We read,we write: reconsidering reading–writing relationships in primary school children

The extent to which children's reading experiences influence their writing production is not well understood. It is imperative that the connections between these literacy practices are elucidated in order to inform the development of stimulating curricula and to support children's development. This paper presents new data and key findings from a project investigating relationships between children's free choice reading and volitional writing in Key Stage 2 (9–10 years). The data were collected in two primary schools in northern England, using mixed methods. Quantitative data were collected using an online reading survey taken by 170 children, and qualitative data were provided through independent writing journals maintained by 38 participants. Through analysis of the data using a multiliteracies approach, we demonstrate that the writing that children choose to do is influenced by the texts they encounter as readers in terms of content, text type and linguistic style. The child readers in this project encountered texts in different media and created texts in a range of genres. By examining a sample of children's written texts from the data set, we show that children's interactions and transactions with texts as readers and writers are complex and multiple. Children creatively work across media, and in doing so the boundaries of traditional text genres and styles are redeveloped and redesigned. These findings highlight the importance of providing children with opportunities to freely choose and create texts and recognising the wide variety of text experiences that children bring to their classroom learning.     

Rethinking science literacy: Enhancing communication and participation in school science through affirmational dialogue journal writing

For many students the study of science can be very disaffirming. This may lead to passivity in class and a lifelong disaffection with science, outcomes which defeat the long‐term purpose of trying to achieve scientific literacy for all students. This article represents a new way of framing scientific literacy with a “science for all” goal, based on a nexus of psychological, sociological, and critical literacy theory. A science education researcher and a science teacher collaborated in trialing the use of affirmational dialogue journal writing with early adolescents in a high school situated in a low socioeconomic status area. The intervention was found to be successful on a number of fronts. An approach which affirms students' experience can lead to a deeper approach to learning for adolescent science students. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 699–717, 1999     

Education and new hegemonic blocs: Doing policy the 'right' way

Discussions of higher education need to be placed within larger processes of socio-economic and cultural restructuring. While higher education does indeed have its own specific histories and its own relatively autonomous dynamics, the entire sphere participates in and is connected in complex ways to social transformations and to struggles over power. The author examines these larger transformations that are changing the very landscape on which higher education - and education in general - sits. He analyzes the formation of a new hegemonic bloc that is pushing education in particular rightward directions. This tense alliance includes various factions - neo-liberals, neo-conservatives, authoritarian populists, and a particular fraction of the upwardly mobile new middle class. The author critically examines the policies that are being proposed and the possibilities of counter-hegemonic action.     

Exploring the boundary between school science and everyday knowledge in primary school pedagogic practices

This paper explores the different ways that primary school teachers in Uganda navigate the boundary between school science and everyday knowledge in the context of a centrally mandated curriculum innovation. The paper is based on a study of the pedagogic practices of 16 teachers in eight Ugandan primary schools that were selected on the basis of having a track record of either high or low academic achievement in the public primary school‐leaving examination. The official primary school curriculum in Uganda prescribes that science be taught in an integrated form, including integration between science subject knowledge and everyday knowledge. The strategies that teachers in the study adopted in relating science to everyday knowledge was a key feature that differentiated between pedagogic practices in the high‐performing and low‐performing schools. In high‐performing schools, teachers recruited everyday knowledge as a resource for learning science as a specialised discourse; whereas in the low‐performing schools, acquiring everyday knowledge was viewed as an end in itself. The paper, then, considers the implications of differences in teachers' pedagogic strategies for the kinds of knowledge to which learners are given access.     

On the way to school

小知识法国人德·西弗拉克在1690年曾做过一辆两轮车,使用方法是:两腿分开坐在车上,两脚蹬地使之滚动向前。1839年,麦克米伦发明了一种机械     

要从中小学抓起--科学教育与人文教育相结合的根本途径

3年前 ,我应邀参加了在呼和浩特市举行的关于加强大学生文化素质教育的研讨会 ,并作了一小时的发言。我当时的观点是 ,文化素质培养问题确实应当引起高等学校的重视 ,但是还必须加强中小学的教育工作。我是过来人 ,我觉得我的人文素质主要是在中小学时期奠定的基础 ,然后再有所提高。高等教育毕竟是以专业性为主 ,即使以后在大学实行通识教育 ,也很难像中小学时代那样有系统地循序渐进地进行文化素质教育。所以 ,更应重视中小学生的文化素质培养。一、中小学教育是高等教育的基础高等教育是建立在中学教育之上的一种专业教育。中小学的一个…     

The building blocks of writing: Learning to write letters and spell words

This study examined the development of beginning writing skills in kindergarten and the relationship between early writing skills and early reading skills. Sixty children were assessed on beginning writing skills (including letter writing, individual sound spelling, and real and nonsense word spelling) and beginning reading skills (including letter name and letter sound knowledge, global early reading ability, phonological awareness, and word reading). Children’s beginning writing abilities are described, and they exhibited a range of proficiency in their ability to write letters, spell sounds, and spell real and nonsense words. Global early reading proficiency, phonological awareness, and/or letter sound fluency predicted letter writing, sound spelling, and spelling of real and nonsense words. Appreciation is expressed to the participating students and teachers at Dwight D. Eisenhower School and to Margaret Boudreau and Joan Foley for assistance in scoring students’ responses.     

High school computer science education paves the way for higher education: the Israeli case

The gap between enrollments in higher education computing programs and the high-tech industry’s demands is widely reported, and is especially prominent for women. Increasing the availability of computer science education in high school is one of the strategies suggested in order to address this gap. We look at the connection between exposure to computer science in high school and pursuing computing in higher education. We also examine the gender gap, in the context of high school computer science education. We show that in Israel, students who took the high-level computer science matriculation exam were more likely to pursue computing in higher education. Regarding the issue of gender, we will show that, in general, in Israel the difference between males and females who take computer science in high school is relatively small, and a larger, though still not very large difference exists only for the highest exam level. In addition, exposing females to high-level computer science in high school has more relative impact on pursuing higher education in computing.     

