Investing in the renewal of urban science teaching

This article provides a conceptual framework for understanding what is involved in improving urban science teaching and what might be implied by conducting research on its improvement. It is argued in this article that three sets of forces and conditions have a direct impact on urban science classrooms: first, the array of interdependent policies at school, district, and state levels about science teaching in particular and about education improvement more broadly construed; next, the investment and use of instructionally relevant resources at each of the three levels and their differing impacts on the renewal of urban science teaching; and finally, the broader context in which urban science teaching occurs mediating how these resources are—or can be—used. Mediating factors include the professional peer community, subject‐specific instructional leadership, the professional development infrastructure, the supply of available science teachers, and the broader community context. The article concludes with suggestions for how this framework informs directions for future research on the promise and limits of efforts to renew science teaching in urban settings. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 1089–1100, 2001     

Sustainable, large-scale education renewal

Much has been written about sustainable large-scale change but there are few examples of it. Over the last 4 years, the province of Ontario, Canada, has been engaged in just that work of moving from a system that was in constant conflict to one that generates both good results and positive energy. This paper describes the origin, main elements and results to date of the Ontario education strategy as an example of large-scale change in education that is respectful of educators, fair to students and communities, and based on the best available knowledge.

合肥与杭州城市更新的比较研究

城市更新是当今世界各国普遍面临的重大城市发展课题。本文主要总结杭州城市更新与保护过程中的发展阶段以及若干重要的创新点,对比合肥的旧城改造阶段和现象,旨在为合肥城市更新问题的深入研究和进一步实践提出新的思路。     

全球问题和德育内容的更新

全球问题是在 2 0世纪出现的 ,它包括自然环境问题、社会问题和人自身的问题等。全球问题的出现要求人们更新德育内容 ,进行环境道德教育、全球意识教育、爱国主义教育和生命关怀教育。     

An urban school renewal program: A case analysis

Conclusion One of the most gratifying returns was a chance comment offered by a teacher as we walked across the lawn toward a local fast food restaurant. We were chatting about what he had experienced during the preceding two years. You know, he said, when we began this, I didn't see many hopeful signs, but I think that most of us (teachers) feel now that we work in the best high school in the city. The source may have been biased, and rigorous controls were obviously lacking, but that is the way one teacher perceived the changes. Many gained planning, leadership, problem solving, and other important behavioral and coping skills that contributed in interactively subtle, but nevertheless real ways.Can good things be made to happen in urban schools? The quantified data are equivocal, but we believe that the associations among interventions and perceived changes support cautious optimism.     

中国城市历史街区保护与更新的问题及对策

当下中国城市历史街区的保护与更新还存在诸多弊端．本文从历史街区人文氛围的危机、保护与更新的力度和保护与更新的政策三个层面进行了探讨,提出了应对之策。     

Renovating educational identities: policy,space and urban renewal

Little attention has been paid to the relationship between policy and space in the sociology of education. This paper analyses the relationships between educational policy change, in the form of the Excellence in cities policy initiative, and urban change in inner London. I propose, and apply, a framework for a spatialised policy analysis explicitly linking space and policy. I suggest that the intersections of policy, schools, place and space provide new opportunities to explore the interconnection of educational policy change and urban change. I argue that relationships between physical locations and students are significant enabling and disabling factors in neo‐liberal educational policy‐making. These relationships form what I term the educational renovation of identity.     

现代教育技术的应用与大学教育观念的更新

教育是一种传播行为,教育传播手段的更新直接影响着教育方式的变革,现代信息技术以其先进快捷的传播手段实现了教育方式的革命性跃进,现代教育技术的应用已成为高等学校走向现代化的借与标志,与之相适应,大学教育观念也将得到全面的更新。     

Audio-visual education in urban school systems

Summary impressions In some ways, this report shows progress in audio-visual education. The work is being headed up by more widespread adoption of central coordination, more classroom teachers are prepared to use audio-visual materials in their classes, and there is more wide-spread use of the materials. On the other hand, there are some urgent needs that become so evident from these data. “More time” is the need, “more central coordination” is the need, “more adapted classrooms” is the need, and separately and behind all these is the need for “better support.” This article is a digest of a report given at the DAVI national convention in Los Angeles in April. The address was entitled “A First Look at Findings of the NEA Survey of the Status of Audio-Visual Education in City and County School Systems.” Victor Hornbostel is assistant director of the Research Division of the National Education Association and supervisor of the survey which is reported.     

