新型城镇化进程中乡村中小学生学习现状调查研究——以C省为例

通过对C省10所乡村学校中小学生学习现状调查研究发现,乡村地区中小学生学习现状总体处于中等水平,其中:学习观和学习态度较好,学习方法有待提升,学习管理需要加强。同时,由于受性别、年级、父母关注情况等因素的影响,学生学习情况表现出不同的差异和特点。因此,需要重新认识乡村教育的价值,重塑积极的学习观;加强学生学习的科学性,优化学习方法;建立学生的自我学习管理机制,提高学习管理水平;强化留守儿童教育,改善留守儿童学习现状。     

How an orientation to learning influences the expansive–restrictive nature of teacher learning and change

This study examined teachers’ learning situated in a school to reveal factors that support and hinder learning in the workplace. The investigation analyzed teachers’ orientation to learning, examining beliefs, practices, and experiences about teachers’ learning in relation to change in the workplace. A hypothesis is that teacher learning and change is complex and unable to be fully understood outside of practice. Evidence is provided on the factors and forms of learning activities that appear to strengthen an expansive learning environment and those which contribute to a more restrictive learning environment. A distinctive finding was that teachers’ orientation to learning is related to self-reported change. Another promising finding with the potential of better understanding the interrelated combination of how teachers’ beliefs, practices, and workplace factors influence change was related to dissonance for learning. The implications for practice involved determining how to continue to support and strengthen an expansive workplace learning environment.     

The teacher as a ‘colony’: a case study of agentive responses to ‘colonising’ education policy in Vietnam

Neo-liberal educational policies that are being implemented globally work to foster competition among schools and teachers, as well as among children. In this situation, teachers must often come to accept the dominant representations of curricular policy developed by higher authorities. In this study, a case study design is used to describe how one school in Vietnam shifted away from this state of ‘colonisation’ by reforming the school under the framework of lesson study for learning community (LSLC). This paper subsequently argues that there is a need for school-level policies that democratise school culture and practices, resisting the negative impacts of colonising policies.     

Exploring the work and learning stories of para‐teachers in a college for further education in England

This paper reports findings from a research project which developed and introduced the Enhanced Learning Support Assistant Programme (ELSAP). This was a source of professional development for learning support assistants who were supporting students with additional learning needs in a college for further education in England. The purpose of this paper is to share findings from the project and to report on how learning support assistants experienced their work in inclusive college classrooms. The research project was a mixed methods study with participants drawn from learning support assistants within one college for further education in England. Data was collected throughout the 14‐week intervention. Findings indicate that issues exist around the uniqueness of the vocational curriculum and the implications this has for classroom support. It also shows how conflicting classroom procedures can generate feelings of confusion and how learning support workers often feel lonely in their role with no natural opportunity to mix with others. Furthermore, it indicates how a general lack of knowledge about teaching and learning contribute to them experiencing difficulty when performing their role which feed their views that a college for further education can be a complex and hostile environment to work in.     

A mobile informal learning solution for workplace learners

This paper reports on the development of the “MobLearn@Work” App, which emerged from a study of informal learning among five employees at different companies in China. The purpose of the study was to develop a strategy for the design of mobile learning support tools that would enhance informal learning in the workplace. The App was developed by creating a platform to support informal learning through the integration of two sets of issues that emerged in the study: (a) affordances of contemporary Web 2.0 tools identified from the literature and by exploration of the participants’ mobile technology uses, and (b) informal learning activities of the participants that emerged in the context of their work. Consideration of these issues led to the conclusion that an effective App for informal learning should include functionalities such as really simple syndication, podcasting, Web-searching and microblogging, all of which were integrated into the “MobLearn@Work” App. The implementation of the App in these five cases over a six-month period yielded a further set of design recommendations, which are discussed in the paper.     

Enlightening communities and parents for improving student learning: Evidence from Niger

Providing local communities with the authority to manage school grants is a popular education policy in the developing world. However, recent studies suggest that this type of intervention has limited impact on student learning outcomes as such communities do not have adequate capacity to utilize resources. To investigate how communities can effectively utilize school resources, we conducted a randomized experiment in Niger. Communities and parents were provided with information about student learning together with school grants. They also participated in discussions about how communities and schools can work together utilizing the grants and communities’ own resources. After the intervention, the communities increased activities that enhanced student effort, and parents increased their contribution to school activities and engagement in children's learning at home. As a result, student test scores improved by 0.43 standard deviations in math and 0.20 standard deviations in French. The impact was largest for the lowest-performing children.     

