Modern foreign languages: decision-making,motivation and 14–19 schools

ABSTRACT

This article reports on an exploratory study comparing motivation and student choice in modern foreign language lessons in secondary schools (11–16 or 11–18) and schools for 14–19 year olds in England. The study uses data gathered from 634 Year 10 students (aged 14–15) and uses Self-Determination Theory to compare motivation amongst students in the two types of schools. It finds that student motivation differed significantly in each, with students in 14–19 schools displaying more autonomous motivation. Students in schools in this category were less likely to have been given a choice as to whether or not to take the subject than their peers, suggesting that they may feel autonomous in ways not governed by subject choice. Possible reasons for the differences in motivation in the two kinds of school are discussed and directions for future study proposed.     

On pictures in prose

For some time now, researchers and educators have questioned the value of pictures for prose-learning. However, there is abundant empirical evidence to document the positive value of pictures. Consistent learning gains are associated with the use of pictures when experiments adhere to these five ground rules: (1) prose passages are presented orally; (2) the subjects are children; (3) the passages are fictional narratives; (4) the pictures overlap the story content; and (5) learning is demonstrated by factual recall. Both centers are supported in part by funds from the National Institute of Education. The opinions herein do not necessarily reflect the postion or policy of the National Institute of Education and no official endorsement by the National Institute of Education should be inferred. The authors are grateful to Michael Pressley and Sharon Stevens for their comments on an earlier draft of the paper.     

Can children effectively reuse the same mnemonic pegwords?

Seventy-three fifth-grade students were taught nine North American minerals and their corresponding hardness levels under either mnemonic (pegword/keyword) or free-study conditions. In the zero-repetition (standard) condition, each mineral was paired with a unique hardness level (1–9); in the one-repetition condition, three hardness levels were each represented by two different minerals (and three hardness levels by one mineral); and in the two-repetition condition, three hardness levels were each represented by three different minerals (and three hardness levels by one mineral); and in the two-repetition condition, three hardness levels were each represented by three different minerals. In all repetition conditions, mnemonic subjects significantly and substantially outperformed students who were given free study. Possibilities for adapting mnemonic techniques to overcome stimulus-produced interference are discussed.     

Attitudes and Knowledge of Future Teachers to Identify Struggling Readers

Indiana recently passed legislation requiring teacher preparation programs to educate future teachers on how to identify and refer struggling readers, including students with learning needs related to dyslexia. The purpose of this study was to examine whether a university course that covers content in response to legislation was effective in improving preservice teachers’ knowledge about the topic of dyslexia. Participants included 62 undergraduate students enrolled in general education teacher preparation programs. One group of 23 participants had taken a required course with content regarding reading challenges and targeted instruction; the remaining 39 participants had not yet taken the required course. Preservice teachers who took the course had more accurate knowledge about dyslexia than those who had not taken the course. There were no differences between groups for confidence in ability to help students struggling with dyslexia. Additional implications regarding legislation and teacher preparation will be included in the discussion.     

美国营利性高等教育的特征

过去,教育与营利似乎是一对相斥的概念教育属于公立机构,通过政府财政预算获得经费,而营利活动则属于企业行为。在新的经济和社会环境下,这种格局开始发生变化,一方面部分大学组织的性质发生了变化,营利性机构渐渐涉足过去公立机构的职能范围;另一方面公立大学不再完全依靠政府拨款,开始向学生收取学费,并且从事一些营利性的活动。《民办教育促进法》在制定过程中,也无法绕开教育与营利性这对矛盾。为了解决《教育法》对教育机构属性的规定与现实情况之间的矛盾,《民办教育促进法》对于教育机构的营利问题进行了模糊处理,“合理回报”就是妥协的结果。目前人们在“教育产业化”认识问题上依然存在着较大的分歧。在国外虽然没有“教育产业化”这样的提法,但遇到的问题却是相同或相似的,因此高等教育市场化、商品化、私有化等是学术界十分关心的问题。特别是营利性高等教育机构的出现和迅速发展,更引起人们的高度关注。为此,本刊特别组织了这次笔谈,邀请国内外研究者分别从各个角度发表自己的看法。     

Values of open admissions students,police students,and their teachers

This study compared the values of college open admissions students and of college police students to their teachers' values. It was found that for both groups new students differ from the faculty more than do advanced students, suggesting value changes in the direction of the faculty. Also found was no relationship between students' value similarity to the faculty and their academic success.     

大学拓展空间:大学从学生到科研日益全球化

耶鲁大学校长莱文认为,大学正史无前例地变成提升国家竞争力和维护世界和平的工具。在众多力量的胶着过程中,跨越国境运动对塑造高等教育的作用披靡无比。作为对推进世界经济力量的回应,大学变得更加具有“自我全球意识”。全球化正在改变大学从事研究的方式。通过开展联合研究,大学为全人类的利益发展科学。与美国形成鲜明对照,欧洲已经失去了其竞争优势,同时美国的可持续发展也依然矛盾丛生。这些对21世纪中国大学的职能定位和与其它世界一流大学的国际合作具有重要参考价值。     

In amongst the glitter and the squashed blueberries: crafting a collaborative lens for children’s literacy pedagogy in a community setting

ABSTRACT

In this article, we bring together relational arts practice (Kester, 2004) with collaborative ethnography (Campbell and Lassiter, 2015) in order to propose art not as a way of teaching children literacy, but as a lens to enable researchers and practitioners to view children’s literacies differently. Both relational arts practice and collaborative ethnography decentre researcher/artist expertise, providing an understanding that “knowing” is embodied, material and tacit (Ingold, 2013). This has led us to extend understandings of multimodal literacy to stress the embodied and situated nature of meaning making, viewed through a collaborative lens (Hackett, 2014a; Heydon and Rowsell, 2015; Kuby et al, 2015; Pahl and Pool, 2011). We illustrate this approach to researching literacy pedagogy by offering a series of “little” (Olsson, 2013) moments of place/body memory (Somerville, 2013), which emerged from our collaborative dialogic research at a series of den building events for families and their young children. Within our study, an arts practice lens offered a more situated, and entwined way of working that led to joint and blurred outcomes in relation to literacy pedagogy.