Avoiding communication barriers in the classroom: the APEINTA project

Education is a fundamental human right, however unfortunately not everybody has the same learning opportunities. For instance, if a student has hearing impairments, s/he could face communications barriers in the classroom, which could affect his/her learning process. APEINTA is a Spanish educational project that aims for inclusive education for all. This project proposes two main accessible initiatives: (1) real-time captioning and text-to-speech (TTS) services in the classroom and (2) accessible Web-learning platform out of the classroom with accessible digital resources. This paper presents the inclusive initiatives of APEINTA. Also an evaluation of the into-the-classroom initiative (real-time captioning and TTS services) is presented. This evaluation has been conducted during a regular undergraduate course at a university and during a seminar at an integration school for deaf children. Forty-five hearing students, 1 foreign student, 3 experts in captioning, usability and accessibility, and 20 students with hearing impairments evaluated these services in the classroom. Evaluation results show that these initiatives are adequate to be used in the classroom and that students are satisfied with them.     

高等学校多元课堂授课若干问题探讨

多元授课是两个以上教师在同一课堂上同时面对学生,相互配合对学生释疑解惑,它突破了教师在讲台上唱独角戏的传统模式。多元讲课的目的不仅是传授知识,更注重培养学生的思辨和标新立异的能力。高年级本科生、二年级研究生、博士生是多元课堂授课的对象。这要处理好单元授课和多元授课的关系、确定明确的授课计划、注意挖掘学生自身的潜力。     

语文教学中主体性深层开发浅议

当前语文教学实践中主体性开发存在的一些问题，主要表现在：主体性失落于“有用”，主体性开发趋同，主体性开发低效，主体性开发媚俗。主体性开发在语文教学中十分必要，学生的语文素养、创造能力和正确的情感态度价值观，只有在学生的主体性充分发挥后才能有效地生成。主体性深层开发的有效经验是对话。     

Teacher Beliefs Regarding Learning,Pedagogy, and the Use of Technology in Higher Education

This study examines university teachers' beliefs about the role of technology in achieving the pedagogical aims of learning within teaching development initiatives at a Finnish university. The initiatives targeted technology adoption in teaching and learning and were enhanced within teacher groups, with support from a university-level network program. Thematic interviews were conducted with the members of 11 initiative groups, covering 18 teachers from various disciplines. The qualitative content analysis revealed diverse belief groups. Technology was perceived as a tool for the promotion of self-paced studying without explicit learning aims; for active and interactive learning; for integrative learning with continuous assessment; and for meaningful learning. The study highlights the need for a more systematic explication of teacher beliefs and the acknowledgment of alternative ways of thinking in teacher developmental programs. (Keywords: higher education, pedagogy, teacher beliefs, technology)     

试论主体性教学

随着社会的发展 ,时代的进步 ,人的主体性精神的弘扬越来越受到重视。而培育和弘扬人的主体性的最主要途径莫过于教育 ,教育的最终落脚点又在教学上 ,即通过主体性教学来实现人的主体性的培育     

论发展高师学生主体性的心理学教学

影响高师公共心理学教学效果的原因是多方面的。其中 ,学生主体性的丧失是高师公共心理学教学效果欠佳的深层原因。故而 ,心理学教学中 ,教师必须从有效学习的三个必要条件来审视教师教学的主体意识和主体行为 ,发展学生学习的主体性。     

Colonised by quality? Teacher identities in a research-led institution

This article explores the impact of quality assurance and enhancement initiatives on teacher identities in higher education. Data from an interview-based study of a research-led institution in the United Kingdom are drawn upon to consider the implications of quality – for example, whether it has captured the inner assumptive worlds of higher educators (and supplanted their own understandings of quality) or whether it has opened up new subject positions and possibilities for change. I focus on a particular group of people within the article – those who have demonstrated an interest in higher education teaching by participating in professional development programmes. Such programmes have proliferated in the light of the quality movement whilst offering exposure to ‘educationalist’ discourses. Contextualising the work through previous critical higher education research, I consider the group’s perceptions of quality initiatives and the construction of their teaching identities within a research-led institution.     

Teachers' knowledge work in collective practice development: Approaches to introducing assessment for learning at the school level

Collective approaches to practice development are increasingly common in the teaching profession. Such initiatives frequently involve groups of teachers taking responsibility for introducing, sharing and developing new pedagogical resources and for aiding their integration into existing practices. This article explores teachers’ knowledge work as a component of collective practice development, and investigates how engagement with knowledge is constructed in different school environments. Drawing on research that followed an Assessment for Learning (AfL) project in a Norwegian city, the article examines how two groups of lower secondary teachers worked to support the introduction and development of AfL resources at their respective schools. The analysis reveals how their knowledge work was framed in different ways through available organisational roles and resources, and discusses the implications for initiatives aimed at collective practice development at the school level.     

略论课堂教学的空间格局

课堂教学的空间格局直接影响着教学信息交流的方式和交流的范围。“身田式”的课堂编排格局是班级授课制的产物,最适宜于大班教学,是我国目前课堂教学的基本形式。随着教学改革的深入,“秧田式”的弊端越来越明显。我们应根据教学需要。选择多样性的课堂教学空间格局,以便让每一位学生都有平等参与课堂教学的机会,使每个学生的主体性、积极性都能得到充分发挥。     

School leadership development in China: a case study of schools in one district education bureau

This paper considers the effectiveness of leadership development (LD) processes in relation to school leaders’ needs within an eastern Chinese District Education Bureau (DEB). The analysis is based on Chinese and English sources relating to LD, documentary analysis of DEB initiatives and interviews with ten school leaders from two schools. The findings reveal that LD within the district stalled at principal level because of the tension between their managerial interpretation of the role and the expectation that they should develop as leaders. Although leaders reported that the emphasis in development activities on classroom teaching and learning, the interpretation of policy initiatives and school visits were helpful, much of what the government is doing is counter-productive. Informants also said that poor outcomes tended to arise from factors beyond the scope of the LD programme itself, for example from the centralised regulatory system, from their own lack of power and influence, from the absence of programme-based or wider in-school support, and from limited evaluative studies. School leaders believed that they needed to be trained to review their own real-world work collaboratively and to devise improvement. They suggested that policy-makers should encourage an inquiry-based approach.     

