Educational practice in India and its foundations in Indian heritage: a synthesis of the East and West?

The paper examines education practice in India in terms of the division between indigenous cultures on the one hand, and the formal culture of learning and knowledge systems inherited from colonial times on the other. These ‘two Indias’ are still reflected in the modern educational system in India, seen in the vast differences between the formal school system, whose benefits reach only a minority of the population, and the millions of crafts-persons working in India's informal sector, many without education or training. The paper looks at reasons for these divisions within the culture and history of India's formal, non-formal and informal systems of education and training. The paper also throws light on the aspirations to unite these divided cultures of learning by looking at some of the writings of J.P. Naik, the famous educationist and secretary of the first Report of the Education Commission (1964–66) after India's independence. The analysis needs to be seen against the background of international educational thought which is improving the value, relevance and quality of non-formal and informal learning, as key pillars for building lifelong learning systems.     

The school theatre as a place of cultural learning: the case of Soviet Latvia (1960s–1980s)

Abstract

The goal of this article is to reveal how through school theatre activities under authoritarian rule, changes took place in pupil knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviour regarding culture, namely, how the process of cultural learning occurs. I use a historical case study, specifically the case of the Valmiera School Theatre, which was the leading theatre group, not only in Soviet Latvia, but also in the entire Soviet Union. My primary sources are eight unstructured interviews, 20 published memoirs, articles in the press, theatre programmes, and photographs. One part of Soviet pedagogy was aesthetic upbringing, which was implemented through state-funded collectives, including school theatre groups. By participating in theatre activities, students gained knowledge of cultural heritage (literature, theatre, art, etc.), the ability to perform and acquire skills in other practical fields, and developed an appreciation of culture as a value. I argue that cultural learning through theatre was demonstrated by the fact that the students transferred their knowledge, skills, and attitudes to a new context, namely, their places of work and public cultural activities (e.g. amateur theatres). This case study also reveals the specific role of school theatre in the process of cultural learning, as well as some sensitive issues in the relationship between knowledge-orientated or formal educational environments, and the informal creativity of school theatre.     

新教学文化：从溯源寻根走向实践创生——苏南农村小学新教学文化建构的思考与实践

新教学文化是新的儿童观下的教学文化,它根植于课堂实践,指向教师的教学行为方式和学生的学习行为方式。“新教学文化”凸现学校文化,贯穿课程文化,融合地域文化,从溯源寻根到愿景构想,再到实践创生,呈现的是校本化的教学规范、教学主张、教学策略、教学思想……新教学文化是学校文化发展中的新生长点,是新背景下课堂教学改革的聚焦。     

Authenticity in learning for the twenty-first century: bridging the formal and the informal

The paper attempts to bridge informal and formal learning by leveraging on affordance structures associated with informal environments to help learners develop social, cognitive, and metacognitive dispositions that can be applied to learning in classrooms. Most studies focus on either learning in formal or informal contexts, but this study seeks to link the two. The paper proposes three tenets to augment de-contextualized learning in schools by putting back the: (a) tacit, (b) social-collective, and (c) informal. This paper seeks to advance the argument for a consideration of how formal learning might be made more authentic by leveraging the affordances of informal learning. Two case examples are illustrated. The first case shows learners operating in a virtual environment in which??through the collaborative manipulation of terrain??adopt the epistemic frame of geomorphologists. The case seeks to illustrate how the tacit and social-collective dimensions from the virtual environment might be incorporated as part of the formal geography curriculum. In the second case, interactions between members of a school bowling team highlight the contextualized and authentic metacognitive demands placed on learners/bowlers, and how these demands are re-contextualized??through metacognitive brokering??to the formal curriculum. Productive linkages are made between informal and formal learnings and anchored through learners?? authentic experiences.     

