A critical perspective on large class teaching: the political economy of massification and the sociology of knowledge

Large classes have increasingly become a feature in many countries around the world. This paper present a two-pronged analysis of this phenomenon, drawing on the political economy of higher education as well as the sociology of knowledge to contribute to a principled discussion about why we have large classes, and when a large class is too large. I argue that much of the justification for expansion in higher education is not borne by an analysis of the political economy of higher education. I then explain why the expansion of higher education through increasing class sizes is self-defeating: because contact between lecturers and students is necessary for the acquisition of disciplinary knowledge, and it is difficult to achieve such contact in large classes. I conclude that the current discourse on large class teaching, which suggests that lecturers must accept ever increasing class sizes in the name of access and development, is unrealistic, both in terms of the political and economic imperatives, and also in terms of the nature of education, and the conditions for the development and acquisition of knowledge.     

Satisfied Fools: Using J. S. Mill's Notion of Utility to Analyse the Impact of Vocationalism in Education within a Democratic Society

This paper proposes a new interpretation of John Stuart Mill's notion of utility, which is used to provide a utilitarian justification for an eclectic, rather than a vocational, education. Vocational education is strongly promoted in recent policy documents, which makes it important to raise the question of justification. Many existing interpretations of Mill's utilitarianism argue for a hierarchy of pleasures. Although this enables one to justify an eclectic education, it is an interpretation that could be dismissed as ‘un‐utilitarian’. This paper proposes an alternative interpretation of Mill's notion of utility as a hierarchy of preferences. Our interpretation not only provides grounds for justifying an eclectic or critical education, it is also consistent with utilitarianism as an ethical theory. The paper also shows how the resultant curricula will better support democracy and participation in civil society.     

R.S. PETERS AND JÜRGEN HABERMAS: PRESUPPOSITIONS OF PRACTICAL REASON AND EDUCATIONAL JUSTICE

A bstract .  The contribution of philosophical ethics to the development of a just conception of education becomes increasingly complex under modern conditions of democratic pluralism. This is because the justification of moral policies for education faces the skeptical challenge of showing how the substantive moral principles upon which a policy rests do not arbitrarily privilege one culturally situated conception of justice over others. In this essay, Christopher Martin argues that this challenge highlights how any legitimate moral point of view on education requires public justification, where a valid moral policy must be demonstrated to be worthy of recognition in a public setting and justified through the reciprocal exchange of reasons. He develops the scope and nature of public justification through an analysis of R.S. Peters's Ethics and Education and the work of Jürgen Habermas. Both Peters and Habermas argue that public justification entails necessary and unavoidable presuppositions of practical reason, presuppositions that form the basis of a procedural theory of moral justification. Martin discusses the implications of such a procedural approach for the development of educational policy.     

The Prudential Value of Education for Autonomy

A popular justification of education for autonomy is that autonomy possession has intrinsic prudential value. Communitarians have argued, however, that although autonomy may be a core element of a well‐lived life in liberal societies, it cannot claim such a prudential pedigree in traditional societies in which the conception of a good life is intimately tied to the acceptance of a pre‐established worldview. In this paper I examine a recent attempt made by Ishtiyaque Haji and Stefaan Cuypers to respond to this challenge by reestablishing the intrinsic prudential value of autonomy, and I argue that although their work has merit in some respects, it suffers from a notable theoretical deficiency as well as a practical deficiency. Like Haji and Cuypers, I wish to argue that autonomy has intrinsic prudential value; but my argument is not grounded on the claim that autonomy is a necessary part of well‐being. I argue, rather, that it stands to reason—and that liberals and traditionalists alike have reason to accept—that autonomous assent to a conception of the good life is an intrinsically prudentially better state of affairs than nonautonomous assent to the same. My goal in this essay, then, is to clarify the prudential significance of (and to provide a justification for) education for autonomy in a manner that will be appealing to liberals and traditionalists alike.     

