Putting Students at the Centre in Education Reform

Education reform cannot succeed and should not proceedwithout much more direct involvement of students inall its aspects. This paper develops a set ofarguments for a sustained and meaningful role forstudents in defining, shaping, managing andimplementing reform, and outlines some ways in whichsuch involvement might occur. The arguments are bothorganizational and educational in nature, as are theproposed strategies for increasing the student role inthe reform and improvement process.     

School Response to a Changing Labour Market

The presumed link between schooling and the economy has been a prime force in motivating educational reform proposals in many countries. Educators feel caught between expectations by many that schools will play a key role in labour market success for young people and the reality that their influence on labour market outcomes is relatively weak. Solving the problem is not possible, but neither is ignoring it. Schools face an intractable yet compelling problem.This paper looks at the way in which school districts in a Canadian province understand and try to respond to changes in the labour market and the nature of work. The paper is based on collaborative case studies of five school districts and surveys of school board members and chief superintendents. We conclude that people in school systems are aware in a general way of labour market changes, and see them as having negative implications for students. However the changing job situation seems to be an important but largely unanalyzed issue. There is relatively little discussion of school-work issues in schools and districts. Administrators and school board members rely on informal sources of information rather than gathering data about their own situation. Schools and districts are using various programmatic devices to address labour market needs, such as partnerships, work experience, or co-operative education, but all of these operate within the confines of a traditional model of schooling. None of the districts has a strategy for this issue or has made it a priority.We conclude with some suggestions for measures schools could reasonably take to respond more effectively to the impact of changes in work.     

Gender differences in the severity of adult familial dyslexia

Thirty seven adults with a three generation family history of dyslexia and a strong personal history of reading/spelling problems were administered a psychoeducational battery to confirm the diagnosis of dyslexia. Males were not disproportionately represented in the dyslexic sample although they exhibited a more severe profile of reading impairment relative to females. Severity of dyslexia is discussed as a possible mechanism of the reported higher prevalence of dyslexia among males.     

WHAT ADOLESCENTS KNOW ABOUT AGING

Increasing the amount of contact with older adults is often proposed as a way to inform young people about aging. This study compares adolescents’ knowledge of aging with the amount and quality of contact they have with an older adult and compares adolescents’ knowledge of aging in 1978 with their knowledge in 1985. The results indicate that adolescents are very misinformed or uninformed about aging and older adults. Profiles of the responses on individual items from Palmore's “Facts on Aging” reveal qualitative differences associated with gender, degree of contact, and changes over time in the nature of the adolescents’ knowledge of aging. How adolescents perceive older adults and the implications this has for educational efforts are discussed.     

Issues in Constructivist Early Moral Education

The authors address Goodman's critique of constructivist moral education as articulated by DeVries and Zan (1994) and respond to her proposal that constructivist education be blended with traditional moral education as advocated by Wynne (1991). The authors cite empirical evidence contrary to Goodman's assertion that preschool children are egocentric and incapable of moral reflection. This difference links to dramatically opposed views on the educational implications of Piaget's research and theory. Goodman advocates that teachers should “exploit the child's natural heteronomy” by giving children rules and demanding obedience. The authors cite empirical evidence showing that heteronomous regulation of children leads to a host of undesirable outcomes and that encouragement of children's autonomy leads to positive outcomes. The authors also point out a number of misconceptions of constructivist education as propounded by DeVries and Zan. They discuss Goodman's specific suggestions for blending constructivist and traditional moral education, and conclude that such a blending contradicts considerable research on child development and early education and eliminates critical components of constructivist early moral education.     

grocery Shopping

随着北京越来越国际化,不觉间老外就忽然变成了你的邻居,你的朋友。他们和你住在一条街上,去相同的超市购物,去同一间酒吧消遣,去同一家健身房健身……目前长期生活在北京的老外已经达到十几万,而在北京做短暂停留的老外每天也有十来万人,部分地区还出现了外国人聚集区。当你走在北京街头,身后那个操着一口流利普通话的人说不定就是金发碧眼的外国人。在他们之中不乏怀揣着志向,不远万里来到北京实现自己人生理想的人们。北京也逐渐变成了梦想家的乐园,各项服务设施也逐渐完善,与国际接轨,为各国人民提供了方便、快捷的服务。加拿大美女 Betty 将在本期跟大家分享自己的假期旅行和在北京杂货店购物的经历。     

The inclusion of STS material in the most frequently used secondary science textbooks in the U.S.

Science-technology-society (STS) has been identified by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the Departments of Education in a variety of states, and a variety of commissions and panels concerned with reform in science education as a new direction and goal for science education. Because most teachers are dependent upon textbooks for determining their curricula and teaching approaches, an investigation of 11 of the most frequently used secondary science textbooks in the U.S. were reviewed to determine the attention given to STS topics. The framework established by the Project Synthesis research team for STS was used to define STS topics. The 11 textbooks were examined in their entirety to determine space devoted to STS. Minimum interrater reliability was established at 0.80; any deviation resulted in further analysis. Comparisons were made of STS coverage by science disciplines and across the 7-12 grade levels. Results revealed that less than 7% of the narrative space is devoted to STS topics, with a range of 11.5% to 0.5%. Further, the coverage of STS topics decreases as grade level increases. A great discrepancy, therefore, exists between goals for science education (an STS emphasis) to actual coverage in the most frequently used textbooks.     

Clinical Teacher Preparation: A Retrospective

In this article, we explore how teacher preparation programs have developed from the mid-1800s to present day, emphasizing changes in the clinical component. Drawing from the history of teacher education from the normal schools of the 19th century to present-day interest in clinically based preparation, we first review the migration of teacher preparation from normal schools into higher education. Next we discuss how accreditation has shaped programs. We then turn our attention to major initiatives in the 1980s that explicitly focused on linking school improvement with teacher education reform—partnerships that emphasized clinical aspects of teacher preparation. Finally, we discuss efforts to enhance clinical learning, highlighting instructional strategies and issues regarding design, settings, and outcomes for programs as they work to meet challenging new accreditation standards.