Problem solving in Swedish mathematics textbooks for upper secondary school

The aim of this study is to analyse how mathematical problem solving is represented in mathematical textbooks for Swedish upper secondary school. The analysis comprises dominating Swedish textbook series, and relates to uncovering (a) the quantity of tasks that are actually mathematical problems, (b) their location in the chapter, (c) their difficulty level, and (d) their context. Based on an analysis of 5,722 tasks from the area of calculus, it is concluded that the textbooks themselves contain very few tasks that can be defined as mathematical problems, and that those that are mathematical problems are found at the end of a chapter at the most difficult level, and are presented in a pure mathematical context. Implications are discussed.     

High school textbooks in turkey from teachers’ and students’ perspectives: The case of history textbooks

This study investigates how teachers and students assess the textbooks they use in history courses at the high school level in Turkey. Through a survey questionnaire, teachers and students were asked their perceptions of the textbooks. Then a sub-sample of the teachers and students were interviewed to collect more in-depth data on their assessment of the textbooks. The results indicated that the textbooks assist the teacher in instructional planning and in preparing exams, and help the students deal with the content. However, both teachers and students point to problems in textbooks in terms of their physical aspects, content presentation and organization, language, teaching and learning aids, and their impact on students. The textbooks focus mostly on transmission of knowledge, and they are found ineffective in leading students to read the information with interest and develop an understanding of the content area. They are found ineffective in developing students’ thinking skills and positive attitudes toward the subject.     

How teaching practices are connected to student intention to enrol in upper secondary school physics courses

Background: In developed countries, it is challenging for teachers to select pedagogical practices that encourage students to enrol in science and technology courses in upper secondary school.

Purpose: Aiming to understand the enrolment dynamics, this study analyses sample-based data from Finland’s National Assessment in Science to determine whether pedagogical approaches influence student intention to enrol in upper secondary school physics courses.

Sample: This study examined a clustered sample of 2949 Finnish students in the final year of comprehensive school (15–16 years old).

Methods: Through explorative factor analysis, we extracted several variables that were expected to influence student intention to enrol in physics courses. We applied partial correlation to determine the underlying interdependencies of the variables.

Results: The analysis revealed that the main predictor of enrolment in upper secondary school physics courses is whether students feel that physics is important. Although statistically significant, partial correlations between variables were rather small. However, the analysis of partial correlations revealed that pedagogical practices influence inquiry and attitudinal factors. Pedagogical practices that emphasise science experimentation and the social construction of knowledge had the strongest influence.

Conclusions: The research implies that to increase student enrolment in physics courses, the way students interpret the subject’s importance needs to be addressed, which can be done by the pedagogical practices of discussion, teacher demonstrations, and practical work.     

我国高中阶段教育资源配置现状及优化策略

当前我国正在加快普及高中阶段教育,探讨教育资源在高中阶段的资源配置,即教育资源在普通高中和中等职业教育之间的配置,对于优化资源配置,保证普及高中阶段教育的质量都有着重要的意义。鉴于两类教育在经费、师资数量和质量等教育资源配置方面存在的差异,政府应该加大对普通高中教育的投入,保持预算内经费的持续稳定增长,加强师资队伍建设,中等职业教育也要走多渠道筹措资金的发展道路。     

Concreteness fading in learning secondary school physics concepts

Concreteness fading has been proposed as a general instructional approach to support learning of abstract mathematics and science concepts. Accordingly, organizing external knowledge representations in a three-step concrete-to-idealized sequence should be more beneficial than the reverse, concreteness introduction, sequence. So far, evidence for the benefits of concreteness fading come mainly from studies investigating learning of basic mathematics concepts. Studies on learning natural science concepts are scarce and have not implemented the full three-step-sequence. In an experimental classroom study (N = 70), we compared concreteness fading and concreteness introduction in high school science education about electromagnetic induction using a detailed assessment. Furthermore, we explored whether these sequences differentially affect the use of the different representations during instruction. Both sequences were equally effective and there were no differences in using the representations. We discuss why our results question the proposed advantages of concreteness fading and highlight conceptual differences and learning goals across domains.     

