A private matter? Religious education and democracy in Indonesia and Israel

The article examines state-supported religious education and its consequences for civic attitudes in Indonesia and Israel, two democracies that grant religion a prominent place in the public sphere, particularly in education. The comparison reveals that while in Indonesia the state was able to gradually introduce a secular curriculum in religious schools and establish an accreditation system by which it could exert influence on the way religion is taught, in Israel, by contrast, state-funded religious schools over time became increasingly opposed to a mandatory ‘core curriculum’ of general studies. The comparison further suggests that in Indonesia the inclusion of a secular curriculum in religious schools in the 1970s should be seen as one of the factors promoting the production and dissemination of ‘rationalist approaches to religion’ and brought religious actors on board of democratisation, while in Israel the exclusion of a secular curriculum from religious schooling has undermined civic commitments among ultra-Orthodox Jewish citizens and as such weakened Israeli democracy. The article is based on public opinion data, data from the Ministries of Religion and Education, and court decisions in both countries.     

梁漱溟的乡村建设理论对发展西部农村教育的启示

梁漱溟于20世纪30年代所开展的乡村建设运动及提出乡村建设的种种主张,最终都未能获得成功。但是,其重视职业教育和生产教育、“拿社会教育与学校教育合起来作”、“知识分子与乡村居民打并一起”、“以教育解决社会问题”以及“将教育扩大至整个社会,将时间延长到成年乃至终身”等思想,对于实施西部大开发战略,大力发展西部农村地区的教育仍然具有十分积极的启迪意义。     

Learning About Archaeology and Prehistoric Life

Science & Education - This article is about an intervention introducing prehistoric life in primary education. Its objectives were to foster openness and interest for prehistory and...     

Supporting Students’ Learning and Socioscientific Reasoning About Climate Change—the Effect of Computer-Based Concept Mapping Scaffolds

Climate change is one of the most challenging problems facing today’s global society (e.g., IPCC 2013). While climate change is a widely covered topic in the media, and abundant information is made available through the internet, the causes and consequences of climate change in its full complexity are difficult for individuals, especially non-scientists, to grasp. Science education is a field which can play a crucial role in fostering meaningful education of students to become climate literate citizens (e.g., NOAA 2009; Schreiner et al., 41, 3–50, 2005). If students are, at some point, to participate in societal discussions about the sustainable development of our planet, their learning with respect to such issues needs to be supported. This includes the ability to think critically, to cope with complex scientific evidence, which is often subject to ongoing inquiry, and to reach informed decisions on the basis of factual information as well as values-based considerations. The study presented in this paper focused on efforts to advance students in (1) their conceptual understanding about climate change and (2) their socioscientific reasoning and decision making regarding socioscientific issues in general. Although there is evidence that “knowledge” does not guarantee pro-environmental behavior (e.g. Schreiner et al., 41, 3–50, 2005; Skamp et al., 97(2), 191–217, 2013), conceptual, interdisciplinary understanding of climate change is an important prerequisite to change individuals’ attitudes towards climate change and thus to eventually foster climate literate citizens (e.g., Clark et al. 2013). In order to foster conceptual understanding and socioscientific reasoning, a computer-based learning environment with an embedded concept mapping tool was utilized to support senior high school students’ learning about climate change and possible solution strategies. The evaluation of the effect of different concept mapping scaffolds focused on the quality of student-generated concept maps, as well as on students’ test performance with respect to conceptual knowledge as well as socioscientific reasoning and socioscientific decision making.     

Using teacher inquiry to support technology-enhanced formative assessment: a review of the literature to inform a new method

In this paper we review the literature on teacher inquiry (TI) to explore the possibility that this process can equip teachers to investigate students’ learning as a step towards the process of formative assessment. We draw a distinction between formative assessment and summative forms of assessment [CRELL. (2009). The transition to computer-based assessment: New approaches to skills assessment and implications for large-scale testing. In F. Scheuermann & J. Björnsson (Eds.), JRC Scientific and technical reports. Ispra: Author; Webb, M. (2010). Beginning teacher education and collaborative formative e-assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35, 597–618; EACEA. (2009). National testing of pupils in Europe: Objectives, organisation and use of results. Brussels: Eurydice; OECD. (2010b). Assessing the effects of ICT in education (F. Scheuermann & E. Pedró, Eds.). Paris: JRC, OECD]. Our review of TI is combined with a review of the research concerning the way that practices with technology can support the assessment process. We conclude with a comparison of TI and teacher design research from which we extract the characteristics for a method of TI that can be used to develop technology-enhanced formative assessment: teacher inquiry into student learning. In this review, our primary focus is upon enabling teachers to use technology effectively to inquire about their students’ learning progress.     

