The power of one? Conditions which challenge managerial professional development practices

This paper draws upon Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, capital and field to better understand and appreciate the conditions which encouraged the productive professional development (PD) practices of one very capable teacher working in a secondary school in the British Midlands. Rather than celebrating this teacher's practices and perspective as evidence of the capacity of the heroic individual to overcome sometimes adverse circumstances, this paper reveals how the experiences of this teacher can be understood as an instance of the socially situated self, engaged by and engaging in an alternative politics to that associated with more managerial conceptions of teacher learning. This research calls for a cautious approach to those renderings of educational practice which construe the creative potential of the habitus, without sufficient regard for the actual conditions which contribute towards this creativity. In this way, this paper is presented not as an example of how one teacher overcame significant barriers to substantive learning practices – as a morality tale for other, individual educators to emulate – but as a provocation to suggest how some teachers' access to professional/community resources helps them sustain a clear focus on substantive learning.     

How to improve English skills?

The purpose of middle school English teaching is to improve the students' four skills of listening,speaking,reading and writing,with the base of necessary phonetics,large vocabulary and good grammar,but this is not the final purpose.The final purpose is to let students be able to use the language.     

Don''''t cut off your nose to spite your face

据说有个人因自己相貌丑陋而深感不满,他尤其嫌自己的鼻子长得太难看,对不起自己,于是一气之下,便把鼻子cut off(割掉了),其结果可想而知——他的脸变得更难看了。     

How to relieve your stress

原文 Nowadays, with society developing faster and better, our tasks are even more arduous, which makes it unavoidable for us to bear on various stress.     

How to look after your pets

Many people like animals such as dogs and cats and keep one or more of them as pets. If you keep a dog or a cat as a pet, you must know how to look after it. A grown- up dog needs two meals a day, not more. It can eat meat, fish, rice and some other thing…     

Writing to learn writing skills – a case study

The paper describes a case study in which the main objective is to understand how engineering students can improve their writing skills, regarding spelling and syntax, when taught specifically on these issues. The methodology Writing To Learn is applied in two courses and, making use of the written texts, the students’ writing skills are assessed and evaluated. In one course, writing skills are taught and assessed and in the other they are only assessed. The comparison allows conclusions on the success of teaching writing skills, the influence of text styles and the differences between basic and advanced writing skills. It was found that writing skills were successfully taught, particularly with regard to basic writing skills. Advanced writing errors are twice as common as basic writing errors. Schematic writing styles favour a reduced number of writing errors.     

Teaching “soft skills” to university students in China: the feasibility of an Australian approach

Globally, universities are increasingly seeking to equip their graduates with specific “soft” skills to complement traditional “hard” skills so they can function in a rapidly changing and dynamic world. While hard skills are relatively straightforward to define and foster the same cannot be said for soft skills, despite the latter being increasingly acknowledged as equally, if not more, important. This paper assesses the feasibility of an Australian wellbeing course in the context of explicit soft skills training at one Chinese university in a pilot with 29 second-year students. Using an exploratory mixed-methods design, quantitative impact measures were collected before and after the intervention to complement qualitative workshop evaluations. Results clearly show that participants found both the content of the training as well as the participatory social learning approach relevant and acceptable. The training had a statistically significant positive impact on the assessed human qualities soft skills outcomes. Implications of the findings for the current interest in training Chinese university students in the spirit of innovation and enterprise are highlighted.     

“Putting in your time”: Faculty Experiences in the Process of Promotion to Professor

The rank of professor or “full” professor represents the highest status possible for faculty members, and it is generally gained by attaining professional expertise and a national or international reputation. Beyond this, however, little is known about these individuals or the promotion process at this level. In this qualitative study of 10 faculty members at one research university in the United States, we sought to understand the experiences of individuals who had sought promotion to full professor. Through a socialization lens, we found that issues of time, a lack of clarity, and gender disparity were concerns for these faculty members.     

The digital skills paradox: how do digitally excluded youth develop skills to use the internet?

Digital skills are an important aspect of ensuring that all young people are digitally included. Yet, there tends to be an assumption in popular discourse that young people can simply learn these skills by themselves. While experience of technologies forms an important part of the learning process, other resources (i.e., access to technology and support networks) plus clear motivations are required. Through in-depth interviews with 20 young people who are digitally excluded, this paper highlights the kinds of digital skills these young people find problematic, and the reasons why they find developing these skills so challenging. We demonstrate how poor access to technology, limited support networks and their current situation prevent these young people from gaining the experiences they need to support the development of their digital skills; and how lack of experience and inadequate skills limit the extent to which they perceive the internet to be valuable in their lives. These individual experiences, shaped very much by the wider social structure of which they are part, show how young people cannot simply be left to learn digital skills by themselves and that intervention is required to try to address some of the digital inequalities apparent in younger generations.     

Need for emotional intelligence to develop principals’ social skills

Abstract

Principals are constantly challenged in their schools to serve as emotional anchors, provide professional guidance and be responsible for the effectiveness and improvement of their schools. This study therefore explored the need for emotional intelligence (EI) to be an integral part of the work-integrated learning competencies (WILCs) for principals in the Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE) with specialisation in School Leadership (SL) programme offered by higher education institutions (HEIs) to develop their social skills. The qualitative research approach was used to conduct this investigation. Five focus group (FG) interviews comprising ten principals in each group as well as ten single in-depth interviews were conducted. The findings of this study suggest that the ACE (SL) programme has been relatively successful thus far in developing the social WILCs of school principals. They admitted that it was crucial for them to have a better understanding of the interconnectedness between WILCs and the EI construct in their leadership positions. They concurred that this professional development programme empowered them to use their EI in addition to their cognitive abilities. Evidently, this exploratory study indicates that it is imperative for EI to be an integral part of the ACE (SL) programme for principals since cognition alone would not be sufficient to cater for their professional training needs.     

