Automation and education

Summary An attempt has been made in this paper to describe automation, both as an industrial process involving flow and control and as an intellectual system involving planning and decision-making. General effects on education in the areas of curriculum and program of studies, administration, general education, organization for instruction, the necessity for teaching new patterns of thinking, vocational and technical education were discussed. The concept of the possibility of automatizing the instructional process itself was introduced, and the outlines of a new content for education as a discipline were suggested. The following paper will deal with the problem of automatizing instruction through audio-visual means, and the third and last paper in the series will consider the dangers and difficulties involved in such a process. This is the first in a series of three articles that will discuss one of the most important and timely problems that educators face today-the effects of automation upon education.     

(Re)affirming identities: implementing a play-based approach to learning in the early years of schooling

Learning through play has traditionally been a central tenet in early childhood education, however, in recent times primary schools have begun to consider the benefits of introducing a play-based approach into early years classrooms to support young children’s learning, especially in the areas of language and literacy. This study focuses on the introduction of a play-based approach to a Foundation classroom (first year of formal schooling) in one Catholic primary school in Victoria, Australia. Taking a qualitative approach, drawing on interpretivist theory, data collection methods included group interviews with two Foundation teachers and their Early Years Coordinator at different points during the year, and two classroom observation sessions. This paper considers some of the challenges these teachers experienced and how they interpret and make sense of their work and the consequences this has for their identities as teachers. The data highlight tensions for these teachers that relate to issues of accountability and legitimisation.     

Service-Learning Programs and the Knowledge Economy: Exploring the Tensions

Community service-learning (CSL) programs are proliferating in Canadian higher education. University programs promote students’ experiential learning in community as part of a course; students most often engage in unpaid work in not-for-profit organizations and reflect on that experience in relation to their classroom learning. However, programs tend to occupy an ambivalent position in higher education—they are seen as important, but at the same time are often under-resourced and treated as marginal to universities’ core activities. This paper argues that the contradictory position of service-learning is partly related to the bifurcated view of theoretical and practical knowledge perpetuated in knowledge economy discourse. Drawing on interviews with service-learning program leaders, it explores their responses to knowledge economy discourse. Findings suggest varying levels of resistance; some leaders comply with university pressures to engage in transactional approaches to service-learning, while others seek to integrate theoretical and practical knowledge through the creation of hybrid learning networks. This paper outlines the reasons for and implications of different responses and suggests that socio-cultural learning theories can inform pedagogical approaches within programs.     

浅谈情景教学法在视听说教学中的实践运用

情景教学法作为一种有效的教学手段,被频繁使用在英语教学过程中。这种教学法是指教师有目的地引入或创设具有一定色彩的、以形象为主体的生动具体的场景,通过这种场景的搭设让学生“投入”其中,达到教学所需的目的。而视听说课程的特点决定了学生在课堂上必须把视,听和磺．三者结合起来,使学生英语听力,口语及思维分析等综合能力得到提高。     

多媒体视听室的管理

多媒体视听室已成为现代化图书馆的一个重要组成部分,但目前在管理上仍存在着不足之处,就如何提高多媒体视听室的管理提出几点建议。     

南国农社会电化教育思想发展简析

电化教育（简称电教）在我国自诞生之日起即首先应用于社会领域。随着我国电教事业的发展,社会电化教育（简称社会电教）领域逐渐形成并具有诸多中国特色。南国农的社会电教思想是中国社会电化教育理论体系形成与发展的典型代表。该思想体系由五个部分构成：一是社会电教概念的形成;二是社会电教的应用领域;三是社会电教中的“大电教”观;四是社会电教的服务对象;五是新教育理念中的社会电教。南国农于1987年首次提出“社会电教”的概念,标志着社会电教研究领域的正式确立与形成。随着社会的发展与进步,社会电教领域得以不断拓展,主要包括农村电教、党员电教、企业电教、特殊教育电教和社区电教等。社会电教的施教对象、理论基础、研究对象、范围、特性等方面都突破了学校教育的狭窄局限,体现出“大电教”的理念。南国农的社会电化教育思想为开展我国社会电化教育研究提供了理论支持,同时也为探讨我国社会电化教育的应用与发展提供了重要支撑。     

Faculty women in the American university: Up the down staircase

This paper compares the status of academic women in the United States, particularly at the most prestigious institutions of higher education, to that of faculty men. Inequalities in rank, prestige, rewards, work environment, and social expectations are discovered. The paper next traces the organization of women within academia professional organizations in the late sixties and ties these developments to the larger women's movement nationally. Finally, the impact of these organizations on government policy and on university personnel practices is assessed. The future status of academic women in a country with a declining birthrate, a sluggish economy, and diminishing financial support for higher education is considered.     

