在工作过程中学习工作过程知识

通过讨论在工作过程中学习的直接原因和个人动机,说明了工作中学习的主要内容是工作过程知识,指出工作过程中学习的方式是隐性的。从不同角度对焦点意识和背景意识进行了区分,帮助正确理解职业教育的学习内容有着重要的意义。     

The influence of the school in the decision to participate in learning post‐16

The primary aim of this study, funded by the Department for Education and Skills, was to identify the nature and influence of school‐based factors in the choices of young people about their post‐16 education, training and career pathways. The study also contributes to the wider understanding of ‘choice’, and identifies implications for the development of careers education and guidance and decision‐making awareness amongst pupils and students in schools. It also further enhances the modelling of pupil decision making in education and training markets, and in labour markets. The research is based on a series of qualitative interviews in 24 schools across nine local education authorities. Focus groups were undertaken with young people in years 10, 11 and 12. Interviews were also conducted with head teachers, heads of year and heads of careers. A postal survey of parents was also undertaken. Four key school‐based factors were found to have a very strong influence in the choices and decisions of young people about their post‐16 education, training and career pathways. These were: whether the school had a sixth form or not; the characteristics of school leadership, ethos and values; the socio‐economic status (SES) of the schools' catchment; and the organisation and delivery of careers education and guidance at the school level. In the main, high SES schools see themselves as developing pupils for academic university careers, while low SES schools maintain a rather stronger commitment to vocational pathways. The academic ethos of schools offers a very powerful influence on post‐16 choices and decisions of pupils. The usual interventions put in place to influence choices and decisions appear to have greater impact in schools with a less robust academic vision.     

Internationalisation,planetary citizenship and Higher Education Inc.

The internationalisation of higher education aims to produce ‘citizens that feel at home in the world’ but the process is driven by both economic and educational motivations. Today, the international community aspires to promote Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Education for Democratic Citizenship (EDC), together planetary citizenship, and with them emphases on personal and ethical responsibilities to the environment and future that contrast with current competitive individualism. Driven by rising numbers of international students, curricula are already shifting toward more global assessments of society and environment. However, progress is being impeded by management systems that take commerce as their model. While instructors strive to ensure that learners consider their responsibilities through ESD and EDC, their message is being contradicted by their context. Since learners learn from their total environment, not just in classrooms, changes are required. Granting greater attention to sustainability issues and the empowerment of learners and teachers would allow a better constructive alignment between educational and economic imperatives.     

Enhancing student motivation and engagement: The effects of a multidimensional intervention

The present study sought to investigate the effects of a multidimensional educational intervention on high school students’ motivation and engagement. The intervention incorporated: (a) multidimensional targets of motivation and engagement, (b) empirically derived intervention methodology, (c) research-based risk and protective factors, (d) established practices that nurture optimal youth development, (e) use of interpersonally skilled staff, and (f) evidence-based programming. Using a pre-/post-treatment/control group design, it was found that the self-complete intervention brought about significant shifts in motivation and engagement. Specifically, findings showed that the treatment group made positive motivation shifts on key dimensions including task management, persistence, anxiety, failure avoidance, and uncertain control. Moreover, against a large weighted external comparison group, the treatment group made positive shifts on valuing, mastery orientation, planning, task management, persistence, failure avoidance, uncertain control, and self-handicapping. Taken together, these findings attest to the potential for multidimensional educational interventions for enhancing students’ motivation and engagement.     

Piecing Together the Puzzle of Pictorial Representation: How Jigsaw Puzzles Index Metacognitive Development

Jigsaw puzzles are ubiquitous developmental toys in Western societies, used here to examine the development of metarepresentation. For jigsaw puzzles this entails understanding that individual pieces, when assembled, produce a picture. In Experiment 1, 3- to 5-year-olds (N = 117) completed jigsaw puzzles that were normal, had no picture, or comprised noninterlocking rectangular pieces. Pictorial puzzle completion was associated with mental and graphical metarepresentational task performance. Guide pictures of completed pictorial puzzles were not useful. In Experiment 2, 3- to 4-year-olds (N = 52) completed a simplified task, to choose the correct final piece. Guide-use associated with age and specifically graphical metarepresentation performance. We conclude that the pragmatically natural measure of jigsaw puzzle completion ability demonstrates general and pictorial metarepresentational development at 4 years.     

The Relation Between Preschoolers’ Vocabulary Development and Their Ability to Predict and Recognize Words

By age 2, children are developing foundational language processing skills, such as quickly recognizing words and predicting words before they occur. How do these skills relate to children’s structural knowledge of vocabulary? Multiple aspects of language processing were simultaneously measured in a sample of 2-to-5-year-olds (N = 215): While older children were more fluent at recognizing words, at predicting words in a graded fashion, and at revising incorrect predictions, only revision was associated with concurrent vocabulary knowledge once age was accounted for. However, an exploratory longitudinal follow-up (N = 55) then found that word recognition and prediction skills were associated with rate of subsequent vocabulary development, but revision skills were not. We argue that prediction skills may facilitate language learning through enhancing processing speed.     

Many Voices: Building a Biblioblogosphere in Ireland

ABSTRACT

Blogging has been associated with the Library and Information Science (LIS) community for some time now. Libfocus.com is an online blog that was founded in 2011. Its goal was to create a communal communication space for LIS professionals in Ireland and beyond, to share and discuss issues and ideas. The content of the blog is curated by an editorial team and features guest bloggers from across all sectors and experience levels. Using a qualitative methodological approach, open-ended surveys were conducted with twelve previous guest bloggers, in order to explore how and why Irish-based LIS professionals choose to communicate through blogging. It is hoped that this evidence will provide a greater understanding of both the value and effectiveness of blogging as an outreach and communication tool within the profession, helping both libraries and librarians to be more strategic in their use of it as a medium.