Assessing visual–spatial talents: the use of the Impossible Figures Task with Chinese students in Hong Kong

Ninety university undergraduate students were tested on a number of tasks assessing their recognition of possible and impossible figures, mental rotation, ideational fluency, and self‐report artistic and creative characteristics. Scores on the Impossible Figures Task (IFT‐14) and the Mental Rotation Test, and self‐ratings on the Artistic Characteristics Rating Scale were found to differentiate among Fine Arts students, Architecture students, and students from Arts Faculty disciplines less related to visual–spatial abilities, suggesting that the IFT‐14 could be used to assess visual–spatial or visual arts talents. The application of the IFT‐14 with the same related measures to a sample of 103 primary and secondary gifted students provided further supporting evidence. Implications of the findings on the development of more sensitive measures for identifying students with visual–spatial or visual arts talents are discussed.     

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy – an andragogical pioneer

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy's work related to andragogy is insufficiently discussed in adult pedagogical literature, although most of his work deals with this field, if we employ his own definition of andragogy. This paper makes visible his role as an andragogical pioneer, and clarifies his understanding of andragogy and basic perspectives in his andragogical approach. Rosenstock-Huessy was a leading force in the first theoretical, academic reflections on adult pedagogical issues in the 1920s, and he implemented his thoughts and ideas in different practical actions. He became a source of inspiration for adult educators in the inter-war and post-war period. A comparison with two central figures within adult education, Eduard Lindeman and Malcolm Knowles, is also included in this paper.     

Military mores – an institutional ethnography

ABSTRACT

Military education is for most people an unknown process that takes place behind closed doors. Based on text analysis, eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork, and interviews at the Netherlands Defence Academy, this article seeks to understand military education as a dynamic process between the cadets’ experience and the institute. As such, this study can be understood as an institutional ethnography, intending to open the black-box of military education. This study shows that military education affects cadets in a powerful way. They quickly learn to navigate the ‘underlife’ of the institute by carefully avoiding confrontation with the official structures. In a final discussion, we identify two remarkable paradoxes – perfect imperfection and individual in the system – that we consider exemplary for the learning environment at the NLDA. We argue that the Defence Academy constitutes, in essence, a paradoxical learning environment that influences the character development of the cadets – sometimes in unintended ways.     

Closing the attainment gap – a realistic proposition or an elusive pipe-dream?

The attainment gap associated with socio-economic status is an international problem that is highly resistant to change. This conceptual paper critiques the drive by the Scottish Government to address the attainment gap through the Scottish Attainment Challenge and the National Improvement Framework. It draws upon a range of theoretical perspectives but principally examines the problem through the lens of Steiner-Khamsi’s concepts of ‘reception’ and ‘translation’ of policy and through examination of the international and national (Scottish) policy contexts. The paper argues that, rather than focussing narrowly upon attainment outcomes, an holistic approach should be adopted which takes account of the economic, social and relational constraints which impact upon families in poverty, calling for a systems-level approach. ‘Schools cannot go it alone’: there is a need to focus upon a wide range of public policy to redress inequalities in society. Whilst the Scottish Government has looked to the London/City/National Challenge as a potential solution to the problem, the complexities and limitations of policy borrowing need to be understood. Higher Education Institutions, government agencies, local authorities and schools need to work in partnership to develop research informed practice which will impact upon learning outcomes for all children and young people.     

优化《牛津高中英语》Task板块教学的途径——以模块四Unit 1 Task Writing an advertisement教学为例

本文通过一则教学实例,反思了Task板块教学面临的困境,提出了优化该板块教学的途径,即以核心任务引领教学活动、以认知规律整合教学内容、以学生主体促进交流合作,并结合教学实例进行了深入评析,总结这三个途径在Task板块教学中的借鉴意义。     

Formative assessment – an optimistic but incomplete vision

The preceding articles in this issue describe a diverse range of projects which had in common the aim of implementing or improving the practice of formative assessment, and thereby to secure some of the benefits attributed to it. This article attempts to set up a framework within which each of the different studies may be located and inter-related. There are three main sections. The first deals with the roles of assessment, both formative and summative, within a comprehensive model of pedagogy. The second considers the specific ways in which the different practices of assessment feedback help to develop the capacity of each student to become a thoughtful and independent learner. The third reviews the ways in which new assessment practices present problems to teachers in challenging them to re-think their role and similarly to students, when for both groups, new practices affect their ways of coping in the classroom.     

Critical Thinking Versus Vocationalism: A Matter of Class?

Popular demands for greater access to higher education may have diluted the “college isn't for everyone” claim, but some members of the privileged class are making a more subtle argument: A classical liberal arts curriculum should be reserved for the elite with low and middle income students receiving vocational training. In this article, we examine the historical and contemporary manifestations of differentiated educational experiences based on class and highlight how this bifurcated phenomenon continues to surface within post-secondary's newest venue—online education. Drawing upon the theoretical tenets of knowledge production and class formation, the methodology section of this article constructs a multilayered sequence model to analyze how the college admission process reinforces this binary in stark, yet unassuming, ways. We present the resulting social justice implications in terms of students’ participation in a classist educational system as well as the antidemocratic repercussions for public institutions. Lastly, we call for recommendations designed to bolster public education's commitment to critically educate all students and to restore its bedrock democratic mission.     

Building Learning Communities in Schools: The Next Generation or the Impossible Dream?

