我国高职教育实施弹性学习制度研究

加入世贸组织,必将要求和推进我国高职教育国际化。实施与国际接轨的弹性学制与学分制是高职教育深层次改革的手段之一。改革高职教育课程结构体系,是实施弹性学制的关键。     

规模扩大态势下的学分制教学管理研究

长期以来，我国高等教育在管理上实行的是学年制的管理模式，随着高等教育规模的扩大，学生素质参差不齐，这一管理模式的不足也逐渐显露出来，并妨碍了学生个性的发展，因此，实行学分制教学管理模式也势在必行，就目前而言，我国高等教育在实行学分制时，还存在许多问题，如教学资源短缺，选课系统得到不到充分保证，学生没有真正选择专业的权力，选课导师没有到位及学分学籍管理传力度不够等，只有解决了这些问题，学分制才能在我国真正实施。     

Experiences With an Open Systems Computing Laboratory

Open Systems are computing systems which are based on industry standards and nonproprietary multivendor components. As an increasing number of computing installations move away from single‐vendor proprietary architectures to more and more open architectures, academic institutions are increasingly faced with the responsibility of appropriately introducing open systems concepts into the undergraduate curricula. Using funding from the National Science Foundation, an open systems computing laboratory was recently set up at the University of Michigan‐Dearborn. The laboratory is based on the three most popular computing platforms today in the PC to Workstation range; namely IBM/PC, Macintosh, and Sun/UNIX. Supporting equipment include a postcript printer, a Novell network, a tape mass storage, and appropriate software and interfaces. A three credit‐hour course titled Open Systems Computing was offered in Summer 1995 to computer science and computer engineering majors. The course utilized the laboratory fully. This paper describes the design and implementation of the laboratory. Initial experiences with the course and laboratory are also described. Student enthusiasm about the course and laboratory was much higher than anticipated. A side benefit of the course was the ability to introduce several contemporary computing‐related topics which would have otherwise been omitted from the curriculum.     

高职院校实施学分制改革的思考

高职教育实施学分制,可以培养出适应市场的人才,可以满足学生的个体需求,可以培养学生的创新能力。当前实施的主要问题有:传统理念的束缚;教学硬件不足;选课管理难;配套政策缺少。相应的对策、措施是:转变教学观念;完善选课制、导师制和弹性学制;制定学分制管理体系和管理条例等。     

Measuring academic progress: the course–credit system in American higher education

The course–credit system in the United States is the standard means of measuring academic work. Typically, an academic degree is the sum of required and other courses measured by the course credit system. Generally, each course consists of 3 credits (the meaning of each credit is one hour of in-class or laboratory work over a 16 week semester). The system is a means of measuring the time spent on study and not the quality of the work. Since the 19th century, the course–credit system has been the major “currency” in American higher education.     

Credit by CLEP: A Disconcerting Look at a Good Idea

Abstract

Virginia Western Community College (VWCC) reviewed its policy of awarding academic credit to students for successful completion of the General College Level Examination Program (CLEP), which many institutions use to determine whether students should be awarded credit for knowledge and skills acquired through off-campus programs, life experiences, or self-study. The review revealed several areas of concern about the use of CLEP at VWCC. The findings from this study should be of interest to all institutions that either now award CLEP credit or are considering the adoption of a CLEP credit policy: (1) Faculty review committees questioned the content validity of several of the examinations. (2) Administration of the examinations to VWCC students who successfully completed CLEP courses produced low correlations between CLEP scores and course grades. (3) CLEP policies vary considerably among Virginia's institutions of higher education and this creates serious transfer problems. (4) There are advantages to raising the CLEP cutoff point to the national 50th percentile.     

An Environmental Education Program for Teacher Trainers in Finland

Abstract

Finland's Ministry of Education sponsored the development of an environmental education (EE) course for practicing educators of teachers. One to 3 persons from each teacher training unit at various universities and training schools attended a tutor training session, during which a course for other teacher trainers was developed. The course focused on personal development and curriculum development. Tutors used distance education with some locally arranged contact teaching to teach the course. Tutors also led local study groups. Teacher trainers who attended the course learned and applied new teaching practices and produced new model lessons. They also reflected on their personal environmental philosophy and gained in environmental knowledge. Preliminary evaluation of the program indicated that high-quality learning experiences occurred. This 2-step distance education model could be used for large-scale implementation of EE for in-service teacher training.     

