Variety of attitudes towards the comprehensive university

Higher education policy-making may attempt far-reaching reform of the post-secondary system and its inherited institutions. It may be oriented towards the replacement of distinctions between the academic and the non-academic as well as the transformation of the traditional university concept by means of a new conception of the organization of the post-secondary sector, the comprehensive university. Higher education policy-making may display not only great ambition but also policy extravagance. Maybe the Swedish 1977 higher education reform is the most ambitious attempt so far to implement the notions inherent in the comprehensive university. Maybe the element of policy extravagance was at times most conspicuous in the extended period of policy-making in Sweden culminating in the 1977 reform bill as it was even suggested that the universities of Uppsala (1477) and Lund (1668) were to be officially designated Högskolan i Uppsala and Högskolan i Lund-Malmö respectively. It may be interesting to find out the attitudes of those responsible for the day-to-day operations of the universities and colleges. This article presents the results of the first national survey of Swedish teachers and researchers in so far as they pertain to the evaluation of the 1977 reform.     

Creating Peace by Confronting Prejudice: Examining the Effects of a Multicultural Communication Skills Group Intervention

This study investigated the effects of a Multicultural Relationship Enhancement Workshop on American education majors' ability to confront prejudice in order to create more peaceful communities in school settings. Due to the diverse group membership, participants were provided an opportunity to practice communication skills in a multicultural context that emphasized a social justice perspective. A repeated measures design with random assignment of participants to experimental (n = 26) and wait-list control (n = 22) groups was employed. Participants were studied at three different points in time, in five-week intervals, with the experimental group participating in the workshop during the first five-week interval and the control group receiving the treatment during the second five-week interval. The repeated measures analysis of variance revealed significant time by treatment interaction effects between Times 1 and 2 on a measure of communication skills in multicultural situations. The intervention is discussed in the context of policies that promote cultures of peace.     

Piaget,and beyond

The relevance for educational theory of Piaget's cognitive and developmental psychology is examined, especially as teaching of concepts and operations is concerned. Piaget's constructivism and his assimilation theory are found to be most useful. His equilibration concept and his one-step model of concept construction, however, limit the applicability of the theory. Related to these traits of Piaget's psychology is the tacit assumption that experiments simply uncover cognitive structures, which are said to build up during the child's spontaneous activities. An alternative conception of developmental processes and of cognitive learning is offered, in which an elaboration concept, language, and social stimulation are central.

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Résumé On a examiné la signification pédagogique de la psychologie du développement cognitif de Piaget, particulièrement en ce qui concerne l'enseignement de concepts et d'opérations. Les notions piagétiennes d'assimilation et de constructivisme se révèlent des plus utiles. Cependant, son concept de l'équilibre structural et sa notion de l'élaboration de concepts limitent l'applicabilité de sa théorie. Rattachée à ces aspects de la psychologie de Piaget se trouve l'idée que les expériences ne font que mettre à nu des structures cognitives qui se seraient construites au cours des activités spontanées de l'enfant. Cet article propose une interprétation différente des processus du développement et de l'apprentissage cognitif, où le langage, la construction de concepts, et la stimulation sociale occupent une place centrale.

     

Framework for Empirical Research on Science Teaching and Learning

In view of the research on education—and subject-related education in particular—that has been conducted in recent years, it would seem useful to describe the current state and future trends of research on science teaching and learning. In the present article, research findings are described, the deficits of science education are analyzed, and medium- and long-term research goals are specified from the perspective of an interdisciplinary cooperative effort between specialists in the fields of empirical educational research; the psychology of learning and instruction; and biology, chemistry, and physics education. Revised and supplemented version of Fischer, H. E., Klemm, K., Leutner, D., Sumfleth, E., Tiemann, R., and Wirth, J. (2003). Naturwissenschaftsdidaktische Lehr-Lernforschung: Defizite und Desiderata [Natural science-didactical learning research: Deficits and desiderata]. Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Naturwissenschaften, 9, 179–208.