A Canadian Perspective on the Uncertain Future of Distance Education

Distance education as a field of educational endeavor is at a crucial juncture in its historical development. The notion of learning at a distance has gained wide acceptance across the developed world. Instructors, physically and temporally separated from learners using newly emerging information and communication technologies, are widespread. Most postsecondary institutions have employed, or plan to develop, forms of “distance‐like” educational activities for both campus‐based and remote students. Yet, as acceptance has increased for such learning activities, many distance educators feel that they are no longer recognized as leaders in the emerging field of technology‐enhanced, hybrid, flexible learning environments. This article asks a series of questions which will help to illuminate the challenges facing distance educators at the beginning of the 21st century.     

Temperamental Origins of Child and Adolescent Behavior Problems: From Age Three to Age Fifteen

We assessed relations between early temperament and behavior problems across 12 years in an unselected sample of over 800 children. Temperament measures were drawn from behavior ratings made by examiners who observed children at ages 3, 5, 7, and 9. Factor analyses revealed 3 dimensions at each age: Lack of Control, Approach, and Sluggishness . Temperament dimensions at ages 3 and 5 were correlated in theoretically coherent ways with behavior problems that were independently evaluated by parents and teachers at ages 9 and 11, and by parents at ages 13 and 15. Lack of Control was more strongly associated with later externalizing behavior problems than with internalizing problems; Approach was associated with fewer internalizing problems among boys; and Sluggishness was weakly associated with both anxiety and inattention, especially among girls. Lack of Control and Sluggishness were also associated with fewer adolescent competencies. These results suggest that early temperament may have predictive specificity for the development of later psychopathology.     

漫谈美国培训产业的现状

(Bill Crampton,现任美国波斯顿培训技术公司-中国公司总裁,该公司的业务是面向各行各业,提供专业的英语培训。例如管理、I T、M B A、旅游等。 Bill Crampton在中国已经学习,生活和工作了十五年。他曾担任世界上最大的计算机培训中心--新地平线(New Horizons Computer Learning Center)的亚太地区经理,上海总经理,以及它的中国地区副总裁。Bill Crampton也是上海美国商会教育和培训委员会的创建者之一。工作中他致力于培训和人力资源管理的实践和研究,积累了丰富的经验。     

Teacher education for rural–regional sustainability: changing agendas,challenging futures,chasing chimeras?

Rural schooling has remained a concern for policy‐makers, employers, teacher education providers and schools throughout our recent history. In particular, the allegedly variable quality of teaching and learning in rural Australia is a major concern for teacher educators and educational leaders alike, with the provision of quality services for rural Australians a major equity issue in social as well as political terms. Working from an explicitly situated perspective, this paper explores these issues in relation to a set of current and recent research projects and government reports, with particular reference to a study currently exploring the articulation of teacher education and rural schooling in New South Wales. This is contextualized within a larger agenda of national and environmental sustainability which raises the key issue of social policy and educational priorities as we look forward into a radically uncertain future for teacher education, rural schooling and rural‐regional sustainability.     

Context matters: increasing understanding with interactive Clicker Case studies

Although interactive technology is presumed to increase student understanding in large classes, no previous research studies have empirically explored the effects of Clicker Cases on students?? performance. A Clicker Case is a story (e.g., a problem someone is facing) that uses clickers (student response systems) to engage students in understanding the meaning of the science contained within the story. Using an experimental randomized Solomon design across 11 institutions, we found that Clicker Cases increased student understanding more than PowerPoint lectures in large introductory biology classrooms, although there was variation across institutions and topics. By examining student performance in conjunction with faculty experience, we found that strong Clicker Cases created dissonance, captured attention and involved students in interpreting data or making decisions. This study provides a model for collaborative research across multiple institutions and demonstrates the need for using multiple institutions and topics in research on education.     

请相信,步行并不像看起来那样乏味

[1]在英国生活20年后,我和妻子决定搬回美国.我们想住在一个小城镇里,小到可以步行去商业区,最后我们定居在新罕布什尔州汉诺威市,一个典型的新英格兰城镇,舒适、安静、布局紧凑.市中心有一块大草坪,四周环绕着达特姆斯大学的古老建筑,一条古色古香的大街和绿树成荫的住宅区.     

Living with Children with an Intellectual Disability: Parents Construct their Reality

This paper reports a study that adopted an interpretivist paradigm as a basis for parents and researchers to co‐create a discourse that outlines life experiences as they relate to parenting a child with an intellectual disability. Repertory grid methodology was employed to inform the process of discourse development. A model of the five interrelated systems of events or issues that impinge upon the perceptions of parents of children with an intellectual disability is proposed. In addition, details about the group's perceptions of those environmental events or issues that are pertinent to living with and caring for a child with an intellectual disability are reported.     

BOOK REVIEW

This article summarizes results from a national study of community colleges (stratified by size and region). Included in the findings are data about the curriculum approaches being used, changes in approaches during the last 10 years, curriculum approaches preferred by chief academic officers, and perceived barriers to change in general education offerings.