Field-based professional development of teachers engaged in distance education: experiences from the Arctic

We examine the experiences of five teachers who traveled with a team of educators, scientists, and explorers on circumpolar Arctic expeditions to deliver adventure learning (AL) programs to K–12 students at a distance. Results highlight the personal and professional impacts this opportunity had on teachers, including their empowering, fulfilling, and mentally exhausting experiences while assisting in delivering distance education to students worldwide. The article concludes with a discussion of issues to consider in the development of similar programs.     

Promoting sustainable development through whole school approaches: an international,intercultural teacher education research and development project

This paper focuses on a British Council funded Higher Education Link project involving three institutions—Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) in the UK and two South African institutions, the University of South Africa (UNISA) and Rhodes University. The link is a research and development project that has three main research strands: contextual profiling that will establish the applicability of a European teacher education project to the South African context, evaluative materials development and piloting predicated on a respect for indigenous and contextual knowledge, and impact analysis that will examine the role of multidirectional intergenerational mentoring in disseminating messages about sustainable lifestyles. The project is strongly influenced by the South African Revised National Curriculum statements pertaining to environment and an analysis of the impact that these materials have had on promoting whole school approaches to environmental education in South Africa. The link's initial purpose is to develop advanced certificate in education (ACE) course materials that will promote whole school approaches to environmental education, based on developing concepts of collaboration, pupil participation, educational process and action in schools in South Africa. Materials from the MMU‐based, European Commission funded Sustainability Education in European Primary Schools (SEEPS) Project will be adapted for use in South Africa by UNISA and Rhodes.

This paper reports on the development of the project and explores some of its activities and results to date. It documents how the project team approached the integrating redevelopment of SEEPS ideas and materials to use these resources in the design of continuing professional development (CPD) activities for ACE courses in environmental education at UNISA and Rhodes. The second section is written in semi‐dialogue form to try to reflect the nature of the discussions that occurred between the partners in the link during meetings in the UK. This dialogue outlines the conceptual and philosophical background to the SEEPS Project before examining continuities and tensions that arose in clarifying and situating guiding perspectives for CPD and whole school approaches in and for South African school contexts through the medium of teacher education. The paper also reviews how the South African team are interacting with ideas and materials from SEEPS to clarify whole school approaches to environmental education in South Africa and discusses the contexts within which the outcomes of the link will unfold.     

Approaches to the teaching of STS in science education

The Science, Technology and Society movement is a movement within higher and school education that seeks to bring the science education of students at these respective levels more closely to their needs as members of increasingly technological societies.

As far as school science education is concerned, two parallel developments have been occurring since the mid 1970s. The first is an evolving conception of the ways in which these interactions between Science, Technology and Society may be dealt with in science education. The other is the development of text and other curriculum materials that provide assistance for teachers wishing to teach science with these emphases. This paper outlines these two developments and brings them together by using an epistemological typology from the first to classify the varieties of curriculum materials now available.     

STS教育与初中化学新教材开发

加强STS教育 ,重视科学、技术与社会的相互联系是新一轮义务教育化学课程改革大力倡导的新理念。本文分析了STS教育的基本涵义和特征 ,论述了在初中化学新教材开发中体现STS教育应从三个方面入手 :教材内容的选择要“贴近生活 ,贴近社会” ;教材内容的组织要“从生活走进化学 ,从化学走向社会” ;教材编写要提供丰富的学习情景素材     

努力提高高教研究的质量和水平为繁荣高等教育科学做出新贡献

中国高等教育学会第四届理事会在大家的支持和共同努力下做了不少的工作.我代表学会第四届理事会向努力工作在学会各个岗位上的同志们表示衷心的感谢,向多年来一直关心和支持学会工作的各位领导和同志们表示衷心的感谢!     

Undergraduate education for the hearing-handicapped: The programme of research,adaptation and development of the Open University project for hearing-impaired students

Since January 1972, the Open University has been operating a project for the undergraduate education of the growing number of hearing-impaired students. These students face psychological, social and linguistic problems and other difficulties which arise from their isolation in the world, their limited ability to communicate and their educational background.So far, the project has been able to offer support in terms of education (special tutorials, discussions, etc.), communication (special equipment, interpreters, trained personnel) and what may be termed psycho-social therapy (counselling, technical help, general support). In many of the students, this has led to an increase of self-confidence and an improvement in the ability to communicate, as well as in educational achievements. This paper describes the work which has been done, and is being done, by the Open University project, for a very neglected sector of the disabled community.Open University     

论教育科研成果转化中亟待解决的几个问题

教育实践呼唤教育科研成果的转化。教育科研成果的转化是教育科研过程中一个特别的环节，面临着许多亟待解决的问题。要真正实现教育科研成果的有效转化，必须充分认识对教育科研成果转化的现实意义；准确把握教育科研成果的性质、形态等；采取恰当的转化途径或方式；重视教师在教育科研成果转化中的作用。     

