Developing undergraduate research skills in a faculty of education: motivation through collaboration

This paper explores motivational factors underpinning undergraduates’ learning of research skills through individual research projects with collaborative tutorials. Research has long pointed to group support, positive affect and scaffolding as important for motivating and facilitating learning. Furthermore, UK government priorities have placed an increasing emphasis on the need to develop the key skills of inquiry and working with others. However, this is set in a context of assessment and practice in higher education that encourages individualist and instrumental perspectives on gaining competencies and knowledge. Traditionally undergraduate research skills have been taught through lectures and small‐scale projects chosen by the students with individual tutorial support in a faculty of education. Here our action research introduced collaborative tutorials as another element of teaching. We examine the process of collaboration to explore factors that support motivation to learn through two principal theoretical frameworks.     

Exploring diversity through ethos in initial teacher education

This paper considers whether there is value in introducing student teachers to schools of different ethos as part of their initial teacher education. A 2-year study of undergraduate post-primary student teachers at a university college in Northern Ireland reveals that encounters with schools of different ethos can help student teachers to understand differences between schools and their visions of education, as well as correcting misunderstandings and challenging stereotypes. It is argued that as a result of experiencing diverse examples of ethos, student teachers may also be helped to understand the complexity of schools as organisations and to position themselves and their professional practice within wider debates about the aims of education and schools as communities of practice.     

Children's creative collaboration during a computer-based music task

The purpose of this study was to identify and analyse specific instances of transactive communication as children engaged in a paired melody writing task using a computer-based composing environment. Transactive communication has been identified as one of the features of general collaborative engagement that is most helpful in an educational sense, and which makes collaborative learning an important tool for learning and teaching. The paper reports the results of an empirical study in which a group of 10 and 11 year olds worked in pairs to compose short melodies using computers. Analysis of between-pupil dialogue suggested that levels of transactive communication varied between pairs, and also within pairs as pupils took on different roles at the computer. Factors of individual difference, such as musical expertise or whether the pair were friends, did not appear to have a significant influence on the extent of, or nature or, transactive communication.     

Messy collaboration: Learning from a Learning Study

Messy collaboration refers to complexity, unpredictability and management dilemmas when educators work together. Such messiness was evident in a Hong Kong English Learning Study, a structured cyclical process in which teachers and researcher-participants from a teacher education institution work collaboratively on effective student learning. This paper describes and analyses the collaboration from a micropolitical perspective using multiple participant-voices, including that of one who experienced the collaboration differently from the others. The analysis explores some reasons for the messiness of the collaboration, addresses the epistemological tensions, and considers ways to shift the collaboration towards one that facilitates innovation and learning.     

Pre-service teachers' dispositions towards diversity: Arguing for a developmental hierarchy of change

This article explores Australian pre-service teachers' beliefs about and attitudes towards diversity. Building on Garmon's [Garmon, M. A. (2004). Changing preservice teachers' attitudes/beliefs about diversity: what are the critical factors? Journal of Teacher Education, 55(3), 201–213] argument that there are three dispositional factors that influence students' likelihood of developing multicultural awareness and sensitivity in teacher education programmes, the authors explore the relationship between such dispositions as exhibited in students' autoethnographic work. In so doing, the authors posit that these dispositions may be hierarchically developed: beginning from ‘self-awareness/self-reflectiveness’; moving towards ‘openness’; and finally a ‘commitment to social justice’. After exploring the nature of this hierarchical development through the in-depth investigation of six representative student accounts, the paper concludes by discussing the implications for teacher education, including the necessity to adjust our expectations of changing the dispositions of pre-service teachers in discrete, short courses.     

Creating a web of support: an important leadership strategy for advancing campus diversity

Research demonstrates that leadership, particularly among presidents, is important for moving a diversity agenda forward and make appreciable progress on it. The research questions pursued here are: What is the role of the college president in advancing a diversity agenda? What strategies do presidents identify as important to facilitating a diversity agenda? There were three main findings: (1) strategies are deployed in a non-linear way best represented through a web metaphor, (2) six sets of actors that serve as key nodes on the web and specific strategies were crucial to enhancing and deepening the web-developing an internal network, hiring, mentoring, partnering with faculty on the curriculum, supporting student affairs staff, working directly with and learning from students, and establishing external networks; and, (3) strategies within the human resource frame are noted by presidents as particularly important to moving a diversity agenda forward.     

