Changing Spatial and Synchronous Structures in the History and Culture of Learning

This paper argues that the conceptions of ‘space’ (and increasingly ‘time’) in the discussion of ‘the university’ (in its most transcendent sense) have gone through four distinct phases in the UK. Using a Heideggerian conception of ‘space’ where usefulness is more important than proximity, the ‘ancient’ universities were ‘useful’ to the gentry and thus were ‘closer’ to them than to the excluded ‘local’ poor in the institutions’ vicinities. The ‘civic’ universities on the other hand stressed ‘localism’ as part of their mandate – to educate the people of their locality (but only those of the new industrial middle class). The ‘Robbins’ universities were a partial return to the ‘ancient’ notion of learning as a ‘lived’ activity, providing scenic landscapes on green-belt campuses where students could ‘retreat’ from the ‘real world’ for the duration of their studies. The ‘spatial’ quality of these places was thus part of a conception of higher education as ‘lifestyle choice’ where young people moved away from their locality to study. As such ‘proximity’ was an issue only insofar as the greater the distance from one’s point of origin the better for successful immersion in the growing student ‘culture’. The ‘new/post-1992’ universities partially retained their polytechnic mandate to educate local people, but embraced a colonialist impulse regarding local space usage. ‘ ‘The discussion can be further refined to argue that these four stages are merely two phases which have repeated themselves: from ancient ‘exclusivity’ to civic ‘localism’ and back to Robbins era ‘exclusivity’ and thence to post-1992 ‘localism’ once more’. The opening up of higher education via the Internet in the late 20th and early 21st centuries provides for the possibility of the growth of entirely non-spatial and asynchronous learning experiences, and as such we may well be on the verge of the fifth stage of university development.     

Learning domains and the process of creativity

Creativity is viewed in different ways in different disciplines: in education it is called ‘innovation’, in business it is ‘entrepreneurship’, in mathematics it is often equated with ‘problem solving’, and in music it is ‘performance’ or ‘composition’. A creative product in different domains is measured against the norms of that domain, with its own rules, approaches and conceptions of creativity.     

Learning environment profiles of Turkish secondary biology classrooms

The purposes of this study were to examine how Turkish students perceived their biology classroom environment, how their perceptions compared to those of students in other countries, and what classroom learning environment profiles could be discerned in Turkish high school biology classrooms. Data were gathered from 1,474 high school students in four inner city schools, in Bursa, Turkey. A total of 11 biology teachers participated in the study with 52 of their classes. Data on students’ perceptions of their learning environment were collected with the What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire. Results indicated that Turkish classrooms were perceived as being low in terms of Teacher Support and high in terms of Task Orientation. Six distinct classroom learning environment profiles were found: the ‘self-directed learning classroom’, ‘task-oriented cooperative learning classroom’, ‘mainstream classroom’, ‘task-oriented individualised classroom’, ‘low-effective learning classroom’ and ‘high-effective learning classroom’. The most common profile was the ‘mainstream classroom’ for which all WIHIC scales had medium–high scores.     

中国大陆高中生国际化高等教育的需求状况分析

By probing into the relationship of senior students’ demand for “internationalization”, students’ expected economic returns in future careers, and their individual concept of modernity, this study attempts to explore several factors that are influencing the demand for overseas higher education. Translated from Jiaoyu Yu Jingji 教育与经济 (Education and Economy), 2006, (1): 51–54     

The study on the core concepts of contemporary sociology of education and its theoretical construction

Within the sphere of contemporary social sciences, the terms “modernity,” “post-modernity” and “globalization” have penetrated, as the core concepts, into various fields of social sciences in a logical way. In constituting the concept of “modernity,” sociology of education develops the educational theory, as sociological theory does, into a “grand narrative” and “foundationalist” theory; the contribution of post-modernity is pluralism and self-examination in an attempt to transcend modernity. Globalization, a kind of expanded modernity, makes education sociologists broaden their perspective from single and traditional “nationality,” “society” and “nation” to an international society and even to the global society, which has broken through the research paradigm of modernity with ethnocentrism, anthropocentrism and Euro-centrism. These changes have required urgent constitution of the conceptions and theoretical frameworks of sociology of education to be applied on a global level. __________ Translated from Peking University Education Review, 2006 (1)     

论教育重心的转移:以《哈佛教育评论》为例

With the content analysis method, this paper uses statistic evidence and analysis of the discourses in Harvard Educational Review (HER) from 1931 to 2000 to discuss the transformation of educational research, which has turned from “teaching object” to “teaching subject”. What is more, education research is not only aimed at pursuing the efficiency of teaching, but also showing more concern for the individuals in the process of teaching. Translated from Jiaoyu Fazhan Yanjiu 教育发展研究 (Exploring Education Development), 2005, (12): 53–56     

