The outsider's gaze: a learner‐centred approach to language‐teaching materials

The Outsider's Gaze is a set of three DVDs for Asian students of Spanish, French and German. The project is an attempt to employ constructivist principles to the development of language learning materials. For students in Hong Kong and China, European languages present problems of relevance and contextualisation: the textbooks and available videos are invariably produced from the point of view of the insider (native speaker) and it is difficult for Asian students to connect the learning experience with their own lives. This article explores the issues involved in creating effective and meaningful learner‐centered materials for language students and contrasts this approach to the more common insider's approach. The three sections of the project are described and analyzed in terms of constructivist criteria.L' » Outsider Gaze » : Une approche centrée sur l'étudiant par des documents d'enseignement des langues. L' »outsider gaze » est un ensemble des 3 DVD pour des étudiants asiatiques en espagnol, français et allemand. Ce projet est un essai pour appliquer les principes constructivites à l'élaboration de documents pour l'enseignement des langues. Pour les étudiants de Hong Kong et de la Chine les langues europénnes posent des problémes de pertinence et de contextualisation : des manuels et des vidéos disponibles sont toujours traduits du point de vue de celui qui est né dans le pays où la langue est parlée et il est difficile pour les étudiants asiatiques de connecter cette expérience d'enseignement avec leurs propres vies. L'article explore les problèmes infligés pour créer des documents efficaces et signifiants centrés sur les étudiants et cette approche est en contraste avec l'approche habituelle de celui qui est né dans le pays où la langue est parlée. Les 3 sections de ce projet sont décrites et analysées en termes de critères constructivistes.Der Blick des Außenseiters: ein anfängerzentrierter Ansatz zu Sprachlehrmaterialien. 'The Outsiders Gaze' ist ein Satz von drei DVDs für asiatische Studenten der Fächer Spanisch, Französisch und Deutsch. Das Projekt ist ein Versuch, konstruktivistische Prinzipien zur Entwicklung von Sprachlernmaterialien zu verwenden. Für Studenten in Hongkong und China bergen europäische Sprachen Probleme der Relevanz und des Kontextes: die Lehrbücher und die verfügbaren Videos werden unverändert immer vom Standpunkt des Insiders (de einheimischen Sprechers) produziert, und es ist für asiatische Studenten schwierig, die mediale Lernsituation mit ihrer eigenen Lebenserfahrung zu verbinden. Dieser Artikel erkundet die Probleme, die mit dem Erschaffen wirksamer und bedeutungsvoller Anfänger zentrierter Materialien für Sprachstudenten verbunden sind und stellt diesen Ansatz dem Ansatz des allgemeinen Insiders gegenüber. Die drei Abschnitte des Projekts werden beschrieben und in konstruktivistischen Kategorien analysiert.     

Auditing and Evaluating University–Community Engagement: Lessons from a UK Case Study

The growing importance of community and public engagement activities in universities has led to an increasing emphasis on auditing and evaluating university–community partnerships. However, the development of effective audit and evaluation tools is still at a formative stage. This article presents a case study of the University of Brighton's experience of evaluating such partnerships. Drawing on this experience, a review of the literature and an analysis of published measurement frameworks, the challenges of measuring community and public engagement are discussed and a typology of dimensions for university public engagement presented. A critique of the Brighton case study and the lessons learned provides a basis for clarifying the activities that universities might want to measure and the key questions they need to ask when determining which tools are appropriate.     

The juxtaposition of instructor and student perspectives on mathematics courses for elementary teachers

This qualitative study examined perspectives of two key stakeholder groups, instructors and students, on mathematics content courses for prospective elementary teachers (Mathematics for Teachers [MFT] courses). A collective case study approach, which drew from the data of two cases in different but comparable settings, contributed to the robustness of the findings. Cross-case analysis of the interview data revealed several convergent themes: the role of affect in student learning, pedagogy and instructor disposition, connections to the elementary classroom, and mathematics content. The findings included both conflicting and complementary perspectives between the two key stakeholder groups. When juxtaposed, the multiple viewpoints offer insights into some of the central issues related to teaching and learning in MFT courses and suggest potential avenues for improving experiences in these courses.     

Mechanical solution of algebraic equations

The paper describes a machine for determining the real and complex roots of higher-degree algebraic equations. The principle of operation is found in the correspondence between sine wave quantities and complex numbers. The particular machine is designed for equations of the eighth degree, and finds all the roots with engineering accuracy in the space of a few minutes.Though designed primarily with a view to determining the indicial admittance of electric networks, the machine should find utility in other fields of applied mathematics as well.     

Learning and the ‘F’ Word

Abstract

The article looks at the ‘At‐Risk Program’ set up as a collaboration between teachers in elementary and secondary public schools and the staff of Indiana University.     

Where the buck stops: class differences in support for education

There has been little critical scrutiny of the extent to which the members of different social classes support current public educational institutions. This paper explores the attitudes toward education of class groups in relation to the declared agendas of class leaders, using public opinion surveys conducted regularly in Canada's economic heartland of Ontario between 1978 and 1996.

An analysis of class leaders’ public discourse indicates that corporate leaders stress the waste and inefficiencies of the current school system, the need for market‐driven initiatives to overcome these problems, and a general belief that such reforms coupled with cost reductions and lower government deficits can lead to economic growth and job creation. Some labour union and other leaders associate declining school quality with spending cuts, defend equal access to education, and promote measures such as a reduced normal workweek to address the education‐jobs gap rather than continuing deficit reduction and more reliance on private and individual initiative.

Corporate executives are shown to hold much more strongly consensual, fiscally restrictive views on education than other class groups. Other classes hold less consensual but equally coherent and fiscally responsible attitudes on education spending. Professional and managerial class groups, whom some analysts predict to be most disaffected, have only decreased their degree of support for increased education spending and taxes. Support for education funding among working‐class groups has increased since the early 1980s. There is also now at least plurality support for a shorter workweek in all class groups except corporate executives. Corporate business attempts to resettle the social contract with a downsized state education system are so far failing in the realm of public opinion.

It is a question of whether we can grasp the real nature of our society, or whether we persist in social and educational patterns based on a limited ruling class, a middle professional class, a large operative class, cemented by forces that cannot be challenged and will not be changed. The privileges and barriers, of an inherited kind, will in any case go down. It is only a question of whether we replace them by the free play of the market, or by a public education designed to express and create the values of an educated democracy and a common culture (Williams 1961: 155)