Interaction Between Science Teaching Orientation and Pedagogical Content Knowledge Components

The purpose of this case study is to delve into the complexities of how preservice science teachers’ science teaching orientations, viewed as an interrelated set of beliefs, interact with the other components of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Eight preservice science teachers participated in the study. Qualitative data were collected in the form of content representation, responses to an open-ended instrument, and semi-structured interviews. Preservice teachers’ orientation and PCK were analyzed deductively. Constant comparison analysis of how their orientation interacted with other PCK components revealed three major themes: (1) one’s purpose for science teaching determines the PCK component(s) with which it interacts, (2) a teacher’s beliefs about the nature of science do not directly interact with his/her PCK, unless those beliefs relate directly to the purposes of teaching science, and (3) beliefs about science teaching and learning mostly interact with knowledge of instructional strategies. Implications for science teacher education and research are discussed.     

Probleme von Lehrerinnen und Lehrern mit der Beurteilung von Schülerleistungen

Zusammenfassung Die Erzeugung, Begründung und Durchsetzung von Leistungsbeurteilungen in der Schule stellt für Lehrkr?fte in verschiedenen Hinsichten ein Problem dar. Einerseits sind die Grenzen des Konzepts der Schulleistung strittig, andererseits gilt es, ungeachtet der defizit?ren wissenschaftlichen Rationalisierung der Praxis der schulischen Leistungsbeurteilung vertretbare Selektionsentscheidungen zu produzieren sowie zwischen den vielfach als widersprüchlich empfundenen Zielsetzungen der F?rderung und der Selektion abzuw?gen. Der Beitrag geht der Frage nach, wie Lehrkr?fte an ?ffentlichen Schulen mit diesen und ?hnlichen Problemen umgehen. Er berichtet über Teilergebnisse eines von der DFG gef?rderten Forschungsprojekts über „Selektionsentscheidungen als Problembereich professionellen Lehrerhandelns“ (Terhart/Langkau/Lüders 1999). Insbesondere werden Befunde einer Dilemma-Studie vorgestellt, in deren Rahmen Lehrkr?fte mit problematischen Zensierungs-und Selektionsentscheidungen konfrontiert und um eine Stellungnahme gebeten worden sind. Dabei stehen keineswegs erneut die vielfach konstatierten Schw?chen des Lehrerurteils im Zentrum der Betrachtung. Ziel des Beitrages ist es vielmehr, die erhobenen Stellungnahmen der Lehrkr?fte als Ausdruck bestimmter Rahmenbedingungen schulischen Bewertungshandelns zu interpretieren, damit einen vertieften Einblick in die Praxis der Leistungsbeurteilung als Praxis einer in Organisationen t?tigen Profession zu geben und Hypothesen für die weitere Forschung zu generieren.

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Summary Problems Concerning the Judgement of Pupils’ Performance The generation, justification and assertion of judgements concerning pupils’ performance present teachers with a variety of problems. On the one hand, the boundaries of the concept of pupil performance are controversial whilst, on the other, in spite of the deficiency of scientific rationalization of this practice, adequate selective decisions must be generated and the balance between support and selection must be weighed up. This paper considers the way teachers in public schools cope with these and other similar problems. It reports on some of the results from a DFG-supported research project entitled “Selective decisions as a problem area in professional teaching practice” (Terhart/Langkau/Lüders 1999). In particular, responses from a dilemma study are presented, in which teachers were confronted with problematic selective decisions and asked for their professional opinion. The focal point of this study is not the regularly proclaimed weakness of teachers’ judgements. The objective of this paper is instead to interpret the professional judgement of teachers as an expression of particular conditions of school assessment practice; through this, to offer a deeper insight into the practice of performance assessment conceived of as the practice of a profession which works in organizations, and to generate hypotheses for further research in this field of study.

     

Teaching about the Gypsies at Levanger College of Education

The author describes an extensive project undertaken at Levanger College of Education since 1976.

The project grew out of a concern about the conflicts which arose annually when gypsy groups passed through Levanger. A group of students carried out extensive research into the situation and background of the gypsies and presented their findings at a cultural evening. This presentation began a process of change in attitudes towards the gypsies, and the project was extended. Later, it involved students in work at the Gypsy School in Oslo and with the production of teaching materials. These have been added to constantly and have been widely disseminated. The project continues, and has been extensively reported.     

The role of motivation between perceived teacher support and student engagement in science class

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to investigate the relationships among the middle school students’ perceptions of science teacher support, students’ motivation and students’ engagement in learning science. Student motivation was addressed with task value and academic self-concept while student engagement included aspects of agentic, behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement. In the study, survey method was used and the data were collected though previously validated self-report questionnaires. Valid data were obtained from 1006 middle school students enrolled in one of the nine public schools in Turkey. The path analysis revealed that perceived science teacher’s support positively predicted students’ task value and academic self-concept in science. Furthermore, students who reported high levels of task value and academic self-concept showed higher levels of engagement in science. Accordingly, it seems important for science teachers to listen to the students, behave fairly and help them to solve their problems in order to motivate them for learning science and increase their engagement in science class.     

论和谐社会构建中的网络道德建设

道德是社会和谐的重要的道义基础，也是构建和谐社会的精神动力。网络的发展为人类的道德进步提供了难得的机遇，推动了人类道德发展的进程，但与此同时，也引发了许多前所未有的网络道德问题，因此，加强网络道德建设对构建和谐社会具有重要的现实意义。