Principal Leadership for Special Education: An Ethical Framework

A constructive home-school relationship is an integral component of a child's educational success. Parents must be equal partners in this relationship. One way to find out what parents' needs are is to ask them. Bryan (1992) asked parents of students in different class settings (regular, resource, and self-contained) for their opinions about homework, testing, and grading practices. On the back of each survey, a space was provided for additional comments. We analyzed unstructured parental comments regarding homework, tests, and grades using qualitative meth- odology to identify patterns. The comments contained eight broad themes: (a) complaints, (b) traditional beliefs about education, (c) alternative beliefs about education, (d) communication issues, (e) beliefs about involvement, (f) stress factors, (g) involvement depends on child characteristics, and (h) compliments. Although some differences emerged between parents of children in resource and self-contained classrooms and parents of children in regular classrooms, parent comments across groups were more similar than different. We discuss homework as a means to bridge home and school and suggest further research in the realm of home-school expectations and communication.     

参与式教学在特殊教育课堂中的应用

参与式教学是对以人为本、以学生为主体教育理念的实践,将其应用于特殊教育课堂中的理论依据有:多元智能理论、自我决定理论和合作学习理论。参与式教学强调学生为本、个别差异、整体性和开放性,在教学过程中要兼顾特殊儿童的全人和全程参与。     

特殊教育专业现代教育技术课程设置研究

基于国内外特殊教育的发展趋势及国内特殊教育教师教育技术能力的现状,以“身心发展,缺陷补偿”为指导,从课程设置理念的转变、课程内容的调整、课程实施的改善等方面提出建议,以期提高特殊教育专业师范生的现代教育技术能力,优化师资力量,并更好地满足特殊儿童的教育需求。     

试论幼儿园园长教学领导

教学领导是一种新的教学管理理念。借鉴现代领导理念及校长教学领导的已有研究,对园长教学领导的内涵、角色进行了界定,并从理念、实践两个层面对有效实施园长教学领导提出了建议,以期为提高幼儿园教学管理水平提供一定参考。     

教育大数据时代高校教师教学领导力建设

教育大数据时代的到来对高校教学提出了新的要求,致使高校教师教学领导力的内涵也应重新定义,并相应产生由传统理念到信息化理念、从基于经验到基于证据、从单一主体到多元沟通等三大转变。为应对这些变化,需要高度重视教学领导力的发展,大力提升高校教师信息化教学能力,研制适用的教师教学领导力模型,以"数据驱动"育人意识提高自身教学领导力,从而培养高校教师教学领导力,实现高校教育的健康发展。     

教学领导的研究进展与实施策略

教学是学校的中心工作。随着全国范围内课程和教学改革的深入推进,人们越来越关注教学领导。教学领导研究是当前国际上的一个研究热点,并呈现新的特点。教学领导涉及多方面的因素,校长不仅要担当教学监控、反馈和指导等职能,而且还要致力于营造良好的学校文化和组织氛围;校长不仅是教和学的领导者,同时还承担支持者的角色,为教学提供资源和时间上的保障,促进教师在专业上不断进步。而教师也不再只是单纯的课程执行者的角色,而是被赋予课程开发者的角色,创造性地生成课堂和开展教学。     

Investigating Parent and Professional Perspectives Concerning Special Education Services for Preschool Latino Children

Population changes in the US have created new challenges for service providers responsible for screening, determining eligibility, and providing appropriate educational services to young English Language Learners (ELLs). Six focus groups (two each) with administrators, teachers, and parents were conducted in two different locations to investigate the referral, diagnostic evaluation, and placement of prekindergarten Latino children who are ELLs and their families. The purpose of this study was to: (a) identify effective practices that differentiate between cultural/linguistic differences and learning differences; (b) identify the gaps in the current special education services; and (c) make recommendations to reduce the disproportionate representation of young ELL children based on these data. The results revealed a number of factors contributing to the disproportionality of young ELL children in special services such as: inconsistent screening and evaluation methods; insufficient numbers of bilingual professionals and trained interpreters; communication barriers and contradictory procedures that undermine meaningful partnerships with parents of ELLs; the need for professional development on the purposes and administration procedures of screening and evaluation tools; and a need for policy and regulation changes pertaining to ELL children such as the timing of screenings and evaluations.     

论远程教学设计的基本问题

本文以系统论观点,详尽阐述了远程教学设计中应当考虑的诸如系统设计原则、学习者和学习内容分析、教学策略和媒体选择、效果评价以及学习环境中的信息传输等几个基本问题。这些远程教学设计的基本原则对于远程教学工作者开发成功的远程教学具有积极的理论指导意义。     

学校领导的新进展：从教学领导到转型领导

学校领导的研究已有100余年的历史,20世纪80年代后出现了两种占主导地位的领导范式:教学领导和转型领导。前者强调自上而下的控制;后者强调自下至上的参与式改革,是一种分享式的领导范式。教学领导凭借管理与控制组织成员导向既定的目标;转型领导则通过提升组织成员的期望值来憧憬、创造未来。鉴于两者的优点与不足,未来的领导范式将是两者的有机整合。     

Recognizing and Supporting the Critical Roles of Teachers in Special Education Leadership

Most discussions about special education leadership address the work of principals and district administrators, without reference to the collective and distributed forms of leadership that have taken center stage in contemporary discussions about improving schools. To explore the contributions of and roles for teacher leadership in special education, selected teacher leadership literature in general education is reviewed, including the emergence of new teacher roles in schools, roots and meanings of teacher leadership, and possible benefits of teachers as leaders. Although no studies were found that specifically investigated the work of special education teacher leaders, illustrations of their work are provided as they lead through school-wide collaboration, participate as clinical faculty in Professional Development Schools (PDSs), serve as mentors to new colleagues, and work in district-wide professional development. After a review of several examples of teacher leadership in special education, barriers to teacher leadership and ways of supporting the work of teacher leaders are considered.     

