深刻反省我国教育的"重点制"

Since the 1980s, “key school system” (KSS) in basic education has contributed to teaching quality and the development of some schools. However, at the same time it brings about many serious problems such as failure to attain educational objective, being away from the goal of education equity, arising students’ mental or emotional problems, lack of moral education, vicious competition among schools and so on. It can be said that the present educational problems are tied closely to “KSS”. As a result, this paper attempts to do a deep reflection on it to promote the education reform of China. Translated from Jiaoyu Xuebao 教育学报 (Journal of Education Studies), 2006, 2(2): 36–42     

Class, Identity, and Teacher Education

This paper explores the possibilities of working with White, working-class teacher education students to explore the “complex social trajectory” (Reay in Women’s Stud Int Forum 20(2):225–233, 1997a, p. 19) of class border crossing as they progress through college. Through analysis of a course that I have developed, Education and the American Dream, I explore political and pedagogical issues in teaching the thousands of teacher education students who are the first in their families to attend college about social class. Arguing that faculty in teacher education too often disregard the significance of deep class differences between themselves and many of their students, I propose that teacher education include coursework in which upwardly-mobile students (a) draw upon their distinctive perspectives as class border-crossers to elucidate their “complex social positioning as a complicated amalgam of current privilege interlaced with historic disadvantage” (Reay in Women’s Stud Int Forum 20(2):225–233, 1997a, p. 25) and (b) complicate what Adair and Dahlberg (Pedagogy 1:173–175, 2001, p. 174) have termed a cultural “impulse to frame class mobility as a narrative of moral progress”. Such coursework, I suggest, has implications for the development of teacher leaders in stratified schools. The paper draws upon the literatures on social class and educational attainment, on the construction of classed identities in spite of silence about class in public and academic discourse, and on pedagogies for teaching across class differences.     

Quality Assurance in UK Higher Education: Issues of Trust, Control, Professional Autonomy and Accountability

This article explores the issues of trust, control, professional autonomy and accountability in higher education quality assurance in the UK. The main part of this article is conceptual, but it includes results from semi-structured interviews with academic staff that were conducted at two “new university” business schools. Both institutions are broadly similar in their key characteristics and have experienced a transformation to university status in the early 1990s. The article argues that there has been a change from informal “light-touch” quality control systems based on local practices and a significant amount of trust and professional autonomy in the early 1990s to a highly prescribed process of audit-based quality control today. The article argues that accountability and transparency are important principles that academics should wholeheartedly embrace, but that the audit format adopted in the UK introduces a one-way accountability and provides “rituals of verification” (Power 1997) instead of fostering trust, has high opportunity costs and may well be detrimental to innovative teaching and learning.     

The struggle for general science in Australia: The final campaign in the technical schools of the state of Victoria

The aims of the junior technical schools in Victoria were, from the time of their formal establishment in 1911, to provide preparatory education-training for two groups. First, for the relatively small number who proceeded to higher technical education, appropriate for industrial chemists, engineers and architects, and secondly, for the relatively larger numbers who sought to enter skilled trades. The first successful campaign in Australia for a general science for all other secondary students in Victoria was waged in the War years 1939–43 on a platform of science as “a badge of utility and a key to good citizenship”. These were the modest terms upon which science teaching secured a more central place in the classical literary curriculum. The final campaign twenty years later in technical schools was fought on the platform that school science was “not just a servant to trade or engineering courses.”     

L’éCOLE PUBLIQUE AU SéNéGAL : APPROCHE PSYCHOSOCIALE DES PRATIQUES PARENTALES DE (NON) SCOLARISATION ET DES EXPéRIENCES éDUCATIVES DES ENFANTS

PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN SENEGAL: ANALYSING THE REASONS FOR (NON) ENROLMENT – This study focuses on Senegal, where the education system is split between traditional Koranic schools and purportedly “modern” public schools, which have been compulsory since 1990 but which are currently attended by only two-thirds of children eligible to enrol. The article argues that a number of psychosocial factors need to be studied in order to understand this issue fully. By analysing responses gathered from 20 parent-child units, the authors reveal: (a) how parental identity strategies affect how they choose to school their children, and (b) how children’s attitudes are shaped in different ways depending on whether they attend “traditional” or “modern” schools.     

