Critical world educational issues of the next two decades

This article gives a pre-publication summary of some key findings that have emerged from a recent far-ranging reappraisal of the World Educational Crisis that first struck in the late 1960's. This extensively documented study demonstrates that the original crisis broadened and deepened considerably in the 1970's, in both developed and developing countries, and will confront virtually all nations in the 1980's and 1990's with a galaxy of critical educational issues.The author (who directed the reappraisal study for the International Council for Educational Development) briefly examines a few of these issues here. They relate specifically to the explosive worldwide growth of learning needs, education's growing financial squeeze, proliferating maladjustments between education and employment, festering educational disparities and inequalities, and the urgent need to revitalize and reorient international educational cooperation in order to cope with these future critical issues common to all countries.The author emphasizes that the great changes taking place in the world of education make it mandatory forall nations to develop more comprehensive, flexible and innovative educational strategies that will encompass the evolving life-long learning needs of the whole society and all modes and types of learning.

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Zusammenfassung Dieser Artikel ist eine zusammenfassende Vorabveröffentlichung einiger Schlüsselergebnisse einer vor kurzem durchgeführten weitreichenden Neubeurteilung der Weltkrise im Erziehungswesen, die gegen Ende der 60er Jahre einsetzte. Diese reichlich dokumentierte Studie zeigt, daß sich die ursprüngliche Krise in den 70er Jahren sowohl in entwickelten als auch in Entwicklungsländern erheblich ausbreitete und vertiefte und in den 80er und 90er Jahren praktisch alle Nationen mit vielen kritischen Erziehungsproblemen konfrontieren wird.Der Verfasser, der die Neubeurteilungs-Studie für den International Council for Educational Development leitete, untersucht hier kurz einige dieser Fragen. Sie beziehen sich insbesondere auf das weltweite explosive Anwachsen von Lernbedürfnissen, die zunehmenden Finanzschwierigkeiten im Erziehungswesen, das immer stärker hervortretende Mißverhältnis zwischen Erziehung und Beruf, die schwelenden Differenzen und Ungleichheiten in der Erziehung und die dringende Notwendigkeit, internationale pädagogische Zusammenarbeit neu zu beleben und umzuorientieren, um dieser künftigen kritischen und allen Ländern gemeinsamen Probleme Herr zu werden.Es wird hervorgehoben, daß die sich in der Erziehungswelt vollziehenden grossen Veränderungenallen Nationen den Zwang auferlegen, umfassendere, flexiblere und innovativere pädagogische Strategien zu entwickeln, die den lebenslangen Lernbedürfnissen der gesamtem Gesellschaft entsprechen und alle Modalitäten und Arten des Lernens einbeziehen.

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Résumé Cet article présente un compte-rendu antérieur à leur publication, de quelques résultats-clés qui ont fait surface lors d'une récente réévaluation de grande envergure de la Crise Mondiale de l'Education dont les effets ont commencé de se faire sentir vers la fin des années 60. Cette étude abondamment documentée démontre que la crise originale s'est amplifiée et considérablement aggravée dans les années 70, tant dans les pays développés que dans ceux en développement, et que virtuellement toutes les nations auront à l'affronter dans les années 80–90 avec une galaxie de questions déterminantes.L'auteur (qui a dirigé l'étude de réévaluation pour le compte du Conseil International du Développement de l'Education) examine brièvement ici certains de ces questions. Elles se rattachent spécifiquement à l'amplification explosive mondiale des besoins d'apprentissage, au pressurement financier croissant de l'éducation, aux relations de plus en plus défectueuses entre l'éducation et l'emploi, à l'envenimement des inégalités et des disparités dans léducation, et au besoin urgent de revivifier et de réorienter la coopération internationale dans la domaine de l'éducation, si l'on veut être en mesure de maîtriser ces futures situations critiques qui seront communes à tous les pays.L'auteur souligne que les grands changements qui surviennent dans le monde de l'éducation font un devoir à toutes les nations de développer des stratégies éducatives plus innovatrices, plus flexibles et plus complètes, répondant mieux aux besoins évolutifs d'apprentissage continu de la société toute entière et de mettre à sa disposition tous les modes et types d'apprentissage possibles.

