Evolution in Freedom? The Meanings of ‘Free School’ in Chile

This article examines the background in which enterprises called free schools, as well as complementary educational activities, have taken root in Chile. Two kinds of recently burgeoning free schools are identified; one supplementing regular schooling with a social justice focus, and another that is a fully fledged alternative to other schooling. The history of freedom itself in Chile is explored from a historical perspective, contrasting somewhat with freedom as it is understood in more developed countries. Parallels to Anglophone free schools such as AS Neill’s Summerhill are also discussed, as well as the sociopolitical context in which Chilean free schools continue to develop.     

Students’ English Learning Anxiety in Senior High School

Since 1970s,the research on second language acquisition has been developed with times.The research focus of lLanguage teach ing has shifted from the study of how to teach students to how to learn for students,with particular attention to explore the influence that students’psychological factors such as learning motivation,learning attitude and learning anxiety have on learning outcomes.Among those emotional variables,anxiety is considered to be one of the most critical psychological variables.English classroom anxiety is different from the ordinary classroom anxiety and receives much attention from scholars.Horwiz(1986) pointed out that foreign language anxiety is a unique phenomenon in language learning.In China,English learning in senior high school is a very important period.It is a common phenomenon to see students behaving anxiously in the English class.Therefore,the anxiety in the English class of senior high school de serves attention.This paper will analyze the main reasons of students’anxiety and points out several effectively methods to relieve their anxiety so as to enhance English classroom teaching and learning effect.     

Improving High School–College Alignment: A Sociological Reform and New Challenges

This paper analyzes teacher responses to a distinctive reform that sought to ­implement alignment between high schools and colleges. A survey of 225 teachers is used to examine teachers’ perceptions of the reform’s effectiveness, further resources needed, and how perceptions changed over time. The reform was perceived as effective for college-bound students, but not for non-college-bound students, magnifying the discrepant needs of these groups. Steps to improve the program are suggested.     

Discussions about Students’ Writing Ability Development in Senior High School

With the growing communication with western countries,English especially English writing is becoming more and more important while in China,some English teachers still haven’t given enough emphasis on fostering students’writing ability.Here the author will discuss it and give some suggestions.     

On Cultivating Students’ Ability of Listening Comprehension in Senior High School in the Northwest of Guangxi

Nowadays, the role of listening course is changed and listening teaching begins to gain high priority in foreign language learning and teaching. However, the English level of students in China is still poor, especially in the northwest of Guangxi. One of the reasons is that teachers in senior high schools have a tendency to ignore listening, because they think that listening is time-consumed. They have to finish the teaching scheme punctually, though listening is the basic and important skill among the other three skills, listening teaching gains no large progress.     

Pedagogical Tasks for Developing Learners’Speaking Fluency in Chi-nese Senior High Schools

In this essay, the author explains and analyses the background and speaking criteria in Chinese senior high schools. This essay aims to put forward a series of pedagogical tasks about one topic that ar...     

Pedagogical Tasks for Developing Learners’ Speaking Fluency in Chinese Senior High Schools

In this essay, the author explains and analyses the background and speaking criteria in Chinese senior high schools.This essay aims to put forward a series of pedagogical tasks about one topic that are designed to develop learners’ speaking fluency by implanting lexical chunks and 4/3/2 technique to help learners improve speaking fluency in Chinese senior high schools.     

The ‘Reality’ of School Organization

Five headteachers formed a group for the purpose of school evaluation. The approach used involved inter‐visiting and the sharing of the evaluation of each other's schools. The headteachers decided to evaluate the systems operating in their schools, evaluating each other in turn having involved the deputy in collecting staff views. All schools made changes as a result of the evaluations. The need for commitment by LEA or DES to such school evaluation was considered to be important.     

Cultivating an Environment That Contributes to Teaching and Learning in Schools: High School Principals’ Actions

Improving principal leadership is a vital component to the success of educational reform initiatives that seek to improve whole-school performance, as principal leadership often exercises positive but indirect effects on student learning. Because of the importance of principals within the field of school improvement, this article focuses on investigating the actions taken by principals working to cultivate an environment that contributes to effective teaching and learning. Utilizing data from 183 high school principals in Taiwan, this article finds that principals contribute to the healthy environment through personal, organizational, professional, and communal approaches. This article proposes that a respectful and caring learning community is the ideal environment for teaching and learning. This article also provides suggestions for principal leadership development that will help facilitate such an environment.     

The Application of Cooperative Learning in Improving Rural Senior High Students’ English

English teaching method has been improved and the effect of teaching has become greater these years in China,but it is not satis fying.Therefore,adopting experiment approach,the present study aims to solve the question:Can cooperative learning bring effect to the English learning? It chooses two classes from a rural school,one is experimental group which adopts cooperative-learning approach,the other is control group which adopts traditional approach.Focusing on the analysis and comparativeness of their two tests’ scores,it studies the influence of cooperative learning on psychology,learning environment and learning which bring to the English learners,making a con clusion that the application of cooperative learning can greatly improve English learning.     

