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.     

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.     

瑞典失业保障政策:历史、现状与述评

瑞典作为北欧高福利国家的代表之一,其经济稳速发展成为了高福利的强大支撑.高福利制度下的瑞典失业保险覆盖面广、保障水平高,工会在失业保障制度运行中发挥了重要作用.瑞典失业保障制度发展较为缓慢,和整体的宏观经济发展有着密切的关系,改革多是对津贴水平进行调整,经济不景气会使津贴减少,经济恢复后津贴也会得到恢复.多项实证研究证实,津贴水平的减少会导致失业持续期的减短和工作搜寻的增加,对于不同性别和失业时间不同的失业者来说,影响也存在很大的差别.     

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.     

PBL模式下非英语专业博士生国际学术交流意识的培养

考察基于问题的学习(PBL)对非英语专业博士生国际学术交流意识的影响。前期对40名博士生导师和2008级60名非英语专业博士生进行的问卷调查结果显示:非英语专业博士生英语应用能力和"可迁移技能"差,缺乏真实的学习环境与教学语料,不利于其培养国际学术交流意识。教学实验前后针对2009级59名学生有关程序性和元认知性知识的问卷数据对比分析发现:PBL教学有助于学生获取这两方面的知识;在对英文摘要与信件写作文本进行双样本T检验分析中未见其在促进学生获得陈述性知识方面具优势。此外,采用Ant Conc软件对2009和2010级共60名接受PBL教学的学生有关课程感受的描述性写作文本进行主题词提取,总体反映出PBL教学对博士生国际学术交流意识的培养具有积极作用。     

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.