Developing outdoor and adventurous activities for co-existence and reconciliation in Israel: an Anglo-German approach

Conflict resolution between different social groups is an issue that has continued to gain high profile news coverage both nationally and in a global context. In this respect, it has been shown that carefully designed and managed physical activity programmes can make a small but nonetheless invaluable contribution to reconciliation and co-existence within deeply-divided communities and socially fractured societies. Where this has been successful it is possible that projects such as these can be designed to be tangible products that not only facilitate co-existence work but can also be part of a more sustainable product that local coaches, teachers and community leaders can continue to promote through the teaching of core values and principles. This paper highlights how outdoor and adventurous activities (OAAs) can be used as a means to address co-existence and reconciliation within a deeply-divided society and outlines the work that is currently being undertaken in northern Israel by an English and German project team.     

Towards understanding the two way interaction effects of extraversion and openness to experience on career commitment

In this study, we examined potential two-way interaction effects of the Big Five personality traits extraversion and openness to experience on career commitment measured in terms of three components of career identity, career resilience, and career planning. Participants included 450 managers from public and private sector organizations in North India. The results indicated significant positive impacts of extraversion and openness interactions on the career resilience dimension of career commitment. Implications for practice and future research directions are also discussed.     

城市儿童户外活动空间现状及对策研究

在城市化发展迅速的当下,我国儿童的户外活动场所建设暴露出越来越多的问题,儿童户外活动不足,引发了一系列社会现象。本文通过大学生创新创业训练课题的实践成果,结合时代背景,从儿童户外场所的探索性、自然性、游戏性等多角度,结合现代景观认知理论方法对其进行了分析和研究。     

Towards an understanding of dynamics among teachers,teacher leaders,and administrators in a teacher-led school reform

A substantial amount of professional development and implementation has moved towards teachers and teacher leaders in recent years. Previous works have examined how teachers, teacher leaders, or administrators perceive teacher leadership in school reforms, but few have advanced all three perspectives simultaneously. Drawing upon over 200 interviews, we examine how leadership is distributed and the tensions and dynamics arising among these three groups in a teacher-led school reform. Two main themes emerged from our analysis: minimizing conflicts with teachers was important to teacher leaders, and the distribution of leadership between administrators and teacher leaders changed the status and normative roles of teacher leaders.     

Motivation and engagement in English,mathematics and science high school subjects: Towards an understanding of multidimensional domain specificity

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the domain specificity of multidimensional motivation and engagement (adaptive cognitions, adaptive behaviors, impeding/maladaptive cognitions, maladaptive behaviors) in mathematics, English and science high school subjects, with an additional focus on three key educational correlates (educational aspirations, class participation, enjoyment of subject). Based on a sample of 1801 students from six Australian high schools, confirmatory factor analysis offered modest support for the domain specificity of motivation and engagement (as measured by the Motivation and Engagement Scale — High School: MES-HS) across three distinct high school subject areas and also in relation to the three key educational correlates. Interestingly, the level of specificity varied as a function of the particular academic motivation construct. For example, between-subject correlations for more ‘state-like’ constructs such as ‘valuing of school subject’ were relatively lower, whereas correlations for more ‘trait-like’ constructs such as ‘anxiety’ were relatively higher suggesting that the latter is relatively more general across mathematics, English and science. The implications of these findings for future practice and research are discussed.     

Fred outdoors: An initial report into the experiences of outdoor activities for an adult who is congenitally deafblind

Outdoor Education has long been used with groups that could be described as having “special needs”. Research in this particular area has in the past concentrated on adaptations to equipment and activities, allowing access for people with physical disabilities, and expanding the learning and development opportunities available to those with learning difficulties. This article documents the initial observations made of the experiences of a man, who is congenitally deafblind, when given the opportunity to experience outdoor activities. The article highlights a number of areas, which appear particularly relevant to this specific target group, and may be worthy of further investigation. The use of video technology is also demonstrated to be a valuable research tool when working with people who have multisensory impairments.     

Towards an understanding of the learning processes that occur in synchronous online seminars for the professional development of experienced educators

The National College for School Leadership (now the National College) exists to serve the development needs of school leaders in England. The College has begun to use web conferencing in several areas of its work including its professional development programmes, strategic initiatives and support and networking opportunities. Web conferencing tools offer a range of modes of interaction including audio, chat, text, desktop sharing, presentations and video conferencing. It thus has the potential for multi-process learning. The research reported here investigated the ways in which multi-process learning using these tools can be understood. It asked ‘What insights can be gained into the learning processes occurring in synchronous online seminars involving experienced educators? A literature review was carried out to provide background on the current thinking about learning through web conferencing and to explore factors that might be essential for the collective construction of knowledge in this context. Recorded internal and external NCSL web conferences were chosen as case studies; these provided the data for independent qualitative analysis by each of the researchers. From this analysis a model of the learning processes, identified in the data, was developed and related to the current literature. The major findings and model were further reviewed, in the light of their own web-conferencing experiences, by a large number of expert College educators. The resulting ‘model of multi-process learning in web conferencing’ identifies the part played by social, informational, individual internalisation and co-construction stages in multi-process learning.     

