The playful quality of the toddling "style"

In this paper the playful qualities of the social "style" of toddler body-subjects are traced in reviewing actual toddler peer studies in French, Italian, and Norwegian day care. Subsequent to a short presentation of the phenomenologically related concept of the toddling "style," the notion of playful quality is discussed and elaborated in relation to a mood for playing, the Here and There movement and the quality of recurrence. A playful "glee concert" performed by a group of seven toddlers in a Norwegian barnehage (day care), is interpreted as the children's making music together, with no adult "conductor" present. Furthermore, the phenomenon of proto tutoring in toddler peer play, and certain mediating elements of such play, are discussed. Finally, the existential value of the toddling Being of I, Thou and We in the everyday context of day care is considered.     

文化学习与幼儿教育

幼儿应该学什么?什么时候开始学?如何才能学得好?我怎样才能知道我已经回答了上述三个问题?第一个问题主要是关于课程的目标与目的,第二个问题是关于如何看待儿童长远发展问题,第三个问题是关于如何贯彻课程计划,第四个问题是关于评估。这四个问题是所有打算制定幼儿教育课程的人必须回答的。本文对这四个问题作了初步讨论。     

World culture in the capitalist world-system in transition

World culture theory (WCT) offers an explanatory framework for macro-level comparative analyses of systems of mass education, including their structures, accompanying policies and their curricular and pedagogical practices. WCT has contributed to broader efforts to overcome methodological nationalism in comparative research. In this paper, we acknowledge the contributions of world culture theory in these terms, but develop the case for an alternative explanatory framework – world-systems analysis (WSA) – rooted in the historical development and contemporary crises of the capitalist world-economy. This case is built on two major points of critique of world culture theory: first, that its consensus orientation is inadequate for a macro-level accounting of social reality; and second, that its analysis of the economic functions of mass education, in isolation from the capitalist world-economy, further weakens its explanatory power. Working from this critique, we elaborate the capacity of world-systems analysis to overcome these shortcomings by providing a more comprehensive, historical perspective. This alternative approach incorporates the identification and analysis of shared cultural understandings underpinning policy and institutional practice, linked to the development of the capitalist world-economy. We conclude this paper by affirming the value of WSA as an alternative approach for comparative research, and its potential contribution to the development of more enlightened educational policy and a more just and democratic world-system.     

Understanding playful pedagogies,play narratives and play spaces

This paper is a tentative attempt to unwrap and understand one aspect of playful practice and the influences which determine its existence in early years settings. ‘Storying’ events, those occasions when teachers and children together ‘make up’ stories or parts of stories, develop roles or co‐construct fantasies, occur moment by moment in some settings and with some teachers. Understanding the place of such playful pedagogies at a moment in history when both curriculum content and teaching methods are the focus of considerable political dominance is also important. This paper will consider both the nature of storying events and the nature of the practice in which storying is allowed to occur. Influences on teaching will be examined, including architecture and play spaces, politics and policy, as well as the idea that storying with children is possibly intuitive practice. The notion that teachers' own values and principles have a key role to play in making and shaping pedagogical choices will also be considered. The term ‘teacher’ has been used in an inclusive way to encompass all those adults working in educational settings with young children.     

学习型组织中创建安全文化

兴隆庄煤矿是山东省煤炭系统较早推行学习型组织的企业之一。创建学习型组织的六年来,在当今重视安全教育中,创建的实践告诉     

Creative and playful learning on technology-enriched playgrounds: an international investigation

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to determine the degree that creative and playful learning (CPL) in a technology-enriched playground influences academic achievement of students and what factors are responsible for successes. The participants were 276 students from 12 elementary classrooms in the Netherlands and Finland. The research used a pretest–posttest, without control design. The dependent variable was academic achievement on teacher-created tests; the independent variable was participation in the intervention; and the control variables were pretest scores, gender, academic subjects previously studied, age, satisfaction with schooling, country of the school, and classroom within the school. The results showed that there were significant gains in academic achievement and that the pretest was the only significant predictor of posttest achievement. Other variables, including gender, academic subjects studied, age, satisfaction with schooling, country of school, and classroom, were not statistically significant predictors of posttest scores. While students’ academic achievements are only one measure of progress in the current debate about learning in the education system, this article provides insight on education through analyses of the relationships among the integration of curriculum-based learning, CPL practices, and outdoor playgrounds.     

