Reflection on the education policy orientation in post-May 31 reform in Korea

For the last 70 years, since the establishment of the Republic of Korea, Korean education has achieved universal expansion of educational opportunity from elementary to secondary to higher education. Planning, centralized policy making, top-down implementation, and administrative control had been the standards of the first few decades of Korean education. The so-called May 31 education reform implemented in 1995 made a turning point for these approaches to education policy and administration by highlighting autonomy, openness, diversity, accountability, consumer centeredness, market control, and governance for quality education. However, these government-driven education reform initiatives have resulted in limiting the expected outcomes. In this paper, the authors call for a new approach to education policy and administration and propose supporting school innovation, empowering an internal accountability system in governance. The authors also suggest a search for normative values for democratic communitarianism as a new philosophical foundation of education policy framework, beyond instrumental values of education.     

Just-in-Time Teaching Exercises to Engage Students in an Introductory-Level Dinosaur Course

The Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) technique allows students to be engaged in course material outside of the classroom by answering web-based questions. The responses are summarized and presented to students in class with a follow-up active learning exercise. College students enrolled in an introductory-level general education geoscience course were surveyed over a two-semester period on their engagement level during lecture and perceived learning of course content. Data show that students are able to reflect on their prior knowledge and construct new knowledge with weekly graded JiTT exercises. Despite increasing and competing pressures outside of the classroom, students reported increased learning and engagement in a course with required weekly assignments.     

Chinese number‐naming advantages? Analyses of Chinese pre‐schoolers' computational strategies and errors

Simplicity in number naming in a language (e.g. ‘ten‐two’ in Chinese is simpler than the irregular ‘twelve’ in English) has been used to explain cross‐cultural disparities in children's computational competence. In contrast to previous research focusing only on whether children can provide the correct answers, in this study (N?=?117 and 92) we examined Chinese pre‐schoolers' computational strategies in depth and individually so as to examine their understanding of the base‐10 system and place value. The results showed that despite the fact that many can give the correct answers, there is strong evidence that Chinese pre‐schoolers do not have adequate understanding of the base‐10 number system and place value, suggesting that the advantages of the simpler number‐naming system are limited.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Agrobacterium</Emphasis>-mediated transformation of herbicide resistance in creeping bentgrass and colonial bentgrass

Embryogenic calli were induced from the seeds of creeping bentgrass (Agrostis palustris Huds.) cv. Regent and colonial bentgrass (Agrostis Tenuis Sibth. Fl. Oxen.) cv. Tiger. The embryogenic calli were precultured on fresh medium for 4–7 days and then co-cultivated withAgrobacterium tumefaciens, LBA4404. which contains plasmid vector-pSBGM harboring bar coding region, synthetic green fluorescent protein (sGFP) coding region and matrix attachment region (MAR). After 3 days of co-cultivation, the calli were washed thoroughly and transferred to MS medium containing 2 mg/L of 2, 4-D, 12–15 mg/L phosphinothricin (PPT) and 250 mg/L of cefotaxime. After 2–3 months of selection, the actively growing calli of ‘Regent’ and ‘Tiger’ were transferred to MS medium with 12–15 mg/L PPT and 250 mg/L cefotazime for regeneration. The putative transformants were maintained on MS medium with 3 mg/L PPT for long period but control died within 1 month. After establishing in greenhouse, the transformants also showed strong resistance to 0.4% of herbicide Basta but control plants died within 2 weeks. Under confocal microscope, both young leaves and roots showed significant GFP expression. PCR analysis revealed the presence of a DNA fragment of GFP gene at the expected size (380 bp) in the transformants and its absence in a randomly selected control plant.     

Once Attained, Can Quality Child Care Be Maintained?

