School context and instructional capacity: A comparative study of professional learning communities in rural and urban schools in China

This study examines the teaching gap between rural and urban schools in China from the perspective of teacher professional learning communities (PLCs). Drawing on in-depth interviews with 36 primary school teachers, the study finds striking disparities between rural and urban schools in the working of Teaching and Research Groups (TRGs). These disparities in TRGs result in divergent patterns of instructional capacity building in rural and urban schools. The evidence shows that teaching and teachers are strongly shaped by the school organizational context. It suggests that strengthening school-wide PLCs is an important way of narrowing the rural-urban teaching and learning gaps.     

从教与学的良性循环探讨大学英语课堂教学互动

在以学生为主体的课堂上,教与学是一种互动的形式。在英语教学中,教师应当善于且有效地实施互动模式,加强师生间交流,促进教与学的良性循环。     

VLOOKUP函数在学生体质健康评价中的应用研究

通过对Excel中VLOOKUP函数进行剖析,以学生体质健康评价为例,对VLOOKU函数进行调用实验。研究发现VLOOKUP函数可以有效提高学生体质健康评价的准确性和工作效率。但在应用时务必正确设置函数参数,避免出现批量错误。另外,VLOOKUP函数灵活性较大,应用时人为误差和失误率会加大,专业、人性、智能的学生体质健康评价软件需进一步普及推广。     

东南亚留学生动态助词“着”的学习策略

本文是针对东南亚留学生动态助词＂着＂的学习策略的研究,以暨南大学华文学院留学生的中介语语料为主要材料,通过数据分析、访谈、调查问卷等实证方法,发现东南亚留学生在学习＂着＂的时候使用了母语时间认知方式迁移、概括、简化和回避等策略。     

Multimodal data as a means to understand the learning experience

Most work in the design of learning technology uses click-streams as their primary data source for modelling & predicting learning behaviour. In this paper we set out to quantify what, if any, advantages do physiological sensing techniques provide for the design of learning technologies. We conducted a lab study with 251 game sessions and 17 users focusing on skill development (i.e., user's ability to master complex tasks). We collected click-stream data, as well as eye-tracking, electroencephalography (EEG), video, and wristband data during the experiment. Our analysis shows that traditional click-stream models achieve 39% error rate in predicting learning performance (and 18% when we perform feature selection), while for fused multimodal the error drops up to 6%. Our work highlights the limitations of standalone click-stream models, and quantifies the expected benefits of using a variety of multimodal data coming from physiological sensing. Our findings help shape the future of learning technology research by pointing out the substantial benefits of physiological sensing.     

A Study on the Anxiety of Mongolian Undergraduates in Public English Class

Anxiety is a complicated psychological phenomenon in foreign language learning process, involving both cognitive and affective factors, especially for those with cross culture background. This essay fo...     

Learning through artful knowing

Unfinished and ongoing exploration, Oil Painting, 1.30?*?1?m, September 2015.     

Aiming for autonomy: formative peer assessment in a final-year undergraduate course

This article takes a dual focus on the theme of student formative peer assessment. On the one hand it offers a thorough literature review in this field, while on the other it unpacks a case study of curriculum design where peer assessment has been adopted. The practical example draws on recent changes made to a third- and final-year undergraduate research dissertation course in a UK architectural school. Although peer assessment worked quite well in this small setting, similar findings might be uncovered when scaled up to larger cohorts, as well as other disciplines and year groups. The research findings are certainly relevant for other contexts. Qualitative research from a focus group with six students on the course informs the empirical body of the paper. Through engaging with students’ reflections, as well as the relevant literature, and reflexively looking at the curriculum changes, this paper discusses some of the benefits and drawbacks that can arise from peer assessment in this context. Peer assessment is not without its challenges and hiccups, but, despite these, the benefit to autonomous critical thinking cannot be understated. And arguably peer assessment is especially germane for final-year undergraduates as they embark on employment or more advanced studies.     

To what extent do frameworks of reading development and the phonics screening check support the assessment of reading development in England?

The purpose of this article is to question the suitability of the phonics screening check in relation to models and theories of reading development. The article questions the appropriateness of the check by drawing on theoretical frameworks which underpin typical reading development. I examine the Simple View of Reading developed by Gough and Tunmer and Ehri's model of reading development. The article argues that the assessment of children's development in reading should be underpinned and informed by a developmental framework which identifies the sequential skills in reading development.     

The advantage of mixing examples in inductive learning: a comparison of three hypotheses

Mixing examples of different categories (interleaving) has been shown to promote inductive learning as compared with presenting examples of the same category together (massing). In three studies, we tested whether the advantage of interleaving is exclusively due to the mixing of examples from different categories or to the temporal gap introduced between presentations. In addition, we also tested the role of working memory capacity (WMC). Results showed that the mixing of examples might be the key component that determines improved induction. WMC might also be involved in the interleaving effect: participants with high spans seemed to profit more than participants with low spans from interleaved presentations. Our findings have relevant implications for education. Practice schedules should be individually customised so society as a whole can profit from differences between learners.