Communicative Competence and the Improvement of University Teaching: Insights from the field

The arguments in this article have been generated from involvement in a government-funded project designed to improve teaching. The authors reflect on their experience and use Jurgen Habermas's theory of communicative competence to argue that initiatives designed to improve university teaching often work against their own intentions by closing down opportunities for open dialogue. They argue that improvement of teaching requires undistorted communication and demonstrate that this is made difficult: by the pressure to be seen to succeed; by over-specifying what constitutes good teaching; and, by divorcing research from development. At the same time, they suggest that academics could seize opportunities to open up dialogue about teaching.     

Democratic Approaches in Education and Language Teaching

In this paper the author asserts that as post- conflict Kosovo has emerged from the stage of emergency rehabilitation towards long-term development planning to independence, its peaceful and successful development largely depends on the development of a strong education system based on tolerance and human rights values. This paper looks at ways to promote an education system which accessible to all and also builds on the human potential of Kosovo by encouraging democratic behavior amongst the younger generation. The author asserts that traditional teaching in schools is no longer appropriate and looks at efforts to introduce new approaches to teaching. She suggests that a transformation is needed in order to have effective reforms. Part of this transformation suggests that educators in Kosovo will need to better understand that, while the country may be undergoing a transformation, teaching is a changing and dynamic profession with continuing demands and that education and professional development is a lifelong process.     

Achieving sustainability in learning and teaching initiatives

Universities have a long history of change in learning and teaching to suit various government initiatives and institutional priorities. Academic developers now are frequently required to address strategic learning and teaching priorities. This paper asks how, in such a context, academic developers can ensure that work they do in relation to one specific institutional priority can support future learning and teaching strategies. Two examples of efforts to integrate research and teaching are discussed to demonstrate the length of time needed to develop institutional understanding and how to create sustainable resources to meet the needs of changing initiatives. The paper highlights the importance of a sustainable approach to ever-changing learning and teaching priorities, suggesting that resources and other work developed to meet institutional initiatives should be structured so that they can be readily reused or adapted when policies change. The paper concludes by drawing out some implications for academic development.     

Improving research on teacher quality in science and mathematics: Report of a symposium of scientists,educators, and researchers

Many initiatives designed to improve the quality of elementary and secondary teachers have been proposed and implemented at national, state, and local levels. It is unclear whether these initiatives are based on a common definition of teacher quality or adequate knowledge about the conditions that produce quality teaching. This article summarizes the results of a symposium of the National Research Council on the state of research knowledge on teacher quality. Topics for needed research that were identified in the symposium included studies on the effects of state and local policies which set new standards for teachers, studies on the subject-matter knowledge and preparation of teachers, analyses of alternative methods of developing teaching skills, and assessments of the effects of school conditions for teaching on career patterns of teachers.     

Exploring Academic Identities and Practices in a Competitive Enhancement Context: a UK-based case study

This article proposes that in a context where the roles assigned to academics are increasingly complex, where academic work is visibly managed and monitored with an emphasis on teaching quality and professionalised practices, better understandings of academic identities might emerge from a focus on the teaching dimension of the academic role. It seeks to capture this dimension through a theoretical framework that takes account of the context and realities in which academics operate.
It examines this complexity through a set of policy initiatives aimed at enhancing the teaching function in UK universities, and a brief report on a study of 18 UK academics focusing on the nature of academic labour. It argues that the teaching dimension of the academic role cannot be usefully studied from outside the context in which academics evolve and construct their apprehensions of teaching practice, and without paying attention to the degree of agency available to them in the context where they operate. It points to the negative impact of competing initiatives directed disjointedly at teaching and research.     

浅析多媒体技术在高职旅游专业教学中的应用

随着高职教育教学改革的不断深入,多媒体技术已被广泛应用于各专业教学当中。对于高职旅游专业,多媒体技术是辅助旅游管理专业教学的重要手段,它可以激发学生学习的主动性,有利于旅游专业教学资源库的建设。在旅游管理专业教学中使用多媒体技术是一种教学发展的必然趋势。     

浅谈法语课堂教学改革

外语教学是语言教学,更是文化教学,需要师生双方的共同参与互动。长期以来我国的外语教学中存在一些弊端,制约了学生的发展,造成部分学生的语言应用能力偏弱,这种现象在法语课堂教学中也很普遍。如何进行有效的课堂教学改革,稳步提升学生运用法语的能力,是教学中需要格外关注并加以创新的环节。为了更好地推动法语课堂教学改革,充分发挥学生的主观能动性,笔者结合自己教学实践中的一些实际情况,探讨促进改革的措施,以期能够为法语教学创新提供一定的参考。     

虚拟手术实验在医学教学领域中的应用

为解决临床医学学生培训问题,我院构建了虚拟手术实验网络教学系统,它与真实手术相结合共同构成了较完整的实验教学体系,满足了医学教育实验教学发展的需要。系统的交互性和快速响应提高了教学效率和教师的教学科研能力,也有利于学生能动性的发挥。