Sex division of labour in Syrian school textbooks

The sexist division of labour, particularly in the occupational sector, which is believed to be more eminent in developing countries than in the developed ones, is reinforced by school textbooks. This state of affairs is hampering sex-role equality on the way to emancipation. Various Syrian school textbooks have been scrutinized and proved to be malebiased in content and language. Despite quantitative growth of education, the emancipatory quality of the school textbooks leaves much to be desired. The government has had the chance since 1963 to produce textbooks conductive to its promise of sex-role equality in education. The textbooks portray males for a bustling world of decision making, while conditioning the females to seek fulfilment in the background where servitude and support are the only requirement. Females are derogated and victimized. These contents, which are internalized at school and reproduced in society, certainly do not serve development. The exclusion of one-half of the population from contributing to the tasks of development is a waste of human talent which no society can afford. Furthermore, the sexist portrayal of females in Syrian textbooks is a pale reflection of Arab women in Arab history and literature.     

Performance agreements for clearer institutional profiles and better division of labour

Tertiary Education and Management - Performance agreements in higher education are seen as a promising steering tool in many countries, including Norway. The aims of the performance agreements in...     

Back to beginnings: Credentialism,productivity, and Adam Smith's division of labour

The aim of this article is to examine critically—through a review of human capital and screening theories—the foundation of factional pressures for upgrading educational credentials in the labour market. The article refers back to the writings of Adam Smith to show that not only do the claims of the beneficial and productive social effects of educational upgrading need questioning but that these have been so questioned for more than 200 years.While accepting full responsibility for the views expressed in this article, I would like to acknowledge the advice given to me in the final preparation of the draft by Professors M. Blaug and P. J. Foster.     

Hemispheric laterality in music and math

Hemispheric laterality may be a useful concept in teaching, learning, training, and in understanding more about human development. To address this issue, a measure of hemispheric laterality was compared to musical and mathematical ability. The Human Information Processing Survey (HIPS) instrument, designed to measure hemispheric laterality, was administered to 101 participants who were then asked to provide a measure of their conceptual aptitude for mathematics and music. Scores were then compared through canonical correlation to test the hypothesis that perceived mathematical ability may be explained by left-brain hemisphere preference and musical by the right hemisphere. A relatively strong correlation was found between music ability and right-brain hemisphere preference. A relationship between math and left-brain hemisphere preference or integrated brain processing scores was found to be marginal. Ramifications to learning are discussed.     

Hemispheric basis for schools in mathematics

Kant based Geometry upon the intuition of space and Arithmetic upon the intuition of time. Frege's logicism accepts Kant's view on Geometry and rejects his view on Arithmetic. Logicism bases Arithmetic upon the Logics of sets. On the other hand Brouwer's Intuitionism accepts Kant's view on Arithmetic and rejects his view on Geometry.A model of Ben-Dov and Carmon relates the Kantian modes of perception, space and time, to the brain's right and left hemispheres, respectively. Therefore we conjectured that the preference for particular foundational schools may be related to the brain's hemispheres.Another way to approach mathematics according to two foundational schools is to compare Nominalism with Platonism. Nominalism accepts individual objects and therefore may be related to the left hemisphere, which processes individual details of information. Platonism accepts classes of individual objects and may be related to the right hemisphere, which integrates individual objects into new wholes.These conjectures were tested in a course on Philosophy of Mathematics. The students were asked which foundational schools they preferred and these preferences were then compared with the scores on the hemispheric tests. The results correspond to the conjectures and the model of Ben-Dov and Carmon.This work is part of a doctoral thesis of the author, which was carried out under the supervision of Prof. A. Evyatar.     

The use of computer-automated reading in reading instruction

This study evaluates the use of computer-automated reading in reading instruction and illustrates a resource role for school psychologists in providing consultative assistance for computer-assisted instruction. A reading specialist serving as the teacher's aide was taught to write computer programs for automated reading on a personal computer with a speech synthesizer. The teacher selected six beginning-reading books for her remedial reading classes with 1st- and 2nd-grade students. Five 1st-grade and five 2nd-grade students, enrolled in a compensatory education program, were randomly assigned to two experimental groups; five 1st-grade and five 2nd-grade students, enrolled in the same program, were randomly assigned to two control groups. The students in the experimental groups received automated reading with their instruction; the students in the control groups received instruction in the same books, without automated reading. Pre- and posttests of word recognition, phrase reading, and reading comprehension were administered. The random selection of 1st-grade students failed to yield comparable groups, and the contrast of adjusted posttest scores was nonsignificant. Analyses of covariance on the reading criteria for the 2nd-grade groups indicated significant achievement gains for the experimental group.     