如何看待中国向现代化转型下的传统政治、文化

中国古代处于强大的封建统治之下,至今受封建文化影响颇深。中国是一个文化大国但却始终不是一个文化强国。传统文化中的滞后、封建思想严重阻碍了中国向现代化转型的发展道路。但是传统文化中积极、有利的因素至今还为我们沿用。要正确对待传统文化让其为中国的转型提供帮助。如何认识传统文化对今后改革、发展道路有着重要影响,尤其是政治文化。依靠先进的政治文化建设推动经济发展,坚持依法治国的基本方略,走中国特色的现代化道路。     

从"颜色"看中西方文化之差异

一种颜色在不同的民族语言中往往被赋予不同的文化内涵。通过比较白、红、绿、蓝、黄、黑、紫等色彩词在英汉语言中的意义差别，可了解中西方文化之差异。     

Expounding on physics: a phenomenographic study of physicists talking of their physics

Physicists and physics students have been studied with respect to the variation in the ways they expound on their topic of research and a physics problem, respectively. A phenomenographic approach has been employed; six fourth‐year physics students and 10 teacher‐researcher physicists at various stages of their careers have been interviewed. Four qualitatively distinct ways of expounding on physics have been identified, constituting an outcome space where there is a successive shift towards coherent structure and multiple referent domains. The interviewed person is characterized as expressing an ‘object of knowledge’, and the interviewer is characterized as a willing and active listener who is trying to make sense of it, constituting a ‘knowledge object’ out of the ideas expressed and personal experience. Pedagogical situations of analogous character to the interviewer–interviewee discussions are considered in the light of the analysis, focusing on the affordances for learning offered by the different forms of exposition.     

Gendered hegemony and its contradictions among Finnish university physicists

This article addresses the issue of gender imbalance in Finnish universities in the domain of physics as a historical and dialectical phenomenon. Drawing from the Gramscian notion of hegemony and the activity-theoretical notion of contradiction, this paper analyses gendered hegemonic and contradictory forces steering physicists’ careers. This article argues that hegemony is to be seen as a historical and dialectical process rather as a status quo; it introduces methodological tools for analysing the maturity of hegemonic struggles in empirical data and envisions future developments for more gender-balanced academic communities. The empirical analysis of this article is based on interview data with 36 Finnish university physicists. A discourse-analytical framework is utilised to disclose hegemonic and contradictory forces as manifested in the data. This study shows that instances of resistance are present in the activities of the interviewed physicists even though consent to the prevailing hegemonies still persists.     

Preschool teachers' and students' attitudes towards playful preschool activities: a cross-cultural comparison between Germany and the Netherlands

This study compares the attitudes of preschool teachers and students between the Netherlands and Germany towards typical play activities in preschool. The data were responses to short video clips of preschool children's play and elicited the respondents’ attitudes through questionnaires. The data were analysed by classifying the written responses into four categories. The frequencies of the categories were tested with MANOVA with regard to expert–novice position and country. Differences between professionals and novices were found, and for professionals only, the four categories were interrelated, showing a stronger holistic view of early childhood activities. Differences were also found between the countries, and two of the categories seemed especially sensitive to cultural differences. We discuss how reflection on activities can add to a higher degree of professionalism, as well as a more profound understanding of ways to improve preschool teacher training.     

The culture of power and science education: Learning from Miguel

In this paper we begin a discussion around the need for science educators to understand the relationship between cultural and socioeconomic issues and the science education of inner‐city students. We refer to the works of critical scholars in science, education, and sociology in order to help us deconstruct the relationship between sociopolitical agendas and the lack of opportunity in science education for students from lower socioeconomic inner‐city enclaves. Through our ethnographic case study of a homeless family in a major metropolitan area in the Northeast, we frame our analysis through the pedagogical questions of representation of science through culture, socioeconomic status, and “culture capital.” We use this analysis to raise questions for further research on the significance of understanding, accessing, and critiquing the “culture of power” in science education. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 871–889, 2000     

Learning probability in the Kingdom of Tonga: the influence of language and culture

Educational Studies in Mathematics - Problems teaching probability in Tonga (in the South Pacific) led to the question on how language and culture affect the understanding of probability and...     

Crossing borders: Learning and teaching primary science in the pre-service to in-service transition

This paper reports on a 4-year longitudinal case study of two Australian primary science teachers during their transition from pre-service to in-service teaching. An analytic framework suggested by Aikenhead (1996) was used to interpret teachers' change and professional growth as instances of sub-cultural border crossing. The same framework provides an opportunity for reflexivity on the part of the researchers in coming to understand their own role in the construction of the borders crossed by beginning teachers. The study examines the hazards encountered by teachers as they cross borders and proposes ways of assisting teachers to manage border crossing into the sub-culture of science teaching.     

Effects of Collaborative and Individual Learning in a Blended Learning Environment

In courses using a virtual learning environment (VLE), some students like to work together, and some do not. If we give students the opportunity to choose either teamwork or individual study, how does this affect their marks and their appraisal and assessment of the course? This question has been investigated in the context of an English Literature course at the University of Utrecht. In this course, students work intensively with a VLE, and attend lectures: a blended learning environment. Previous research has shown that the pedagogical design used provides a powerful learning environment. This time, students had the choice of working on the course assignments in small teams (2–4 students), or individually. Both groups were compared based on their study results, and the answers to a questionnaire. Students valued the choice. Mainly those students with high marks for a previous course, which had a similar pedagogical design, preferred collaboration. Statistical analysis showed that collaboration resulted in significantly better marks.