Towards community oriented curriculum in Finnish literacy education

Finland’s successful PISA literacy results reflect the foundation of the Finnish education system, which could be characterised by the words equality, equity and individual support. However, international interest in this PISA success has not focused on curricular aspects, and yet the core curriculum specifies teaching and learning practices in Finland. This article presents a study on the development of the Finnish National Core Curricula for Basic Education (NCC), published in 1985, 1994 and 2004. Based on inductive document analysis, the article discusses the changing conceptualisations of the curriculum designers and contributes to an understanding of the roles that the literacy core curriculum has in defining the purposes of literacy education, as well as the cross-curricular intentions of literacy education from the 1980s to the present day.     

Anatomy of curriculum: Digging to the core

This viewpoint commentary, written from the perspective of a teacher who has helped to educate students in a wide variety of educational environments, is a reaction to the article published in Anatomical Sciences Education on developing of core syllabuses for the anatomical sciences. After reflecting on the definitions of both curriculum and syllabus and their importance as roadmaps for effective instruction, the value of core knowledge and core syllabuses in anatomical sciences was explored. Encouragement for the pursuit of the project proposed in the original article was provided; however, the reminder to not allow any curriculum or syllabus to prevent instructional flexibility was emphasized. Several constructive questions (regarding democracy in curriculum development, the proposed rating scale, and the desirability of reaching local or national consensus before seeking global agreement) were advanced for consideration. Anat Sci Educ 7 326–328. © 2014 American Association of Anatomists.     

Kindergarten teachers' literacy beliefs and self-reported practices: On the heels of a new national literacy curriculum

This study took place six years after the introduction of a national early literacy curriculum in Israel. We compared the beliefs of kindergarten teachers on the importance of literacy goals with their perception of parents' and the educational system's beliefs. We examined teachers' self-reported practices and how these practices changed with the curriculum adoption. Teachers (N = 120) responded to a closed questionnaire, and 12 of them were interviewed. Incongruence emerged between teachers' own beliefs and the beliefs they attributed to others. This incongruence facilitates understanding of the rationales for their practices and their relationships with parents and professional partners.     

Impact of discipline-specific professional development: implementation of core instructional practices

A study of a discipline-specific teacher development project designed to prepare teachers to implement a series of core instructional practices for pre-collegiate history teaching is described as a model that can be applied to any content discipline. Teachers were surveyed concerning the success of the project in achieving the goals it set, implementation of and feelings about the new strategies learned for ‘doing history’ and the impact of the PD activities provided. A variation on the Concerns-Based Adoption Model was used to measure the levels of use and stages of concern of the teachers with regard to the strategies. Teachers reported a high level of adoption of and comfort with the strategies. Implications for structuring successful PD activities that are discipline-specific, collaborative, use active learning, have a coherent vision and sufficient duration are presented.     

Multimodal literacy learning opportunities within a grade six classroom literacy curriculum: constraints and enablers

This case study of a grade six classroom literacy curriculum in Ontario, Canada was designed to produce new knowledge of how curricula can promote multimodal literacy learning opportunities for students. With a focus on constraints and enablers, the study found few opportunities for multimodal literacy learning due to standardised assessments, an outcomes-based programmatic curriculum with related standardised report card, and assessment-focused professional learning opportunities. Despite the print-centric nature of the curriculum, however, the study found that students did initiate their own multimodal opportunities. The study has implications for educators across the globe who are interested in expanding students’ literacies.     

英国中学的主课和教材的多元化

从英国中学的许多世纪以来的自由设课到今日的十大法定主课的确立,是一个意义深远的重大变革.这一变革还在继续而已不可逆转.英国中学教材多元化的传统不仅至今未变,且还在发展.它既有其优越的一面,也在实践中存在着一些问题.     

