Kierkegaard as an Educational Thinker: Communication Through and Across Ways of Being

Attempts to build bridges between Kierkegaard and current educational debates or dilemmas are in danger of appearing facile to friends of Kierkegaard, and opportunistic or irrelevant to each opposing side in educational controversies. In hope of reducing such extravagant risks, this essay explores some aspects of Kierkegaard on communication and on ways of being, i.e. his spheres or stages of existence. Communication through ways of being seems relatively straightforward. Communication across ways of being can seem either absurdly complicated or (if aiming at unravelling such complications) wonderfully illuminating. This Kierkegaard could become a creatively awkward, Socratic partner in educational attempts to critique and deepen current accounts of language and communication, narrative and accountability, reason and justification, personal and social development, emotional intelligence and (of course) moral and religious education (with or without 'spiritual' development) as well as political or citizenship education. Wittgenstein found in Kierkegaard one lifelong Socratic conversation partner. If other educators can do this in their own ways, Kierkegaard can still breathe more lively passion into the cold embers of educational discourses.     

试论教育行动研究中的反思

反思作为教育行动研究过程中的核心环节,决定着行动研究最终的成效,研究者和实际工作者在教育行动研究过程中的反思意识、反思能力、反思方式等,都会对行动研究产生重要的影响。文章结合作者与一线教师合作开展行动研究的经历,论述了在合作模式或支持模式下的教育行动研究中,研究者反思的重点,并不在于如何更好地改善教育实践,而是在于和行动者之间的合作关系、有效沟通以及对行动者提供研究方法的指导等方面。而行动研究者的反思应当坚持书面与口头相结合,正式与非正式相结合,内隐与公开相结合,单独与集体相结合等多种形式、不同的方式来不断地促进行动者的反思能力。     

感同身受:教育民族志方法的情感向度

教育民族志是把人类学的民族志方法应用于教育研究领域所形成和发展的术语,是教育研究的基本方法之一。通过比较分析两位作者的田野经历和反思,主张将研究者“感同身受”式的情感体验作为理解教育民族志的重要维度。具体而言,研究者的情感体验包括三个层面:日常性、讽刺性和生成性。即便都是研究“教育”问题,都以“学校”为田野地点,研究者也常常因遇到文化氛围迥异的学校而有极为不同的情感体验。研究者的这种情感体验和反思对于探究研究对象的日常生活及其价值意义系统有着极为重要的意义。     

Beyond Discourse to Emancipatory Action: Lessons From an Undergraduate

One undergraduate's transformational story of self‐discovery and personal development frames this discussion of the importance of undergraduate involvement in social justice research.     

Development and Effectiveness of an Educational Card Game as Supplementary Material in Understanding Selected Topics in Biology

The complex concepts and vocabulary of biology classes discourage many students. In this study, a pretest–posttest model was used to test the effectiveness of an educational card game in reinforcing biological concepts in comparison with traditional teaching methods. The subjects of this study were two biology classes at Bulacan State University–Sarmiento Campus. Both classes received conventional instruction; however, the experimental group''s instruction was supplemented with the card game, while the control group''s instruction was reinforced with traditional exercises and assignments. The score increases from pretest to posttest showed that both methods effectively reinforced biological concepts, but a t test showed that the card game is more effective than traditional teaching methods. Additionally, students from the experimental group evaluated the card game using five criteria: goals, design, organization, playability, and usefulness. The students rated the material very satisfactory.     

西方教育市场化的实践反思

西方的教育市场化变革已历经20年,对于其利弊得失的评判已经有了一定的实践基础。文章分析了英国教育市场化对学校、校长、教师、学生、课堂、课程和家长的不利影响,指出市场话语在义务教育发展中的局限性。在中小学校的运行中的市场化倾向应受到遏制。     

这次合作学习为什么会失败——一次行动研究引发的思考

遵循行动研究的研究范式,本研究对一次教师合作学习的过程进行了描述,并分析其失败的原因.研究者认为,组织者的失策和小组成员合作技能的缺乏是导致这次合作学习失败的主要原因.组织者应科学制定培训的目标结构,并帮助教师建构积极的互赖关系;小组成员应有意识地反思自身的行为,提高合作技能.     

