Teaching children the geography of England and Wales: an analysis of selected Georgian and Victorian textbooks and educational pastimes

Children in Georgian and Victorian times were expected to be familiar with the geography of England and Wales. This study analyses some of the resources then available which taught children this information. John Aikin’s England Delineated is evaluated as a geographical text and then compared with less formal games and puzzles, then on the market, which were also designed to teach the geography of these countries. Three further textbooks, which adopted contrasting approaches to teaching children the geography of England and Wales, are then also analysed and compared with Aikin’s approach. The study found that different resources associated towns and cities with different features, some by their notable products, others by their historic buildings, or their connection to historic events. Where places were defined by product, however, there was a high degree of consistency between product and place across the resources. Some resources describe places objectively, others subjectively. Of the resources analysed, England Delineated was considered the most geographical in content and in approach to that content. Games and puzzles were found to be valuable in complementing the Aikin text. Suggestions for future research are made in the conclusions.     

The educational ideology of the computer

The author advances the theory that whatever educators may intend to do with the computer in the classroom, the computer projects an ideology which may conflict with their purposes. The elements of this ideology are explored in a discussion of three applications commonly found in schools: data-handling systems, simulations and word processors. From this exploration emerges a practical basis for the conscious choice of appropriate tools for particular purposes.     

Practices of grading: an ethnographic study of educational assessment

The school as an institution assumes that students' grades are constituted by their assessments. This paper examines the background of this presupposition and provides a micro-analytical perspective of the grading practice of teachers in German High Schools (Gymnasium). This paper conceptualises the theoretical framework of the research in educational measurement in discussion. It is shown that the measured assessment of students and the teacher's observations are linked. When grading, teachers construct their own assessments. This process is depicted in this paper by two forms of observations: self-observation within the context of written examinations and third-party observation within the context of final oral exams.     

邓小平教育思想的体系和特征

邓小平教育思想作为马克思主义教育学说在当代中国的杰出有,不仅内容十分丰富,而且自成体系。邓小平教育思想具有若干重要特征：战略性与全局性;继承性与系统性,时代性与独创性,方向性与管理性;服务性与求实性。     

大学教育思想研究:30年回顾与展望

由华中科技大学、湖南大学、南京航空航天大学合作举办的大学教育思想研讨会,从1986年开始至今,已经连续召开了12届会议。22年来,大学教育思想研讨会在改革开放和现代化建设背景下,紧密结合我国高等教育现实和世界高等教育发展趋势,通过自由的学术探讨和学术争鸣,在高等教育思想和理念层面取得了重要的理论成果,充分发挥了对我国高等教育改革与发展的理论指导作用,对我国高等教育学的学科建设和学科发展产生了重要影响。     

论高等教育办学理念的特殊性

当前,研究和强调高等教育办学理念的特殊性有着格外重要的现实意义。高等教育办学理念的特殊性主要表现在:张扬高等教育自身的超越性;强调高等教育对社会发展的引导作用;注重培养人的发展潜能;塑造大学生的理性精神和批判精神;以渐进方式实现高等教育的自我完善。     

Quality assurance,the educational standards debate,and the commodification of educational research

ABSTRACT

The idea of quality assurance dominates educational discourse at the present time. This is reflected in the emphasis placed on test and examination results, inspections and school performance indicators. It is argued in this article that this is not simply an attempt to legitimate traditional conceptions of knowledge. It is also an attempt to construct a new narrative of knowledge. School effectiveness research is an example of this as it applies a performativity criterion to educational research methodology. The article concludes by suggesting that action research may be subordinated to the logic of performativity, and as a result is less able to fulfil its proper purpose which is to create the conditions for innovative experiments in education.     

Can the English Baccalaureate act as an educational equaliser?

ABSTRACT

Ensuring equal access to a broad and balanced curriculum for all students is a key component of a socially just education system. Yet in England, the freedom that 16-year-old students have to choose the GCSE subjects they study has created divisions in the pathways taken by students from different backgrounds. In 2010, a new accountability measure, the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), was introduced to encourage more disadvantaged students to study the ‘core academic’ GCSE subjects. This paper investigates the success of this initiative by analysing the relationship between free school meal (FSM) eligibility, studying the EBacc subjects and GCSE attainment. The findings are used to illustrate the complexities of balancing equal access to academic subjects against fair access to future opportunities, which often depend on good grades, when trying to deliver social justice in an education system that has an entrenched attainment gap.     