Relationships among Special Education Teachers' Knowledge,Instructional Practice and Students' Performance in Reading Fluency

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among (1) special education teachers’ knowledge for teaching reading fluency, (2) the specific instructional practices they used in fluency instruction, and (3) gains of students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) on a performance measure of oral reading fluency (ORF). Analyses based on multilevel linear modeling and analysis of covariance indicated that for 42 special education teachers teaching third, fourth, and fifth graders with SLD in intensive reading groups, teachers’ knowledge for teaching reading fluency predicted student gains on ORF measures, but did not predict their instructional practice. Furthermore, teacher practice did not predict student gains on ORF. Practical implications and future research are discussed.     

Leadership and Education

In a previous article entitled, “Social Trends and Education” the writer pointed out that some clearly discernible social trends were setting increasingly important problems for the schools that were being given little attention. I n that discussion, one item was omitted because of space considerations, namely the growing trend toward the interdependence of all social and economic groups in our society. This trend seems to the writer to involve developing new techniques of social control in harmony with our democratic principles. The failure to recognize the implications of this trend and uneasiness on the part of some over the changes that perforce it is bringing about, seem to result in threats to our society which for several reasons leaders in and out of education are dodging. This raises the question as to the type of leadership called for, the education they should have and the goals toward which they may be expected to head. This article attempts briefly to discuss these matters.     

从教学管理到教学领导:促进幼儿园教师专业发展的应然选择

传统教学管理在一定程度上制约了幼儿园教师的专业发展,而教学领导却对教师的专业发展具有现实意义,它赋予了教师专业发展的自主权,可以激发教师专业发展的内驱力,给教师专业发展提供条件和保障.促进幼儿园教师专业发展,应实现从传统教学管理到教学领导的转变,包括转变观念和提高教学领导力、建立学习型组织、提供专业支持、给予政策和制度上的保障.     

Assessing the Instructional Leadership of Secondary School Principals in Thailand

While research in Western societies has found that principal leadership is usually a necessary condition for school improvement, there remains a dearth of research on how principals provide instructional leadership in developing countries. This study sought to address this need by adapting the PIMRS (Hallinger, 1984a), an instrument designed to assess principal instructional leadership. The PIMRS was translated and administered to 10 secondary school principals in northern Thailand. Findings from this initial study indicate that the PIMRS‐Thai Form appears to provide data on the instructional leadership of secondary school principals that meet or exceed common research standards of reliability and validity. Researchers and practitioners interested in assessing principal instructional leadership in Thai schools can proceed to use the PIMRS‐Thai Form with a reasonable degree of confidence that it will yield accurate information on job performance in this domain.

Consistent with past studies, the principals in this study tended to rate themselves higher in their self‐assessments than did their teachers (Hallinger & Murphy, 1985; O'Day, 1983). Current and past data suggest that greater credence be given to the teacher assessments. With this in mind, the results indicate that this sample of secondary school principals from northern Thailand exercised a low to moderate level of instructional leadership activity. Assessments of secondary school principals using the PIMRS in the United States (Haack, 1991), Malaysia (Saavedra, 1987), Canada (Jones, 1987) have all yielded significantly higher scores when compared with this Thai sample.     

大学生创业教育课程体系构建的探讨

大学生创业教育已成为高校教育创新的一个重要课题。构建创业教育课程体系要在创业教育课程设置原理的基础上,设置以实践为特点的模块课程,加强模块课程的相互融合,对课程体系的运作予以保障,提高创业教育的效果。     

着眼于素质教育的数学教学策略

在对数学策略进行综合分析研究的基础上 ,对数学教学策略进行了界说 ,通过挖掘提炼数学教学实践和教育研究成果的策略思想 ,构建着眼于素质教育的数学教学策略体系     

小学教育专业教育实践课程探析

高校本科小学教育专业教育实践课程设置上应关注小学生认知上的具体性、小学教育专业的综合性、小学教育活动的实践性、小学教学实践的技能性。但现实中存在教育实践课程结构安排不合理、高校与小学合作不紧密、对教育实践课程指导不力、理论与实践相脱节、教师技能训练不足等问题。因此,要构建科学的教育实践课程体系、建设双赢的小学教育实践基地、树立科学的实践观念、加强管理环节、强化师范生教师技能训练。     

Legislating for Special Education

Alan Hurst, senior lecturer, educational studies, Preston Polytechnic, compares special education legislation in Britain with that in the USA. On both sides of the Atlantic it has 'done little to resolve dilemmas and contradictions'