Patents: a neglected source in the history of education

Education is a technology, a production system whose elements comprise material, linguistic and conceptual inventions. This multi‐dimensional sense of educational technology is useful whenever attempts are made to understand educational practice. To this end, my paper examines a small corner of the historical or technological record, ‘patents of invention’, a set of sources that has seldom, if ever, been used in English‐language histories of education. To evaluate this source, my attention focuses on the ‘abridgements’, published between 1855 and 1930, where patent applications were grouped according to their use (e.g. as ‘furniture’ or ‘stationery’); and the diversity of these records will be illustrated by reference to an invention – the school desk – that was prominent over the same period.     

抓住难得机遇,实施科教兴国战略

展望 2 1世纪 ,以高新技术为核心的知识经济将逐步占据经济发展的主导地位 ,人力资源的重要性将胜于以往任何时代 ,国家的综合国力和国际竞争能力将越来越取决于教育发展、科技进步和知识创新的水平 ,正是在这样的背景下 ,90年代以来 ,许多国家特别是经济发达国家纷纷把发展高质量教育作为迎接 2 1世纪的基本国策 ,以抢占新世纪国际科技、经济竞争的制高点 ,我国作为发展中的人口大国 ,将面临前所未有的机遇和挑战     

Engineering Education in Developing Countries: social relevance versus international comparability

The growing frustration of developing countries with their relatively slow rate of economic progress, their increasing dependence on imports of technology despite genuine efforts for endogenous developemt, and the flight of their skilled manpower for employment in developed countries have combined to focus attention of their educational planners on the ‘appropriateness’ of their engineering education programmes. Since technology is nation- and culture-specific, it is argued that all educational programmes in the field of engineering and technology should be specifically designed to meet the needs of the country concerned. Formulation of such programmes may, however, inhibit mobility of engineers across national boundaries, hamper transferof technology and decelerate global economic and technological development. The paper examines the observable differences in the characteristics of developing and developed countries, the technological framework and projections of economic growth of developing countries and the special features of the engineering educational system needed to respond to their needs. Implications of recent advances in information technology, biotechnology and manufacturing technology on engineering education planning are analysed. The compatibility of socially relevant engineering education with that of internationally comparable standards is examined in detail. It is shown that it is possible to develop programmes in developing countries which are intellectually challenging, meet international standards of achievement and at the same tiem equip students with competence in technology assessment, with awareness of pitfalls of technology transfer and with experience in use of technological solutions for current social and economic problems. It is argued that such programmes while essential for developing countries will be equally useful to developed countries and would accelerate international appreciation of problems of development. The reversal of brain-drain is proposed through the creation of challenging opportunities at home coupled with the utiltisation of intellectual and financial resources of emigré nationals abroad.     

McSchools for McWorld? Mediating global pressures with a McDonaldizing education policy response

This paper argues that key education policy initiatives since the introduction of the National Curriculum in the UK are Government‐mediated responses to pressures in the global knowledge economy. Successful implementation of these policies has required a change in the way in which education institutions and professionals are controlled and managed. George Ritzer's ‘McDonaldization’ thesis, a conceptualization of a dominant form of economic and cultural globalization, is outlined and it is then argued that national education policy has led to the ‘McDonaldization’ of the state school education system in England. Benjamin Barber's concept of ‘McWorld’ is used to represent the consumerist world which a narrowed educational vision seeks to serve.     

Mobile learning and integration of mobile technologies in education

Mobile technologies have a huge potential to transform education provided these technologies are designed and implemented in such a way that they are relevant to the social and cultural context of learning. Clearly, the application, implementation, and design of mobile technology in the global educational context pose technological and socio-cultural challenges. Specifically, technology tools and applications that are familiar in developed nations may pose unique challenges in developing countries, so ‘one size fits all’ or ‘one technology for all contexts’ does not practically work. Therefore, the authors provide case studies focusing on the pedagogical benefits of mobile technologies when used as educational tools. Ideally, this article is intended to stimulate reflections on the subject of m-learning as well as the integration of mobile technologies in education.     