Institutional Problems and Solutions of General Education in Chinese Universities

Abstract

Embedding general education in the Chinese university education system is a considerably complex systemic project, and a lack of institutional arrangements beneficial to general education has always been a key barrier in implementation. Currently, the main institutional restricting factors for university general education include substantial major-based education systems, scattered credit management systems, lack of a distributive elective system with interdisciplinary integration, and a vertically segmented course management system. In the process from popularizing to deepening general education, Chinese universities must move from imitating and transplanting toward local construction; establish the new ideal of undergraduate general education; focus on building featured, university-based fundamental general education curricula; and seek out a path that suits the institutional environment of Chinese universities.     

Promoting entrepreneurship among informatics engineering students: insights from a case study

ABSTRACT

Universities seek to promote entrepreneurship through effective education approaches, which need to be in permanent evolution. Nevertheless, the literature in entrepreneurship education lacks empirical evidence. This article discusses relevant issues related to promoting entrepreneurship in the software field, based on the experience of a 15-European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System course. This course seeks to instil in the students the recognition of the need to reconcile technical and business visions, organisational and commercial aspects, most of which have never been addressed previously. A series of semi-structured interviews made it possible to obtain relevant insights about the teaching–learning process underlying this course and its evolution over a seven-year period. Materials related with this course have been analysed, namely guidelines produced by the teachers and deliverables produced by the students. This article discusses the dimensions that were identified as fundamental for promoting entrepreneurship skills in the field of software, namely teamwork, project engagement, and contact with the market.     

Contacts with classmates: the social position of pupils with Down's syndrome in Dutch mainstream education

ABSTRACT

An important aspect of integrating special needs pupils in mainstream education is social integration. Parents of Down's syndrome children and their teachers in regular education regard contact with peers as of utmost importance for these children's development. Until recently, there was little research in The Netherlands on social contact between mainstream Down's syndrome children and their classmates. The study addresses the number and type of contacts in the regular classroom and the position occupied by the pupils involved within their peer group in regular education.     

Faculty work in developing and teaching web‐based distance courses: A case study of time and effort

Abstract

Using an experiential case approach, this study explores the conventional wisdom that distance education courses require greater faculty work effort and time commitment than traditionally taught courses. The study's basis for analysis is an instructor's time and effort in developing and delivering a graduate‐level course in public administration, for both a distance course (a modality with which he had no previous experience) and his traditional classroom courses. The study finds support for the conventional wisdom. But it also suggests hypotheses for future comparative analysis that development and delivery time and effort may partially depend on the accumulation of instructor experience and the level of institutional support. This article also identifies some implications for future research and faculty participation in distance education.     

Modifying School Attendance of Special Education High School Students

Abstract

This study evaluated a program to modify the school attendance of special education (SE) high school students. Twenty 1st and 2nd-year SE high school students from a semirural area in the Southeast were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. Treatment students received social and tangible rewards for good attendance, and their parents were notified whenever they were absent. All tangible rewards were donated by local businesses, and all procedures were implemented by university undergraduates working for course credit. Thus, treatment involved no cost to the high school. We predicted that treatment would lessen the degree to which students would show the decline in attendance that usually occurs over the course of the semester. As expected, students in the control group showed a significant linear decline in their attendance to SE and regular classes, p < .05. In contrast, students in the treatment group showed no significant decline in attendance over the course of the semester. The findings show that programs like the one evaluated here can reduce the absenteeism of SE high school students without any cost to the schools.     

Does Developmental Education Help? Findings from the Academic Performance of Adult Undergraduate Students in Community Colleges

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the association between participating in developmental education and degree attainment within 6 years for adults (age 24 and older) who entered one of 10 Ohio public community or technical colleges for the first time in 2002–2013. Degree attainment is modeled using annual data on course enrollment and completion measures. Results from both a logistic regression (with fixed effects) and propensity score matching provide different estimates of the impact of developmental education on degree attainment. The study identifies a range of intermediate educational characteristics such as credit completion and persistence that are associated with final degree completion. Based on the results of this study, educational institutions that provide adult developmental education need to design specific educational interventions that will address the barriers adult undergraduates face.     

Environmental science education in a small island state: integrating theory and local experience

Abstract

The importance of education to address current sustainability challenges in small island states has been widely recognized. Environmental education may increase knowledge, while also increasing environmental awareness and motivating students to become agents of change. Student engagement in introductory environmental science courses may benefit from operationalizing abstract concepts by embedding course material and activities within this local context. Here, we describe an introductory course in environmental science that has been tailored to the local context of a small island state in the Caribbean. In addition to reaching academic course goals, pre- and post-course surveys showed that course participants’ environmental awareness increased on the dimensions ‘Personal Value System’ and ‘Willingness to Take Environmental Action’. The described course provides a template for the development of a low-cost introductory environmental science course that integrates general theory and application within the context of Caribbean island states.     