教育对不同群体收入的影响

This study investigates, statistically and econometrically, the income level, income inequality, education inequality, and the relationship between education and income of different social groups, on the basis of the Chinese Urban Household Survey conducted in 2005, the Gini coefficient and the quartile regression method. Research findings indicate that income inequality in China shows a significantly increasing trend since the beginning of the 1990s, which is attributed to the lowest income groups. Additionally, it is seen that the higher the level of education in a group, the smaller the income gap within it. As a result, the rate of returns on education for the “group with weaker ability to earn” is higher than that for the “group with stronger ability to earn”. Translated from Beijing Daxue Jiaoyu Pinglun 北京大学教育评论 (Peking University Education Review), 2006, 4(2): 85–92     

教育并存生产性与服务性

Neither of the “Three Industry” Theory nor the “General Agreement of Trading Service” (GATS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) can be the essential criteria to analyze the property of education. The property of education can be defined from consumers’ perspective. The direct consumers of education are students; but the ultimate consumers of education include parents, employers, society and governments as well. From the perspective of consumers, education is both a service and a productive institution. Translated from Beijing Shifan Daxue Xuebao (Shehui Kexue Ban) 北京师范大学学报 (社会科学版) (Journal of Beijing Normal University (Social Sciences)), 2006, (2): 5–10     

Developing a taxonomy of science concepts based on a scale of empirical distance

The term ‘concept’ is used in different ways within educational literature and has at least two different, although related, referents in relation to science knowledge, namely, public knowledge and private understandings. A taxonomic structure for ‘science concepts’ (public knowledge) has been developed to provide a rationale for the choice of phenomena to be used in the investigation of students’ ‘concepts’ and also to act as a frame of reference for generating insights about the data to be collected. Furthermore, it may be a useful heuristic to predict other science concepts likely to be highly problematic in school teaching situations and thus worthy of detailed research. The taxonomy, called a ‘Scale of Empirical Distance’ (SED), enables science concepts to be mapped according to their degree of closeness to concrete realities. The scale shows a recognition of the empirical basis of science concepts and the role of human senses in the perception of the material world even though “absolute objectivity of observation is not a possible ideal of science” as Harre (1972) has noted. The scale uses two binary variables, namely, ‘visual’ and ‘tactile’, to generate four categories of science concepts ranging on a continuum from concrete to abstract. Some concepts related to ‘matter’ will be classified and discussed. Specializations: science teacher education, primary science curriculum and methods, students’ personal meanings of phenomena.     

中国学术制度建构的历史与现实境遇

The rise and development of China’s academic system is a process that started from “passively accepting Western Learning”; to today’s “catching up with Western Learning and even exceeding it”;. In the last century, China experienced a turbulent and unstable social environment in which academics and politics have always been intertwined. As a result, the internal logic of China’s academic system shares similar characteristics with its Western models, but is unique in certain ways at the same time. In the complex and inseparable relationship between academics and politics, which involves both love and hate, the logic that academics must serve political needs, on one hand, establishes the co-existence of the academia and the government, which provides a relatively stable environment for academic activities within the system; on the other hand, it also jeopardizes the ecological environment in which the academics can develop according to its own internal logic. For exactly the same reasons, even at present, internalization means something special and complex for Chinese academia because, on one hand, it truly represents academia’s strive to meet international standards; on the other hand, the pushing factor behind this “voluntary”; stance is still state and political power. __________ Translated by FENG Xiaojie from Beijing Shifan Daxue Xuebao (Shehui Kexue Ban) 北京师范大学学报 (社会科学版) (Journal of Beijing Normal University (Social Sciences)), 2008, (6): 21–28     

Workplace correlates and scholarly performance of clinical pharmacy faculty

The workplace, especially the academic department or division, provides an intriguing research site for study of correlates of scholarly performance. The objective of this study was to estimate a correlate model of three-year scholarly performance of clinical faculty in colleges of pharmacy. Two-hundred and ninety-six clinical faculty in pharmacy responded to an author-developed questionnaire. The scholarly performance items factored into three dimensions: “Refereed Research,”, “Grants/Books Research,” and “Nonresearch Scholarship.” A fourth single-item variable, “Contracts,” was also used as a dependent dimension. Eight correlates, including two related to the departmental workplace, emerged as factors significantly explaining the variation in scholarly performance. The two most significant were “Off-Campus Conversations” and “Department: Percent Time in Research.” These results as well as others were contrasted with prior correlate studies and suggestions were made for future additional study.     

