Trends in Environmental Education Images of Textbooks from Western and Eastern European Countries and Non-European Countries

Textbook analysis is seen as a major element for studying environmental education addressing pupils, image analysis being rather relevant when studying textbooks written in 11 languages. We analysed 25 textbooks from 14 countries addressed to 14–16-year-old pupils, focusing on: (1) local and foreign/global images; (2) urban/rural and nature images; (3) negative impact, human management, and the beauty of nature; and (4) men and women in images with negative and positive impact. We distinguished some trends between Western (WEc) and Eastern (EEc) European countries and non-European countries (NEc). In contrast to textbooks from EEc and NEc, which tend to show the beauty of nature with little human influence, WEc textbooks tend to exhibit more images of urban/rural landscape, of human negative impact and of human management, expressing an anthropocentric view of the environment. Men are usually more present in textbook images than women. However, some images exhibiting more women than men could be found in textbooks from WEc and EEc, but never in NEc. In negative impact pictures, men are more often present than women but NEc women are never present in such images. Women are more frequent than men in positive impact images. Results suggest that textbooks from EEc and NEc should give more emphasis to human management and urban/rural images, whereas those from WEc should give more attention to the beauty of nature. A balance in the presence of men and women in images should be a matter of greater concern by all textbooks’ authors and publishers.     

'It Would Have Been Bad': The Development of Historical Imagination and Empathy in a Group of Secondary Aged Pupils with Severe Learning Difficulties

Andrew Turner, who teaches in a school for pupils with severe learning difficulties, considers the teaching of history by teachers of such pupils and suggests that the skills of imaginative reconstruction and empathy are relatively neglected areas, particularly when dealing with distant historical periods. Recent research with mainstream primary pupils illustrates the possible parallels and the article gives details of a small-scale study of one group of Key Stage 3 pupils.     

图像时代教科书“以图育人”:机遇、挑战与应对

人类初始的图像追求、社会的图像化存在、数字技术赋能图像设计与传播,以及图像符号本身蕴含的教育功能,给图像繁盛时代的教科书“以图育人”提供了机遇。同时,教科书“以图育人”也面临图像陷阱、师生图像素养欠缺以及图像“解码”方法单一的挑战。应对策略在于:正确把握教科书图像的价值赋意,增强“以图育人”的自觉性;加强师生图像素养培育,为“以图育人”提供能力保障;采用灵活多样的图像解读方法,丰富“以图育人”效能以及利用好教科书的多维图像,拓展“以图育人”的多元路径。     

The National Assessment in Science at Key Stage 3 in England and Wales and its Impact on Teaching and Learning

The development of a framework for the content and assessment of National Curriculum science in England and Wales, following the 1988 Education Reform Act, is described, with a particular emphasis on assessment at the end of Key Stage 3 (14-year-old pupils). The University of Exeter evaluations of Key Stage 3 science assessments in 1995 and 1996 are outlined and the findings concerning the reliability and validity of the testing are presented. The views of science teachers on the impact of this assessment on teaching and learning are summarised, with particular reference to the structure, delivery and interpretation of the National Curriculum, the setting of pupils, continuity and progression, the preparation of pupils for the tests and teacher assessment.     

Evaluating the Performances of Minority Ethnic Pupils in Secondary Schools

This paper investigates the performances and the progress made by pupils of minority ethnic origin between Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 in British secondary schools. The data used in this paper were collected as part of a PhD study by Haque (1999). The paper discusses findings from multilevel modelling analyses carried out on 12 of the 20 schools in the research study. In particular, it reveals that whilst differences exist in the performances and the progress of pupils of minority ethnic background in their Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 examinations, these differences become substantially reduced when background factors (other than ethnic origin) are taken into account. The paper concludes that in order to identify accurately and reduce the nature of disadvantages for pupils from particular minority ethnic groups, policy-makers, schools and teachers need to differentiate these groups beyond their national origin.     

SATs for Some but Not for All?

How did pupils with special educational needs and their teachers tackle this year's first full run of SATs at Key Stage 1? David Bartlett, senior psychologist, Birmingham Education Authority, was previously coordinator for special needs and bilingualism working with the writing team for Key Stage 1 SATs, Consortium for Assessment and Testing in Schools. He comments on Birmingham schools' experiences with SATs and proposes improvements.     

