Establishing enabling conditions to develop critical thinking skills: a case of innovative curriculum design in Environmental Science

This paper considers a curriculum design motivated by a desire to explore more valid pedagogical approaches that foster critical thinking skills among students engaged in an Environmental Science course in South Africa, focussing specifically on the topic of Citizen Science. Fifty-three under graduate students were involved in the course, which was run over a two week period. Data were generated from several sources, including individual student evaluations, a focus group discussion, lecturer reflections and summative assessment results. During the course, the development of critical thinking skills was scaffolded by different thinking approaches to the possibilities and problematics of student-selected case studies, followed by a collaborative re-examining of ‘what is known’ about Citizen Science. Spiralling engagement with various resources harnessed the diversity of the class, as they drew on their personal and disciplinary backgrounds. The insights highlight possibilities for alternative higher education teaching models for emerging subjects such as Environmental Science, where the competencies required of graduates, such as critical thinking and coping with uncertainty, differ significantly from traditional ‘science’ competencies, and therefore require a departure from traditional teaching methods.     

Developing Energy Literacy in US Middle-Level Students Using the Geospatial Curriculum Approach

This quantitative study examined the effectiveness of a geospatial curriculum approach to promote energy literacy in an urban school district and examined factors that may account for energy content knowledge achievement. An energy literacy measure was administered to 1,044 eighth-grade students (ages 13–15) in an urban school district in Pennsylvania, USA. One group of students received instruction with a geospatial curriculum approach (geospatial technologies (GT)) and another group of students received ‘business as usual’ (BAU) curriculum instruction. For the GT students, findings revealed statistically significant gains from pretest to posttest (p?<?0.001) on knowledge of energy resource acquisition, energy generation, storage and transport, and energy consumption and conservation. The GT students had year-end energy content knowledge scores significantly higher than those who learned with the BAU curriculum (p?<?0.001; effect size being large). A multiple regression found that prior energy content knowledge was the only significant predictor to the year-end energy content knowledge achievement for the GT students (p?<?0.001). The findings support that the implementation of a geospatial curriculum approach that employs learning activities that focus on the spatial nature of energy resources can improve the energy literacy of urban middle-level education students.     

科教兴国与国兴教育的实践方略

实施科教兴国战略的前提在国兴科教,关键是国兴教育。本文分析了国兴教育面临的四大问题,并从提高思想认识、加大教育投入、坚持改革方向、落实科学发展观等方面提出了国兴教育的实践方略。     

社区科学教育基本途径的调查和分析

一、问题的提出近年来,随着社区工作的逐步完善,使得人们对社区科学教育工作越来越重视。然而,到目前为止,对如何有效开展社区科学教育还没有较为完备的理论和成功经验作指导。为此,我们编定了“关于社区居民科学教育基本途径的问卷”,并辅助以访谈、观察等多种调查研究的方法,     

关于社区科普教育与公民科学素质培养的思考

文章通过对我国公民科学素质水平和对社区科普教育活动的分析,探究社区科普教育对培养公民科学素质的意义和作用,并在此基础上提出促进社区科普教育发展的建议和策略,希望能对广大社区科普教育工作者有些许帮助。     

An Approach to Introducing Environmental Education into the Science Methods Course in Teacher Education

This approach attempts to use environmental education as a thread in the science methods course in teacher education for lower secondary level (12‐14) in the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). The framework of the approach, which stresses the for’ component of environmental education is discussed and some of the strategies and activities used are presented, for instance production of concept maps on environmental issues and a role‐play about traffic restrictions in the historic city of Santiago. Some of the difficulties that student teachers encounter in translating this approach to the practical level are also discussed.     

"科教兴延"战略问题的几点思考

“科教兴延”是延安市委、市政府确定的宏伟的战略部署，实施“科教兴延”战略，要充分解释“科学技术是第一生产力”，努力提高主导产业和资源开发的科技含量，切实把教育摆在优先发展的战略地位，深入挖掘人才资源，勇于探索，敢于实践，建立延安的科教创新体系，真正把措施落到实处。     

科教兴国社会系统工程的构成要素与运行机制研究

科教兴国社会系统工程是由一系列地位、作用不同的社会要素所构成 ,并有其运行机制在内的社会运动 ;科教兴国战略的实现要着眼于形成要素的培育和其功能作用的发挥以及运行机制的建立     

Community Development and Education: A Tripod Approach to Improving America

Education plays an important role in community development initiatives. A movement toward an increased linkage between the two arenas has emerged. Two major theories undergird this movement: economic/investment and the ecology of community revitalization. The Clinton administration's Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community program offers a concrete example of a community development initiative. Preliminary reports on educational components from sites nationwide are highlighted. In addition, a review of the literature reveals several major issues that surround these community development activities, including values conflicts, economic sustainability, school improvement, trust, and administrative issues. Overall, the purpose of this paper is to bring into focus the major theoretical and practical issues that community development efforts confront in attempting to improve the lives of Americans in need.     

