Skills for work?: From skills development to decent livelihoods in Ghana's rural informal economy

In developing countries, skills development has been neglected. Skills development does not appear in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) or in many poverty reduction strategies and has been side-lined in favour of investment in primary education. However, it is hoped that discussion of skills development in the 2005 Global Monitoring Report and the World Summit in September 2005, will refocus attention on skills. In Ghana, skills development has received too little actual emphasis, despite the rhetoric of the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (2003–2005), the new Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (2006–2009), and more than 150 years of preoccupation with making education more relevant to the world of work.     

Educating and training out of poverty? Adult provision and the informal sector in fishing communities,South Africa

This paper looks at access to adult education and vocational education and training (VET) provision in fishing communities in the Western Cape, South Africa. Fishing communities are being disadvantaged due to geographical and socio-political marginalisation, and the predominance of informal sector employment in the context of worldwide marine resource depletion. Neither public nor private provision is adequately serving rural areas or the informal sector in this context. Using the sustainable livelihoods approach as a tool of analysis, this paper argues that a more cross-sectoral approach is needed to tackle equity and poverty concerns in adult education and training provision.     

新课程背景下农村小学语文课程资源的开发与利用

教育的改革与发展不仅仅在于教学设备的改善,更为重要的是教学理念的更新与完善。在小学语文教学中,教师首先应该立足于当地实际,从有关于农村自然的、人文的资源汲取营养。通过探究家乡历史、文化,既丰富了学生的知识积累,又让他们体验到传统美德,培养他们对美的欣赏、创造能力,加强他们对语言的领悟和驾驭能力,更增强他们传承和发展农村文化的责任感和使命感。     

Massification of higher education and youth transition: skills mismatch,informal sector jobs and implications for China

This study adopts a nationwide survey data set between 2005 and 2013 (Chinese General Social Survey) to explore the influence of the massification of higher education on the transition of Chinese youth into the labour market. Data analysis reveals two major findings. First, the economic returns to college education of recent cohorts of university graduates (those who have graduated from universities not more than 3 years ago) are lower than the cohorts who graduated in 2005 and 2006. Second, recent cohorts of college graduates are likely to work in the urban informal sector, unlike their senior counterparts. These findings could partially be explained by skills mismatch in the labour market but a comprehensive understanding of graduate unemployment in China could be obtained by bringing the broader political economy perspective into the analysis.     

农村中学物理课程资源的开发与利用

对课程资源的开发利用,是新课程改革的重要内容之一,与城市相比,农村有独具特色的生产、生活、环境和文化资源。农村中学赢因地制宜,多渠道、多层次地开发农村物理课程资源。     

Creating Futures: lessons from the development of a livelihood-strengthening curriculum for young people in eThekwini's informal settlements

Comprehending praxis is a critical step in developing interventions that can have a real-world impact on people's lives. In this paper, we reflect on the lessons learned in the development of a curriculum for young people living in informal settlements in eThekwini, who are exposed to numerous vulnerabilities, including HIV-related risks associated with precarious urban livelihoods. Behavioural interventions have not led to commensurate reductions in HIV incidence, and the impact of these approaches remains regulated by numerous contextual conditions affecting those participating. Our collaborative project tested the impact of implementing a combination of the well-tested gender transformation intervention, Stepping Stones, with a new livelihood transformation curriculum, Creating Futures, among young people in eThekwini's informal settlements. Creating Futures was grounded in the theory and practice of sustainable livelihoods, but equally in the experience of the multi-disciplinary project team members who have conducted both research and development work among youth in the eThekwini area. Our approach was founded on the work of Doug Kirby, and we are indebted to him for his inputs. His logical model approach ensured that the team remained orientated to specific curriculum outcomes. Analysis of the results at 12 months post-baseline indicates positive livelihood outcomes.     

网络情境下职业培训课程开发的理论基础

网络技术给教育工作带来了新的生机和活力，如何运用网络技术进行职业培训课程开发．是职教改革的热点问题。利用理论指导网络课程开发，有利于我们制作出体现职业教育特点的网络课程。指导网络课程开发的理论主要有格式塔理论、建构主义学习理论和能力本位课程观。格式塔理论主要用于屏幕设计．建构主义学习理论主要用于学习活动的设计，而能力本位课程观则主要指导课程内容的开发。     

新课程下微格教学在体育教育专业学生教学技能培养中的优势

微格教学是对师范生和在职教师的教学技能进行系统培训的一种方法.与体育教育专业学生教学技能培训的传统方法相比,微格教学具有培训压力小,培训程序合理、科学,培训内容具体,目标明确,教学示范鲜明具体,反馈清晰,评价客观,培训设备数字化等优点.     