Curriculum matters: Creating a positive climate for diversity from the student perspective

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that predict students perceptions of their institutions success in achieving a positive climate for diversity. This study examines a sample of 544 students at a large, public, predominantly White Mid-Western institution. Results show that students perceptions of the institutions ability to achieve a positive climate for diversity is a reflection of students precollege interactions with diverse peers and the institutions ability to incorporate diversity-related issues into its curriculum. Results also indicate that these perceptions differ by race and gender. Implications for institutional researchers are discussed.     

Bringing down the fence through school-community partnership: a case for the Community Education Forum framework

Abstract

This article proposes that a metaphorical fence between schools and communities can be brought down by using democratically elected Community Education Forums (CEFs). The CEF concept was piloted in a participatory-action research project that was conducted in three rural communities in Limpopo, one community in Mpumalanga, one in Eastern Cape and in one informal settlement in KwaZulu-Natal, between 2005 and 2006. In this pilot project, the CEF concept was found to be effective in providing a platform that would facilitate a dialogue among different stakeholders such as school governing bodies, community policing forums, educators and education officials. The CEF's strength is rooted in its inclusivity of all community structures and in giving an equal voice to all. Thus through effective community participation the CEF framework has a potential to break down that “fence” that separates schools from the communities they serve. The data from all sites indicated positive responses from participants, ranging from evidence of active collaboration to the willingness to collaborate. The signs of collaboration among different stakeholders in each site included the utilisation of human resources and skills to address urgent educational challenges cost-effectively. Such collaboration and partnerships are positive in terms of facilitating a relevant and integrated curriculum delivery.     

Staff responsiveness to transformation initiatives and diversity at a South African university

Abstract

South African organisations and particularly institutions of higher learning have been confronted with workforces that increasingly reflect the diversity of the South African population. This changing workforce composition implies that the multitude of individual and cultural differences and similarities become increasingly apparent among employees. These differences and similarities can be disruptive and may lead to disharmony, but if managed appropriately, they can also result in increased vigour, stimulation and energy. The importance of workforce diversity in especially a university environment cannot be over-emphasised, as these positive consequences are conducive and sustain universities in their role to expand knowledge that benefits the communities within which they operate. Various transformative initiatives to address diversity, have been devised and implemented, but the impact needs to be measured and assessed to enable leaders to manage diverse workforces more effectively. This article therefore aims to firstly, statistically identify the underlying dimensions of diversity within the largest university in Africa, namely the University of South Africa (Unisa). The responsiveness of university staff members who attended transformative diversity-training workshops are secondly investigated by comparing their responses to that of a matched sample of non-participating staff members. These workshops aimed to sensitise academic, administrative and professional staff at middle-management level to the new realities of an increasing diverse workforce. It is evident that the workshops had a positive impact and that they could be described as successful. The importance of noting that diversity interventions not only entail creating awareness of diversity issues, but also applying the principles of diversity management on a continuous basis, is underscored in this article.     

Responding to diversity: the challenge of expanding basic education for young people in the south

This article explores the extent to which and how non-formal education (NFE) contributes to the development of a more diversified basic education system and thus to the achievement of EFA. It outlines the current nature of NFE, the frameworks provided by the EFA movement, and the evolution of reflection, policies and practices in NFE in relation to basic education as a whole. Based on significant developments in various countries across the South, the article also discusses some key challenges that ministries of education and their partners need to face in moving towards relevant and equitable diversity in education. The article posits that, despite the many problems faced by NFE, there is justification for building on its experiences and integrating these within a larger policy and systems framework that responds more effectively to needs and circumstances of children and young people.