The Strategic Teaching Framework: The use of multimedia in teacher education

Conclusion Teaching needs to be studied in context, as a whole. This approach would require the student to spend much time in classrooms and in reflection. The STF is a learning environment which while not replacing actual teaching experience, can support that experience and allow students to maximise the benefit of the time they do have in the classroom. Students can learn about instructional strategies in a classroom context, tapping into an experienced teacher's knowledge and experience. The motivation for creating the STF was not to ‘teach’ the students the ‘correct’ strategies to use in the classroom, but to support them in constructing and testing their own understanding of the instructional strategies in a classroom context. The next phase of the project will be trials of the STF with pre-service primary teaching students. A copy of the prototype will be installed at Newling Primary School so that the teachers there can become familiar with the project and offer comment. After this exposure to the concept, a survey will be conducted to determine the structure and content of an STF which would support in-service training. Specializations science education, senior secondary students' understanding of biological concepts, applications of multimedia.     

Changing practices: influences on classroom assessment

The pedagogical potential of classroom assessment to support student learning has increasingly been evidenced in research over the past decade. Constructive classroom assessment has been championed by assessment specialists, and endorsed by professional organizations. In practice, however, the process of changing classroom assessment from its traditionally summative orientation is not straightforward. This methodical review looks at how six sources, which are educational research, evaluative inquiry, large‐scale assessment, educational policy, professional development, and teachers’ beliefs, influence and mediate assessment practices. A group of purposively selected research articles are analysed as evidence of the dynamics in this complex process. Cross‐currents relating to research perspective, collaboration, and time are discussed. For the movement seen in this study to continue, the tension between teacher autonomy and school community, and the relationship between collective commitment and assessment literacy should be considered.     

Integration of Physics and Biology: Synergistic Undergraduate Education for the 21st Century

This is an exciting time to be a biologist. The advances in our field and the many opportunities to expand our horizons through interaction with other disciplines are intellectually stimulating. This is as true for people tasked with helping the field move forward through support of research and education projects that serve the nation''s needs as for those carrying out that research and educating the next generation of biologists. So, it is a pleasure to contribute to this edition of CBE—Life Sciences Education. This column will cover three aspects of the interactions of physics and biology as seen from the viewpoint of four members of the Division of Undergraduate Education of the National Science Foundation. The first section places the material to follow in context. The second reviews some of the many interdisciplinary physics–biology projects we support. The third highlights mechanisms available for supporting new physics–biology undergraduate education projects based on ideas that arise, focusing on those needing and warranting outside support to come to fruition.     

The Fixed Image in the Teaching of Modern Languages

In so-called ‘integrated’ audio-visual language courses, still pictures (ie slides, film stills, flannel board figures, drawings photographs, etc) have two possible functions: firstly, they simu- late the enunciative aspects of communication n i a foreign language, and secondly, they serve as equivalents to the foreign linguistic signs used i n this communication. The first of these functions consists of an artificial reproduction at a classroom level of the non-linguistic environments in which these foreign forms can be used. The second function is a kind of transcoding system, which works in a visual manner on the meanings of these linguistic forms. These two functions, each in accordance with their own particular characteristics, have the effect of providing an interpretation to the foreign expressions and thereby precluding the necessity of any direct translation into a level of language known to the class.     

国外马来西亚伊斯兰复兴运动研究述评

20世纪60年代末、70年代初以来,马来西亚兴起伊斯兰复兴运动,对马来西亚的政治、经济、社会与文化发展都产生了深远的影响。从马来西亚伊斯兰复兴运动的历史沿革、马来西亚伊斯兰复兴运动的典型组织和团体、马来西亚伊斯兰复兴运动与政治民主化的关系以及马来西亚伊斯兰复兴运动与经济现代化的关系四个方面,综合分析了国外关于马来西亚伊斯兰复兴运动在理论与实践上取得的成果,提出国内学者需要推进的研究方向。     

A cluster analysis of high school science classroom environments and attitude toward science

This study provides a test of a theory which suggests that student perceptions of their classroom environment affect their attitudes toward science. Using the statistical technique of cluster analysis, 27 high school science classes were divided into three distinct clusters which were most distinguishable by the amount of involvement, affiliation with students, teacher support, order and organizations, and innovative teaching strategies. One of the clusters provided a classroom environment which was significantly different from the other two and the students in that environment had more positive attitudes toward science. The dimensions of the classroom environment which make a difference are those which teachers may develop and change in order to enhance the science attitudes and, possibly, the science achievement of their students.     

Interracial Contact in High School Extracurricular Activities

Using data from yearbooks for 193 high schools, this study examines the degree of interracial contact in 8,849 high school teams and other organizations. More than one-third of these groups were all-white, while only about 3% were exclusively nonwhite. Owing in large part to their overall numerical preponderance, white students rarely found themselves outnumbered in groups by as much as three to one; by contrast, nonwhites often were in this position. Tabulations show that the degree of interracial exposure was typically less than what would occur if all organizations in each school had been racially balanced and was much less than the exposure that would have occurred if all organizations reflected the racial composition of the schools containing them. Whereas the nonwhite percentage of the students enrolled in the sample high schools was 24.9%, the membership of clubs and teams was 20.7%, reflecting a lower rate of participation by nonwhites. Furthermore, because the racial compositions of clubs and teams were not uniform, the average white member was in an organization that was only 15.3% nonwhite. Although clearly less than its theoretical maximum, this rate of contact nonetheless appears to be much higher than what would occur if friendships were the only vehicle for interracial contact outside the classroom. Finally, the extent of segregation associated with these organizations was the same or less in the South than in the rest of the country.     