教育国际化视野下高校创新人才核心素养及其培育的思考

面对21世纪高等教育国际化的大趋势,高校作为创新型人才培养的重地,应适应国际化趋势,高度重视学生核心素养的养成,以此提高人才培养质量。核心素养兼具知识、技能、态度三个维度,高校要遵循创新人才培养规律,准确把握新时代的要求和特征,协同政府、社会、个人,以国际化创新人才培养为追求目标,探究人、环境、内容、方式等要素及其关系,通过不同角色、要素作用的发挥,加快我国高等教育的国际化进程。     

哈佛大学核心课程设计研究

哈佛大学核心课程是哈佛本科课程的组成部分之一,是一种通识教育课程,体现着哈佛大学一贯的教育宗旨和理想,在美国也极具典型意义。通过分析哈佛大学核心课程设计在课程目标、课程内容的选择和组织、课程实施和课程评价四方面的特征,总结其成功经验,以期为我国大学通识课程设计提供参考。     

Potential for play in a primary literacy curriculum

Abstract

The benefits of play in the learning and development of young children has long been recognized by researchers and early childhood educators. As new teachers face the challenges of increasingly diverse classrooms, in an increasingly demanding political climate, the potential of play has implications for teacher educators who prepare those new teachers. This study investigated literacy use during play in the researcher's culturally diverse first grade classroom, finding that children applied various functions of print, practiced skills, and explored concepts that had been introduced in the formal curriculum. These observations reinforce the notion that play encompasses many of the conditions necessary for literacy development and is a useful means of extending and supporting the formal literacy curriculum. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.     

Making the hidden curriculum visible: sustainability literacy in higher education

Despite strong political support for the development of sustainability literacy amongst the UK graduates, embedding sustainability in the higher education curriculum has met with widespread indifference, and in some cases, active resistance. However, opportunities exist beyond the formal curriculum for engaging students in learning about sustainability. Previous research has highlighted the potential of the university campus for experiential, place-based learning about and for sustainability. This has been conceptualised as the ‘informal’ curriculum, consisting of extra-curricular activities and student projects linking estates and operations to formal study. However, the impact of the so-called ‘hidden curriculum’ (the implicit messages a university sends about sustainability through the institutional environment and values) has been overlooked as a potential influence on student learning and behaviour. This article reports on a small-scale research project which utilised a phenomenographic approach to explore students’ perceptions of the ‘hidden sustainability curriculum’ at a leading sustainability university. The findings suggest that helping students deconstruct the hidden campus curriculum may enhance aspects of sustainability literacy; developing students’ understanding about sustainability and creating solutions to sustainability issues, enabling evaluative dialogue around campus sustainability and also self-reflection, which could be transformative and translate into pro-environmental behaviour change. This research is transferable to other contexts.     

Race and class silences in teacher education: resisting strategy-based approaches to literacy methods instruction

This article draws on qualitative and practitioner research methodologies to unpack one critical incident from an undergraduate literacy methods course in which possessing complex understandings of endemic poverty proved central to assessing student achievement. In particular, we use an example of a comprehension lesson based on the children’s book Leah’s Pony as a key example through which to consider the dangers inherent in teaching pre-service teachers to adopt strategies that seem universal and innocuous, like answering comprehension questions or filling in worksheets, outside of broader critiques of social class, racism, poverty and student positioning in schools.     

The enactment of literacy curriculum policy by early childhood teachers in two Australian schools

Since the early 2000s, literacy education has become an area of intense focus in Australian education policy, positioned to have a role in Australia's pursuit of enhanced international competitiveness in the “global knowledge economy”. Policy called for improvements in literacy outcomes, monitored by mandated annual assessments, and policy statements recognised the need to establish solid literacy foundations in early childhood to facilitate learning, and desired improvements, in later years. This article is derived from a larger study that investigated the production and enactment of literacy curriculum policy by early childhood teachers in Australian schools. It focuses on the school level within the State of Western Australia, presenting findings derived from thematic and critical discourse analysis of participant interview and documentary data collected in two case‐study schools. Comparative analysis revealed that literacy curriculum policy processes in both case‐study schools were focused on achieving improved test results in mandated testing regimes. This was impacting upon literacy curriculum in the early childhood years of schooling, in Australia deemed to involve children up to 8 years of age, in many, possibly adverse, ways. These findings may offer insights in other contexts about literacy curriculum policy processes that are focused on enhancing competitive positioning.     

Field-based teacher education in literacy: preparing teachers in real classroom contexts

For the past two decades, scholars have advocated for reforms in teacher education that emphasize relevant connections between theory and practice in university coursework and focus on clinical experiences. This paper is based on our experiences in designing and implementing an integrated literacy methods course in a field-based teacher education program. We describe issues involved in helping preservice teachers learn to differentiate literacy instruction for diverse learners in urban schools and describe how we use Grossman’s framework of representation, decomposition, and approximation of practice to connect theory and practice. We offer insights about the importance of using recursive cycles of practice and carefully scaffolded learning through attention to different aspects of practice. Initial successes and challenges in implementing field-based literacy education are discussed.     

