正确的一步

Betty rubbed her hands together,careful not toput too much pressure on her red,chappedknuckles.Her fingers were numb with cold,aswere her feet,but she couldn’t bend over toreach them.Craning her neck over the bedsidefrom which her legs dangled,Betty inspected her feetfrom her seated position.Her left foot pointed harshlyinward,the big toe angled at nearly forty—five degrees.Grimacing,she scanned the floor for her new slippers,noting the digital clock on her dresser.Eleven-thirty,she thought.Another early morning.Yawning,shewondered if sometimes the fatigue wasn’t worse than thepain.     

Differences in pedagogical understanding among student–teachers in a four-year initial teacher education programme

As teacher educators, preparing student–teachers who are able to address diverse student needs is our main concern. It has been suggested in the literature that teachers who are adaptive to students’ needs are those who possess adequate pedagogical content knowledge or pedagogical understanding. However, it is not uncommon for teacher educators to find student–teachers with diverse pedagogical understandings even at the point of graduation from the teacher education programme. This paper aims to explain and analyse the development of pedagogical understanding among student–teachers in an initial teacher education programme. The findings are drawn from a study conducted at the Hong Kong Institute of Education where in-depth interviews were carried out during the four-year programme. The findings from the three selected cases provide an explanation for why some individual student–teachers show continuous development, whereas others remain confused in their pedagogical understanding throughout the teacher education programme. While acknowledging individual differences in pedagogical understanding, we attempt to explain such differences by investigating the relationship between different dimensions of the student–teachers’ learning such as the integration of pedagogical understanding with the teaching contexts, integration of feedback from lecturers and supporting teachers, and their focus of concern. The findings reveal that the three cases demonstrate different levels of pedagogical understanding and possess varying ‘senses of agency’. Of the three cases, the first one, Peggy has the strongest sense of agency. Despite influences related to classroom management, diverse learning ability among pupils, and the teaching methods which pupils were accustomed to previously, she actively introduced rhythmic movements into her lessons, developed pupils’ ability to learn gradually and achieved an impact on pupils’ learning which was also recognized by her supporting teacher. The analysis suggests that the second case, Lilian has a weaker sense of agency as she was severely limited by influences in the teaching context in her first teaching practice and resorted to teacher-centered teaching strategies. She improved later on in the programme and started to plan her own learning, drawing on the feedback she received as well as learning from other taught modules, from feedback from various sources, and from her pupils’ responses to her teaching and her own evaluation of her teaching. The third case, Stephanie remained confused throughout the programme and struggled with the implementation of student-centered teaching strategies. The ability to practice one’s own convictions and demonstrate an active sense of agency distinguishes the student–teacher who achieves better pedagogical understanding. Drawing on the findings, the paper concludes that it is crucial for teacher educators to identify ways to nurture a sense of agency among student–teachers. Implications for teacher education programmes are discussed, including providing opportunities for student–teachers to be able to articulate and integrate their pedagogical understandings, as well as negotiate how to accomplish their learning and teaching targets despite complex classroom situations.     

Teaching Aids for Learning Languages

How can one make teaching foreign languages interesting to boys and girls? They can learn foreign languages much easier, if they go to the country in question. But as this is not possible, we have to find means to conjure up similar circumstances in our classrooms.     

The Impact of a Human Sexuality College Course According to Gender: Comparisons of the 1970s and the 1990s [1]

This is a report of a student-developed 24-item human sexuality survey administered pre/post to human sexuality and comparison course students in the 1970s and 1990s with 10 questions added in the 1990s. In the 1970s, nine of the item responses for human sexuality students showed significant pre-test gender differences that were not found in post-testing. This was largely due to changes in the responses of the men, whose views became more egalitarian and more like the women's. In the 1990s, it was changes in the views of women that accounted for most post-test differences but not in a clear pattern. Women in both course types in the 1990s (1) became more accepting than men of sex between same-sex partners and (2) reported less frequency and more 'wrongness' about masturbation. Human sexuality men responded more conservatively in the 1990s than in the 1970s with less post-test similarity to women, as predicted. Nonetheless, in general, after human sexuality input gender responses became more similar in both time periods. Some implications are discussed with reference to sexuality education.     

Understanding the Interactive Effects of Emotional Appeal and Claim Strength in Health Messages

This paper examines the interactive effects of the perceived strength of the verbal claims and the intensity and direction of the emotional appeal of public service announcements (PSAs) on audience perceptions of message effectiveness. The results show that PSAs containing strong verbal claims are rated as more effective than those with weak claims. Arousing messages with weak claims are perceived as least effective. Increasing claim strength increased memory for negative but not for positive messages. It is suggested that the combination of intense emotional appeal and weak claims may be partially responsible for the boomerang effects in antidrug campaigns.     

Managing reading and related literacy difficulties: University students’ perspectives

This study explored the experiences of university students who identified as always having had reading difficulties. Thirty-three participants, all from one Australian university, were surveyed and 10 were also interviewed. Findings revealed that many shared academic challenges related to studying, along with a belief that their difficulties were not well understood by staff or peers. While participants disclosed many similar personal struggles related to completing their studies, positive attributes such as determination and time management strategies were frequently mentioned as instrumental in allowing them to reach university. Experiences were more variable regarding awareness of, access to, and satisfaction with university-based support and academic adjustments. To facilitate optimal inclusive educational practices, this study supports the need for greater awareness among staff about challenges faced by these university students along with a more individualised and targeted approach to providing them with academic supports and accommodations.     

Conceptions of learning and pedagogy: developing trainee teachers' epistemological understandings

This work has a particular focus on exposing important connections between trainee teachers' personal beliefs about knowledge (epistemological beliefs) and their conceptions of learning. These, the authors argue, are central to the assumptions which underpin their pedagogy when working with children in school. The link between these constructs emerged as key issues during a collaborative research project between five practitioners across two universities which explored the use of a ‘learning to learn’ (L2L) approach with a particular emphasis on postgraduate ITT courses. This seems particularly pertinent to expanding the capacity to learn of trainees, yet, to date, it has received little attention within research on L2L, given its more immediate focus within the school setting. The authors believe, however, that the climate is now ripe for research focusing on the context of lifelong learning, in particular teacher trainee learning in ITT. They argue that a focus on the role of epistemology in helping to shape teaching approaches is likely to be a key element in developing students with a capacity to reflect critically on practice.