Intercultural Communication Training for English Language Teachers: A Case Study of an Immersion Program for South Korean Teachers

Little research has been conducted that explores connections between the fields of intercultural communication and English-language instruction. To address this gap, we report on an intercultural communication course delivered as an integral part of a short-term professional development immersion program for English-language teachers from South Korea. Study results indicate that intercultural communication training served to enhance participants’ pragmatics awareness along with sensitivity regarding sociocultural influences on communication that they experienced in situ. After the four-week course, most of the participants expressed desire and readiness to integrate intercultural communication into their teaching in South Korea. Intercultural communication training promises to complement pragmatics instruction aiming at improving English-language learning and teaching.     

面向语义Web的本体学习研究

语义Web的创建需要一套共同的标准概念体系,即本体(Ontology)。本体的构造手段仍然是以手工构造为主,效率和准确率都非常低,很容易导致知识获取的瓶颈。本文给出一个半自动化的需人工干预的本体学习体系结构,采用平衡的协作建模方式来构造语义Web中的本体;介绍了基于以上体系结构的本体学习的处理过程,并讨论了领域概念抽取,概念之间关系的抽取等关键技术。     

基于粗集的支持向量机文本分类方法研究

本文提出了一种基于粗糙集的支持向量机文本分类方法。该方法利用粗糙集的约简理论降低了支持向量的维数,同时保证了分类性能。实验表明该方法能获得较好的分类效果。     

智能教学系统的自学习机制

本文主要介绍了智能教学系统中的机器自学习机制,研究如何提高智能教学系统的智能性和通用性等方面的问题。文章采用基于信息论的示例学习,改进了决策树学习算法,并建立了机器学习决策树。     

领导行为与市场导向、学习导向的关系研究

市场导向与学习导向是近年来管理理论研究的两个重要问题。在回顾领导行为、市场导向与学习导向相关理论研究成果的基础上,集中分析了不同领导行为模式下企业所应采取的经营导向方式,认为领导行为的类型会影响组织经营方式的选取,而且交易型领导与市场导向的匹配、变革型领导与学习导向的匹配更能促进组织经营绩效的改进。     

Sink or Swim: Learning by Doing in a Supply Chain Integration Activity*

Studies show that supply chain integration (SCI) is important to organizations. This article describes an activity that places students in the middle of an SCI scenario. The highly interactive hands‐on simulation requires only 50 to 60 minutes of classroom time, may be used with 18 to about 36 students, and involves minimal instructor preparation. Through the activity, students learn the basics of SCI and then analyze an SCI event to better appreciate the need for collaboration and information sharing. In courses that address supply chain management, instructors can use the activity early in the semester to introduce students to the complexities of supply chain networks. Alternatively, instructors may use the simulation later to provoke a more nuanced discussion.     

Low-achieving (learning disabled) pupils in year 2 of the primary school in Hungary

We selected 60 low-achieving children from a sample of 263 pupils in Year 2 of the primary school in order to analyse the problems of learning disabilities. We explored two questions: whether teachers evaluate the pupils' school performances correctly; and what kind of relationship exists between the low-achieving pupils' cognitive abilities and their school performance. Methods used were questionnaires, pedagogical tests and traditional psychological tests. We obtained the following results: the teachers generally evaluate the pupils' school performance fairly well, but they are inclined to assume a close correlation between the achievements in different subjects, and the teachers' knowledge of the low-achieving children is more reliable regarding the group of pupils as a whole rather than each pupil individually; and the low-achieving pupils' cognitive learning abilities prove to be significantly weaker than their general intellectual abilities.     

学习共同体生成的若干基本问题思考

本文主要阐述了学习共同体生成的若干基本问题,论述了学习共同体的意涵及相关概念的关系,学习共同体生成的价值,同时提出了学习共同体的生成原则和把握要点。     

Does STES‐Oriented Science Education Promote 10th‐Grade Students’ Decision‐Making Capability?

Today’s society is continuously coping with sustainability‐related complex issues in the Science‐Technology‐Environment‐Society (STES) interfaces. In those contexts, the need and relevance of the development of students’ higher‐order cognitive skills (HOCS) such as question‐asking, critical‐thinking, problem‐solving and decision‐making capabilities within science teaching have been argued by several science educators for decades. Three main objectives guided this study: (1) to establish “base lines” for HOCS capabilities of 10th grade students (n = 264) in the Israeli educational system; (2) to delineate within this population, two different groups with respect to their decision‐making capability, science‐oriented (n = 142) and non‐science (n = 122) students, Groups A and B, respectively; and (3) to assess the pre‐post development/change of students’ decision‐making capabilities via STES‐oriented HOCS‐promoting curricular modules entitled Science, Technology and Environment in Modern Society (STEMS). A specially developed and validated decision‐making questionnaire was used for obtaining a research‐based response to the guiding research questions. Our findings suggest that a long‐term persistent application of purposed decision‐making, promoting teaching strategies, is needed in order to succeed in affecting, positively, high‐school students’ decision‐making ability. The need for science teachers’ involvement in the development of their students’ HOCS capabilities is thus apparent.     

Measured lives: the rise of assessment as the engine of change in English schools

The year 2000 marks the end of compulsory education for the first cohort of students to experience the National Curriculum throughout their school careers. This article describes their experience of assessment and compares it with the testing regime that those children who start school in 2000 are likely to experience. Changes in policy from the early Task Group on Assessment and Testing proposals are analysed, especially the increasing priority given to the use of assessment for monitoring and evaluating the performance of teachers, schools and local education authorities. This shift is interpreted in terms of underlying assumptions about effective strategies for change. While Conservative and Labour governments have pursued somewhat different goals, they have used a similar change strategy. This explains why the general thrust of policy has continued in a broadly similar direction - towards ever more testing in schools and the use of results as performance indicators. It is argued, however, that this strategy cannot be pursued indefinitely. After a point, further improvements will only be made if teachers are helped to work ‘smarter’, not just harder. Policy-makers need, therefore, to look again at the contribution that formative assessment - or assessment for learning as part of pedagogy - can make to lifelong learning, in a more coherent, balanced and ‘educational’ system.