New roles for teachers unions? Reform unionism in school decentralization

Of late, teachers unions have worked together with district management in new and notable ways. This paper examines the role of teachers unions in shaping the Together Initiative (TI), which seeks to increase autonomy and broaden decision making in urban schools in one northeastern state. In general, state-level union leaders have taken more consistently reform-oriented stances than those adopted by their district-level counterparts. We found that district-level union leaders supported TI’s growth and were willing to work with district leaders to reform schools in districts where labor-management relations had been collaborative in recent years and in schools where union leaders trusted the principal. Where labor-management relations were less positive and the union viewed principals as more arbitrary, union leaders practiced more industrial-style leadership.     

基于国际大规模学生评估的中国高中毕业生质量研究

在过去的二十年间,国际大规模学生评估主要对教育研究、学校体系和教育政策产生影响.本文着重介绍这些项目的主要结果,并在此基础上,于2003年在中国四个省份展开数学胜任力测试.作为过去几十年国际大规模学生评估的非参与国,中国无疑提供一个特殊视角.因而,本文所报告的中国学生成绩国际比较是一项独特工作.     

An investigation of two-way text messaging use with deaf students at the secondary level

Deaf and hard-of-hearing students are often delayed in developing their independent living skills because of parental restrictions on activities outside the home due to worries about their child's inability to communicate, their whereabouts, and their general safety. Recent accounts of the use of two-way text messagers suggests that, like electronic mail, distance communication problems that have long plagued deaf people may be ameliorated--by the use of such technology (M. R. Power & D. Power, 2004; S. S. Rhone & Cox News Service, 2002). This project was designed as an initial foray into investigating the use of two-way text messaging technology as a way of increasing the independence of deaf adolescents and reducing their parents' anxiety about their safety and responsibility. All the deaf and hard-of-hearing students in the deaf and hard-of-hearing programs at two urban high schools (ages 13-19), the staff of the deaf departments at these two schools, and the parents/guardians of the students participated in this study. Preuse surveys, postuse surveys, and monthly statistics on the number of times each pager was used enabled us to chart how often the participants used the technology. The data were used to identify concerns that parents have about student independence and safety, the extent to which deaf students engage in independent activities, and expectations surrounding how two-way text messaging use might increase independence and literacy skills. The data collected on this project to date confirm that two-way text messaging technology is indeed useful for deaf adolescents and helps alleviate some of the concerns that have kept them from developing independence as quickly or readily as their hearing peers. The potential policy implications for this research are discussed.     

高等教育制度变迁中的制度创立者、机遇和预见

本文利用美国和德国高等教育制度变迁的历史比较数据,试图对导致制度变迁的三类因素的普遍性和运行机制进行评价。这些因素是:机遇(或外因)、内因以及理性的人类预见。其中理性预见是引起制度变迁的因素当中最少出现的,笔者例举了制度创立者和政府对制度变迁的干预来加以说明,并讨论了这些干预的相对效果。     

为意义建构学习设计教学--学习与教学概说

教育心理学研究教学如何影响学习。教学与学习是彼此互相联系的过程,从而促成学习者发生改变。学习可以比喻为“反应增强”或“知识获得”或“知识建构”．这三种比喻所建议的教学方法都有它的优势所在。学习时发生着三种记忆．即感觉记忆,短时记忆（工作记忆）和长时记忆;与之相配备的三种基本学习过程分别是选择、组织和整合。教学必须帮助学习者选择相关的信息．组织信息和整合信息。也就是说,有意义学习依赖于在学习中的积极认知加工或知识建构。     

Verletzungen im Leistungssport aus soziologischer Perspektive

Injury in competitive sport is widely seen as a topic within the medical and psychological domain. This article gives an overview of sociological research on dealing with injury in competitive sport. Besides findings of a culture of risk, medical treatment practices and the governance of medical support systems, there are still many unanswered questions to which the sociology of sport could make a relevant contribution. Perspectives for future studies correspond with the social dynamics of injury, the structural role constraints in a medical treatment or rehabilitation context, and the governance of complex social networks for injury prevention, treatment and rehabilitation processes.     

Circulation and internationalisation of pedagogical concepts and practices in the discourse of education: The Hamburg school reform experiment (1919–1933)

In the context of the international exchange of school reform ideas and concepts, the new schools in Hamburg were recognised as exemplary instances of a revolutionary and forceful reform in the public elementary school systems. Based on studies of transfer and their premise that the transnational transfer of ideas, practices and objects does not occur spontaneously, but requires specific mechanisms of transmission, this contribution explores the circulation and exchange of pedagogical practices and concepts within the discourse of New Education by looking at the example of the Hamburg experimental and community schools (Hamburger Versuchs- und Gemeinschaftsschulen). A key question in this process is how the Hamburg schools could acquire the great international importance they held. The analysis includes both personal and institutional communication networks of the experimental schoolteachers, the international journals and conferences of the New Education Fellowship, school visits and various reports and documentations of the schools produced by foreign visitors. It shows not only the key role that transnational exchange played in the education reform debates of the 1920s, but also offers clues to the cultural patterns and beliefs that influenced the circulation and reception of ideas.     

Drawing pictures during learning from scientific text: testing the generative drawing effect and the prognostic drawing effect

Does using a learner-generated drawing strategy (i.e., drawing pictures during reading) foster students' engagement in generative learning during reading? In two experiments, 8th-grade students (Exp. 1: N = 48; Exp. 2: N = 164) read a scientific text explaining the biological process of influenza and then took two learning outcome tests. In Experiment 1, students who were asked to draw pictures during reading (learner-generated drawing group), scored higher than students who only read (control group) on a multiple-choice comprehension test (d = 0.85) and on a drawing test (d = 1.15). In Experiment 2, students in the learner-generated drawing group scored significantly higher than the control group on both a multiple-choice comprehension test (d = 0.52) and on a drawing test (d = 1.89), but students who received author-generated pictures in addition to drawing or author-generated pictures only did not. Additionally, the drawing-accuracy scores during reading correlated with comprehension test scores (r = .623, r = .470) and drawing scores (r = .620, r = .615) in each experiment, respectively. These results provide further evidence for the generative drawing effect and the prognostic drawing effect, thereby confirming the benefits of the learner-generated drawing strategy.