构建和谐社会的消费者保护对策

构建和谐社会,必须构建和谐的消费关系。构建和谐消费关系的消费者保护对策应包括:制定正确的消费者政策;完善消费者保护法律体系;严格执行消费者权益保护法,保护消费者权益,加强经营者的义务和责任;降低消费者的维权成本;发挥消费者组织的积极作用,发挥舆论的监督作用;完善消费者权益保护的救济途径。     

Building Student Ownership and Responsibility: Examining Student Outcomes from a Research-Practice Partnership

Abstract

This article is situated at the intersection of two trends in education research: a growing emphasis on the importance of co-cognitive traits and the emergence of research-practice partnerships to more effectively scale effective practices. Our partnership focused on building student ownership and responsibility for their learning, which means creating school-wide practices that foster a culture of learning and engagement among students. We find no evidence of an overall relationship between the student ownership and responsibility innovation and student outcomes that is robust to model specification. However, when results are separated by school, two schools each saw increased student grades and fewer absences that persisted across both years of implementation. We also use qualitative data about the quality of implementation to understand how school-level engagement in the improvement partnership may be related to observed outcomes.     

Color compensation for multi-view video coding based on diversity of cameras

A novel color compensation method for multi-view video coding （MVC） is proposed, which efficiently exploits the inter-view dependencies between views with the existence of color mismatch caused by the diversity of cameras. A color compensation model is developed in RGB channels and then extended to YCbCr channels for practical use. A modified inter-view reference picture is constructed based on the color compensation model, which is more similar to the coding picture than the original inter-view reference picture. Moreover, the color compensation factors can be derived in both encoder and decoder, therefore no additional data need to be transmitted to the decoder. The experimental results show that the proposed method improves the coding efficiency of M VC and maintains good subjective quality.     

Narrative inquiry in service learning contexts: Possibilities for learning about diversity in teacher education

This paper explores the experiences of pre- and in-service teachers through intentionally created narrative inquiry (Connelly & Clandinin, 2006) spaces within three different service-learning engagements in Canada, Kenya, and Turkey. Because the contexts where our studies were situated were culturally different from participants' backgrounds, narrative inquiry spaces shaped windows in which participants could restory their understandings of others different from themselves. We argue thinking narratively suits the purpose of learning within service learning, highlighting the potential this kind of work holds for pre- and in-service teachers' professional identities in school contexts shaped by diversity.     

政校行企四方联动模式下校企合作机制探索

校企合作是高职院校办学的重点与难点。本文探讨高职院校如何在政府、行业、企业、学校四方联动模式下进行校企合作的机制,通过政府、行业、企业、学校四层次产学合作,对校内体制改革和校企合作机制的建立进行探索,以期为高职院校全面深入地开展校企合作提供有益的启迪与借鉴作用。     

Building a Network for Preserving Intangible Cultural Heritage through Education: A Study of Indonesian Batik

This study aims to discuss a strategy to preserve intangible cultural heritage in education and to deliberate on the batik network in Pekalongan, Indonesia. To investigate the network, this study adopted a framework based on the actor–network theory (ANT). The research data was obtained through observation, interviews and document analysis. Interviews were conducted with eight interviewees who are working professionals in batik. The study achieved the following results: 1. Cultural heritage education needs to connect with the needs of everyday life within the context of the current situation and the social environment. 2. A successful cultural heritage educational network must include the efforts of industry, government, schools, museums and research institutions so that everyone can derive maximum benefit from the network and achieve a sense of accomplishment. 3. Attentiveness to conscious cultural heritage contributes to the promotion of education. Batik knowledge is built by interactions between batik workers, batik, batik museums, school teachers, and workshops or classes, such as student work in schools.     

农村学校家长参与的低迷现象研究——专业主义、不平等关系与家校区隔

本研究以一项为期一年的民族志调查为基础,旨在从教师访谈数据中揭示农村家长参与学校教育的障碍.在理论层面,本研究着眼于教师的专业身份及其对他们对于家长参与建构性理解的影响.在数据分析层面,本研究指出,接受访谈的教师倾向于认为家长在学校教育中的角色是“边缘性”的辅助角色,家长常被看作教师的追随者,而不是平等的合作伙伴,而教...