Self—improvement of Teachers of Foreign Languages

In recents years,the research about the peda-gogical theory of language teaching has put more em-phasis on students.That is to say,students'role instudy has been more and more stressed.Obviously,this has corrected the teacher- centred tendency exist-ed in the traditional teaching methodology in whichstudents'own initiatives were often neglected.How-ever,atany time in the course of students'study,theguiding role of a teacher can never be neglected or re-placed.In other words,teachers of foreign…     

Abraham H. Friedland — Educator

A century ago a group of educators led an effort to transform American Jewish education to enable it to operate successfully in the 20th century. Today, with American Jews living under very different conditions, a similar effort is needed to reinvent Jewish education for the 21st century. Changes and new initiatives already taking place on the educational landscape point the way toward a set of paradigm shifts that will make Jewish education more learner-centered, relationship-infused, and life-relevant. These changes at the level of educational practice need to be accompanied by a redesign of the educational system itself to make it better able to accommodate learners as “prosumers,” helping to create their own educational experiences, and to guide them on lifelong learning journeys. By maximizing the impact of ongoing innovations, by employing “design thinking,” and by forging stronger networks and collective impact initiatives across domains and settings, the Jewish educational system can be reinvented to meet the needs and aspirations of 21st century Jewish learners.     

Student Perceptions of Teachers—A Factor Analytic Study

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to determine the number and nature of factors which account for student perceptions of teacher effectiveness. The technique consisted of factor analyzing the popular Teacher Image Questionnaire used by the Educator Feedback Center at Western Michigan University. The sample consisted of 1,427 classes yielding 42,810 student responses from teachers representing all academic fields in grades 7-12 from Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin. A single factor accounted for an average of 61.5 percent of the variance in test items. The remaining 40 percent of the variance to be accounted for was evenly distributed among five other factors. The results of this study should help educators to recognize the limitations, strengths, and meaning of student reactions to teachers.     

Classroom Gode—switching of the English Teachers of Chinese Speakers

IntroductionCode-switchingwhichmaybebrieflydefinedasthealternationbetweentwo(ormore)languages,I(Eldridge1996:3O3).Ithasbeenreceivinggrowingattentioninrecentyears.Farfrombeingviewed'asarandomphenomenon,ithascometobeseenasahigh-lypurposefulactivityHowever,themajOrityof=thestudieshavebeenconductedinau-thenticbilinguaIspeechcommunities,ratherthaninthelanguageclassroom,whichwillbethefocusofmystudy.LanguageAttitudes)lTheideaofavoidingthernothertongueinlanguageteachingdatesbackfrornaroundtheturno…     

Pupils’ Perceptions of Teachers

Abstract

The study, with 536 second-sixth graders as subjects, attempted to investigate the relationships between teacher and “idea”-teacher discrepancies (hereafter designated as discrepancies) and six dependent variables. Results of the study were summarized as: (a) high-school achievement scorers tended to manifest low discrepancies, and vice versa; (b) boys appeared to exhibit higher discrepancies than girls did; (c) those more socially acceptable children seemed to exhibit low discrepancies, and vice versa; (d) those children who indicated higher school attitude scores had a tendency to show low discrepancies, and vice versa; (e) those children who rated themselves high on aggressiveness were inclined to show high discrepancies, and vice versa; and (f) there was no statistically significant relationship between peer-report aggressiveness and such discrepancies.     

Common Concerns of Student Teachers

过了暑假,你也许要进入实习阶段。第一次走上讲台,面对学生。第一次走进办公室与你的未来同行和指导老师面对面。你做好准备了吗?以下文章将回答你所关注的问题。     

The Chemical Educator——中学化学教师进修提高的有益读物

因特网 ( Internet)上的化学教育资源丰富多采 ,形式多样。国外对这些资源的开发利用十分重视 ,有的学校已开设出相关课程。如何利用这些资源已是摆在我国化学教育工作者面前的一项十分紧迫的任务。本刊在广泛调研的基础上决定从本期开始创设“Internet化学教育资源”专栏 ,就 Internet上有关化学教育资源站点及其内容陆续作以简要介绍 ,以便全国广大化学教育工作者能够快捷地遨游在 Internet上化学教育知识的海洋之中 ,涉猎有用之材 ,服务于我国的化学教育 ,以提高我国中学化学教学的质量。     

