Integrating Art Education Models: Contemporary Controversies in Spain

In this article, a basic controversy for art education in Spain is analysed, and its antecedents in thought and social and artistic practices are reviewed. The controversy refers to the question whether school art education should be oriented towards the fine arts or towards the manual arts. Consequently, which should be the cultural model of reference in contemporary art education? These two controversies are considered as two dimensions whose poles have, to a certain extent, the capacity to articulate various educational trends. The values associated with each pole of each dimension are discussed: for the first dimension, creativity, originality, self‐efficacy and the value of accomplished work; for the second, increase of cultural capital and intercultural solidarity. Finally, the possibility is considered of elaborating educational models that would integrate the various mentioned educative values. The question is raised of the compatibility of these educational values, and it is pointed out that art education has the capacity to generate educational spaces of interchange and dialogue in which to combine languages and perspectives that can contribute to human development and to the mutual coexistence of social groups.     

Between Turk and Muslim: children and the Qur’an courses after the 1928 Alphabet Law

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how the religious education of Turkish children in the “old letters” became an area of everyday contestation between the state and families and communities in the late 1920s and 1930s. Since children were seen as the nation’s future, state authorities were adamant about teaching the new generation the new alphabet and were equally interested in preventing them from learning the old alphabet. While schools began using the new Turkish alphabet in the 1928–1929 academic year, the informal neighbourhood Qur’an courses held in mosques and private homes became a fiercely contested site between a state determined to socialise children into secular nationhood (partly) by preventing them from learning the Arabic letters, and families and imams who were committed to giving children religious education (necessitating the study of the Arabic alphabet so the Qur’an could be read in its original Arabic). Combining primary sources from previously untapped Ministry of the Interior documents concerning the monitoring in Anatolian towns of these informal courses with insights from the subaltern school on everyday forms of resistance, this article sheds light on a dimension of the 1928 alphabet reform that ties together questions of alphabet change, national and religious identities, education, and childhood.     

Do men and women perform academic work differently?

Tertiary Education and Management - Why is the gender gap so large in researchers’ career progression? Do men and women have different priorities in their academic careers? This study...     

论苏童笔下的“颂莲”式女性

苏童是少数几个尤其擅长写女性的男性作家。他对女性的心理描写和细节把握都处理得恰到好处,非常自然。他笔下的女性一改过往的温柔善良、知书达理,相反的,大多都阴暗猥琐、粗俗野蛮、善于妒忌,非常具有特色,成为中国当代女性小说的独有景观。苏童的几个从女性视角描写的女主人公具有很多的共同特征,他将这些女性称为“颂莲”式女性。     

Teacher educators working on their own professional development: goals,activities and outcomes of a project for the professional development of teacher educators

This article reports on the professional development of teacher educators within the context of a national project, ‘Professional Quality of Teacher Educators,’ where a professional standard and a standards‐based procedure of (self‐)assessment and professional development have been created and effectively implemented. This project offered a unique opportunity to analyze the goals, activities and outcomes of the process of professional development of teacher educators in a situation in which this development is promoted by the professional group as a whole. In our research, we used 25 completed portfolio's made by teacher educators participating in the standards‐based procedure of (self‐)assessment and professional development. We found that teacher educators, participating in this procedure, prefer the development of their knowledge and skills over the development of their attitudes and beliefs. For their professional development, the teacher educators experiment with new activities within the work‐situation and interact with colleagues within their professional community, more than that they study theory or reflect on their work. The participating teacher educators experience a positive impact at the personal level (change in cognition and behavior). More than one‐third of them share outcomes with others. Above, they report a more positive self‐esteem and more enthusiasm for teacher education. This article may motivate other countries or institutions to invest in the professional development of teacher educators. Further research is necessary on the essence of the professional qualities of teacher educators and the relation of their professional development with student learning.     

The Use of Interactive Computer Animations Based on POE as a Presentation Tool in Primary Science Teaching

This study investigates the effects of using interactive computer animations based on predict–observe–explain (POE) as a presentation tool on primary school students’ understanding of the static electricity concepts. A quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test control group design was utilized in this study. The experiment group consisted of 30 students, and the control group of 27 students. The control group received normal instruction in which the teacher provided instruction by means of lecture, discussion and homework. Whereas in the experiment group, dynamic and interactive animations based on POE were used as a presentation tool. Data collection tools used in the study were static electricity concept test and open-ended questions. The static electricity concept test was used as pre-test before the implementation, as post-test at the end of the implementation and as delay test approximately 6 weeks after the implementation. Open-ended questions were used at the end of the implementation and approximately 6 weeks after the implementation. Results indicated that the interactive animations used as presentation tools were more effective on the students’ understanding of static electricity concepts compared to normal instruction.