Collaborative learning in a VLE based common module

The Masters Level Opportunities and Technological Innovation in Vocational Teacher Education project （http：//motivate.tmpk.bmf.hu/） aims to develop the use and management of virtual learning environments in the area of vocational teacher training, drawing on a well established international partnership of institutions providing both technical and educational expertise. This paper gives an overall picture of the first results and products of the contribution. The author touches upon the goals, the assessments and the learning process of using ＂multimedia and e-learning： E-learning methods and tools＂ module in details. The main collaborative tools in virtual learning environment from point of view of pedagogical approach are presented. The communication during collaborative learning, the structured debate on forum and the benefits of collaborative learning in VLE are interpreted at the end of this paper.     

The emotions in teaching and learning nature sciences and physics/chemistry in pre-service primary teachers

A study was made of different emotions that prospective primary school teachers report with respect to science subjects, when they were pupils, and during their practice teaching, taking into account the variables gender and the speciality they studied in the secondary education. The study consisted of a questionnaire completed by 63 primary education students at the University of Extremadura, Spain. The results show a great difference between the emotions related to the subjects of physics/chemistry and the nature sciences （biology/geology）. The scientific subject influences the emotions of pre-service primary teachers, both in learning and teaching. In physics and chemistry, the emotions are mostly negative. While in nature sciences they are very positive. In nature sciences, there is a correlation between the emotions felt as secondary school pupils learning science and those they feel as teachers. In physics and chemistry, there is a correlation in the women between the emotions felt as secondary school pupils learning science and those they feel as teachers, but not in the men. The memory of their emotions in learning science at school is more negative than in teaching science during their teaching practice, except in nervousness in physics/chemistry. By gender, men declared a greater predilection for science content than women, with more of them describing such feelings as sympathy or confidence. The results highlight the influential role that emotions play throughout the professional growth of future primary teachers.     

＂I don＇t see color,I only see children!＂： A study of teachers＇ color-blindness for Asian students/family

The purpose of this study is to explore USA educators＇ resistance toward cultural awareness for Korean students and families in the New York metropolitan area. The authors aim to challenge teachers＇ color-blindness that is widely spread among USA educators. Guided by critical race theory, the authors show that the perceived fairness of color-blindness could cause struggles for Korean parents and students in American schools. The authors posit USA teachers need to thoroughly understand that if a teacher does not see color, then s/he does not really see children. This study, hopefully, will help educators recognize the necessity of understanding diverse ethnic parents＇ perspectives and needs. Also, this study will provide an opportunity for educators to rethink assumptions that are embedded in color-blindness, and advance muiticultural education that is more culturally relevant and responsive for different ethnic/racial groups＇ needs.     

Exploring into teacher＇s specialized practicality

Teacher specialization is a subject with very strong practicality as regards its essence. This paper analyzes the main problems of the existing teacher professionalism, poses and argues the 3 hypotheses of teacher professionalism. Around the reality of teacher professionalism, the author brings forward and establishes a new teacher evaluation system, which reflects the diversity of the main body for the evaluation, the diversity of evaluation content and the multiple of evaluation process and result. The new pattern is conducive to the right direction of the practicality of teacher professionalism, reflected as follows： Teachers＇ whole course of specialized practice is setting out from students＇ life world, clasping the exploration and consideration of human nature with kindhearted and pitiful heart, opening students＇ soul world through the convection of the emotion and by stimulating one＇s volition so as to make knowledge get natural formulation.     

Downtown Elementary School （DES）： The unique school that juxtaposes both magnet and professional development school （PDS） programs

The objective of this paper is to explore the operation of magnet and professional development school （PDS） programs in a real life situation using an ethnographic study of Downtown Elementary School （DES-a pseudonym） that simultaneously operates as a PDS and a magnet school. The author spent almost three years at DES, located in the Southern United States, collecting data through participant observation, interviewing, and document collection. The purpose is to provide answers to compelling questions such as： What does it mean to have both magnet and PDS programs operating simultaneously in the same school as in the case of DES？ What can be learned from the experiences of the unique school-DES？ The paper provides an outline of both magnet and PDS programs and their operations at DES and analyzes how these programs are interrelated and intertwined. Some of the outcomes indicate that DES is about the only school in its locality that juxtaposes two innovative school reform programs. These programs impede each other＇s progress sometimes and in some cases feed off each other. There is a lot to be learned from the unique experiences of DES. Coupled with other conclusions, the author concludes that, PDSs, as school restructuring projects are intertwined with magnet schools＇ reform activity which is motivated by the drive to provide equity of opportunity to learn, particularly for poor, minority and black students in mostly urban areas who are at a disadvantage for various reasons. The final section of the paper takes a critical look at the issues at stake through the lens of critical multiculturalism.     