Double Visions: Educational Technology in Standards and Assessments for Science and Mathematics

For educational technology integration in content disciplines to succeed, teachers and teacher educators need clear standards delineating why, how, where, and how much educational technology they should include in their teaching. This paper examines the visions offered by current science, mathematics, and educational technology standards for educational technology integration in K-12 schools. Since national assessments exert a profound influence on what teachers and students choose to teach and learn, the vision of educational technology use supported by national assessments is also examined. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Standards (NCTM, 2000. Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. Retrieved April 6, 2002 from http://standards.nctm.org), the National Science Education Standards (National Research Council (NRC) 1996. National Science Education Standards. Available at http://books.nap.edu/catalog/4962.html), and the National Educational Technology Standards (International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) 2000. National Educational Technology Standards for Students: Connecting Curriculum and Technology, ISTE, Eugene, Oregon) provide different visions of educational technology use in the classroom. In addition, the current technology use policies for national assessments in science and mathematics, in particular the college admission tests (ACT, SAT I and SAT II subject area tests), Advanced Placement (AP) course assessments, and the Praxis Series assessments indicate that while mathematics assessments often recommend or require the use of educational technology, few science assessments permit the use of educational technology by students. Recommendations are offered for science educators regarding teacher preparation for the technology-rich classrooms of the future.     

Educational reform in Britain: Beyond the National Curriculum

The essay begins with an account of why Britain introduced a National Curriculum for English and Welsh schools in 1988 in place of its previously more autonomous system. It goes on to analyse the content and aims of the National Curriculum and includes a comparison with Stalin's curriculum for schools in the USSR. An alternative to the National Curriculum is sketched out, centring around the aim of promoting personal autonomy for all. In the last part of the paper recent British experience of greater centralization and vocational orientation of the curriculum is contrasted with recent moves by the USSR State Committee on Education towards the democratization and humanization of the Soviet school system.

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Zusammenfassung Die Abhandlung beginnt mit einem Bericht, warum Großbritannien 1988 anstelle seines bis dahin eher autonomen Systems einen nationalen Lehrplan für englische und walisische Schulen einführte. Anschließend analysiert der Verfasser Inhalt und Ziele des nationalen Lehrplans und zieht einen Vergleich zwischen diesem und Stalins Lehrplan für Schulen in der UdSSR. Er umreißt eine Alternative zum nationalen Lehrplan, die im wesentlichen die Förderung der persönlichen Autonomie für alle zum Ziel hat. Im letzten Teil des Artikels werden die jüngsten britischen Erfahrungen einer größeren Zentralisierung und einer beruflichen Orientierung des Curriculums den kürzlich unternommenen Schritten des staatlichen sowjetischen Komitees für Bildung in Richtung Demokratisierung und Humanisierung des sowjetischen Schulwesens gegenübergestellt.

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Résumé Le présent article commence par un exposé sur les raisons qui ont poussé la Grande Bretagne à introduire un curriculum national dans les écoles anglaises et galloises, qui a remplacé en 1988 le système plus autonome jusqu'alors en vigueur. On donne ensuite une analyse du contenu et des objectifs de ce programme d'études national qui est comparé à celui établi par Staline pour les écoles soviétiques. On esquisse une solution alternative à ce curriculum national, qui est centrée sur la promotion de l'autonomie personnelle pour tous. Dans la dernière partie de cet article, on compare les expériences faites récemment en Angleterre en matière de plus grande centralisation et de formation professionnelle du curriculum avec les changements introduits depuis peu par le Comité d'Etat de l'Education de l'URSS en vue de la démocratisation et de l'humanisation du système éducatif soviétique.

     

Practicing Critical Thinking in an Educational Psychology Classroom: Reflections from a Cultural-Historical Perspective

Present standards include creative and critical thinking among dispositions essential for the teaching profession. While teaching introductory courses in educational psychology, I have noticed that even though students can easily describe critical thinking in the abstract, they rarely and reluctantly engage in thinking critically about their own educational experiences. Emphasis on assessment of critical thinking dispositions and skills requires students to demonstrate “the right way to think.” This emphasis, I argue, decreases students' inclination to practice critical inquiry and to feel this experience as intrinsically rewarding. Exploration of socio-cultural contexts of my own and my students' upbringing helps understand how such contexts condition the critical thinking practice. I offer the cultural-historical theory of Lev Vygotsky as an alternative frame of reference that will help students practice critical thinking in an educational psychology classroom.     