University-based initial teacher education: Institutional re-positioning and professional renewal

The emphasis on 'partnership' in initial teacher education is a matter not just of organisational structure but of professional practices and purposes. If universities are to remain key players in initial teacher education, they must support the occupational group that represents the sector's interests and values: university-based initial teacher educators. Currently, however, this occupational group is awkwardly positioned between competing sets of accountability demands and institutional requirements. This article argues that only by encouraging and sustaining the professional renewal of university-based initial teacher educators will the university earn itself a continuing place in the evolving story of initial teacher education. That renewal is dependent, in other words, not only on the institutional re-positioning of the university but also on its re-commitment to initial teacher education as a core activity; a re-commitment which, it is argued, must recognise professional learning as a major 'field' of study across professional domains.     

Hanna Arendt: a political theorist on the theme of renewal in education

The article is about the writing of a political theorist, Hannah Arendt, on the subject of education. The two major themes of her work (the concept of public and private worlds and the idea of renewal) are described and related to educational questions. Two forces which help the educator to avoid conservatism or utopianism are the variety of mankind and the artist's and scientist's vision. The influence of these thoughts on the teacher's task is then studied with particular attention to Arendt's notion of responsibility. Other implications for educators are the understanding of the school as a social institution, implications for curriculum planning and the relationship between education and society. The essay ends by setting out Arendt's resolution of the paradox of preparing children with assurance for an unpredictable future.     

Truth and the renewal of knowledge: the case of mathematics education

Mathematics education research must enable adjustment to new conditions. Yet such research is often conducted within familiar conceptualisations of teaching, of learning and of mathematics. It may be necessary to express ourselves in new ways if we are to change our practices successfully, and potential changes can be understood in many alternative, sometimes conflicting, ways. The paper argues that our entrapment in specific pedagogic forms of mathematical knowledge and the styles of teaching that go with them can constrain students’ engagement with processes of cultural renewal and changes in the ways in which mathematics may be framed for new purposes, but there are some mathematical truths that survive the changing circumstances that require us to update our understandings of teaching and learning the subject. In meeting this challenge, Radford encountered a difficulty in framing notions of mathematical objectivity and truth commensurate with a cultural–historical perspective. Following Badiou, this paper distinguishes between objectivity, which is seen necessarily as a product of culturally generated knowledge, and truth, as glimpsed beyond the on-going attempt to fit a new language that never finally settles. Through this route, it is shown how Badiou’s differentiation of knowledge and truth enables us to conjure more futuristic conceptions of mathematics education.     

Educational renewal in an alternative teacher education program: Evolution of a school-university partnership

Can the discontinuities inherent in school university partnerships become generative sources of educational change? The purpose of this study was to analyze how participants viewed an evolving collaboration and the ways in which discontinuities between school and university agendas were negotiated. Findings over the 3-year period from interview, questionnaire, and journal data indicate patterns of changing roles and relationships between and among university faculty, cooperating teachers, and student interns. The findings indicate that as participants negotiated a common agenda for teaching and curricular improvement, a spiralling process of educational renewal in schools and university emerged.     

教育公平视角下的城乡义务教育均衡发展研究

教育公平是人类永恒不变的追求,教育均衡发展是实现教育公平的基本途径。目前,我国城乡义务教育的非均衡发展是阻碍义务教育均衡发展的主要方面,进而影响着教育公平的实现。虽然近些年我国在均衡城乡义务教育发展中作过很多积极的努力,但是在财力、物力、人力资源配置等方面仍存在非均衡的现象,针对这些问题,国家应采取更加积极的措施去实现城乡义务教育均衡发展,更大程度地维护教育公平。     

Exam-oriented education and implementation of education policy for migrant children in urban China

This paper investigates the implementation of education policy for migrant children in urban China. Historically, rural and urban residents in China were separated by the hukou system, and rural children were not allowed to attend urban schools. Since the relaxation of the hukou system in the early 1980s, large numbers of rural families migrated to cities. The right of migrant children to education in urban China was formally recognised by the government in a series of policies starting in 2001. The research reported, here, reveals that migrant children did not have equal access to urban schools nor did they enjoy an equally good education to that of urban children. Based on 53 in-depth interviews with school principals, teachers and pupils in two provincial capitals in China, this paper explores the main factors affecting the implementation of education policy for migrant children. The research demonstrates that policies relating to equal admissions criteria were not implemented as intended, with migrant children not having equal access to schools. However, policies relating to non-segregation and academic support were implemented as intended. It is argued that, at the school level, this is a result of the examination-oriented system, and schools’ responses to this.