Learner Outcomes in Science in South Africa: Role of the Nature of Learner Difficulties with the Language for Learning and Teaching Science

Paul Leslie Gardner pioneered the study of student difficulties with everyday words presented in the science context (Gardner 1971); several similarly designed studies (e.g. Cassels and Johnstone 1985; Tao in Research in Science Education, 24, 322–330, 1994; Farell and Ventura in Language and Education, 12(4), 243–254, 1998; Childs and O’Farell in Chemistry Education: Research and Practice, 4(3), 233–247, 2003) have since been reported in literature. This article draws from an exploratory study of the difficulties South African High School physical science learners encounter with everyday English words when presented in the science context. The participants (1107 learners and 35 respective physical science teachers) were drawn from 35 public secondary schools in Johannesburg area of South Africa. Data were obtained through a word test to participant learners followed by group interviews but face-to-face interviews with each physical science teacher. This study has revealed that in similar ways as have been reported in each of the studies so far, South African learners also face difficulties with meanings of everyday words presented in a science context. The main source of difficulties encountered was learner inability to distinguish between the meanings of familiar everyday words as used in everyday parlance from the ‘new’ meanings of the same everyday words when used in the science context. Interpretations of learner interview responses revealed that fewer difficulties would have been experienced by learners if science teachers generally explained the context meanings of the words as used during science teaching. The findings suggest that focusing on contextual proficiency more than on general proficiency in the language of learning and teaching (LOLT) during teaching perhaps holds more promise for enhanced learning and achievement in science. Steps necessary to raise teacher awareness of the potential impact of context on meanings of everyday words of the LOLT are discussed. This article stands as an evidence-led discussion of the issues around the language-related difficulties that learners in South Africa may encounter as they learn school science.     

Framing,Adapting, and Applying: Learning to Contextualize Science Activity in Multilingual Science Classrooms

Research in Science Education - In this article, we turn our attention to context-based approaches to science instruction. We studied the effects of changes to a set of secondary science teacher...     

为地方经济发展服务 促进高校科技成果转化

为地方经济发展服务是高等学校的职责,也是高校自身发展的需要。文章提出了促进高校科技成果转化、为地方经济发展服务的有效途径和方法。     

Sustainability,Higher Education and the Learning Society

The Dearing Report emphasised the idea of a 'learning society' as the new context of UK higher education, but conceived this on a model of adaptivity to economically- and technologically-driven change. While there are real shifts in their social relations here with which universities have to reckon, they can also be understood on a much richer model of exploratory social intelligence. The growing concern for environmental sustainability is both a recognition of the need for this alternative model, and a major ground of its importance.     

深度学习:学习科学视阈下的最优整合

为超越认知心理学的局限,深度学习研究从狭义走向广义成为必然.复杂科学为广义深度学习研究提供了全新视角,学习科学为学习系统简化提供了合理依据,以此可重新审视深度学习的缘起、内涵、机制及过程.研究结合人工智能历史演变,指出深度学习缘起于认知心理学的重塑、课程与教学论的变革以及教育技术学的突破;基于对既有内涵的梳理,认为深度学习是学习科学视阈下对信息深度加工过程、教师深度引导过程、技术深度支持过程三者的最优整合;依托影响因素分析,点明深度学习的发生机制以知识内容为客观载体、以真实情境为客观条件、以心理机能为主观意识;从纵向优化和横向整合两个方面建立了深度学习的一般过程模型,其间三个深度过程和三维机制不断趋于最优整合,共同促进学习者深度学习.     

深度学习:学习科学视阈下的最优整合

为超越认知心理学的局限,深度学习研究从狭义走向广义成为必然.复杂科学为广义深度学习研究提供了全新视角,学习科学为学习系统简化提供了合理依据,以此可重新审视深度学习的缘起、内涵、机制及过程.研究结合人工智能历史演变,指出深度学习缘起于认知心理学的重塑、课程与教学论的变革以及教育技术学的突破;基于对既有内涵的梳理,认为深度学习是学习科学视阈下对信息深度加工过程、教师深度引导过程、技术深度支持过程三者的最优整合;依托影响因素分析,点明深度学习的发生机制以知识内容为客观载体、以真实情境为客观条件、以心理机能为主观意识;从纵向优化和横向整合两个方面建立了深度学习的一般过程模型,其间三个"深度过程"和"三维机制"不断趋于最优整合,共同促进学习者深度学习.     

Resources for Science Learning: Tools,Tasks, and Environment

This article addresses the question of how science learning can be improved. It recognizes that, while learners themselves are responsible for their own learning, the quality of this learning is greatly influenced when appropriate resources are available to learners. These resources are provided through a partnership between teachers and learners. Three different types of resource are discussed. Tools, in the form of computer tools and conceptual tools, make tasks easier and allow learners to undertake tasks they would not otherwise be able to do. Tasks can facilitate effective learning by creating effective spaces for learners to work in, embodying key aspects of the disciplines of science, providing effective and authentic opportunities for learners to learn, and facilitating a dialogue between learners ideas and their experiences of the natural world. Environment – the ecology in which learning happens – provides three sources of information through the human, social, and conceptual worlds. When key aspects of these worlds are manifested in the environment, they scaffold the learning of science content, the nature of science, and the learning process itself, all of which are required for the deep understanding of science that constitutes improved science learning.     