Culture,technology and local networks: towards a sociology of ‘making’ in education

This article is about ‘making’ in education. Often associated with software programming (as in ‘digital making’), making can also involve creating or modifying physical technological artefacts. In this paper, making is examined as a phenomenon that occurs at the intersection of culture, the economy, technology and education. The focus is not on the effects on cognitive gains or motivations, but on locating making in a social, historical and economic context. Making is also described as a form of ‘material connotation’, where connotation refers to the process through which the technical structure of artefacts is altered by culture and society. In the second part of the paper, the theoretical discussion is complemented by a case study in which making is described as a networked phenomenon where technology companies, consultants, volunteers, schools, and students were all implicated in turning a nebulous set of practices and discourses into an educational reality.     

谈信息化条件下知识管理在教育中的运用

知识管理是一种管理思想。也是一种管理技术和方法。信息化时代要求教育机构实施知识管理，信息技术的发展则为其提供了强大的技术支持。在教育机构中建构一个知识管理技术系统。必须明确知识管理的目标、原则、流程框架及实施步骤等。此外。在实施过程中也应注意相关问题。     

Cumulative and segmented learning: exploring the role of curriculum structures in knowledge‐building

The present article extends Basil Bernstein’s theorisation of ‘discourses’ and ‘knowledge structures’ to explore the potential of educational knowledge structures to enable or constrain cumulative learning, where students can transfer knowledge across contexts and build knowledge over time. It offers a means of overcoming dichotomies in Bernstein’s model by conceptualising knowledge in terms of legitimation codes (bases of achievement) and semantic gravity (context‐dependency of knowledge). This developed framework is used to analyse two contrasting examples of curriculum – from professional education at university and secondary school English – that aim to enable cumulative learning. Analyses of students’ work products show that both cases can constrain knowledge‐building by anchoring meaning within its context of acquisition. The basis for this potential is located in a mismatch between their aims of enabling students to learn higher‐order principles and their curricular means that focus on knowers’ dispositions rather than articulating principles of knowledge.     

The science(s) of adult education

This article deals with the problems of forming a scientific system for adult education. The first part contains different concepts of sciences of education in developed countries, with a special emphasis on the difference between pedagogy as ‘practical theory’ and the sciences of education than can withstand meta‐scientific criteria. This is followed by a survey of the educological system of the knowledge of education, and the scientific and non‐scientific knowledge of adult education are contrasted. To enable us to distinguish unambiguously between scientific and non‐scientific knowledge the survey contains some major criteria for determining whether a discipline is a science or not. In this context andragogy, as well as pedagogy, are defined as ‘technological’ disciplines with the task of applying the principles discovered by the sciences of adult education: the educational psychology of adults, the sociology of adult education, the economics of adult education and the educational anthropology. In other words, andragogy is the ‘praxiology of adult education’, i.e. the science of applying scientific knowledge about adult education in the practice of that education. Andragogy could become ‘the general science of adult education’ and acquire a supra‐technological character if it grew into a science of the effectiveness of systems of adult education. In that case andragogy would study the interaction between the elements of the system as well as the interaction between these elements and the subsystems of the educational environment.     

Students and society in the 2020s. Three future ‘histories’ of education and technology

ABSTRACT

As social science fiction, this paper imagines three possible futures for education and technology. Among the most important technologies emerging today are data-aggregating technologies such as AI, affective computing, adaptive or predictive software, clouds and platforms. The paper is not, however, directed at specific technologies, but at indeterminate sociotechnical configurations. Set in 2040, it offers three ‘histories’ of the 2020s. Might students become (i) ‘smooth users’, improving themselves in the pursuit of frictionless efficiency within a post-democratic frame created by large corporations, (ii) ‘digital nomads’, seeking freedom, individualism and aesthetic joy as solopreneurs exploiting state regulations and algorithmic rules while stepping out of the state and deeply into the capitalist new economy, or (iii) participatory, democratic, ecological humans embedded in ‘collective agency’ that see institutions as spaces for exploring more equitable ways of living? The paper reflects on the future research and the political, educational and technological decisions which would make each of these three fictional future histories more or less likely.     