Learning to teach literacy through collaborative discussions of student work

Despite the high numbers of students with disabilities struggling with literacy, few teachers report feeling well prepared to address it. Most students with disabilities encounter challenges in reading and professional development can help teachers learn a range of ways to address those. In this article, we discuss a professional development project in which prospective teachers work collaboratively with practicing teachers throughout their university preparation. The professional development provided builds on the idea of ‘literacy artifacts’, which are samples of students’ and teachers’ work. Using guided discussions, teachers across the career continuum construct understandings and practices in which they learn how to infuse literacy instruction into all teaching and learning. By conjoining the literacy artifact with instructional resources teachers use, participants make visible the complexity of literacy instruction and how literacy could be embedded in teaching content for students with disabilities especially in general education classrooms.     

浅谈网络课程的设计与开发

网络课程是利用计算机及其网络技术强大的多媒体功能和交互功能而创造出来的新生事物。该文通过对开发"小学语文教育"网络课程的描述,对网络课程的特点、指导思想、系统设计作了一些简单的探讨,管见所及,仅供商榷。     

Grouping for inequity

The inequity of streaming as a method of organising classes was established by research conducted in the 1960s and 1970s. While the practice produces small advantages for limited groups of students, it hinders the academic and social advancement of the majority. Although streaming has declined, new forms of achievement grouping have emerged, with the intention of being more equitable. Recent research in the UK suggests, however, that these grouping methods have similar equity issues to streaming. Drawing on research in Australian primary schools, this article examines the practice of regrouping primary students in some schools into separate classes according to achievement levels for literacy and mathematics lessons. Results from a mixed method study collated through interviews with principals and teachers, student surveys, state-wide academic test results and classroom observations are examined in relation to equity. The findings suggest that the regrouping practice is no more equitable than streaming, albeit more politically palatable.     

Using PIAAC data to learn more about the literacy practices of adults

ABSTRACT

The present article connects a secondary analysis of quantitative data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) with the theoretical approach of ‘literacy practices’ and related research results from the so-called New Literacy Studies (NLS) tradition, which follows a cultural practices paradigm.

According to the literacy as social practice approach, the analysis of adults’ literacy and numeracy practices could provide relevant policy information about how to address target groups in adult literacy and basic education. Thus, a Latent Class Analysis was carried out with the German PIAAC dataset in order to differentiate the adult population by their uses of literacy, numeracy and ICT.

As a result of this procedure, three subgroups of adults can be distinguished by the frequency in which they use selected skill-related activities. Surprisingly, an adult’s individual literacy level does not clearly predict group membership. A further interesting result is that participants in one of the groups seem to compensate for the few chances they have to use their skills at work by using them more often in their everyday life. Both results contribute to the need to draw a more differentiated picture of adults with lower literacy skills.     

芬兰学前教育师资培养模式探析及其启示

芬兰作为世界上学前教育的强国,其学前教育师资的培训模式值得我们学习借鉴。本研究在概述芬兰学前教育培养模式现状的基础上,提出五个值得我们学习的方面:学前教育大学申请入学门槛有待提高,大学应拥有自主选拔权利;课程内容应综合化,涵盖大量教育相关学科;课程组织以研究为基础,所有课程都融入研究学习;实习基地与高校结盟,在实践中培养反思能力;建立多层评价系统,全面保障培养质量。只有这样,才能提高学前教育师资培养质量。     

Understanding visual and intertextual approaches in pedagogical and curriculum research: a pretext

In our globalised and hypertexual world, representations of curriculum reform are highly visual. The material world of these practices can be analysed through visual research methods. This paper is a pretext developed to explain the elements of the visual and intertextual approaches that can be applied in researching inclusive education through a curriculum focus. The pretext selectively situates recent developments in educational research that use visual methods as a part of the overall quest for ongoing conceptual and professional improvement of understanding a curriculum for all through practitioner and small‐scale research.     

Towards a framework for financial literacy in the context of democracy

This paper contrasts the prevailing individualistic approach of financial literacy measurement and financial education with an educational framework that seeks to equip young people to play an active democratic role and to develop a broader understanding of the financial world. In particular, the framework suggests how important dimensions of financial literacy may be addressed in terms of the individual, the financial industry and government.