More like real life-Motivational methods of teaching in upper secondary school

Motivational methods of teaching are topical subjects and much discussed issues regarding schools and education. The first question of our study covers student motivation and students＇ perception of their own schools＇ teaching methods. The second question reflects on how upper secondary school teachers perceive their roles as teachers, their thoughts on acquirement of knowledge and how learning takes place. The third question treats the subject of how school and education is organized. The upper secondary school the authors chose for the case study is a school that recruits students on a national basis and is directed towards the education of fire and rescue service personnel. The programme follows the national science curriculum and gives qualification for further studies at most universities. The school started in the autumn of 1998 and is known for being successful at working with student involvement, responsibility and subject integration. The study which was conducted during the autumn of 2007 included 32 students from two of the learning groups from the same year and started on the day of introduction of a new theme and finished with their presentation of results. The authors made observations, interviewed and through questionnaires studied how students comprehended the schools＇ working methods. We also interviewed their teachers and headmaster. The theoretic standpoint is Activity Theory （Chaiklin, S. ＆ Lave, J. 1996; Knutagard, H., 2002; Vygotsky, L. S., 1986）. The conclusions are that the students are encuitured into a school＇s activities that are similar to what students perceive as that of real life. It gives meaning and motivation to learning and makes it meaningful. They identify their own responsibility and cooperative learning as the most important parts. The teachers＇ own learning process and planning work is parallel to the work forms applicable to the students. They are all interdependent of each other since all the work areas are thematic. The school can be seen as an activity system where members interplay and communication develops a common culture.     

中学物理探究课的建构性设计

本文论述了探究的特征、思路和活动,及中学物理课的建构性设计原则,在此基础上例举中学物理探究课的建构性设计.     

芬兰普通高中的课程评价和课程管理

本文着重探讨了 1994年普通高中课程改革以后 ,芬兰普通高中课程评价的基本举措和特点 ,分析了国家级行政管理、省级行政管理、地方行政管理、校级行政管理的权限和方式、方法。     

初中语文教科书插图科学化建设对策

近来在语文学科建设领域掀起的科学化建设潮流,却几乎边缘化语文教科书中的插图问题.分析插图在教学、乃至从人们视野中淡化的原因,以人教版初中语文教材为例,提出插图的科学化建设对策.     

高中物理教科书的新追求--简介北师大版《高中物理教科书》

本文比较详细地介绍了北师大版高中物理教科书的编写意图和该教材的特点.     

2000年秋季普通高级中学《高一物理教科书(第一册)》简介

本文介绍了高中物理教科书第一册的主要特点     

Instructional leadership in centralised systems: evidence from Greek high-performing secondary schools

This paper examines the enactment of instructional leadership (IL) in high-performing secondary schools (HPSS), and the relationship between leadership and learning in raising student outcomes and encouraging teachers’ professional learning in the highly centralised context of Greece. It reports part of a comparative research study focused on whether, and to what extent, IL has been embraced by Greek school leaders. The study is exploratory, using a qualitative multiple case design to examine two HPSS in Athens. The research design involved a qualitative approach using several different methods, including semi-structured interviews with school principals, deputy heads, subject teachers and subject advisers, plus observation of leadership practice and meetings and scrutiny of relevant policy documents. The findings show that IL is conceptualised as an informal collaborative leadership practice, interwoven with the official multi-dimension role of Greek principals and their ‘semi-IL’ role. In the absence of official IL ‘actors’, teachers’ leadership has been expanding.     

蒙学教材范式的现代化——兼论传统蒙学的复兴何以不可能

蒙学教材范式的现代化是清末民初的教材编写实践对传统蒙学教材范式的突破。教材想象、本体观、价值取向、方法论是其现代化的维度;增、减、换是其现代化的方式。同时,这一现代化的过程也证明了传统蒙学复兴的不可能。     

Pedagogic identities for sale! Segregation and homogenization in Swedish upper secondary school

The aim of this article is to illustrate how Swedish schools construct different pedagogic identities in the way they marketize themselves. We examine through a Bernsteinian lens how upper secondary schools promote themselves; what identities are being called for by the schools and how these identities are expressed. Moreover, the article intends to study how these identities are reflected in studied school actors and how they can be understood in relation to the labour market. We have analysed texts from various kinds of marketing materials, including websites and prospectuses of the schools. The empirical data also include interviews with various school actors. In addition, we attended and recorded observations at open houses and school fairs. Our findings indicate a strong differentiated market-oriented education system, mediated not only through distinctions in courses and programmes, but also through schools creating highly specific niches and targeting specific students as valuable commodities.     