ESD and lifelong learning: a case study of the Shangri-la Institute’s current engagement with the Bazhu community in Diqing, China

This article argues that ESD should be integrated into lifelong learning and provides an example of how this might be done. It draws on a case study of a joint project between the Shangri-la Institute and the Bazhu community in Diqing, southwest China, to analyse a community-based approach to Education for Sustainable Development and assess its implications for lifelong learning. The article examines the different knowledge, skills and values needed for ESD across the life span and asserts the need for these competencies to be informed by the local context. The importance of linking ESD with local culture and indigenous knowledge is emphasised. The article goes on to propose methods for integrating ESD into lifelong learning and underscore the need for learning at the individual, institutional and societal levels in formal, non-formal and informal learning settings. It calls for institutional changes that link formal, non-formal and informal learning through the common theme of ESD, and establish platforms to share experiences, reflect on these and thereby continually improve ESD.     

澳门大学教育专业课程中的传统文化教学

澳门大学教育学院担负着培养澳门中小幼教师的重要责任,但在其课程设置中,传统文化教学的课程少,师资错配,部分教师爱国与教学热情不高,教学模式机械化,教学内容滞后不前。为此尝试开设"诗词曲赏析与教学""《论》《孟》与教育"两门课,融入国学知识,培养、提高学生对传统文化的认识、培养学生的爱国情怀。在教学互动中,其学习成效较为理想。建议在大学教学框架下增设传统文化课程,鞭策教师负起正面、积极传授的责任,加强师资队员建设,提升国学师资力量。教师应把传统教育与现代教育相融合,运用现代教育方法,讲授国学知识,建立文化自信,培养爱国主义情怀。     

The computer as a cultural influence in mathematical learning

My starting point in this paper is that there is a cultural gap between the mathematics that children do as part of their everyday experience and the mathematics that they learn at school; my thesis is that the computer has (perhaps uniquely) the potential to bridge this divide. The paper will examine the cultural impact-both actual and potential-of the computer on children's mathematical education; at the ways in which the introduction of the computer does and will changes the ambient space in which children learn mathematics.I begin with a brief discussion of the cultural context of mathematics learning and the relationship between informal, everyday mathematical activity, and formal, school mathematies. This perspective leads to a closer examination of what it means to do mathematics, and on the relationship of a technology to the mathematics embedded within a given culture. I discuss the issue of injecting meaning into mathematical activity, and then examine some ways in which the computer might offer a solution to this central problem. Next, I give some examples of the influence of the computer on the culture of the mathematics classroom. Finally, I suggest some of the outstanding issues of research and curriculum development which remain.This paper is based on substantially the same data as is discussed in an article inCultural Dynamics.     

Community‐based environmental education—a case study of teacher–parent collaboration

A case study of school–community collaboration in an elementary community school in Israel follows up an environmental education (EE) school‐based curriculum that involves the parents and community members in various indoors and outdoors activities. The collaboration was established in the framework of the Community School Approach. In these schools, parents are encouraged to be involved in planning school‐based curriculum and participating in school's formal and informal activities. The aim of the study was to describe environmental education‐based school–community partnerships and to examine the advantages and limitations for such collaboration. Parents, teachers and community members were interviewed for a period of three years. Most of the participants acknowledged the unique nature of EE that allows such a partnership, emphasizing local ideas of project‐based learning in environmental education. The study describes an exemplary collaboration and the development of local school–community partnerships, which could be adapted by other communities within elementary or middle schools.     

地方性知识与多元文化教育之价值

学校教育课程的设置与知识的关系,经历了由地方性知识主宰下的学校课程到主流文化主宰下的学校课程,再到以主流文化为国家课程、以地方性知识为地方课程和校本课程的多元文化教育。地方性知识已经成为当今多元文化教育课程设置的主要内容,并通过民族地区的地方课程与校本课程来体现。     

现代远程教育的课程文化特色

现代远程教育课程具有鲜明而独特的文化特色。它的独特性突出地表现为知识积累、能力培养与素质提升相结合的课程目标文化,认知性、实践性、德操性知识与经验要素相结合的课程内容文化,纸质、音像、网络多种载体相结合的课程资源文化,学生自主学习、协作学习与教师导学相结合的课程实施文化,以及形成性考核与终结性考核相结合的课程考核文化。     

