Designing and assessing day care environments in hospital settings

Conclusion This article has examined: a. the increased need for child care; b. some special problems posed when this need is met within the hospital setting; and c. techniques and strategies for designing effectively functioning day care environments. Transforming the hospital environment into a child-centered day care program involves numerous and often difficult tasks. The benefits, however, of meeting employee and community needs and of aiding optimal development in young children unquestionably override the obstacles involved. We enthusiastically anticipate growth in this area of day care.Victoria Jean Dimidjian is Assistant Professor and Director of Early Childhood Education at Carlow College in Pittsburgh, PA. Mary Ann Hvidos, who was the consultant to the project and the designer of the center, is now Director of the Child Development Center at the Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA. Special thanks to Micaela Young and Edward F. Verner at Mercy Hospital for their technical assistance.     

Mitigating the urban–rural educational gap in developing countries through mobile technology-supported learning

One form of educational inequality is the disparity that exists between urban and rural settings. Equal distribution of quality education is a challenge for developing countries due to the unavailability of resources. Various approaches to equal distribution are distance learning, telecast learning and e-learning; however, these approaches cannot achieve the desired objectives due to their limitations. This research aimed to investigate the interesting question of whether mobile technology can bring urban and rural settings closer together. A mobile application for learning Urdu grammar was designed to measure the learning gains of fourth-grade students at two different schools from urban and rural settings. A quantitative technique, the quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test method, was used to measure the effectiveness of the mobile application. The comparison of the students’ performances at the urban and rural schools illustrated the role of mobile technology in mitigating the educational gap. The present study provides evidence that children from different social backgrounds may benefit equally from mobile technology.     

全球化背景下的高等教育责任制

高等教育责任制是一个与效率、效果和绩效评估相关的概念,它要求通过有效的方式证明高等教育取得了预定的结果和绩效。关注效率、效果,注重结果、产出是高等教育责任制的基本特征。高等教育评估是责任制的实施形式,也是质量保障的一个基本途径。通过评估加强质量保障,反映了全球化背景下高等教育管理中一种新的责任制文化。高等教育过程的内在复杂性决定了责任制及绩效测量的难度,我国高等教育评估要实现保障和提高高等教育质量的目的,同时避免对高校办学自主权造成不利影响,需要总结已有评估经验并借鉴国外有益经验,进行创造性的探索。     

从选拔性教育到选择性教育:英国基础教育的价值取向

20世纪80年代末,英国开始在基础教育阶段实行择校政策,试图在保证教育公平的原则下促进教育的多样化,主张"有差异的平等",承认所有学生具有不同的天赋并且使每个人达到优秀和成功,在提出多样性学校选择范围的同时,提出所有学校取得成功的政策目标,强调好学校必须发挥示范和带动作用,与本地区其他学校、地方教育管理部门和企业界合作,改造薄弱学校,推动整体教育水平的提高,达到均衡发展的目标。这一政策在取得效率与公平方面迈出了一步。