Developing undergraduate research skills in a faculty of education: motivation through collaboration

This paper explores motivational factors underpinning undergraduates’ learning of research skills through individual research projects with collaborative tutorials. Research has long pointed to group support, positive affect and scaffolding as important for motivating and facilitating learning. Furthermore, UK government priorities have placed an increasing emphasis on the need to develop the key skills of inquiry and working with others. However, this is set in a context of assessment and practice in higher education that encourages individualist and instrumental perspectives on gaining competencies and knowledge. Traditionally undergraduate research skills have been taught through lectures and small‐scale projects chosen by the students with individual tutorial support in a faculty of education. Here our action research introduced collaborative tutorials as another element of teaching. We examine the process of collaboration to explore factors that support motivation to learn through two principal theoretical frameworks.     

Diversity in New Zealand early childhood education: challenges and opportunities

The early childhood education (ECE) sector in New Zealand has long been recognised for the diversity of service types and range of organisations involved in delivering ECE. However, less attention has been paid to diversity within individual ECE services. This article draws on a national survey carried out as part of a larger project, The Diversity of Diversity in Early Childhood Education, focusing on teachers’ perceptions of challenges and successes encountered when working with children from diverse family backgrounds. Educators’ attitudes towards diversity clearly influence whether they perceive working with diverse children and families positively or as a challenge. We argue that possessing positive dispositions and attitudes that enable educators to truly welcome, acknowledge and embrace diversity, together with access to professional knowledge and support services, are critical. The implications of this for policy and practice are then considered.     

Supporting children’s transition to school age care

While a great deal of research has focused on children’s experiences as they start school, less attention has been directed to their experiences—and those of their families and educators—as they start school age care. This paper draws from a recent research project investigating practices that promote positive transitions to school and school age care. Data were generated through questionnaires, document analysis, visits to sites and conversations with a wide range of participants. In this paper, data related to school age care are reported. The results emphasise the importance of communication in the development of strong positive relationships among all those involved in transition. The practices identified as effective reflect the principles of My Time, Our Place: Framework for School Age Care in Australia, and are aligned with the Transition to School: Position Statement, which focuses on the opportunities, expectations, aspirations and entitlements for all during educational transitions. Drawing on these practices, possibilities for enhanced professional practice are explored.     

Creative Imagination and Subjective Agency in Wynne-Jones’ The Maestro

The Canadian young adult novel The Maestro by Tim Wynne-Jones foregrounds the relationship between imagination and subjective agency. While Burl uses his imagination at the beginning to protect himself from his abusive father, his fantasies become dress rehearsals for small performances that allow him to try on new identities and exercise autonomy through conscious choice of possible actions. The protagonist’s imagination, nurtured by reading fairy tales, allows him to move out of his lonely private realm into intersubjective relationships with others, particularly with parental figures who support his developing sense of agency.

中国“蚁族”获得关注

<正>在政府官员聚会首都出席立法机构年会期间,北京郊区的一些村庄有点出人意料地成了人们在热议年青人就业形势严峻这一话题时的关注点。在北京市北部一些村庄,居住着大批自称为"蚁族"的年青人。由于工作辛苦、居住地拥挤寒酸,他们给自己取了这么个绰号。在北京开会的一些全国人大代表举行了一个新闻发布会,集中介绍了失业大学毕业生的     

基于云计算的多媒体教学环境设计

云计算提供可定制的计算资源服务特点与建构主义教学理念不谋而合,意味着云计算技术在教育领域将会有深入的应用。在分析云计算应用于教育领域优势的基础上,结合建构主义理论,设计了一种基于云计算的多媒体教学环境,该教学环境整合高校与教学有关的系统构成教学云服务平台,为教师、学生、教学支持者提供全方位的服务和管理功能,将有效增强师生交互,促进资源共享,提高教学智能化程度。     

Are computers an important learning resource?

Sue Haugland is Professor at Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO.     

The importance of reflection in experiential learning with community and youth workers for the learning age

The New Labour government, in its Green Paper on the Learning Age, published in February 1998, put lifelong learning at the heart of its programme. In this article we aim to demonstrate that there is a direct parallel between the processes outlined in the Green Paper and the processes of experiential learning and community development by focusing on the Diploma in Community and Youth Work Studies run by the Community Work Unit (CWU) based in the Centre for the Development of Continuing Education at the University of Manchester.

Community action provides a setting for informal education. Community workers are in a unique position in relation to developing the potential for learning in the groups and individuals with whom they work. Their education and training should enable them to articulate and value their experience and reflect upon it in order to establish a meaningful basis for further self- and/or community development. We will explore how the CWU uses participative learning methods which recognize, value and use the experience and understanding of the participants as a basis for their own and others’ learning, and the relevance of these learning methods to the work practice of the participants.