Individuals and Leadership in an Australian Secondary Science Department: A Qualitative Study

In this article, we consider the complex and dynamic inter-relationships between individual science teachers, the social space of their work and their dispositions towards teacher leadership. Research into the representation of school science departments through individual science teachers is scarce. We explore the representations of four individual teachers to the assertions of teacher leadership proposed by Silva et al. (Teach Coll Rec, 102(4):779–804, 2000). These representations, expressed during regular science department meetings, occur in the social space of Bourdieu’s “field” and are a reflection of the “game” of science education being played within the department. This departmentally centred space suggests an important implication when considering the relationship between subject departments and their schools. The development of an individual’s representation of teacher leadership and the wider “field” of science education appears to shape the individual towards promoting their own sense of identity as a teacher of science, rather than as a teacher within a school. Our work suggests that for these individuals, the important “game” is science education, not school improvement. Consequently, the subject department may be a missing link between efforts to improve schools and current organizational practices.     

Models of supervision in early childhood programs: Implications for training

Many child care directors inherit their role of supervisor without having had adequate training or experience. Given the wide disparity in the field with respect to staff preparation, child care directors, in their role as supervisors, are called on to develop, train, evaluate, and appraise child care workers on a daily basis. The literature in the field suggests that there are common threads among supervisory models in early childhood and that directors of child care programs can benefit from in-service training that specifically addresses their supervisory functions. “The most difficult part of my job as Director is trying to get my staff to change certain practices.” Director, Church Preschool Program “I don't feel comfortable with my role as evaluator; I guess I don't like telling people they're doing something wrong.” Director, Day Care Center     

Argumentation and indigenous knowledge: socio-historical influences in contextualizing an argumentation model in South African schools

This forum considers argumentation as a means of science teaching in South African schools, through the integration of indigenous knowledge (IK). It addresses issues raised in Mariana G. Hewson and Meshach B. Ogunniyi’s paper entitled: Argumentation-teaching as a method to introduce indigenous knowledge into science classrooms: opportunities and challenges. As well as Peter Easton’s: Hawks and baby chickens: cultivating the sources of indigenous science education; and, Femi S. Otulaja, Ann Cameron and Audrey Msimanga’s: Rethinking argumentation-teaching strategies and indigenous knowledge in South African science classrooms. The first topic addressed is that implementation of argumentation in the science classroom becomes a complex endeavor when the tensions between students’ IK, the educational infrastructure (allowance for teacher professional development, etc.) and local belief systems are made explicit. Secondly, western styles of debate become mitigating factors because they do not always adequately translate to South African culture. For example, in many instances it is more culturally acceptable in South Africa to build consensus than to be confrontational. Thirdly, the tension between what is “authentic science” and what is not becomes an influencing factor when a tension is created between IK and western science. Finally, I argue that the thrust of argumentation is to set students up as “scientist-students” who will be considered through a deficit model by judging their habitus and cultural capital. Explicitly, a “scientist-student” is a student who has “learned,” modeled and thoroughly assimilated the habits of western scientists, evidently—and who will be judged by and held accountable for their demonstration of explicit related behaviors in the science classroom. I propose that science teaching, to include argumentation, should consist of “listening carefully” (radical listening) to students and valuing their language, culture, and learning as a model for “science for all”.     

Ready...Fire...Aim! Toward meaningful technology standards for educators and students

Conclusion I applaud ISTE, AASL, AECT, and the other organizations involved for tackling the “messy work” of developing standards for the use of technology and information resources in schools. And, at the same time, I call for a “second generation” of standards that define realistic expectations for teachers based on the subjects and levels they are called upon to teach. I propose that professional organizations from each subject work with ISTE and AECT to complete this huge task, and I propose that we consider as a “next step” the creation of a set of on-line learning experiences through which teachers can gain the identified skills and knowledge by using the very technologies we’re hoping they’ll embrace in their own teaching. There’s an old saying, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will do.” As far as educational technologies are concerned, this is also true. For many, the goal seems to have been simply to “get more computers into the schools,” without much thought about purpose. To return to Phil Schlechty’s metaphor, It’s generally been a brief and misguided “Ready” stage (occupied with questions like “How many do we need?” “What type?” “Where?” and “How shall we connect them?”), followed by “Fire!” (the acquisition and installation of equipment). What we need is: “Ready” (the creation of appropriate teams of people who will combine their insights to plan for the district)... “Aim” (a series of discussions about what technologies can accomplish for schools and the students they serve)... “Fire” (acquisition, installation, and professional development according to plan)... “Aim” (an assessment of how well the technologies and related programs met the intended goals, and a new planning effort designed to close the gap)... “Fire” (acquisition and implementation designed to eliminate the gap)... “Aim” (another gap assessment)... “Fire” (another attempt to close gaps)..., And so on.     

Why a Special Issue on Collaborative Learning in Postsecondary and Professional Settings?

