New maps of learning for quality art education: what pre-service teachers should learn and be able to do

It would be a rare thing to visit an early years setting or classroom in Australia that does not display examples of young children’s artworks. This practice serves to give schools a particular ‘look’, but is no guarantee of quality art education. The Australian National Review of Visual Arts Education (, 2009) has called for changes to visual art education in schools. The planned new National Curriculum includes the arts (music, dance, drama, media and visual arts) as 1 of the 5 learning areas. Research shows that it is the classroom teacher that makes the difference, and teacher education has a large part to play in reforms to art education. This paper provides an account of one foundation unit of study (Unit 1) for first year university students enrolled in a 4-year Bachelor degree program who are preparing to teach in the early years (0–8 years). To prepare pre-service teachers to meet the needs of children in the twenty-first century, Unit 1 blends old and new ways of seeing art, child and pedagogy. Claims for the effectiveness of this model are supported with evidence-based research, conducted over the 6 years of iterations and ongoing development of Unit 1.     

Teaching social perspective taking: how educators might learn from the Army

Frequently and accurately discerning others’ thoughts and feelings is associated with multiple valued educational outcomes across an array of settings. Despite its foundational role in social interactions, it is unclear whether individuals can be taught to improve their social perspective taking capacities. This experiment assesses whether a curriculum taught to US Army personnel (N?=?116) improved their social perspective taking prior to deployment. Results showed that participants improved their social perspective taking in three ways: through more accurately detecting biases in others, by generating more initial hypotheses to explain others’ behaviours, and by adapting their hypotheses in the face of new evidence. The curriculum did not affect participants’ perspective taking accuracy on a video measure. We discuss these findings with respect to their implications for other learning environments.     

后现代教育观对远程教育的启示

通过计算机网络实施教育的远程教育已成为我国教育的主要形式，而后现代主义正是计算机和电子信息时代的产物。文章首先介绍了后现代教育观，并从教育目的、课程建设和师生关系和教育评价四个方面阐述后现代教育观对我国远程教育的启示。     

Practising what we teach: vocational teachers learn to research through applying action learning techniques

Action learning techniques are well suited to the teaching of organisation behaviour students because of their flexibility, inclusiveness, openness, and respect for individuals. They are no less useful as a tool for change for vocational teachers, learning, of necessity, to become researchers. Whereas traditional universities have always had a research culture, new Australian universities, such as the one under study here, have, until recently, concentrated on consulting to industry, and teaching. Faced with strong competition for government research funds to enable its survival and growth, Swinburne University set in place a number of strategies aimed at changing the old consulting culture into a thriving research culture. One such strategy was to hold a colloquium to promote and support teachers' research efforts. A number of iterations of an action learning process took place over a period of time, with each iteration addressing a different research question. The result of academics' engagement with the process of feedback and reflection has been instructive. Unquestionably, the majority of the academics who initially engaged in the ‘learning by doing’ process were encouraged to actively address the problems that beset them, resulting in significant changes in behaviour and a dramatic increase in research output. However, without a commitment to the process that is ongoing, and critical, further interest in research and development as researchers may come to a standstill, predetermining a level of research output that may yet see the School succumb to the internal and external pressures to which it is subject.     

Media and technology in education: A constructivist view

This paper is a version of the seventh ECTJ/ERIC-IR Young Scholar Paper, an annual award initiated to stimulate writing by young professionals in the field of instructional technology. Preparation of the paper was supported by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information Resources at Syracuse, NY. - Ed.     

Higher education in Japan: A view from outside

Higher education in Japan is often characterized in comparativestudies as considerably expanded, highly stratified, overshadowed bycompetition for admission, not very demanding for the masses ofundergraduate students, important in awarding credentials, but without closelinks between the subjects of study and subsequent professional tasks. Thesecharacteristics have been pointed out so frequently in the past that thequestion has to be raised whether this picture is too old-fashioned and toomuch of a stereotype. This article echoes the previous articles of thisspecial issue. The themes addressed by Japanese authors are partlysummarized, partly supplemented and partly challenged by a foreign observer.Developments and notably changes in the early 1990s are analyzed in respectto the quantitative-structural pattern of the Japanese higher educationssystem; governance and financing; access and admissions; learning, teachingand research; links between educational attainment, credentials and career;curricula, competences and graduate employment, and finally graduateeducation. The author draws the conclusion that efforts directed towardsreforming higher education have been spread over many issues, among themmany academic issues such as new curricular approaches, rather thanfocussing on single major issues such as steering, governance and evaluationas one could observe in Europe during the last ten years or so. Changingsocietal conditions, for example growing employment problems, the increaseof specialists' career and internationalization currently stimulate areconsideration of higher education policies in various respects.     

Concepts of peace education: A view of western experience

Approaches to the theory and practice of peace education are as varied as the situations across the world in which it is undertaken. Against a framework established by the Peace Education Commission of IPRA, current trends in the conceptualization and experience of peace education (from a Western view-point) are considered and reveal (1) acceptance of ‘development’ with ‘justice’ and ‘human rights’ as integral to the concept of peace; (2) emphasis on the psychological as well as socio-political, economic and structural conditions that maintain present injustices and oppressions; (3) renewed efforts to try out innovative educational approaches to a variety of learning situations, from the pre-school to adult formal and non-formal settings; (4) new concern about the materials, content and techniques of learning; and (5) fresh examination of the inter-relationships between theory and practice, research and action. Analyzing a number of conceptual approaches to peace and disarmament education, the authors support a political, participatory strategy and set it in a historical context. Hence, its connection with development education and the significance and implications of a global perspective are demonstrated. The global perspective is seen as a growing-point for peace education today, providing the potential for political consciousness and action.     

学生的教育观：不可忽视的力量

在不彻底的认知研究范式下,学生仍被认为是不成熟、有待接受教育的人而不拥有自己的教育观念。在这种认识指导下的教育实践中,学生要么放弃自己的教育观念而曲意附和教师,从而丧失了主体性;要么坚持己见或走向与教师对抗,从而被视为异类,使教育走向低效。学生特别是高年级学生的确存在自己的“教育观念”,并对自己行为产生实际的影响。     

A systems view of learning in education

As the sophistication of technology has increased, so has public demand for quality. This expectation of quality has occurred across a broad range of products and systems, including education. To meet the demand for quality, many products and systems (including educational ones) have become increasingly complex. Within education there are also other factors which have driven up levels of complexity. These factors include increased diversity in the student body, a greater emphasis on collaboration and the drive to replace simple “delivery models” of teaching. It is well known from other fields, though, that as systems become more complex, they become more vulnerable to failure. For this reason, a formalised methodology known as “systems engineering” is often applied in industry to the management of large systems. The author argues that the use of systems engineering concepts in education would be likely to reduce failure rates and improve quality. This is particularly so in large-scale complex learning systems. The paper also discusses some implications of trying to use systems engineering methodology in modern educational systems.     

A support program for siblings of children with disabilities: What siblings learn and what they like

This study surveyed reactions and preferences related to a support program for siblings of children with disabilities. Following participation in a support group, 40 school-age siblings of children with disabilities completed a questionnaire about what they learned from the program and what program components they preferred. The results identified the benefits the participants received and the program components they preferred. Clinical utility is suggested for school personnel planning or implementing support programs for siblings of children with disabilities. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.