Knowledge of derivational suffixes in students with language learning disabilities

Knowledge of derivational suffix meanings was investigated in 10- to 12-year-old students with language learning disabilities and individually matched chronological- and language-age peers. Students produced derived forms from nonce bases in an elicitation task and selected derived forms in a forced choice task. For instance, students produced a word to label the baby of an invented animal called a TEM (TEMlet, TEMette, TEMkin, etc.) and chose an appropriate label from four options (TEMlet, TEMkin, TEMship, TEMhood). Twenty-eight suffixes (e.g., less, y, ize) conveying seven derivational meanings (e.g., “without X,” “approximately X,” “to make X”) were studied. All groups showed higher accuracy on the forced choice task than on the elicitation task. However, elicitation task accuracy of students with language learning disabilities fell substantially below that of typically achieving students. Suffixes for “agent X,” “character of X,” and “to make X” were produced in the elicitation task with higher accuracy than suffixes for “approximately X,” “diminutive X,” and “state of X.” In both tasks, suffix use was associated with productivity (i.e., regularity of suffix attachment). All groups chose highly productive suffixes (e.g., TEMlet) over less productive suffixes (e.g., TEMkin) to convey each meaning.     

中国东中西部高等教育差异变迁的实证分析

Based on the quantitative research and comparative study method, this paper attempts to make a systematic study and analysis of regional differences which have existed since 1949 in higher education among East, Middle and West China. The study is intended to explore the causes, regional differences, social changes, and their co-related interactions. It is concluded that the beneficent social and educational development in various regions will determine the substantial development of Chinese higher education. __________ Translated from Hebei Shifan Daxue Xuebao (Jiaoyu Kexue Ban) 河北师范大学学报(教育科 学版) (Journal of Hebei Normal University (Educational Science Edition)), 2007, 9(2): 5–18     

Perceptions of teachers, students and parents of the characteristics of good teachers: a cross-cultural comparison of China and the United States

Since the 1920’s many researchers have conducted studies exploring the qualities of good teachers. However, a limited number of empirical studies have been conducted in the People’s Republic of China (hereafter called China). The current study has two objectives. The first one aims to compare a good teacher’s characteristics in China and the USA. To achieve this, qualitative data of a good teacher’s characteristics were collected in China. The results obtained from China were then compared to those reported in the USA. The second objective was to test whether or not there are differences among teachers’, students’ and parents’ perceptions of a good teacher’s characteristics in China. To achieve this, questionnaires were administered, and then statistical analyses were conducted. The qualitative data analyses have revealed four themes about the characteristics of good Chinese teachers: Teacher ethics, professional skills, professional development, and students’ test scores. The ANOVAs have found no differences among teachers’, students’ and parents’ perceptions of the qualities of good teachers in China on most of the items. This study helps readers better understand good teachers in a Chinese context and provides a framework for future comparative study between China and the USA regarding the qualities of good teachers.     

Evaluating the Implementation of an Olympic Education Program in Greece

The aim of this study was to develop an instrument for evaluating how an education program has been implemented. Such evaluation can provide insight into the effectiveness of a program. Examined here was the Olympic Education Program used in Greek schools since 2000. In it, students learn the history of the Olympic games and the importance of exercise for health along with the principles and values of sports and volunteerism. The evaluation instrument underlying this study addressed the following six factors: ‘facilities’, ‘administration’, ‘educational material’, ‘student–teacher relationships’, ‘educational procedures’, and ‘training’. Results indicate that the instrument, while adequate for assessing effectiveness, should be combined with advanced statistical methods.     

新疆民族教育的发展与双语教育的实践

The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is an area of great importance for the ethnic minorities of northwestern China, and the development of local minority education has been a constant concern in both government and academic spheres. By means of analyzing government documents, statistical data and research literature, this article attempts to define the fundamental modes and development processes of minority education in Xinjiang. Furthermore, the article elaborates on discussion of the development and problems relevant to bilingual education in the concentrated Uyghur communities of southern Xinjiang based on the author’s field research in the Kashgar Prefecture in 2007. Translated by Zhang Lin from Beijing Daxue Jiaoyu Pinglun 北京大学教育评论 (Peking University Education Review), 2008, (2): 2–41, revised by Daniel Weisman     

中国西南地区少数民族大学生民族认同心理研究

In China, ethnic identity refers to both one’s own ethnic identity and the identity of the Chinese nation. It is of great significance not only to individuals’ mental health and full play of psychological functions but also to ethnic solidarity and regional and national stability. On the whole, ethnic minority college students in the Southwestern regions have positive national identity and behavior tendency. Universities and colleges should further uplift students’ national identity and improve their behavior through education. __________ Translated from Minzu Jiaoyu Yanjiu 民族教育研究(Journal of Research on Education for Ethnic Minorities), 2007, 18(2): 32–36     

