Globalized curriculum or global approach to curriculum reform in mathematics education

The mathematics education community has shown considerable awareness of the international status of their discipline. While internationalization of the discipline is not a new phenomenon, globalization is a relatively recent term in educational discourse. This paper presents a theoretical model towards the study of globalization and internationalization in mathematics education based on previous publication by the authors. Secondly, it identifies some key issues that have been discussed in the literature and that may require further discussion and research in the field. In particular it discusses the issue of similarity of mathematics education curricula around the world. The concept of a global curriculum is rejected in favor for more internationalized approach to curriculum reform based on collaboration between mathematics educators.     

Training,Careers and Lives: a longitudinal study of a teaching dynasty

This paper is an account of a singular Anglo‐Welsh dynasty, the Adams family, the experiences of three generations of whose teaching members spanned 100 years of educational development in England and Wales, from the 1840s to the 1930s. It comprises first of all summarised biographical details of relevant members of the Adams family, of which a full history can be found in the writer's An Anglo‐Welsh Teaching Dynasty (Marsden, 1997). The second part of the paper offers generalisations drawn from this grassroots, longitudinal case study which provide critical comment on the work, personal lives and attitudes of individual members, in illustration of the living realisation of a century of educational effort. They hopefully serve to counter some of the attenuated and negative stereotypes of the teaching profession found in certain traditional histories of the profession and in some social theory imposed on educational history.     

University class size: Is smaller better?

This study investigates the relationship between class size and achievement at the college level. Recent meta-analyses have found a strong relationship between class size and student achievement, but few of the studies examined class size larger than 40 or university-age populations. This analysis examines a university's testing-center data-archives representing 305 sections from 24 different courses. Section sizes ranged from 13 to 1,006. A total of 16,230 test scores were analyzed. The results of this investigation reveal that at the college level, class size may be less important an influence on student achievement than some educators have thought.     

The National Diffusion Network: A career education bonus

Bill Guise is Assistant Director, Washington National Diffusion Network Facilitator Office.     

The empirical derivation of equations for predicting subjective textual information

Parameters pertaining to information processing by human beings have, in the past, been determined by learning and memory experiments with nonsense syllables, number sequences, etc. However, in the real world we are concerned with the processing of meaningful information, not senselles texts. Therefore, the determination of subjective information directly from meaningful material becomes extremely important in the instruction-learning process.This study derives an equation for predicting the subjective textual information contained in a text of material written in the English language. Specifically, this investigation describes, by a mathematical equation, the relationship between the subjective information content of written textual material and the relative number of errors committed by a learner when asked to predict, letter by letter, the content of given textual material. This relationship shows that the subjective information of a given text for a specific learner is directly proportional to the number of wrongly guessed signs made by that learner. This is expressed mathematically by% MathType!MTEF!2!1!+- % feaafeart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn % hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr % 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9 % vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x % fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaGaamysaiabg2 % da9iaaiodacaGGUaGaaGymaiaabccacaWGfbaaaa!3B57! \[ I = 3.1{\rm{ }}E \] 0935 0212 VWhere: I = Information in bits E = Number of wrongly guessed signsThe application of Shannon's guessing procedure (1951) in this study permits the measurement of the subjective information of a given text for a specific learner. Unlike senseless texts, the subjective information of a meaningful text varies from learner to learner. Therefore, the derived equation permits the measurement of information in terms of a value that is dependent not only upon the inherent qualities of the subject matter, but also upon the internal state of the learner.The derived equation for the English language is then compared to an equation derived by Weltner (1967) for the German language and found to be remarkably similar.This work was, in part, supported by United States Air Force Contract F41609-71-C-0027 entitled Flying Training Research on Airborne and Ground Training Systems, and a research grant from Arizona State University.     

Curriculum Continuity and Transfer from Primary to Secondary School: the case of history

The transfer of children from primary school to secondary school has long been seen as a problematic area. The National Curriculum was depicted as offering a solution to some of the transfer problems by providing for curriculum continuity across the primary-secondary divide. This paper reports the results of a study of curriculum continuity in one subject, history, now that a National Curriculum has been in place for several years. It reports that teachers continue to see problems with the transfer and that secondary school teachers still incline to a ‘fresh start’ approach to year 7 pupils. There is also some evidence of a lack of curriculum consistency within the secondary schools involved in the research, there are differences between primary and secondary schools in the range of teaching and learning methods employed, there is some decline in pupils’ ratings of their experience of secondary education across year 7 and there are signs of some gender differences in these ratings. The conclusion is that there is a case for saying that the new arrangements have not alleviated the problems associated with the transfer.     

Assessing Multiliteracies and the New Basics

This paper addresses the skills and characteristics required of successful learners, workers and citizens in the knowledge economy. The authors trace the shifting commercial, technological and cultural conditions characteristic of this economy, and highlight the key qualities now required for individual success. Effective learners will increasingly need to be autonomous and self-directed, flexible, collaborative, of open sensibility, broadly knowledgeable, and able to work productively with linguistic and cultural diversity. While still prevalent, it is held that standardised testing and a 'back to basics' approach to curriculum are unable to promote and measure effectively these skills and sensibilities. Instead, a broader and more creative approach to curriculum and assessment is recommended. A 'new basics' is argued for at the level of curriculum, with correlative assessment techniques such as analysis of portfolios, performance, projects and group work.     

Infants' Reliance on a Social Criterion for Establishing Word-Object Relations

The language children hear presents them with a multitude of co-occurrences between words and things in the world, and they must repeatedly determine which among these manifold co-occurrences is relevant. Social factors—such as cues regarding the speaker's referential intent—might serve as one guide to whether word-object covariation should be registered. In 2 studies, infants (15–20 months and 18–20 months in Studies 1 and 2, respectively) heard novel labels at a time when they were investigating a single novel object; in one case the label was uttered by a speaker seated within the infant's view and displaying concurrent attention to the novel toy (coupled condition), whereas in the other case the label emanated from a speaker seated out of the infant's view (decoupled condition). In both studies, subsequent comprehension questions indicated that infants of 18–20 months registered a stable link between label and object in the coupled condition, but not in the decoupled condition, despite the fact that covariation between label and object was equivalent in the 2 conditions. Thus, by 18–20 months children are inclined to establish a mapping between word and object only when a speaker displays signs of referring to that object.