The OECD and the local: PISA-based Test for Schools in the USA

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has recently piloted the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)-based Test for Schools in the USA. In this paper, I contend that by connecting directly with local school boards this new initiative has the potential to further promote the OECD's educational agenda in local policy debates. I begin to develop this argument by providing an overview of the OECD and its work. I then lay out a theoretical framework around global governance and knowledge production within the context of the OECD. Next, I provide a brief overview of the traditional PISA study and compare it to the new PISA-based Test for Schools initiative. This context provides the foundation for a discussion of the ways in which a school-based international assessment can operate as a governance tool, allowing international organizations to have greater influence in the formation and implementation of local educational policies.     

What makes a cMOOC community endure? Multiple participant perspectives from diverse cMOOCs

Imagine the challenge of being immersed in a dynamic learning network where you play brinkmanship with being overwhelmed by a plethora of information, comments, and conversations on a topic of intense interest to you. Through adept facilitation, the comments and encouragement of fellow participants, and your own perseverance, you develop a network of personal connections which serve as metaphorical flying buttresses creating enough stability that you are able to learn in a new, yet profoundly meaningful way – the connectivist massive open online course (cMOOC) way. Through the lens of autoethnography, five seasoned educators collaboratively reflect on their motivation for participating in their initial cMOOC. They analyze their lived experience, what they found most engaging, and most importantly, they grapple with why cMOOC communities often endure past official end-dates. This article attempts to provide insight into the thrill and depth of learning and connection possible through participation in cMOOCs.     

Transformation or continuation? A critical analysis of the making of the post-2015 education agenda

As the target date of 2015 draws near for both the Education for All and Millennium Development Goals, consultations are well-underway to begin defining the shape and scope of the post-2015 development agenda. Between September 2012 and March 2013, UN Member States, private sector representatives, multilateral development agencies, epistemic communities and non-governmental organisations participated in the Global Thematic Consultation on Education in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Participants involved emphasised education as a societal good and a fundamental human right. Participants also highlighted the importance of education in addressing broader global challenges, stating that ‘education and learning should be transformative and foster global citizenship, thereby assuming its central role in helping people to forge more just, peaceful, tolerant and inclusive societies’. Such discourse suggests a shift in the objectives and priorities of global education in the post-2015 context. Is it possible that the post-2015 education agenda will represent a counter-hegemonic vision for global education? This paper engages in discursal analysis of the Global Thematic Consultation on Education in the Post-2015 Development Agenda to offer a preliminary answer to this question.     

A Critical Discourse Analysis on the Teacher Behavioral Norms of Eng-lish Training School

With a Critical Discourse Analysis approach, this essay reveals four types of discourses:discourse of examination, in?struction, technology and regulation. Based on the analysis of power relation among...     

The development of students critical thinking abilities and dispositions through the concept mapping learning method – A meta-analysis

Our meta-analysis investigates the effectiveness of the concept mapping method compared with the traditional teaching method, for the improvement of critical thinking ability and disposition outcomes. We included studies measuring students' critical thinking through standardised tests, comparing an experimental (concept mapping) group with a control (traditional teaching) one. Effect sizes for critical thinking ability and disposition outcomes were pooled with a random-effects model. We included in our meta-analysis 21 studies (108 comparisons) involving 1695 students. The concept mapping method was more effective than the traditional teaching method at posttest for the improvement of critical thinking ability (g = 0.531, 95% CI 0.279 to 0.783) and disposition (g = 0.648, 95% CI 0.266 to 1.031). Heterogeneity was moderate to high, Egger's test did not indicate any evidence of publication bias; however, both visual inspection of the Funnel plot and Duval and Tweedie's trim and fill method indicated potentially three missing studies for critical thinking ability and two for critical thinking disposition. Additionally, we analysed the potential moderating effect of students' demographic characteristics, educational conditions, concept mapping elaboration methods and allocation type. Allocation type was a significant moderator, having a strong effect on concept mapping for critical thinking abilities in randomised studies (g = 0.739, 95% CI 0.356 to 1.122), but its effect is low in non-randomised studies (g = 0.265, 95% CI 0.014 to 0.517).     

