One country,two cultures – a multi-perspective view on Israeli chemistry teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning

This paper presents a study focusing on differences in Israeli Jewish and Arab chemistry teachers’ beliefs regarding teaching and learning of chemistry in the upper secondary schools. Israel is a country experiencing the problems of diverse cultural orientation of its inhabitants but applying the same educational system to its diverse cultural sectors. Education includes the same curriculum in chemistry for both the Israeli Jewish and Arab cultural sectors as well as final examinations (matriculation) set centrally by the Ministry of Education. Thus, this study can serve as a striking case for other countries facing similar cultural diversity. The study is based on two different instruments that are both qualitative and quantitative in nature. The qualitative data stem from chemistry teachers’ drawings of themselves as teachers in a typical classroom situation accompanied by four open questions. The data analysis follows three qualitative scales: beliefs about classroom organization, beliefs about teaching objectives and epistemological beliefs. A quantitative study gives insights into teachers’ beliefs about what characterizes good education. The main goal of the present paper is to determine whether both groups of chemistry teachers with different sociocultural background in Israel hold different views about education in general and chemistry education in particular. The findings provide evidence that in Israeli chemistry classrooms, the beliefs of Arabic teachers differ from those of the Jewish teachers, although both groups live in the same country and operate the same educational system.     

Faith and education in Bangladesh: A review of the contemporary landscape and challenges

Relationships between religious beliefs, institutions, educational strategies, and delivery pose practical challenges for policy makers in all countries. They have particular significance today in Bangladesh given the national and regional developments that shine light on religious roles within national identity and minority communities. Challenges range from coordination of different systems for purposes of employment credentials, equity, and quality assurance to fundamental questions about the values that underlie curricula. A related challenge involves national objectives to instill shared civic values through education and to address mounting intergroup tensions. How the wide variety of religiously managed education institutions in Bangladesh approach these issues is poorly understood and subject to significant misunderstandings. Knowledge about different types of schools and programs led by religious institutions in Bangladesh is incomplete in terms of numbers, approach, and results. Knowledge gaps contribute to misunderstandings and social and political tensions. This review describes and analyzes faith-inspired education providers in Bangladesh, the most prominent of which are Islamic madrasas and Catholic schools. It sets faith-inspired education in a historical context and highlights contemporary issues for policy makers that arise from their approach and that feature in public discourse about the links between religion and education. The aim is to build constructively on the legacies of religious contributions to education, address both articulated and unarticulated tensions, and to identify ways in which contemporary innovations among religiously inspired education providers contribute to broader national education goals.     

Urban teachers’ perceptions of inclusion of migrant children in the Chinese educational institution: a comparative study

Recently China has been undergoing an unprecedented urbanisation process which has resulted in millions of rural families living in urban areas. As part of a study of Chinese migrant children's educational experiences, surveys and interviews were conducted with primary school teachers in a metropolitan city in East China. The objectives of this study were to describe teachers’ perceptions of migrant children's education in both migrant schools and in public schools, and to investigate differences in their beliefs between school types. Results found that urban teachers’ perceptions of educational inclusion of migrant students were slightly negative in general. However, teachers in public schools showed significantly more positive attitudes to inclusion of migrant students than migrant school teachers. In the light of these findings, the paper concludes with implications for practice and policy for education of migrant children in China.     

Designing instruction for complex learning: 4C/ID in higher education

Objectives‐based instructional design approaches break down tasks into specific learning objectives and prescribe that instructors should choose the optimal instructional method for teaching each respective objective until all objectives have been taught. This approach is appropriate for many tasks where there is little relation between the objectives, but less effective for teaching complex professional tasks that require the integration of knowledge, skills, and attitudes and the coordination of different skills. For the latter, a task‐centred approach that starts designing instruction from whole, real‐life tasks, is more appropriate. This article describes one task‐centred instructional design model, namely the Four‐Component Instructional Design (4C/ID) model and illustrates its application by reflecting on three educational programs in higher education designed with 4C/ID. The first case presents a design for a course that focuses on the development of mobile apps at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. The second case illustrates the integration of information problem‐solving skills at Iselinge University of Professional Teacher Education, a teacher training institute in the Netherlands. The third case is an example from general practice education at the KU Leuven, Belgium. Future developments and issues concerning the implementation of task‐centred educational programmes are discussed.     