What will users expect from virtual learning methods？ A conceptual model to analyze future leaning method enhancements

ICT （information and communication technologies） add enormous approaches to utilize computing into users＇ daily lives. Every aspect of social needs has been touched by ICT, including learning. VL （virtual learning）, with the life span of slightly above a decade, still looks for possible approaches to enhance its functions with significant pressure from related disciplines for continual improvements. Very recently, with the introduction of Web 2.0, Semantic Web, and 3D （3-Dimensional） Virtual Environments, users have expanded their horizons of expectations. Along with this technology advancement, there has been a noticeable social and demographic transformation from recent years. Sociologists refer these as new generations of the human kind with high intellect, multitasking nature and high awareness of their environments. At present, they are getting into the education stream with high eager for creativity, flexibility and entertainment. Most of the present students in primary and secondary levels in schools show such characteristics and advance their expectations frequently. On the other hand, VL still has not accommodated new social networking and entertainment approaches as it confines to limitations from traditional learning pedagogies and administrative rules. So far, the only successful step it could take forward is the blended learning, which is now fading its novelty. The simple yet foremost essential question is, how far could people retain the students willingly with present VL methods？ Alternatively, will it become another unimpressive rigid approach of learning to the future generations？ This paper discusses possible approaches to evolve VL methods and models to make the future learning enjoyable yet comprehensive task. The paper tries to analyze briefly the different parameters significant to VL in a holistic manner, while providing an abstract model to analyze learning activities.     

Facilitating adult learning and a researcher identity through a higher education pedagogical process

This empirical study uses auto-ethnography to describe a higher education pedagogical process that facilitated largely doctoral students in preparing their candidacy proposals through the use of specific adult learning principles. Students＇ experiences and points of view of such a learning environment were explored, including： （1） how they contributed to their peers＇ learning; （2） how their peers contributed to their own individual learning; and （3） how the learning environment impacted the process. Key factors identified as pivotal to learning to learn, include creating a learning sanctuary and trusting relationships, engaging in mutual inquiry and the co-construction of meaning, and bridging research theory and practice. These factors enabled students to expand their identities to include a researcher identity and to negotiate deep knowledge at the personal level. Throughout this article, the students＇ points of view are used to elucidate shared and diverse experiences, in addition to supporting conclusions and recommendations for practice and further study.     

Developing schools as professional learning communities： The TL21 experience

Over the last 2 decades, Irish schooling and society have gone through a period of significant structural and policy-driven change. To meet the emerging needs of the knowledge/learning society, schools and teachers are challenged to develop their capacities as ＂active learning communities＂. This places greater demands on teachers and schools to reflect on their classroom practices, to utilise a wider repertoire of pedagogic styles more suited to the needs of the 21st century learners and so that meaningfully collaborate with their fellow professionals. Teaching and Learning for the 21st Century （TL21） was a 4-year （2003-2007） multi-pronged research and development project involving the Education Department at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth （NUIM） and 15 post-primary schools. The project sought to address a number of key aims in terms of developing schools as professional learning communities, including addressing the isolation and insulation which teachers can, and do experience in their day-to-day professional lives and prioritize quality in teaching and learning as a key challenge for school development planning. This paper attempts to succinctly frame the key developments and findings which emerged over the duration of this process.     

Improving the teaching of the arts： Pre-service teacher self-efficacy towards arts education

Arts education is an essential component of a comprehensive education, requiring highly skilled teachers to achieve quality arts integration （Andrews, 2004）. It equips students with skills necessary for the 21st century workforce, allowing nations to develop the human resources necessary to tap their cultural capital （UNESCO, 2006）. A world trend however suggests that arts teaching by pre-service teachers is subject to lack of confdence, motivation and knowledge （Henessy, Rolfe ＆ Chedoy, 2001; Russell-Bowie, 2004）. Greater recognition of confirming and disconfirming experiences that shape pre-service teachers＇ self-efficacy beliefs for arts education is necessary. This paper provides insights into a research project that attempts to contribute towards filling this void in order to improve teacher effectiveness in the arts domain. After the first semester of teacher training, pre-service teachers completed a questionnaire based on their personal teaching beliefs for instructional design, student engagement and classroom management in arts education. Findings provide a greater understanding of how pre-service teachers regulate their own behaviour for teaching the arts, acting as validation beliefs of capabilities.     