关于高校教育管理特殊性的思考

根据马斯洛关于“需要”的学说，从高校教师具有超出一般人的“尊严感”和“自律”意识出发，集中探讨了高校教育管理的特殊性问题，我们认为，高校教育管理由于着眼于教学、科研的主体——教师，为了获得高效、优质的管理效果，必须遵循态度上的“尊重”原则、机制上的“满足”原则、政策上的“宽松”原则、方法上的“协调”原则和发展上的“设计”原则。     

关于我国教育改革中几个问题的思考

30年前恢复的高校入学考试制度时我国的人才培养而言功不可没,但同时也成为我国教育的"指挥棒",左右着基础教育改革和发展的走向.高考的指挥棒作用导致义务教育属性异化,使提高全民素质的教育成为选拔教育.尽管素质教育的呼声不绝于耳,但"应试"仍是基础教育的灵魂,基础教育阶段的择校风也因此愈演愈烈.高等教育的大规模扩招有利于满足人民群众日益增长的对高等教育的需求,有利于满足社会经济发展时高层次人才的需求,但与此同时也出现了一些新问题,如高等教育迅速转向大众化引发了人才培养结构的失衡,高校毕业生人数的大幅度增加导致了就业形势越来越严峻等.我国基础教育和高等教育发展过程中出现的这些两难问题迫使我们应更加深入地去研究和思考我国教育的进一步改革问题.     

Reflections on Investigating Emotion in Educational Activity Settings

This article represents our current reflections on our approach to inquiry on emotions in education. Our views reflect an eclectic blend of, educational, psychological, and social historical approaches to inquiry on emotion and emotional regulation. In an effort to explicate our approach, we address our working definitions of emotion and emotional regulation. Next, we discuss our views on transactions among cognition, motivation and emotions, as well as the methods and methodologies that guide our inquiry on emotions in education. We conclude with some of the problems associated with, as well as a discussion of why, in spite of the challenges related to doing inquiry on emotions, the study of emotions can be useful for improving educational processes.

对我国教育叙事研究的审思

教育叙事研究方式的引进,促进了我国教育研究的发展,同时也出现了一些值得总结审思的问题.教育叙事研究的相关概念存在泛化和滥用的状况;教育叙事研究方式的倡导中,存在"方法中心主义"的倾向;在处理理论与实践、一般与个别、抽象与具体等关系问题上,存在违背辩证法的倾向.坚持以问题为中心的跨学科研究方式,正确评价和定位教育叙事研究方式,有利于实现教育叙事研究的理论诉求,促进我国教育研究健康发展.     

Pupils in Control: Sex Talk as an Educational Resource

Education for citizenship is now recommended for all primary schools. Whilst primary teachers have long covered social and moral education, they have been less likely to cover teaching about community and political literacy (including the discussion of topical, controversial issues). This paper reports research findings on current practice and identifies key areas for discussion. It argues that there is great scope for enriching and enlivening the primary curriculum through the introduction of education for citizenship, by extending current practice in social and moral education and incorporating the newer themes of community and political literacy into existing teaching.     

Taking Human Capital Investment Seriously: Reflections on Educational Reform

This paper presents the 2002 Junior College/Upper Secondary Review in Singapore in the context of the nation-states commitment to human capital investment. It discusses how these changes have led to a radically altered upper secondary educational landscape through the implementation of the Integrated Programme, the establishment of Specialized Schools in Sports, Maths and Science, and the Arts, and the introduction of Privately Funded Schools. These rapid changes have greatly diversified the educational opportunities available to students in this relatively centralized educational system in a short period of time. The concluding thoughts section concludes with implications of such educational change for parents, students and teachers and issues to be considered while they negotiate such educational change.     

Beyond rules and propositions: Reflections on Bereiter's concept of problem-centred knowledge

Bereiter's concept of problem-centred knowledge is criticized on two grounds. First, associating knowledge with particular problem types limits the use of that knowledge to those problem types, causing rather than curing mindlessness. Second, interesting problems are not independent of our knowledge but arise within particular knowledge structures. Hence, problems must be indexed by the knowledge structures they are relevant to, rather than the other way around. It is suggested that a more traditional concept of theoretical knowledge carries some of the same pedagogical potential as the concept of problem-centred knowledge without sharing its inherent difficulties.