University affiliation and the role of the university in the moderation of teaching practice in Botswana

The focus of the paper is on the way in which university affiliation can be used to improve the teaching practice component of teacher training programmes. The model of affiliation used by the University of Botswana is described, and a rationale is offered for procedures used to maintain and improve standards in affiliated institutions. The role of external examining is assessed, the term moderation is defined in the context of affiliation, and the procedures used to moderate teaching practice are scrutinised. Using the moderation reports and data relating to the period 1991–96, the principal issues that have arisen are reviewed and analysed, and their significance is assessed. An evaluation of some of the main outcomes, in terms of the impact made on the affiliated institutions, is then undertaken, in tandem with the way in which experience has brought about modifications made to the moderation procedures. A resume´ is offered of the principal lessons learned to date, and how the University of Botswana model could be replicated. Finally, attention is given to the value of the University of Botswana experience to provide guidelines whereby universities could use a system of teaching practice moderation to raise standards and improve institutional practices in teacher training colleges.     

升本院校贫困生心理健康问题及对策研究

采用点面结合,调研与实证研究相结合的方法,研究者对升本院校贫困生的心理健康状况及教育问题进行研究发现升本院校贫困生的心理健康状况较为严峻;升本院校贫困生心理健康状况要优于其他院校贫困生,女生、文科专业贫困生的心理健康状况不容乐观;不同民族贫困生的心理健康状况具有某种一致性。影响因素主要有人际关系、学习压力、家庭压力和丧失等。维护升本院校贫困生的心理健康应从多渠道"扶贫帮困",减少因经济压力过大造成的心理问题;矫正贫困生对社会现象的错误认识,端正人生态度,勇敢面对现实;培养集体,营造氛围,融洽关系;开展有针对性的心理健康教育,切实提高心理健康教育的成效等几个方面采取措施。     

Teaching and Learning of Citizenship Education at the Junior Secondary Level in Botswana

This paper explores the extent to which the objectives of citizenship education has been realized in Botswana. The authors draw on data from interviews and observations of thirty-two social studies teachers drawn from eighteen junior secondary schools. The majority of the teachers felt that the objective of working to produce good citizens had either been minimally or satisfactorily achieved. The use of inquiry methods and group work were perceived as particularly effective methods of teaching citizenship. About half of the social studies teachers thought they had undergone sufficient training to effectively teach the concepts involved in citizenship education but they highlighted the challenges of irrelevant instructional materials, job dissatisfaction and large class size. The authors recommend providing regular workshops, restructuring pre-service and in-service education programmes in order to improve the present situation and to bridge the gap between theory and practice.     

An investigation into an interaction programme for children on the autism spectrum: outcomes for children,perceptions of schools and a model for training

The objective of this study was to investigate a system of training designed by a Local Education Authority support service to promote interactive skill building with children on the autism spectrum. Using a case study approach, the study focused thematically upon outcomes for children, perceptions of schools regarding impact of the training programme and key features of the system of delivering training. Five schools (four primary mainstream and on primary special) which had completed training during a one‐year period participated in the research. Data was gathered using multi‐methods including questionnaires, semi‐structured interviews and document scrutiny. Findings indicate a number of positive outcomes for children, including enhanced communication skills and the development of friendships with peers. The model of training was perceived to be effective by all participants, with a focus upon increased staff confidence in order to become trainer of other members of staff. The training model comprises a number of features essential to effectiveness, including the development of partnerships between all stakeholders. The model of training is seen as a system through which continuation of interaction techniques in schools is promoted, initially with input from a local authority specialist, and with the aims of independent continuation of the programme and practices. This case study reflects the ability of support services to identify innovative ways of providing services, underpinned by the notion of promoting inclusive practices: this holistic package of support could serve as a model for other types of interventions with children with a range of needs. Conclusions indicate that involvement of children as active participants at the inception of the programme should be considered: further research ought also to include the voices of children in order to seek insights into the perceptions of the programme.     

A departure from the past? Extension workers and participatory rural development: the case of Botswana

This article addresses the question of whether extension workers can change their attitudes and practices in order to promote participatory rural development by considering the case of Botswana. It discusses the emergent participatory extension paradigm which uses techniques such as participatory rural appraisal (PRA). It describes the new community‐based strategy for rural development in Botswana which includes the expectation that the extension services can be reorientated to facilitate increased community participation. Evidence is presented from research in 1995‐96 which evaluated a pilot project involving PRAs undertaken by extension workers in four districts. The project sought to find out systematically whether PRA could enhance the ability of the extension services to undertake participatory rural development. The findings suggest that extension workers can develop through training the attitudinal predisposition necessary for adopting a more participatory approach to extension practice. However, there are institutional and contextual constraints which present obstacles to implementing participatory rural development. It is therefore not certain that the proposal to expand the use of PRA on a national scale will lead to the anticipated reorientation of the extension services.     