A recommendation for a new lnternet-based environment for studying literature

The effects of information and communication technologies, which are rapidly improving and spreading in the current age, can be seen in the field of training and education as well as in all other fields. Unlike previous technologies, the Internet, which is the concrete compound of those technologies, provides users with the trio of audio, text and visual materials digitally and simultaneously. This new learning environment, which allows users to individually plan the learning process according to their preferences, has been also effective in changing traditional attitudes and habits related to reading. Nowadays, parallel to these changes, it has become necessary to teach literature in a virtual environment, or, at least, to make a connection with that environment. In this study, the authors first discuss the condition of literature on the lnternet considering the lnternet-literature connection and the features of reading lnternet-based literary texts. Then, depending on a literature review, the authors propose a new Internet-based learning environment for teaching literature considering the extent of computer literacy, as defined by Shapiro and Hughes （1996）.     

Factors affecting Turkish students＇ achievement in mathematics

Following past researches, student background, learning strategies, self-related cognitions in mathematics and school climate variables were important for achievement. The purpose of this study was to identify a number of factors that represent the relationship among sets of interrelated variables using principal component factor analysis and examine the contribution of each factor to the explanation of the variance in the students＇ mathematics score using multiple regression analysis. The sample was prepared from students who participated in Programme for International Student Assessment （PISA） in Turkey. These data consisted of 3765 15 year-old Turkish students in 158 schools. The results showed that four factors under study totally accounted for approximately 34 percent of the variance in mathematics achievement. All of the factors had statistically significant effects on the achievement. The findings are very important for Turkish education system because the fact that changing school climate and improving the learning strategies are much easier to achieve than changing background factors affecting students＇ performance.     

“合作学习”法在化学教学中的探究

针对目前合作学习中存在的重形式轻方法、重学生轻教师、重教学轻研究等问题提出解决方法.反思学习方式转变过程中存在的问题.     

Feedback mechanisms in learning virtual community settings

This paper introduces a set of services for the creation of on-line surveys, questionnaires, exams and self-assessment tests within a virtual community system used in e-learning settings. The system, called ＂Online Communities＂, is a dynamic web application used as platform for blended learning activities by the Faculty of Economics of the University of Trento. The functionalities added to the platform are contextualized into virtual communities, where activities take place. This allows us to create, submit and analyze questionnaires within and/or outside the boundaries of a community. Furthermore, the system allows to manage libraries of queries organized by the teacher/administrator of the community according to topics and levels of difficulty, in order to produce tests and generate self-assessment sessions on behalf of students. The addition of a questionnaire/ poll/self-assessment tool to a virtual community system can add a lot of interesting features, mainly using the inheritance mechanism implemented among different hierarchically-connected communities. This paper will present these functionalities and highlight one of these services, precisely the one dedicated to self-assessment. In the system, self-assessment tests have indeed a double nature： （1） They are useful to students for checking their own level of preparation; and （2） They are useful to lecturers as an indicator of the level of preparation reached by the students. In order to encourage the use of the system within the whole educational process, and not to limit the real use of the service to the period of the final exams only, the possibility has been foreseen for each participant to share his/her own test results, comparing them with the other members of the community, and even offering real ＂challenges＂, thus transforming passive and ＂solitary＂ learning into something much more stimulating and ＂social＂.     

Puppets in science lessons Experiences and stories from Norwegian teachers who are using puppets

Ten teachers, from preschool to secondary school have tried out puppets as a stimulus in science lessons. Data were gathered by teachers answering a questionnaire and by interviewing the teachers. We report what teachers have experienced by using puppets in science classrooms and in science activities in preschools. Data indicate that the puppet can be used to stimulate science both in preschool, primary school and secondary school. Probably the puppet must be used in different ways in preschool and primary school than in secondary school to get the pupils to accept them. This pilot study has given us courage and ideas to start a following-up study in using puppets in science.     

