Pedagogical and Didactic Aspects of the New Hauptschule

Northrhine-Westphalia, with 17 million people the largest of the eleven Länder (states) of the Federal Republic of Germany, issued revised curriculum programs for all its schools between 1966 and 1968. The most interesting changes occurred in the secondary school for those children (about 60% of the age group) whose parents do not enroll them at age 10 in a Realschule (semiacademic) or a Gymnasium (academic). These children formerly remained in the Volksschule for a total of eight years; but now the upper half of this school, expanded by one year, is called Hauptschule and is designed to offer more substantial education than previously, including a foreign language (English). The same pattern is followed in all the other West German Länder.     

Higher Education Policy Formation in the Federal Republic of Germany: A Closer Look at Neglected Aspects

This article does not attempt to deal in comprehensive terms with educational policy formation in the Federal Republic of Germany. Nor is it a venture into institutional history. It is an effort to state some preliminary findings about relatively ignored aspects of educational policy formation, largely refracted through the recent experience of one institution, the University of Duisburg — planned over 400 years ago, established in 1655, closed "on many grounds, particularly the problem of unfavorable political circumstances in 1818," reincarnated the same day and year as a Pädagogische Hochschule (1), and most recently reformed as a comprehensive university (Gesamthochschule) comprising "die Abteilung Duisburg der Pädagogischen Hochschule Ruhr und die Fachhochschule in Duisburg."(2) Some materials will be drawn from recent forays of German social science into related fields, and from journal and daily press accounts of educational politics.     

Effects of Self-Regulated Strategy Development for POW+TREE on High School Students with Learning Disabilities

High school students with learning disabilities often have difficulty expressing their thoughts in writing. At the secondary level, writing becomes paramount to successfully navigating the curriculum and expressing knowledge. In this study, the effectiveness of Self-Regulated Strategy Development for POW (Pick my idea, Organize my notes, Write and say more) + TREE (Topic sentence, Reasons—three or more, Examine, Ending) for persuasive quick writes with four high school students with learning disabilities was investigated. Results indicated an increase in the number of response parts written and increased stability in the number of words written. The participants who deemed the intervention as positive provided social validity.     

Editor's Introduction

The documents in this issue of Chinese Education were published in China in 1979 and 1980. They appeared originally in Renmin jiaoyu (People's Education), Hongqi (Red Flag), and Guangming Daily, and cover a variety of topics.     

Bound to the Now Established Autonomy of the Länder

"Those declared dead live long" — the author, a worker of many years in the Conference for Ministers of Education [Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK)] in its early years, applies the proverb to the history of the KMK: It has proven to be indispensable for the communal coexistence of the Lander in the Federal constitution.     

The False Intelligentsia (1927)

Since the beginning of May 1974, our hsien, led by the higher Party committee, has initiated, on a trial basis, spare-time correspondence education for educated youths who have resettled in the countryside. The institutes of higher education in Shanghai provide us with teaching materials. Aside from this, our hsien has undertaken full responsibility for organization and tutoring. In connection with the needs of the Three Great Revolutionary Movements in our hsien, five subjects were initiated for the first term of correspondence education: "Selected Readings from the Classics of Marxism-Leninism," "History," "Writing," "Breeding of Fine Strains of Paddy Rice," and "Agricultural Meteorology." We have engaged 23 part-time teachers and enrolled 30 students for each subject, totaling 150. The students are organized according to subject into 30 study groups. These groups are distributed over nine communes and state farms where the resettled educated youths are relatively concentrated.     

Exploration,Innovation, Participation,and Practice : A Preliminary Probe of High School Environmental Education

This bibliography is intended to serve as an aid to those pursuing the study of Mao Tse-tung, Maoism, and education in China. Efforts have been centered on recent materials in European languages, primarily English, not covered in other available bibliographic works, some of which are listed in Section I: Bibliographies and Reference Works. Excluded from the present list are the many translations of primary Chinese materials to be found in periodicals such as Current Background (Hong Kong), Issues &; Studies (Taiwan), Peking Review (Peking), and Chinese Education (USA).     

School and Society,July 1, 1979, to June 30, 1980

The Elementary School [Folkeskole]

In the past year, the folkeskole has been better material for the media than any time in the past, and its circumstances, its tasks, its content, and its results have been commented upon and discussed in both the national and the local press. In the school year 1979-1980, there were 740,000 pupils enrolled in these schools, including kindergarten classes (Jyllandsposten 4/19). The number of children is decreasing as reported by central authorities from the Minister of Education, for example, in Politiken, 1/16, which at the same time reports that the development of the school has therefore become difficult to control, as many municipalities have reported, e.g., Frederikshavn Avis 3/13.     

Erratum

On page 12 of Chinese Education, XI:2-3 (Summer-Fall 1978), it is incorrectly stated that the University of Chicago lends its Renmin jiaoyu holdings. While it will not do that, the Far Eastern Library of the University of Chicago will furnish photocopies or microfilms of the JMJY holdings on request.     