Lessons Learned from Exemplary Schools

This article presents lessons learned about successful professional development for promoting technology integration from eight exemplary schools. Through a qualitative investigation into school leaders’ and teachers’ intentional goals of improving student engagement and achievement, formal, informal, and individual opportunities are described from these schools. The data led to a deep understanding of the ways these schools implemented PD; in most schools purposeful reconfiguration of the entire curriculum was a corollary to the professional development. We found that the most effective models incorporated district wide, school based, formal and informal opportunities that accommodated preferences in both learning and delivery models.     

An advocacy project for multicultural education: The case of the Shiyeyi language in Botswana

Multicultural education respects cultural differences and affirms pluralism which students, their communities and teachers bring to the learning process. It is founded on the belief that a school curriculum which promotes the ideals of freedom, justice, equality, equity and human dignity is most likely to result in high academic achievement and quality education. In Botswana, English is the official language and medium of instruction and Setswana is the national lingua franca which is used for formal occasions in the villages and other informal settings. Any other languages spoken by unrecognised tribes are banned from use in schools or the media, including minority languages taught before independence in 1966, This paper describes the Shiyeyi Language Project, initiated by the Wayeyi tribe, which advocates for a multicultural model of education where children learn in their mother tongue and about their local culture at an early stage, then add the national language, and eventually an international language as medium of instruction. The project operates within an unfriendly political and legal context, but has achieved some results. Continued efforts, especially as supported by similar language projects, have the potential to change the situation in Botswana.     

The influence of extramural access to mainstream culture social media on ethnic minority students’ motivation for language learning

The educational potentials of social media both in the formal and informal learning contexts have been widely acknowledged. However, how social media use in the informal contexts might influence students’ learning in the formal contexts is still underexplored. Path analysis of 141 survey responses from secondary school ethnic minority students in Hong Kong revealed that voluntary access to Chinese social media in daily life influenced these students’ ideal L2 self and motivated efforts in learning Chinese both directly and indirectly via bicultural integration identity and bicultural competence. The findings confirmed that social media practices in the informal contexts may influence students’ motivated efforts in learning in the formal contexts. The study suggests promoting ethnic minorities’ extramural use of mainstream culture social media to influence their acculturation into the dominant culture and motivation in learning the dominant culture’s language. It further highlights the importance of equipping ethnic minority students with the necessary socio-cultural and communication skills to facilitate positive intercultural engagement on these sites so as to safeguard the positive influences of informal social media use on students’ motivation for learning.     

课程改革中的文化冲突与整合

课程改革就是文化的变革,课程追随着文化变迁的理路而嬗变。作为文化变迁表现形式之一的课程改革,其中必然涉及并带来文化冲突。我国新一轮基础教育课程改革中的文化冲突具体表现为传统文化与现代文化的冲突、主流文化与亚文化之间的冲突及西方文化与本土文化的冲突。面对文化冲突,应在吸收、借鉴国外课程理论及其实践中的有益成分,结合我国的国情民性进行有机融通和实践的再创造,采取有利、积极、合理的文化政策,实现各种文化型式的有效整合,以便在真正吸收和理解的基础上加以创造性地应用,以服从并服务于我国课程改革的内在需要。     

Everyday life and everyday learning: the ways in which pre-service teacher education curriculum can encourage personal dimensions of teacher identity

This article presents and discusses the findings of a research project, the main objective of which is to identify curriculum components that promote personal development as a nuclear part of teacher professional identity formation through pre-service teacher education. Curriculum is viewed as an ecological scenario with different subsystems and both as formal and informal. Identity formation is conceived as an ever-provisional result of a double transaction: the biographical one and the relational one. The curricula of four different historical periods of pre-service teacher education in Portugal and the professional identity of teachers trained within them were characterised through collection and analysis of documents and biographical narratives. Crossing results from the four periods, the quality of school climate emerges as an important variable to the quality of the teachers’ identity. The lifelong learning ethos seems to emerge when the training curriculum connects everyday learning with everyday life, namely by urging the students’ involvement in school life, peer learning activities and peer and teacher educators’ informal learning activities.     