On the Prerequisites of Moral Education: a Wittgensteinean perspective

In this paper I distinguish between education and its prerequisites and try to defend the ontological and epistemological priority of the latter. This distinction parallels Wittgenstein's distinctions between knowledge and its river-bed, justification and its grounds, explaining and showing, learning and acquisition. With respect to moral thinking and education, I argue that the fundamental moral principles occupy a position akin to that of the river-bed propositions; that these principles are embedded in ordinary human activities and forms of life and, therefore, ought to be taught by example and by practice and not by abstract moral thinking or contrived moral dilemmas, as some rationalist moral theorists sugges‡     

Conceptualising Education for All in Latin America

In this paper we discuss issues in conceptualising the education of poor and marginalised adults in Latin America. Our starting point is the World Education Forum 'Dakar Framework for Action' affirmation that education is the key to sustainable development, peace and stability. We argue that a reconceptualisation of the education of adults, informed by an understandingof adults' everyday and work practices, may help us understand the ways in which education can contribute to these goals. Such an analysis requires both a socio-cognitive and a political dimension in order to take account of the cognitive abilities and agency as citizens of those whom Frantz Fanon memorably called 'the wretched of the earth'.     

Art Conquers All? Herbert Read's Education through Art

Herbert Read's Education through Art (henceforth ETA) is a pioneering attempt to provide empirical evidence for the need for art in the public school system. Rooting for art education, Read applies the conclusions of the newly evolving psychological research to his thesis on education, which he holds to be a contemporary revival of Plato's educational theory. Psychological research proves, Read believes, that art is required for the healthy cognitive and emotional development of the child, thereby creating a stable and productive society. ‘Education through art’ nurtures each individual's potential, so that every professional direction one would later take would be ‘art'. Since its publication in 1943, art‐education enthusiasts seem to hold that Read was on the right track, but that ETA suffers from a lack of evidence – a mere technicality that can be amended when research advances. Contrariwise, I argue that Read's thesis is inherently problematic, rather than empirically inaccurate. Psychological research may never suffice for the justification of art education, if ‘art education’ is both substituted for ‘creativity’ and expected to produce testable – immediate and quantifiable – results. My interest is not only in Read's theory per se, but in this form of justification. To wit, the discussion examines ETA as a case study in the empirical justification of art education.     

布卢姆的学习变量说对我国高校教学改革的启示

美国心理学家本杰明.布卢姆在教学实验中发现,影响学习者学习效果的因素很多,但真正对学习者学习效果有决定性影响的因素有三个,即学习者的认知前提能力、学习者的情感特征和教学的质量,它们分别发挥50%、25%和25%的作用。要加快我国高等教育改革的步伐,不断提高我国高等教育的质量,就要在教学改革中注意借鉴布卢姆的研究成果,要采取有效的措施来提高学习者的认知前提能力,帮助学习者树立良好的学习情感特征,不断改进教学工作,提高教学质量。     

Should education be transformative?

ABSTRACT

It has become commonplace within the educational research community to invoke the transformative power of education. The call to adopt a ‘transformative’ approach to teaching and learning can be heard in fields as different as adult education and school leadership and as estranged as social justice education and educational psychology. While there is undoubtedly great promise in the idea of transformative education, the fact that it involves deep psychological restructuring on the part of the student requires ethical justification. In this article, I analyze the three most pressing ethical problems that arise within a transformative educational environment: the problems of transformative consent, controversial direction and transformative trauma. In the concluding section, I argue that this ethical analysis urges us to adopt an approach to transformative education as a process of initiation.     

终身教职:一项有效激励研究型大学教师发展的制度安排——基于信息经济学的分析

终身教职作为一项大学教师自由从事科研教学活动的制度保证在高等教育领域,尤其是研究型大学中被广泛采用.但是近年来面对来自各方面的改革压力,有关终身教职制度的争议也越来越多.本文从非对称信息视角出发,利用信息经济学的委托代理理论,为终身教职制度存在的合理性及有效性提供了新的理论解说.并分析了终身教职制度有效实施的条件,进一步指出该制度对激励研究型大学教师发展更具效率上的比较优势.最后,我们还探讨了终身教职制度在中国高校实施的条件和时机.     