Editor's Note

This issue of Chinese Education completes the translation of Hung Ch'i, 1970, No. 8, the first part of which appeared in the previous issue. It also continues the series of translations from the book Comrade Mao Tse-tung on Education Work begun by the previous editor of this journal. All of the articles in this book have appeared at one time or another in English translation - most of them in the Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung. The purpose of republishing them here is to bring them together for easy reference. We are, however, departing from the practice of the previous editor of retranslating these articles, and will instead present them as translated by the Foreign Languages Press in Peking.     

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.     

Pedagogical Innovations in the English School System

In July 1977 the secretary of state for education and science, together with the secretary of state for Wales, published the Green Paper — the report Education in Schools — which contained the outline for future school policy in England and Wales. (1)     

A Network for Popularizing Socialist Education

In Nanan hsien, schools are run in front of the doors of the poor and lower-middle peasants, in the remote mountain areas, and on the off-shore islands, as demanded by the poor and lower-middle peasants. This has changed the former irrational distribution of schools. Besides, sparetime schools and political evening schools of various types have been set up throughout this hsien by such means as are appropriate to the local conditions. In this way, popular education for school-age children and teenagers is basically achieved and 80 percent of the adult commune members can also take part in the study. Experience of this hsien shows that it is entirely possible to popularize socialist education so long as we conscientiously carry out Chairman Mao's "May 7 Directive" and fully arouse the masses.     

The Comprehensive University in International Perspective

Initiatives taken to democratize secondary education, business and industrial demands for manpower with sophisticated technological training, and the hope on the part of large numbers of citizens from the more modest levels of society for upward social mobility have placed new and serious strains upon the traditional structure of higher education in the Federal Republic of Germany. The Draft Plan for a Comprehensive System of Higher Education is considered by many observers to be a significant official response to the university crisis. In this study, Dr. Eilsberger, a staff member of the Federal Ministry of Education and Science, analyzes the Draft Plan and compares it to similar strategies in several other countries. His article first appeared in Die Deutsche Universitats-Zeitung vereinigt mit Hochschul-Dienst, June 1, 1972.     

Questions Concerning Sending Cadres to Lower Levels to Take Part in Collective Productive Labor

Jen-min jih-pao has initiated a discussion on how to run "May 7" cadres schools well. We think the discussion is very necessary. Through it, we can exchange experiences, learn from each other, overcome shortcomings and adopt strong points, and all improve together.     

Teaching Environmental Awareness in Mathematics

The "Educational Program for Rural Middle and Primary Schools (Draft)" issued by the revolutionary committee of Li-shu hsien, Kirin Province, is published here for the purpose of discussion. This draft program has been drawn up by the revolutionary committee of Li-shu hsien and other concerned sectors. We have also canvassed the opinions of the poor and lower-middle peasants of some communes, and of teachers and students to make certain revisions. Notations have been made where views differ. It is hoped that the broad poor and lower-middle peasant masses of the whole country, the officers of the Liberation Army engaged in supporting agriculture, as well as the concerned comrades of the provincial, local, and hsien revolutionary committees, will actively participate in the discussions and make suggestions for supplements and revisions. In this way we hope that a broad spectrum of views can be collected, that experiences can be summarized, and, after distinguishing the circumstances and a certain period of discussions and revisions, that this educational program may come to be more in keeping with the practices in various places, as well as more substantive and perfect.     

PUKHA: a new pedagogical experience

Society needs responsible leaders and entrepreneurs. CDIO (conceive, design, implement and operate) is a framework for engineering education based on outcomes, more than on contents, that has been adopted by a growing number of engineering educational institutions for producing the next generation of engineering leaders. In order to support engineering students to become entrepreneurs and to bear other concerns than merely technical on today's rapid changing world, the authors believe the CDIO syllabus needs to be improved, and therefore propose a pre requisite to a useful CDIO perspective: IdEF, standing for Identify, Evaluate and Formulate real problems and needs. Based on this concept, this paper describes a new pedagogical project framework (PUKHA - to project, to undertake, to know how to achieve). Within PUKHA projects, more than 300 students have trained and checked their will, risk, responsibility, communication, leadership and entrepreneurship over the last three years.     

A Teaching Outline for A General Knowledge of Political Economy for Full-time Ten-Year Higher Secondary Schools (Discussion Draft,January 1981)

The discussion on how to run "May 7" cadre schools well, which was initiated by Jen-min jih-pao, is necessary and well timed. We sincerely welcome and support it. We also have some preliminary experience and ideas about this problem. We would like to mention some of them for the discussion.     

University Reform and Skeleton Legislation on Higher Education in the Federal Republic of Germany

This article, Part II of a two-part study by Professor Teichler, has been translated from Pädagogik und Schule in Ost und West, November-December 1972, No. 6. Part I appeared in Western European Education, Fall 1972, Vol. IV, No. 3.