The school theatre as a place of cultural learning: the case of Soviet Latvia (1960s–1980s)

Abstract

The goal of this article is to reveal how through school theatre activities under authoritarian rule, changes took place in pupil knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviour regarding culture, namely, how the process of cultural learning occurs. I use a historical case study, specifically the case of the Valmiera School Theatre, which was the leading theatre group, not only in Soviet Latvia, but also in the entire Soviet Union. My primary sources are eight unstructured interviews, 20 published memoirs, articles in the press, theatre programmes, and photographs. One part of Soviet pedagogy was aesthetic upbringing, which was implemented through state-funded collectives, including school theatre groups. By participating in theatre activities, students gained knowledge of cultural heritage (literature, theatre, art, etc.), the ability to perform and acquire skills in other practical fields, and developed an appreciation of culture as a value. I argue that cultural learning through theatre was demonstrated by the fact that the students transferred their knowledge, skills, and attitudes to a new context, namely, their places of work and public cultural activities (e.g. amateur theatres). This case study also reveals the specific role of school theatre in the process of cultural learning, as well as some sensitive issues in the relationship between knowledge-orientated or formal educational environments, and the informal creativity of school theatre.     

Inquiring into children’s experiences of teacher feedback: reconceptualising Assessment for Learning

Few previous studies have explored in detail how children respond affectively and cognitively to feedback in the normal interactions of the primary school classroom and how they relate feedback to their sense of autonomy. This paper reports on a longitudinal study of nine ‘profile’ children aged 9 to 10 years in a UK school. They were observed and video-filmed in threes, twos or individually during literacy and numeracy lessons across two terms from January to July 2010. The video-recordings were shown later the same day to the children who had been filmed, being stopped at frequent intervals to allow the participants to comment on specific feedback incidents. The children claimed that learning was frustrated by overly directive feedback and that their learning benefited when the teacher’s feedback included substantial but not burdensome detail. The children felt their learning was supported by feedback reminder cues and they noticed that negative and positive feedback provoked emotions which could interfere with or support learning. The article concludes by suggesting that Assessment for Learning might be conceptualised as a classroom conversation in which children as well as teachers assess how teacher feedback relates to children’s learning, which would itself constitute a major contribution to their autonomous learning.     

Placement schools as professional learning communities in teacher education

This article investigates how schoolteachers’, school leaders’ and college teachers’ involvement affects placement schools as professional learning communities. Norwegian teacher education is used as a case. The first part builds on a survey among schoolteachers and mentors at 111 placement schools in Norway. It documents great variety in the level of engagement. Interviews with mentors, school leaders and college teachers reveal how cooperation between colleges and placement schools, as well as the school leaders’ commitment, influences the quality of placement. The school leaders’ role proves to be important in developing the schools as professional learning communities, and they seem to have a significant impact on the work of the mentors. The data also show that there is a need for a more substantial cooperation between college teachers and mentors about the student teachers’ professional development as well as a need for a more systematic integration of learning in the two learning contexts.     

The pedagogical agent enhances mathematics learning in ADHD students

Gaining the attention is the first key step to enhance learning. In Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) as the most prevalent deficit in school age, the learners face some impairment in attention that requires appropriate intervention. An environment that embedded Pedagogical Agent in computer-assisted instruction (CAI) has been designed to support learning through gaining and guiding attention to relevant information for these students. This study investigated how much the presence of pedagogical agent can improve learning in ADHD students. The learning environment was integrated with a pedagogical agent, named Koosha, as a tutor and motivator. This study employed a pretest and posttest experimental design with a control group. The statistical population was 30 boy students with ADHD in primary school from the North of Iran. The participants were randomly assigned to work with either an agent presenting a multimedia program or without an agent in mathematics. The results (Analysis of covariance -ANCOVA) suggested that experimental and control groups show a significant difference in mathematics achievement. According to this research, using the pedagogical agent can enhance the learning of ADHD students; so it can be considered as a valid school-base intervention for these students.     