Gender,sexuality and schooling: Everyday life in junior secondary schools in Botswana and Ghana

In this paper, the focus is upon daily school practices in Junior Secondary Schools in Ghana and Botswana. The data from 12 ethnographic case studies have been used to explore how the institution of schooling is gendered. The analysis focuses predominantly on the informal practices of the hidden curriculum through a theoretical perspective that highlights these institutional processes as significant to the production of gender/sexual identities. Remarkable similarities in the pervasive and inequitable gender/sexual practices within schools across country contexts are discussed in three key areas: school management and duties, gender space and gender violence. These discussions of everyday school life illustrate the ways in which both normative institutional practices and human agency produce and regulate gender/sexual identities. This micro-level analysis provides important substantive and methodological insights into what goes on inside schools and into the contexts and experiences of schooling that are significant to policy discourses of gender, education and development.     

培训院校在新疆中小学“校本培训”中的调控作用研究

考察中小学在"校本培训"工作中对培训院校的需求,我们认为培训院校应加强师范性,在"校本培训"中充分注意学校个性,实施菜单式培训,使每一所学校在"校本培训"活动中都有所提高,同时,加强理论与实践的联系,帮助中小学校建立合理有效的校本培训评价体系,发挥科研优势,以开展课题研究的形式帮助中小学校开展校本培训。这样,才能使培训院校在"校本培训"中起到应有的调控作用。     

Teacher Education,Evacuation and Community in War-Time Britain: The Women of Avery Hill at Huddersfield 1941–46

The evacuation of civilians during Second World War Britain included the relocation not only of school children and teachers but of whole schools and, in some instances, of teacher training colleges. This paper examines the evacuation of Avery Hill College, a leading teacher training college, from London to Huddersfield between 1941 and 1946. Focusing on issues of gender and community, it provides an account of the circumstances of the move, institutional relations and resources, the social milieu of war-time Huddersfield, the challenges arising from evacuation, the responses of staff and trainees, and the broader institutional and teacher education policy transitions that ensued.     

A Feminist Perspective on Moral Education

Abstract

I argue that the just community approach is the best available values education programme in the high schools for meeting the primary goal of feminism, the elimination of injustices due to sexism. In order to eliminate sexism, I suggest we look beneath educational policies and practices to the social and value structures of schools as institutions. Through excerpts from interviews with students, I describe the social and value structures of a democratic community which form the basis of the just community programme.     

In search of American progressives and teachers

Over half a century ago Lawrence Cremin set in motion a historical debate about educational progressivism, a movement, if it was one, that meant ‘different things to different people’ and roused passions for and against. Personified in many individual and institutional initiatives, it appeared to resonate with individual liberty, political democracy and social reform. Historians since, including Roy Lowe, have joined in the debate. Did it succeed and what were its effects? Perfecting or pernicious? Cohesive or divisive? Models for reforming pedagogy were found in Pestalozzi and Froebel, but translating ideals into practice was the challenge. Laboratory and model schools lent weight to advocacy of reform, but were often private or privileged in their constitution. Dewey and his daughter in Schools of Tomorrow publicised a selection of these. Against this backdrop, historians have subsequently sought to explain why traditional pedagogic practices remained so powerful. Cuban drew on a wide-ranging set of primary sources to reconstruct classroom practices and explore the conservative practice of the public schools. Exceptions can be explained by a confluence of factors, local demographic, school and district leadership, paradoxical exercise of authority and control in the implementation of progressive practice.     

综合化:中等特师向高等特教学院转型的必由之路--论高等特教学院的办学定位和发展模式

中师升格为高校是历史发展的必然趋势 ,但是 ,升格后的学校继续办清一色的师范教育 ,还是走多科性学院 (即综合化 )的发展道路 ?这是处在转型时期的中师迫切需要回答的一个战略性问题。本文在对特师所面临的社会环境及人才需求作出分析之后认为 ,综合化是特师走向高等教育的必由之路 ,并进一步对多科性特教学院的办学定位和发展模式提出自己的观点。     

Reforming teacher education in Tanzania

It is widely acknowledged that in order to improve the quality of education in primary schools in developing countries there is a need to place pedagogy and its training implications at the centre of teacher education reform. Like many countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, Tanzania has introduced various initiatives and reforms to improve the quality of teacher education at the pre- and in-service stages. Drawing on evidence from a baseline study of primary teacher interactional and discourse practices, and a review of teacher training colleges, this paper explores the training needs of teacher educators in Tanzania who, in the light of recent reforms to teacher education, will be responsible for education and training at the pre and in-service levels.     

