Making Haste Slowly: the evolution of a unified qualifications framework in Scotland

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework is often claimed to be a success and an example to other countries. However, if other countries wish to learn from this example they should not only study the current framework; they should also examine the sequence of policy reforms, over a quarter of a century, through which it developed. The article traces the history of these reforms and shows how they incrementally created the conditions for a successful comprehensive qualifications framework. It argues that the main drivers for change have been internal to the education system, rather than external economic, social or ideological pressures, and the main barriers have been institutional and political rather than epistemological. There were specific reasons why it took such a long time to develop the Scottish framework, but in any country it takes many years to establish the conditions for a successful comprehensive framework.     

高等教育课程体系改革的困境与出路

高等教育课程体系改革是课程体系内在逻辑发展的必然诉求,又是高等教育发展的必由之路。而高等教育课程体系改革却面临重重困境:课程体系构建的重要性得不到足够重视;科学知识转化为课程的机制尚未成熟;课程体系各要素的发展受传统实用主义价值观的制约。为进一步推进高等教育课程体系改革,应该充分认识课程体系构建的重要性;完善科学知识转化为课程的机制;加强课程设计的多元价值取向;重视高等学校课程资源开发;调整课程结构、创新课程评价机制。     

The impact of education reform on the quality assurance system in Japan

International assessment studies have shown since decades that Japanese students score highly on math and science tests. As a consequence, many scholars, education policy officials and journalists outside Japan share the opinion that quality of education is ensured and turn to the Japanese educational system to identify educational effectiveness enhancing factors. Simultaneously, a sense of educational crisis exists within Japan, which resulted into numerous education reforms. In this paper, we describe how quality in education has been ensured in Japan, what changes in the assurance of quality are brought forth by the most recent wave of reform measures as well as the reaction of scholars toward these measures.     

国外面向21世纪初等教育课程改革的趋势

本文试图以国外面向21世纪的初等教育课程改革为基本视点,从课程实践的角度,就其基本趋势及其规律性特点进行分析和描述.     

The culture of education policy making: curriculum reform in Shanghai

This paper explores the culture of education policy making in Shanghai using the conceptual tool of a ‘global assemblage’. A global assemblage is essentially a collection of ideas and practices that arise from the interplay between a global form and situated sociocultural elements. Focusing on the global form of curriculum reform, this paper explains how the Shanghai municipal government justifies the introduction of the ‘Second Curriculum Reform’ using the global imperative while maintaining its socialist ideology and central control on high-stakes exams. This paper highlights the active roles played by the municipal government and other local educational stakeholders in assembling their own logics, tactics and counter-measures in the contested space of the assemblage. It is argued that the success of the curriculum reform is mediated and vitiated by the sociocultural elements of a dominant exam-oriented culture and the traditional approaches of memorisation, repeated practice and didactic teaching. The complex and unpredictable process of implementing curriculum reform in Shanghai illustrates the culture of education policy making against a backdrop of globalisation as a problem space.     

基础教育课程改革基本理念与课程改革实验监控问题

素质教育是21世纪中国教育改革的总目标。为全面实施素质教育创造条件,是21世纪北京基础教育改革、课程改革的基本要求。强调课程的生成性、发展性,强调课程建设应以学生发展为本,强调课程影响的全面性及其有限性,是21世纪基础教育课程改革的重要理念。提出课程改革要坚持六个原则及监控评价问题。     

新课改视阈下教师教育课程的反思与构建

基础教育新课程改革的理念,给传统的教师教育课程建设及改革提出了挑战.本文基于新课改理念视角,对传统教师教育课程现状进行反思与批判.     

Higher education reform in perspective: The Japanese experience

Japanese colleges and universitiesare in an age of great transition. Currentreforms can be counted as some of the mostextensive and radical changes in the history ofJapanese higher education. Although the agendaof recent reforms has been conditioned bycontemporary socio-political circumstances,many of the ongoing changes are rooted inhistory. In this article, the reforms ofJapanese higher education are examined from along-range historical perspective. Thoughpre-war years are briefly mentioned, the mainconcern here is with reforms after World WarII.     