Reviewing the role of teachers in achieving Education for All in Cambodia

Over the last 20 years education policies in Cambodia have been driven by the global Education for All (EFA) campaign and have resulted in a rapid increase in the rates of primary education enrolment. However, the increasing number of children enrolling in schools has not always translated into high rates of primary education completion. Against this background the authors argue that while teachers play a significant role in keeping children in school and helping them to progress further in the education system, that role has been somewhat sidelined in the main debates about achieving EFA. They suggest that, while genuine problems exist with the qualifications and motivation of many Cambodian teachers, positive results could come from emphasizing their roles in achieving the wider goals of the education system and society, and thus promoting their active participation in furthering EFA.     

The Body and the Place of Physical Activity in Education: Some classical perspectives

Abstract

The place of physical education has been contested in recent times and it has been argued that its justification as part of school curricula seems to be marginal at best. Such justifications as have been offered, propose that physical education is justified because of its contribution to moral development or because it is capable of being studied as a theoretical subject. Other justifications have centred on the embodied nature of the human being. In this article we draw on some classical thinkers, Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Augustine and Benedict, to argue for a strong, integrated view of the human person. From this it is concluded that physical education is a necessary component of education and that a complete education therefore involves physical education. Physical education is understood in a broad sense as a family resemblance concept which incorporates a wide variety of physical activities. Disciplined physical activity which enables individuals to gain those physical skills required for learning, it is proposed, is essential for intellectual development. Benedictine education, which involves hard physical work, reading, prayer and reflection, illustrates how the physical and mental aspects of a person are to be integrated in order to attain the ends of the committed Benedictine monk.     

系统思维视域下高职院校“三全育人”的差异化构建路径

高职教育作为高等教育的一种特殊类型,应借助系统思维寻找“三全育人”这一系统工程的差异化构建路径。当前,高职院校“三全育人”探索存在着路径依赖,系统整体意识缺乏;人员、过程、方位等系统要素存在缺位;过度分工严重,系统结构优化滞后,没有形成系统效应。高职院校应打破“三全育人”路径依赖,明确以培育“工匠精神”为特色的系统整体目标;推动“三全育人”高职化,填补人员、过程和方位缺失产生的育人盲区;优化系统的“软”“硬”结构,实现高职院校“三全育人”的系统创新。     

Finitude,Fallibilism and Education towards Non-dogmatism: Gadamer’s hermeneutics in science education

The philosophy of science has witnessed continuous controversy since the mid-twentieth century regarding the justification of science’s privileged position, and which has also reverberated in the philosophy of science education. This contribution brings to the discussion the viewpoint of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics. I suggest that by relating to the idea of the fallibility of knowledge, Gadamerian philosophy provides a compromise between the extreme positions in the aforementioned debate. Gadamerian hermeneutics also has implications for science education: from the Gadamerian perspective, science education should (1) induce experiences of negation that familiarize learners with their own pre-understanding and (2) introduce learners to the fallibility of knowledge. Finally, I argue that both instances (1) and (2) aim to cultivate non-dogmatism in learners.     

All that glitters is not gold—Mixed early labour market outcomes of STEM graduates in Poland

The expansion of higher education resulted in a growing interest in post-graduation labour market outcomes. Two conflicting narratives are present in the debate. The first focuses on the shortage of skills and the need for further expansion of the sector and seems to pertain mostly to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The second revolves around over-education and mismatch leading to graduate unemployment or underemployment. Such concerns pertain especially to humanities and social sciences. However, in this article, we argue that the STEM versus non-STEM opposition on which this debate is premised is not adequate for analysing post-graduation labour market outcomes. We leverage a unique administrative dataset comprising monthly records on the labour market status of the entire population of recent Polish university graduates (N = 161,323) to demonstrate the heterogeneity of the STEM category in terms of labour market outcomes and the limited predictive value of the field of study for those outcomes. We argue that the category is too broad and internally diverse to be used as an overarching category, especially in research meant to inform policymaking.     