Do fine motor skills contribute to early reading development?

Background

Little is known about how fine motor skills (FMS) relate to early literacy skills, especially over and above cognitive variables. Moreover, a lack of distinction between FMS, grapho‐motor and writing skills may have hampered previous work.

Method

In Germany, kindergartners (n = 144, aged 6;1) were recruited before beginning formal reading instruction and were administered a host of FMS, early reading skills and cognitive measures.

Results

Analyses indicate that FMS related less strongly than grapho‐motor skills to emergent literacy skills. Controlling for grapho‐motor and cognitive skills, FMS did not generally explain unique variance in emergent literacy skills.

Conclusions

The link between reading and motor skills is highly differential. Findings did not suggest that pure FMS played a significant role in early reading development, however, its close cousin grapho‐motor skills – even when devoid of the cognitive knowledge of letters – did.

Implications for practice

What is already known about this topic

• Fine motor skills (FMS) are considered an important school readiness indicator
• FMS play a role in cognition and language development
• Some research suggests that FMS might be important for reading

What this paper adds

• First study to look differentially at FMS and emergent literacy
• FMS was considered separately from grapho‐motor and handwriting skill
• Links between these motor skills and a broad range of emergent literacy and cognitive skills were investigated

Implications for practice and/or policy

• FMS may be important in the development of grapho‐motor skills
• Grapho‐motor skills appear, in turn, linked to reading
• Fostering children's grapho‐motor skills may be important in kindergarten

     

浅议“词能”(word power)

翻闻英文杂志,偶尔看到一个词“word power”。它的确切含义是什么?又如何把它译成汉语?于是我翻遍手头各种英英、英汉词典,都找不到这个词条。所以我只能顾名思义将其译作“词能”。 在人类文明高度发展的今天,人们对能源的开发越来越深,越来越广,除了电能、风能、磁能、水能、核能……等之外,又开始了对“软能”的开发,是否我们可以把“词能”视为“软能”?1986年3月份英文版的《读者文摘》(Rtaders Digest)上发表了该刊董事长Lee·A·Icoeca先生的一篇短文《A“Seeret”Never to     

“when is your birthday？”教学案例

一、教学目标及内容的确立。谈论日期及日期、月份和年份的正确表达。本单元所借助的话题是"你的生日是什么时候?"(Section A)和"制定你的个人日历"(Section B)。因本单元第一课和第二课的重点句型完全一致,     

Reflections on “teaching discrete skills to students with moderate mental retardation in small‐group instructional arrangements”

Several response‐prompting strategies exist for teaching students with disabilities (Wolery, Ault, & Doyle, 1992). With these strategies, prompts are provided to ensure that students perform the target behaviors in the presence of the target stimuli. However, to transfer stimulus control from the prompts to the target stimuli (i.e., to establish independent and appropriate responding), the prompts must be faded. Often, the various strategies differ on the manner in which prompts are faded.     

Poor education,unemployment and the promise of skills: The hegemony of the “skills mismatch” discourse

Development discourse frames youth in the Arab world as lacking in the skills needed for employment and educational institutions as failing. The “skills mismatch” is offered as both the reason for unemployment, and evidence of the poor quality of education in the region. This paper undertakes a genealogy of the skills mismatch discourse, tracing how it became central to education development policy with a focus on Jordan.We show that this discourse lacks analysis of prevailing labor force dynamics and barriers to economic development, and serves to blame youth, educators, and local culture for the failures of economic restructuring.     

Balancing power in communities of practice: An examination of increasing student voice through school-based youth–adult partnerships

This article examines how power imbalances influence the formation of student voice initiatives, which are defined as school-based youth–adult partnerships that consist of youth and adults contributing to decision making processes, learning from one another, and promoting change. Using the concept of community of practice as a lens, the paper examines the ways in which power influences the mutual engagement, shared repertoire, and joint enterprise of youth–adult partnerships. Specifically, the study finds that the following strategies can strengthen student voice initiatives: building meaningful roles based upon mutual responsibility and respect among all members; developing shared language and norms, and developing joint enterprises aimed at fostering voices that have previously been silenced from decision making and knowledge-building processes.

“used to”与“be used to”辨析

<正>与used有关的短语很多,used to do sth.,be used to doing sth.,get used to doing sth.,be used to do sth.。乍一看,混淆了吧!那么让我们从结构上和意义上来仔细瞧瞧吧:     

Shifting power relations in “the getting of wisdom”

Some researchers have argued that student teachers should be encouraged to access the wisdom of their supervising teachers through observations and interviews. In this article we discuss two student teachers’ contrasting stories about their experiences in trying to access experienced teachers’ wisdom. In particular, we focus on the power relations between the student teachers and their cooperating teachers. Through this study we have come to believe that it is possible for student teachers to develop wisdom of practice, deliberative wisdom and wisdom-in-practice through observation, inquiry, reflection and practice within a community where members are prepared for “positioning” and shifting power relations.