Relationships between metaphors,beliefs, and actions in a context of science curriculum change

This study is an interpretive investigation of Sarah, a first-time teacher of middle- and high-school science who, because of high levels of disruption, was unable to establish and maintain environments favorable to learning. Sarah reflected on her roles as a teacher and identified facilitating learning, management, and assessment as salient, each being associated with defining metaphors and belief sets. Sarah's efforts to improve her teaching began with the construction of a new metaphor, the social director, for her role as manager. She developed coherence between the new metaphor and beliefs about constructivism, teaching, and learning. Sarah then managed her class in accordance with the social director metaphor and, although improvements were apparent, some students were uncooperative. Sarah then changed her metaphor for assessment from the teacher being a fair judge to the teacher looking through a window into a student's mind, an opportunity for students to show what is known. When this metaphor guided Sarah's assessment practices the learning environment improved appreciably. Although the development of new metaphors was a significant part of the process of reconceptualizing her roles as a science teacher, Sarah could not have improved the quality of teaching and learning without substantial assistance from her colleagues and school administrators.     

Joseph Schwab,curriculum, curriculum studies and educational reform

The ‘Practical 1’ paper combines Schwab’s abiding concern, for the nature and quality of educational experience with another abiding concern, for how we think about what we do. The Practical 1 is the first of a set of four ‘practical’ essays. These in turn are the product of his thinking about college education and his ideas on the principles of scientific inquiry applied to education in the Practical 1. What Schwab said about education was considered provocative at its time. What Schwab was doing has continuing value. He would, no doubt, say different things in the current educational environment but what he was doing as he said them would remain close to the original.     

Science teachers' beliefs about curriculum design

Teacher beliefs about curriculum design affect the quality of science education in schools, but science researchers know little about the interrelation of beliefs about alternative curriculum designs. This article describes a quantitative study of secondary science teachers' beliefs about curriculum design. A 33-item Science Curriculum Orientation Inventory (SCOI) was developed to measure five distinct orientations to curriculum: academic, cognitive processes, societycentred, humanistic, and technological. Data were collected from 810 integrated science, chemistry, physics, and biology teachers in Hong Kong. A confirmatory factor analysis of teacher responses to the SCOI indicated that science teachers' beliefs about curriculum design had a hierarchical structure; the five distinct curriculum orientations were positively correlated, forming a second-order curriculum, meta-orientation. Physics teachers were less society-oriented than biology, integrated science and chemistry teachers, and integrated science teachers were more humanistic than physics teachers. Although science teachers' beliefs about any of the five alternative curriculum designs did not vary with their teaching experience, the difference between beliefs about the cognitive processes orientation and the humanistic orientation increased when teachers had gained more teaching experience. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

CSE and the 16+: Teachers' Views

During the interview ‘Mary’ – who had last year been a school pupil and this year is a first‐year undergraduate on the new degree in Education (with Teaching Certificate) – talked at some length, and with considerable feeling, about how her main frustration as a female pupil had been what she saw as her systematic disenfranchisement from influence over the content and process of the schools' curricula which she had pursued over the previous thirteen years. Although she felt that all pupils suffered this lack of influence she was convinced that girls suffered disproportionately. [Some time later in the interview], when talking about the ‘teaching practice’ she had recently completed, ‘Mary’ described how her ‘music and movement’ work had met with ‘loud and disruptive’ reaction from some of the boys in the mixed class of 7–8 year‐olds, even though the majority of the children had clearly enjoyed and been engaged by the scheme she had designed. Faced with this rejection, and experiencing some anxiety about how the teachers and her tutor would assess her potential as a future teacher if she was not seen to be exercising what they would count as ‘good control’ of the class, ‘Mary’ resolved her ‘problem’ by designing an alternative scheme which the few boys would not (and did not) reject. Although the girls had ‘subsequently shown less interest’, their quiet acquiescence to what she offered them reduced her anxiety about her assessment as a teacher. When she related her pupil experience to her teaching practice experience ‘Mary’ was dismayed to realise that she had ‘reproduced for others precisely that frustration which [she herself] had experienced as a pupil’.