An analysis of student teachers' understanding of integration of science and technology activities

Abstract

The research reported on in this article was conducted to determine if student teachers enrolled in a Bachelor of Education programme at a South African University are able to integrate science and technology in their teaching. The participants were a cohort of students registered for a course aimed at preparing them to teach grades 4 to 6 in the primary school. The theoretical framework applied in the study is Rogan's Zone of feasible Innovation (ZFI) which uses the analogy that curriculum strategies are good when they proceed just ahead of current practice. Students' understanding of integration of two learning areas was compared to their knowledge base. The findings suggest that students who have very little knowledge of science and/or technology have difficulty in understanding what the scientific and technological processes mean and without this understanding are unable to integrate science and technology effectively in their teaching. It is recommended that the B.Ed programme at this university focuses more on providing opportunities for students to acquire sound knowledge of the two disciplines before attempting any form of integration.     

Towards a personality understanding of information technology students and their IT learning in UAE university

This research investigates the personality characteristics of Information Technology students (CIT) in UAE University (UAEU) and how such features impact their IT learning. To achieve this objective, this research attempts to explain the impact of the Big-5 factors on learning using survey research. Results from 179 respondents suggested that agreeableness, extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness respectively were the most important strategies adopted by CIT students. However, neuroticism scored the lowest. Such results could be attributed to personal as well as to cultural reasons as highlighted in this research. The research highlights theoretical as well as professional contributions and implications. Some of challenges in this research could be addressed by designing programs aiming at enhancing student’s learning ability from the perspective of their personal traits.     

Towards an understanding of the role of language in the science classroom and its association with cultural identity development in the context of Mozambique

I am reflecting here my struggle to understand the issue of language in the science classroom and in our lives from three different perspectives: before and after Mozambican independence and after completion of my doctoral research. The main method used is auto|ethnographic inquiry in which I use the events in my life to question what is happening in my society. I have used Maria Rivera Maulucci’s paper, Language experience narratives and the role of autobiographical reasoning in becoming an urban science teacher as a reference. This paper helps me to show how isolated and generalized is the Mozambican situation and the value of our struggle in giving value to local languages.     

正确认识和总结党的历史经验

中国共产党成立86年的历史经验表明:坚持马列主义基本原理,坚持科学理论的指导,是党的政治优势;党赢得广大人民群众的拥护和信任,才能赢得革命和建设的伟大胜利;党的领导与广大人民群众根本利益的高度一致,这就决定党要实现、维护、发展好广大人民群众的根本利益。正确认识和总结党的历史经验,有利于不断深化对党的执政规律,对社会主义建设规律,对人类社会发展规律的认识;有利于坚定马克思主义信仰,坚定社会主义的信念,增强对改革开放和现代化建设的信心,增强对党和政府的信任。     

Elementary students enhancing their understanding of energy-saving through idea-centered collaborative knowledge-building scaffolds and activities

Educational technology research and development - Effective energy education depends on continuing research designed to identify instructional strategies that will proof effective in particular...     

Collective teacher efficacy research: Productive patterns of behaviour and other positive consequences

Collective teacher efficacy (CTE) beliefs serve to encourage certain behaviours and constrain others. Bandura (Educ Psychol 28(2):117–148, 1993) was the first to generate interest in this area by demonstrating that the effect of perceived CTE on student achievement was stronger than the link between socio-economic status and student achievement. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the productive patterns of behaviour and other consequences resulting from educators’ shared sense of efficacy. Studies showed that CTE was associated with a number of productive behaviours including implementation of school improvement strategies, increased teacher leadership, communication of high expectations, and a strong focus on academic pursuits. In addition, CTE was associated with other positive factors including greater job satisfaction, commitment to students and the teaching profession, and positive attitudes toward teaching students with special education needs and professional development. Collective efficacy was negatively related to performance goal orientations and positively related to students’ emotional engagement. Finally, there were a number of studies that established the relationship between CTE and individual teacher efficacy. It is important to acknowledge that the relationship between CTE and other variables included in the studies contained within this review are most likely bidirectional. Policy makers, system and school leaders, and staff developers’ efforts toward successful education reforms might be better served by strategically and intentionally considering how to foster collective efficacy throughout the conceptualization, design, delivery, and assessment of change initiatives. Suggestions for future research and limitations including potential measurement problems of included studies are shared.     

Evidence for the role of higher order reasoning processes in cue competition and other learning phenomena

When people judge the contingency between a target cue and an outcome, they also take into account the contingency between the outcome and other cues with which the target cue co-occurred. Several authors have argued that such cue competition effects are due to higher order reasoning processes. We review the evidence that supports this hypothesis and discuss whether higher order reasoning might also play a role in other learning phenomena.