Teachers’ Journeys: A Case of Teachers of Learners Aged Five to Six

South Africa’s esteem is low with regard to current learner achievement in mathematics. Results from international studies, such as TIMMS and SACMEQ, continuously indicate that South African learners perform below international benchmarks in mathematics. Research and evaluation studies assert that teacher practices and poor early mathematics stimulation influence this state of affairs. Hence, this article reports on a study that explored the developmental progression of Grade R teachers’ mathematics knowledge and general knowledge of teaching participating in a professional development intervention. In this article I report on data collected after a two-day workshop conducted with the teachers. The video recordings of 14 teachers’ self-selected lessons were collected and transcribed, using a lesson observation tool, and analysed by means of thematic analysis. The findings indicated that teachers’ knowledge of number sense forms a strong foundation for improving the quality instruction of number knowledge. The first step seen to be taken by these teachers to engage the learners was the question and answer approach. The lessons of those who tried to let learners engage lacked structure and resulted in chaos. Demonstration and drill were used to develop the learners’ content knowledge. The teachers’ practices were inadequate as far as developing conceptual understanding is concerned; and their classroom management skills were not sufficiently developed to include all learners in their mediation. In instances where all the learners participated, the teacher directed the participation and did not allow for learner-to-learner engagement. It is crucial to note that they showed potential for growth and willingness to learn despite the limited or minimal the training they received.     

Representation and the Fluidity of Identity——David Henry Hwang’s Play Yellow Face

David Henry Hwang is the first and the only Asian American playwright ever to win Tony Award for Best Play.His latest play Yellow Face combines signs,representation and the issue of identity on the stage with those in the real life,vividly interpreting the fluidity of identity.Therefore,this essay attempts to concentrate on a semiotic study of Yellow Face from the perspective of Stuart Hall’s Cultural Studies,especially the discursive approach.Through the analysis of various signs in the plays to be discussed and how these signs construct meaning to represent culture,this essay explores the relationships between symbolic representations and cultural identity,shedding a new light on Yellow Face.     

Was Confucius an "Educator of the Whole People"?

Reactionary rulers of the past encomiastically hailed Confucius as "the eternal paragon for teachers." The May 4th Movement in 1919 decried this by raising the slogan "Down with the Confucian Shop;" Later, bourgeois men of letters and scholars catering to the needs of the reactionary rulers again set off a reactionary countercurrent of worshipping Confucius and studying the Confucian canon. They gave much publicity to yu chiao wu lui (which really means "regional training without distinction of clans") advocated by Confucius who, they asserted, wanted to recruit students regardless of their class origin. In this way they disguised Confucius as an "educator of the whole people."     

Teachers’ perceptions of student evaluations of teaching

Evaluation of teaching in higher education has drawn much attention due to the need for greater accountability and improvement in student learning. Our review of literature on Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) surveys suggests that considerable controversy and criticism have surrounded its use, fairness, and validity. Yet, many universities in Hong Kong are depending primarily on student feedback in SET surveys to provide evidence for their improvement of teaching and learning, and for their decisions made on teachers' pay-rise and tenure. If universities are to continue to use SET surveys as the main source of mechanism for measuring teaching effectiveness, teachers will have to understand and be aware of its purposes. But how much do we know about teachers' perceptions of teaching and learning and, consequently, their opinions of using SET surveys as the primary standardized evaluation mechanism of teaching for promotion and tenure and for teaching effectiveness?     

Classroom Transactions of Student‐Teachers of Science

Summaries

English

The report describes a study of the teaching behaviour of student‐teachers of science disciplines during the one‐term teaching practice of the English ‘Post‐Graduate Certificate in Education’ course, using the Science Teaching Observation Schedule by Eggleston et al.