国外发展性课堂教学评价实施的影响因素研究

发展性课堂评价能更好地促进学生的学习,这一论断已被国际评估专家和教育团体普遍认可。然而在实践中,用发展性课堂评价取代传统的终结性评价并非易事。从国外相关研究来看,教育研究、评价研究、大规模评估、教育政策、教师的职业发展和教师信念是对发展性课堂评价产生影响的六种主要因素。同时,实施发展性课堂评价时还应该考虑时间和教师自主权问题。     

借鉴新课程标准 创新课堂教学

根据中学新课程标准的精神,新课程的根本目的在于培养学生的创新能力和创新精神,而这种目的的实现,主要是通过课堂创新教学来完成的,这一点是非常值得我们高职院校借鉴的。课堂创新教学是我们培养高职学生创新能力和创新精神的主阵地,是通过教师的创新来培养学生的创新能力和创新精神。只有教师的创新,才会有课堂的创新;只有课堂的创新,才会有学生思维的创新。从变革教法和改进学法两个方面讨论如何培养学生的创新能力和创新精神。     

MOOC+SPOC混合教学模式设计探讨

分析了MOOC、SPOC、实体课堂对混合教学的支持方式,立足于学生知识获取、生成、转化的角度,主张建构一种将MOOC课程资源、SPOC课程架构、实体课堂环境深度融合的混合教学模式.此模式包括了从课前准备到课堂教与学,再到课程评价体系的较为完整、系统的教学过程,使MOOC、SPOC与实体课堂三者优势互补、协同发展,从而在互动互助中提高教学效率,在教学相长中促进师生个体全面发展.     

Resistant agency in German lessons in primary education in Germany

This paper aims to research practices of resistance as an important part of agency in primary school classrooms. By combining a post-structural theoretical frame with a critical ethnographic research approach, it understands children’s resistance as an ordinary practice, as a necessary response to structures and practices of the classroom setting. It argues that agency needs to be resistant to some extent, because otherwise it would be merely submission or adaptation. How agency can emerge depends on the social position of the student, which influences the way in which she or he is able to anticipate (more or less implicitly) spaces for resistant agency and also how he or she is addressed in the classroom and beyond. An ethnographic case study of German lessons in a third-grade primary class in a German school shows how resistant agency manifests and how it might be restricted when it comes to racialised subject-positions in the classroom.     

Taking Up Opportunities to Learn: Constructing Dispositions in Mathematics Classrooms

This article presents an analysis of how students' dispositions toward learning shift and change over time through their engagement with particular classroom practices and identifies classroom practices that support the development of more productive dispositions. An analysis of 4 purposefully selected students from 2 different classrooms reveals that membership in a classroom activity system does not determine one's emergent disposition toward learning. However, it is likely that similar types of dispositions might emerge within a single classroom activity system. The analysis further seeks to understand the mechanisms that underlie the ways in which dispositions are enacted in moments of interaction, and how aspects of classroom practice impact this enactment. The findings support the argument that social, affective, and motivational factors are not simply influences on learning but are, instead, central to and inseparable from the learning process.     

Scientific Inquiry in Educational Multi-user Virtual Environments

In this paper, we present a review of research into the problems of implementing authentic scientific inquiry curricula in schools and the emerging use of educational Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) to support interactive scientific inquiry practices. Our analysis of existing literature in this growing area of study reveals three recurrent themes: (1) with careful design and inclusion of virtual inquiry tools, MUVE-based curricula can successfully support real-world inquiry practices based on authentic interactivity with simulated worlds and tools, (2) Educational MUVEs can support inquiry that is equally compelling for girls and boys, and (3) research on student engagement in MUVE-based curricula is uneven. Based on these themes, we suggest that future large-scale research should investigate (1) the extent to which MUVE-based inquiry learning can be a viable substitute for the activities involved in real-world inquiry; (2) the impact of MUVEs on learning and engagement for currently underserved students, and (3) the impact on engagement and learning of individual aspects of MUVE environments, particularly virtual experimentation tools designed to scaffold student inquiry processes and maintain engagement. Additionally, we note that two identified issues with integrating scientific inquiry into the classroom are currently not addressed by MUVE research. We urge researchers to investigate whether (1) MUVE-based curriculum can help teachers meet state and national standards with inquiry curricula; and (2) scientific inquiry curricula embedded in MUVE environments can help teachers learn how to integrate interactive scientific inquiry into their classroom. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0310188. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.