Widening participation in nursing through progression agreements between a university and two further education colleges: a case study

The School of Nursing, part of the Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences within Kingston University/St George's, University of London, has undertaken a number of initiatives to address the widening participation agenda. The student life‐cycle underpins the framework for the university's widening participation strategy and activities. This article provides a case study of the development and implementation of one such initiative, a Progression Agreement project between the School of Nursing and two colleges of further education (FE). The FE colleges provide Access to Nursing/Access to Health and Social Care Professions courses and the university, in partnership with these colleges, has drawn up Progression Agreements to enable successful completers of these access courses to be admitted onto nursing programmes at the university. The article explores the policy issues and literature related to widening participation, how these influenced the development of Progression Agreements, the evaluation of these initiatives and how Progression Agreements have contributed to changes in admission processes for nursing programmes in the university.     

Conditions for linking school mathematics and moral education: A case study

In recent years the mathematics education research community has undergone a social turn towards a greater interest in the values and broader educational purposes of mathematics education, including issues of social justice and citizenship education. Building on these developing interests, this paper presents a conceptual framework that links the teaching of school mathematics with moral education. Then, in a case study involving two countries, England and Canada, this framework is used to explore the affordances and constraints faced by mathematics teachers in those countries if they want to intentionally practice moral education in the classroom.     

Integrating ICT in the classroom: a case study of two contrasting lessons

A detailed analysis of two contrasting primary school lessons, where ICT plays a dominant role, reveals how it is the teacher's implicit understanding of the principles of teaching and learning for understanding which determines whether the pedagogical potential of the technology is fully realised and the desired lesson outcomes achieved.     

高职院校高等数学教学改革之我见

本文章结合高职院校学生的特点和多年从事高等数学的教学经验,针对高职学生素质、教与学的突出矛盾等现状,进行了较为全面、深入的分析。并在此基础上,引发教学改革的思考,探讨如何有效提高高等数学教学质量和转变高等数学课教师的思想观念,将培养学生的创新精神和能力放在高等数学教学的首位。     

澳大利亚中小学公民教育评价概述

澳大利亚自21世纪之初开始重视中小学公民教育评价的问题,积极制定评价标准,实施全国性的评价,它的中小学公民教育的评价体系更是具有自己的特色。深入研究澳大利亚中小学公民教育评价的内容、结果,对我国中小学公民教育评价的发展起到抛砖引玉的作用。     

The problem of secondary education completion: The case study of Cape Verde,a small island developing state

Like many small island developing states, Cape Verde faces a challenge with secondary school completion. The lack of global development goals for secondary education results in the lack of government policies to promote secondary education, which may in effect be partially responsible for the drop in primary school completion The purpose of this paper is to identify the student populations who leave secondary school prior to completion based on Cape Verde’s Ministry of Education data, which is disaggregated by municipality and school. In addition we link these student populations to socioeconomic factors in order to examine possible causes for their abandonment of schooling. This paper intends to draw attention to the issues facing secondary education in a small, developing island nation and highlight policies that have proven effective in similar contexts. The case study of Cabo Verde can be used to generate secondary education policy discussions in other small island developing states (SIDS), as well as other sub-Saharan African nations.     

Inclusive arts education in two Scandinavian primary schools: a phenomenological case study

Previous studies indicate that ideas related to special education could influence the way arts education is performed and motivated in schools. Further investigation is therefore required in order to raise awareness of how perspectives on inclusion can serve as a starting point for arts education, and vice versa. This article takes it starting point in an ethnographic double case study of arts education practices. Data were collected during the school year 2013/2014 in two Scandinavian schools (for pupils aged 6–13) with an articulated commitment to the arts. The methods used for data collection were observation and interviews. The material was analysed from a phenomenological point of view, and the analysis showed a predominantly holistic view of inclusion in the two schools. Five dimensions of inclusion were identified through the analysis: providing arts education for all, being connected to something larger, allowing access to different forms of expression and communication, establishing preconditions for holistic inclusion, and developing special arts education. The results indicate that these schools have made considerable progress in developing an inclusive arts learning environment. Results also suggest that a holistic inclusive view of education encourages a functional and vivid arts education for ‘all’, both inside and outside the classroom.     