高校网络教育学习支持服务的现状调查

现代远程教育试点工作开展7年来,呈现出强劲的发展势头。为了了解高校网络教育学院校外学习中心学习支持服务的现状,本文采用问卷调查法对学习支持服务系统的管理支持、学术支持、情感支持以及学习者对学习支持服务的总体看法进行了调查。调查数据显示,学习者对学习支持服务的总体评价较高,但对辅导教师和所提供的学习资源、为学习者提供个别化的指导和帮助,以及情感支持方面还存在不少问题。针对这些问题,作者提出了改进现行的学习支持服务体系的建议。     

An exploration of social regulation of learning during scientific argumentation discourse

Argumentation and scientific discourse are essential aspects of science education and inquiry in the 21st century. Student groups often struggle to enact these critical science skills, particularly with challenging content or tasks. Social regulation of learning research addresses the ways groups attempt to navigate such struggles by collectively planning, monitoring, controlling, and reflecting upon their learning in collaborative settings. Such regulation and argumentation can also elicit socioemotional responses and interactions. However, little is known regarding how regulation processes and socioemotional interactions manifest among students involved in small-group discourse about scientific phenomena. As such, in this qualitative study, we explored social regulation of learning, scientific argumentation discourse, and socioemotional interactions in the discussions of two groups of high school physics students (n = 7, n = 6). We found key qualitative distinctions between the two groups, including how they enacted planning activities, their emphasis on challenging other’s ideas versus building shared understanding, and how socioemotional interactions drove discourse. Commonalities across groups included how regulation initiation related to discourse, as well as how the difficulty of the content hindered, and teacher support augmented, the enactment of social regulation. Finally, we found overlapping regulation and discourse codes that provide a foundation for future work.     

Exploring the effects of a 14 week person-centred counselling intervention with learning disabled children

Abstract

This study evaluates the effects of a person-centred counselling intervention on the learning disabled child's self-concept. The participants are children who attend a London borough school for moderate learning difficulties. The study is qualitative and incorporates two parts: (1) practitioner research via a 14 week person-centred counselling intervention; (2) exploration of teachers’ views of the child's self-concept via a pre- and post-intervention questionnaire. The study used person-centred art therapy as an adjunct to counselling. A projective technique was used to measure the child's self-concept.Three out of four child participants indicated an improved self-concept. However, only one out of four teachers’ questionnaires indicated a positive movement within the child. This article explores the difficulties encountered as well as highlighting positive paths, and supposes that the results support carrying out this research project over an extended period and with a larger research group.     

How Day School Teachers Perceive Their Working Conditions: A National Study

Induction and mentoring are widely considered in the United States and in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries as a basic universal and critical intervention for a successful launch of new teachers. Based on an expanded set of survey data, this article focuses on how Jewish day schools offer professional support and learning opportunities from the head of school, the administration, colleagues, parents, and the school community and how useful teachers perceive these resources to be. This study reveals that less than half of all teachers in the schools surveyed report participating in formal induction programs and believe their schools take the learning needs of new teachers seriously. Schools would do well to attend to this aspect of teacher support and consider the systems and structures that do (or do not) exist to help orient, support, and develop new teachers.     

Dare to Dream: New Venture Incubator for Older Adults

The purpose of this article is to describe a project that aims to foster active aging through entrepreneurial activities among older adults. The project establishes the feasibility of implementing an intervention program that assimilates the concept and capabilities of entrepreneurship among older adults and supports them while launching new ventures. A 12-meeting training program was provided to the selected participants followed by continuing support through a tailor-made incubator. The pilot experiment selected a group of retirees who sought work and had no previous entrepreneurial experience. Of the 22 participants in the intervention program, 15 (70%) actually started a microenterprise based on their previously formulated ideas and past work experience and encouraged by participation in the program. Fostering older adults’ entrepreneurial activities has value much further than fulfilling individual needs because it provides benefits to the welfare of the community as well as to the economy. The pilot experiment suggests that this type of intervention program is feasible and warrants further studies.     

