全球多维大学排名:用户导向与多重维度的全球高等教育与科研排名工具

欧盟委员会开发的全球多维大学排名(U-Multirank)是一个全新的、立足全球的、有利于提高高等教育与科研系统透明度的工具,它致力于继承已有排名之优势同时规避已有排名之不足。U-Multirank遵循包括用户导向原则、多重维度原则、机构可比性原则、排名的多层次性原则和方法的可靠性原则在内的五个设计原则;设计了包括教学、科研、知识转换、国际化定位和地区参与在内的五个绩效维度及一系列指标;为用户提供了在线工具以创建院校排名和领域排名两种类型的排名。试测和实施阶段的初探表明,在维度与指标的可行性、院校参与的积极性、扩大参与规模的可操作性方面,U-Multirank取得了一定的成功,并将逐步实施于全球高等教育与科研系统之中。     

Strategies and resources for contextualising the curriculum based on the funds of knowledge approach: a literature review

This article aims to describe and illustrate how the curriculum can be contextualised through different educational experiences based on the funds of knowledge approach. Educational contextualisation is understood to be the linking of curricular content (literacy, science, mathematics, social sciences) with students’ lives, including prior learning experiences from their homes and communities. The literature review began by surveying 59 articles retrieved from the ERIC database after entering the search terms “funds of knowledge” and “teaching methods”. Out of these, 22 peer reviewed papers were selected based on the following criteria: the paper should illustrate how artefacts produced by students (photographs, texts, artistic productions, digital stories) can be put to pedagogical use by turning them into resources to mobilise knowledge and experiences inside and outside school. The results are discussed in light of the CREDE Standards for Effective Pedagogy, as well as the notion of funds of identity, which has been proposed recently within the context of the funds of knowledge approach.     

Comprehension strategy training in content areas

The main objective of this paper is to present the results of two studies developed to test the effectiveness of teaching different strategies for identifying important information in the context of ordinary instruction. Training in both studies can be characterised as metacognitively oriented and contextualised in content areas. Also, the same strategies have been the object of training in both cases. Previous knowledge activation and diagrammatic representation of relations among text ideas were among the main strategies trained. 31 subjects (11 to 12 years-old) participated in the first study, and 104 (11 to 14 years-old) in the second one. In both cases, subjects were divided into two groups, experimental and control. Assessment was made through an interview carried out separately with two texts. Results reached statistical significance mainly in study 2, but only for students in higher grades. These results show the effectiveness of the kind of training developed and the importance of taking into account the developmental and/or academic level of students in order to determinate when to introduce strategy training.     

Training for reflective expertise: A four-component instructional design model for complex cognitive skills

This article presents a four-component instructional design model for the training of complex cognitive skills. In the analysis phase, the skill is decomposed into a set of recurrent skills that remain consistent over problem situations and a set of nonrecurrent skills that require variable performance over situations. In the design phase, two components relate to the design of practice; they pertain to the conditions under which practice leads either to rule automation during the performance of recurrent skills or to schema acquisition during the performance of nonrecurrent skills. The other two components relate to the design of information presentation; they pertain to the presentation of information that supports the performance of either recurrent or nonrecurrent skills. The basic prediction of the model is that its application leads to “reflective expertise” and increased performance on transfer tasks. Applications of the model that support this prediction are briefly discussed for the training of fault management in process industry, computer programming, and statistical analysis.     

Stability of Visual Attention Span Performance and Its Relation With Reading Over Time

Visual attention span (VAS) predicts reading performance over and above phonological skills. Given the growing number of studies that include VAS, it is surprising that indications of the stability of VAS performance and its relation with reading over time have not yet been reported. The current study addressed these important issues. Participants were 180 third graders, 131 of whom were reassessed in Grade 4. Results indicated that VAS (whole report for letters) accounts for variance in reading over and above phoneme awareness and rapid automatized naming. VAS performance was highly stable over time, and VAS and reading were related both concurrently and longitudinally. However, controlling for autoregressive effects, the effects of Grade 3 VAS on Grade 4 reading, and vice versa, were not significant. These findings encourage including VAS in future studies but indicate that there is as of yet little evidence for VAS being causally related to reading performance.     

An Exploration of the Use of Multimedia Cases as a Reflective Tool in Teacher Education

Multimedia cases are perceived to be a means of bridging the gap between theory and practice in teacher education. However, little is known about how prospective teachers actually learn with these cases. In this paper, we examine how multimedia cases can stimulate reflective thought among preservice teachers. Gestalt psychology is employed as a theoretical lens to examine how seven preservice teachers work with a multimedia case. Data were collected by means of audiotaped work-aloud protocols, interviews and questionnaires. Results indicate that preservice teachers remain at low levels of abstraction of their ideas about teaching as a result of case examination. Directed assignments and collaboration among prospective teachers were a useful, but not always necessary, means of stimulating discussion on the multimedia case. The study leads to the conclusion there is still much to be learned about how prospective teachers interact with multimedia case, particularly about how such cases might stimulate reflective practice.     

The Need for E-Learning Strategies: Higher Education Institutions and Their Responses to a Changing Environment

Tertiary Education and Management - Integrating e-Learning in their educational delivery and support processes is one way of strategy formation higher education institutions can deploy to respond...     

Students’ understanding of the number line / Estudiantes pensando en la recta numérica

We studied the conceptions of students coming from secondary education and university regarding the number line as a representation of real numbers. In the context of a wider questionnaire, 307 students were presented with a task consisting of two verbal items and one graphic item related to the number line. The students were all at different levels in their study of mathematics (in the third, fourth or fifth year of secondary education, or at the beginning or advanced stage of a university degree in mathematics, biology or physical education). A gradient in the depth of the students’ conceptions, associated with the level of their studies in mathematics, was found. This gradient extends from the estrangement of facing the problem or a conception of a drawn or physical matter line, which was associated with students with a lower level of mathematical studies, passing through a vision centred around potential numeric density or a line containing points (discrete), up to an instrumental conception of the line as supportive of magnitudes in advanced students of biology and focusing on continuity sustained by advanced students of mathematics.