     

Special educational needs across two decades: survey evidence from english primary schools

Abstract The article considers the perceived prevalence of special educational needs in English primary schools and changes in this prevalence over two decades and relates these to issues in education policy, teacher practice and the concept of special educational needs. The studies considered are two major surveys of schools and teachers, the first conducted in 1981 and the second conducted in the same schools in 1998. Important features of both studies were their scale and the exceptionally high response rates achieved. Two central findings were the perception of teachers that special educational needs were widespread and of an increase in special educational needs over time: perceived levels of special educational needs were one in five children in 1981, which had risen to one in four children in 1998. Learning difficulties were by far the most common aspects of special educational needs but many children had multiple difficulties, and behavioural difficulties were seen by teachers as the main barriers to inclusion. The very high figures for prevalence raise questions about the continued usefulness of the concept of special educational need distinct from broader issues of achievement.     

Piagetian constructivism and the concept of mediated learning experience

The different tools of learning potential assessment rest on a mediation stage of some learning experience between a pre-test and a post-test. Althouth mediation might correspond to a broad range of educative behaviors, in these tools, as can be seen in this issue, it most often takes the form of quite direct instructions of cognitive strategies or of more general solving principles: As if the subject’s own activity would be totally substituted by the mediation during a mediated learning experience. From a constructivist conception of the development this view of the nature of mediation is indeed too narrow and too restrictive and raises some basic questions: What might be the meaning of a cognitive potential revealed only by direct instruction? How to relate learning potential and cognitive development? How to transform potentialities in subsequent cognitive development. This paper tackles these issues from a discussion of the Feuerstein’s distinction of mediated learning experience versus learning by direct exposure to sources of stimuli. From a constructivist view of cognitive functioning and cognitive development, it tries to broaden what mediation might be in the assessment of learning potential as well as in cognitive education programs.     

K-12 online learning journal articles: trends from two decades of scholarship

In this study, we examined the research literature in the field of K-12 online learning to identify the leading scholars, journals, top cited articles, research methods, and topics in this field of inquiry. Our research process involved collecting a corpus of journal articles focused on K-12 online and distance learning; categorizing these articles according to their research methodologies; analyzing trends not only in methodologies employed but also in authorship, citations, journals, and topics addressed. We found the field of K-12 online learning to be growing rapidly in recent years with acceleration not only of new articles but especially of new authors. We also found the field began primarily with emphasizing theoretical articles but is now maturing and emphasizing increasingly more data-based articles. We found K-12 online learning scholarship is scattered among many journals, providing rich opportunities for scholars while also making it more difficult to discern trends across the discipline.     

建构主义理论在聋校课堂教学中的应用

近年来，源于西方的建构主义理论愈发被我国专家、学及教育界人士所注重。建构主义理论的提出，可以说是对传统认识论的一次挑战，它对我们转变教育观念、深化教学改革和开展课堂教学研究都有重要的借鉴和启示作用。特殊教育作为基础教育的有机组成部分，同样也要借鉴国外先进的教育理念和经验，并尝试应用到课堂教学实践之中，使之为教学改革服务。本对建构主义理论及其在课堂教学中的应用，试作初步的探讨。     

Teacher contact with parents of children with special educational needs: a comparison over two decades

The paper addresses aspects of teacher contacts with the parents of children with special educational needs in the broader context of parent–teacher relations. Data are presented from a large-scale survey of teachers of Key Stage 2 children (7–11-year-olds) in England in 1998 and are compared with data from a similar survey in 1981. Levels of consultation with parents have increased across the two surveys and it is very unusual for a teacher not to have had a meeting with a parent of a child with SEN during the current school year. There is a tendency for levels of contact with the parents of ethnic minority pupils to be lower than that for other pupils. There is also a markedly higher level of non-contact in schools serving areas of poverty compared with more affluent schools. A tension is identified between an agenda of home–school partnership and a set of attributions for the causes of children's difficulties which locates these in deficiencies in the home. However, teachers in the later survey were less likely to identify the home as the source of problems than were teachers in 1981. The paper suggests that considerable progress has been made towards fulfilling the conditions for home–school partnership, but that there remain areas of concern.     

Two decades of educational research in Sweden

The article is an attempt to set forth the institutional setting for educational research in Sweden after 1945 and to describe the major directions of research. Governmental school committees began in the 1940's to commission research pertaining to the structure of the compulsory school system and to the objectives and content of the curriculum. As part of the school reform and the attempts to facilitate innovations, the first research institute linked with teacher-training was established in the 1950's. Since the beginning of the 1960's, the National Board of Education has maintained a Bureau of Research and Development. Finally, the proper role of the researcher in his relationship to the policy-makers is discussed on the basis of Swedish experiences.

