发展特殊教育多媒体教学资源的实践经验

面对信息科技教育的挑战,特殊教育教师已广泛应用计算机教导残疾儿童.然而,适合残疾儿童使用或学习的计算机多媒体资源,极为匮乏.本文旨在阐释发展特殊教育多媒体资源的策略,包括成立教学资源小组、建立软件库、构建网页、制作学习软件及调适性配件.结论指出计划成果丰富,有助推动特殊教育教学.     

The evolution of special education in Malaysia

This article traces the evolution of special education in Malaysia across four chronological stages: before and during the early colonial period (before 1900), pre‐independence (1900–1957), post‐independence (1957–1990) and modern Malaysia (1990 to the present), through document analysis. By placing current issues and trends within a historical perspective, we can provide a context for understanding current practices in relation to shifts in policy paradigms. The effects of policy changes throughout the years are discussed in the context of issues facing special education today. Identifiable areas of improvements are organised into eight themes: (1) provision of education for students with special needs and the degree to which they are inclusive; (2) encouragement of diversity within highly structured education systems; (3) the importance of funding; (4) restructuring pre‐service teacher preparation; (5) multidisciplinary support and collaboration; (6) programme outcomes; (7) provision of related services; and (8) epidemiological data.     

Hong Kong Library Association Mentoring Program: Experience,Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

The Hong Kong Library Association (HKLA) has been the core organization serving the library and information science (LIS) community in Hong Kong since its establishment 62?years ago. It organizes activities and events continually to enrich professional knowledge of LIS professionals in Hong Kong. It has been observed that the number of student members has risen constantly in recent few years. In view of the pressing demand for better support to student members, the HKLA launched the Mentoring Program in 2013 to enhance informal communication between student members and other members of the Association. The Mentoring Program received an overall positive feedback from the local LIS community and made a positive impact to participants, especially mentees. Apart from the successful experience of this program, there are issues that can be improved in sustaining this program in long term. This paper summarizes the experience of implementing the Mentoring Program in the first two years and identifies the challenges and opportunities ahead. The finding indicates that the Mentoring Program was a well-received professional development program for the student members of the Association. However, this program can be further enhanced in terms of mentor solicitation, mentor-mentee eligibility, mentor-mentee relationship, knowledge-based interaction, and program sustainability. The Program Committee may consider collaborating with other LIS agencies to solicit more potential mentors. In view of the population of the potential mentors, it makes very good sense for the past mentees to serve as peer-to-peer partners for non-degree student members. More incentive should be devised to encourage the mentoring pairs in joining library events in addition to the activities related to the Mentoring Program. To facilitate communication and experience sharing among program participants and HKLA members, it is desirable to set up an online discussion platform to address the increasing demand for more opportunities on this. Lastly, it is vital to improve communication among the Program Committee, HKLA Council members and HKLA members. Besides reviewing the operation and management of the Mentoring Program, the Program Committee should also study the feasibility of sustaining this program in the long run. This paper can be served as an empirical study on the implementation of library and information science mentoring programs in one of the major cities in Asian region. The results of the study can be referenced by the LIS community not only locally but also internationally.     

Education and Socio-Political Transitions in Asia: Diversity and Commonality

This article sets a framework for this special issue of the journal by providing an overview of the topic and a commentary on the ways in which the papers in the special issue may be linked to the theme and to each other. The article is built around the identification of diversity and commonality. On the one hand, the Asian region contains countries with widely varying circumstances and socio-political transitions; but on the other hand are a number of common patterns. Among the commonalities are colonial transitions, interrelationships between education and economic changes, and transitions involving international forces and the changing role of the state.     

Recent Developments in Education in Singapore

This analysis of recent developments and trends in education in Singapore attempts to show how a government through a pragmatic approach to education and nation-building has tried to resolve, within the framework of a number of unchanging parameters, some of the problems posed by constant social change and a rapidly changing national and global economy. The parameters are the multiracial and multilingual nature of Singapore society, the maximisation of the potential in all its young citizens through the provision of educational opportunities, and the maintenance of equality of treatment and opportunity for all, irrespective of ethnicity, religion and language. In the final analysis, the central tenets of an ideology underpinning the education system are identified.     