Class and pedagogy: a case study of two Chicago preschools

Using a Bernsteinian theoretical framework, this study compares two American early childhood centres, one with a primarily progressive pedagogy (Frank Lloyd Wright Family Centre) and one with a primarily traditional pedagogy (Casimir Pulaski Centre), in high-poverty Chicago neighbourhoods to examine the effects of different pedagogic practices on the development of academic and non-academic skills in young children as measured by pre- and post-testing and observations over five months. The collected data demonstrate that students at Wright experienced greater levels of academic development than students at Pulaski. Children at both sites showed development in literacy and social/emotional skills, but the children at Wright also show development in problem-solving and imagination – skills that aid in abstract thought. While further study is needed on a broader scale, results from this study suggest that early childhood programmes with more progressive elements have the potential to better prepare children for elementary school than programmes with more traditional elements.     

School leadership and professional learning community: case study of two senior high schools in Northeast China

Abstract

This article presents findings of a qualitative study on school leadership and professional learning community in two high achieving senior high schools in Northeast China. The findings show that teachers participated in school-based communities of professional learning, such as Teaching and Research Groups, Lesson Preparation Groups, and Grade Groups. While the term professional learning community (PLC) was not commonplace, the actual practices of PLC characterized by collective enquiry and collaborative learning became the norm in the two schools. School leaders demonstrated strong instructional leadership and visionary stewardship for school continuous improvement. They played a critical role in developing and communicating a shared vision, shaping a culture of trust, supporting and monitoring collegial learning. Teacher leadership was evident in collaborative teams and expertise leadership was acknowledged. Emotional bonds and shared responsibility in these teams strengthened professionalism. Concerted efforts were made to create aligned structures and processes that support collective enquiry, and to develop a culture of collaborative learning that builds collective capacities. Developing and sustaining the embedded PLC process within a school seems to provide a promising infrastructure for supporting school improvement in the Chinese school context.     

社会工作:中职学校思想道德教育的新探索

当前我国的中职学校德育教育中,存在着教学方式单一、教学内容脱离实际、教育方法封闭、教育内容不够全面、教育评价机制偏向就业等问题。社会工作与中职学校德育工作在价值理念上具有一致性、在内容方法上具有可借鉴性、在实施效果上具有互补性,这为社会工作在学校德育工作的开展提供了有力支持。社会工作可以根据学生面对的不同问题及需求选择个案、小组、社区三种社会工作方法介入学校的德育工作。     

Understandings of current environmental issues: Turkish case study in six teacher education colleges

The purpose of this study is to profile future science teachers’ understandings of current environmental issues in the context of an education reform in Turkey. Knowledge base and understandings of elementary and secondary prospective science teachers about biodiversity, carbon cycle, global warming and ozone layer depletion were targeted in the study. Questionnaire surveys developed for this purpose were adapted and used in this investigation. The questionnaires were administered to 360 participants in six universities. Analysis involved frequencies, percentages and comparing means for students majoring in elementary and secondary science teaching. Analysis of variance for differences among majors and responses to different issues are also included. Findings are compared and contrasted with the previous research in other countries. The study has implications for the prospective preparation of teachers and the future of environmental literacy movement in Turkey.     

我国农村中小学撤点并校的政策变迁及其出路探寻简

2001年,国务院发布《关于基础教育改革与发展的决定》,对农村义务教育学校进行了布局调整,被称为“撤点并校”。这一政策在当时的条件下,较好地整合了教育资源,提高了办学资金的利用率,一定程度上满足了农民子女在“有学上”之后“上好学”的愿望。但是一些地方的过度集中办学也带来一定的负面影响。此政策在实施十年之后,被国务院紧急叫停,2012年11月,教育部要求各地暂停撤点并校。文章对撤点并校政策十年的变迁进行整理了分析,找到政策变迁背后的原因,为完善撤点并校政策提供合理的建议。     

