Papier‐mach(in)e: Thinking with “sticky” paper in the cloud

There is nothing less about paper and its use when it comes to academic study as we experience increasingly converging media spaces and functionalities of online applications within the screens of our laptops, mobile phones and tablet devices. The paper persists, and the paperless office, classroom and pedagogy become nothing but pure rhetoric. Hence, it is most pertinent to focus on paper and its “stickiness” in maintaining educational structures and practices. Usually hidden from view or neglected in educational technology studies is a consideration on how we think and interact not only with our mind but also with our heads and limbs. This paper will argue that paper has a composite place or bearing, a kind of stickiness to our technologised bodies, digital mobilities and hybrid practices in what I have coined here as papier‐mach(in)e. This claim will be supported by evidence that demonstrates how we simply think both practically and pathically and that our mobilities in media and physical spaces are in one form or another meshed with paper. In fact, a drive towards a paperless classroom or pedagogy is without much foundation when it comes to mobilising a sustainable agenda for technology‐enhanced learning.     

文化存在论教育学论纲——文化存在论教育学产生的时代背景与基本主张

文化存在论教育学理论是在教育学这门学科究竟主要是一门以哲学运思为主的精神科学,还是一门方法至上的实证科学这一历史性交锋中应运而生的。文化存在论教育学的提出是对实证主义范式在教育学领域过度宣扬的匡正。教育学是一门有着浓郁的强烈的丰富的人文性、艺术性、审美性、价值性和伦理性的学科。从学科嬗变史、学科本质、学科研究方法借鉴路线图等来考察,我们可以得出这样的结论,教育学作为一门“成人”的学科所具有的境遇性、生命性、个殊性、复杂性等特质无法被完全数据化的定量研究所把握。文化存在论教育学分别从教育本质、教育目的及教育方法出发,聚焦三个根本性问题:儿童“是”什么?儿童会成“为”什么?儿童之所以会成“为”社会与文化所期望的那个样子,需“要”什么?针对这三个根本问题,文化存在论教育学提出了理想的教育应确立的四项重要原则:首先,教育要关注儿童的“精神”或者“生命”成长,关注儿童的心灵世界、精神世界、生命世界;其次,教育是“相遇”的历程,是一场充满“境遇”的人生旅程,多元、丰富、奇幻的教育孕育着儿童各种生长的可能性,教育既关怀当下,又指向未来的生活;再次,教育要注重“关系”的营建,魅力在于生活世界中诸般“关系”的和谐与共融,儿童与教师在美好的教育“关系”中相濡以沫,砥砺前行;最后,儿童是“文化”的存在,教育要关注文化在陶冶滋养儿童的向善、求真、育美中的重要作用。     

Artificial worlds and real experience

The debate about the potential impact of computers on children's learning and development rages. In this article I take up one set of issues in this debate having to do with the role of experience, computational and otherwise, in learning. Are computational learning environments doomed to failure because of their impoverished sensory properties? Do computers impose rigid and mechanical thinking on their users? My answer to these and related questions is a straightforward no. But in thinking through the issues one can learn a good deal about what “experience” can and should mean, and in what ways we can most profitably use computers in education.     

外语教学中学生评判性思维能力的培养

在21世纪新时代背景下,外语教学既是一门语言课程,又是一门加强学生评判精神、培养学生创新能力的教育课。外语教学与教育学相融合,语言技能的培养与评判性思维能力的培养相结合,已日显重要。要培养学生的评判性思维能力,造就创新人才,必须实现教学观念的转变、教学方法的改进,构建民主和谐的课堂氛围和“多维度”的教学评估模式,引导和鼓励学生“换位思考”、“对比思考”、“设疑思考”。     

SHOULD JEWISH SUPPLEMENTARY RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS BE LIKE THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS?

Whether the Jewish supplementary school should be operated as if it were a public school depends on the goals of Jewish education. “In terms of ultimate goals, however, Jewish education is now at a crossroads.”¹ While all Jewish educators would probably agree with Harold Schulweis' statement that “it is our sacred task to create Jews,”² educators are not in agreement over what type of Jews we are to create and how we are to create them. Jewish educators can be divided into two groups. One group wants to create “educated, thinking Jews” — goal #1—while the other desires to shape children into “feeling Jews” —goal #2.     

Persuasive communication: A theoretical model for changing the attitude of preservice elementary teachers toward metric conversion

This study was based on Hovland's four-part statement, “Who says what to whom with what effect,” the rationale for persuasive communication, a theoretical model for modifying attitudes. Part I was a survey of 139 perservice elementary teachers from which were generated the more credible characteristics of metric instructors, a central element in the “who” component of Hovland's model. They were: (1) background in mathematics and science, (2) fluency in metrics, (3) capability of thinking metrically, (4) a record of excellent teaching, (5) previous teaching of metric measurement to children, (6) responsibility for teaching metric content in methods courses and (7) an open enthusiasm for metric conversion. Part II was a survey of 45 mathematics educators where belief statements were synthesized for the “what” component of Hovland's model. It found that math educators support metric measurement because: (1) it is consistent with our monetary system; (2) the conversion of units is easier into metric than English; (3) it is easier to teach and easier to learn than English measurement; there is less need for common fractions; (4) most nations use metric measurement; scientists have used it for decades; (5) American industry has begun to use it; (6) metric measurement will facilitate world trade and communication; and (7) American children will need it as adults; educational agencies are mandating it. With the “who” and “what” of Hovland's four-part statement defined, educational researchers now have baseline data to use in testing experimentally the effect of persuasive communication on the attitude of preservice teachers toward metrication.     