Assess through Teachers, not Tests

John Bangs, principal officer, Special Needs and Curriculum Initiatives, National Union of Teachers, reports on the reactions of teachers concerned with special educational needs in primary schools to using SATs for assessing pupils at Key Stage 1.     

小学数学教材使用的现状透视及解读策略研究——以人教版小学数学教材为例

对教材进行解读研究是每个小学数学教师必备的基本能力。读懂教材是使用教材、有效教学的基础。但在教学实践中,仍存在诸多问题。因此,本文提出多视角解读教材的策略,即从编者角度去钻研教材,领会意图,把握特点;从学生角度去钻研教材,以人为本,贴近生活;从教师角度去钻研教材,发挥优势,活化教材。     

Visualization as a guide for composing

Visualization techniques involving the analysis of pictorial information (e.g., photographs, paintings, and geometric forms) are used to guide students' understanding of the composing process. For the first exploratory study sets of papers written by students enrolled in an introductory level composition course incorporating these techniques were compared with sets of papers written by students in another section of the same course to determine the effectiveness of visualization for understanding the process of revision. Students in a second study completed a questionnaire designed to assess students' memory for visualization techniques as well as their tendency to apply these techniques to new situations. The results suggest that visualization techniques were effective in guiding the revision process (Study 1). Further, results show that students remembered both specific details about the pictorial information used to guide the composing process (outlining, analyzing, revising) and the underlying principles informing these techniques (Study 2). Visualization techniques are discussed in terms of their potential usefulness in reducing the cognitive demands implicit in the composing process.     

The Part which Metacognition can Play in Raising Standards in English at Key Stage 2

This article explores the role of metacognition in developing literacy at Key Stage 2 and suggests that the ability to extend pupils’ metacognitive awareness deserves to be given a high focus in English teaching, as it is through this that deeper levels of understanding will be acquired. Metacognition can be enhanced by giving pupils an explicit repertoire of techniques to aid their understanding of how are they learning. Examples derived from five research cases reveal how some teachers have tried to achieve this, and the pivotal role which this may play in raising standards in English.     

��Romantic��, ��Classic�� and ��Baroque�� Views of Nature: An Analysis of Pictures About the Environment in Greek Primary School Textbooks��Diachronic Considerations

Taking the view that pictures are not a transparent but rather a deforming mirror of reality, shaping representations of the world bound up with the interests of the social institutions within which pictures are circulated and read, our aim is to explore what view of nature and of the human-nature relationship is built in Greek natural science school textbooks. The particular textbooks analysed have been recently introduced (in 2006 and 2007) into Greek education. The pictorial analysis suggests that a ??baroque?? view of nature and of the human-nature relationship predominantly emerges, according to which nature is constantly in motion, and therefore random and unpredictable natural change could be ??normal??. Natural environments are viewed in materialistic terms, being transformed by humans and serving as a resource. A comparison with our analysis of the older textbooks written in the early 1980s (Korfiatis et al. 2004) seems to indicate important conceptual differences between the two series of textbooks. The ??romantic?? and ??classic?? views of nature in the old textbooks could express the vigour, the optimism and the innocence characterising industrial societies (or in the process of industrialisation) about human interventions in the environment. Conversely, the ??baroque?? view found in the new textbooks probably marks the scepticism of post-industrial societies about natural phenomena.     

历史教科书的“想象”之维

历史教科书应该从不同维度凸显"想象"。在历史叙事方面,教科书可以运用形象推演、虚构性的想象和具有史料性的文学想象,激发学生的想象力;在活动设计方面,教科书可以围绕文献资料、故事和历史剧、反事实想象设计活动,加强学生的想象力;在图像运用方面,教科书可以运用想象画和文物图像等。提升学生的想象力。     

“Busting with blood and gore and full of passion”: the impact of an oral retelling of the Iliad in the primary classroom

This paper describes the impact of an oral retelling of Homer's Iliad on pupils' learning in Key Stage 2 classrooms (children aged 9–11) in schools in East London. We argue that the oral nature of the retelling and responses promoted high levels of engagement and inclusion, leading to enhanced understanding by the pupils. The use of a complex and emotionally powerful text also encouraged a changing of the nature of the discourse between teachers and pupils. Finally we argue for the use of texts like the Iliad as an integral part of the literacy curriculum.     