让院校研究走进院校管理

管理落后是制约我国高等学校当前改革与发展的一个重要因素,而造成我国高等学校管理水平落后的一个重要原因是管理中的院校研究缺失。因此,让院校研究走进院校管理是提高我国高等学校管理水平的理性选择。这需要管理者进一步提高对院校研究重要性的认识,加强高校管理队伍的专业化建设,继续深化高等教育管理体制改革,进一步扩大高等学校的办学自主权。     

The role of educational experiences in the development of deaf identity

In this study, the analytical educational experiences of 25 deaf adults are explored in relation to their identity. The qualitative analysis indicated that the most critical educational experiences for the participants' identity concerned their interactions with hearing or deaf peers and their language of communication with their peers at school. The participants with a hearing identity attended general schools, where they interacted with hearing peers in Greek, whereas the participants with a Deaf identity attended schools for the deaf, where they interacted with deaf peers in Greek Sign Language. The participants with a bicultural identity attended general schools, where they interacted with hearing peers in Greek, but they also had the chance to meet Deaf role models outside school, which played a critical role in the development of their identity.     

Entering the Fray: The role of outdoor education in providing nature-based experiences that matter

Abstract

This article draws on different bodies of knowledge in order to review the potential role of outdoor education in providing nature-based experiences that might contribute to sustainable living A pragmatic perspective is adopted to critique what outdoor education is,and then what it might be. Phenomenology is used to challenge the belief that there is a causal relationship between activities and learning outcomes but foremost to consider what it is to be in nature in the first place. Aspects of both realism and social constructionism are presented as essential to environmental philosophy and the concomitant, but contested, relationship between people and planet. Through these multiple realities the moral significance of nature emerges not only as a theoretical consideration but as a practical one too. In this way I challenge dualisms that provide stumbling blocks to practice and celebrate instead pluralistic thinking where starting points are based on real-life work settings where theory and practice can emerge together through place-specific solutions.     

The role of ethnicity in the attainment and experiences of graduates in distance education

In the UK, the attainment of White graduates (as measured by the class of honours that they have been awarded) tends to be higher than that of graduates from other ethnic groups. This is apparent, in particular, in graduates who have taken courses by distance learning with the Open University. Analysis of data from Open University graduates over three successive years yielded no evidence that the latter trend could be attributed to confounded demographic variables. A postal survey found little variation in perceptions of academic quality or reports of personal development among Open University graduates from different ethnic groups. Quantitative variations in the attainment of graduates from different ethnic groups are not necessarily reflected in qualitative variations in their experience of distance education.     

高等教育研究与高等教育期刊的作用

本文旨在阐明高等教育期刊在传播高等教育研究成果中所起的作用。首先 ,简要介绍了高等教育研究的现状 ,主要是欧美国家有关高等教育研究的定义、性质的各种观点 ,以及欧美高等教育研究的差异。其次 ,重点介绍了欧洲主要的高等教育期刊以及其他高等教育研究出版物的情况及各自的特点。最后 ,从作者、编者、读者三个不同的角度剖析了高等教育期刊对于传播高等教育研究成果所发挥的作用     

STS教育的课程特征及其对我国科学教育课程改革的启示

研究和总结STS教育的课程特征,不仅有助于人们深入研究和探讨我国的科学教育课程,而且还为我国的STS教育课程改革指明了新的方向,为我国科学教育的未来发展提供了前瞻性的规划和预测。     

探索艺术教育在教育均衡发展中的积极作用

随着我国经济建设的快速发展,我国的教育事业也得到了极大的促进,并且很多高校都是非常注重艺术在教育均衡发展中的重要作用。为了更好的促进当代大学生的个人素质能力的提升,在教学过程中,艺术教育已经成为一个必不可少的环节。本文重点研究艺术教育在教育均衡发展中的积极作用。     

坚持实施STS教育努力实现素质教育目标--中学物理教学实施STS教育的研究与实践

文章论述了中学物理教学中实施科学、技术、社会(即STS)教育的意义,并介绍了研究与实践过程的情况及体会.     

The start-up phase in a research and development work project: A foundation for development

The article is based on a research and development work project (R&D project) conducted in a Norwegian lower secondary school. The purpose of the text is to describe the researchers’ and teachers’ roles during the initial phase of such a project, and what this phase and the close cooperation between the researcher and teachers mean for the progress of the project. The reader will see how the participating teachers modify their attitudes to the project throughout the start-up phase. This phase is outlined by means of empirical data. The study shows how such a project challenges the researchers’ communicative, social and knowledge competence. Furthermore, teachers have to see the need for development and willingly participate in developmental processes, listening to and using researchers as resource persons, if a start-up phase is to be successful for subsequent development in the project.