Neuroscience, education and special education

The discipline of neuroscience draws from the fields of neurology, psychology, physiology and biology, but is best understood in the wider world as 'brain science'. Of particular interest for education is the development of techniques for 'imaging' the brain as it performs different cognitive functions. Cognitive neuroimaging has already led to advances in understanding some of the basic functions involved in learning and raised implications for education and special education in particular. For example, neuroimaging has enabled scientists to study the very complex processes underpinning speech and language, thinking and reasoning, reading and mathematics. In this article, Professor Usha Goswami of the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education first reviews basic information on brain development. She provides a brief introduction to the tools used in neuroimaging then considers recent findings from neuroscience that seem relevant to educational questions. Professor Goswami uses this review to suggest particular ways in which neuroscience research could inform special education. In its closing sections, this article provides authoritative perspectives on some of the 'neuromyths' that seem to have taken root in the popular imagination and argues for increased dialogue, in the future, between the disciplines of neuroscience and education.     

闲暇·闲暇教育与素质教育

随着社会的进步，生产力的飞速发展，导致人的劳动工作时间缩短，人们生活方式和价值观念的改变，闲暇时间的占有和利用日益引起人们的关注，闲暇教育也就应运而生，这为提高人的素质，全面推进素质教育提供了良好的条件，因此，闲暇教育、素质教育已成为人们关注和研究的重要课题之一。本拟就以马克思关于人的全面发展及教育价值观为理论基础，对闲暇、闲暇教育在促进学生整体素质的提高和发展方面作些探讨。     

Philosophy,philosophy of education,and the education of teachers

The role of philosophy of education has become seriously blurred with constant cries for practical and immediate answers. The nature of the discipline is such that when practical solutions are demanded of it, it loses its vitality. Philosophy is an intellectual and contemplative exercise; it is a true activity of leisure, one which needs to be enjoyed for its own sake. This intellectual and contemplative activity is of service to the practical concerns of education because choice, action, and judgment — the concerns of the practical realm —depend upon intellectual knowledge. Philosophy of education is, therefore, an essential discipline in the education of the student-teacher.     

Globalization,values education,and school music education in China

This paper examines music education’s legitimation of values as a means of preparing students for entry into the new ‘knowledge society’ of the People’s Republic of China in a global age. It explores the ways in which values education relates to the teaching of both musical and non‐musical meanings in the dual context of nationalism and globalization, and discusses some problems that values education faces in school music classrooms. It examines the ways in which globalization has pressured values education into resolving the apparent contradiction between national identity and national unity in the ever‐changing play of Chinese history and politics. It concludes with a discussion of how music education might juggle three pairs of apparently contradictory relationships in the curriculum: between contemporary cultural and social values on the one hand, and traditional Chinese and Communist ideologies on the other; between collectivism and individualism; and between national and global cultures.     

Innovation,education, and media

Conclusion The reluctance to change on the part of educators and school systems represents a paradoxical situation. Teaching and learning consists of trying to bring about behavior changes, and the purpose of education is to develop individuals who are adaptive and creative. Therefore, the effort of the teacher and the major purpose of the educational enterprise is to bring about planned change in the individual. Why persons who are committed to this objective for all of the pupils for whom they have responsibility should reject or be neutral to planned change in their own practices as teachers is a gnawing and perplexing question. The preparation of this paper was supported by a contract with the Office of Education, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, under the provisions of Title VH-B of the National Defense Education Act. The publicationMedia and Educational Innovation, upon which this paper is based, is available for $2 from the University of Nebraska Extension Division, Nebraska Hall #511, Lincoln.     

Analogy,explanation, and education

This article applies a theory of analogical thinking as satisfaction of multiple constraints to the use of analogies in instruction. It shows how the strengths of particularly good analogies and the weaknesses of particularly bad ones can be understood in terms of pragmatic, semantic, and structural constraints. These constraints suggest lessons for how analogies can most effectively be used in instruction.     

Communication,education, and creativity

Communication, education, and creativity are conceptually related through a general systems approach. Each phenomenon is viewed as a transactional process. Implications are drawn for facilitating the development of more creative student behaviors in the education system.     

全人教育 德育为先

在实施科教兴国、人才强国的战略布局中,提倡"全人教育,德育为先"的育人理念刻不容缓。构建"3+2互动式"教学模式,使思政课在多层次、多渠道、多类型的教学模式中,全面体现现代教育理念的价值所在。     

Critical thinking, education, and postmodernity: Possibilities and limitations for moral education

The contemporary educational discourse on critical thinking, as one of the primary aims of education. has been divided into the spheres of modernist defense and post-modernist criticism. Critical of both positions, this paper attempts to find a new way of employing critical thinking, especially for the purposes of moral education, by drawing on Bernard William’s concept of “ethical reflection.” It will be shown that employing critical thinking for the fostering of ethical reflection in our young students can lead them into an “understanding” of ethical, rather than “ethical knowledge,” which enables them to properly deal with moral relativism in a culturally pluralistic society. This paper then explores the educational possibilities presented by Socrates’ teaching method as an example of this employment, though not without consideration of the attendant educational limitations and dangers.