The Literacy Component of Mathematical and Scientific Literacy

This opening article of the Special Issue makes an argument for parallel definitions of scientific literacy and mathematical literacy that have shared features: importance of general cognitive and metacognitive abilities and reasoning/thinking and discipline-specific language, habits-of-mind/emotional dispositions, and information communication technology strategies to prepare people for adult life and democratic citizenship. These frameworks provide potential insights into research and pedagogy. Furthermore, they provide guidelines for second-generation standards, curriculum development and assessment so as not to overlook or underemphasize the fundamental literacy component of mathematical and scientific literacy for all students, which can result in fuller participation in the public debate about science, mathematics, technology, society, and environment issues.     

The Implications of the 'New Literacy Studies' for Literacy Education

This paper deals with the following questions:

• 1 The ‘problem’: what is the ‘Literacy Debate’ and why do such apparently arcane accounts of language and literacy have such a high profile in popular media?
• 2 What are the New Literacy Studies (NLS) and what are the new understandings of language and of literacy on which NLS are based?
• 3 . What are the implications for literacy education?

     

Critical Literacy,Disciplinary Literacy: Reading the Engineering-Designed World

Globally, many people spend most of their time interacting with the products of engineering design as they wear clothes, drink clean water, use transportation systems, and more. Given the omnipresence of engineering design, whose material results are felt daily in people’s lives, it seems especially important that students learn to recognize and question how certain designs promote the welfare and interests of some while remaining inaccessible to others. In this article, we outline a vision for critical literacy instruction in engineering that simultaneously incorporates and challenges professional standards. We—an associate professor of literacy, an engineer, and a teacher at an engineering-focused high school—illustrate how critical literacy instruction might be enacted in the context of engineering design instruction in high schools. We describe how critical literacy can complement disciplinary literacy instruction in engineering as students use critically-focused, disciplinary lenses to move toward social justice.     

The Web and Early Literacy

Abstract

The Web as an appropriate vehicle for educating young children in formal and informal school settings is the subject of widespread, international debate (Anderson, 2000; Attewell, Suazo-Gar-cia, & Battle, 2003; Davis & Shade, 1994; Dolowy, 2000; Filipenko & Rolfsen, 1999; Pendleton, 2001; Vail, 2001; Wardle, 1999). Regardless of these debates, however, the Web's use in early education continues to grow. This article describes current Web usage in early education, particularly literacy education, and suggests possibilities for the future.     

Raising Literacy Standards: The True Story

As the Literacy Hour becomes compulsory in primary schools across Britain it is important to consider its impact on the primary teaching profession and the factual basis on which its aims and structures are based. This article claims that the National Literacy Strategy is a deskilling initiative which itself is based on unsubstantiated claims that its proposals are more effective than previous methods. It enshrines a mythology that teachers do not teach literacy effectively and need to be retrained to do so. The article examines the evidence for this myth and finds there are no research findings of any validity whatsoever to support it. The article goes on to point to the real and inescapable correlation between literacy attainment and social and economic status, a finding which shows up in several different pieces of valid research. Working on the supposition that the Labour Government does genuinely care about the long tail of failure provided by the 20 per cent or so of children who come from the poorest socio-economic groups, the article goes on to discuss a reconceptualisation of this problem. Building on the work of social anthropologists, particularly that of Brian Street, it suggests the direction in which valid research-based policy and pedagogy should take to address it.     

Building a Literacy Community: The Role of Literacy and Social Practice in Early Childhood Programs

This article reports findings from two qualitatively based studies, one conducted at an urban preschool in Northern California and the other at a rural Head Start Center in the Midwest. By presenting detailed data from the two preschool sites, the article describes several ways to strengthen existing literacy practices for children, families, and teachers in both urban and rural early childhood settings. The studies focus on such critical aspects of child and family literacy development as ownership and inclusion, raising important issues for practice and policy in early childhood literacy and language education.     

The Origins of the Present-Day Chasm Between Adult Literacy Needs and School Literacy Instruction

Through processes that originated in the eighteenth century-but were greatly accelerated by Brahmin academics at the end of the nineteenth-a separation has developed between literacy instruction in the schools and the literacy needs of the competent citizen. Formal reading instruction today is primarily oriented toward understanding and appreciation of fine literature. Non-fiction materials are treated as unpleasant and boorish intruders into the otherwise serene, romantic kingdom of plot, character, and author's viewpoint. A single impotent strategem centering on rapid skimming with rereading is usually suggested for all non-fiction, be it math story problem, cooking recipe, or biological exposition. The result of this disparity, as revealed by the more valid components of various national literacy surveys, is the ever apparent chasm between competency needs and literacy instruction, a chasm that can be crossed only through a reorientation of literacy training toward the true needs of society.     

