Adult Students: Wandering the Web with a Purpose

Summary

In the spring 1997, the Adult Liberal Studies Program at the University of Toledo invited proposal to design, develop, and teach a seminar course specifically for the adult learner. Our adult learners must learn to move seamless through the Internet, web-based interfaces and stand alone CD-ROMs. The course proposal, “Wandering the web with a purpose: Using the Internet for information and research,” was accepted as a four credit hour course and is specifically geared for adult learners who range in age from their early 30s to late 70s.     

Visions for literacy: parents’ aspirations for reading in children with Down syndrome

Although children with Down syndrome (DS) can learn to read, few studies have explored parental perspectives on the reading development of this group of children. This article, written by Leila Ricci and Anna Osipova, from California State University, explores visions and expectations regarding reading held by parents of children with Down syndrome in the US. Parents of 50 children with DS (aged three to 13 years) completed a survey about their children's interest in reading and responded to open‐ended questions inquiring about their views on their children's reading development. A majority of parents in this study described their children's positive attitude toward reading, stated their reading‐related goals for their children, defined their children's relative strengths in reading, and shared strategies used in the home to promote literacy in this population. Parents pay close attention to and have high expectations for their children's reading achievement, and thereby would benefit from partnerships with informed educators willing and capable of teaching reading to children with DS.     

非数学类研究生《统计分析方法》教学改革初探

针对非数学专业研究生数学素养参差不齐的实际状况,根据研究生数学修养的培养要求,为了更好地让学生们掌握这门具有广泛实用意义的课程的理论与方法,结合多年来《统计分析方法》课程教学的实践经验,提出对非数学类研究生《统计分析方法》课程教学改革的缘由、思路和目标,并对具体实施方法做了初步探讨.     

在生物学原理教学中培养学生的科学素养

生物学原理是生物科学素养的主要载体,而生物学原理的教学则构建了培养学生生物科学素养的主要平台.现就生物学原理的特征、生物学原理教学的策略及设计例析等方面对培养学生的生物科学素养进行初步研究.     

西方媒介素养教育的比较及对我国的启示

英国的媒介素养教育的出发点比较高,从保护高尚文化和主流价值观开始,比较主动,更加强调独立意识的培养;而美国的媒介素养教育从如何避免媒介对青少年的负面影响开始,形式比较被动,实用性很强,它要求青少年除了会接触使用媒介,更为重要的是为我所用;加拿大看到了媒介对青少年的积极作用,把媒介作品当艺术品来看待,并没有要求学生对媒介完全持怀疑态度,比较符合青少年对媒介充满期待的特点。这些媒介素养教育值得我国借鉴的地方在于:我们要欣赏媒介,理解媒介,媒介素养教育是一种终身教育,要分阶段分重点进行。     

Energy literacy of vocational students in Taiwan

In this study, we administered a questionnaire to 1001 vocational high school students to ascertain their literacy with regard to energy saving and carbon-emissions reduction (ESCER) and to analyze whether their literacy was affected by their gender or academic major. The data analysis produced the following conclusions: (1) behaviors pertaining to ESCER among vocational high school students should be enhanced by promoting appropriate affect rather than solely by conveying knowledge; (2) female students displayed superior knowledge and affect regarding ESCER compared with male students; and (3) students majoring in agriculture performed better than other students in terms of knowledge, affect, and behavioral aspects related to ESCER. The execution and results of this study can serve as a reference for courses or education related to this topic targeting vocational high school students to promote literacy for ESCER, thereby increasing students’ effectiveness in related issues in Taiwan.     

Technological Literacy: A Framework for Teaching Technical Communication Software Tools

Understanding technological literacy for technical communicators is crucial for effective pedagogy in technical and professional communication. Challenges of teaching technical communication students the functions and concepts of workplace software include the number of rapidly changing applications, a desire to focus on education over training, limited faculty expertise in software, limited resources for teaching software, and a desire to focus on technical communication principles. To address these challenges, the authors explore how to use a four-level framework of technological literacy along with existing resources to design a course to help students use, understand, and evaluate technical communication technology.     

Moving with modernisation and civilisation: Taiwanese nativist education in the early 1930s

This study examines localisation endeavours in contemporary Taiwan to explore the history of the Taiwanese localisation movement as a way of reimagining meanings of Taiwaneseness constructed under different historical circumstances. It focuses on the xiāngtǔ (nativist) literature movement in colonial Taiwan in the early 1930s that was initiated by Taiwanese intellectuals to create real Taiwanese literature on Taiwan and for the Taiwanese masses. Besides being a social education initiative to improve Taiwanese mass literacy, the xiāngtǔ literature movement was a localisation effort to reform Taiwanese language and preserve Taiwanese culture under Japanese occupation. The reform discourse made a turn towards specifically Taiwanese linguistic and cultural traditions, instead of pursuing modern Japanese and Chinese language and culture, which were the then available cultural impulses in colonial Taiwan. Local Taiwanese language and folk culture were essential curricular materials in the social education agenda that created particular meanings of Taiwaneseness for colonial Taiwan.     

Modelling adult skills in OECD countries

Research in the social sciences has focused extensively on the relationship between family background, educational attainment and social destination, on the one hand, and on the processes of skills creation and skills use, on the other. This paper brings these two branches of the literature together by examining the correlation between a range of social factors. The methodology we adopt provides a comprehensive approach to the study of the channels through which literacy skills are acquired, taking into account the interrelation of family background, educational attainment, and the use of skills at work and at home. We use the Programme of International Assessment of Adult Competences (PIAAC) dataset and apply a structural equation model (SEM). Our results show that family background and education play an important role in the configuration of adult skills and skill practices. Unequal family access to resources has a strong impact at later stages in life and strongly affects educational attainment and skills outcomes. Additionally, skills use has a positive and direct impact on adult skills.     

Self-efficacy and literacy: a paired difference approach to estimation of over-/under-confidence in mathematics- and science-related tasks

Subject-specific self-efficacy is a measure of confidence in one’s own ability to complete tasks related to that subject. This confidence does not necessarily reflect actual ability in the subject and can be an over- or underestimate of true ability. We use nationally representative samples of 15-year-old students from the US to measure the degree of over-/under-confidence in mathematics and science, and explore its relationship with student demographic characteristics such as gender, grade and race. Our results suggest that white students consistently underestimate their ability, whereas black and Hispanic students consistently overestimate it. This pattern in over-/under-confidence persists even after controlling for student and school level differences. Implications are discussed.