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Résumé L'article tente de décrire le cadre institutionnel pour les recherches dans le domaine d'éducation en Suède après 1945 et de montrer les tendances principales de ces recherches. Ce fut dans les années quarante que des comités gouvernementaux scolaires commencèrent à commander des recherches ayant rapport au système scolaire obligatoire, aux objectifs et au contenu du programme d'études. Le premier institut de recherches lié à l'instruction des enseignants fut établi dans les années cinquante comme une partie de la réforme scolaire et des tentatives de faciliter l'innovation. Le Ministère d'Education National entretient, depuis le commencement des années soixante, le Service de Recherche et de Développement. Enfin, on traite, en prenant les expériences suédoises comme base, le meilleur rôle du chercheur à l'égard de son rapport avec les architectes de la politique.

     

Reflections on teaching and learning

Ditor's Note: Jacques Barzun, one of the eminent scholars of our time, examines the current state of American education in a new book appearing this spring:Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning (The University of Chicago Press). This collection of fifteen newly edited and introduced essays covers a wide range of subjects. What follows are the introductions to three essays that he felt would be of particular interest to our readers. We thank Prof. Barzun and The University of Chicago Press for their interest in having these pieces appear in our pages.     

Reflections on some contemporary educational slogans

Five fashionable ideas in educational theory are here identified as essentially amounting to slogans in which mere rhetoric supplants rational discussion. First, the back-to-basics movement, trading on a preference for what is essential and useful, blurs the point that there is serious dispute about what actually is essential in education. Second, progressive educators favour discovery learning, but ignore the fact that discoveries can grow out of teaching situations. Third, the notion of values clarification is attractive to all who reject authoritarianism in moral education, but it cannot be enough merely to clarify our moral views. We need to ask how far they are defensible. Fourth, the idea of the hidden curriculum is used to denounce subtle indoctrination, but it is too readily assumed that a hidden curriculum is both inevitable and undesirable. Finally, modern educators have succumbed to the apparent security offered by behavioural objectives without noticing that many educational outcomes, including dispositions, cannot be specified with the precision demanded. Slogans offer simplistic solutions, and serve to curtail serious criticism.

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Zusammenfassung Fünf gängige Begriffe aus der erziehungswissenschaftlichen Theorie, die wesentlich zur Schlagwortbildung beitragen, werden hier identifiziert, bei denen das rein Rhetorische die rationale Diskussion ersetzt. Erstens, die Back to Basics (Zurück zu den Grundfertigkeiten)-Bewegung, die mit Vorliebe übernimmt, was daran wesentlich und nützlich ist, jedoch die Tatsache verwischt, daß eine ernsthafte Auseinandersetzung darüber geführt wird, was eigentlich in der Erziehung wesentlich ist. Zweitens, fortschrittliche Erzieher bevorzugen entdeckendes Lernen, übersehen aber die Tatsache, daß Entdeckungen aus Lehrsituationen heraus erwachsen können. Drittens, der Begriff der Werteabklärung ist für alle verlockend, die das Autoritäre in der Moralerziehung ablehnen, aber es ist nicht ausreichend, nur unsere moralischen Standpunkte zu klären. Es muß die Frage gestellt werden, inwieweit sie zu verteidigen sind. Viertens, der Gedanke des verborgenen Curriculums wird angewandt, um die subtile Indoktrination zu entlarven, aber es wäre voreilig anzunehmen, daß das verborgene Curriculum gleichermaßen unvermeidlich und unerwünscht ist. Schließlich glauben moderne Erzieher durch die sich anbietenden Verhaltensweisen eine Garantie zu haben, ohne zu bemerken, daß vielfach Folgen der Erziehung einschließlich der Charakteranlagen, nicht im einzelnen mit der erforderlichen Präzision angegeben werden können. Schlagworte bieten vereinfachende Lösungen und dienen dazu, ernsthafte Kritik einzuschränken.

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Résumé Les cinq idées en vogue dans le domaine de la théorie éducative sont identifiées ici essentiellement en tant que slogans dans lesquels la rhétorique supplante le débat rationnel. Tout d'abord, le mouvement pour un retour aux éléments d'apprentissage essentiels de base, en tirant profit d'une préférence pour ce qui est fondamental et utile en éducation, cache la controverse sérieuse qui est soulevée lorsqu'il s'agit de savoir ce qui est vraiment essentiel en éducation. Deuxièmement, les éducateurs progressistes favorisent l'apprentissage par la découverte, mais ignorent le fait que ces découvertes peuvent provenir des situations d'apprentissage. Troisièmement, la notion de clarification des valeurs est attirante pour tous ceux qui rejettent l'autoritarisme dans l'éducation morale, mais il est insuffisant de clarifier nos vues morales. Nous devons nous demander jusqu'à quel point elles sont justifiables. Quatrièment, l'idée du curriculum dissimulé est utilisée pour dénoncer une indoctrinement raffinée, mais on affirme trop facilement qu'un curriculum dissimulé est inévitable et peu désirable à la fois. Enfin, les éducateurs modernes ont cédé à l'apparente sécurité offerte par les objectifs relatifs au comportement sans remarquer que de nombreux résultats éducatifs, y compris les dispositions, ne peuvent être spécifiés avec la précision demandée. Les slogans offrent des solutions simplistes et servent à amputer la critique sérieuse.

