A review of curriculum in the UK: internationalising in a changing context

The present article focuses on the growing emphasis on international dimensions of the curriculum in the UK. Educators and policymakers increasingly grapple with the thorny issue of how best to prepare future generations for life in a world changing so rapidly that no-one is able to predict precisely what knowledge and skills will be relevant for the adult of tomorrow. Overlapping with debate relating to the national context is that pertaining to the global environment, which manifests itself in current educational discourse relating to a growing number of concepts such as global citizenship education, international education, development education, world studies, and education for international understanding. Beginning with consideration of the curriculum context, this article highlights the growing number of international curriculum programmes being developed and offered worldwide, and in the UK in particular, before considering some of the reasons behind this growth and the implications of increased interest in programmes with an international focus.     

Capacity for (quality) instruction: a framework for understanding the use of resources to promote teaching and learning in schools

Abstract

The inception of no-fee schools and a school-fee exemption policy has become a contentious issue but also an exciting one for school managers in South Africa. Managers opposed to the policy have cited amongst others things, academic standards dropping, as well as parents who can afford to pay jumping on the bandwagon and refusing to pay. While the advocates for no-fee schools argue that it is not only a moral obligation for the authorities to ensure that every child is able to get basic education, it is also a basic human right. Notwithstanding these contrasting views, an overwhelming majority (62%) of the purposively sampled principals of public schools in the Free State Province expressed relief and agreement with this decision to declare poor school nofee schools. This article, therefore, intends to explore not only the background to the policy but also the possible impact of this decision on overall school performance as perceived by the school principals.     

Educating teachers in Hong Kong for leadership in the age of the internet: a re-conceptualisation

There is very little argument that one of the major developments to have impacted in schools in the past decade is the rapid and world-wide development of information and communication technologies (ICT), particularly the Internet. In Hong Kong, reforms in the ICT teacher training policy, and the fact that Hong Kong is a ‘wired’ city, has resulted in pre-service teachers being well versed in the technical competencies of computer usage and its pedagogical manifestations. However, there has been scant attention paid to the fact that students are actively engaged in large-scale autonomous, teacher-less learning via the Internet. In this paper, it is argued that for teachers to be leaders in contemporary classrooms, teacher education programs need to focus more on the deeper and wider implications of ICT and the Internet in education than has hitherto been the practice.     

MICTS: Municipal ICT Schools – A Means for Bridging the Digital Divide Between Rural and Urban Communities

There is a substantial difference in use and development of information and communication technologies and services between and within countries. Some denote this phenomenon as the digital divide.This paper addresses the competence aspect of the digital divide. It proposes municipal ICT schools as one model aimed to bridge this gap and provides an assessment of the model based on the results from a field trial in three rural municipalities in Norway. The model brings the benefits of increased competence of ICT in the communities but in addition have a potential with regard to stimulating talent development, serving as a resource for local business and offering meeting places in the communities for building social capital. The model may be successfully implemented within reasonable economic limitations but is also challenging in several ways, for instance on how teaching resources are recruited and supported.The purpose of the paper is to bring forward the discussion about how to bring all people, also those in rural areas, to be participators in the information technology age.     

Digital Literacies Go to School: A Cross-Case Analysis of the Literacy Practices Used in a Classroom-Based Social Network Site

The authors, working from a new literacies studies perspective, suggest that educators can better teach their students if they develop their own knowledge of the purposes, types, and language conventions students use in their informal out-of-school literacy practices. The purpose of this study was to identify the literacy practices used in a classroom-based social network site and determine how these practices reflect digital literacies. By connecting differences in the literacy practices of three fifth-grade girls to the instructional moves made by classroom teachers, the authors were able to identify and describe how classroom teachers unintentionally marginalized the kinds of digital literacies that are valued in the larger society. Findings point to the importance of creating online identities for establishing relationships in a social networking site and a need for teachers to model ways to shift language use when engaging in different writing contexts.     

美国中学实施混合学习的特点与启示——基于《在学校层面实施混合学习的路线图》的分析

为顺应疫情防控常态化,我国中学阶段实施混合学习,成为复学后的新型学习方式。美国在混合学习研究与实践领域具有很强的影响,国际K-12在线学习协会与纽约市实验学校合作实施混合学习,并制定了《在学校层面实施混合学习的路线图》,提出了实施混合学习的六个要素:领导力、专业发展、教学、运营、内容、技术,设计了混合学习质量的评估原则。美国中学实施混合学习体现出突出特点:中学领导定期视察实施混合学习状况,及时交流反馈;多维度制订实施混合学习计划,不同阶段任务明确具体;强调混合学习中的个性化学习,培养学生自主学习能力;实行跨校合作,多校协同推进实施混合学习。对我国中学实施混合学习的启示:提升校长信息化领导力,统筹混合学习的规划与发展;提高教师技术与资源应用能力,发挥混合学习引导者的作用;提升学生信息素养,发挥混合学习的主体性;实现资源普及与共享,优化混合学习的环境;因地制宜,采取差异化的方式进行评估。     

Computer‐assisted learning in anatomy at the International Medical School in Debrecen,Hungary: A preliminary report

The University of Debrecen's Faculty of Medicine has an international, multilingual student population with anatomy courses taught in English to all but Hungarian students. An elective computer‐assisted gross anatomy course, the Computer Human Anatomy (CHA), has been taught in English at the Anatomy Department since 2008. This course focuses on an introduction to anatomical digital images along with clinical cases. This low‐budget course has a large visual component using images from magnetic resonance imaging and computer axial tomogram scans, ultrasound clinical studies, and readily available anatomy software that presents topics which run in parallel to the university's core anatomy curriculum. From the combined computer images and CHA lecture information, students are asked to solve computer‐based clinical anatomy problems in the CHA computer laboratory. A statistical comparison was undertaken of core anatomy oral examination performances of English program first‐year medical students who took the elective CHA course and those who did not in the three academic years 2007–2008, 2008–2009, and 2009–2010. The results of this study indicate that the CHA‐enrolled students improved their performance on required anatomy core curriculum oral examinations (P < 0.001), suggesting that computer‐assisted learning may play an active role in anatomy curriculum improvement. These preliminary results have prompted ongoing evaluation of what specific aspects of CHA are valuable and which students benefit from computer‐assisted learning in a multilingual and diverse cultural environment. Anat Sci Educ. © 2012 American Association of Anatomists.