Should religious education be a compulsory school subject?

Britain is an increasingly secular society, yet religious education is a compulsory school subject. Is its compulsory status justifiable? Religious education was made compulsory in 1944 partly so as to support the moral values underlying democracy. This civic justification faded after the war, but even today one official justification of religious education is in terms of moral education. Another has to do with understanding and respecting other religions and beliefs. This essay examines both justifications and concludes that neither is strong enough to support the continued existence of religious education as a separate, compulsory subject. The same verdict is passed on a third justification, based on a recommended switch in the content of religious education classes to the critical analysis of religious claims.     

The Ruskin Speech and Great Debate in English education, 1976–1979: A study of motivation

James Callaghan's speech at Ruskin College, Oxford in October 1976 is widely considered a pivotal moment in modern English educational policy. Whilst it is not our intention to challenge this fundamental point, the paper will critically interrogate some long-held assumptions about the motivation that led Callaghan to deliver his speech at Ruskin College. Specifically, the paper will argue that the Ruskin Speech, which spawned a subsequent great debate on education, was motivated by a desire to protect and support comprehensive education, rather than generate more fundamental and radical educational reform away from those principles. Where successive governments have referred back to the ideals espoused by the speech as justification for subsequent educational transformation away from comprehensive ideals, this has only served to imbue the Ruskin Speech and Great Debate with motivations that were not shared at the time by Callaghan and his Labour government.     

Towards a transnational model of critical values education: the case for literature education in Singapore

Once regarded as the most essential subject in the national curriculum vital for civilizing the public, English Literature has now lost its place of prominence. In this paper, I focus on Singapore where the subject was a core aspect of the colonial curriculum and where it is currently facing declining enrolment at the national examinations. In the first part of the paper, I discuss how Literature initially functioned to propagate colonial values education in Singapore and how, following Singapore's independence, its goals were overtaken by a nation-state model of values education. Limitations of this model provide the grounds for a transnational model of critical values education that, as I argue in the second part, may be powerfully conveyed through Literature. It is Literature's capacity to facilitate transnational critical engagements with values and explorations of identity especially involving highly sensitive aspects related to gender, race, and religion that represents the strongest justification in the light of its present demise. What Literature offers is the possibility of engaging with values beyond the confines of Empire or nation by grappling with essential questions about what it means to be a cosmopolitan as opposed to a nationalistic citizen inhabiting the world.     

The African renaissance and the transformation of the higher education curriculum in South Africa

The curriculum is a critical element in the transformation of higher education, and as a result, I argue for the inclusion of what I refer to as an African epistemic in higher education curricula in South Africa. In so doing, attention is directed at the decolonisation of the curriculum in higher education in South Africa, which aims to give indigenous African knowledge systems their rightful place as equally valid ways of knowing among the array of knowledge systems in the world. In developing my argument, I maintain that a critical questioning of the knowledge included in higher education curricula in South Africa should be taken up in what I call transformative education discourses that examine the sources of the knowledge that inform what is imposed on or prescribed for curricula in higher education in South Africa, and how these higher educational curricula are implicated in the universalisation of Western and European experiences.     

怀疑论、认知资格与实用辩护

当代彻底怀疑论宣称关于外部世界的知识是不可能的。面对怀疑论的攻击,怀特发展了一条内在主义式的反怀疑论方案。基于传递失败和认知资格两个关键概念,该方案指出认知者接受类似我没有在做梦一类的反怀疑论命题是符合认知理性的,因此怀疑论攻击所造成的破坏是有限度的。有一派反对意见指出,该方案只是为接受反怀疑论命题给出了实用辩护,而怀疑论者则是要求认知辩护。但经过分析可以发现,批评者对于认知辩护与实用辩护的理解过于狭隘,而怀特的方案同时给出了实用辩护与认知辩护,也对怀疑论产生的根源做出了哲学治疗。