     

The impact of educational research: Reflections on the American experience

In the past fifteen years, expenditure on educational research and development in the United States has totalled 2.5 billion (US) dollars, but this amounts to only half a per cent of all educational expenditure. The agencies involved include a number of federal agencies (of which the National Institute of Education, established in 1972, is the main one), state agencies, colleges and universities, and specially created new institutions (R & D centers, regional educational laboratories).The initiative in research has shifted, since 1965, from the researchers themselves to the funding agencies, which operate both hard styles of funding (inviting bids for a prescribed project) and soft (declaring a general programme area).Teachers and policy makers are usually unaware of research findings, even when these form the basis of their decisions.Recent development of R & D is best understood as reflecting an over-riding concern with maximising its impact. Five strands of development illustrate this concern: development work, especially in curriculum; evaluation; the long-term effect of fundamental research; dissemination; and the growing attention given to study of the process of social inquiry.The complexity of the decentralized, loosely-coupled US system of education makes the impact of research difficult to identify and uncertain to forecast.

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Zusammenfassung In den USA beliefen sich die Staatsausgaben für Bildungsforschung und -entwicklung (R & D) in den letzten fünfzehn Jahren auf insgesamt 2,5 Milliarden Dollar. Dieser Betrag stellt jedoch nur 0,5% des Gesamtaufwands für Bildung dar. Zu den Stellen, die sich mit R & D befassen, gehören verschiedene Bundeseinrichtungen (vor allem das im Jahre 1972 errichtete National Institute of Education), staatliche Institutionen, Colleges und Universitäten sowie speziell für diesen Zweck gegründete neue Institutionen (R & D Zentren, regionale erziehungswissenschaftliche Laboratorien).Seit 1965 hat sich die Initiative für solche Forschung von den Forschern selbst auf die finanzierenden Organisationen verlagert. Diese betreiben sowohl eine harte (Vergabe von feststehenden Projekten) als auch eine weiche Finanzierungspolitik (Festsetzung eines allgemeinen Programmbereichs).Lehrer und Bildungspolitiker wissen gewöhnlich nichts von den Forschungsergebnissen, selbst wenn diese die Grundlage ihrer Entscheidungen bilden.Die neuere Entwicklung des R & D ist am besten als Reflektion eines überragenden Interesses an seiner maximalen Auswirkung zu verstehen. Fünf Stränge bezeugen dieses Interesse: Entwicklungsarbeit, besonders Curriculum-Entwicklung; Evaluation; die Langzeit-Wirkung von Grundforschung; und die wachsende Aufmerksamkeit, die dem Studium des Prozesses sozialer Untersuchung gewidmet wird.Wegen der Kompliziertheit des dezentralisierten, lose zusammenhängenden Bildungssystems der USA sind die Auswirkungen der Forschung schwer festzustellen und nicht mit Sicherheit vorauszusagen.

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Résumé Au cours de ces quinze dernières années, les dépenses relatives à la recherche et au développement en matière d'éducation aux Etats-Unis ont atteint 2,5 billions de dollars, toutefois cette somme ne représente que 0,5% de l'ensemble des dépenses afférentes à l'éducation. Les organismes officiels concernés comprennent un grand nombre d'organismes fédéraux (dont l'Institut national d'éducation, fondé en 1972, est le plus important), des organismes d'état, des collèges et des universités, ainsi que de nouvelles institutions créées spécialement à cet effet (centres R & D, laboratoires régionaux pour l'éducation).L'initiative dans le domaine de la recherche est passée, depuis 1965, des chercheurs eux-mêmes aux organismes officiels de financement dont le style va de la manière forte (sollicitant des soumissions pour un projet imposé) à la manière douce (décidant du champ du programme général).Les enseignants et les décisionnaires sont généralement tenus dans l'ignorance des résultats de la recherche, même lorsque ceux-ci constituent la base de leurs décisions.Le développement récent de la R & D, portant son impact au maximum, peut être regardé comme le reflet d'un intérêt des plus attentifs. Cinq plages de développement illustrent cet intérêt: tout d'abord travail de développement, principalement dans le curriculum; l'évaluation; l'effet à long-terme de la recherche fondamentale; la diffusion; et l'attention croissante portée à l'étude du processus de l'enquête sociale.La complexité du système américain d'éducation, décentralisé et couplé de façon relâchée fait qu'il est difficile d'identifier l'impact de la recherche et également de le prévoir.

