Outstanding Students Should Be Encouraged to Apply for the Entrance Examinations to Key Schools

Mustering strength to run key schools successfully is one of the major tasks on the educational front. Many ordinary schools regard it as an unshirkable duty to supply key middle schools with junior high graduates who do well in their studies. Nevertheless, there are now some ordinary schools that, proceeding from selfish departmentalism, do not encourage their junior high graduates with better scholastic attainments to sign up for the entrance examination to senior grades of key middle schools. Instead, they caution the students, "If next semester you will continue to study at our school in senior grade one, we'll put you in the key class. If you apply for the entrance examination to a key school and return to our school when rejected, then it would be impossible for us to assign you to the key class." Some even warn, "You will not be accepted if you come back." In this way, a batch of students who do well in their studies are pressured not to sign up for the entrance examinations to key schools. They are afraid that they may have no opportunity to study at all if they fail in the entrance examinations. This practice is obviously wrong. If every school does things this way and every student with better scholastic aptitude does not apply for the key school, how can the key school recruit the better qualified? Where can the "better qualified" come from?     

迎向风雨

你对今日的成就感到不满意吗？今天的丰收源自昨日的播种。你是否梦想拥有一个金色的明天？一分耕耘,一分收获。我们从生活中所得到的,正是先前我们所付出的。     

A global collage of impressions: Preschools abroad

“What do you think of European preschools?” “Do they have good schools in Yemen?” “What are Chinese child care centers like?” I am always taken aback when asked such questions. Of course, I'm always taken aback when someone asks what I think of kindergarten education in the United States; I never know how to answer that either. Does the question refer to kindergarten classes in the school near my home? Or kindergartens across the United States? Even if the inquirer expected an answer based on the schools which I visit regularly to supervise student teachers I would have to give a general statement, followed by some qualifying statements related to different teachers, different schools, and different school districts — all withinone county! The old adage that “All generalizations are dangerous, including this one” always comes to mind.     

The Legitimation of Curricula Through Legislation

I. On the Significance of Curriculum Formation for the Educational System

Many of the problems that in past years have precipitated struggles in the areas of educational theory and policy today fade in importance before the question of what is taught in the schools and how it is taught: for example, how schools are organized, what qualifications those who create schools must have, what participatory rights students, teachers, and parents enjoy, and so on. A central aspect of any school system is what is taught in it. (1) Moreover, the methods by which the content of instruction is produced, given general validity, and translated into school reality are thus the most important instruments for controlling the content of the school system in general, as the German Education Council has stressed many times in the last few years. (2) This is not just a recent problem. Historically, the school system has not infrequently seen debate on the content of work in the school and on the methods used to transmit that content. (3) In the end, however, such differences of opinion have terminated with the state — formerly represented by the sovereign and more recently by the educational authorities — handing down a final and binding decision with which all involved in school life had to comply. Decisions on the school concerning content, that is, how schools are to organized and with what content, will continue to be required, even though such decisions may be continuously subject to revision. Since the mid-sixties, however, a broad scientific and political discussion has been conducted as to how traditional curricula may be replaced — both in terms of content and in terms of method of development — by instruments that are adequately adapted to actual sociocultural and economic conditions as well as to the requirements of a social and democratic state based in law.     

论抗战时期陕甘宁边区的师范教育

我国学校及学术文化机关在抗日战争时期受到极大的摧残和破坏。中国共产党在极为艰难困苦的情况下,对抗日大后方陕甘宁边区的教育文化事业,尤其是师范教育事业作出了较为突出的贡献,取得了较为可喜的成绩,这无疑对现在师范教育的发展具有借鉴和指导意义。     

Storylady

If you have theatrical leanings and find it easy to call on your child-self, you may want to join me in make-believe, as a Storylady (or Storyfella). I'll tell you about some typical pretending days at a children's museum. Soon you will know if you are cut out to be a storyteller. It will be a magic moment.Lora Taylor Gray has been Docent/teacher for many years at KIDSPACE Museum (a non-profit organization) in Pasadena, CA. She is a story lady, storyteller, playwrite for libraries, television, museums, schools.     