英国"教育行动区"计划改造薄弱学校的实践与启示

改进薄弱学校、促进教育均衡发展业已成为世界许多国家教育改革与发展的一项重要任务。英国教育行动区计划改造薄弱学校的实践在较短的时间内获得了一定的成效和社会认可,教育行动区的理念和行动设计值得我们借鉴。     

关于少数民族女童学校教育特殊性的初步分析

少数民族女童教育是我国义务教育中的难中之难,如何认识影响少数民族女童教育发展的因素是重要的和迫切的问题。影响少数民族女童学校教育发展的外部因素有经济发展水平、地域环境、宗教信仰、文化传统与习俗和语言文字等,内部因素有教育目标、办学形式、师生状况、课程设置、教材和教学设备等。     

Assessing in-service teachers' instructional beliefs about student-centered education: A Turkish perspective

The main purpose of this research is to examine in-service teachers' instructional beliefs about student-centered education. The inventory was designed to measure teachers' student-centered educational beliefs based on four components of the educational curriculum comprising of educational objectives, content, teaching strategies and instructional assessment. Data for the study were collected from 307 in-service teachers working at K-8 schools. A quantitative research analysis showed that in-service teachers held positive beliefs about student-centered education. In addition, the characteristics of teachers such as school level, teaching experience, teaching subject and educational background had statistically significant effects on their beliefs about student-centered education.     

澳门中小学品德与公民教育成效的评价研究

以澳门《非高等教育制度纲要法》规定的教育总目标为评价标准,通过学校问卷调查、学生评定和课堂观察,本研究发现,澳门中小学品德与公民教育取得了一定成效,并表现出如下的特点:品德教育的成效优于公民教育,又私德教育成效优于公德教育。本文从澳门的历史背景出发,配合有关研究文献,针对上述特点的成因进行了探讨。     

“Troops to Teachers”: implications for the coalition government’s approach to education policy and pedagogical beliefs and practice

On taking power the coalition government embarked on what many commentators believe is a radical programme of public policy reform. Under Michael Gove, education policy has become totemic to those arguing that Britain’s classrooms are mired in academic mediocrity and behavioural failure. One policy response by the government has been to propose fast-tracking ex-armed services personnel into schools in England as teachers, especially in inner-city areas. This paper examines the educational and pedagogical merits of this proposal and the underlying beliefs that underpin it. Based on a critical evaluation of the literature, it argues that rather than representing a genuinely radical and innovative attempt to tackle educational underachievement, the Troops to Teachers initiative is deeply reactionary. One, based on discredited pedagogical philosophies which fail to address what the educational community believes a “good” education is, devalues teaching as a profession and ignores the socio-economic factors that primarily determine academic performance.     

整体构建学校德育体系落实立德树人根本任务

德,是思想政治和道德品质的总称。立德树人,就是要培养青少年学生具有思想政治素质和道德品质。落实立德树人根本任务,需要整体构建大中小学德育体系。整体构建学校德育体系的基本框架是以德育目标、德育内容、德育途径、德育方法、德育管理、德育评价等要素系统为纬,以小学德育、中学德育(中职德育)、大学德育(高职德育)等层次系统为经,进行横向贯通,纵向衔接,分层递进,螺旋上升。新时代落实立德树人根本任务,需要重点做好三方面工作:一是构建全程、全面、全员可操作的学校德育体系;二是加强德育实践活动课程建设;三是重视学校文化和中国德育馆建设。     

Planned educational change in Japan: the case of elementary science instruction

Available evidence suggests that Japanese elementary science education has shifted, in recent decades, away from lecture‐style, rote ‘teaching as telling’ toward ‘teaching for understanding’. How has this change been accomplished? Drawing on our ongoing study of innovations in Japanese elementary science instruction, we describe three features of the Japanese system that may facilitate planned change. First, we describe Japan's broad national goals for elementary education and the alignment of textbooks with these goals. We point out that Japan's national goals focus on the whole child (social, ethical and intellectual development), a breadth which, we speculate, may reduce the kind of pendulum swings between goals of academic and social development that have plagued some other countries’ educational policies. In addition, we note that the national goals are abstract and are translated into classroom practice through the collaborative work of teachers. Second, we describe three routes through which the national goals are translated into classroom practice: research lessons, teachers’ research groups, and national elementary schools. Finally, we speculate on some elements of the educational context (for example, collaborative habits and norms, beliefs about the pace and nature of change, and the practice of self‐critical reflection) that may support planned educational change in Japan.     

