Special educational needs in mainstream secondary school physical education: learning support assistants have their say

Learning support assistants (LSAs) gained more political and academic attention in Britain after Estelle Morris announced that schools of the future would include more trained staff to support learning to higher standards. LSAs, thus, should form an integral part of the culture of all school departments in Britain, including physical education (PE). The paper uses Antonio Gramsci's concept of hegemony to explore the processes and practices that shape the views and experiences of LSAs and ultimately the extent to which they facilitate an inclusive culture in PE. A web survey gathered the views and experiences of LSAs vis-à-vis the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream secondary school PE in North-West England. A modified version of the tailored design method participant contact strategy resulted in 343 LSAs starting the web survey, with 154 (45%) following it through to completion. All quantitative data were analysed using Microsoft Excel whilst qualitative data were subjected to thematic analysis. This entailed the identification of recurring themes and patterns present in the data. The findings highlight the hegemonic status of English, maths and science when it comes to the allocation of SEN resources, which most LSAs support and often reinforce. PE is particularly disadvantaged in this hierarchy of subject priority. The majority of LSAs have not received PE-specific training, which brings into question their ability to facilitate inclusion in PE. Moreover, many schools do not appear to value the involvement of LSAs in the planning of differentiated lessons, which could have a negative impact on the PE experiences of some pupils with SEN given that LSAs are perhaps most aware of the specific learning needs of the pupils they support.     

理学方法和唐诗批评的美学趣味

诗学理论中的"性情"说,发展到宋代,受到理学的深刻影响.北宋的中后期开始,理学思想及方法对于诗歌理论和诗学方法的渗透,儒家传统诗教中的"情动于中,而形于言"的内涵,因理学的观念和概念的提出而扩充了.其中首先是对"发乎情志"的界定.此时的"情志",已经不是原先单纯的出于自然的诗人个人情感,而是所谓合乎"天理"的"自然",这样,诗人的自然之情便要受到某种制约,而不是像先前那样,是随意的流泻.这里藏伏下来的因素,日后便成为后代诗学方法中,强调"性情"与"法度"统一的先兆.诗学理论与实践中,所谓的"自然"与"法度",或者"性情"与"法度"的统一,在"理"和"道"的层面上,根本无法实施,而只能落实到具体的诗歌技巧如"平仄"的运用中去.理学范畴中的矛盾最后导致诗歌创作实践中摹拟措施的产生.严羽及<沧浪诗话>中的许多观点的形成,都与宋代理学观念与方法有联系,而并非仅仅是"以禅喻诗".甚至可以说,严羽只是对前期深受理学方法影响的唐诗观的一次专业性总结.     

Reflectors as online extraverts?

Increasingly, online learning is perceived as an effective method of instruction. Much recent educational research has focused on examining the purposes and situations for which online education is best suited. In this paper, students enrolled in two online courses are compared with their peers enrolled in equivalent classroom‐based courses to investigate aspects of the relationship between learning style and mode of delivery. Student satisfaction measures are taken from participants in both modes of delivery and compared with student learning style. Feedback from the ‘Reflector’ learning style demonstrates higher satisfaction levels with the online mode of delivery compared with their matched counterparts following equivalent classroom‐based courses. Therefore, whilst ‘Reflectors’ might be regarded as Introverts in the traditional classroom setting, the additional time for reflection offered by online delivery makes this group more likely to contribute to online discussion, report higher satisfaction levels and generally behave more like online Extraverts.     

理想与现实：贵州普通高校教师队伍建设研究报告

西部大开发,发展民族地区的经济需要把沉重的劳动力负担转换为强大的人力资源优势,其关键在于发展高等教育,特别是高等教育教师队伍建设更是值得关注。提升高等教育竞争力,建设高素质的高校教师队伍,是当前高等教育需要思考的问题。透视贵州省普通高校教师队伍建设的现状及存在的问题,提出应对策略,为我省高等教育的进一步发展提供了具体的政策性建议。     

外语学习习得化可行性研究

儿童习得第一语言是语言学习最成功的范例,外语学习能否采用习得的方式历来是一个引起争议的问题.本文以第一语言习得的内外部条件为切入点,来探究外语学习习得化的可行性.     

浅谈导学群的服务体系和技术环节的作用

导学群新概念的提出是我省电大开放教育新模式的教学服务理念,它的运行机制是围绕学生自主学习服务体系而构建的技术环节在导学群服务体系中起着非常重要的作用。     

Assessment,Grade Level and Learning

Researchers have identified assessment as a very crucial influence on the learning strategies adopted by students. The present study carried out on Secondary 2, Secondary 4, and Junior College 2/Pre-University 3 students shows that the Singapore students did not favour the Surface Approach in their learning of English and Mathematics. The nature of the discipline and the cognitive demands of the examinations carried considerable importance for students in their choice of learning strategies. Despite the heavy emphasis on excelling in examinations, students did not rely solely on surface and achieving strategies to attain their goals.     

Regarding learning: Children’s drawings of learning in the classroom

This article explores drawings of learning in the classroom made by a class of 6 to 7-year-olds in a UK primary school. The drawings were analysed by considering the choices that children made in their drawings in terms of four themes: self and social relations in learning, the physical environment, learning activities, and learning and behaviour. These are discussed using five drawings as examples. A wide range of images was used by the children, although some drew common views of learning. The article warns against assuming that we know how a young person views their learning, or that a class of children share a common view of it. It is also suggested that talk about such drawings can make a contribution to a joint exploration of understandings of learning by teachers and children.     

Making sense of learner and learning Big Data: reviewing five years of Data Wrangling at the Open University UK

Most distance learning institutions collect vast amounts of learning data. Making sense of this ‘Big Data’ can be a challenge, in particular when data are stored at different data warehouses and require advanced statistical skills to interpret complex patterns of data. As a leading institute on learning analytics, the Open University UK instigated in 2012 a Data Wrangling initiative. This provided every Faculty with a dedicated academic with expertise data analysis and whose task is to provide strategic, pedagogical and sense-making advice to staff and senior management. Given substantial changes within the OU (e.g. new Faculty structure, real-time dashboards, two large-scale adoptions of predictive analytics approaches, increased reliance on analytics), this embedded case study provides an in-depth review of lessons learned of five years of data wrangling. We will elaborate on the design of the new structure, its strengths and potential weaknesses, and affordances to be adopted by other institutions.