Reading to write an argumentation: the role of epistemological,reading and writing beliefs

The general aim of this study was to examine the relations among epistemological, reading and writing beliefs held by psychology undergraduates and the role played by these three types of belief in influencing the degree of perspectivism manifested in a written argumentation task based on reading two texts presenting conflicting perspectives on the same topic. A total of 118 fourth‐year psychology students took part. Only 76 students performed the written argumentation task. The three types of belief were assessed using different questionnaires. The results show that the different types of belief do not occur in isolation, but have an internal coherence. They also indicate that only reading beliefs, together with the degree of perspectivism shown in a prior argumentation task, help to predict the degree of perspectivism in the written task following the reading of the texts.     

创新作文教学法初探

20 0 0年 ,高考作文评分标准首次按“基础等级”和“发展等级”两项来评分。应该说 ,这样的评分方法更鲜明地贯彻近几年高考一贯强调的“选拔人才观”。如何顺应高考的变化 ?1999年起 ,话题作文大行其“试”。如何更有效地提高学生的作文水平以适应社会发展 ,成为摆在我们面前的课题。众所周知 ,学生们从小学二三年级开始学写作文 ,到高三年 ,已写了十年作文。以每学期八篇计算 ,也已写了一百六十篇的作文了 ,加上毕业班强化训练阶段、考试作文等 ,绝对超过二百篇。但是纵观学生平常作文或中考高考的应试作文 ,很多老师都会发现 ,学生的作文…     

A comparison of primary school pupils' ability to express procedural understanding in science through speech and writing

In this article the answers provided by 98, 12-year-old students to questions included in an end-of-year science examination are analysed. Almost all of the students are able to explain day and night, but the reason why the Moon always presents the same face to the Earth is less well understood. Estimations of the time in Earth days from sunrise to sunrise on the Moon vary. Most students can explain the apparent movement of stars across the night-sky, but their direction is less certain. Implications of the findings for teaching and learning are addressed.     

积累·熏陶·感悟--中学生作文成功的必由之路

为了克服中学作教学中存在的急功近利等弊端,我们的作教学研究应该有新的视野。积累,熏陶,感悟应是中学生作成功的必由之路。“积累”是一切写作活动的基础,“熏陶”是提高作质量的重要保证,“感悟”是提高写作水平的灵魂。     

The write brain: How to educate and entertain with learner‐centered writing

This article presents a conceptual framework for the writing process to facilitate motivation, learning, retention, and knowledge transfer in readers of expository material. Drawing from four well‐developed bodies of knowledge—cognitive science, learning theory, technical communication, and creative writing—the author creates a model that allows developers of performance and educational content to facilitate learning by addressing such principles as engagement, connection, metacognition, learning, and practice.     

论刘邦的人才观

刘邦在诛暴秦、打天下、创汉业的历史进程中，千方百计广揽人才，不拘一格任用人才，公正评价重奖人才，形成了自己独特的用人方法和用人艺术。蕴含着丰富的人才学思想。     

坚持正确的办学方向把民办职校做大做强

我校地处川、渝、云、贵交界处的贫困山区,于1999年由原合江县农广校转制为民办学校.五年来,学校始终紧密结合社会和市场需要,艰苦创业,因陋就简,大胆探索,开拓进取,得到了飞速的发展.学校由改制之初的7名教职工、8万元净资产、10余亩校园面积,发展到今天占地320亩、建筑面积15万平方米、在校学生19 600人、教职工726人、各种实习实验设备价值3 500万元、净资产近1亿元.学校开办以来,共向社会输送3万余名各类实用型人才,被四川省教育厅批准为省级重点中等职校.学校先后被农业部和四川省、泸州市有关部门评选为"全国先进单位"、"全国育才学校"、"省级先进单位"、"泸州市先进学校",被<中国教育报>誉为"一所创造奇迹的民办职业学校",走出了一条农村民办职教的新路子.     

Teaching writing to middle school students: a national survey

A random sample of language arts, social studies, and science middle school teachers from the United States were surveyed about their preparation to teach writing, beliefs about responsibilities for teaching writing, use of evidence-based writing practices, assessment of writing, use of technology, and adaptations for struggling writers. The findings from this survey raised concerns about the quality of middle school writing instruction. Many teachers believed their preservice and inservice preparation to teach writing was inadequate. Middle school students spend little time writing or being taught how to write. While most teachers used a variety of evidenced-based writing practices and made adaptations for struggling writers, such methods were applied infrequently. Most teachers did not appear to use assessment data to shape how they taught writing, and computers played a relatively minor role in middle school writing instruction. Even though teachers generally agreed that writing was a collective responsibility, language arts teachers placed a greater emphasis on writing instruction than social studies and science teachers.     

Reading and writing to learn science: Achieving scientific literacy

A key step in helping students to achieve scientific literacy is to ensure that each school's curriculum supports students' efforts to learn science meaningfully. Educational researchers play a vital role in this step by providing teachers, teacher educators, administrators, and policy makers with information about the creation of a curriculum that supports scientific literacy. In a scientific literacy curriculum, reading and writing can serve as dynamic vehicles for learning science meaningfully. The task of educational researchers is to show how reading and writing can be used most effectively to support science learning. Much of what is done now in schools is based on teacher intuition—good intuition—but intuition nonetheless. What is needed is school-based research to validate and build upon these intuitions. This article is intended to stimulate research on reading and writing to learn science.