Swimming against the tide: philosophy for children as counter-cultural practice

Philosophy for children (P4C), rooted in the Socratic Method and constructivist and pragmatic assumptions, is a dialogic and democratic pedagogy which teaches pupils to philosophise; to develop multi-dimensional modes of thinking through discussion of questions which connect with all human experience. Despite a wide range of research, both national and international, citing P4C's efficacy in promoting children's cognitive and affective skills the researcher observed that within her own Local Authority P4C failed in most cases to become established in the schools that had trained in this approach. As a consequence the researcher set out to explore teacher's perceptions of the factors determining the implementation of P4C in the classroom using a qualitative research methodology. Teachers do not teach in a vacuum; they are situated in a social, political and economic context which is broader than the classroom or the school. In order to better understand ‘the considerations which bear upon curricular action’, this paper will begin with a discussion of the wider policy context in which P4C is operating before moving on to explore the educational assumptions and practice of P4C and the extent to which these values and practices cohere with those espoused through the wider policy context. The researcher will then discuss the findings from qualitative interviews conducted with a small group of geographically dispersed primary school teachers in England. This paper argues that the ideology of economic rationalism, promulgated through educational policy and manifest in a culture of performativity and short-termism in the classroom, exposes conflicts of values for primary teachers with regard to the implementation of P4C which appear to suggest that P4C in the current educational climate represents counter-cultural practice.     

高校图书馆网上参考咨询服务工作探讨

基于高速传输的网络技术,依托丰富的数字化和网络信息资源,图书馆开展网上参考咨询服务已成为发展趋势.本文讨论了高校图书馆开展网上信息咨询服务的可行性及方式、方法.     

Preschool Children's Explanations of Plant Growth and Rain Formation: A Comparative Analysis

This paper explores the different types and characteristics of preschool children's explanations of plant growth and rain formation. The children's explanations were categorized as naturalistic, non-naturalistic, or synthetic, i.e., explanations containing both naturalistic and non-naturalistic parts. In regards to plant growth the children tended to rely on synthetic or on naturalistic explanations, which involved direct and indirect agents (such as water, a person, fertilizers, roots) enabling the plant to grow. Non-naturalistic explanations of plant growth, or the non-naturalistic parts of synthetic explanations, were mainly animistic (anthropomorphic). In the case of rain formation the children most frequently used non-naturalistic explanations, which were mainly teleological or metaphysical. The naturalistic explanations recorded on rain formation, as well as the naturalistic parts of synthetic explanations tended to have a non-agentive character, i.e., children considered rainwater as preexisting in containers such as the clouds. Overall, the explanations recorded about plant growth tended to be more complex than the ones for rain formation. It is suggested that science activities designed for preschool children should take into account the types and characteristics of their explanations in order to select which phenomena are appropriate for this age group, and aim at fostering the children's ability at formulating naturalistic explanations.     

胡适白话诗学的现代阐释

胡适现代诗学创建于“五四”前后，它的核心理念是“诗体的大解放”，环绕它的“白话利器”论与“自然音节”论则是与之相辅相成的两个命题，它们三位一体构成胡适的新诗学。近百年对其评述有毁有誉，但若重新发现、重新解读，便会真正认识胡适诗学的理论价值及其所具有的对于汉诗解构与建构的内在张力与不尽活力。     

Impact of philosophical enquiry on school students’ interactive behaviour

To be effective, thinking skills interventions are likely to require specific fine-grain changes in the quantity and quality of teacher–pupil and pupil–pupil dialogue in the classroom, but these are difficult to establish. This study investigated the effects of collaborative philosophical enquiry over time on quantity and quality of interactive dialogue in 180 children aged 10 in 4 intervention and 2 comparison primary (elementary) mainstream classes in 6 schools in Scotland. Participating teachers received initial and follow-up professional development. Matched comparison classes received regular teaching. Video recordings of teacher-led and pupil–pupil classroom discussions before, and 7 months into, participation in the programme were analyzed. These were related to a theoretical model of the process. Changes in intervention classes included increased use of open-ended questions by the teacher, increased participation of pupils in classroom dialogue, and improved pupil reasoning in justification of opinions. There were no changes in comparison classes. Variation in degree of change between intervention schools was evident. Implications for future research, policy and practice are outlined, particularly for enhancing consistency and expanding the programme.     