Privatising form or function? Equity,outcomes and influence in American charter schools

The American experiment with charter schools advanced on dual impulses of increasing opportunities for disadvantaged students and unleashing market competition. While critics see these independently managed schools as a form of privatisation, proponents contend that they are public schools because of funding and accountability arrangements and potential benefits, and believe that the economic logic around these schools will produce equitable educational opportunities. This analysis considers how charters are or are not instances of privatisation in education, showing that the marketised environment they are intended to nurture serves as a route for profit-seeking strategies. In reviewing the research on charter school organisational behaviour and outcomes in marketised environments, I find evidence of de facto privatisation in function if not in form. As charter schools often act like profit-seeking entities, but fail to achieve expected academic and equity outcomes, the concluding discussion considers how these schools are placed between conflicting goals, and serve as entry points for private organisations seeking to penetrate the publicly funded education sector. I conclude that perhaps their most important role is in serving as a vehicle for privatising public policy—diminishing the public while enhancing the position and influence of private interests and organisations in education policymaking.     

Motivational cost aspects of physical education in middle school students

Expectancy value theory presumes that learners’ motivation is determined by their expectancy beliefs and task values associated with learning tasks. This study examined students’ cost and its relation to expectancy beliefs, other task value components in physical education. Middle school students (N?=?593) from 11 schools completed the expectancy-value questionnaire. Qualitative analysis of students’ responses to open-ended questions showed motivational cost originated from curriculum content, instructional conditions/elements, physical discomfort, lack of social support and competence and teacher factors. Chi-square analysis suggests that students’ motivational cost is associated with their hypothetical choices of attending physical education. Motivational cost was found to be negatively associated with other task value components, but not with expectancy beliefs.     

Enhancing student outcomes through mentoring, peer counselling and parental involvement

The government of Ghana has designed various initiatives to achieve the Millennium Development Goals on education and the Education for All goals. Despite these initiatives, student outcomes continue to be poorer than desired. Although access to education has improved, student dropout remains a problem and student scores on achievement tests remain low, along with their rates of progression to higher grades. The authors propose a program of mentoring, peer counseling, and parent involvement for children from first through ninth grade. They believe this program is essential to sustain the government’s initiatives on education, and has the potential to achieve the educational outcomes that Ghana and many developing countries require to meet the goals of the EFA agenda.     

Factors contributing to the implementation of inclusive education in Pacific Island countries

This study reports the outcomes of focus group discussions reflected in presentations of concept maps relating to the implementation of inclusive education in the Pacific based on the views of 39 stakeholders from four countries (Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu). Five themes emerged, with one of the strongest being that of culture, community, and religion. This, amongst other ideas, is central to Pacific Islanders’ understandings of inclusive education implementation, and results in some tensions between western educational ideas and the local context. The implications of this paper clearly show that local culture and context must be accounted for, if inclusive education is to be successfully implemented in the region.     

思政教育在大学生职业生涯教育中的作用和应用

思政教育和职业生涯教育具有教育目标一致、教育内容交叉等特点,在树立大学生理想信念和培养职业道德方面发挥重要作用,具体可以在课堂建设、社会实践等方面进行应用。     

“教育民营”的一种制度演进路径分析——在公立中小学建立董事会制度的初步思考

“教育民营”指的是“由非政府组织和公民个人对学校及其他教育机构进行管理和经营的一种教育制度”。这一制度对人们现有观念的最大冲击、也就是它的终极目标是将所有的公立学校也全部交给非政府组织和公民个人来经营,以形成一个公开、公平、开放、竞争的教育市场。而在公立中小学建立董事会制度正是推进“教育民营”的重要步骤。     

Who Benefits from the Massification of Higher Education in Taiwan?

The objectives of expanding higher education are to foster advanced personnel and realize the concept of achieving equal access to education. The problems created by the expansion of higher education in many countries, including Taiwan, in fact indicate a divergence from originally anticipated objectives. Such problems include the uneven allocation of resources, tuition differences between public and private schools, and vicious competition in the face of declining student enrollments, all of which contribute to concerns about educational quality issues. Of additional interest is whether Taiwan's focus on university enrollments of disadvantaged ethnic groups has created a trend toward greater educational opportunities for its aboriginal people. Nevertheless, the distribution of resources is increasingly concentrated on elites from high socioeconomic backgrounds and in a few public universities. All of these factors have facilitated an increasing class reproduction in higher education. The original elites continue to enjoy a wealth of resources. Yet while more and more students gain access to higher education, their institutional teaching quality and learning environment still fall behind that of the elites.     

中国和古巴思想政治教育比较研究

中国、古巴两个社会主义国家都重视思想政治教育,重视思想政治教育指导思想的研究创新;教育内容上以本土化马克思主义理论为主体,强调爱国主义教育、理想信念教育与社会主义道德教育的融合;教育途径上,注重发挥党的作用,重视学校思想政治教育的作用,善于发挥舆论宣传作用。系统的思想政治教育为两国社会主义建设的开展奠定了良好的政治基础。