The quality of secondary education in the Middle East and North Africa: what can we learn from TIMSS’ results?

Research on educational quality has been scarce in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, whereas the debates over educational quality date from 1966 in the USA with the Coleman Report. Fortunately TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) starts to fill this gap by providing data on students’ achievement and for many MENA countries this is the first time that such data are available. The paper gives an overview of the quality of education in MENA using TIMSS’ 2007 data. The research questions addressed here are why is achievement low? And why is the gap between the top‐performing countries and MENA countries large? In order to answer these questions, the paper focuses on several aspects: the first is the inefficiency of acquiring the language, the second is the inefficiency of time devoted to homework, the third is the meagre intended curriculum which is translated into a weaker implemented curriculum, the fourth aspect deals with the inefficiency of public resources devoted to the education sector. Finally, the paper highlights two other factors believed to affect students’ achievement: family background and students’ attitudes towards mathematics and science.     

Assessment in the school systems of the Czech Republic

Student assessment in the Czech Republic is still rather traditional, with classroom practice continuing to focus on summative assessment. The country has regularly participated in international surveys, but the findings from these only started to influence educational policy during the past decade, when Czech students’ performance fell markedly in all assessment domains. The principal response has been to introduce standardised school-leaving examinations at different points in the primary and secondary school systems. The examinations have several widely acknowledged shortcomings, however, and in the meantime assessment for learning remains a neglected area. The improvement of evaluation and assessment practices in the Czech Republic is hindered by low levels of expertise among teachers, principals and policy-makers, and the private sector testing agencies that have become very active in the country suffer from the same weaknesses.     

韩国职前数学教师教育的评介与分析

韩国的数学教师职前教育体制有如下特点:类型多样的教师职前培养机构、严格的公立学校数学教师聘任制度、定期的教师教育机构评估制度.小学数学教师教育课程具有综合性、多样化特点;中学数学教师教育课程更重视学科知识.韩国数学教师职前教育对中国的数学教师教育有如下启示:建立多元的办学体制,致力于专业化的数学教师培养;以教师聘任制度和教师教育机构评估制度促进数学教师培养质量的提高;在学科课程和教学法课程之间寻求恰当平衡.     

Assessment of Art Education in Hungary: Historical Problems in Contemporary Perspective

Although art teachers are mostly unwilling to undertake assessment procedures or examinations, the history of art education suggests that even the earliest art programmes ended in rather rigid trials of draughtsmanship. A group of researchers including the author of this paper was commissioned to develop new methods for final examinations and, after surveying the existing methods and work done during the 1980s when art became one of the electives at the school-leaving examinations of the secondary grammar school, we were struck by the similarity between current tasks and solutions and 19th century works and models. Changing the methods of examinations in our case will certainly involve the reinterpretation of the academic heritage that at the same time elevates and cripples Hungarian art education at the secondary school level. This paper illustrates and interprets the philosophy of the examinations and art concourses from important periods of Hungarian educational history and outlines the passage of the Hungarian art teacher from the supposedly ‘eternal’ world of the Academia to the ‘banal’, ‘transitional’, ‘vulgar’ realms of contemporary visual communication.     

TIMSS 2019数学评价的框架、结果与启示

TIMSS 2019数学评价发现,中小学生的数学学习成绩正在逐渐提高,达到国际基准的比例也在提高,并存在区域、性别、领域和认识差异。同时,家庭与学校环境、师生教学准备、学生数学学习态度和数学课程与教学等背景因素都影响数学学习。为了促进我国数学教育的健康发展,我们要继承中华优秀教育传统,吸收先进教育理念,更新数学课程内容,优化教育教学评价,培养积极学习态度。     

美国数学课程标准中“问题解决”的变化及启示

全美数学教师理事会(NCTM)在2000年出版发行了《学校数学教育的原则和标准》,与之前相比,此文件中“问题解决”这一过程标准,在坚持以前的一些基本观点的同时,进一步明确“问题解决不仅是学习数学的一个目标,也是学习数学的一种主要方式”;而且增加了新的目标——“使学生能够检验和反思数学问题解决的过程”。由此可见,“课程标准”的制定必然有一个继承和不断改进的过程。自我国的数学课程标准将“解决问题”作为课程目标提出以来,在课程设计和教学实践中出现了一些变化和问题。在借鉴他国经验的同时,应根据我国的国情,继承和发展我国在“解决问题”方面的各种理论和实践成果,研究出培养学生解决问题能力的课程设计方案。     

Explaining the mathematical creativity of a young boy: an interdisciplinary venture between mathematics education and psychoanalysis

Curriculum documents for mathematics emphasise the importance of promoting depth of knowledge rather than shallow coverage of the curriculum. In this paper, we report on a study that explored the analysis of junior secondary mathematics textbooks to assess their potential to assist in teaching and learning aimed at building and applying deep mathematical knowledge. The method of analysis involved the establishment of a set of specific curriculum goals and associated indicators, based on research into the teaching and learning of a particular field within the mathematics curriculum, namely proportion and proportional reasoning. Topic selection was due to its pervasive nature throughout the school mathematics curriculum at this level. As a result of this study, it was found that the five textbook series examined provided limited support for the development of multiplicative structures required for proportional reasoning, and hence would not serve well the development of deep learning of mathematics. The study demonstrated a method that could be applied to the analysis of junior secondary mathematics in many parts of the world.     