The exploration of student-centred approaches for the improvement of learning programming in higher education

The author has undergone a major shift in the way of teaching his undergraduate computer programming courses. In the classroom, the teacher＇s computer is connected to a splitter and a video projector that display the computer＇s screen to the entire class. Using this technology, the programming language itself is used live in class to help the students learn how to program. The students are learning in a context by far livelier than those of previous methods. Teaching computer programming is not achieved by lecturing and writing the program instructions on board or by displaying program instructions to the class on transparencies or slides of electronic presentations. With the implementation of student-centered approaches, the students migrated from the state of passive receivers to constructors of computer programming concepts. Students are coached to develop a sense of exploration, individuality and autonomous thinking. The enthusiasm for technology has been facilitating and supporting the learner-centered approach. Everyone in this approach is a learner, including the teacher.     

Promoting accountability and enhancing efficiency： Using national education accounts to track expenditure flows

Increasing accountability and efficiency in the use of public and out-of-pocket financing in education are critical to realizing the maximum impact of the meager allocations to education in most developing countries. While broad estimates and numbers are routinely collected by most national ministries and state departments of education, the lack of accuracy and reliability as well as the obtuse nature of recording and presentation of the data does not facilitate any serious policy use. A major advance in this area has been brought about by the development of NEA （National Education Accounts）, which is a new tool for measuring education expenditures in a systematic policy-~endly manner. In essence, NEAs measure the ＂financial pulse＂ of an education system, answering 4 key questions： Who is financing education？ How much do they spend？ How are funds distributed across different education providers, levels and activities？ Who benefits from or receives the services？ NEAs gather information on all spending from public, private and donor sources, and provide a snap-shot of all expenditures on education in the state or country. While not an auditing tool, it provides real time information on the flow of funds that can be used for evidence-based decision-making. It provides information to policy-makers, enabling them to discern systcm-wide inequities and identify areas that require changes in policy. In addition, the use of a standard classification of expenditures allows for data from NEAs to be comparable between and within countries. This paper provides an assessment of accountability and efficiency in the use of public and private resources in the education sector in 2 states of Nigeria. Using comparative data from implementation of education accounts in 2 states of Nigeria, it presents a breakdown of education spending by public and private sources as well as donor agencies, by types of providers, by geographical regions and by category of expenditures. It analyzes educational expenditures for the 2 states in the context of state government priorities for education, and proposes a novel way of tracking trends in education spending as a means for policy-makers to organize a strategic vision supported by resources and to evaluate the outcome of policies.     

Feedback processes in multimedia language learning software

Feedback has been one of the important elements of learning and teaching theories and still pervades the literature and instructional models, especially computer and web-based ones. However, the mechanisms about feedback dominating the fundamentals of all the instructional models designed for self-learning have changed considerably with the interactive multimedia technology of today, which have recourse to a wider range of potential in terms of use and functionality. The study intends to indicate that feedback has double functions： On one hand, it has classic ＂triad＂ functions--feedback as motivator, reinforcement and information--in terms of computer-assisted instruction and, on the other hand, as it is emphasized in this study, it forms the core and maintains the continuity of the machine-learner interaction in multimedia software designed today. This work, originally a discussion paper, consists of a review of the related literature and analyses of the software programs designed for teaching French to adults as foreign language in French module of Multimedia Language Learning Centre at Charles-de-Gaulle University （Lille-France）.     

The effects of globalization phenomena on educational concepts

It is becoming more and more apparent that globalization processes represent, theoretically as well as practically, a challenge for educational sciences and therefore, it must be addressed within the sphere of education. Accordingly, educational conceptions have to adapt to globafization phenomena and focus more on alternative and innovative educational concepts. The observable phenomena that appear as part of globalization then lead to the following question： Is there still space for educational concepts like emancipation, self-determination, equal opportunities and fairness in distribution, democracy and common sense？ The most indispensable tools for the development of equitable and peaceful contemporary education perspectives are a differentiated reflection on globalization phenomena and consequences, an intensive analysis and disclosure to address （global） conflict lines, the questioning of well-established concepts, the formation and embodiment of visions of the global future and the articulation of innovative education concepts. Modern social and political structures and practices have to be reoriented to combat the negative effects of globalization processes through the incorporation of more humane, socially fair and ecological principles. Educational science is sure to make an important contribution in making this a reality.