Cultivating critical global citizens through secondary EFL education: a case study of mainland China

This paper examines the enactment of critical literacy pedagogy in secondary English language teaching in the face of globalisation. This qualitative case study signals that global citizenship education (GCE) and English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching can converge through offering equitable and globally contextualised learning opportunities. The overarching themes presented here challenge the dominance of instrumentalist orientations of EFL education in mainland China today while mobilising pedagogical choices that affirm students' local and lived experiences in relation to international socio-political issues. Findings provide EFL educators nuanced insights into how critical global literacies are extended through critical understandings of literacies, interconnections from a personal to a global level, and opportunities for social actions on multicultural issues, thus fostering globally competent and bilingual learners who critically engage with the contested terrain of an increasingly globalised world.     

Reputation disparity in teaching and research productivity and rewards in the context of consequences of institutionalization of Publish or Perish culture in academia

The reputation disparity between teaching and research has stirred up an unending debate. The age-long notion that teaching and research overlap has become a controversial issue in academia. Consequences of the institutionalization of Publish OR Perish (POP) abound in the literature. This paper investigates the reputations disparity between teaching and research productivity and the rewards for these academic activities. It explores which, out of teaching activities and research publications receive higher or less attention and rewards. Relevant existing literature was reviewed to establish the institutionalization of POP and its consequences of the reputations disparity between teaching and research and its adverse effects on these activities. Evidence from the literature reviewed reveals the existence of POP reputation disparity as part of its consequences. A key finding is that teaching activities are insignificant and unrewarded as research publications. Neither the effectiveness nor the number of teaching loads counts like the numbers of publications.     

The ecology of language teacher assessment literacy: Insights from emotional critical incidents

Despite the substantial growth of research on language assessment literacy (LAL), the emotional side of LAL has been under-researched. In response to this gap of knowledge, the present study explored Iranian English language teachers’ LAL through the lens of emotional critical incidents (CIs). Drawing on an ecological lens as embedded in a case-study design, data were collected from narrative frames, classroom observations and post-class discussions, and semi-structured interviews. Data analyses revealed three personal, institutional, and sociocultural ecologies that shaped the teachers’ LAL-related emotional CIs and the associated sense-making, practice, and perceptions about assessment. In particular, we found that the emotional side of LAL is defined by agency, emotion labor, the need for voice, and broader discourses of assessment in Iran. Based on the findings, we provide implications for running professional development courses that build on teachers’ LAL and account for emotions as a key component of such courses.     

基于点云的典型地貌全局光渲染方法的改进及实现

针对典型地貌全局光渲染中的重点问题:环境遮挡以及色溢的渲染效率和效果,提出光线追踪、光能传递以外的另一种改进方法——点云计算方式。分析了点云算法的原理、特点和优越性,选取张家界石英砂岩峰林地貌三维模型作为样本,测试和比较了光线追踪和点云计算方法的实际效果,实验表明点云计算方式有更高的效率和更好的表现效果,论文也为其他典型地貌的全局光渲染提供了可行的制作方案和流程。     

全球外部性视角下的碳排放与产业结构变迁

在观察产业结构与碳排放的关系时,考虑碳排放所具有的全球外部性将有助于提高分析的合理性。通过扩展RICE-2010这一气候变化综合评估模型,将中国经济细分为44个行业,并把国外作为一个独立主体,从而对全球外部性视角下的碳排放与产业结构变迁进行了分析。数值模拟结果表明:电力生产、交通运输、黑色金属冶炼、石油加工是设计碳减排政策时需优先关注的四个行业;我国碳排放库兹涅兹曲线(CKC)的拐点大致出现在2060年左右,届时,产业结构的格局将呈现出服务业比重高于工业比重的典型特征。