Beyond Commercialization: Science, Higher Education and the Culture of Neoliberalism

Since the 1980s, scholars and others have been engaged in a lively debate about the virtues and dangers of mingling commerce with university science. In this paper, we contend that the commercialization of academic science, and higher education more broadly, are best understood as pieces of a larger story. We use two cases of institutional change at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to shed light on the implications of neoliberalism for public research universities in the United States. We conclude that instead of neoliberalization being a timely strategy for the specific fiscal and other problems facing public universities today, it has become an omnibus solution available to be employed when any opportunity arises and, in fact, helps to define the “problems” of the university in the first place.     

新形势下民办高校提升科技档案管理水平的思考

随着科技成果转化成生产力的速度加快,科技成果的价值越显重要,提升科技档案管理水平的要求也更加迫切。本文从国家教育十二五规划对高校科研工作的总体要求入手,通过分析当前民办高校档案管理的主要特色：高度集约性、档案意识欠缺、档案管理水平不高,与科技档案自身特点：专业性、多元性、成套性及价值的时效性,剖析了民办高校科技档案工作的难点与提升管理水平的创新思路。     

论高校科技创新型教师的培育

目前高校科技创新型教师在质量和数量上的不足，直接制约着大学培养和造就高素质的创造性人才。高校科技创新型教师的培养，一方面要以环境创新、制度创新为突破，实现培养科技创新型教师外部要素的最大优化，另一方面要加大对教师思想素质的培育，使教师对自身成长提出迫切要求。     

学习科学视角下高职院校慕课教学模式的构建

以理查德·梅耶的生成学习SOI模型及建构主义学习理论的意义建构观为基础,构建"资源学习+问题讨论+对话与协作+测试考试"四位一体的慕课教学模式.在此基础上设计慕课学习环境,并以"Web开发技术"课程为例进行实践设计,以期为高职院校慕课建设提供参考.     

Learning Robotics in a Science Museum Theatre Play: Investigation of Learning Outcomes,Contexts and Experiences

Theatre is often introduced into science museums to enhance visitor experience. While learning in museums exhibitions received considerable research attention, learning from museum theatre has not. The goal of this exploratory study was to investigate the potential educational role of a science museum theatre play. The study aimed to investigate (1) cognitive learning outcomes of the play, (2) how these outcomes interact with different viewing contexts and (3) experiential learning outcomes through the theatrical experience. The play ‘Robot and I’, addressing principles in robotics, was commissioned by a science museum. Data consisted of 391 questionnaires and interviews with 47 children and 20 parents. Findings indicate that explicit but not implicit learning goals were decoded successfully. There was little synergy between learning outcomes of the play and an exhibition on robotics, demonstrating the effect of two different physical contexts. Interview data revealed that prior knowledge, experience and interest played a major role in children’s understanding of the play. Analysis of the theatrical experience showed that despite strong identification with the child protagonist, children often doubted the protagonist’s knowledge jeopardizing integration of scientific content. The study extends the empirical knowledge and theoretical thinking on museum theatre to better support claims of its virtues and respond to their criticism.     

TD learning,PER和Epsilon:深度学习对高等教育教学的启示

本文从研究深度学习出发,提出深度学习在增强学习领域能被高等教育借鉴的三种重要算法:时间差分学习、优先经验回放、创新指数,通过对这些算法的具体分析,总结这些算法如何优势互补,综合运用到高等教育教学实践上,提高高等教育教学效果。     

学习科学:研究的重要问题及其方法论

自20世纪后半叶以来,不同学科背景的研究者将基础研究与教育实践相结合,直面人类的学习问题,探究人类思维和学习的过程,设计新的学习情境,提出新的理论和方法论,催生了学习的新科学。学习科学是指面向复杂的真实世界需要的整合科学,涉及认知科学、神经科学、教育心理学、计算机科学、人类学、社会学等多元领域,它不仅发展了学习理论,而且对教授科学也做出了贡献。通过围绕知识的本质、学习的实质、学习的方式与形式、以学习为中心设计、学习环境及其支持、学习效果的评价等方面,来探讨学习科学研究的重要问题及学科方法论,进而对其未来研究的发展趋势做出预测。     

Higher education research in South Africa: Achievements, conditions and new challenges

This paper provides a historical overview of the development of higher education research in South Africa by focusing on past achievements and conditions, and present and future challenges. An attempt is made to point out the changes in both the context and paradigm of higher education research. The authors illustrate how research foci and methods were shaped by the political agenda of the old South Africa, and highlight the issues which higher education currently and in the future will have to address as part of the transformation process of not only higher education, but of South African society as a whole.