生态主义课程思想的历史演变

不同文明时期 ,生态主义思想表现出鲜明的阶段性特点 ,生态主义课程思想在其漫长的历史发展中也被打上了深刻的时代烙印。渔猎文明时期 ,课程还没有成为独立的专门形态 ,先民的图腾崇拜、自然崇拜等观念影响着萌芽时期的生态主义课程思想 ;农业文明时期 ,我国传统文化中“天人合一”、“以德配天”等思想精华对生态主义课程产生了深刻影响 ;工业文明时期 ,卢梭、福禄倍尔等人的自然教育思想推动了生态主义课程思想的发展 ;生态文明时期 ,以斯拉特瑞为代表的后现代主义课程理论进一步丰富和拓展了生态主义课程思想。     

基于认知风格理论的网络课程学习内容设计

学习内容设计是网络课程教学设计中极为重要的一个分支。尤其对于远程学习，学习者与学习内容的交互直接影响到学习者的学习成就。目前大量网络课程的内容设计主要偏向于内容的呈现方式。本文将以认知风格理论为指导，依据学习者不同的认知风格特征，重点探讨网络课程内容组织方式的设计。     

Computers on wheels: an alternative to 'each one has one'

Four fifth‐grade classrooms embarked on a modified ubiquitous computing initiative in the fall of 2003. Two 15‐computer wireless laptop carts were shared among the four classrooms in an effort to integrate technology across the curriculum and affect change in student learning and teacher pedagogy. This initiative—in contrast to other one‐to‐one programmemess and stationary labs—offers public schools alternatives to budget constraints and instructional‐space overhead. Results indicate positive teacher technology competence and confidence, as well as instructional strategies that were student‐centred made meaningful uses of technology. Teacher technological knowledge and efficacy, pedagogical knowledge, and a supportive school community seem to be strong indicators for impacting technology integration in this context.     

Development of a distance education assessment instrument

The study described in this article takes the view that distance education programs are dynamic systems with multiple constituencies. Literature on distance education programs as complex systems and on the critical constituency approach to program evaluation was used to guide the development of a questionnaire designed to assess the components of a distance education program. Instrument development was conducted in four phases using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The data from this study suggest that there are four major components of effectiveness in distance education programs: instruction, management, telecommuting, and support. Within each of these components there are from two to five subcomponents, 14 components in all, which can be used to assess distance education programs. The assessment scale which was developed measures these four components and their subcomponents.     

The existence and extent of spatial working memory ability in honeybees

Honeybees foraged from six locations, each of which was baited with sugar solution prior to each experimental trial. Under a variety of conditions, bees exhibited a small but reliable tendency to avoid revisits to locations that they had visited earlier during the experimental trial. These results replicate those of Brown and Demas (1994), who concluded that bees use working memory to discriminate previously visited locations from those not yet visited. The present experiments included procedures that allowed alternatives to this explanation to be more completely ruled out. The extent of spatial working memory performance exhibited by honeybees in these experiments appears to be limited by a process other than working memory capacity, perhaps the ability of bees to discriminate among several locations in close proximity to one another.     

Quality education and the role of the teacher in Fiji: mobilising global and local values

Abstract

This article reports on the findings of original field research carried out in the small island developing state of Fiji, in the South Pacific. A North-South research partnership was built upon previous collaboration between team members and, in so doing, pioneered the blending of Pacific and Western research approaches sensitive to a postcolonial positioning. The study interrogates practitioner perspectives on: the nature and quality of teachers and teaching in Fiji; the challenges of teachers’ work and lives; priorities for successful qualitative reform; and theoretical implications for the processes of education policy transfer and qualitative improvement. The analysis draws upon work on the politics of aid and international development, revealing tensions between existing learner-centred policy frameworks and emergent neoliberal and performativity oriented initiatives influenced by international surveys of student achievement, related league tables and the experience of the regional reference societies of Australia, New Zealand and India.     

Lifewide learning in the city: novel big data approaches to exploring learning with large-scale surveys,GPS, and social media

ABSTRACT

Despite UNESCO’s Learning Cities agenda, which argues for the mobilisation of resources to promote education across all sectors and environments, there is little evaluative research on Learning City engagement which is both naturalistic and empirically rigorous. The research on informal adult learning in urban contexts is particularly sparse. This paper provides a case study of informal learning and lifewide literacies amongst Glaswegian adults using three distinct approaches to data collection: a household survey capturing rich data on learning attitudes, behaviours, and literacies; GPS trails that track mobility around the city; and the capture of naturally occurring social media. The work operationalises Learning City indicators, and explores domains beyond education, some of which have not previously been considered in surveys of adult learning, for example, physical mobilities and transportation patterns. We use theoretical concepts of social identity and capital to situate inclusion within explanatory frameworks of marginalisation in less tangible domains of informal learning using multi-stranded data. A triangulated analysis of city-wide participation in lifewide learning reveals a demographic picture of groups marginalised from learning opportunities and practices. We conclude with a call for new approaches to exploring learning participation which offer novel methods to evidence informal learning and lifewide literacies.