新时代何以育智：作为一种方法的“学习对质”

“对质”一词来源于法学学科,但巧妙地回答了教育科学中对学生“要我学”至“我要学”转变后关于“我该如何学”的持续追问。“学习对质”是深化学生思考的重要方法,能够达成学生以思考为核心目的之学习,可回应新时代育智问题,助力新时代学生学习。通过系统阐述“学习对质”的概念、内容、形式和结果,可进一步厘清“学习对质”的独特内涵。而梳理当前学习理论和实践变革发展需要,可肯定“学习对质”作为学习方法存在的意义。此外,要实现“学习对质”,应发挥教师“学习对质”的引导作用和发展学生的“学习对质”精神、能力,使学生在教师的引导下更好地掌握学习方法,有效开展“学习对质”,“解构”并“重构”广义知识,积极扩展思维界限,不断提升终身学习能力,不断实现自我发展、自我成就、自我超越。     

Computational Thinking from a Disciplinary Perspective: Integrating Computational Thinking in K-12 Science,Technology, Engineering,and Mathematics Education

This article provides an introduction for the special issue of the Journal of Science Education and Technology focused on computational thinking (CT) from a disciplinary perspective. The special issue connects earlier research on what K-12 students can learn and be able to do using CT with the CT skills and habits of mind needed to productively participate in professional CT-integrated STEM fields. In this context, the phrase “disciplinary perspective” simultaneously holds two meanings: it refers to and aims to make connections between established K-12 STEM subject areas (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and newer CT-integrated disciplines such as computational sciences. The special issue presents a framework for CT integration and includes articles that illuminate what CT looks like from a disciplinary perspective, the challenges inherent in integrating CT into K-12 STEM education, and new ways of measuring CT aligned more closely with disciplinary practices. The aim of this special issue is to offer research-based and practitioner-grounded insights into recent work in CT integration and provoke new ways of thinking about CT integration from researchers, practitioners, and research-practitioner partnerships.

     

Our particle universe

Ever since the discovery of the electron more than 100 years ago, scientists have asked the questions –“what is our universe made of?” and “why is the universe the way it is?” Not long before, it was found that these two questions are related to each other. The interactions of particles in the universe determines its evolution, its very form, and existence. In this article, we will trace the discovery of some of these particles, learn about their interactions, and try to understand their properties such as electric charge and mass.     

Banaji,Shakuntala & Buckingham,David (2013) The civic web MIT Press (Cambridge MA & London) isbn 978‐0‐262‐01964‐4 185 pp £20.95 https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/civic‐web

With the sub‐title “Young people, the internet, and civic participation”, The civic web recognises that youngsters are now well along the path to fully and seamlessly integrated offline and online lives. How can we ensure these young people become and remain fully engaged in their wider society and worlds now and throughout their lifetimes? It applies to teachers insofar as “digital media are part of the taken‐for‐granted social and cultural fabric of learning, play, and social communication”. There is some relevance to formal learning technology here, but the recommendation is that you borrow a copy for thought‐provoking “spare‐time” reading. Eric Deeson     

Becoming your own leader: From leader to possible failure and back again—A pragmatic approach

Many people resign themselves to play “follow the leader” and allow others to make decisions that have major impact on their professional and personal lives. Nevertheless, we can, if we choose, take control of our own future and become our own leader and thus decide what we will do and accomplish. This article provides the concepts and tools to take control of your own life and become your own leader. It is built on the performance accomplishments in organizations and in the rest of life.     

“是什么”抑或“怎样”：教学论研究的思维转向

关于“教学是什么”的“教学本质”追问是一种简单化的思维方式,这种思维方式制约着教学论学科研究的空间。既有教学论研究框架的形成有三个来源,一是被机械化的马克主义哲学,二是既有教育学的学科研究框架,三是心理学相关研究成果的简单移植。这三个来源使教学论学科发展具有先天性的不足。关于“怎样”的教学论研究将带来教学论学科的“向上”和“向下”的两个路径的转向。其向上发展的路径是思考教学“应当怎样”的教学伦理研究,其向下发展的路径形成描述或解释取向的实践教学论研究。     

“Being Healthy”: The discursive construction of health in New Zealand children's responses to the National Education Monitoring Project

In this paper we examine the discursive resources that year 4 and year 8 students draw on to construct meanings for health. Drawing on students' responses to tasks in the New Zealand National Monitoring Project (Crooks & Flockton, Health & Physical Education, University of Otago Educational Assessment Research Unit, 1999) we examine what students have to say about health, and speculate on where these responses have come from and on the implications of these for health education pedagogy. The students' responses indicate that they are well versed in “healthism” discourses that link practices like eating, exercise, smoking, drinking and taking drugs with “health”. The students' responses also point to the construction of health knowledge as certain and static. Relatively little attention is paid to the social, cultural, economic or political contexts of people's lives. Indeed, the “typical” responses clearly point to the dominance of white, middle class values about health and fitness promoted in New Zealand society. We conclude by posing several questions generated for educators.     

