A Nation In Pain

“越洋专递”栏目甫一亮相,反响热烈。我们陆续收到了南京、太原、合肥等地同学的来信,孩子们和他们的父母通过各种方式表达了结交异国笔友的美好愿望。经过认真挑选,来自山西省太原市五中的李楠成为第一位幸运儿,本刊下期将刊登她的个性档案及写给美国小姑娘Demi的信。我们已和美国加州John Glenn中学取得联系,美国学生对此也很重视,不仅信中附有照片,有的还寄来可爱的小礼物。有兴趣的同学可填写笔友登记表,我们将针对你的情况,按照你的要求为你推荐笔友,并不定期地登载互通的信件及笔友通讯录。来信可附近照。在适当的时候。本刊将举办中美学生互访和夏令营活动,进一步缩短东西方的距离。本刊将为你搭起一座七彩桥,帮助你了解异域文化,结识异国笔友,和同龄人互相学习,携手共进。     

Beyond media stickiness and cognitive imprinting: Rethinking creativity in cooperative work &; learning with ICTs

This paper attempts to build a bridge between the fields of Computer Supported Cooperative Work and learning in online communities. A framework for group interactions is presented contrasting creative interactions such as collaboration with other but still valuable interaction types. Evaluative tools are proposed capable of identifying particular learning processes associated with various interactive activities. Each field has independently developed notions of inertia in the behaviour of users of these technologies. The notion of media stickiness is examined and related to that of imprinting in learning communities. However, dynamic and creative tracks can also be discerned and the argument is made that true collaboration requires attention to learning processes. Various suggestions are made of value to both fields and further research identified.     

Enhancement of pigeons’ conditional discrimination performance by expectancies of reinforcement and nonreinforcement

Prior work has shown that when the separate correct responses of a conditional discrimination are followed by different reinforcing outcomes, performance is enhanced relative to that obtained under the conventional, single-reinforcer procedure. Four experiments with pigeons yielded the analogous finding when the different outcomes were reinforcement and explicit nonreinforcement. Controls indicated that the results could not be attributed to the effects of intermittent reinforcement, to possible differences in cue duration, or to a variety of potential sources of conditioned reinforcement. An interpretation in terms of expectancy learning is proposed.     

Action research: a methodology for transformative learning for a professor and his students in an engineering classroom

ABSTRACT

An engineering professor of a first-year thermodynamics course and a PhD student with a focus in engineering education in a large research university in Canada participated in an ethnographic action research study with the intention of increasing active learning in the classroom to enhance student engagement and learning. Unexpected findings included transformative changes to the professor’s epistemology of teaching and learning. Through the action research cycle of planning, implementing, observing, and critically reflecting, modifications were made to the instructional strategies and the learning environment that created a micro engineering community of practice where both students and teaching assistants engaged in deep learning and legitimate peripheral participation on the trajectory to ‘becoming engineers’. Qualitative interview data from the professor, three students, and three teaching assistants are analysed through approaches to learning research and situated learning theory. Engaging in action research had profound repercussions in this case. The authors make the argument for action research as a catalyst for transformative learning required for teachers to engage students in the twenty-first century classroom.     

University research in flux: Policy debate in Australia

After a brief golden age Australian university research faces a difficult future. Two notions, utility and concentration, have become the catchwords of the emerging policy initiatives. Both have tended to be interpreted narrowly and simplistically, utility as having immediate technological applications that will bring economic benefits, and concentration to argue for breaking the teaching-research nexus, reducing the research workforce and thus achieving cost savings. As proposed, both initiatives require more centralised control of research policy and funding. Despite the outstanding record of Australia's universities in research and the absence of evidence to support the benefits claimed for the new initiatives, the pressure for change is gaining momentum. The problems facing Australian universities have much in common with those in other Western countries, although unique solutions must be sought for every setting. This paper argues that, in Australia, the adoption of the easy solution of increased concentration, short-term utility, and centralised control, is likely to compromise the established excellence and diversity in basic research, and to lead to an overall reduction in the scale of university research. Before any changes are instigated, there is a pressing need for a broad-ranging review based on widespread participation in a debate about needs and priorities, and rigorous research into the performance of the existing system and the potential benefits of the changes proposed.     

Ideas and the future of higher education

Travellers who begin their pilgrimage to the uncertain future by attending colleges or universities need an educational experience characterized by specific consideration of ideas as ideas and overt attention to the process of challenging assumptions. Effective higher education in the future may be recognized by its participants' focus on ideas in general as the foundation of the curriculum and their simultaneous willingness to challenge any particular idea. To the extent to which these two activities do not presently characterize American higher education, the most critical innovation for the future may be a change of mind.     

Education and poverty reduction in Tanzania

This paper reviews research on the returns to education in Tanzania, both financial and non-financial, and considers whether these returns translate into poverty reduction. It looks at reasons why achievement of high primary enrolment rates in the past did not lead to the realisation of the associated developmental outcomes, considering factors both within and beyond the education system. Achieving mass access at the expense of quality appears to have had a negative impact on equality. The poverty reduction potential of current programmes to develop the primary and secondary education systems are discussed in the light of past experience.     

TAKING SCHOOL CONTEXTS MORE SERIOUSLY: THE SOCIAL JUSTICE CHALLENGE

ABSTRACT:  Research is increasingly highlighting the influence of school contexts on school processes and student achievement. This article reviews a range of social justice rationales for taking school contexts into better account, and highlights the challenges contextualisation currently poses for practice and for policy. It notes important constraints on contextualised practice and limited developments in contextualising policy. There is now increasing concern to recognise and understand context in school effectiveness and school improvement research but such research needs to consider school context much more, in order to provide a stronger underpinning for contextualised policy and practice. School composition research is potentially most insightful because it addresses the issue most directly. Nevertheless future large-scale studies in this area need to overcome a number of limitations within the existing literature.     

So far so good? A qualitative case study exploring the implementation of consultation in schools

This paper describes a small‐scale research project carried out one year after the implementation of a consultation model of service delivery within an Educational Psychology Service. Following a series of interviews held with special needs co‐ordinators, a hierarchy of development was identified, and conditions pertaining to this development isolated. Through identifying optimum conditions for the development of consultation, a number of specific recommendations are made, aimed at ensuring that all schools gain maximum benefit from this way of working.     

Toronto multiagency child abuse research project: The abused and the abuser

Information from 422 cases of child mistreatment in Toronto was gathered from the files of a child welfare agency and a children's hospital. These data were compared to patterns reported in previous studies and clinical writings on child mistreatment to investigate similarities and differences in families whose children have been abused in Canada, England, and the United States. Findings from the present study were similar to others in many respects. The differences were primarily in the area of lower incidences of such problems as perinatal difficulties in the children and intellectual limitations and social isolation in the parents; however, there was a higher incidence of single-parent families. The results suggest that clinicians should bear in mind that child mistreatment cannot be ruled out on the grounds that no serious problems have been noted for the child or the family.