Peer-Facilitated Learning: Students’ Experiences

This article explores first-year students’ motivation for attending peer-facilitated learning (PFL) sessions at a University of Technology, and how they benefit from it. Studies have shown better academic performance for students attending PFL sessions; however, little attention has been dedicated to questioning what else outside of subject knowledge is being disseminated during these sessions; what motivates students to attend these sessions; and what students benefit from attending these sessions. Research has revealed that the majority of first-year students experience challenges with the transition between high school and university. Consequently, first-year experience has become the focus of higher education institutions worldwide. This situation calls for an effective intervention programme such as PFL to assist first-year students with the challenges of transition. The findings of this study contrary to popular literature that highlights academic success as the focus of PFL, revealed that students demonstrate a strong inclination to soft skills and social interactions as the main motivation for attending PFL sessions. This calls for a re-evaluation on how PFL support should be organised especially for first-year students.     

Visualizing knowledge in new educational environments: a course on learning objects

This article describes the learning objectives, the course activities, experiences and outcomes of a graduate level course on learning object design. The course was developed and taught at The Ohio State University by the author during the Spring Quarter of 2003. Students from the visual design and education disciplines partnered to work on a client‐initiated, authentic, grant‐funded project. The students, working in teams and serving as expert consultants to each other, were tasked with designing prototypes for learning objects to be used by freshman high school students, particularly those with disabilities. The course provided an opportunity to observe how developers actually built learning objects and to apply that knowledge to better understanding the issues facing faculty when challenged with the same tasks.     

Building a Common Platform on Students’ Participation

This article sets out to examine how school science activities can encourage students’ participation while supporting a specific science content. One ordinary class with 12-year-old students was chosen and their regular classroom work was studied without intervention and with a minimum of interference. Lessons were video filmed, transcribed and analyzed focussing on the participants’ speech acts. It was found that students’ initiatives and experiences were important parts of their participation. The results show how students’ participation was orchestrated with a science content by means of four different kinds of activities. The activities are called ‘individual inventory of experiences’, ‘building a common platform of experiences’, ‘sharing new experiences’ and ‘concluding a common platform’. The activities form a foundation for participation in human biology topics. For example, to ‘build a common platform of experiences’ seems to level out students’ different prerequisites for participating in subsequent tasks. Furthermore, to ‘conclude a common platform’ implied a checkpoint of the shared new experiences. The activities support students’ tentative use of scientific words as well as their learning of what counts as knowledge in the school science setting. However, it can be questioned if the time spent on each separate activity is necessary or if similar achievements could be made even if some activities were integrated. The question is open for further research.

How do teachers learn together? A study of school-based teacher learning in China from the perspective of organisational learning

Studies of professional development have examined the influence of school-based approaches on in-service teacher learning and change but have seldom investigated teachers’ job-embedded learning processes. This paper explores the dynamic processes of teacher learning in school-based settings. A qualitative comparative case study based on the framework of organisational learning was conducted to analyse the ways that 17 teachers from two school-based communities in a secondary school in Shanghai, China, experienced learning through various learning activities. The findings showed that the two group teachers had actively developed implementation-oriented and experimentation-oriented processes of learning. The former process is referred to as exploitation learning. Exploitation learning helps teachers by creating a stable environment to learn the existing knowledge and norms of practice of a school organisation. The latter process is referred to as exploration learning. Exploration or exploratory learning provides a platform for new knowledge construction aimed at improving existing practices in a more radical way. Teachers’ perceptions of and participation in school-based learning activities shape their learning experiences in different ways. Specifically, the support of school leaders is necessary to promote teachers’ exploratory learning in school-based settings. However, the leadership strategies that best support teachers’ learning require further investigation.     

Development to learning: semantic shifts in professional autonomy and school leadership

In the digital age, technology is playing an important role in changing the nature of professionalism. Newer forms of professional learning stand in contrast to more traditional forms of professional development. The shifting paradigm has implications for school leaders in all contexts. This study sought to qualitatively examine how a sample of eight school leaders worked to support professional learning in their school communities and leverage tools in areas such as content aggregation, media creation, blogging and social media. In one-on-one and focus group interviews, participants discussed how technology is changing professional learning in their context and reflected on how their leadership has evolved in response to perceived challenges. Findings suggest that school leaders are aware of the importance of supporting professional learning through multiple device platforms, online networks and opportunities to play, and experiment with technology. Current issues identified include the need to shift from “buyer” to “driver” mindsets and to respond to the increasing role of popular thinkers whose ideas are amplified through online channels, such as social media.