Effectiveness of “Scaffolding Instruction” to English Speaking and Writing in Senior High School

English speaking and writing both embody the students’English proficiency and thinking skills.Scaffolding Instruction is a teaching mode which can provide appropriate assistance when the learners are faced difficulties during the learning.In this paper,first the overview of Scaffolding Instruction will be discussed.Then the application of Scaffolding Instruction in classroom teaching will be introduced based on a case analysis of an English speaking and writing lesson.     

Using Cogenerative Dialogs to Improve Science Teaching and Learning: Challenges and Solutions in High School Students’ Internships

Internships in science research settings have received increasing attention as a means of helping students construct appropriate understandings, practices, tools, and language in scientific activities. To advance student–scientist partnerships beyond the status quo, the study aimed to investigate how cogenerative dialogs (cogens) may help high school students and scientists identify and address challenges collectively. The analysis identified nine major challenges discussed during cogens: (1) the quality and progress of scientific practice in laboratories, (2) the quality of scientists’/assistants’ instructions in classrooms, (3) the quality of student participation in classrooms and homework, (4) students’ absences, including arriving late or leaving early, (5) the quality of administrative support, (6) preparation for scientific presentations, (7) the process of deciding project topics, (8) students’ peer interactions and communication, and (9) students’ physiological needs. The three most salient challenges were “the quality and progress of scientific practice in laboratories” (39%), “the quality of scientists’/assistants’ instructions in classrooms” (20%), and “the quality of student participation in classrooms and homework” (17%). The study shows that cogens allowed students and scientists to agree on teaching modifications that positively influenced teaching and learning processes during the internship, such that issues were reduced from the beginning to the closing stages. Importantly, the challenges and solutions identified by students and scientists in this study provide accounts of first-hand experience as well as insights to aid program directors or coordinators in designing a learning environment that can foster effective practice for internships by avoiding the issues identified in the study.     

An Empirical Study of Senior One High School Students’Cognitive Strategies in Learning English Vocabulary

The present research aims to find out (1) the general vocabulary learning beliefs of Senior One high school students in Guang zhou; (2) the general vocabulary cognitive strategies adopted by Senior One high school students in Guangzhou; (3) the differences be tween successful English learners and unsuccessful English learners in adopting cognitive strategies in their English vocabulary learning. A cohort of 68 Senior One high school students participate in the research. The results of the investigation show that the notion that vocabu lary should be learnt in context and through using is shared by the majority, that the most frequently used vocabulary cognitive strategies are inferencing, note-taking, contextualization and resourcing, that there is no significant difference between the successful English learners and the unsuccessful English learners in using identical vocabulary cognitive strategies.     

The Impact of School Development Plans in Primary Schools∗

In the U.K., in common with a growing number of countries, school development planning has been embraced with enthusiasm by practitioners and policy makers. Both groups have responded to the potential benefits of an improvement process which can integrate educational, financial and human resource needs and set and monitor the achievement of measurable goals. This paper describes the outcomes of a thirty‐two month research project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council which studied the impact of development planning in nine primary schools. It draws out the implications for practitioners and policy makers and explores some methodological issues arising from the study. The paper concludes by identifying further research priorities.

     

Older Workers’ Learning Within Organizations: Issues and Challenges

As increasing numbers of older adults stay in the workforce or engage in encore careers, they are subjected to diverse issues and challenges. The new dynamics of the workplace in a global market exert pressure on older workers and employers alike in which training and development has a potentially significant function for achieving greater productivity and job satisfaction. This article discusses the changing workplace and the diverse range of learning opportunities that may be available to older workers. The article then addresses selected issues of overcoming stereotypical assumptions about the capabilities of older workers, age stratification at work, and the differing perspectives of managers and employees to learning opportunities. The article argues for a negotiated process of learning where significant autonomy is assumed by workers.     

Attribution of Perceived Academic Results and Relations with Self‐esteem in Senior High School Students

The question of what makes a text easy or difficult to comprehend is answered on the basis of an empirical investigation, which draws especially on theories related to text and memory linguistics. Easy and difficult texts, verified empirically, were analyzed on micro‐ and macro‐levels. Certain aspects of syntax, lexicon and information structure were first studied. These were followed by text‐level analyses related to the narrative and structural organization and the propositional structure of the texts. The article gives an account of the parameters that were most clearly associated with level of text comprehension. The results are also discussed in the light of the possible implications for language in the Swedish‐medium instructional materials in Finland.