Higher education reform in Estonia: a legal perspective

This article looks at the higher education reform in Estonia since 1988. Author shows how over a few years ‘university education’ as the meaning of higher education was replaced by much broader ‘post-secondary education’. Another important issue to be covered is the dynamics of the legislative reform—starting with the creation of normative regulations for new institutional groups, and as a second step bringing them into conformity with the Civil Code adopted in 1994. The final part of the article discusses various implications of the new legislation—related to funding, content of studies, and governance—on higher education. Particularly as related to private education it is concluded that most recent reforms do not encourage private initiative to offer higher education, and support orthodox positions with regard to content of higher education studies. This is considered of being not helpful for the development of the learning society.     

Comparative and international education research in a post‐truth era

The paper offers a postcolonial critique of comparative and international education (CIE) research in the United States (US) by tracing the Euro‐centrism of its agendas, methodologies and publications to their colonial entanglements in the past and examining the current predicament of CIE in the context of the rising nationalist and anti‐science discourses in the US. Viewed through the prism of actor‐network theory, CIE represents a circulatory network of scholars and students, methods and surveys, national and supranational funding agencies and the public opinion that shapes education policymaking. As they seek to garner public support, create new allies among politicians and donors and infuse their network with international knowledge and scholars, CIE researchers revisit the ontological and epistemological assumptions of their field, address the dominance of Western perspectives in CIE in the context of the White House rhetoric of hostility toward non‐Western nations and justify the veracity of their science to policymakers.     

Higher education in a vacuum: stress and reform in Ecuador

Ecuadors higher education system mirrors that of other Latin American countries in its many internal and external stresses. It also provides an opportunity to view a reform process occurring in a vacuum of central government influence and authority, one whose direction is largely set by the universities in response to perceived stresses. Those stresses arise from the differentiation of the system in the last decade, questions about the role of higher education in Ecuador, and the absence of governmental direction. Changes in higher education in Ecuador must be examined in the context of higher educations role in development. The paper notes the case for the importance of higher education and the new theoretical support for higher education that endogenous growth models provide. It then examines the self-generated reform process which is occurring in Ecuador in the areas of teaching, of student access and of university finance. The final issue addressed is the relation between these changes, with their important implications for transforming the higher education system, and the development needs of Ecuador. There are many positive elements to the reform process which will contribute to development. However, until the government policy vacuum is filled, their potential benefit will remain only partially realized.     

我国体育课程改革的发展趋势

体育课程改革是体育的核心,为全面推行素质教育的顺利实施,从根本上改变目前体育教学、社会体育和终身体育相脱节的状态,以适应未来社会对人才的需要,促进体育课程改革不断地发展,本文从课程的认识和理解入手,分析了体育课程的发展体系,对课程改革的发展趋势进行了阐述,为构建符合未来社会和经济发展需要的体育课程体系提供理论依据。     

新课程改革背景下农村教育边缘化问题的探讨

新课程改革是迎合全球化进程的主动表现,外来教育理论主宰了这一轮以城市教育为主体的新课程改革.而课程改革的城市中心取向和农村教育的前现代化阶段之间有着巨大的差距,使得农村教育有被边缘化的趋势.     

A value‐added study of the impact of science curriculum reform using the National Pupil Database

This article compares the examination performance of students following General Certificate of Secondary Education Applied Science and Double Award science on a value‐added basis. It uses data from the National Pupil Database, which are analysed by a variety of methods, including multilevel modelling. It argues that the claims made within Office for Standards in Education reports on the impact of the new Applied Science course are inaccurate, and in some cases positively wrong. The authors' analysis, based on the second (2003–05) cohort of students following the course, shows that students of lower attainment at Key Stage 3 appear to perform better than would have been predicted from their Key Stage 3 attainment, but that higher attaining pupils perform less well. Schools offering Applied Science show greater diversity in the value‐added effects they produce than they do with Double Award science. The article argues that analyses of this kind are of value in seeking to understand the impact of curriculum reform, but that they are dangerous as a generalized guide for policy. They must be complemented by work in schools in which the sources of the effects observed and of school diversity are examined.     