Playing among the stars: Science in Sport,or the Pleasures of Astronomy (1804)

In 1804, John Wallis published a game that converted learning about astronomy into a race to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. This essay uses Science in Sport to explore the cultures of Georgian recreative science, analysing how the rules and conventions of playing a game affected the gaining of natural knowledge. New familial audiences and markets, a ‘public culture’ of science, and a vogue for rational amusement led to a boom in the publishing of instructive pastimes around 1800, of which Wallis’s firm was a leading innovator. Revised and approved by author and educator Margaret Bryan, Science in Sport sought to inculcate accurate ideas about the heavens in a domestic setting, and through the penalties and rewards of an entertainment. By investigating the story of The Pleasures of Astronomy the author demonstrates the ideas, actions, morals and experiences that were brought into play when astronomical education became a game.     

Referent-centred and problem-centred knowledge: Elements of an educational epistemology

Two distinguishable kinds of knowledge are (1) knowledge organized around referents and (2) knowledge organized around problems. This is a different distinction from that between declarative and procedural knowledge and, it is argued, a more important one for educational design. Schooling, whether traditional or progressivist, has tended to emphasize knowledge organized around referents. Problems of motivation, verbalism, and inertness are thus exacerbated. Active learning generates knowledge organized around problems. Problem-centred knowledge, it is argued, should be the principal objective of instruction.     

论中学地理科研的地位和作用

中学地理科研是增强教师实力的必由之路。本文着重从中学地理科研的地位和作用等方面阐述了加强中学地理科研的重要性。     

抗日战争时期毛泽东的教育思想

抗战期间,毛泽东同志在领导全党、全国人民开展军事斗争的同时,从教育目标、教育方向、教育内容等方面认真思考着教育事业的发展,形成了体系完备、内容丰富的教育思想,并成为毛泽东思想的重要组成部分,这一思想对指导今天的社会主义建设有着重要的指导意义。     

中央书院学制分析

1862年英国人在香港成立的中央书院(Central School),不但对香港教育发展有重大的影响,对中国的人才培养也起了相当大的作用。中央书院能够培养出这么多推动中国现代化的人才,与其独特的学制有很大的关系。论者多以为中央书院的学制是依据当时英国的文法学校(Grammar School)制定,这一论断并不成立。其实中央书院在中国和香港本地的特殊文化因素的影响下,自有一套独特的学制。     

Secondary school renewal: the effect of classroom learning culture on educational outcomes

The study was grounded on theoretical propositions and empirical research concerning school effectiveness, classroom effectiveness, school improvement and school renewal. In particular, improving student learning outcomes through improving and renewing schools is dependent on changing classroom cultures of learning and teaching. A model of classroom culture consisting of student educational values (dependent variable), formal learning outcomes (dependent variable), and the attitudes and behaviours of students, teachers and parents (independent variables) was proposed. Hypothesised relationships between the dependent and independent variables were tested by multiple regression analysis of data from 988 students obtained from administration of a Rasch-model instrument assessing classroom culture. The classroom learning attitudes and behaviours of students were found to relate directly to educational outcomes, as were teacher expectations and parent attitudes and behaviours. The attitudes and behaviours of students and teachers towards classroom collaboration and caring were not confirmed to relate directly to learning outcomes. The findings of the investigation are discussed in the light of the theoretical assumptions upon which the study was based, including identification of the implications of the empirical results for understanding and facilitating renewal of secondary schools with the intention of improving educational outcomes in classrooms.     

传统教育理念对学校体育改革的启示

20世纪末,在"健康第一"思想指导下,我国学校体育整体改革全面启动,剖析民族传统教育理念,反省我国学校体育与健康教育的传统文化底蕴,吸取精华,析出传统教育理念对学校体育改革的启示,使我国学校体育与健康教育中传统的继承和现代的发展有机的结合起来.     

"融于社会、服务社会"办学理念的形成与实践

石家庄职业技术学院以“融于社会、服务社会”的办学理念，向社会“借资”、“借场”、“借才”，形成了与区域经济紧密结合、互动互联的专业群和专业特色，并按社会需求，构建了由“宽”入口、“严”核心、“细”出口三个环节组成的满斗型培养体系，形成了自己鲜明的办学特色。     

Reconsidering school politics: educational controversies in Sweden

School politics in Sweden has recently moved in a conservative direction, emphasising the importance of conventional school subjects, stronger teacher authority and more discipline in the classroom. At the same time, consensus on the utility of such measures is lacking in the school debate. The conservative approach is often criticised as misleading and behind the times in relation to contemporary knowledge demands. This article examines and discusses the relevance of this critique. The main argument is that the conservative approach has a better matching with a previous phase in the history of Swedish school politics and that conventional schooling is difficult to combine with two of the major goals of schooling today – the diffusion of democracy and multipurpose skills. From this perspective, the political notion of schooling seems decoupled from the broader domain of public demands on education. To alleviate this problem school politics should draw less on the pedagogical ideas of essentialism and more on the historical legacy of progressivism in the Swedish education system.