Extract from author's notes when evaluating a new pre‐service degree course, June 1983.     

Listening to Mothers II: Knowledge, Decision-Making, and Attendance at Childbirth Education Classes

In this column, a woman describes her concern that her childbirth classes did not provide the information she needed to make informed decisions during labor and birth. The results of the Listening to Mothers II survey suggest that this experience is not unusual. Although most women (97%) who participated in the survey wanted to know all or most of the potential risks of epidural, induction, and cesarean before consenting to have the intervention, the majority-including mothers who had experienced the intervention, women who were experienced mothers, and women who had attended childbirth classes-did not know the complications of induction or cesarean. These findings raise important questions about the outcomes of childbirth education. The factors that may contribute to these findings are discussed, and suggestions are made for insuring that women have the knowledge they need to make informed decisions about their maternity care.     

Introduction of an emergent curriculum and an inclusive pedagogy in a traditional setting in Israel: a case study

This study seeks to determine how and to what extent the core principles of the early childhood education programme at Levinsky College of Education in Israel were applied by a third-year student teacher in a traditional fieldwork placement. At the beginning of the school year, the student planned to engage two small groups of children in her field placement in a learning project focused on children's literature related to witches, believing the children would be enthusiastic about the topic. Despite employing a meticulous traditional teaching plan, her attempts to engage the children failed. This led her to seek advice and form an authentic emergent teaching plan that was influenced by the children's preferences and social conflicts in the group. Furthermore, the student gained the teaching staff's approval and encouragement to develop a kindergarten curriculum very different from the traditional one. In this paper, we show an evidence of the learning processes undergone by both the children and the student.     

Language,learning and the curriculum

Teaching about controversial and topical and political issues has consistently been a difficult area for primary teachers, with many worrying about their professional role. Drawing on recent research and curriculum innovation this paper suggests that there are three key areas to be addressed if we are to allay these concerns: the teacher's role in handling controversial issues, appropriate teaching strategies and opportunities in the primary curriculum for addressing controversy and political issues. It suggests possible approaches and gives two extended examples of lessons for the primary classroom.     

《啊,拓荒者!》中人物形象的生态女性主义分析

从生态女性主义的视角分析《啊,拓荒者!》中的人物形象,从女主人公对待自我女性身份和与其他女性的关系等来分析其女性意识,从她对待土地的态度来分析其自然观,结果表明:女主人公由于受到父权制世界观和人类中心主义的影响,缺乏对女性身份及自然的正确认知,因而性格中曾经存在着男权倾向,排斥女性身份并以征服和利用土地来满足自我利益;但随着其认知的深入,主人公逐渐接受自我身份,并产生了对人类与自然相互依存关系的深层认知。     

Madame Li Li: Communist revolutionary,adult educator,lifelong learner

Prior to 1949 the Chinese Communist Party orchestrated innovative and participatory forms of adult education. This article concerns Madame Li Li, a leading Chinese Communist woman adult educator. Western delegates at the International Council for Adult Education 1984 Shanghai symposium on adult education were fascinated by Madame Li Li because, amongst other things, she had begun her career in adult education as a 14-year-old propagandist in the Communist New 4th Army. Today, China is trying to become the biggest learning society in the world. With this as a backdrop, the purpose of this study was to chronicle the life of Li Li and reflect on what it means for twenty-first century Chinese adult education and learning. After being forced from her Huai'an (Jiangsu) home at age 14, she worked underground for the Communist Party. After 1949 she turned early experience in surveillance and propaganda into a career as an adult educator. She has misgivings about her work in the Party Discipline department and, being from a privileged family and a high official, suffered harsh treatment during the Cultural Revolution. After the Cultural Revolution she presided over a massive adult education enterprise in Shanghai and was an organiser of the 1984 Shanghai symposium on adult education. Today she worries about corruption, instability and lack of a moral compass in China. The authors reflect on what her life means for adult education and lifelong learning in twenty-first century China.     

