“单向乐队”:红遍全球人未识?

纪录的存在意义就是为了鞭笞后人将其打破,再创高峰。当贾斯汀·比伯横空出世的时候,那种舍我其谁,万人空巷的声势让人以为迈克尔·杰克逊重生了。当我们以为这个"纪录"会保持一段时间的时候,"单向乐队"(又译"一世代""小破团")又以强劲势头席卷全球,这次,还被冠上"披头士接班人"这样的高帽。如果从单张专辑的销量和巡回演唱会的观众人数来看,把他们定义为下一个"披头士"     

罗宾·威廉姆斯:白天不懂夜的黑

罗宾·威廉姆斯的离世突然而毫无预兆。或者说,在世人眼中,他不应该以这种方式突然离开人们的视线。我们只记得他欢乐的模样,哪怕在严肃的剧情片或是晦暗不明的惊悚片,我们也期待他有那么一两句幽默台词能引得观众捧腹大笑。所以我们不断发问:他看上去那么乐观开朗、没心没肺,怎会以自杀的方式了却自己的一生呢?殊不知镁光灯之外的他,终生与酒精、毒品以及抑郁症纠缠,台上的欢笑不过是他的职业需求,嘴角牵扯的笑容根本没有到达眼底     

3D打印技术——通往乌托邦的密匙?

这种事情,你也知道:勤勤恳恳地为你家洗了15年盘子的洗碗机突然坏掉。你请来修理员,他确认问题是:过滤装置不能正常运转。"啊,"你带着放松的语气问道,"能帮我们换过一个新的过滤组件吗?"修理员对此遗憾地摇摇头,表示无能为力,并解释道,生产这台洗碗机的公司几年前已被另一个机构接管,它们已不再为这样的旧机器提供备用零件。     

“欢乐”唱响格莱美

过去了的2012年,"神曲"辈出。其中就有美国新生代独立摇滚乐队Fun.("欢乐乐团",又译"奋"乐队)的《我们正年轻》。话说此曲如同乐队一样,原本籍籍无名、但后来被当红美剧《欢乐合唱团》选中翻唱,于是一夜爆红、风光无限。     

Transforming High-Poverty Urban Middle Schools Into Strong Learning Institutions: Lessons From the First Five Years of the Talent Development Middle School

The Johns Hopkins Talent Development Middle School model aims to transform high-poverty, urban middle schools into strong learning institutions that reliably provide every student with a standards-based education and every teacher with the training, support, and materials she or he needs to deliver it. Two of the model's developers discuss 10 lessons learned from implementing, refining, and evaluating this model in 5 high-poverty middle schools in Philadelphia and discuss obstacles they have encountered and breakthroughs they made in developing the knowledge base, materials, and infrastructure needed. Taken together, the lessons suggest that "improvement now" in curriculum and instruction and in student achievement is a realistic goal even in high-poverty, urban middle schools. However, such improvement requires multiple layers of sustained technical assistance and implementation support and also requires local partners who can help the model to become integrated into the fabric of the school district.     

How inclusive education is understood by principals of independent schools

Inclusive education has become a practice that has been adopted by many schools across the globe and most usually in first-world countries. As a whole-school system, it occurs less frequently in developing countries including South Africa which unlike many developing countries has a sound infrastructure and many excellent schools in both the state and the independent sectors. Education White Paper 6: Special education: Building an inclusive education and training system was published in 2001 with the express intention of developing an inclusive education system in South Africa. Some South African independent schools have successfully implemented valuable forms of inclusion in their schools and this is the phenomenon that was studied. This study reveals various aspects of the inclusive process including the pivotal role that principals play in the transformation process of which inclusive education is the harbinger. It also analyses why principals choose to embrace a paradigm that on the surface is uncomfortable and not an easy option. We used narrative research as methodology for this qualitative research. The basic tenet was that inclusion leads to belonging and excellence in education. The major findings were that inclusion to most principals was about taking action, humanity and emotion. The principals also described inclusion as personal and pragmatic. The implications for action are of interest not only to principals, but to anyone who is seriously interested in innovative and more humane forms of anti-oppressive education.     

More than ‘just play’: picking out three dimensions of a balanced early years pedagogy

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the incompletely resolved tension between play-based and direct teaching approaches to early years pedagogy and practitioners’ resultant difficulties in understanding and delivering high-quality practice. Previously, we argued for the importance of infusing playfulness into all classroom interactions and activities in order to assist practitioners in forming a useful mental model of early years practice. Here, we extend the playful image to present a new, coherent framework for early years practice, based on three dimensions: the degree of playfulness in the activity taking place, the locus of control of the action during the activity and the nature of the learning taking place. We lay out the framework and describe its relation to free play as a prelude to discussing how it applies to classroom play and other types of early years classroom activity, illustrated by cameos. It is argued that the full range of each dimension should be well sampled through choosing a variety of activities and that such an approach will preserve high levels of child engagement. The framework provides a useful tool to prompt reflective practice and professional development.