Training the Mind: Continuity and Change in the Rhetoric of School Science

This paper identifies, depicts and sets out to interpret the common ground between the Australian radical education movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s and the present pre‐occupation with competency‐based reform in school education, the ‘new vocationalism’. The paper contends that both of these developments should be understood as historically novel, Janus‐faced radical movements. The helpfulness of the political‐economic concept of settlement for dealing with the nature and consequences of this congruence is explored. It is argued that the Janus‐faced radicalism of both movements locates them at the interface of modernity and postmodernity, and a particular interpretive response based on this perspective is proposed.     

Curriculum Continuity and Transfer from Primary to Secondary School: the case of history

The transfer of children from primary school to secondary school has long been seen as a problematic area. The National Curriculum was depicted as offering a solution to some of the transfer problems by providing for curriculum continuity across the primary-secondary divide. This paper reports the results of a study of curriculum continuity in one subject, history, now that a National Curriculum has been in place for several years. It reports that teachers continue to see problems with the transfer and that secondary school teachers still incline to a ‘fresh start’ approach to year 7 pupils. There is also some evidence of a lack of curriculum consistency within the secondary schools involved in the research, there are differences between primary and secondary schools in the range of teaching and learning methods employed, there is some decline in pupils’ ratings of their experience of secondary education across year 7 and there are signs of some gender differences in these ratings. The conclusion is that there is a case for saying that the new arrangements have not alleviated the problems associated with the transfer.     

The Attrition of Change: A Study of Change and Continuity

In this article models and theories on effective schooling are reviewed. Modelling is based on the various disciplinary oriented approaches to educational effectiveness. As such production functions, instructional effectiveness models and integrated, multi‐level educational effectiveness models are discussed. Various conceptual and formal representations of facilitation across levels are seen as the most interesting area for further model‐driven research. In the second part of the article four organization theories are discussed, all of which are seen as specific interpretations of the rationality paradigm: rational control theory and bureaucratic structuring; contingency theory; public choice theory; and retroactive planning. A fifth theoretical perspective, chaos theory, as applied to organizational functioning, looks more like a complete anti‐thesis of rationality, but can nevertheless be related to the emergence of ordered patterns and to organizational survival. Core mechanisms or theory‐embedded principles that follow from these theories are, respectively: proactive structuring; fit; market mechanisms; the cybernetic principle; and self‐organization. Further analysis of these principles leads to the conclusion that the cybernetic principle of evaluation feedback and reinforcement is the most interesting one, both from a theoretical and practice‐oriented perspective. Throughout the article hints and suggestions are provided for future, more theory and model‐driven educational effectiveness research.     

基于数学教育文化观的幼小数学活动(教学)衔接问题探究

幼儿园数学活动与小学数学教学的有效衔接,对促进儿童的数学学习、乃至儿童的健康快乐成长起着重要作用.基于数学教育的文化观——数学教育就是数学文化的教育,必须提高教师队伍的专业化水平,体现数学活动(教学)目标主体化、个性化,实现数学活动(教学)内容生活化、统整化,以及数学活动(教学)方式多元化、情境化.     

中国台湾中小学课程世纪变革探析

中国台湾课程战后沿袭大陆课程体系,在移植国外经验中结合本地实际进行了多次颇具特色的改革,其最重大的新世纪变革乃承显数十年课程发展之精髓,纳中外课程变革之精要,融历史、现在及未来之趋向,值得关注探讨。     

Continuity of School Effects: A Longitudinal Analysis of Primary and Secondary School Effects on GCSE Performance

Multilevel analyses of students' GCSE examination results (taken at age 16) are used to investigate both primary and secondary school effects on students' total performance scores and the issue of continuity of schools' effects over time. Follow‐up data for the Inner London Education Authority's Junior School Project sample, including attainment at secondary transfer (age 11) and at GCSE and details concerning students' background characteristics are analysed.

Significant school effects at both primary and secondary level and small but significant continuing effects of primary schools on later GCSE attainment are identified. The theoretical and practical significance of the results are discussed.     

