Special education and the regular education initiative: basic assumptions

The regular education initiative (REI) is a thoughtful response to identified problems in our system for educating low-performing children, but it is a not a detailed blueprint for changing the system. Educators must achieve consensus on what the REI actually proposes. The authors infer from the REI literature five assumptions regarding the roles and responsibilities of elementary regular classroom teachers, concluding that these teachers and specialists form a partnership, but the classroom teachers are ultimately in charge of the instruction of all children in their classrooms, including those who are not succeeding in the mainstream. A discussion of the target population and of several partnership models further delineates REI issues and concerns.     

Teacher perceptions of the regular education initiative

A survey of 381 special and regular educators assessed perceptions and opinions surrounding the regular education initiative. Confirmatory factor analysis supported an a priori hypothesized structure of teachers' responses. Items factored into 14 categories. These factors describe issues related to preferred placement of students with mild disabilities, teachers' responsibility and ownership, teacher preparedness for meeting the needs of these students, achievement outcomes for all children, and the changes that would result from adopting the proposed consultant model rather than a pullout program. Results favored current special education practices (pullout programs) in elementary schools.     

Implementing the Contract: the technical and vocational education initiative

Participating schools have a contractual responsibility to recruit a ‘balanced intake’ of students to TVEI courses. However, in many schools it is form teachers who have the eventual job of promoting TVEI to both sexes ‘across the ability range’.

What this recruitment structure does not allow for is that form teachers may be affected by a number of ‘sources of influence’, the effects of which do not coincide with this objective.

The aim of this paper is to build up a picture of the school as an ‘open ended’ interrelating totality, within which form teachers confront the demand for a ‘balanced intake’ alongside a number of other, potentially conflicting factors.     

Linking literacy teaching with assessment: a continuing professional development initiative for secondary schools

As part of a professional development initiative helping secondary school teachers use assessment data to guide their instruction, teachers in this study changed their knowledge, skills and dispositions. Over time, they were able to identify assessments, administer these assessments, interpret the results and plan instruction. As a result, the students who were tutored by these teachers increased their achievement compared with a control group.     

Implementing inclusive education in primary schools in Bangladesh: recommended strategies

Continued discrimination towards, and exclusion of, children with special needs, combined with the high dropout rate of students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, creates considerable pressure on the inclusive education (IE) reform initiatives of developing countries. To minimise the challenges to implementing IE reform policies into classroom level practices, education systems need to apply strategies which are contextually useful. Bangladesh has introduced a number of policies and acts to support IE reform in regular schools. In the past, there were few and limited empirical studies in the context of primary education, which focus on IE. Recently, a number of studies conducted in Bangladesh have identified some contextual issues underpinning IE implementation. This paper reports on three such doctoral studies that investigated issues related to the implementation of IE policy in primary schools in Bangladesh. This paper focuses on the implications of the major findings of those studies. It is expected that the contextual evidence and implications of the findings will help primary education development programmes implement IE policy more successfully.     

Technology and education: ICT in Ugandan secondary schools

Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) could, if adopted and implemented appropriately, support learning and teaching in developing countries to provide young people with skills they need to participate effectively in the global economy. However, a significant digital divide still persists between developed and developing countries in terms of both physical resources and the capabilities of teachers to effectively utilize limited ICT resources. A very real challenge for schools is to acquire and effectively utilize ICT given the reality of an environment of scarce and limited resources. This study examines ICT infrastructure and use in 11 secondary schools in Mukono, Uganda using qualitative case study methods including an ICT infrastructure assessment, observations, and interviews. Stratified random sampling was used to identify 7 schools initially; 4 additional schools were also purposefully sampled based on their high levels of ICT. Findings indicate that despite limited resources, schools are investing heavily into ICT. Researchers found that teacher ICT usage at school could be grouped into three categories: administrative (86%), entertainment (45%) and pedagogical (45%). Administrators at some schools reported using ICT primarily to attract students and increase revenue. Implications of this study will assist school administrators to make informed decisions concerning further investment in ICT, efficient use of limited technology resources, and improvement of educational opportunities for students.     

Scottish education: Changes in the examination structure in secondary schools

Conclusion Any examination system, to maintain its viability, must change in response to relevant pressures. When the Certificate examinations were introduced in 1888, their purpose was threefold: — to supplement the inspection of certain secondary-type schools; to establish uniform standards of attainment; to provide a Certificate acceptable to the universities and other examining or professional bodies. The first of these purposes was a temporary expedient, vital at that particular stage in the development of Scottish secondary education; the other two are still valid purposes today. Throughout the years, changes in the Certificate examinations have had two main aims: the encouragement of a widening of the curriculum to meet changing conditions, social, economic and industrial; and an easing of the pressure on secondary pupils. The introduction of the Ordinary grade in 1962 is entirely within this tradition; the projected Advanced grade is less clearly so;1) nevertheless, this departure may be the inevitable reaction to pressures to which the system has not previously had to respond.Whatever the final outcome may be, the emerging pattern of the examination structure in Scottish secondary education is at least evidence of an adaptability and resilience which critics of the system had feared it might no longer possess. It may even be the case that the future historian will regard 1962 as one of the key dates in Scottish education, paving the way for an extension of the provision of full secondary education, with a more relevant and vital curriculum, an examination structure geared to modern needs, and a consequent utilisation of talent which the country has always possessed, and can no longer afford to neglect.

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Schottische Erziehung: Veränderungen im Prüfungswesen

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Education ecossaise: Changements dans la structure des examens des ecoles secondaires

     

小学科学教育中实施“有过程的思维呈现”教学研究

思维教学的缺失是小学科学教育的实践困境:单一的教育目标违背了儿童的思维发展规律,教条化的教学模式导致了思维与操作的割裂,思维培养的指导力不足导致了科学思维培养的实践障碍。基于操作、呈现、反思三个核心要素的"有过程的思维呈现"教学模式为小学科学课程的思维教学提供了实践路径,通过提出假设——验证假设——反思——新的问题——再反思——反思结果的应用步骤,完成"两轮探究、四次呈现、两次反思",使儿童在科学探究过程中学会"像科学家一样思考",在反思中完成自我发现。     

Implementing media education in the Hong Kong secondary curriculum

The tremendous influence of today's mass media can hardly be matched by the sum of its works from the past. There are more sources of media, more types of information and entertainment, more interactive modes for consuming these messages of the mass media in a more interconnected global village available than ever before. Since many pupils spend much of their time on the media, the call for media education is urgent. This article first describes the aims and objectives of media education, then portrays the power of the media and how the education sectors have responded. Finally, it argues for the need to implement media education into the secondary curriculum in response to proposed curriculum reform in Hong Kong.     

浅谈健康教育在中职体育教育中的应用

在中职体育教育中,开展健康教育有利于促进学生身心的健康发展,是全面培养高素质人才的重要内容,有着重要的地位及作用。为此,本文首先分析了中职教育中开展健康教育的必要性,并对如何开展健康教育进行了分析和探讨。