The Enactment and Perception of Mathematics Pedagogical Values in an Elementary Classroom: Buddhism,Confucianism, and Curriculum Reform

The purpose of this case study was to investigate the values demonstrated by an elementary school teacher in her mathematics teaching and what values her students perceived. This research adopted the valuing theory (Raths, Harmin & Simon, 1987) and used classroom observations and interviews to document the teacher’s mathematics pedagogical values and a questionnaire, interviews, and instructional artifacts to document the students’ perceptions of these values. The results of this research identified two educational values and three mathematics pedagogical values that were influenced by the teacher’s personal beliefs about Buddhism, Confucianism, and curriculum. Her goals for education were to reinstate the students’ original enlightenment and the students’ respect for ethics and experts when dealing with people and life; and her values about mathematics learning were that it depends on individual efforts and personal understanding, her central purposes for teaching were to make students understand the mathematics content and to cultivate their problem-solving methods, and her purposes for evaluation were to understand students’ learning and to encourage students to correct their errors. The students’ awareness of these goals and values did not parallel the teacher’s personal priorities. The implications of teachers’ pedagogical values on teacher professional development and curriculum reform are discussed.     

Understanding the low mathematics achievement of Chilean students: A cross-national analysis using TIMSS data

The low performance of Chile in the TIMSS 1998/99 international study of mathematics and science achievement was a great disappointment for that country. To investigate the likely causes for low performance in mathematics, this study (1) compared Chile to three countries and one large school system that had similar economic conditions but superior mathematics performance, and (2) examined how important characteristics of the Chilean educational system could account for poor student achievement in mathematics. The study finds that, compared to South Korea, Malaysia, the Slovak Republic, and Miami-Dade County Public Schools: (a) Chilean 8th graders had parents with fewer years of schooling and with fewer educational resources at home; (b) the Chilean mathematics curriculum covered less content and fewer cognitive skills; and (c) the meager official curriculum translated into a weaker curricular implementation. Hierarchical linear models found that, in Chile, school assets were unequally distributed across social classes, with schools in socially advantaged areas more likely to have their own mathematics curriculum and better prepared teachers who emphasized more advanced mathematics content. Schools with their own mathematics curriculum and whose teachers covered more advanced content had significantly higher student achievement in mathematics.     

三种形态数学文化研究的回顾及启示——文化视野下数学教育理论与实践研究之一

通过对学术形态、课程形态和教育形态数学文化的内涵、特征及提出的意义进行回顾反思,启发提出数学教育文化的概念、数学教育文化观的内容设想以及对中小学数学教学实践和当前的中小学数学课程改革具有的重要意义。     

Change in mathematics education since the late 1950's — Ideas and realisation Nigeria

Conclusion This chapter has tried to expose the reader to the dynamics of curriculum change in mathematics in Nigeria in the last 20 years. The teaching of arithmetic processes became a part of school curriculum early in the colonal era. Then shortly after Independence Day the years of experimentation with mathematics curriculum materials originally produced by the African Mathematics Programme began. Just when it was thought by professionals that modern mathematics had become entrenched in the system, Government action seems to be pushing for a return to the teaching of arithmetic processes.Yet, we need to introduce system-wide in our educational institutions the type of mathematics curriculum which should ensure that Nigeria be not left behind by other countries as the countries of the world strive in their various ways to maximize the fruits of technology. What Nigeria should do is to use the Nigeria Educational Research Council to plan and implement a teacher education programme that should help teachers to teach the mathematics demanded of the age. Nothing short of this can suffice.     

国际视野下小学数学核心素养的价值取向与内涵

小学数学核心素养体系的建构是当前基础教育阶段重要的教育研究议题。采用NVivo 12.0编码统计分析,通过对美国、英国、澳大利亚、日本、新加坡现行的小学数学课程目标组成要素及内涵进行比较,从课程价值取向、内涵等维度析出小学数学核心素养的类别以及内涵的层级结构。研究发现,认知过程取向、人本主义取向、社会重建主义取向是建构小学数学核心素养框架和指标的根本价值取向;并结合专家意见,初步建构五项小学数学核心素养组成要素及其内涵。     

义务教育数学课程标准修订过程与主要内容

义务教育数学课程标准2001年实施以来,取得明显成效,也发现一些问题。2005年开始修订义务教育数学课程标准。修订组在广泛调查研究,征求多方面意见的基础上,对标准进行了认真修订。修订后的标准在体例与结构上略有调整,增加了目标行为动词的解释,三个学段统一表述实施建议,案例作为附录后移;理念与目标的表述更加清晰;三个学段的课程内容做了一些调整,内容总量基本未变,具体内容和要求几个学段有不同程度调整。数学课程标准的修订是课程改革十年经验总结的结果,对于义务教育阶段数学课程与教学改革将产生重要影响。     

