Individual to collaborative: guided group work and the role of teachers in junior secondary science classrooms

This paper, through discussion of a teaching intervention at two secondary schools in Hong Kong, demonstrates the learning advancement brought about by group work and dissects the facilitating role of teachers in collaborative discussions. One-hundred and fifty-two Secondary Two (Grade 8) students were divided into three pedagogical groups, namely ‘whole-class teaching’, ‘self-directed group work’ and ‘teacher-supported group work’ groups, and engaged in peer-review, team debate, group presentation and reflection tasks related to a junior secondary science topic (i.e. current electricity). Pre- and post-tests were performed to evaluate students’ scientific conceptions, alongside collected written responses and audio-recorded discussions. The results indicate that students achieved greater cognitive growth when they engaged in cooperative learning activities, the interactive and multi-sided argumentative nature of which is considered to apply particularly well to science education and Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development framework. Group work learning is also found to be most effective when teachers play a role in navigating students during the joint construction of conceptual knowledge.     

Measuring labour market success: a comparison between immigrants and native-born Canadians using PIAAC

Canadian society is characterised by a plurality of immigrants and Canadian migration policy and corresponding recognition approaches are strongly geared to economic criteria, qualifications and skills. This paper addresses the question how immigrants who have acquired their highest qualification outside Canada are able to use their foreign qualifications and skills in their current job. The analyses are conducted to verify the assumptions of human capital theory as well as the lack of transferability of human capital across country borders. To answer these questions a labour market success index is developed, which is used as a dependent variable in regression models. The results show that traditional operationalisations of human capital (years of education, years of work experience and skills) have a positive effect on individual labour market success. At the same time, being born abroad and having acquired one’s highest qualification abroad in comparison to Canada, especially in a Non-Western country, has negative effects on the overall labour market success of an individual. Detailed comparisons regarding different indicators of labour market success also prove these comparatively negative effects. The results demonstrate the limited explanatory power of human capital theory and the necessity to complement it with Bourdieu’s concepts of social and cultural capital.     

社会工作介入社区流动儿童教育研究--以温州部分社区为例

流动儿童群体比较庞大,对流动儿童的教育是一个重要课题。本文回顾了流动儿童的基本现状以及社会工作介入流动儿童教育的途径,以高职院校志愿者介入社区流动儿童教育为例,探讨了社会工作介入社区流动儿童教育的形式,凝练了社会工作介入流动儿童教育的理论模型,提出了相应的建议对策。     

Initial evidence on the long-term impacts of work colleges

With the purpose of gaining a better understanding of the impacts that attending a work college may have on students while in college and up to 25 years later, this study estimated the effects of graduating from a group of work colleges on alumni educational and employment outcomes. Based on an overall sample of 7083 alumni from 5 work colleges, 20 private liberal arts colleges, and 5 public regional universities, a series of regression equations tested for differences across a range of college and employment related outcomes. With respect to a variety of facets of undergraduate educational outcomes, results indicate that attending a work college, relative to other types of institutions, has significant long-term effects. With respect to socioeconomic outcomes, results indicate that work colleges provide the greatest benefit to students from families with relatively low parental incomes. This research was supported by grants from The Mellon and Spencer Foundations.     

合并高校保卫工作管理体制研究

合并高校规模庞大，校区多而分散，要做好安全保卫工作，必须坚持精干高效，以块为主，不断加强，改革创新的原则，方能收到实效。     

高校成人函授学员思想政治工作初探

函授教育是成人教育的一种重要办学形式，由于是以自学为主，面授为辅的成人在职教育，故在思想政治教育方面与其他教育形式相比有其特殊性，长期以来在函授学员的思想政治教育方面存在薄弱环节，本拟就函授学员思想政治工作做些探讨。     

关于高职高专实施全面质量管理的探讨

本文论述了我国高职高专教育教学工作实施全面质量管理 (TQC)的意义 ,并对如何应用全面质量管理 ,提高高职高专教育教学工作水平进行了探讨     

Attitudes of Teachers Towards Inclusive Education in Finland

ABSTRACT

Positive teacher attitudes are essential for success when children with special educational needs (SEN) are placed into mainstream classrooms. The present study surveyed teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion by using a large national sample and Teachers’ Attitudes towards Inclusion Scale (TAIS). A total of 1,764 Finnish basic-school teachers participated in the e-mail survey. They included 824 classroom teachers, 575 subject teachers and 365 special-education teachers. The classroom teachers scored below and the subject teachers significantly below, the neutral midpoint of the scale. The special-education teachers’ mean scores were above the midpoint. About 20% of teachers were strong opponents of inclusion, and 8% were strong advocates. The attitudes towards inclusion had only weak associations with variables other than the teacher category. Teachers’ work orientation and self-efficacy had low associations with their attitudes towards inclusion. The results illustrate the attitudinal climate of teachers towards inclusion and indicate the existing potential for policy change.     

论党的群众方法

认为群众方法始终是我党的根本领导方法和工作方法。     

State Power,Symbolic Capital,and the Hierarchy and Homogeneity of Higher Education in China: In the Example of Three Key Universities Policies After the Founding of New China

Abstract

The structure of higher education in China is characterized by a high degree of hierarchy as well as strong homogeneity, differing from not only American higher education, which features a high degree of both hierarchy and heterogeneity, but also higher education in continental Europe, which exhibits a low degree of hierarchy. Previous studies have provided analysis of the structural characteristics of higher education in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, as well as their differences, but have been unable to explain the situation in China. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, this article proposes an explanatory model for the field of higher education as shaped by state power. The state created various forms of symbolic capital linked to economic capital in the field of higher education, and monopolized the quantity in which and means by which these are bestowed, thus causing differentiation in the total amount and composition of symbolic capital and economic capital between different schools, and forming a steeply stratified structure. The bestowal of symbolic capital was not restricted to a particular group of institutions of higher education: instead, the scope of this bestowal was gradually expanded, such that the vast majority of institutions of higher education regard the acquisition of symbolic capital and its attendant economic capital as the objective in their endeavors, resulting in the development of strong homogeneity between institutions. The article applies field theory to three key universities policies after the founding of New China, to describe and analyze the influence of symbolic capital on the field structure of higher education in China.