小学英语新教科书编写的理论依据研究

几乎任何重视教育的国家和地区，都注重教科书的编写。在我国，教科书一直都是基础教育的主要媒介，是学生学习和获取知识的主要来源，更是教师教学的主要依据。教科书的编写虽然受到各大出版社和学术研究机构的重视，但学术界对小学英语新教科书编写理论的研究却并不多见。本文仅尝试从认知心理学的角度，来探究小学英语教科书编写的理论基础，希望能够唤起学术界对此问题的关注。     

香港初小学生识字测试报告

本文汇报了香港初小学生识字测试的工作。识字测试兼及汉字字音、字形、字义的认识。测试的汉字从香港小学语文大纲所列生字表分级随机抽出。测试结果显示香港初小学生对初小阶段的字,字音得分较高,字义次之,字形得分最低,表明学生对初小阶段的字的字音掌握较佳,字形掌握较低。当加入高小的字测试时,字音,字形,字义得分相对地下降,字音、字形、字义每项得分差别不大。识字测试结果也显示香港初小学生最先掌握字的音义,其次才掌握字的形义,最后才掌握字的音形。     

品德与社会教科书如何充分体现小学生历史思维能力的培养

历史一直是社会科课程重要的学习领域之一。在品德与社会教科书中,如何结合小学生的认知规律和思维水平,开展有效的历史学习并培养他们的历史思维能力,是教科书编写的难点。在以儿童的社会生活为主线的指导下,现有教科书尝试淡化历史学科体系的痕迹,倡导主题式的呈现方式。这种尝试在增进学生对历史的了解时,也存在着时序不清晰等问题。基于此,教科书历史内容的编写应突出时间顺序,增强对学生历史思维能力尤其是时序思维能力的培养。     

Multiple documents of text and picture: Naming a historical painting’s inaccuracies influences conflict regulation strategies

Referring to theories of multiple documents and narrative processing, two experiments investigated how viewers process pairs of documents about historical events, namely, historical paintings together with audio-texts either naming or not naming historical inaccuracies in the paintings. The results of Experiment 1 revealed that participants encountering discrepancies allocated more attention to the pictorial element, compared to participants without discrepancies, but not to the source label containing information about the artist. Participants in the two conditions reported an equal amount of interest in receiving further information and did not differ with regard to the retention of pictorial elements. In Experiment 2, participants rated the painting’s trustworthiness lower with discrepancies named than without, and this effect was compensated by an explanation for the discrepancy. Retention of the manipulated pictorial elements was not affected by either presenting these elements as discrepant or not, but an explorative analysis indicated that the pictorial elements presented always as consistent were remembered worse with discrepancies named. In Experiment 1, the reported transportation into the historical narrative was lower with compared to without discrepancies named, but we could not replicate this effect in Experiment 2. Our results extend multiple documents literature on multiple documents of text and picture.     

'I Normally Just Ramble On' -Strategies to Improve Writing at Key Stage 3

This article reports the findings of a classroom-based study into the effectiveness of various strategies designed to assist children at Key Stage 3 (11–14 years) to become better writers. It takes account of the attitudes of the pupils themselves and considers the role of the teacher in facilitating improvement in imaginative writing.     

Too Much,Too Young? An Analysis of the Key Stage 3 National Literacy Strategy in Practice

This article was first drafted after I worked for 14 weeks last year in a school that was piloting the National Literacy Strategy at Key Stage 3. I now work in another school delivering the full published Strategy to Year 7. In this article, I explore the contradictions inherent in the Strategy in attempting to develop the English and literacy skills of Key Stage 3 pupils. Ultimately, my argument is that the educational benefits of this teaching to objectives is at odds with some of the deeper aims of the Strategy and of English teaching, and that the constant assessment involved puts too much pressure on our youngsters at an age when they should be concentrating on social development as people.