Globalisation and the curriculum: Proposals for the integration of education and training in South Africa

In South Africa, the post-apartheid government has committed itself to an integrated approach to education and training. This article addresses South African policy debates, illustrating that global trends such as integration are shaped by significant local influences in the production of specific policy positions. The integration debate in South Africa reflects both equity and human resource development concerns, and is more fully developed in adult basic education and training than in formal post-compulsory education. The article analyses the proposals for integration as part of a complex policy agenda, arguing that the implementation of integration proposals will not be straightforward. This is due to the genesis of the integration debate in training rather than both education and training, its assumptions about economic development, and the contested nature of the policy process.     

论新课程下物理师范生教师职业技能的构成要素及培养途径

教师职业技能是高师生专业素质的重要构成要素,是衡量教师专业化的重要标准,其发展水平直接影响培养质量。通过参考国内学者对教师职业技能的一般分类和物理学科的特点,以及新课程对物理学科教学的要求,可以对新课程下物理师范生应具备的教师职业技能的构成要素进行了分类,并论述了培养的途径。     

新课改与农村小学英语教师培养

经济发展,社会进步,使得全球化的进程加剧。我国从本世纪初开始的新课程改革,目的是从基础抓起,培养更多的高层次教育人才。本文根据新课程改革对小学英语课程的要求,分析农村小学英语教师的现状和面临的困境,提出农村小学英语教师培养的几点建议。     

乡村卓越教师课程能力发展特征及结构模型

乡村卓越教师课程能力指教师成功实施课程活动过程中所具备的个性心理特征和主观条件,直接影响课程的实施效果,决定课程活动成功与否的能动力量和心理倾向,具有主体生成性、实践反思性、动态情景性和循环发展性特征。课程理解决策能力、课程设计组织能力、课程实践反思能力和课程批判建构能力构成乡村卓越教师关键课程能力。     

农村人才信息技术技能远程培训的实践与探索

农村人才信息技术技能远程培训,以远程培训为基本手段,以农村学校为培训基地,以具有初中以上学业水平的农村广大中青年农民为培训对象,以计算机基本操作技能、网络基本技术、农业科技咨询等为培训内容,以教育科研人员与农业科技人员为培训教师,为农村信息人才培训提供优质的指导与服务,探索出了农村人才培训的新方法、新途径、新模式,拓展了农村教育的新空间。     

Ageing and skills: The case of literacy skills

The relationship between ageing and skills is of growing policy significance due to population ageing, the changing nature of work and the importance of literacy for social and economic well‐being. This article examines the relationship between age and literacy skills in a sample of OECD countries using three internationally comparable surveys. By pooling the survey data across time we can separate birth cohort and ageing effects. In doing so, we find that literacy skills decline with age and that, in most of our sample countries, successive birth cohorts tend to have poorer literacy outcomes. Therefore, once we control for cohort effects, the rate at which literacy proficiency falls with age is much more pronounced than that which is apparent, based on the cross‐sectional relationship between age and literacy skills at a point in time. Further, in studying the literacy‐age relationship across the skill distribution in Canada we find a more pronounced decline in literacy skills with age at lower percentiles, which suggests that higher initial literacy moderates the influence of cognitive ageing.     

International influences on the evolution of skills development in South Africa

This paper adds to debates about international influences on education policies in developing countries by shifting focus onto the particular experiences of South Africa. This provides a valuable new perspective in at least two ways. First, the study considers the typically neglected area of skills development policy (constructed in this case by a Department of Labour [DoL] rather than a Department of Education). Second, the study looks at a country where its middle income status ensures that the financial role of international assistance is small in comparison to domestic sources of funding. This has the effect of shifting the emphasis of analysis away from the usual dynamics of debates about aid dependence whilst focusing it more sharply on issues of country ownership, capacity development and knowledge sharing. Thus, by looking at a case that may seem to be rather atypical, we argue that certain key issues are brought into clearer focus.     

推进农村初中校本课程开发的对策思考

校本课程开发是农村初中课程改革中的一项重要内容.在经济欠发达地区农村初中课程改革的实施过程中,校本课程开发受到了开发环境和开发主体等因素的制约.面对这一现实情况,若要使校本课程开发真正起到体现农村学校办学特色的作用,就必须改善校本课程开发的客观环境,提高校本课程开发主体的自身素质,建立合理的校本课程开发评价机制.     

Integration of a social skills training: a case study of children with low social skills

This study explores changes in children's social skills after a cognitive-social skills model intervention. The intervention was conducted over a period of 12 weeks within a regular preschool setting. Sixteen children including four considered to have low social skills participated in the study. Data analysis revealed that the four children with low social skills demonstrated changes in social skills through positive play behaviours such as asking positive questions, offering suggestions, initiating play episodes, and sharing play materials, although they had limited ability to maintain play episodes.