Although educational change continues to be a topic of considerable interest in research, scholarship, policy, and practice, it remains a problematic issue. Many metaphors for generating sustainable change have been advocated from time to time. One such metaphor currently enjoying some popularity is that of a learning organization or a learning community. This paper describes the influences that emerged in one attempt to build a learning community in an elementary school. Influences clustered into four constellations of issues: individual, group, organizational, and contextual. While many of the influences supported the teachers' attempts to generate effective organizational learning, others interfered with the process. At the end of the study, the staff believed that they had created an authentic learning community on staff, but over time the processes diminished and eventually, as more of the original participants left the school, disappeared. The cultural and political realities of life in schools suggest that the development of a learning community among teachers is decidedly difficult. Although the metaphor holds promise for generating sustainable improvement and renewal in teaching and learning, its ultimate success is questionable.     

Experienced ESD-schoolteachers’ teaching – an issue of complexity

In educational settings, sustainable development (SD) is often handled with the aim of reducing the contested aspects of the concept. Issues like trade, conservation, public health and international relations are often presented in a simplified way so that they are easier for students to grasp. However, in education, this tendency to simplify sustainability issues can be a disadvantage. This study explores how Swedish upper secondary school teachers’ education for sustainable development (ESD) in award-winning ‘ESD-schools’ supports students to become informed and autonomous democratic citizens by appreciating the complexity of the concept of SD. This empirical study is part of a larger research project studying progressive upper secondary schools and is a development of earlier research on teachers’ starting points for long-term purposes beyond the teaching – which we have termed objects of responsibility. In interviews of five teachers from two schools, experienced in ESD issues and working in teacher teams, an interesting commonality in their arguments for teaching sustainability emerged during the analytical process. The implications of the study’s results are important for EE/ESD research into teaching continuity as well as for teachers in practice.     

How to capture growth? – Video narratives as an instrument for assessment in teacher education

Portfolios are widely used as instruments for assessment in initial teacher education courses. They are claimed to present a comprehensive picture of student teachers' knowledge and performance. But what type of evidence is needed to safely say that an aspiring teacher has not only grasped essential notions and concepts from the teacher education course, but is also able to implement them in real world classroom situations? This paper reports on the design process of one portfolio assignment that has been developed specifically to capture students' classroom performance and development in their portfolio. Data from the portfolio entries of one student from a small-scale pilot conducted with the assignment are analyzed in detail followed by a discussion of the implications of the case study.     

Balancing the workload equation in English primary schools: a continuing story?

This article traces the gradual increase in primary teachers' workloads over several decades to the point where workforce reform was introduced to ameliorate the problem. A central feature of the reform was the use of teaching assistants to undertake various duties, so that time should be available for primary teachers to plan and prepare future lessons. Although official sources have described this initiative as a success, recent research that examines the consequences of these changes, from both the teachers' and the teaching assistants' viewpoints, would challenge these claims. This research is described in the article and shows that primary schools in England have increasingly come to rely on poorly paid untrained assistants to teach classes. The article concludes by looking at the implications for the future status of the profession as a result of this practice.     

Forgetting about Auschwitz? Remembrance as a Difficult Task of Moral Education

Abstract

While Neo‐nazism is, in fact, only found in a small number of West German youths, and certain politicians would seem to prefer stepping ‘out of the shadow of the Third Reich’, it is argued that the question of how young Germans could or should relate to the Third Reich morally has in fact not been answered in any sufficient way. The author critically examines various approaches to the issue ‐‐ from Adorno's classical statement on ‘Education after Auschwitz’ to the more recent attempts of using Auschwitz as a metaphor. Furthermore, it is suggested that the problem of ‘Forgetting about Auschwitz’ should also be understood in terms of the intergenerational processes involved. This in turn presupposes testing legal and moral concepts for their adequacy to the task of moral education. Finally, the issue of national identity is considered as the framework within which the educational problems have to be addressed.     

Children’s Cognitive and Behavioral Reactions to an Autonomous Versus Controlled Social Robot Dog

Research Findings: Interactive technology has become ubiquitous in young children’s lives, but little is known about how children incorporate such technologies into their intuitive biological theories. Here we explore how the manner in which technology is introduced to young children impacts their biological reasoning, moral regard, and prosocial behavior toward it. We asked 5- and 7-year-old children to interact with a robot dog that was described either as moving autonomously or as remote controlled. Compared with a controlled robot, the autonomous robot caused children to ascribe higher emotional and physical sentience to the robot, to reference the robot as having desires and physiological states, and to reference moral concerns as applying to the robot. Children who owned a dog at home were more likely to behave prosocially toward the autonomous robot than those who did not. Practice or Policy: Recent work has begun to use robots as learning tools. Our results suggest that the manner in which robots are introduced to young children may differentially impact children’s learning. Presenting robots as autonomous agents may help promote children’s social-emotional development, whereas presenting robots as human controlled may help promote robots as purely cognitive educational tools.     

Learning theories and assessment methodologies – an engineering educational perspective

This paper attempts to critically review theories of learning from the perspective of engineering education in order to align relevant assessment methods with each respective learning theory, considering theoretical aspects and practical observations and reflections. The role of formative assessment, taxonomies, peer learning and educational policy as regards promoting the learning of engineering is discussed. It is suggested that an integrated learning method in which cognitive levels, social factors and teamwork and behaviouristic elements are integrated will optimise the learning process on an engineering course. Moreover, assessment of learning should not be isolated from views of teaching and the learning methods employed by the university teacher.