Do secondary school-leaving English examination results predict university students’ academic writing performance? A latent profile analysis

Abstract

Secondary school-leaving English examination results are often regarded as indicators of students’ competence to study in English-medium universities, which is usually demonstrated through source-based academic writing. In English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) contexts, many English-medium universities require local undergraduates to enrol in an academic writing course, unless they received outstanding English results in secondary school-leaving examinations. This study investigates the relationship between ESL undergraduates’ secondary school-leaving English examination results and their academic writing performance through latent profile analysis. Results show that students can be grouped into four classes of academic writing performer (AWP), namely Complex-AWP, High-AWP, Medium-AWP and Low-AWP. Surprisingly, the Complex-AWP group had the highest means in structure, argument and language, but the lowest in citation. Secondary school-leaving English examination results can generally predict students’ class membership in language, argumentation and, to some extent, structure, but not citation. An important implication is that students with high English proficiency do not necessarily do well in all aspects of academic writing. This study can inform university senior management on how to set policies about who needs an academic writing course and provide appropriate training in various aspects of academic writing for university students with diverse English proficiency.     

国外中小学数学教育评价研究述评及其启示

数学是基础教育中最为重要的学科之一,世界各国政府和教育部门对数学教育评价都十分重视。美国国家评价管理委员会、国际教育成就评价协会、国际经济合作与发展组织等近年来分别开发了NAEP、TIMSS以及PISA等多个评价项目,对中小学数学教育质量进行系统测查。相关研究中恰当的目标设置、明确的评价范畴以及科学、严格的研究设计等多个方面对我国的数学教育质量评价研究均具有重要的启示和借鉴意义。     

Upper Secondary French Students,Chemical Transformations and the “Register of Models”: A cross‐sectional study

The purpose of this study is to identify how upper secondary school French students (Grade 10–12) interpret chemical transformation with regards to the changes within molecules and atoms, and in terms of intramolecular and/or intermolecular bond breaking. In order to identify and describe the students’ assimilated knowledge, four questions were asked to 930 students using a written questionnaire submitted a long time after the related teaching took place. There is much research into student learning in the concept areas discussed here (atoms and molecules, chemical change, chemical bonding), as reviewed in the paper. The present study presents data from an educational system where limited work has been reported in the international literature. The French system has its own unique curriculum, and is taught in the national language (where much of the existing research has concerned learning in Anglophile systems). The research reported here found that French secondary students experienced many similar difficulties in understanding these key scientific concepts to those that have been reported elsewhere, showing the cross‐cultural nature of the key educational issues. For example, many have difficulties in understanding the changes undergone by atoms and molecules in the course of a chemical reaction; many are not able to justify explicitly the breaking of inter‐molecular bonds and to interpret the breaking of intramolecular bonds in terms of reorganization of atoms, the target level of understanding in the curriculum from the end of Grade 9. However, it is also suggested that some of the specific characteristics identified here are linked to the ordering and language used in the French curriculum, and such cultural idiosyncrasies may offer useful insights into both problematic and valuable aspects of science pedagogy.     

多元文化下的方程求解

方程是从现实生活到数学的一个提炼过程,其核心思想是建模与化归.中国传统数学、古埃及、古巴比伦、印度与阿拉伯以及欧洲等国家与地区的方程求解理论各具特点,充分展现了方程求解理论与方法的文化多元性.方程的教学过程不能过分地停留在数学层面上,必须要让学生体会数学与现实生活密不可分的联系.同时,也应当重视其它各种文化中的数学成就及其所蕴含的教育价值.     

高考背影中的教师专业发展:迷思与困境

伴随经济起伏与全球化触角在世界各个角落的渗透,20世纪末期教育革新已然成为各国战略发展的重要内容。由于考试对课程与教学的影响十分显著,因此课程决策者常常将考试视为推动课程改革的重要手段。研究尝试从评价的视角切入,分析在中国大陆新高中课改脉络下高等教育入学考试对教师发展产生的真实影响。     

近代应用型课程观综述

课程是以当时社会、经济、文化各个领域的改革为背景形成和发展起来的。因为社会、经济、文化改革产生了新的教育目标、教育价值观,从这些新的教育目标、教育价值观中又派生出新的教学内容与教学方法。纵观近代教育发展的历史,可见应用型课程的形成及发展历程。     

The relation of National Certificate Courses to city and guilds courses in building subjects

Abstract

This article sets out to evaluate the quality of educational provision offered in vocational secondary schools in Malta. The economic and political context which saw the setting up of trade schools in the early 1970s is described, and an account of the educational goals for these new schools, intended to rekindle the motivation for learning in low and non‐achieving students, is offered. The article then explores the extent to which these goals were achieved, particularly through the examination of three related areas, namely the form (the status of trade schools as separate educational institutions), the content (the curriculum) and the process (classroom processes and instructional methods) evinced in these schools. The article concludes by arguing that the failure of trade schools to provide a worthwhile educational experience has to be located in the relationship between mental and manual work in the wider social order, and that the problems identified in this article could be endemic to vocational schooling at the secondary school level and are therefore not necessarily context‐bound.