Challenges in embedding numeracy throughout the curriculum in three Queensland secondary schools

The Australian Curriculum identified seven General Capabilities, including numeracy, to be embedded in all learning areas. However, it has been left to individual schools to manage this. Whilst there is a growing body of literature about pedagogies that embed numeracy in various learning areas, there are few studies from the management perspective. A social constructivist perspective and a multiple case study approach were used to explore the actions of school managers and mathematics teachers in three Queensland secondary schools, in order to investigate how they meet the Australian Curriculum requirement to embed numeracy throughout the curriculum. The study found a lack of coordinated cross-curricular approaches to numeracy in any of the schools studied. It illustrates the difficulties that arise when teachers do not share the Australian Curriculum cross-curricular vision of numeracy. Schools and curriculum authorities have not acknowledged the challenges for teachers in implementing cross-curricular numeracy, which include: limited understanding of numeracy; a lack of commitment; and inadequate skills. Successful embedding of numeracy in all learning areas requires: the commitment and support of school leaders, a review of school curriculum documents and pedagogical practices, professional development of teachers, and adequate funding to support these activities.     

中学个性化校本课程的构建与实施——以广州市执信中学为例

新一轮基础教育课程改革实施国家课程、地方课程和学校课程三级课程管理。广州市执信中学依据学生个性潜能发展的独特领域和生长点开发了"国家课程+创生课程+计划"的"三领域"个性化校本课程体系。此课程具较强的选择性、开放性和实践性。本文用八个实施案例展示学生作为主体在课程实施中凸显创造性探索、体验个性才能和构建知识与思维结构的过程,通过此课程体系的构建与实施发展学生的个性,促进学生个性化发展。     

The role of work-related learning in the identity transformation of Canadian workers with low literacy skills

Workplaces are settings where power, knowledge and self are brought together in a complex social environment which includes various forms of struggle related to identity, agency, socio-cultural norms, political structures and functional practices. The purpose of this article is to uncover how formal and informal work-related learning processes influence the identity transformation of workers with low literacy and essential skills. Drawing on two recent Canadian data bases which serve as cases in this study, the position taken by the authors is that the organisational context can both facilitate and impede worker subjectivity. Various conditions, approaches to learning and training pathways are examined as they contribute to social cognitive and transformative learning theories.     

规范性外交与欧盟气候外交政策

文章首先通过外交行为的目标、手段及影响三个方面来界定规范性外交,即规范性外交是什么的问题,接下来,分析规范性外交的内在推动力,即利益和规范在规范(或价值)为主导的政策象限中战略考量如何与规范互动.文章第二部分选取了欧盟气候外交政策作为案例,分析其目标、手段和影响维度,认为可持续发展和多边主义规范为欧盟的规范性外交提供了一个象限维度,在该象限维度中,权力政治与理性利益将穿插其中,共同影响欧盟环境外交政策.     

Exploring How Second Grade Elementary Teachers Translate Their Nature of Science Views into Classroom Practice After a Graduate Level Nature of Science Course

The main purpose of this study was to explore the factors mediating the translation of second grade teachers’ nature of science (NOS) views into classroom practice after completing a graduate level NOS course. Four second grade in-service elementary teachers comprised the sample of this study. Data were collected from several sources during the course of this study. The primary data sources were (a) assessment of the elementary teachers’ NOS views before and after the graduate level NOS course using the Views of Nature of Science Questionnaire Version B (VNOS-B) (Lederman et al., 2002) coupled with interviews, and (b) a classroom observation and videotaped recording of the elementary teachers’ best NOS lessons coupled with interview. We identified three distinct but related factors that mediated the translation of NOS views into classroom practice: the teachers’ perspectives about the developmental appropriateness of the NOS aspect, the teachers’ selection of target NOS aspects, and the relative importance placed by teachers on each NOS aspect.     

College education and attitudes toward democracy in China: an empirical study

The modernization theory contends that there is a link between education and democracy. Yet few empirical studies have been done to investigate the role of higher education on promoting democratic values in the Chinese context. Using China General Social Survey 2006, this paper generates several findings which are not completely consistent with the existing theoretical explanations on political development. Specifically, the college-educated Chinese citizens not only agree that there is need to improve democracy, but support various types of political participation and resist the government-oriented petitioning. However, though entrepreneurial elites (private business owners) and political elites (Chinese communist party members) demonstrate preference to democracy in principle, empirical evidence suggests that they are much less likely to support political participation that challenges the authoritarian regime in China compared to knowledge-based elites (college-educated adults).     

DISTRIBUTIVE PARTITIONING OPERATION IN MATHEMATICAL SITUATIONS INVOLVING FRACTIONAL QUANTITIES

In the present study, we describe a participating student’s (Carol’s) distributive partitioning scheme and operations along with Steffe’s and his colleagues’ studies about children’s constructions of fraction knowledge as a particular model of mathematical learning. Analysis of Carol’s mathematical behaviors indicates that an operationally common mathematical behavior (distributive partitioning operation) was revealed in various mathematical problem situations such as fraction multiplication, fraction division, and multiplicative transformation between fractional quantities. It both provides a rationale for why becoming versed in one mathematical subject could facilitate working with another mathematical subject and also implies the necessity of describing and defining students’ mathematical behaviors from an operational view of knowledge, which might lead to building foundations of a substantial cognitive map for students’ mathematical development.