An Instructional Strategy to Introduce Pedagogical Content Knowledge Using Venn Diagrams

This paper describes the use of a three-circle Venn diagram as a vehicle for introducing pre-service elementary teachers to pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Each circle of the diagram represents pedagogy, content and context individually. The overlap of any two circles represents the interaction between the circles. For example, the overlap of pedagogy and context relates to the ways that each of these general topics influences the other. The overlap of all three circles represents a complete lesson that is an integration of the three major components of PCK. The Venn diagram is an easily remembered graphic illustration of PCK that can be useful in planning lessons. The use of this graphic organizer in a science capstone course required of all pre-service elementary teachers is described.     

Evaluating effects of different forms of revision instruction in upper-primary students

Reading and Writing - This study aimed to establish (a) whether teaching students revision skills provides benefit over and above teaching strategies for setting explicit goals for the...     

Government policy and technical choice in the West German reactor programme

This paper gives a concise historical account of government policy in the development of nuclear power reactors in West Germany. In addition to published sources, information is drawn from the minutes of government advisory bodies and from interviews with individuals involved in policymaking. It is found that the decentralization of decision-making was a key factor in the relative success of the West German reactor programme. Government support was given in a way that left the essential technical and commercial decisions with manufacturers and utilities. The development work for the eventual successful light-water reactor was a largely self-financed effort of firms commanding a strong technical and commercial tradition in power plant construction. The utilities based their decisions on the basis of internationally available technology independent of, and initially even against, the programmes devised by the government. In the period up to the year 1972, less than ten percent of government expenditure for reactor development was spent on types that are now in commercial use, i.e. on light-water reactors, while the bulk was given to reactor types that have a chance for commercial application only in the longer term, such as the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor and the fast breeder reactor.     

过程导向的职业教育意味着什么?

为了促进职业教育更好地适应企业的需要、促进技术和组织结构的迅速更新，新颁布的《职业教育条例》提出了“针对过程”开展职业教育的要求。从此，《职业教育条例》只描述相关企业所共有的任务，而具体的教育内容则由职业教育企业自行确定。本文阐述了“过程针对性”对开展职业教育的影响，提出了相关人员的新型任务和专门化训练的需求。     

Book reviews

International Review of Education -     

Some observations on dropping out in distance education

This paper is an appraisal of drop‐out from a German perspective. This perspective is refreshingly and challengingly different — even to the rather casual German expression, ‘Karteileiche’, which means literally ‘file corpse’. The paper argues that drop‐out cannot and even should not readily be compared across systems, since significant parameters differ. The paper offers different professional viewpoints then moves to consider solutions to the problem. For die FemUniversitat the solution is not pragmatically driven but rather requires a theoretical research base.