The Challenges of Attracting Asian Students to Study Higher Education in Hong Kong

This article reports a commissioned research project on exploring the emerging issues and challenges of attracting Asian students to study in Hong Kong's higher education institutions. Findings reveal the rapidly growing demand for quality transnational education in Asia and the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of exporting Hong Kong's higher education. The challenges include the need to arrive at a consensus on the aims of internationalisation of Hong Kong's higher education, issues related to promotion strategies overseas, as well as problems of social and multi‐cultural inclusion of non‐local students. Drawing on the research findings, the author suggests going beyond the notion of profit‐oriented vision and exploring the real mission of promoting higher education services overseas that contributes to the enhancement of higher education receivers' learning experiences and preparing students to be future leaders in a humane environment.     

The influence of social interaction on meaning construction in a virtual community

As proposed by social constructive theorists, meaningful learning and individual development were achieved through social interaction. To foster social interaction among students, this study formed an online learning community in which they played multiple roles as writers, editors and commentators. In playing different roles, they read peers' texts, edited peers' errors, evaluated peer editors' corrections and finally reconstructed their own texts. Results of this study showed that the multiple roles they played allowed them to have opportunities to view their own texts from others' perspectives. Based on these perspectives, they were more willing to acquire information from and contribute information to peers. All of this extensive information acquisition and contribution resulted in meaning construction of texts as active students improved their final drafts in both local revision (grammatical correction) and global revision (the style, organisation and development of a text) after receiving and evaluating feedback from peer editors. Their final drafts were very different from those of passive students whose first and final drafts were almost the same despite some grammatical revisions. This study suggests that, rather than relying only on an examination of students' final drafts, there may be benefits in teachers encouraging students to actively participate in social interaction by reading peers' texts, editing peers' errors and evaluating peer editors' corrections during text revisions.     

Student contribution in asynchronous online discussion: a review of the research and empirical exploration

The increasingly prevalent use of Internet in schools and homes has resulted in asynchronous online discussion becoming an increasingly common means to facilitate dialogue between instructors and students, as well as students and students beyond the boundaries of their physical classrooms. This article is organized into two main sections. In the first section, we review 50 empirical studies in order to identify the factors leading to limited student contribution. Limited student contribution is defined as students making few or no postings, or students exhibiting surface-level thinking or low-level knowledge construction in online discussions. We then identify the various empirically based guidelines to address the factors. In the second section, we discuss three potential guideline dilemmas that educators may encounter: (a) use of grades, (b) use of number of posting guideline, and (c) instructor-facilitation. These are guidelines where previous empirical research shows mixed results when they are implemented. Acknowledging the dilemmas is essential for educators and researchers to make informed decisions about the discussion guidelines they are considering implementing. Finally, we report two exploratory case studies on student-facilitation that we conducted. Using students as facilitators may be an alternative solution to educators who wish to avoid the instructor-facilitation guideline dilemma.     

Cross-and same-race friendships of Vietnamese immigrant adolescents: A focus on acculturation and school diversity

The purpose of this study was to examine friendship developments of 153 Vietnamese immigrant adolescents who resided in an East Coast metropolitan area of the United States. We examined the influences of school diversity and acculturation on the quantity and quality of cross-and same-race friendships. Surprisingly, students who came from schools that are more diverse reported fewer cross-race friendships and lower levels of social support from their cross-race friends. American acculturation predicted greater levels of social support from cross-race friends. For same-race friendships, students who went to schools with higher percentage of Asian students reported more same-race friendships; however, percentage of Asian students was not a significant predictor of social support from same-race friends. Students who reported greater levels of Vietnamese acculturation reported greater levels of social support from their same-race friends. This study has implications for understanding the impact of school diversity and acculturation on friendship development of Vietnamese immigrants. Also, suggestions on how to better conceptualize and measure diversity are discussed.