呼唤新体系:小学教育学教材的比较研究

小学教育学教材在小学师资培养和小学教师在职培训中扮演着重要的角色。就目前我国发行量颇大、影响深远的三本小学教育学的教材来看,在体系上存在结构大同小异、与普通教育学教材极其相似、没有从小学教育的实际出发、缺乏明确的价值取向等问题。在新课程改革的背景下,应该重构小学教育学教材的体系,适应小学教育正在发生的巨大变革。在重构中,应该坚持到小学去研究教育学、研究和解决实际问题的原则。     

Key topics for quantum mechanics at secondary schools: a Delphi study into expert opinions

This article describes a Delphi study aiming to investigate which quantum mechanics topics experts consider to be important to teach at the secondary level, and what arguments these experts give. A series of three questionnaires was administered to experts in the fields of quantum physics, mathematics, chemistry and biophysics (n?=?17, 12, 11 for the first, second, and third questionnaires, respectively; the number of participants changed due to attrition). Several experts from this group (n?=?9) were also interviewed. Results show that there is consensus on the topics considered to be important, i.e. duality, wave functions and atoms. Experts mainly based their topic ranking on relations between concepts, and on what quantum mechanics topics they consider to be fundamental. The topics that were considered less important were often described as too difficult or too complex.     

An education policy paradigm that fails upper secondary school pupils

In this article, we illustrate the creation of the education policy paradigm that constitutes the framework of vocational education and training (VET) programmes, and analyse local school representatives’ perception of VET in upper secondary schools in Sweden. The education policy paradigm, established through three periods of reform during the twentieth century, undervalues VET as being less worthy than general/academic education. This paradigm generates the rhetoric used by interviewed school representatives that encourages school pupils to choose the ‘right’ (academic) programmes in order to foster a specific citizenship competence, even if this competence is not fully compatible with labour market demands. Young people who cannot, or will not, attain the ‘right’ education, and thus the advocated citizenship competence, lose out in a school system where general/academic education and higher education preparatory programmes are consistently prioritised over VET. An educational system that advocates discrimination and suspicion of VET limits career options and restricts entry into the labour market, as well as risk stigmatising pupils undertaking VET; this paradigm is neither justified nor democratic.     

中学语文教材建设的思考与建议——从第六套全国通用中学语文教材(试用本)的编写谈起

文化大革命之后,人民教育出版社出版了全国通用的第六套中学语文教材(试用本)。由于受时代限制,该套教材存在一些偏差,其经验及教训为当下的语文教材建设提供了有益的启示:思想政治教育必须依托语文读写听说能力的培养;选文过于贴近形势,易造成教材的不稳定;体系的明确化是一套成熟语文教材的必要品格;文学教育是语文教学必不可少的内容。     

Special educational resources in the Swedish upper secondary schools: a total population survey

This paper analyses the special educational resources in the Swedish upper secondary schools using a total population survey that covers all upper secondary schools. Special educators and special teachers together constitute the special educational resources at each school. With two types of regression models (logistic and linear regression), the study investigates which variables at school level determine the presence and availability rate of special educational resources. The main findings are that there is a great difference between public and independent schools in the presence and accessibility of special educational resources, where many independent schools do not offer special educational support for their students. It also shows that what kind of provider (public or independent school) and the size of the school are especially important variables for predicting presence of special educational resources. When analysing the variance of availability rate of special educational resources, student variables (grades from compulsory school and parental educational level) on the school level, together with school size, are especially important.     

The international status of English for intercultural understanding in Taiwan's high school EFL textbooks

The purpose of this study is to evaluate linguistic and cultural issues around the status of English as a lingua franca and intercultural understanding as presented in one set of Taiwan's (English as a Foreign Language (EFL) high school textbooks. The methodology centres on the analysis of textbook content as categorized in three central themes: (1) the status of English language in international communicative settings; (2) intercultural/interpersonal understanding and diversity in English language texts; and (3) the linguistic and cultural effects of globalization on Taiwan and the world. Results found that the textbooks generally legitimate the hegemony of American English and British English as the only acceptable varieties or standard forms of the language. Furthermore, most of the texts are limited to specific aspects of societal issues and regions that represent influential cultures and their commercial commodities. The United States receives the most attention, followed by the United Kingdom and certain dominant Western European nations, where the image of ethnic and cultural homogeneity prevails in the texts. Most content focuses on reporting achievements, cultural practices, and perspectives of dominant groups in the United States, Great Britain, and Europe with little or no critical analysis of content.