江苏省职业教育需求变化与政策调整

职业教育的发展规模、结构和速度,既受社会需求的激励和拉动,又受社会需求的约束。社会有效需求发生变化,职业教育的政策必须相应调整。进入新世纪,江苏省根据社会需求的变化,积极调整职业教育发展政策,提出职业教育要努力为经济结构调整、产业升级和技术进步服务,为发展开放型经济服务,为促进就业和再就业服务,为农业、农村和农民服务,为区域共同发展服务,促进了职业教育与经济社会的协调发展。     

Use of hierarchical linear modeling and curriculum-based measurement for assessing academic growth and instructional factors for students with learning difficulties

The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how to apply the Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) technique to multi-wave Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) measures in modeling academic growth and assessing its relations to student- and instruction-related variables. HLM has advantages over other statistical methods (e.g., repeated measures ANOVA, Structural Equation Modeling) in modeling academic growth. The advantages include allowing more flexible research designs in collecting multiple data points and estimating growth rates and their relations to correlates in more reliable, accurate ways. CBM, as a multi-wave progressmonitoring system, also has distinctive psychometric features that facilitate longitudinal research on academic skill development. These features include provision of multiple data points within short time periods, good validity and reliability, and sensitivity for detecting small degrees of change. Finally, research questions related to assessing the academic growth of students with learning difficulties and using assessment results to improve educational practices for them are discussed     

The Views of Youth on Their Educational Rights: A Case Study of Secondary Students from two Northern Ontario High Schools

A case study is reported involving 32 applied and academic program student volunteers aged 15–18 years from two high schools located in Northern Ontario, Canada. Students were interviewed regarding a number of educational policy and school climate issues. The study examines perceptions of rights as an aspect of the school learning environment. The need for greater school community and additional supports for struggling students was voiced by students across both program groups. Students strongly endorsed either a meritocratic or an equalitarian perspective on rights issues with both philosophies represented to some extent in both program groups. Surprisingly, students across both program groups expressed little interest in their education rights or their legal rights generally. The importance of fostering school community and student interest in rights issues is discussed. Also considered is the role of the social science researcher in providing youth a forum for the discussion of social policy issues.     

The design,implementation, and evaluation of a digital interactive globe system integrated into an Earth Science course

The aim of this study is to design and implement a digital interactive globe system (DIGS), by integrating low-cost equipment to make DIGS cost-effective. DIGS includes a data processing unit, a wireless control unit, an image-capturing unit, a laser emission unit, and a three-dimensional hemispheric body-imaging screen. A quasi-experimental study was conducted to evaluate the learning effectiveness of our system. A total of 105 junior high-school students from Taiwan participated in this 8-week experiment. The students were divided into three individual groups of 35 students each, with one control group and two experimental groups (EG1 and EG2). The results of one-way mixed design ANOVA indicated that participants in the experimental group, who used the DIGS, outperformed the other two groups, in the post-test as well as in the delayed test. These findings demonstrate that the proposed DIGS can effectively enhance the performance of the learners in an Earth Science course.     

Understanding Nonsocial Play in Early Childhood

Nonsocial play continues to be perceived as a behavior that is detrimental young children’s development. The research evidence in this area is mixed but lends itself to a more positive view of nonsocial play. Despite the substantial amount of literature available, the terminology used fails to be consistent and may prove to be distracting and confusing to practitioners and caregivers. This paper reviews the current literature on young children’s nonsocial play. Distinctions among different types of nonsocial play are identified, as well as some reasons children engage in these activities. By developing a better understanding of the role of nonsocial play in early childhood, caregivers may better understand when children need their help in promoting more social types of play and when intervention may or may not be necessary.