A study of curriculum development in a new special school

Anne Maddison is deputy headteacher, with responsibility for curriculum, at the Milestone School, a special school created recently after the amalgamation of three smaller schools. In this article, she describes the development of an outcomes-based curriculum for pupils with a range of learning difficulties aged from two to 16 years. Anne Maddison sets out the rationale for her work in the context of a need to promote shared approaches to teaching and learning at this newly formed school.
The curriculum development project described here was evaluated using questionnaires, interviews and the analysis of documents and practice as part of a case study in school-based enquiry. Anne Maddison used the outcomes of these processes as part of her Doctor of Education (EdD): Educational Leadership course at Lincoln University.
Since this article was written, the Milestone School has undergone its first Ofsted inspection. The report noted that teaching at the school is 'of very high quality' and the curriculum 'is very good'. Inspectors noted that 'the planning of schemes of work, which are being developed with different subjects being focused on each year, is exemplary, with clear outcomes for pupils of different abilities'. While Anne Maddison's article details the experience of one school, her analysis may be of interest to other school managers, teachers, governors or advisers who are seeking to promote the development of a more inclusive curriculum.     

Disability,curriculum and integration in China

ABSTRACT

Current data indicate that there are six million young people of school age with disabilities in China. Of these, only about 50 per cent attend any form of schooling, with approximately 220,000 of them enrolled in special schools and classes. The remainder attend regular classrooms. This means that there are about three million students with disabilities who at present lack any access to education. In May 1996 it was declared that in order to improve this situation, over the next five years, China plans to provide school places for 80 per cent of its disabled youngsters. In order to achieve this goal, the Chinese central education authorities have announced a significant change in policy direction towards integration. Instead of their previous commitment to the establishment of increasing numbers of special schools, it is now planned that the current number of about 1,400 special schools will be increased to 2,000, so that all regions of the country have access to at least one. At that point, no more special schools will be built. The extra places needed to increase the school attendance rate of youngsters with disabilities will be created in regular classes in regular schools. This paper gives an overview of the curriculum arrangements in China's four types of special schools, including their historical development, subjects taught, teaching arrangements and management. A number of difficulties confronting China's special education policy‐makers are canvassed and reasons suggested for their increasing commitment to a strategy of integration. It is proposed that China enjoys three advantages in the pursuit of an integrated school system.     

Teaching Kindergarten Children to Solve Word Problems

A kindergarten teacher's practice was investigated in order to understand her knowledge of her children's mathematical thinking, the ways in which she acquired that knowledge, and the uses she made of that knowledge in making instructional decisions. The focus of the investigation was the teacher's knowledge of her children's thinking about numbers, including counting and addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The teacher had attended Cognitively Guided Instruction workshops at which she had the opportunity to learn about research on children's mathematical thinking. She gathered information on her own children's thinking by posing word problems, listening to children as the described their strategies for solving the problems, and talking to other adults about her children. She used that information to select problems to pose in subsequent lessons.     

对生活永远的体贴、理解和爱--解读铁凝小说中的人性情分

对美好人性的真诚歌颂，对人性复杂性的全方位审视和深刻思考，铁凝在她的小说中记录着她的人生经历、她对生活的理解、她对生命的关照，以及她的发自心底的坦然微笑。在铁凝对人性的小心并且真心的拓展和深入把握中，对人类以及作为个体的人的关爱，成为其小说永远的主题。     