The status and context of change in mathematics education in Malawi

This article analyses the context and status of mathematics education reform in Malawi. It describes four interrelated developments in the reform of secondary education in general, and mathematics education in particular, in Malawi. These developments are concerned with attempts to increase access to secondary education for a majority of Malawians and to provide a mathematical education that is relevant to the needs of the current society. Although these are promising developments in line with the political context of Malawi, and although they aim at developing a more suitable curriculum for Malawi, I suggest that they are limited in two ways. First, participation in these reform processes has involved only a few individuals and neglected teachers and students from distance education centres who comprise the majority of participants in secondary education in Malawi. Secondly, the reform processes have proceeded with little empirical justification and qualitative understanding of the realities of schooling in general, and mathematics education in particular, in Malawi. The analysis in this article suggests that these limitations in the reform process are a function of an inadequate understanding of the social-contextual aspects of mathematics learning and what it means to provide an education that more broadly recognizes its democratic nature.This revised version was published online in September 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Audrey's acquisition of fractions: A case study into the learning of formal mathematics

National standards for teaching mathematics in primary schools in the Netherlands leave little room for formal fractions. However,a newly developed programme in fractions aims at learning formal fractions. The starting point in the development of this curriculum is the students’ acquisition of `numeracy infractions’. In this case study we describe the growth in reasoning ability with fractions of one student in this newly developed programme of 30 lessons during one whole school year. In the study we found indications that the programme and its teaching stimulated the progress of an average performer in mathematics. Moreover we found arguments as to what extent formal operations with fractions suits as an educational goal. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The reconceptualisation of learner-centred approaches: a Namibian case study

The case study, which explored the implementation of learner-centred approaches, emerged from an action research study of a three-year INSET (In-service Education and Training) programme for 145 unqualified primary teachers in Namibia. A learner-centred curriculum was introduced in Namibia soon after her Independence from South Africa in 1990. It was considered an effective antidote to the stifling teacher-centred practices used within the previous apartheid system. The case study raises questions about the implementation of learner-centred approaches. Data emerged which indicated their non-implementation, and reasons are presented to explain this: teacher professional capacity at the time of the study, limited resources, cultural factors and learner background. Efforts within the INSET programme to support teachers’ implementation of learner-centred approaches led to their reconceptualisation. The study indicated the effectiveness of developing teachers’ skills in the use of whichever approaches, methods and skills best bring about learning. The study highlights the usefulness of an adaptive approach—examining the realities within which teachers work and experimenting with strategies that seek to achieve student learning within the limitations of these realities. The focus is on learning-centred rather than learner-centred approaches.     

社会工作：中职学校思想道德教育的新探索

当前我国的中职学校德育教育中,存在着教学方式单一、教学内容脱离实际、教育方法封闭、教育内容不够全面、教育评价机制偏向就业等问题。社会工作与中职学校德育工作在价值理念上具有一致性、在内容方法上具有可借鉴性、在实施效果上具有互补性,这为社会工作在学校德育工作的开展提供了有力支持。社会工作可以根据学生面对的不同问题及需求选择个案、小组、社区三种社会工作方法介入学校的德育工作。     

Characterising lesson planning: a case study with mathematics teachers

ABSTRACT

The quality of students’ learning experience depends on the learning activities that their teachers plan prior to classroom delivery. This article characterises the lesson planning practices of a group of 27 mathematics teachers. The questionnaire and the associated information coding and analysis procedures designed for that purpose may be applicable to lesson planning characterisation involving larger groups of teachers and of other disciplines. Some of the study group’s needs and difficulties are established. One of the observations discussed is that planning procedures and criteria tend to be generic rather than specific to the lesson at issue. Another is that these teachers’ vision of planning does not necessarily ensure a coordinated approach to all curricular dimensions.     

初中历史教育与人文精神塑造

新一轮课程改革的一个突出特征就是加强人文教育,培养学生的人文精神。中学历史教育不仅要以培育人文精神为目的,而且它本身也体现出高度的人文精神。中学历史教育必须走出“学科教学”的误区,恢复历史教育“人文素质养成”的学科性质。