Non-Athletic High-School Contests: 40,000 Orchestras 600,000 Debaters

Great teachers understand the fundamental difference between motivation and inspiration: motivation is self-focused and inspiration is other focused. Exceptional teachers guide students to greatness by inspiring them to discover where their talents and passions intersect. For today's besieged classroom teacher, the desire to motivate students often springs from a place of self-concern: "I want to change your behavior with a reward or incentive so that, if you meet the targets or goals I set for you, this will help me meet my own needs and goals." Students are highly motivated to perform when they first come to school. The question is not "how can students be motivated?" but rather, "how can educators be deterred from diminishing—even destroying—student motivation and morale through their policies and practices?"     

Heterosexism,Perfection, and Popularity: Young Lesbians' Experiences of the High School Social Scene

This article explores the ways in which high school girl popularity is constructed as heterosexual and normatively gendered, leaving lesbian adolescents on the periphery of the high school social scene. Based upon data from a larger critical life history study with adolescent lesbians, this article explores their experiences of school, friendship, and their attempts to fit in with social groups in school. The young women in this research associated popular with straight and attractive, sometimes using the words interchangeably, and identified the required characteristics of a popular girl as looking perfect and a fluency in boy-talk. Girls less concerned with their appearance or with boys were marked as outsiders in the high school culture. How schools participate in reproducing heterosexist popularity is also discussed.

I made good grades—I was in a lot of activities but still—it didn't mean much to people unless, you know, I have a boyfriend or I'm chasing after guys with the rest of the girls, you know.

—Amy, high school senior     

Beyond the doorstep. Arabian (k)nights and personal nightmares: a working life in Oman

Working in a country where the work culture is unknown to you—Oman in the Middle East—you are faced with yourself. What you need is a profound knowledge of the cultural, social and educational surroundings you are working in, which I did not have. Coming from a working‐class background, I was not unfamiliar with adjusting to cultural differences, but here I was the ‘advantaged’. I was the ‘expert’, with western knowledge: highly valued by some, feared by others. Living up to your expert role in unknown territory is a daunting process, as this article highlights.     

Change,Changing, and Being Changed: A Self-study of a teacher educator's becoming real in the throes of urban school reform

Set against an organized school reform backdrop, this inquiry features four challenges I faced as a result of working alongside teachers and principals whose urban schools were awarded major school research grants for a 5-year period. In addition to teasing out the origins of the dilemmas I encountered and showing how they impacted my teaching practice, I make two knowledge contributions through my public presentation of this self-study. First, I add a new set of partnered narratives—the stories of teacher educators/teacher educators' stories of self. Second, I extend my research niche to reveal the role I played as a living, breathing dimension of the educational conduit.

Rabbit: What is REAL? Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?     

Griffin,Patrick & Care,Esther ed (2015) Assessment and teaching of 21st century skills Springer (Berlin) isbn 978‐94‐017‐9395‐7 310 pp €99.99 (ebook €83.29) http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978‐94‐017‐9395‐7

While learning methods and approaches have changed dramatically in the 21^st century, assessment—especially standardised testing—has remained almost untouched. This volume presents a collection of papers on an innovative approach to collaborative testing. It describes the theoretical framework of an international project and reflects on a challenging perspective of what learning and teaching mean today and will mean tomorrow. If the book sounds likely to be close to your needs, I strongly suggest you buy a copy. Jesús García Laborda     

An Essay: Reflecting on Your Laurels

We all know we are not supposed to rest on our laurels but there is great benefit to be had from reflecting on them. This essay lays out a tool known as The Goals Grid. It can be used to examine how you got to where you are and to set directions for where you want to go from here. Its four quadrants—Achieve, Preserve, Avoid, and Eliminate—will accommodate all goals and objectives.     

糟糕的一天

"Listen," I said slapping my hand down on the desk in front of me. "I really need that book today. The computer says you still have it. The essay is due in tomorrow; please could you tell me where it is?" I had been in the library since about noon. The shadows were beginning to lengthen and my patience beginning to run out as the librarian stared up at me with all the sentient comprehension of a lobotomised teletubby.     

Recovering lost histories of educational design: a case study in contemporary participatory strategies

Past practices shape and limit the design imagination of teachers, pupils, parents, governors, and others concerned with designing modern schools. Bringing histories of education to the table in the participatory design process of new school buildings and curricula is necessary. Schools having an extraordinary past have the potential to draw from that prefigurative practice. This paper reports a case study on how the Kees Boeke School in The Netherlands recently has returned to its own history in addressing the needs of its current and future learners in a redesign project. Through addressing the question of how the redesign might reflect a reconnection with the original vision of education espoused by Boeke—learning in relative freedom, with awareness of responsibilities for own and community’s well-being—the school management, architects, teachers, and students took part in a participatory design process. That process and the resulting school design is discussed. From this case study we argue that past adventures in education can inspire current redesign. Past experiences as well as concerns and beliefs about the future are an inevitable influence on initiatives to realise schools for the future, both for schools with experimental and those with traditional histories.     

