Disentangling the Role of Domain-Specific Knowledge in Student Modeling

Research in Science Education - This study explores the role of domain-specific knowledge in students’ modeling practice and how this knowledge interacts with two domain-general modeling...     

太平洋群岛技术和职业教育与培训政策和规划综述(一)

引言2001年,太平洋地区教育部长一致同意通过了"基础教育行动计划"。"行动计划"指出,发展合理的国家教育政策和规划框架是非常重要的。每个国家都应以合适的国际标准和资格为尺度,考虑建立一个覆盖基础教育、小学教育、中等教育、技术和职业教育与培     

The issue at a glance

The issue at a glance     

Agile administrative choreographies for multimode education at the University of Pretoria

This paper responds in part to a special edition of this journal (39/2) on dual-mode provision. We were concerned that contact providers might drift into distance education provision through extending campus-based online learning without first thinking through the underpinning implications of its administrative systems, an issue that was not addressed in the special edition. Proceeding from a pragmatic and constructivist perspective, while adopting a transactional orientation drawing on systems theory and hermeneutics, this paper focuses on the challenge for administrative staff and systems of the changing nature of provision in terms of both the underpinning learning and business models. Based on experience and reflection, we conclude that the move into dual- and multimode provision is inevitable and that this requires agility on the part of both administrative staff and systems that is often overlooked in planning and review processes.     

Teacher influence in the classroom: A context for understanding curriculum translation

Innovative doctrines create dilemmas for teachers. These dilemmas arise because, when teachers decide to adopt new practices, they face new uncertainties about their role in the classroom, the effectiveness of their methods and the purposes of their instruction. The way teachers used the materials of a particular innovation, the Schools Council Integrated Science Project, is described and explained in terms of teacher control over the uncertainties of classroom life. The Project proposals, initially seen by teachers as increasing the diffuseness of their work, were modified by them so that it was clearer to them what was to be accomplished and how it was to be done. At the same time, a functional alignment of goals, techniques and social relationships was maintained through teacher influence in the classroom. The translation of the materials into more specific terms meant that important elements of the doctrine of the Project were either ignored or redefined in more traditional terms. Such redefinition of innovation in specific terms raises questions about the effectiveness, as instruments of change, of centralized curriculum projects remote from the practical problems of schools. Implications for curriculum policy and research into the dilemmas teachers face in teaching are discussed.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association, Boston, Mass., April 1980.