Moving beyond the predictable failure of Ed-Tech initiatives

ABSTRACT

The development of Information and Communication Technology has created waves of excitement about its power to fix educational problems and improve learning results, prompting a succession of policy efforts to integrate digital technology into education. Educators, schools and corporations are increasingly driving these initiatives. This article makes the argument that a narrow vision of digital technology, which both ignores the complexity of education and wastes valuable public resources, is becoming an obstacle to significant improvement and transformation in education. Utilising our research and experience in the field of educational technology, this paper problematises the common elision of ‘technology’ and ‘digital technology’. From this basis, we then critically reflect on various common approaches to introducing digital technology in education under the guise of promoting equality and digital inclusion. These include national government-led programmes, more recent trends for local school-led initiatives, and the role of non-formal education initiatives led by corporations/foundations. Amidst the varying surface-level ‘failure’ and/or ‘success’ of these approaches, we point to limited underpinning ‘information and knowledge society’ logics in framing the application of digital technology to education. As such we conclude by considering the educational challenges for future Ed-Tech initiatives.     

SOME PROBLEMS INVOLVED IN THE EXPERIMENTAL COMPARISON OF TEACHING METHODS

The Great Debate began with a criticism of the education system: schools are failing to provide the increasingly skilled and intelligent workforce required by industry as it becomes more technological. In fact, under capitalism, which divides management from labour, advancing technology concentrates intelligence on the side of management and de‐skills labour. The combination of expanding education with contracting skill at work produces employees who are more, not less, educated than their jobs require, and who are less efficient because more dissatisfied. In this situation, the demand for a more educated workforce is in fact a demand for more discipline in the subordinate ranks of industry's political hierarchy. Education should accept the invitation to establish ‘closer links’ with industry, but must resist the cosmetic operation being planned.     

The Efficiency of Public Spending on Education: an empirical comparison of EU countries

Recent policy suggestions from the European Community underlined the importance of ‘efficiency’ and ‘equity’ in the provision of education while, at the same time, the European countries are required to provide their educational services by minimizing the amount of public money devoted to them. In this article, an empirical study compares the spending efficiency on education in 20 European countries during the period 2006–2009. OECD-PISA test scores are used as output, while the ‘expenditure per student’ is used as input. The efficiency scores are calculated via a bootstrap Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). In a second stage, the efficiency scores are regressed against a set of context variables which represent the different socio-economic settings (e.g. GDP per capita, unemployment rate, etc.) as well as some important ‘structural’ characteristics of the educational systems. Teachers' salaries and Internet use (as a proxy for technological ‘literacy’) play a positive role in affecting educational performance, while GDPpc is negatively related to efficiency. Lastly, Malmquist indexes are calculated to measure the change in efficiency in the period 2006–2009. The results showed that the average efficiency remained basically stable in the period.     

Learning to teach 3D printing in schools: how do teachers in Korea prepare to integrate 3D printing technology into classrooms?

3D printing implementation in educational contexts has gained considerable attention in recent years. However, research shows that both in-service and pre-service teachers lack digital literacy and the confidence required to teach this emerging technology. This study reports the current challenges and opportunities in 3D printing education in Korea and identifies the range of knowledge required for teachers to integrate 3D printing technology into classrooms in meaningful ways. The technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) framework was used to analyze the certificate program for 3D printing educators and in-service teachers’ practices. The findings from interviews with 10 in-service teachers and participant observation in the 3D printing training workshop for pre-service teachers revealed that technological knowledge is overly emphasized in the 3D printing teacher training curriculum. Thus, many in-service teachers develop their content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge by exchanging ideas with other teachers online and running project-based courses with flipped classroom approaches. Two potential paths were discovered for developing curricula that cross over the domains of the TPACK framework to successfully integrate the technology into classrooms: collaboration between teachers in different subject areas and industry experts to develop technical knowledge and curriculum, and contextualizing 3D printing technology in relation to open-source digital culture.     

The School and the Reduction of Inequality∗

ABSTRACT

The need to develop reasoning skills in children through discussion is generally acknowledged by curriculum aims. There is, however, a lack of any definite teaching strategy to fulfil this need. Matthew Lipman's Philosophy for Children programme has had success in this area. As with other ‘collaborative enquiry‐based’ approaches to learning, it depends upon a teaching strategy which enhances children's self‐esteem. This seems a necessary ingredient for the development of rationality, critical awareness and autonomy in children. Inadequate teacher training is suggested as a major reason for the failure of ‘collaborative’ approaches greatly to influence educational practice. With a shift away from the ‘authority/knowledge‐based’ paradigm and the provision of effective teacher training, it is considered that our educational institutions could become more democratically organised, and we would move closer to realising the liberal ideal of developing human potential to the full.     