Teacher Collaboration in Curriculum Change: The Implementation of Technology Education in the Primary School

The problem which stimulated this research is that in Australia, primary school teachers are expected to teach a new subject, Technology, but have had little training consistent with the newly adopted technology curriculum. Using case studies from two Western Australian schools, the paper documents the ways in which one teacher from each school has established successful classroom strategies for incorporating technology into her classroom, and how she has had a significant effect on the practice of other teachers in her school. The relationship between one pair of teachers in each school is used to explore the nature of their collaboration. One pair used joint work, with shared responsibility for the work of teaching, an example of deep collaboration. The other pairing was more one-sided, a collaborative relationship better described as one of aid and assistance. Both relationships were based on mutual respect, and demonstrate how teachers choose to work together towards a common purpose, the implementation of technology education. Implications from the study are discussed in terms of leadership and collaboration, time and integration, and teachers' knowledge.     

Continuity and Change in the Collegial Tradition

This article has four main purposes: to explore the meaning of the idea of collegiality, to consider its importance in the governance of British institutions of higher education, to examine the pressures for change that have been exerted upon both the collegiate model of the university as well as upon the idea of collegiality, and to ascertain what relevance – if any – the idea of collegiality has in the context of a system of mass higher education. The article is a report upon ongoing research, of which interviews with some fifty Oxford academics and officials form the core of its empirical base. Naturally we welcome feedback. An important subtheme is our attempt to understand the process of change in British higher education. Our analysis suggests that the change process is best understood through an analysis of the interaction between state pressure for change and developments within the character of the academic profession.     

日本"幼小衔接"热潮剖析

本文在对近几年日本出现的"幼小衔接"热潮的发展历程和主要特点进行研究的基础上,对其原因进行了分析,认为地方分权化的推动、"小一问题"的驱使和终身教育思潮的影响是当今日本出现"幼小衔接"热潮的主要原因.     

国内中小学家庭作业研究进展

国内关于家庭作业的研究主要关注家庭作业对学生发展的影响,家庭作业的设计,家庭作业评价及家长参与等方面。但研究方法还不够多元,研究视角还不够广阔,还有不少研究荒地没有被开垦,家庭作业有待更多的研究者涉足,更有待其研究的进一步深入和发展。     

Change and Continuity in the Singapore Literature-in-English Curriculum

This paper examines contestations over the value of Literature in the secondary school curriculum in the former British colony of Singapore and the way the Literature curriculum has been framed to understand the various issues surrounding the role of Literature education. Using Raymond Williams’ framework of dominant, residual and emergent ideologies, I show how the dominant perception of Literature study in Singapore as a decontextualised humanistic and aesthetic subject is influenced by its residual British colonial legacy. Significant official changes, fundamentally conservative, have been driven by the governing ideology of instrumental pragmatism and are tied to twin aims of economic well-being and national belonging. The conservative view of Literature education prevents the adoption of emergent views of Literature education as hybrid, multimodal and critical. A pragmatic re-evaluation of the aims of Literature education in the twenty-first century is required to regain renewed significance for the subject.     

中小学校长胜任力研究——以苏北中小学校长为例

研究以苏北地区中学校长为研究对象,采用问卷调查、行为访谈及因素分析法．对中小学校长的基本能力特质进行了研究。研究发展,中小学校长胜任力模型由4因子18个项目构成,其中管理能力是最重要的胜任力．它包括长远规划、创新能力、问题解决能力、灵活应变能力和挑战精神;其后依次是社交能力、业务能力和情感智力。这些是构成中小学校长胜任力的主要因素。研究中小学校长胜任力构成模式能为中小学校长选拔、任用、培训及绩校评估提供依据．     

Continuity of Care: Primary Caregiving in Singapore

Early Childhood Education Journal - Child care centres in many developed countries have expanded exponentially due to the increased participation of women in the workforce. Consequently, children...     

Promoting Social Awareness and Responsibility in the Primary School: The School Watch Initiative

The School Watch initiative is centred in South Wales and involves police liaison officers, primary schools and their pupils. In each interested school, the scheme is explained and the pupils then decide if they want to take part. A pupils' committee is elected which is given support and guidance by the liaison officer. A key element of the scheme is the involvement of the pupils themselves and the way the pupils' committee plays a major part in the choice and running of activities. The scheme benefits pupils both in terms of their personal and social development and in their attitudes to the police. The paper ends with a number of examples of the type of work that schools have undertaken within this scheme.