The results suggest that in several behavioural dimensions, students and teachers achieve a close match. These dimensions, it is suggested, could represent the ‘stable’ elements in the students’ perception of science teacher behaviour learnt during their time as pupils, or they might represent ‘safe’ transactions which do not involve students extensively in problems of classroom management and control.

For other behaviour categories, it was found that students tended to behave less like experienced teachers as the training practice proceeded, but this was to some extent determined by the subject taught. Physics student‐teachers substantially maintained their similarity to experienced teachers, whilst chemistry and biology students drifted away. The nature of these drifts is discussed.     

University Teachers as Developers of Technology-Enhanced Teaching—Do Beliefs Matter?

Previous research has identified a well-established link between teachers' beliefs and the practical implications of technology-enhanced learning (TEL). Until recently, there have been few studies of teachers' beliefs regarding their own role as developers of TEL in higher education. In this study, 18 university teachers' reflective writings on their role as developers of TEL were analyzed. All the teachers had developed their teaching methods for the instructional use of information and communication technologies (ICT). The findings of qualitative thematic analysis indicated four divergent teachers' roles: (1) active developers, (2) adaptive developers, (3) cautious developers, and (4) reluctant developers. These findings can be used to train teachers in educational change. (Keywords: Teacher beliefs, teacher roles, teaching development, technology-enhanced learning, university teaching, higher education)     

Finnish Cooperating Physics Teachers’ Conceptions of Physics Teachers’ Teacher Knowledge

This article examines Finnish cooperating physics teachers’ conceptions of teacher knowledge in physics. Six experienced teachers were interviewed. The data was analyzed to form categories concerning the basis of teacher knowledge, and the tradition of German Didaktik and Shulman’s theory of teacher knowledge were used in order to understand the results. The results show that the teachers strongly emphasize knowledge related to day-to-day teaching practice. In German Didaktik, this means knowledge of the best instructional methods, while in Shulman’s categorization it belongs to the category of representations, strategies, and methods. It was also found that the teachers appear to lack some of the essential key ideas of modern physics teacher education, such as a holistic view of instructional approaches.     

Introduction of a Scale of Psychological Predispositions of Kindergarten Teachers

In order to help the selection and training of teachers for kindergartens, a scale for diagnosis of the special psychological predispositions needed for kindergarten teachers has been developed. It consists of 130 items derived from a personality test and an ability test. By the use of stratified sampling strategy, 660 teachers from different kindergartens in Beijing were chosen to form a sample group in its development. The result of the test was displayed in the form of T-score and percentile respectively. After several times of practice, its reliability and validity have been verified.     

Teachers’ assessments of students’ learning of mathematics

This paper reports a study of the classroom assessment practices of 12 sixth form college mathematics teachers in Malta. It explores the extent to which these teachers are knowledgeable about their students’ learning of mathematics and the implications that this has for their classroom practices. It reveals that these teachers’ knowledge of their students’ understanding of certain mathematical concepts is fairly limited. It then goes on to discuss this phenomenon in terms of a process that can hinder rather than promote learning. The research illuminates the position of teachers who appear to lack certain detailed information about their students which, it can be argued, could inform more effective teaching strategies. The paper concludes by exploring possible implications for similar situations where learning could be enhanced by more effective classroom assessment strategies and their use to inform future teaching and learning activities.     

YEARNING FOR EQUALITY SUBMITTED TO HABIT——The Dual Nature of Anna''''s Feelings to Henry and Willie

《五镇的安娜》是本世纪初英国小说家阿诺德·本内特(Arnold Bennett,1867—1931)的“五镇”系列小说之一。书中叙述了女主公安娜·特尔莱特在与亨利·迈那斯和威利·普赖斯的接触中渐渐地找到了真爱,但最终却履行义务般地选择她自己并不爱的亨利作丈夫。本文着重探讨安娜对这两个男人的感情的双重性以及它所隐含的现实意义。