To introduce the special issue on collaborative learning in postsecondary and professional education, the editors describe their reasons for assembling it. First, most of the existing collaborative learning research focuses on K-12 settings; second, some forms of collaborative learning are used predominantly or exclusively in postsecondary or professional education; and finally, increasing numbers of adults are getting some or all of their college education online. The introduction concludes with the editors explaining their decision not to take a position on the nomenclature question (“collaborative” vs. “cooperative” vs. “peer” vs. “small group” learning) which pervades the literature.     

Street Smarts vs. Book Smarts: The Figured World of Smartness in the Lives of Marginalized, Urban Youth

How smartness is defined within schools contributes to low academic achievement by poor and racial/ethnic minority students. Using Holland et al.’s (1998) [Holland, D., Lachicotte, W., Skinner, D., & Cain, C. (Eds.) (1998). Identity and agency in cultural worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.] concept of “figured worlds,” this paper explores the “figuring” of smartness through the perspectives of marginalized youth. The youth made key distinctions between being book smart vs. street smart. This distinction is a direct challenge by the youth to the dominant discourse of smartness or “book smarts” as it operates in schools. To the youth, “street smarts” are more important because they are connected to being able to maneuver through structures in their lives such as poverty, the police, street culture, and abusive “others.” This distinction is key because street smarts stress agency in countering social structures whereas, for many of the youth, book smarts represented those structures, such as receiving a high school diploma. Implications for schools and pedagogy are discussed. B.A. earned from Indiana University – Bloomington, Masters and Ph.D. earned from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Beth Hatt Fis an Assistant Professor of Educational Administration and Foundations at Illinois State University where she teaches research methods and social foundations of education. Her current research explores smartness as a cultural construct in schools and the media.     

An Interrogation of the “If Only” Mentality: One Teacher’s Deficit Perspective put on Trial

In this article, I interrogate a previous and harmful “If Only” mindset I held as an early childhood literacy teacher. I describe the “If Only” mentality as the idea that if only the parents and families of the students I taught changed, schools and teachers could serve their children better. This deficit way of thinking led to a number of mistakes I made as a still-new, white, middle-class, monolingual Reading Recovery teacher who was unprepared to value the home and community literacies of a population of students and families from linguistic, cultural, and economic backgrounds other than my own.     

School–Parent Partnerships in Singapore

In an era of rapid global economic and social change, educational institutions like schools and universities are struggling to keep their curricula and programs relevant. Singapore’s schools are no exception, especially when education is viewed as the essential element for maintaining the nation’s global competitiveness in ways that are totally disproportionate to its size. The current shift from an ‘efficiency-’ to an ‘ability-’ driven paradigm in education, however, is increasing uncertainty and raising the stakes in an already pressurized system where schools, educators and students constantly compete for top academic awards and rewards. The concept of “partnership” in Singapore education is a significant, relatively new, trend that has caught on among local schools only since the late-1990s, with the focus on creating better “total” learning environments for students. This paper analyses the challenges of matching rhetoric with professional practice with regard to school–home partnerships in Singapore, and concludes that the key to authentic collaboration lies in the mutual appreciation and valuing of diversity as well as a deep sense of shared responsibility by all parties concerned.     

Figuring “Success” in a Bilingual High School

Using the concept of figured worlds, this article demonstrates how the faculty, staff, and students of Gregorio Luperón High School in New York City figured “success” by prioritizing the students’ linguistic and cultural resources. “Success” was constructed specifically through granting Spanish high status, developing positive teacher–student relationships, and relying upon the cultural artifact of the opportunity narrative. This qualitative ethnographic study focuses on the school-related social interactions that took place among students, teachers and staff, to explore the socially and locally constructed model of success within this bilingual high school for newly arrived, Spanish-speaking immigrant youth. Ali Michael is a PhD candidate in Teaching Learning, Curriculum and Society at the University of Pennsylvania. Her academic and research interests include whiteness studies, multicultural education and anthropology of education. Norma Andrade is the Language and Latin American Coordinator and Advocate for a non-profit organization, Refugee Women’s Alliance, located in Seattle, Washington. She advocates for the immigrant and refugee communities in Washington State. Lesley Bartlett is an assistant professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research and teaching interests include anthropology of education, comparative and international education, sociocultural studies of literacies, transnationalism, and schooling across the Americas.     