我国师范院校特殊性的确立及其实施

师范院校教师教育是国家基础教育。也是特殊教育。这种特殊性主要表现为办学的针对性和培养人才的针对性。和其他普通院校相比．师范院校的主要任务不在“大众化”式地提高国民素质,而是培养专业人才——中小学教师。在我国师范院校毕业生供大于求以及毕业生职业能力不能胜任其中小学教师工作的情况下,师范院校的规划发展和改革成为师范教育发展的当务之急。教育优先发展的前提是教师优先发展,教师优先发展的基础是培养教师的师范院校优先发展。因此．师范院校优先发展符合党和国家教育发展战略。依据师范教育在我国社会经济发展中的特殊战略地位．把师范院校建设成为优先发展的“特殊院校”．能够端正其办学方向、突出其特色、发挥其应有的作用。     

高师音乐教学改革与师资培养

高等师范音乐教育是培养中小学音乐教师的摇篮,当高师毕业生走出校门跨入中小学教师队列的时候,同时也是对高师教育教学质量的检验。新的《音乐课程标准》对中小学音乐教师提出了更高的要求,面对音乐新课程新标准的启用,高师音乐教育教学的改革迫在眉睫。本文从高师音乐教学的培养目标、课程设置、课堂模式、考核评估几方面提出了改革的构思和建议,以达到为基础教育培养合格音乐师资的目的。     

教师发展学校——教师专业成长的有效路径

教师发展学校是大学与巾小学的合作建设,是在合作研究的实践中实现教师的发展;大学与中小学合作是教师专业发展的保迁,教师专业发展学校突出中小学骨干教师在教师培养中的重要作用;教师专业发展学校的建立促进新教师的专业成长。     

School administration and school reform in Botswana

This paper reports the results of a survey of post-primary school administrators in Botswana, and discusses the implications of the findings for the success of the current program of school reforms. The paper suggests that administrative authority will have to be decentralized and school-level administrators will have to be given additional training if the reforms are to maintain or improve the quality of education in Botswana's schools.     

Practicing a new curriculum in Turkey: loose coupling,organisational and social milieus,and their practical capital formations

This paper analyses tuitional practices after a major curriculum change (2005) in primary schools of Turkey. Group discussions conducted with teachers and parents in five maximally contrasting schools (e.g. schools in a squatter and a middle-class neighbourhood of Istanbul) show that tuitional practices, being only ‘loosely coupled’ with the official curriculum, are strongly influenced by generation-specific orientations in teachers’ organisational milieus, by orientations prevalent in the social milieus of pupils and their parents, and by different forms of capital on the part of teachers, parents and school organisations. Combined with empirical analysis, the paper proposes a theoretical framework that complements the assumptions of New Institutionalism by using the basic concepts of the sociology of knowledge and Bourdieu’s concept of capital. This framework offers a new way to understand the intrinsic logic of the growing differences and inequalities within and between school organisations in complex societies.     

基于顶岗实习的农远工程师资培训模式设计

旨在构建农远工程中的师资培训的新模式,在总结农远工程中现有师资培训的状况的基础上,提出结合顶岗实习的培训模式。该模式的主要思路是顶岗实习与师资培训的结合,即通过高校为农村中小学或教学点提供师资培训教师,最终使高校和受训校实现双赢,既为高校学生提供大量实习机会,又为受训教师提供持续有效的培训。     

Gatekeepers or facilitators: the influence of teacher habitus on students’ applications to elite universities

Low application rates of state school students to elite universities have been identified as a factor in their limited participation in elite universities. This article explores the role of teachers in state schools and colleges in guiding higher education (HE) choice. Drawing on qualitative research with teachers and students in six institutions, we identify differential practices that corroborate explanations of an ‘institutional habitus’ shaping students’ likely pathways to HE. However, we suggest that attention is paid to teacher habitus, demonstrating how teachers’ political and ethical dispositions as well as their social capital are potential factors shaping students’ decision‐making about HE, and elite university applications in particular.