A Developmental Approach to the Education of Young Children

A developmental approach to the curriculum for young children takes into account the principle that what children should learn, and how they can best learn, changes with their age and the experience that comes with age. Several principles of practice emerge from this basic developmental principle. For example, as children grow older, what they learn changes from horizontal to greater vertical relevance. Similarly, the younger the learner, the more is learned through interactive and active processes rather than through passive and receptive processes. In addition, the younger the learner, the greater the urgency of helping them acquire basic social competence, which is very difficult to acquire later on. These developmental principles of practice imply that a curriculum for young children should include the opportunity to work in small groups on extended investigations of real phenomena in the children's own environments.     

Environmental Education in the United States: A Survey of Preservice Teacher Education Programs

Abstract

The status of the environmental education component of preservice teacher education programs is unknown nationally. This study surveyed 715 institutions of teacher education using a mail questionnaire. The response rate was approximately 63%. The results indicate that most schools have few requirements related to environmental education, and in the majority of schools environmental education is not institutionalized.     

Environmental Education and the Politics of Curriculum: A National Case Study

This article documents the emergence of environmental education in the curriculum discourse in Aotearoa/New Zealand in 1988, and proceeds to trace its path through a succession of curriculum documents over the subsequent two decades. As well as exploring the form environmental education takes in these documents, the way it emerges in educational priorities is also reviewed. This historical analysis highlights the political nature of the school curriculum in general, and in particular, the place of environmental education within it. It also suggests that the curriculum, by itself, provides little concrete guidance for teachers. In response, I propose that educators must look to their own community for strength and leadership in a hostile political climate.     

＂地方性知识＂析——地方课程开发中知识选择的思考

地方性知识是地方课程开发的知识论前提,澄清其能指与所指有利于地方课程价值的充分实现并提高课程开发主体的内在积极性,变依托外部行政指令的外推式开发为依托开发主体内在驱力的自组织开发。目前,地方课程开发主体对地方性知识之认识存在多向度上的误读：第一,囿于偏狭的“地理空间”理解其适用地域;第二,理解其形态与价值上的形而上学倾向;第三,地方性知识主体被窄化为纯地理空间意义上的“地方人”。基于此,地方性知识的应有之义在于：地方性知识是超越具体知识形态的知识观念,是包融知识价值立场、知识具体形态在内的多层次结构体并与普遍性知识具有通约性。在深化地方课程开发过程中,地方性知识的选择应当充分基于地方性知识的实质并扎根于地方生活世界之中。     

科学素养: 学前科学教育的课程目标

学前科学教育应将培养幼儿的科学素养作为课程总目标。幼儿的科学素养主要体现在知识与技能、过程与方法、情感态度与价值观三个方面。学前科学教育应致力于培养幼儿的科学态度、科学行为与习惯。     

从优先发展到科教兴国——邓小平、江泽民的教育观

本文讨论了优先发展教育与科教兴国提出的历史背景及深刻内涵。指出从优先发展教育到科教兴国的转变体现了以江泽民为核心的第三代中央领导集体对邓小平教育理论的继承与发展;体现了国家对教育的高度重视;体现出教育与经济的紧密结合。     

GLOBE: A Worldwide Environmental Science and Education Partnership

The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program is a unique hands-on international environmental science and education program designed for use in schools in Kindergarten through Grade 12. Continually growing, GLOBE to date involves students in almost 5000 schools in over 60 countries around the world. GLOBE students take environmental measurements selected by the world science community so as to provide data useful for research into the dynamics of the Earth's environment. GLOBE data is reported using the Internet/World Wide Web. Data from GLOBE schools all over the world are used to produce vivid displays and contour maps as immediate feedback helping students to appreciate the impact and context of their efforts. Other features of the GLOBE Web site allow GLOBE students to communicate and collaborate with scientists and with other GLOBE students around the world.     

高职高专学生信息素养教育与课程整合的研究

阐述了高职高专学生信息素养和课程整合的涵义和必要性,并对如何培养和提高高职高专学生的信息素养和教师课程整合提出了相应的实施方案。     

Pursuing Fluency: A Curricular Intervention in Tanakh Education

ABSTRACT

This study set out to design and implement an approach to Tanakh education that would help students become expert decoders of the Biblical Hebrew text as they became expert interpreters of it. The goal, following existing, research-based best instructional practices from literacy, was to create a curriculum in which language skills and meaning making were intimately connected. This paper describes the curriculum and its implementation.     

依托地方文化资源优势开展社区教育研究——基于河北省邯郸市开展社区教育的实践

社区教育是继续教育的重要形式,发展社区教育对促进经济发展、辅助社会管理、传承先进文化、提升个人素质、拓展电大教育具有不可替代的作用。邯郸在实践中将地方文化资源作为开展社区教育的重要内容,将地方文化活动作为开展社区教育的有效载体,并利用地方文化资源系统发展社区教育组织,这些做法或许为社区教育的深入发展提供了些许思路。