A longitudinal study on boys’ and girls’ career aspirations and interest in technology

Background: More young people, boys and girls, are needed in technical studies and professions, as the relative number of students in technology-related studies has been decreasing in most industrialised countries. To overcome this decrease several countries implemented mandatory technology classes in the curriculum of secondary education.

Purpose: This study has two goals: exploring the evolution of pupils’ interest during the year(s) they attend the mandatory technology classes and exploring determining characteristics for differences in boys’ and girls’ attitude change over time.

Sample: This study focuses on data gathered in the first and second grade of the first cycle in general secondary education in the North region of Belgium, Flanders. In a first stage we selected a good representation of geographically spread schools (n = 20), from which over 1300 students participated.

Design and methods: A longitudinal study with eight measurement occasions spread over the course of two years is presented in order to capture the evolution of students’ attitudes, making use of a multilevel growth model analysis.

Results: The results show that students’ interest in technology decreases over time, although at the end of each grade interest is increasing again. Boys’ and girls’ interest in technology also evolves a little different in the first cycle of secondary education. For career aspirations we didn’t see any significant difference between boys and girls. Boys’ and girls’ aspirations decrease over time with a little increase by the end of the second grade. Students with a more technological curriculum also have more career aspirations in the field of technology than their peers with other curricula. Although students’ perceptions about technology as a subject for boys and girls are largely stable.

Conclusions: The evolution of students’ attitude is far from linear, this strengthens us in the choice for a more complex analysis model and the choice for more measuring points than only at the beginning and the end when analysing students’ attitudes towards technology. With this research we found that students interest and aspirations in the field of technology are not stable and do change in the first cycle of secondary education. Overall, we can conclude that if the goal of technology education at school maintains to promote ‘a larger number of students in technological oriented studies and professions’, there is still much to do.     

远程高等教育与学分制

学分制是一种相对于学年制的教学管理制度 ,具有较大的灵活性和自主性 ,它尤其适合远程高等教育的本质需求和个性化、开放性的特征。远程高等教育机构应当加强师资力量、开足选修课 ,深化教学改革、强化教学管理 ,加强学生管理与思政工作 ,争取相关政策、建立相应的宏观环境 ,积极稳步地推进学分制     

Policy and advocacy content in early childhood teacher education: Results of a national survey

Abstract

One important strategy for strengthening policy and advocacy in early childhood education is through the incorporation of specific course content in teacher education programs [New Perspectives in Early Childhood Teacher Education: Bringing Practitioners Into the Debate, Teachers College Press, NY, New York, 1994]. Yet, to date, little is known about the extent to which content relating to these two important issues are incorporated into teacher education programs. In response to this gap, an exploratory study of early childhood teacher education programs was conducted to determine the nature of policy and advocacy content included in undergraduate and graduate programs in the United States. Public and private institutions, ranging in size from small four‐year colleges to large public universities, participated in this national survey. Results indicated that advocacy and policy content is incorporated in most teacher education programs in a varied, yet unsystematic, manner. Respondents also identified a range of current and needed resources to support advocacy and policy education as well as a number of barriers that impede incorporation of such content in their programs.     

高师院校专业课教学改革探析

随着教育改革的深入，高等院校陆续实行了新课程方案和学分制管理方法，在新课程方案下的教学计划体现了“减少课内学时，加大选修课比重，淡化专业”的思想。只有树立以下几种观念：（1）“守正出新”，树立新的教学理念；（2）新课程方案下的应对措施；（3）选修课与专业课相互联系、渗透以补专业课之不足，才能促使高师院校专业课教学改革的顺利进行。     

对体育教育专业学分制改革与实施研究

新建本科院校体育教育专业学分制改革经过一年的实施,在有效推进体育教育专业教学、训练、科研工作的同时,由于现行体育教育专业学分制的不完善争缺陷,所引发的问题正逐渐显露.本文拟通过对体育教育专业学分制现状的分析,提出改进体育教育专业学分制的策略,以期能使体育教育专业学分制工作能健康、顺利的发展,促进教育教学质量的提高.     

Avoiding the “Inexorable Push Toward Homogenization” in School Choice: Education Savings Accounts as Hedges Against Institutional Isomorphism

ABSTRACT

The assumption that rational choice dynamics will lead to diversity of school supply is at the heart of K–12 school choice arrangements. Yet as the field of school choice becomes more established, there will be the “inexorable push toward homogenization.” If vouchers, tuition tax credit scholarships, and education savings accounts become more significant players in the education market in the years to come, isomorphism, if it occurs, will limit the utility of school choice. Drawing on experiences from the charter sector and the Louisiana Scholarship Program, this article considers whether education savings accounts might encourage less isomorphism of practice among participating private schools than school choice options such as vouchers and tuition tax credit scholarships.