Critical Religious Education (CRE) in practice: evaluating the reception of an introductory scheme of work

Critical Religious Education (CRE) is a contemporary pedagogy of religious education developed by Andrew Wright and various colleagues over the past two decades. There has been widespread academic discourse about the pedagogy in theory but increasingly commentators have called for examples of it in practice. Over the past seven years a writing group associated with The Forum of Religious and Spiritual Education at King’s College London have been developing practical materials aimed at supporting teachers in embedding the pedagogy in practice. Of particular relevance to this paper is the development of an introductory scheme of work, aimed at year 7 students, which has been trialled in a number of schools in and around London. In 2013, focus group interviews took place in four of these schools in order to ascertain the reception that the materials had received. The data suggests a very positive response to the introductory scheme of work and the CRE approach in general, partially dispelling some criticisms levelled at it in academic discourse. The author has thus suggested that the approach and the work of the writing group need further exposure, especially in schools, at conferences and on initial teacher education programmes.     

Investigating Critical Friendship: Peeling Back the Layers

ABSTRACT

This self-study documents two teacher educators’ professional inquiry into the notions of critical friendship. Specifically, we asked: How does our interactive inquiry on the topic of critical friendship lead us to new understandings of critical friends? Three theoretical perspectives framed this study – More Knowledgeable Others, Thought Collective, and reflection. Data sources included (a) artifacts from the self-study scholarship/literature, (b) written and real-time (audio recorded) dialogue, and (c) critical friend response memos. We systematically analyzed our data, linking the initial themes to our theoretical frame. These themes led to three findings about critical friendship: flexible definitions, complex characteristics, and multiple learning phases. Based on these findings, we created two research tools useful for researchers enacting critical friendship – the Critical Friend Definition Continuum and the Critical Friend Guide for Quality Assurance. Ultimately, we assert that we, along with our colleagues, must be responsible brokers of critical friendship by explicitly explaining our purposes, definitions and uses of critical friendship within our work as self-study researchers.     

Desegregation and Multicultural Education: Teachers Embracing and Manipulating Reforms

The purpose of this paper is to examine the remnants of desegregation curricular reforms in a small urban district. This study documents the affects of various policies that were implemented to create equity and equality in urban, multi-racial and socio-economically diverse classrooms. These reforms were created due to a court desegregation order that demanded the district take multiple steps to raise the academic achievement levels of students of color in the district. Using the lens of Critical Race Theory to examine issues of interest-convergence and the effects of court-ordered desegregation initiatives, the researcher documents how teachers have come to terms with two major curricular changes that work in conjunction with other curricular reforms. Research that considers the affects of large-scale policy initiatives on classroom practices is necessary to further current conversations on successful reform implementation.

Redesigning chat forum for critical thinking in a problem-based learning environment

Support is needed to promote problem-based learning (PBL) and to enhance critical thinking skills in discussion-based Internet forums. By advancing the capabilities of chat room and forum software, problem-based discussions for learning can be supported further in online learning environments. In this paper, the authors report on MALESAbrain, an intelligent learning tool. The model is built on the notions of threshold and knowledge weight from the discipline of machine learning. The model encourages learners to judge or critically evaluate the solutions posted by others before exploring further knowledge content. The system then sums up the judgment scores as its knowledge weight to pass the thresholds setup for ranking/arranging the learning issues. This constraint design, therefore, becomes a mechanism for critical thinking in a problem-based learning activity. MALESAbrain as a model helps transform the forum and chat room into rich learning discussion environments.     

论网络环境下图书馆虚拟咨询服务

虚拟咨询服务是网络环境下图书馆服务领域中的新拓展。这里主要论述了虚拟咨询服务出现的必然性,以及它的服务模式和国内外开展这一服务的概况,并指出了我国开展虚拟咨询服务应采取的一些措施。     

Exploring the structure of the Watson–Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal: One scale or many subscales?

Critical thinking (CT) has been of longstanding interest among scholars, educators, and others who are concerned with thinking skills. The Watson–Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA) is the oldest and among the most widely used and studied CT measure. It was constructed around five subscales (or CT skills): inference, recognition of assumptions, deduction, interpretation, and evaluation of arguments. This paper describes a two part analysis of the psychometric properties of the WGCTA, based on 13 sets of subscale inter-correlations and 60 sets of subscale means retrieved from published studies. We performed a meta-analysis on the inter-correlations of the10 combinations of subscales and found that all of the average correlations that resulted were significant, but that all but one was significantly heterogeneous. Subsequently, we conducted principal components analysis on 60 subscale means of two different versions of the WGCTA. Each produced a one-factor solution, accounting for 82.69% and 79.55% of the total variance, respectively. Together these two parts of this study suggest that the WGCTA should be viewed as a measure of general competency, and that the subscales should not be interpreted individually.     

Cultivating critical thinkers: Exploring transfer of learning from pre-service teacher training to classroom practice

This study explores the transfer of critical thinking skills and dispositions from pre-service teacher training to classroom practice and student achievement in the cases of two graduates from a course on critical thinking-integrated instruction. Two 7th and two 8th grade classes were randomly assigned as experimental (CT-integrated instruction), or comparison (traditional instruction) groups. Empirical results demonstrated that, in these two cases, the teachers successfully developed CT-integrated instruction for effectively fostering students' CT skills and dispositions, while improving student achievement. Future research should include larger and more representative samples to avoid bias and reliably evaluate CT-based teacher training initiatives.     

表示劝诱的“たら”和“ば”

日语中条件形的用法历来是学习的重点和难点,亦是考试的热点。本文将从语用学角度比较日语中"たら"和"ば"表示劝诱的用法,通过例句和场景的分析深化学习者对这一语言点的认识和理解,并为教学提供参考。     

Presidential rhetoric's visual turn: Performance fragments and the politics of illusionism

This essay explores the aesthetic and rhetorical implications of prudent and imprudent presidential performance fragments embodied in photo‐opportunities, thereby addressing presidential rhetoric's “visual turn. “Assembled as a critical rhetoric text, this essay posits that presidential performance fragments privilege the dominant ideology and its power relationships. In addition, this project argues that prudent presidential performances signal a chief executive's consubstantiality with the mythic presidency, centralized authority, and active political leadership. Imprudent photo‐opportunity performances, by contrast, impact negatively a president's image, agenda, credibility, and authority. The essay concludes with a discussion of how political images symbolically affect the citizenry and democratic processes, and advances foundational issues for the critic.     

党校图书馆为领导决策服务的探讨

随着经济社会的高速发展,政府决策的难度越来越大,党校图书馆应抓住契机,发挥其为党政机关决策服务的功能,积极为党政机关领导决策服务。文章从党校图书馆加强决策信息资源建设、加强与党政机关沟通、建立学科馆员制度、提高馆员信息服务综合素质、发挥党校图书馆在信息素质教育中的作用、探索和创新党校图书馆为党校教研人员科研课题服务的方式方法等六个方面提出完善党校图书馆为领导决策服务的措施。