Connecting Forensics and Assessment in the Twenty-First Century

A major feature of education in the twenty-first century is assessment. Forensic educators should heighten the importance of learning outcomes and utilize assessment efforts to directly measure how forensic programs develop educational foundations for students. This article focuses on the use of tournaments and noncompetitive educational outcomes, such as engagement within academic communities, service-learning, and the promotion of the value of forensics, to connect the educational benefits of the activity to help define the mission of forensics in the twenty-first century.     

考试对中学教育教学的反拨效应

教育考试的结果虽然描述的是学生学业成绩,但其功能着眼于对学生学业学习行为的描述和价值的确定,着眼对素质教育的推进,对中学教学有着重要的反拨效应。理清教育考试和素质教育的关系,重视对试题设计的研究和对考试成绩数据的分析,充分发挥教育考试的有益反拨效应,对提高教学质量、推进素质教育具有重要作用。     

中小学语文教学中的非期待答案引导和师生创造力发展实验设计

课堂教学中非期待答案的存在具有必然性与合理性,它体现了师生主体间的理解、交往与对话。对课堂教学中非期待答案相关理论和实验实践研究的目的是希望通过确立教师对课堂教学中非期待答案的正确认识,为师生主体间的交往与对话找到切实可行的实践方式,培养学生的创造性思维能力,提升学生的学习能力,同时使师生主体间关系的实现从理论走向实践层面。     

开发利用家教实践 创新高师教育实习

目前,高师教育实习整体陷入空虚、乏力的重重困境,亟待转型与变革,而家教市场十分火爆,并不断走向火热。就此,我们在高师教育实践和家教研究的基础上建构：开发利用家教实践,开创高师教育实习的新途径、新模式和新机制,收到较好的效益。     

学习科学：推动教育的深层变革

当前教育信息化蓬勃发展,在备受赞赏的同时也屡被质疑。至于原因,恐怕还是“人究竟是怎么学习的,怎样才能促进有效学习？”这一根本性问题依然未得到彻底解决。该文从教育信息化的发展现状谈起,剖析目前存在的问题及解决方法,然后仔细梳理了学习科学的发生、发展和研究现状,指出脑科学与学习、基于大数据的学习分析和技术增强的学习等学习科学研究将有助于推动教育从更深的层面发生变革。     

翻转课堂的历史、现状及实践策略探析

翻转课堂自2012年被引入中国以来,在学者、教师、家长中引起不同反响。该文从与相关人群针对“翻转课堂”的访谈及相关文献研究入手,基于教育外界的Gartner技术炒作周期曲线(Hype Cycle)观察近年在国内中小学翻转课堂的发展概貌,审思翻转课堂的定位、假设、技术和流程;在与国际上的同伴教学、混合式学习、国内的“先学后教”等相近教学模式的比较中揭示翻转课堂的核心和本质,辅以对翻转课堂技术要素的分析,认为翻转课堂属于一种微创新。旨在为研究者和实践者对翻转课堂形成较为系统、冷静的认识提供借鉴,该文分析了翻转课堂的优势和局限,提出了模式适用范围、学习动机保持、教师基本素养、技术应用及课程体制等实践策略,以推动翻转课堂有效应用。在教师基本素养部分特别建议借助布卢姆(B·S·Bloom)认知目标分类学,根据认知规律和学生认知基础,对教学内容进行分析归类,以便在恰当的时机恰当地应用技术。     

国际视野下督学责任区制度发展与模式研究 ——基于对湖南省的调研

督学责任区制度是教育督导制度的重要组成部分,各主要发达国家的教育督导制度都包含督学责任区制度这一内容.近年来在我国开始推行这一制度的过程中,既借鉴了国外的有益经验,又形成了我国自己特色,进行自己的创新,特别是湖南省在督学责任区建设方面卓有成效.通过调研,我们发现湖南省督学责任区制度方面主要有三种模式:异地集中办公模式(醴陵模式);驻校模式;分离模式.督学责任区制度在学校常规督导、规范办学行为、开辟家长反映意见途径等方面发挥了积极作用,但也存在着督学责任区职能定位、人员专业化和模式的合理性等问题.     

Enhancing the link between higher education and employment

This study aims to improve the efficiency of fiscal assistance programs for higher education by investigating those variables that influence college graduates’ employment rates. An empirical analysis of 2010–2011 higher education statistics shows that two variables – educational expenditure per student and the number of students per full-time faculty member – consistently and significantly affect college graduates’ employment rates, even after location and type of school are controlled. Although scholarship rates also affect employment rates positively, the number of students per industry–academe liaison officer does not have a statistically significant effect. Moreover, as educational expenditure per student or the student/faculty ratio increases beyond a certain level, graduate employment improves at an increasing rate. The two variables also affect the employment rate interactively. At a relatively higher level of per-student expenditure, employment rates increase even as the student/faculty ratio rises. However, at a relatively lower level of per-student expenditure, employment rates decline as the student/faculty ratio rises.The policy implication is that fiscal assistance programs for higher educational institutions should accord a much greater weight to these key variables when selecting and assessing institutional recipients.     

No harmless child labor: The effect of child labor on academic achievement in francophone Western and Central Africa

This study empirically examines the effect of child labor on academic achievement in 10 francophone Western and Central African countries. The data were taken from the Programme d’Analyse des Systèmes Educatifs de la CONFEMEN and comprised characteristics of 25,288 grade six students across 1803 schools. Two-stage least squares analysis highlights that child labor undermines academic achievement regardless of subject, gender, and age. It lowers reading and mathematics scores for both genders and for children under 12 and over 13 years. Child labor therefore hinders human capital accumulation in African countries, and it takes place at the cost of future prosperity.     

Teachers’ career ladder policy in Ethiopia: an opportunity for professional growth or “a stick disguised as a carrot?”

In response to the ever-declining status of the teaching profession, and its adverse effects on the country's educational system, the Federal Ministry of Education in Ethiopia introduced a policy of the teachers’ career ladder in 1994. While reformers believe that the introduction of the policy has improved the condition of the teaching profession, the net gains of the policy remain deceptive and even, in part, reduce some of the benefits teachers used to enjoy in the single salary scheme in the past. Among other things, central to the claims of the policy's advocates stands an improved salary scale for teachers. While this was admittedly true by the time the policy was introduced, the gain in salary raise has gradually been lost to the bureaucratic hurdles and watchdog structures erected to screen teachers’ eligibility at each stage of the career ladder. After critically assessing the major aspects of the policy, along with the voices of Ethiopian teachers, the current study argues that the policy of the teachers’ career ladder in Ethiopia is another prototypical case of a failed experiment both in terms of improving the lives of teachers and maintaining their professional rights.