Research Findings: This study was designed to assess whether investments in child care quality were maintained 3 years after public funding for these centers was significantly reduced. An earlier evaluation documented significant improvements in classroom environments, teachers' sensitivity, and teachers' child-centered beliefs following a 15-month state intervention in 24 early care and education programs serving high numbers of children from low-income families. The current study used a quasi-experimental design, with pre- and postdata collected through direct observations and questionnaires in nonrandom treatment and comparison groups. Practice or Policy: Results at the 3-year follow-up showed that the majority (92%) of centers in the intervention group were accredited and that significant improvements in classroom environments were maintained after funding was significantly reduced. However, erosion in more sensitive measures (i.e., teacher sensitivity and child-centered beliefs) during the period of reduced funding suggested some concern that programs serving high concentrations of children from low-income families may require some consistent state support if they are to yield the positive life outcomes desired by economists and policymakers.     

Does Online Comprehension Monitoring Make a Unique Contribution to Reading Comprehension in Beginning Readers? Evidence from eye movements

The goal of this study was to investigate the nature of online comprehension monitoring, its predictors, and its relation to reading comprehension. Questions were concerned with (a) beginning readers’ sensitivity to inconsistencies, (b) predictors of online comprehension monitoring, and (c) the relation of online comprehension monitoring to reading comprehension over and above word reading and listening comprehension. Using eye tracking technology, online comprehension monitoring was measured as the amount of time spent rereading target implausible words and looking back at surrounding contexts. Results from 319 second graders revealed that children spent greater time fixating on inconsistent than consistent words and engaged in more frequent lookbacks. Comprehension monitoring was explained by both word reading and listening comprehension. However, comprehension monitoring did not uniquely predict reading comprehension after accounting for word reading and listening comprehension. These results provide insight into the nature of comprehension monitoring and its role in reading comprehension for beginning readers.     

Combining the best of two worlds: a conceptual proposal for evidence-informed school improvement

Abstract

Background: Data-based decision-making (DBDM) and research-informed teaching practice (RITP) are key to teacher and school improvement. Currently, however, DBDM and RITP represent two distinct approaches to developing evidence-informed practice (EIP) and do not correspond to the all-encompassing notion of EIP envisaged by many academics and commentators.

Purpose: DBDM and RITP are usually employed independently of each other. Each is associated with its own theoretical perspectives and research base, and each has its own pitfalls and strengths. Yet the approaches employed appear to be complementary, suggesting that there might be value in combining DBDM and RITP into one overarching process for achieving EIP. This paper presents the conceptual analysis and arguments for this proposal.

Sources of evidence: Drawing from literature and previous research in the fields of DBDM, RITP and EIP, we describe both DBDM and RITP, before comparing and contrasting the integral aspects of each.

Main argument: Our analysis leads us to suggest that not only is there overlap between these two approaches, but the strengths of each appear to mirror and compensate for the weaknesses of the other. As such, we argue that it is important that decisions in education are based on a combination of personal judgement, research evidence and local school data. This is because such a combination is likely to lead to equitable, effective and efficient decisions that are informed by values and preferences, grounded in context and steeped in practices that have been shown to be effective elsewhere.

Conclusions: We suggest that an effective strategy for EIP might be to achieve ‘the best of two worlds’ by integrating DBDM and RITP. In line with evidence-informed practices in medicine and management, this means EIP in education can finally be engaged in as a holistic approach to educational decision-making that critically appraises different forms of evidence before key improvement decisions are made. Our proposed approach, Evidence informed School and Teacher Improvement, is thus designed with the aim of enhancing the quality of educational provision by employing these evidence types as part of a systematic cycle of inquiry, focused on continuously improving the quality of learning in schools.     

Transformative Learning Through an Online Global Class Project in Teacher Education

This exploratory research study aimed to understand teacher candidates' experiences and perspectives in a global class project and to explore a way to develop global understanding in a teacher education program, by means of technology rather than study abroad. Using a qualitative approach, seven U.S. education majors were given opportunities to communicate online with teacher candidates in South Korea, while creating and discussing a concept map and movie presentation about “good teaching” on the Learning Management System. Results showed how the preservice teachers' global perspectives of education were developed through the project, and confirmed the significance of instrumental and communicative learning in transformative learning as well as direct communication and comparison with people from a different context using a carefully designed task-based course and immersive learning environment.