Listening to Student Concerns: An Instructional Strategy to Expand Student Perspectives

It is well documented in the literature that relationships influence the lives of young children (birth to second grade). Consequently, it is essential that young children's caregivers and teachers build professional relationships with children's parents, because these relationships influence the children's present and later learning environments both at home and in school. While listening to parents is a well-established value in the field of Early Childhood Care and Education, details about what “listening to parents” means seem less clear in the literature, research, and our own pedagogy as early childhood educators. Incidentally, teacher candidates and advanced teacher students (hereafter referred to as “our students”) sometimes voice concerns related specifically to listening to parents. Yet, answers to such concerns also seem limited in the literature and the research. Therefore, the intent of this reflective position paper is threefold: to provide my fellow teacher educators with three literature-based reasons to share with our students about why it is important to listen to parents; to indentify familiar comments, concerns, and feelings that our students have voiced about listening to parents; and to provide five practical cooperative-learning activities that will potentially influence our students' practices.     

Knowledge,Narrative and National Reconciliation: Storied reflections on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission

This paper considers the educational work that narrative does. Against the context of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission that examined the crimes of apartheid, it discusses the narrative implications of South African poet Antjie Krog's multi-layered text of Truth Commission testimony, and autobiographical and philosophical musings. The paper argues that narrative points to education in four ways. The first involves research practices in which subjectivity and experience are acknowledged, celebrated and recognized to be powerful and compelling, allowing us to learn moral truths. Secondly, narrative can be utilised as part of a pedagogy of care, compassion and concern in which we ask questions regarding what it means to be taught by the lives of others, and how stories that are not our own speak to those we already have, enabling us to learn how to act morally through others' experiences. The third aspect of narrative is then the identity work it enables, offering the possibility for the reconstruction of the learning “I”, inflecting away from past perspectives to new ways of seeing. Through listening to others we might produce more accountable and more responsible knowledge. Fourthly, we explore how narratives might produce trustworthy accounts in which evidence is not endlessly plastic, but where the narrative form enlarges the scope for understanding. Throughout we show that individual and collective narratives are played out on a structural field, embedded in the political, social and historical conditions of a racial and gendered power, with real material effects.     

Defining Computational Thinking for Mathematics and Science Classrooms

Science and mathematics are becoming computational endeavors. This fact is reflected in the recently released Next Generation Science Standards and the decision to include “computational thinking” as a core scientific practice. With this addition, and the increased presence of computation in mathematics and scientific contexts, a new urgency has come to the challenge of defining computational thinking and providing a theoretical grounding for what form it should take in school science and mathematics classrooms. This paper presents a response to this challenge by proposing a definition of computational thinking for mathematics and science in the form of a taxonomy consisting of four main categories: data practices, modeling and simulation practices, computational problem solving practices, and systems thinking practices. In formulating this taxonomy, we draw on the existing computational thinking literature, interviews with mathematicians and scientists, and exemplary computational thinking instructional materials. This work was undertaken as part of a larger effort to infuse computational thinking into high school science and mathematics curricular materials. In this paper, we argue for the approach of embedding computational thinking in mathematics and science contexts, present the taxonomy, and discuss how we envision the taxonomy being used to bring current educational efforts in line with the increasingly computational nature of modern science and mathematics.     

Teaching for creativity: from sage to guide to meddler

This paper serves three purposes. First, it makes a case for seeing creativity as a key learning outcome in our times, and thus the core business of education. It then goes on to examine the nexus of creativity and pedagogy, showing the conceptual work done to demonstrate creativity as a learnable set of dispositions and capabilities. Finally and most importantly, the paper argues the value of a pedagogical approach the author calls “Meddling-in-the-Middle”, in augmenting and enhancing the repertoires of “Sage-on-the-Stage” and “Guide-on-the-Side” in order to build students' creative capacity. Examples are given of what these meta-approaches might look like in relation to the teaching of Shakespeare. The author concludes by arguing the important connection between Meddling pedagogy and creative capacity building.     

Towards the Idea of a World University

Could anyone reasonably oppose the idea that quality and excellence are essential to the university? However unlikely it seems, that is exactly what we would like to do in this article: we would like to reject the demand for quality and excellence in the university. We would like to arrive at a point at where the need for quality is no longer necessary. In this article, such a refusal will direct us to a proposal for using the spaces offered by the university and its teaching and research in a different way; in a way that transforms the university into a world university. This paper will argue that a world university is concentrated around attentive pools of worldly study. It is a university that has to invent new languages in order to answer the question “How can we live together?” In order to answer this question, and to be “present in the present,” we will clarify our argument that both acceptance and attention are needed in the world university. This position implies a kind of curiosity that is not driven by the “will to know” but by a caring attitude to what is happening now.