"新课改"对河南农村高中体育教育影响力度的探讨

运用问卷调查法及访谈法,以新课改前后两个年份的农村高中作为研究对象,对学校领导、体育教师、班主任及学生进行调查.经对比分析得出,当前河南省进入"新课改"三年来对农村高中的体育教育影响力度不大.就此提出既符合国家教育规划的要求,又适应当今农村高中体育发展的建议.     

高职学前教育专业课程体系改革的方法和途径

随着幼儿园办学热潮的兴起,对高职学前教育专业师资素养提出更高的要求。本文以高职学前教育专业的课程体系改革为例,对高职院校学前教育专业的课程体系存在的问题进行分析,探索课程改革的方法和途径,为高职学前教育专业课程体系改革提供思路。     

The influence of the school in the decision to participate in learning post‐16

The primary aim of this study, funded by the Department for Education and Skills, was to identify the nature and influence of school‐based factors in the choices of young people about their post‐16 education, training and career pathways. The study also contributes to the wider understanding of ‘choice’, and identifies implications for the development of careers education and guidance and decision‐making awareness amongst pupils and students in schools. It also further enhances the modelling of pupil decision making in education and training markets, and in labour markets. The research is based on a series of qualitative interviews in 24 schools across nine local education authorities. Focus groups were undertaken with young people in years 10, 11 and 12. Interviews were also conducted with head teachers, heads of year and heads of careers. A postal survey of parents was also undertaken. Four key school‐based factors were found to have a very strong influence in the choices and decisions of young people about their post‐16 education, training and career pathways. These were: whether the school had a sixth form or not; the characteristics of school leadership, ethos and values; the socio‐economic status (SES) of the schools' catchment; and the organisation and delivery of careers education and guidance at the school level. In the main, high SES schools see themselves as developing pupils for academic university careers, while low SES schools maintain a rather stronger commitment to vocational pathways. The academic ethos of schools offers a very powerful influence on post‐16 choices and decisions of pupils. The usual interventions put in place to influence choices and decisions appear to have greater impact in schools with a less robust academic vision.     

从应试教育到课程改革:教育现象学观照

教育现象学是一门追求教育生活中具体现象的学问,悬置成见、回归生活和反思性理解,是教育现象学的三个重要关键词。从教育现象学角度观照,应试教育存在的主要问题包括:教师讲授对悬置的忽视,标准答案情结对学生生活世界的遮蔽,缺乏师生对教材、他者与自我三者关系的反思性理解;课程改革的路径选择包括教师精通教材与悬置的运用,教师主动倾听让学生的生活世界得以显现,教师运用教学机智推进学生关于教材、他者与自我三者关系的反思性理解。     

转变高职教育课程理念对课程改革的影响

课程是构成人才培养模式的核心要素,职业教育课程改革是人才培养模式创新的核心关注点;职业教育课程理念的转变是课程改革的关键;课程理念包括课程体系、课程目标、课程内容及结构、课程环境与实施等方面;根据职业教育的特点,结合最新的职业教育理论,提出转变高职教育课程理念对高职教育课程改革的影响以及职业教育课程理念转变的主要内容。     

新课程背景下的高师院校教师教育改革

为基础教育培养高质量师资,是高师院校生存和发展的立足点和生长点。基础教育新课程改革给高师院校提出了前所未有的挑战,而高师院校教师教育课程几十年来变化不大,教学内容与基础教育脱节,教学理念落后,教学方法陈旧,高师院校培养的准教师不能完全适应基础教育新课改的需要。为此,高师院校应更新教育观念,优化教师教育课程结构,改革教师培养模式,加强与基础教育的合作与联系,形成教师职前培养与职后培训一体化的教师教育新体系,以彰显高师院校教师教育特色。