Using Argumentation to Investigate Science Teachers' Teaching Practices: The Perspective of Instructional Decisions and Justifications

Adopting the concept that “decisions can be seen as argument-driven actions,” the purpose of this study was to apply the argumentation structure raised by Stephen Toulmin (1958) to capture two science teachers' instructional decision-making mechanisms in their teaching practices. The two case teachers were chosen because of their close estimations of their students' achievement outcomes and both were in their transition stages from competent teachers to proficient ones. A science teaching observation coding schedule (STOCS) was designed to be used in classroom observations, and all these quantitative data were collected to be converted into four issues for the two teachers to justify their ways of teaching. A semi-structure interview was conducted to analyze why and how these two case teachers made their instructional decisions. The results indicate that although they knew that their students could not fully understand what they taught in the class, their teaching strategies were still teacher-dominated modes. What really influenced their instructional decisions included external context factors (e.g., examination pressure, subject contents, limited time and classroom management) and internal experiential factors (e.g., personal educated experiences, beliefs and understandings of constructivism and inquiry). Finally, the authors suggest that science teachers' instructional decision making mechanisms can be appropriately represented by case teachers' argumentations structure.     

论年龄因素与外语学习的关系

本根据国外第二语言习得及外语教学理论研究的最新成果，结合我国外语教学特点，讨论了年龄与外语学习的关系问题，提出年龄只有与环境及语言项目结合起来才成为一个重要因素。作认为，在我国这样一个以课堂教学为主的环境下，鉴于儿童尚不成熟的认知能力，外语学习并非越早越好。     

张资平恋爱小说与日本自然主义文学

张资平的恋爱小说受到了日本自然主义文学的影响,他不仅接受了日本自然主义文学观念,还将日本自然主义代表人物的文学文本作为直接的模仿对象。日本自然主义的影响既使他在创作上逐渐成熟,奠定了在文坛上的地位,也让他的小说蒙上过浓的肉欲色彩,为人所诟病。     

“英国学派”国际关系理论概观

本文简要回顾了英国学派的发展历程 ,并着重从思想方法、理论视域和伦理取向三个方面讨论了英国学派的学术传统、理论特色和演变趋势。英国学派的基本学术特征表现为以理性主义和传统主义为主流的多元主义思想方法 ,国际体系、国际社会与世界社会的三重视角以及非完美主义的情势伦理观 ,总体上曲折反映了英国等中等强国和部分中小发达国家的独特处境和国际政治诉求。尽管在历史观、政治哲学、本体论、价值观等方面都不无缺陷 ,国际社会理论在当代条件下仍然具有独特价值。其统一与多样并存的研究格局以及在美国“主流”之外独立发展的经验 ,对于国际关系理论的中国式探索具有启发意义。     

Adoption of flipped learning in social humanities education: the FIBER experience in secondary schools

ABSTRACT

FIBER (Flipped Issue-Based Enquiry Ride) is a teacher-facilitated interactive pedagogic framework that the authors propose to integrate flipped learning into social humanities education. This paper reports a quasi-experimental study (with mixed methods) which examined the pedagogic effectiveness of FIBER in the authentic setting of formal curriculum learning and teaching. The study involved totally 611 Secondary-4 students from academically top, middle and bottom schools in Hong Kong. In comparison with the conventional issue-based enquiry learning approach, FIBER had different intensity of positive effects on the high, moderate, and low academic-achieving student participants. This paper provides researchers and educational practitioners with empirical evidence for supporting wider adoption of FIBER in social humanities education, as well as harnessing flipped learning in formal schooling. Apart from discussing the benefits, the authors also underline the challenges of FIBER and suggest future work.