Towards decolonial praxis: reconfiguring the human and the curriculum

ABSTRACT

This theoretical inquiry applies threads of Sylvia Wynter’s intellectual project to scholarship in curriculum studies to consider how Wynter’s insights might urge new potential in educational theorising and practice. The central concern driving Wynter’s intellectual project is that our present understanding about what it means to be human is entrenched in epistemological legacies of colonialism that preserve a Western bourgeois genre of Man. This essay begins by detailing Sylvia Wynter’s rigorous and innovative intellectual project that reworks the category of the human. We argue that contemporary curriculum is based upon this Western genre of the human and explore the limits of multicultural curricula. Synthesising Wynter’s interrelated lines of thought – how the notion of being hybridly human calls forth a conceptualisation of humanness as a collective act – we argue that her revised category of the human is a necessary means to radically reimagine and decolonise curriculum.     

张爱玲创作中的情感缺憾

情感上的缺憾对张爱玲的创作影响重大。张爱玲童年时代失爱于家庭，青年时代失落于爱情，又和家庭一起失落于时代，所有这些体验，参与了她日后对于新的人生经验和行为方式的构建。张爱玲对爱的缺失的永久性的心理意向，决定了她精神上的悲观气质，并由此生成了对人性自私本性的悲观认识，构成了她思想性格内涵极为重要的方面，对其作品产生了题材上强烈的倾向性引导，无不标示出一种以孤独和荒凉情绪为特征的悲剧蕴含。张爱玲是以自己的心灵世界经营和表现着对现代生命的体验。     

草地上的阴影——浅析狄金森诗中的死亡与永生

狄金森是对美国诗歌有重大影响的女诗人。她以独特的写作风格描写诗人们很少触及的诸如死亡这样的主题。在她的诗中 ,死亡就是永生。而狄金森对待死亡的态度 ,缘于她的家庭背景、宗教信仰和个人经历等方面     

论李易安的诗才

长期以来,学术界对于李清照,更多的是致力于其词的意义和价值研究。其实,李清照的咏史诗、抒情诗以及那些短章、失题之作,同样以独创的艺术风格,卓然自成一家。认真研究这些诗文,方能全面、客观的对李清照的创作加以考察,还这位杰出女性以真实的面貌。     

Another type of diversity: A student teacher with a learning disability

Carrie wanted to be a teacher more than anything else. But Carrie had a learning disability which interfered with the basic literacy skills of reading, writing, and language processing. Although she had entered the university through a special private program designed to identify and support studentswith learning disabilities,Carrie kept her disability a secret when she was admitted to the teacher education program. She did not tell her cooperating teachers or university supervisors about her difficulties until the incident in the high school resource room. Her experiences and the immediate and future dilemmas created for all teacher educators by Carrie's experiences raise larger issues about the balance between individual rights and public interest.     

美国遁世女诗人爱米莉·狄金森及其爱情诗

美国女诗人爱米莉·狄金森一生创作了1800首诗。她生前恬谈,默默无闻,过着隐士般的生活。她终身未嫁,外表宁静,内心却隐藏着一个丰富、深邃、炽热的情感世界。本文主要剖析诗人的情感世界,并着重分析其爱情诗。从而,有助于读者进一步了解诗人及其诗歌构筑的世界。①     

一切为了边缘人 为了边缘人的一切——赛珍珠文学创作动因探究

赛珍珠拥有多重身份:她是父母不幸婚姻的见证者,是不幸婚姻的受害者,是智障儿童的母亲,是通晓中西文化却不被任何一方所接受的文化边缘人。这种多重身份无不例外的将赛珍珠置于一个令人尴尬的边缘人状态。作为一个边缘人,她关心同样处在社会边缘地位的人们———女人、儿童和包括中国、日本等在内的处于弱势地位的亚洲国家的人们。女性文学作品的创作,寄予了她对女性的同情与期望;儿童文学的创作,表明她对儿童的关心与厚爱;东西文化交流题材的写作,折射出她对中西文化平等对话的渴望。一切为了边缘人,为了边缘人的一切,是赛珍珠文学创作动因的真实写照。