Thought and action in the life of F.D. Maurice,with particular reference to the London Working Men's College

Lifelong learning is realized in different ways in different countries. Socio-economic and cultural factors are important determinants of implementation. Japan is a self-styled ‘maturing’ society with an ageing population. It is wealthy, but undergoing rapid social, economic and technological change that poses a threat to its sense of community. Its economy is faltering for the first time since reconstruction after World War II. In the author's view, based on desk study and a visit to relevant agencies in Nagoya and Tokyo in June 1999, lifelong learning is seen to be a key means for addressing these three central issues - ageing, community and economic change. National bodies have deliberated on the problems and informed themselves of needs and options for development. They have articulated policies to promote and celebrate learning of all kinds at any point of life through adult, vocational and community education. Initial education is perceived to have a key role in inculcating aptitude for, and positive attitudes towards, learning over the lifespan. This paper argues that, in Japan, lifelong learning is viewed as a ‘lifeline’ i.e. a vital means of communication on these issues between the national ‘think tanks’, bureaucrats and the Japanese public. The Bureau of Lifelong Learning of the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture (Monbusho) seeks to develop and implement policies to achieve these goals.     

Kurt Hahn’s moral equivalent of war

Kurt Hahn’s educational thought is less well‐known than the educational institutions he established. This article analyses Hahn’s educational ideas through a reading of his speeches and limited writings, and sketches the historical context in which these ideas developed. Although his aristocratic background resulted in a thoroughly conservative worldview, he developed a largely progressive educational practice focusing on active ‘Samaritan service’ and experiential learning, enabling students to discover the Christian purpose of life. Hahn’s notion of Samaritan service has been adopted, in secularised form, by the International Baccalaureate, and it is here where his lasting contribution to primary and secondary education lies.     

New educational technologies: Their impact on relationships of dependence and interdependence for Third World countries

The widening gap between North and South is more than economic: it is a knowledge and power gap. The influence of the present information revolution on education in the West, unprecedented in its rate and scope of expansion, is increasing the information gap at an alarming rate. Should Third World countries use new educational technologies (NET) as a tool for development? Can they afford it? Will borrowing NET perpetuate the present dependency of the Third World? This paper argues that Third World countries will continue to be technologically dependent because of research and development in the West. The solution lies in the balance of power theory — selective transfer of NET appropriate for their level of development, to strengthen their bargaining position. Mass education and the development of indigenous technological capacity are implied. Bargaining capacity would reduce dependency, create greater interdependence and change the equation of power.     

Research capacity and dissemination among academics in Tanzania: examining knowledge production and the perceived binary of ‘local’ and ‘international’ journals

This article explores two distinct strategies suggested by academics in Tanzania for publishing and disseminating their research amidst immense higher education expansion. It draws on Arjun Appadurai’s notions of ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ internationalisation to analyse the perceived binary between ‘international’ and ‘local’ academic journals and their concomitant differences in status. In an attempt to examine critically how the status quo regarding knowledge production in higher education is maintained and reproduced, the article explores interactions between a Tanzanian academic and an educational researcher from the global North, including the ways in which research collaborations between academics from different contexts and material conditions in their institutions may both advance and inhibit professional development of academics and comparative education research, writ large. The article concludes with a call for comparative education researchers to carefully consider the future of educational research in sub-Saharan Africa and the complexities of continued involvement in knowledge production processes.     

Expert versus novice users: Power rules in virtual space

This study sought knowledge of the decision-making used by learners when interacting with multi-media environments. Mounting evidence on related thinking processes appeared to expose a gap in the prior knowledge, vocabularies and values used when entering cyberspace. We were curious to know about the decision making judgements made by learners and any associated rules or strategies they had developed to interact with new and emerging information technology environments. How decisions are undertaken are considered major issues for educational institutions at local, national and global levels with ramifications for civic and community life. In a sample drawn from a senior high school and university we investigated students’ responses to different questions including: What ways of knowing are used by learners? What codes of behaviour apply? Are they age and gender related? The responses provide a rich and fascinating insight to the ways in which people are interacting with the new media environments. ‘Experts’ versus ‘novices’ appeared to provide the major distinction.