Statistical Tools and Statistical Literacy: The Case of The Average

This article is intended to serve as a starting point for a dialogue regarding the goals of teaching students about averages and how to assess their emerging knowledge.     

“两个必须”与“三个面向”

章对以“两个必须”为标志的教育方针的形成过程及其缺失作了较为系统的回溯和评析，进而论述了通过合法程序和形式明令废止现行教育方针而将“三个面向”厘定为我国新世纪教育方针的历史必然性。     

The Vocational Turn in Adult Literacy Education and the Impact of the International Adult Literacy Survey

The authors critically examine some of the underlying epistemological and theoretical assumptions of the IALS. In doing so, they distinguish among two basic orientations towards literacy. First, the standard approach (of which IALS is an example) subscribes to the possibility of measuring literacy as abstract, cognitive skills, and endorses the claim that there is an important relationship between literacy skills and economic success in the so-called 'knowledge society.' The second, called a socio-cultural approach, insists on the contextual and power-related character of people's literacy practices. The authors further illustrate that the assumptions of the IALS are rooted in a neo-liberal ideology that forces all members of society to adjust to the exigencies of the globalised economy. In the current, contingent conditions of the risk society, however, it does not seem very wise to limit the learning of adults to enhancing labour-market competencies. Adult education should relate to the concrete literacy practices people already have in their lives. It should make its learners co-responsible actors of their own learning process and participants in a democratic debate on defining the kind of society people want to build.     

The Stanley Segal Award Achieving the best: gender and the Literacy Hour

Helen Fisher won this year's Stanley Segal Award with this fascinating investigation. Taking her cue from the current debate about the differing achievements of boys and girls, she explores pupils' views about the Literacy Hour and reports some interesting findings in relation to reading and gender.     

The Discourse of the Literacy Hour

The introduction of a national 'literacy hour' as part of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) has been seen as a major reform to improve standards of literacy in primary schools in England. A major thrust of the reform has been the concept of 'interactive whole class teaching' which has come from the school improvement literature. However, critics argue that the concept of interactive whole class teaching is not well defined and that it mainly results in traditional whole class teaching. As a consequence of policy initiatives like the NLS, teachers are pressurised into using more directive forms of teaching with less emphasis on active learning. In order to investigate these arguments, the discourse styles of 10 teachers were intensively studied as they taught the literacy hour. The findings suggest that the endorsement of interactive whole class teaching appears to have had little effect in providing opportunities for pupils to question or explore ideas to help them regulate their own thinking. The implications of the findings for externally generated curriculum reforms like the NLS are considered together with the in-service needs of teachers who are charged with implementing such policy-led initiatives.     

大学生公民素养的自媒体培育途径

自媒体作为一种新兴媒体,已经成为当今社会的主流信息模式,深刻影响和改变着大学生的生活和行为方式。自媒体的特性决定了其与公民素养的密切相关性,因此,使自媒体与公民素养互益循环,可以帮助大学生成为现代民主法治社会的积极公民:一是通过搭建微信公众平台、微博账号等,对大学生引导并培训大学生的公民与能力;二是发挥自媒体舆论导向作用,形成顺畅的公民意识传播渠道;三是建立不良信息舆情监测机制,加强自媒体负面信息监管,引导大学生树立规则意识和法治观念。     

牢记“两个务必“树立正确的权力观

怎样行使手中的权力,直接关系到党的执政地位和社会主义政权的巩固,关系到人民群众对我党的认同和支持.在全面建设小康社会的历史进程中,作为领导干部,必须始终牢记"两个务必",牢固树立正确的权力观.要认清形势,充分认识树立正确权力观的重要性,真正做到权为民所用,情为民所系,利为民所谋.     

弘扬"两个务必"精神的理性思考

"两个务必"精神在中国革命的各个历史阶段发挥了重要作用,是成功实现新的历史转折的强大思想武器,是进行现代化建设和改革开放的精神柱石,是中国共产党经受执政和改革开放考验的理性长城,是走向新世纪的党魂、民魂.弘扬"两个务必"精神具有极强的现实针对性.在新的历史时期,党员、干部必须牢记党的使命,树立长期艰苦奋斗的思想;党员、干部必须牢记党的宗旨,保持执政党与人民群众的血肉联系,惟有让"两个务必"的优良传统代代相传,始终保持共产党员先进性,才能努力实现全面建设小康社会的宏伟目标.