Knowledge Integration Environment: reactions and comments

IJSE has come to be known for publishing a certain style of papers, often involving empirical enquiry. Other journals, and particularly those published in languages other than English, have different styles. In order to introduce readers of IJSE to distinguished work first published elsewhere which they may not have encountered, the editors of other journals in the field of science education are being invited to nominate a paper which they view both as typical in style and excellent in quality. In the first of this occasional series, Professor Silvia Pugliese Jona, Editor of La Fisica nella Scuola, produced in Italy, has suggested ‘La Bilancetta del Signor Galileo Galilei’ by Professor Gianni Bonera, first published in 1994, 27(4), 177‐80. The translation is by Mr Henryk Baranski.     

Faculty members’ perceptions of online program community and their efforts to sustain it

This study investigated faculty members’ perceptions of program community and what they do to support it in online graduate programs. Researchers developed and administered an online survey to ascertain perceptions of program community among education and engineering faculty members at United States, land-grant, research-extensive universities. Three hundred forty-four faculty members responded. Most participants thought that fostering community beyond courses was important. Faculty members used a variety of strategies to accomplish this task, including social media, synchronous communication and advising, face-to-face socials and orientations, and cohort models. Yet, many also relied on classroom strategies. Several participants indicated that they and their students lacked the time, resources or interest to pursue program community and that geographical distance and university reward policies complicated its establishment. Differences via discipline, gender and years of online teaching experience were also reported.     

工程教育的环境

学习的环境(Context)是关于理解并学习知识和技能的一整套文化环境。我们认为,产品、过程或者系统的生命周期——构思-设计-实施-操作(以下简称CDIO)即为工程教育的环境,而非内容。教育的背景,我们传授的技能和我们所表达的态度,都表明构思-设计-实施-操作是一个工程师在社会中的职责。这是有效实践的第一准则所反映的中心思想,该准则就是CDIO准则1。本文首先回顾了职业工程实践的环境,指出了社会发展和技术更新带来的不变和变化着的各个方面。然后,我们描述了CDIO的工程教育环境,并突出强调了与CDIO不同但同样可行的其它工程教育环境的模型。在特定环境中进行工程教育的原因是显而易见的,它效法职业实践,有助于学习技能,是应用在工程教育和高等教育中基于环境学习的理论和最好的实践。最后,本文结尾讨论了对于采取适当的环境开展工程教育、更有效地培养工程师的广泛社会需求。突出阐述了中国工程教育的发展,同时也介绍了瑞典和美国对工程教育的需求。     

Effects of orienting activities and practice on achievement,continuing motivation,and student behaviors in a cooperative learning environment

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of orienting activities and type of practice on achievement, continuing motivation, and student behaviors in a cooperative learning environment. Eighty graduate education majors were assigned to cooperative groups and required to learn instructional design principles from three instructional television lessons. Each lesson included specific orienting activities (advance organizers or objectives) and different types of practice (verbal information or intellectual skills). Results indicated that subjects who worked in groups that received intellectual skills practice performed better on the application portion of the posttest than those who received verbal information practice. Knowledge acquisition and student behaviors were affected by a combination of type of practice and orienting activity. Groups that received intellectual skills practice discussed more content, gave more help to their fellow group members, and exhibited less individual behavior than groups that received verbal information practice. Groups given objectives discussed significantly more content than groups given advance organizers. The authors wish to thank Steven Ross and the reviewers ofETR&D for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.     

Learning as boundary-crossing in school–university partnership

This paper points out that globalization has raised fundamental questions about knowing and learning and that it is essential for educators to engage in collective knowledge generation by crossing community boundaries. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Activity Theory, this paper reports on a study on the expansive learning that was afforded by a school–university partnership as university tutors, mentor teachers and student teachers engaged in a new activity system mediated by lesson study. The study showed that in the course of resolving contradictions that were inherent in the boundary zone, they negotiated the mediating tool and consequently, the activity system was transformed from helping student teachers learn to teach into learning for all participants. This paper concludes that it is essential for teachers and teacher educators to develop the capability to engage in expansive learning through tackling ill-defined problems in boundary zones.     

Web-based instruction in China: Cultural and pedagogical implications and challenges

Conclusion The Internet, the Web, and WBI are vital for learners all over the world to gather and exchange information, to communicate and interact, and to learn. Since the open-door policy was implemented in China more than 20 years ago, advocates of the Internet have continuously urged the Chinese government to adopt a less restricted policy for Internet use. However, the Internet is characteristically Western and may convey an unwanted Western bias. Strategies that will help prevent the negative influence from using the Westernized Internet are needed. It is recommended that the Chinese government reform the current test-driven educational system, provide better technological training for teachers and students, have appropriate technological resources for students in the less-developed areas, and implement more quality WBI that is conducive to constructivist learning.