In addition, it illustrates the power of mutualistic relationships (parallel leadership) when the principal takes responsibility for unleashing and trusting the creative expertise of teacher leaders in line with the role of strategic leadership and management.     

Involving a village: student teachers' sense of belonging in their school-based placement

Educating a student on teaching placement involves a ‘village’, just as it takes a whole ‘village’ to raise a child. Creating a ‘village’ around each student teacher gives them greater agency, a sense of belonging and being valued as a member of that professional ‘village’. Participating students, teachers and lecturers share their perceptions of experiences in the one-day school-based placement that student teachers are required to undertake in a University of Waikato distance programme. Opportunities, relationships and a sense of inclusion are identified as influencing characteristics, “the all important human infrastructure that provides the opportunity for learners to succeed” (Campbell-Gibson, 1997 Campbell-Gibson, C. 1997. Teaching/learning at a distance: A paradigm shift in progress. Distance Education in North America, 1: 6–8.  [Google Scholar], p. 8) rather than any modern technologies. Findings indicate that where the school acted as the ‘village of learning’, the perceived suitability of the placement as a site for learning teaching was conceptualised through a developed sense of belonging, accomplishment and inclusion. It is argued that greater effort should be made by initial teacher education providers to locate such ‘villages’ for student teacher placements.     

"老水手"的漫长旅程--从文学视窗中看人类生态意识的衍变

用现代生态学的观点去阅读过去的一些文学作品,我们将会发现人类现代的环境保护意识和生态平衡意识并非诞生于一朝一夕,它们和人类的自然观一样也经历了一个漫长而曲折的衍变过程,通过分析柯勒律治的<古舟子咏>、麦尔维尔的<白鲸>、以及海明威的<老人与海>,揭示这一过程中所表现出来的三种主要形态:物我相亲、物我相征、以及相亲与相征并存.