     

中国教育史研究问题的反思与应对

中国教育史研究在取得显著成就的同时,也遇到一些问题。这种问题是教育史研究内部矛盾的外部反映,不仅体现在研究视野、范畴与对象方面,而且体现在理论依据、分析工具与研究方法等各个方面。中国教育史的理论建构,需要认识到这些问题并有意识地予以应对。     

Reflections on learning: widening capability and the student experience

This paper argues for a more nuanced perspective on learning that takes account of the real and situated contexts of student experience. It is presented against a backdrop of the agenda to widen participation in higher education (HE) in the UK, which has led to a rise in students from non-traditional backgrounds entering into HE. Responding to this, an argument is made in favour of widening ‘capability’ in learning, to produce a more socially just pedagogy. Drawing on examples of the student learning experience a series of reflections is produced from an undergraduate programme of education studies. Such reflections, linking personal knowledge with wider social and cultural practices, are used to produce notions of ‘cultural wealth’ across informal and formal learning contexts. It is argued that by creating choice and freedoms in student learning the exclusivity of university education may be challenged and a more socially just pedagogy usefully considered.     

Collaborative learning and teaching: Reflections on a facilitated journey

Abstract

This report summarises the first year of an innovative and multilayered teaching and learning collaborative experience within the context of an undergraduate unit in early childhood. The facilitative influence is two‐fold: (a) generic information skills training (GIST) project which is a joint initiative between the Institute of Early Childhood (IEC), the Library and the Centre for Flexible Learning to teach information literacy skills which are contextualised within the unit presentation mode, its requirements and assessment tasks, and (b) redesign of the unit from a former third‐year level to a first‐year level to incorporate the notion of problem‐based, collaborative teaching and learning. Many challenges were faced by those involved in the unit in its first year, mainly class size and heterogeneity of student levels, incorporation of technology into learning and teaching, and flow of information for smooth operations for students, the teaching team and Library staff. Multilevel collaborations were central to this experience, and examples of student‐student, student‐teacher, and teacher‐staff collaborations are provided. The first of the 2‐year cycle of the GIST project has generated substantive data, as has the implementation of the unit in an innovative format. The complexity and challenges presented in the unit seemed to account for student withdrawal of about 25% in the first month; final evaluations are obtained from 292 students. Survey results presented here are both from the withdrawn students, as well as those who completed the unit. Modifications to the delivery of the unit in its second year and ways of strengthening the communities of learners and teachers towards a common goal are briefly reviewed.     

Imitation and Variation: Reflections on toddlers' strategies for learning

The process of learning for young children is primarily a question of learning in the present and being able to utilize that which is learned in totally new settings or situations in the future. In this article we will illustrate how learning is a question of developing an understanding of, or creating ways of experiencing, aspects or phenomena of the surrounding world. Imitation is an important ingress into learning for young children. Additionally, variation provides insight into the cognitive world of very young children. Both imitation and variation are interwoven in the strategies for learning used by children. Two observations and analyses are presented. In the first observation a toddler attempts to master a skill and in the second observation a group of children are playing on a slide.     

Reflections on the state of educational technology research and development

In this article, I comment on the seven articles that appeared in the special issues of Educational Technology Research and Development (1998, 46(4); 1999, 47(2)) and an associated American Educational Research Association (AERA) symposium, as well as other selected developments in educational technology as presented in a recent edited volume (Jacobson & Kozma, in press). I address the importance of the research and development (R&D) described in these articles and identify five interconnected themes that cut across many of them: the centrality of design, the enabling capabilities of technology, collaboration with new partners, scaling up of projects, and the use of alternative research methodologies. Together, the projects described in these articles are defining new directions for educational technology that put it at the forefront of educational R&D. At the same time, I direct a critique and challenge to traditional instructional systems design (ISD) technology programs.     

布卢姆教育目标分类学在语文教育中应用的思考

本文客观评价布鲁姆教育理论指导语文教学的利弊，着重分析布鲁姆的教育目标分类系统为理论基础的“目标教学法”与语文学科特点的矛盾，在课堂教学中实施的困惑和对语文教育评价的消极影响，表达对“目标教学法”的评价。