WebQuests and collaborative learning in teacher preparation: a Singapore study

This research project aimed to introduce WebQuests to train special education preservice teachers in Singapore. The following research questions were posed: (1) Does the use of WebQuests in teacher preparation promote special education teacher understanding on Universal Design for Learning in accommodating students with diverse learning needs? (2) Are WebQuests useful tools that can enhance teacher’s higher-order thinking, engagement, creativity, and collaborative learning skills? (3) Does the use of WebQuests in teacher preparation foster stronger desires for teachers to integrate Information and Communication Technology in teaching and learning? Seventy-five preservice special education teachers responded to a survey questionnaire after experiencing WebQuest developed by the course instructor in teacher preparation program in Singapore. The majority of teachers indicated strong preference for WebQuest activities over traditional teacher-directed learning methods.     

美国学生助学贷款体系:经验与启示

美国是世界上助学贷款的最大提供者。在学生财政援助方面,美国拥有丰富的经验。高达4 600亿美元的学生贷款市场和长达数十年的学生贷款历史,使美国通过借贷帮助学生支付学费的政策日趋专业化。对于正在扩大学生助学贷款体系的中国来说,可以从当今美国学生助学贷款方案改革中获得启示。其一,应尽力在资助活动之初设计一个独特完善的贷款体系管理方案,以避免日后的不断简化和调整;其二,尽量限制中介的参与以减少贷款成本及贷款发放过程的行政程序;其三,通过政府债券来寻求与金融市场的平衡;其四,要不断完善学生信息渠道,提高学生贷款信息获取度;其五,要努力对助学贷款方案改革所引起的不可知后果进行预测。     

Are workers in the cultural industries paid differently?

This article aims to explore wage differentials between employees in three sub-industries of the cultural industries compared with the main (1-digit level) industry to which they belong. We use data from the Wage Indicator Questionnaire 2001/2002, which includes information on 12,757 employees in the Netherlands. We find that workers in these particular sub-industries of the cultural industries are paid differently compared with their respective main industries. Workers in entertainment and publishing and printing (P&P) are less endowed with standard labour market characteristics. However, whereas workers in entertainment face negative price or evaluation-related effects, the opposite holds for workers in P&P. Workers in IT are more endowed with standard labour market characteristics, but they receive lower rewards for their labour market characteristics.     

Gender-blind racism in the experience of schooling and identity formation

Much of the research dealing with education and race has concentrated on the experiences of black males. Research now needs to address the issue of how schools affect the production of black femininities. The aim is to explore how both black males and females adapt to schooling, and school exclusion in particular. Previous theoretical models often situate black women within the stereotype of the ‘superwoman’ and negate the experiences of black females in families that are not female-headed. Previous research also suggests that much of the black male pupil response to schooling is based on the way in which teachers equate disaffection with black masculinity. The study draws on research in schools with pupils aged from 13 to 15 years when observed and interviewed. Many pupils responded to schooling in a way that cut across race and gender. Pupils often attempted to subvert the traditional relationship of teacher as powerful and pupil as powerless, reacting to this relationship through their own racial and gendered backgrounds. It is argued that teachers often speak of black pupils in homogeneous ways when in fact gendered differences exist. The issue of how schools construct blackness is addressed and it is argued that too often this is simply to equate race with masculinity.     

HOW SHOULD THE COMMUNITY SERVE THE NON-DAY SCHOOL POPULATION?

What if a law were passed that Jews could not marry other Jews, that synagogues could not exist, that all Jews had to work on Saturday, that Jews could not participate in group worship, and that Jewish children could not receive a Jewish education? How would we, Federation planners and chief executives of central agencies for Jewish education react? How would we suggest the community organize a system in which Judaism would continue?     

Bourdieu on Higher Education: The meaning of the growing integration of educational systems and self-reflective practice

This paper discusses Pierre Bourdieu's multi-faceted understanding of the higher education process by considering the evolution of this domain since the end of the 1970s both in France and England. Following a brief review of Bourdieu's main interpretations of higher education, several theoretical shifts in his thought and practice over time are identified that have sought to accommodate the rapid changes that have occurred in the higher education sector in recent years. This theoretical repositioning is used to reflect on ideas of homological reasoning advanced by Bourdieu and others, and their limitations in the cross-national comparative exercise. Using the findings of her own comparative study of the evolution of the French and English higher education sectors, the author tests some of the conceptual tools developed by Bourdieu mainly during the 1960s and 1970s, and discusses claims for their universal validity.     

Exploring Mathematical Definition Construction Processes

The definition of ‘definition’ cannot be taken for granted. The problem has been treated from various angles in different journals. Among other questions raised on the subject we find: the notions of concept definition and concept image, conceptions of mathematical definitions, redefinitions, and from a more axiomatic point of view, how to construct definitions. This paper will deal with ‘definition construction processes’ and aims more specifically at proposing a new approach to the study of the formation of mathematical concepts. I shall demonstrate that the study of the defining and concept formation processes demands the setting up of a general theoretical framework. I shall propose such a tool characterizing classical points of view of mathematical definitions as well as analyzing the dialectic involving definition construction and concept formation. In that perspective, a didactical exemplification will also be presented.