A Festschrift for Andy Hargreaves

Recent social policy reforms have sought to overcome the limitations of “First Way” strategies emphasizing the welfare state and “Second Way” approaches advocating markets. Scholars and policymakers instead have begun to explore optimal synthesis of the public and private sector in a new “Third Way” of leadership and change. According to one line of interpretation advanced by Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley, however, the Third Way as developed in education has ushered in a new orthodoxy of testing, accountability, and data-driven decision making. This new orthodoxy is said to distract educators from their true moral purposes. Hence, Hargreaves and Shirley have called for a new “Fourth Way” of change that draws upon international best practices in education. In this interpretive essay for a Festschrift issue of the Journal of Educational Change celebrating Andy Hargreaves’ 60th birthday, Dennis Shirley revisits Fourth Way change architecture to inquire after the appropriate role of new technologies in classrooms and schools. He retrieves the concept of mindful teaching and learning from the Fourth Way change model and illustrates how it can be used as a lens to adjudicate various interpretations of the appropriate role of new technologies in schools.     

What kind of modern school system do we need?

The marketization of education cannot serve as the guiding principle in constructing the modern school system, nor can it be directly transplanted from modern enterprise system. Because the modern school system is a kind of “educational institution” rather than an “economical institution”, what it should focus on is not the ownership of property or the distinction of property, but on the core educational issue, that is, the students’ development. Such a kind of modern school system requires that the government delegates power to schools to realize academic autonomy in schools (selfgovernance). Translated from Jiaoyu Yanjiu 教育研究 (Educational Research), 2004, (12): 32–38     

Collaboration, scaffolding and the promotion of problem solving strategies in Mexican pre-schoolers

Research in Mexican schools, drawing upon earlier research in the UK, has led to the development and use of a method for describing, comparing and evaluating the particular approaches and interactional strategies used by teachers and learners. Using this method, qualitative and quantitative comparisons are made to distinguish between teachers who use a conventional, formal, directive approach when teaching 5-year-old children mathematical skills (called the “Official” method) and those who use a more interactive, collaborative, supportive, “scaffolded” approach to teach similar classes of children (called the “High Scope” method). In an earlier study, we found more competent and independent problem-solving among High/Scope pupils than among their peers taught by the Official method. In the present study, discourse analysis and statistical analysis of the relative frequencies of types of teacher-pupil interaction in the classrooms of two “Official” teachers and two “High’ Scope” teachers are used to explain the improved problem-solving of the “High Scope” pupils. The findings support the view that by creating a more collaborative, scaffolded version of classroom education, teachers can more successfully enable children to develop their own problem-solving skills, learning strategies and curriculum-related understanding. The research also contributes to the development and implementation of methods for promoting a more effective style of teacher-learner interaction in the classroom.     

Examining the social and scientific roles of invention in science education

I have been drawn to the construct of “invention” and “inventive acts” because in my research involving how homeless children construct science and the self-in-science, an overwhelming theme has been the multiple ways in which self-identity in science has been described by the children through a language of invention. Using post-modern feminism and science and technologies studies, I examine the multiple uses and definitions of “invention” in science in order to develop a theory of invention and inventive acts around the themes: invention as a social act, invention as a recursive and socially linked process, and embodied agency. I use this framework to examine the construct of “invention” in two different case studies involving the science education of urban homeless children. Finally, I link this discussion of invention and inventive acts with current international reform initiatives revolving around constructivist science teaching and learning.     

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     

Change in teacher education: How holmes was hijacked

Summary A movement among universities noted for research and for rigorous scholarship that would have insured a significantly improved education for prospective teachers was transformed in a short time, about ten years, into another agency of centrally inspired “school refrom,” The Holmes Group’s initial program called for prospective teachers to undergo five years of general education and teacher education, devoting the undergraduate years largely to arts and sciences. It also called for a closer collaboration between teacher educators and arts and science faculty in order to prepare preservice teachers to teach more rigorous pedagogically organized subject matter. Included in the early Holmes agenda was the concept of a professional development school as a public school site for pedagogical application, under the direction of veteran teacher cadres. However, as a consequence of an increasingly liberal academic ideology, informing a persistent criticism of Holmes’s original proposals as elitist and insufficiently activist, the Holmes group came in a short time to underplay its call for a five-year program, to back off from a closer collaboration between teacher educators and arts and sciences faculty, and to transform its concept of an affiliated public school from a site for pre-service pedagogical classroom practice into an exemplary school-to-be. Some hope may remain: the Holmes staff recently distributed the “Conference Proceedings” of the January 1998 annual convention held in Orlando. On page 42 of those proceedings, Arthur Wise, the peripatetic head of NCATE (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education—now a Holmes “partner” at the national level) found Holmes neglectful of an appropriate concern for arts and sciences education for prospective teachers. Wise was a “ranconteur” in Orlando; as such he was expected to provide a “reflective response” to the conference. He said, apologetically, I might offer my one sound of criticism ... I just worry when I see that ... we may be paying too much attention to the external aspects of school and maybe not enough to the guts of the matter which is, after all, content and how to teach it.