Conceptions of,and approaches to,teaching online: a study of lecturers teaching postgraduate distance courses

This paper presents the outcomes of a study into online teaching. It builds upon previous research and conceptual frameworks produced by Kember and Kwan (Instr Sci 28(5):469–490, 2000) and Roberts (Instr Sci 31(1–2):127–150, 2003). It advances research on conceptions of, and approaches to, teaching by examining teaching in a novel context: distance-taught courses at the postgraduate level. Lecturers were interviewed from a Faculty of Health Sciences in a research-intensive Australian University. Relationships between conceptions and approaches found in previous research were confirmed in this study. However, it was found that the conceptions of online teaching proposed by Roberts (Instr Sci 31(1–2):127–150, 2003) did not adequately distinguish between the conceptions held by the lecturers interviewed in this study. Three modified conceptions of online teaching are proposed: ‘for individual access to learning materials and information; and for individual assessment’; ‘for learning related communication (asynchronous and/or synchronous)’; and ‘as a medium for networked learning’. Some of the dimensions developed by Roberts to describe approaches to online teaching were not applicable in this study setting and needed further modification. Two broad approaches emerged: ‘informative/individual learning focused’ and ‘communicative/networked learning focused’. Contextual influences on teaching reported by Kember and Kwan (Instr Sci 28(5):469–490, 2000)—that is, institutional influence, nature of students and subject and curriculum—were revealed in this study to have different levels of influence over approaches to online teaching: the first two being the more relevant ones.     

中国师范大学转型中发展目标的解读与思考

As the teacher education in China gradually evolves from the closed one into an open one, and with the greater pressure from the competition among universities, the transformation of normal universities is an inevitable choice. The problems that normal universities need to face up to are the proper goal orientation and the setting of appropriate development goals. Through the comparison and interpretation of the development goals of current normal universities in China, this paper finds similar tendency in the development types and the choices of features. Goal orientation is vital to the development of normal universities. Therefore, when setting and implementing development goals, a sound understanding about expressions like “the features of operating schools” and “comprehensive universities” should be improved, and a rational thinking about the fundamental questions should be engaged in as well. __________ Translated from Gaodeng Jiaoyu Yanjiu 高等教育研究 (Journal of Higher Education), 2008, 29(2): 29–34     

Educational research for professional practice: More than providing evidence for doing ‘x rather than y’ or finding the ‘size of the effect of A on B’

Educational research has been criticised by governments and practitioners. For some politicians and policy makers, there is a tendency to look for direct links between research and successful, effective and efficient practice. Research is needed to inform their evidence-based practice as policy makers, and to provide the kind of research teachers need to base their practice on the best available evidence for doing ‘x rather than y’ (Hargreaves 1996) or predicting the ‘size of the effect of A on B’ (Blunkett 2000). There is no doubt that both teachers and policy makers do make decisions on a daily basis based on some form of evidence. This paper explores Hargreaves’ notion of evidence-based practice, providing a range of criticisms. It also examines Carr’s historical account of ‘praxis’ and ‘poiesis’ to suggest a notion of evidence-based praxis based partly on the historical notion of ‘phronesis’ — practical wisdom. The basis for this is the argument that wise and practical ethical and moral judgements are central to an understanding of teachers’ daily work. What to do in a specific educational situation cannot be determined solely by theoretical beliefs or by ‘techne’. However the ethical dimension is not the only consideration. The paper suggests that evidence-based praxis use Stenhouse’s notion of ‘actionable evidence’, which includes the ethical dimension, but also Thomson’s concept of ‘thisness’, which describes the unique contextual characteristics of a school. If disadvantaged schools can make some sort of difference to learning opportunities for students, it is argued that teachers might engage in evidence-based praxis which involves them in reflecting on, and theorising what is happening in classrooms, schools and neighbourhoods. This ‘praxis’ also involves them in modifying their theories, critically analysing ‘what works’, questioning how they know and developing ideas about how things might be done differently. There will be an element of developing knowledge about teaching and learning strategies (Hargreaves’ ‘body of knowledge’), but it will be in the context of the ethical and moral dilemmas associated with education. It will take up the question of local differences as well as a realistic approach to what constitutes actual school improvement. Evidence-based praxis is also essentially a collective activity not an individual approach. Future development of the notion of evidence-based praxis might also include involving students in a more reciprocal and open learning process like that highlighted by researchers who focus on student participation linked to school reform.