英语阅读中的默读与朗读

阅读是一种技巧,掌握了这种技巧,学生们就会如虎添翼,阅读能力大大提高。阅读有多种方法,本文主要谈论默读和朗读两种阅读技巧。通过默读和朗读,可提高学生阅读理解力和阅读速度,锻炼学生英语表达能力,并帮助学生在听、说、写等方面得到进一步提高。     

Hemispheric asymmetry in a face discrimination task in infants

A right-hemisphere advantage in a mother's face recognition task in infants aged between 4 and 10 months was found to exist by de Schonen, Gil de Diaz, and Mathivet. The present study was designed to test (a) whether the right-hemisphere advantage would still prevail if the task requirements were different from those in the previous study, and (b) whether any information was communicated from one hemisphere to the other. 18-42-week-old infants were presented with an operant conditioning situation where they had to discriminate between their mother's and a stranger's face within one visual hemifield. Transfer of learning from one visual hemifield to the other was also measured. The results confirm the existence of a right-hemisphere advantage in discriminating between face stimuli. This advantage was weaker in the female than in the male population. No hemispheric transfer of learning was observed to occur.     

Students' self-perception of reading ability,enjoyment of reading and reading achievement

Using data from New Zealand's National Education Monitoring Project, a light sampling, low stakes performance based national school assessment program, reading self-efficacy, reading enjoyment, and reading achievement were examined in samples of 8 and 12 year old children. Sample sizes were n = 480 for each group. While reading achievement increased substantially in going from age 8 to age 12, reading enjoyment and reading self-efficacy declined. Girls outperformed boys in reading achievement and showed higher levels of reading enjoyment; differences in self-efficacy by gender were minimal. Results are discussed in terms of previous research and implications for instructional practice.     

论深化对劳动和劳动价值论的认识

自马克思《资本化》1867年问世以来,尤其在新的历史条件下,劳动和劳动价值论遇到了许多新的问题必须从理论上加以认识说明,诸如：经济全球化、新的科技革命与当代资本主义经济问题、社会主义市场经济问题等等。在深化认识之前,首先必须研究马克思的劳动和劳动价值论的基本内容和方法,掌握它的精神实质之后,才谈得上在实践中创新和发展。     

阅读的心理过程模式与外语阅读教学

20世纪60年代以来,随着认知心理学和心理语言学的发展,阅读的心理过程研究先后出现了"自下而上"的信息加工模式;"自上而下"的语言心理模式以及"交互模式和图示理论.其中的交互模式与图式理论对外语教学有较大的影响.     

交互性阅读模式在大学英语阅读教学中的应用

本文首先介绍和探讨阅读模式的相关理论研究,对几种交互性阅读模式进行了综述和评价,提出交互性阅读模式对阅读活动更具解释力,对指导英语学习者阅读更加科学有效的观点。英语教师在阅读教学中应科学运用交互性阅读模式,合理安排教学内容和组织教学活动,重视自下而上和自上而下这两个过程在阅读中的交互作用,既要引导学生读懂课文文字意义,又要激活学生的图式知识,最终达到对文本的深度理解和对相关主题知识的主动建构,提高阅读理解能力,同时增长知识,开拓视野。     

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.     

阅读规律与阅读教学

“披文入情”,熟读记诵;“以意逆志”,自得自求;博约相兼,“循序渐进”;“专心致志”,坚韧有恒,是我们的古人从长期汉语文教学实践中总结出来的阅读规律。它的应用曾为灿烂的华夏古代文明建设和华夏精英的育养做出重要贡献。它根源于中华民族心理特征和汉语的非形态性、汉字的表意性。它至今仍具有很大的实践价值。继承并发展它,将有效提高阅读教学水平,使语文教学早日摆脱少慢差费的困扰。     

提高英语专业学生英语泛读兴趣的途径及策略

泛读课程是高校英语专业学生必不可少的课程,但是无论课堂教学还是学习体会,师生均反映泛读是一门枯燥的课程。本文通过探讨造成泛读课程诸多问题的原因,提出了一些教育教学方面的对策与方法,从而为提高教学效果和今后的研究提供一些参考。     

Oral reading fluency,reading motivation and reading comprehension among second graders

The relationships between oral reading fluency, reading motivation and reading comprehension were examined at the beginning and the end of second grade among 121 Hebrew speaking students. The contribution of oral reading fluency and three sub-factors of motivation—self-concept as a reader, value attached to reading and literacy outloud (social interactions about literacy)—at the beginning of the school year to reading comprehension at the end of the year was also examined. Results indicate that all oral reading fluency measures and all motivational sub-factors were significantly correlated with reading comprehension at the end of second grade. In addition, positive change in self-concept as a reader along the school year was related to improvement in reading achievement. Finally, text rate and self-concept as a reader at the beginning of second grade together predicted 28% of the variance in reading comprehension at the end of second grade. The results support the notion that the cognitive approach to reading cannot explain all the variance in reading comprehension and emphasize the necessity of including motivational factors in the language arts curriculum in the early stages of reading acquisition.