Be Ready To Change——A New Interpretation of “Who Moved My Cheese”

to state the theme that"sometimes,things change and they are never the same again,this looks like one of those times.That's life,Life move on,and so should we"Dr Spencer Johnson depict a story about change in a maze where four amusing characters look for"cheese"—cheese being a metaphor for what we want to have in life,whether it is a job,a relationship,money,a big house,freedom,health,recognition spiritual peace,or even an activity like jogging or golf.Each of us has our own idea of what cheese is,and we pursue it because we believe it makes us happy.If we get it,we often become attached to it.And if we lose it,or it’s taken away,it can be traumatic The maze in the story represents where you spend time looking for what you want.It can be the organization you work in,the community you live in,or the relationship you have in your life.     

陶行知提倡“学生自治“的当代价值

陶行知德育理论实质上是生活德育论 ,在管理上最突出的是提倡“学生自治”。本文以原始文本为依据 ,结合当代学校德育管理的实际 ,就什么是学生自治、为什么要提倡学生自治、怎样施行学生自治等问题进行分析论述 ,认为在当今继承陶行知这一思想遗产 ,实行学生自治不仅是必要的 ,而且是切实可行的 ,是富有成效的德育教化的重要途径。最后指出学校领导要将学生自治当作“学校里一件重要的事情”来抓 ,学校的德育工作必将出现新局面、上新台阶。     

Unfairness in access to higher education: a 11 year comparison of grade inflation by private and public secondary schools in Portugal

Fairness in access to HE is unarguably a subject of paramount importance. Wherever a student’s secondary school scores are relevant for access to HE, grade inflation practices may jeopardize fair access. Pressures for high grading are common in the context of educational consumerism and competition between schools and students. However, they are not equally distributed across different types of schools, given that they have distinct relationships with the State and the market, and work with distinct populations. Specifically, the schools that are more subject to market pressures (namely private schools) are, in principle at least, the ones with more incentives to inflate their students’ grades. This paper presents an empirical study based on a large, 11 years database on scores in upper secondary education in Portugal, probing for systematic differences in grade inflation practices by four types of schools: public schools, government-dependent private schools, independent (fee-paying) private schools, and specially funded public schools in disadvantaged areas (TEIP schools). More than 3 million valid cases were analysed. Our results clearly show that independent private schools inflate their students’ scores when compared to the other types of schools. They also show that this discrepancy is higher where scores matter most in competition for HE access. This means that—usually wealthier—students from private independent schools benefit from an unfair advantage in the competition for the scarce places available in public higher education. We conclude discussing possible solutions to deal with such an important issue.     

你认为最好的学习方法是什么?

很多同学在学习时都遇到过类似情况:明明已经很努力,但还是掌握不了重点知识,学习效率低,考试不理想。面对这些问题,网友们分享了很多行之有效的学习方法,希望能给同学们些启发。我知道这是个老方法,但是很有用。当你开始学习时,写下你需要完成的任务。接下来,根据以下标准对任务进行先后排序:今天必须完成的、今天应该完成的和今天我想做的。最后,在一天学习结束后,勾选出你已学习并正确理解的所有主题。     

陶行知“活的教育”的当下启示

陶行知被誉为20世纪具有世界影响的教育家、实践家,他的许多教育思想在今天仍被我们倡导和学习。其中"活的教育"———旨在"用活的教师教活的学生、拿活的教材教活的学生、活选教法教活的学生;活设情景教活的学生"的思想对我们今天更明确地推行和实施新课改具有重大的指导和启示意义。     

潇湘之畔的儒家——邢恕所学为何学

邢恕是北宋重要的政治人物和理学人物,二程弟子,元祐间贬谪永州。《全宋诗》收录其诗作共10首,其中6首作于湖南永州,此外又有散文1篇,题名7通,也作于永州,部分石刻真迹保留至今。对邢恕与北宋理学数事略述始末,冀补史志之阙云。