Utilising selected informal science experiences to teach science in inquiry-centred Nigerian classrooms

Abstract

The formal and informal sciences can be integrated for the enhancement of training, research and teaching in the formal school system. The knowledge and methods of informal science, although regarded as crude, local or native, when embedded with formal science, can be subsequently developed and packaged as teaching innovation for the promotion of scientific knowledge, skill and training. This is the focus of this study where selected informal science experiences were used to teach some science concepts in inquiry-centred Nigerian classrooms. In inquiry-based lessons, teachers only act as facilitators and resources, creating the environment for investigations to take place.

In the experiment, students' explorations were centred on informal science activities which were guided to be incorporated into the knowledge structure of formal science classroom experiences. Subjects were Senior Secondary School 11 male and female students taught the topic alkanols; types and preparation including concepts such as fermentation and the brewing process. Informal science activities involving the processing of cassava, grains and other local products were explored by subjects in the experimental group and there was a control group whose subjects were not exposed to informal science activities. Differences in the cognitive and affective learning outcomes of students from the two groups upon data analyses were found to be significant with sex playing a major role. Implications of the findings were highlighted and recommendations were made.     

Schooling and local environmental knowledge: Do they complement or substitute each other?

Schooling and the knowledge acquired at school have been considered both a cause of loss of indigenous knowledge (because it opens pathways to the non-indigenous world and worldviews) and a potential remedy to its demise (if educational curricula is aligned with indigenous realities by giving instruction in local languages and incorporating local knowledge in school content). We test the association between academic and local environmental knowledge using data from a society of forager-horticulturalists in the Bolivian Amazon who were exposed to a partially contextualized school curriculum. We found that although schooling and academic knowledge bear a negative association with local knowledge the magnitude is low, probably because schooling was partially contextualized. Contextualized learning might help avoid that the provision of universal education comes at the cost of humanity's cultural diversity.     

How Have Concepts of Informal Learning Developed Over Time?

Although the current interest in informal learning seems recent, performance improvement professionals have long had an interest in informal learning‐the ways that people learn outside of formal structures. The earliest forms of learning for work were informal, including de facto and formal apprenticeship programs and the “school of life.” Contemporary interest began in the 1960s and 1970s with the rise of self‐directed learning. In the 1970s and 1980s, focus shifted to adult learning theory and human performance technology, both of which explore the roles of interventions other than classroom learning. The early 1990s brought two practical applications—electronic performance support systems and edutainment—followed by a third in the late 1990s—knowledge management. Discussions of informal learning arose in the 2000s. Each movement offers practical lessons for designing informal learning today.     

兼顾教育质量与文化适切性的边远民族地区课程开发机制——基于美国阿拉斯加土著学区文化数学项目的案例分析

如何有效地提高学生成绩,日益成为边远民族地区农村基础教育均衡发展的关键。美国阿拉斯加土著学区的＂文化数学项目＂,发掘民族传统文化,并有机整合到小学数学课程,明显提高了学生数学成绩。体现了一种＂针对文化的学校教育＂理念。边远民族地区农村课程开发,应当充分重视文化适切性和本土内源性,并与现代知识有机整合。     

浅析师范院校隐性课程的开发

隐性课程是学校政策及课程计划中未明确的、非正式和无意识的学校学习经验。隐性课程是师范院校教育课程的重要组成部分。师范院校应该从重视校园文化建设、提高师范院校教师素养两个层面开发隐性课程,以充分发挥隐性课程的教育效力,从而更好地实现师范院校的培养目标。