Grammar learning and teaching： Time,tense and verb

The learning of English tenses and verbs is obviously the major and challenging part of second language learning and acquisition for Chinese students. The paper analyzes the features of simple present tense, simple past tense and verbs in them from the aspect of Sidney Greenbaum and Randolph Quirk＇s student grammar book as an instructive example. It is suggested that, it be meaningful and practical if the grammar rules are reflected rather in sentences or contexts than in the formula. Some possible pedagogical activities and materials are recommended to make tedious grammar learning and teaching more understandable and interesting.     

Exploring Social Theory as a Framework for Social and Cultural Measurements of the Information Society

Using Layder's domain theory (1997) Layder, D. 1997. Modern social theory:Key debates and new directions, London: UCL Press.  [Google Scholar] as an analytical framework, this article shows how the information society can be measured through various levels of society. Layder's notions of psychobiography, situated activity, social setting, and contextual resources help identify cultural and social indicators for understanding changes in the information society. With the help of empirical indicators for each domain, this article uses the case of Estonia to show that there is often more to the information society than what is captured by traditional measures. This article calls for a context-sensitive approach, which takes into consideration social and cultural indicators. Measurements from all four domains are necessary for understanding the complexity of information-society-related issues.     

The Non-Tested Years: Policy’s Impact on Early Childhood Curriculum

Early childhood and elementary education emerged from a variety of knowledge and research bases. Tensions emerged as they were brought together in a unified public kindergarten through 12th-grade educational system. This review describes how standards and accountability policies have exacerbated tensions between early childhood and elementary curriculum and instructional approaches and impacted the voice and role of early childhood educators. We argue that this is a critical time for understanding and addressing these issues.     

Moving towards transdisciplinarity: an ecological sustainable focus for science and mathematics pre‐service education in the primary/middle years

One reason we have difficulty finding sustainable solutions is in part because we are unable to see the bigger picture. Capra (2000 Capra, F. 2000. The challenge of our time.. Resurgence, 203: 18–20.  [Google Scholar]) argues, “To become ecologically literate we must learn to think systemically – in terms of connectedness, context and processes” (p. 270). We have attempted to structure connected learning experiences through our transdisciplinary approach to teaching for learning science, mathematics and ecological aspects of society and environment. We support Jucker's (2002 Jucker, R. 2002. Our common illiteracy: Education as if the Earth and people mattered, Frankfurt: Peter Lang.  [Google Scholar]) view that we must have lateral rigor across disciplines and vertical rigor within disciplines in order to best prepare students for teaching. This paper explores the theoretical underpinning of this complex approach to undergraduate teaching and reports on how our teaching team has worked collaboratively to structure a sequence of three, one semester integrated, core courses that explicitly uses an educating for ecological sustainability theme as the basis for each course and associated assessment.     

History of education in Brazil: the construction of a knowledge field

This article analyses the general characteristics of the construction of the field of history of education in Brazil. To do so, it highlights the existing historiography and aims to describe the process of institutionalisation of this knowledge field, which, in general terms, has been focused on the area of teacher training. Since the nineteenth century, however, it has also been possible to identify systematic historiographical efforts in Brazil that are not directly related to the school system, but rather to the teaching of and research into the history of education within Brazilian universities. The article addresses the organisation of the field, the ways in which it has been structured and the strategies of academic legitimisation employed to achieve this. These include the regular production of dissertations and doctoral theses, the publication of books and journals, academic events and the creation of research groups and scientific associations, through which research findings have found national and international circulation. This set of indicators creates conditions for an understanding of the expansion and reconfiguration of the field of history of education that began in the 1980s, as well as of the challenges this phenomenon presents to current historiography and teacher training in Brazil.     

Non-Use and Loser Studies in Collection Development

No abstract available for this article.     

Systems Analysis,Interviewing, and the Improv

Interviewing is a critical skill for systems analysts. This article describes an experiment using student actors as interviewees for in‐class exercises to teach interviewing in the junior‐level systems analysis course. The experiment proved beneficial to the class, to the actors, and to the senior IS majors who helped the actors prepare.     

Freeing the Mind of the Oppressed

This article examines the evidence that supports and rebuts the claims of school resegregation. By examining both types of evidence and considering them complementary (James 1986 James, F. 1986. A new generalized “exposure-based” segregation index: Demonstration in Denver and Houston. Sociological Methods and Research, 14(3): 301–16. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Kelly and Miller 1989 Kelly, P. and Miller, W. 1989. Assessing desegregation efforts: No “best measure.”. Public Administration Review, 49(5): 431–37. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), the author gives the reader a deeper understanding of the current trends in school segregation. First, the literature on the topic of school segregation is discussed. Then follows a discussion of the methods used in the study and the findings. The conclusion includes implications of the findings.     

Shaw on Education

For many Americans, citizenship and patriotism are associated with reciting the nation's Pledge of Allegiance. Therefore, this study asks the following questions: What do future teachers think about the concepts embedded in the Pledge, and what are their opinions on the usefulness of the Pledge in schools, as well as society in general? Results indicated that future or preservice teachers believed the loyalty and patriotic aspects of the Pledge to be useful for K–12 students, but did not find a personal value in their own recitation of the Pledge.     

Keys to Successful Leadership: High Support for Capable and Versatile Principals

What are the prerequisites for principals’ success within a decentralized and deregulated Swedish-policy environment characterized by democratic equity values and neo-liberal practices? Twenty-four secondary school principals identified internal and external factors that promote or inhibit principals’ success. The discussion concerns whether the current crossfire of demands produces superficiality and threats to democracy due to the working conditions described by the principals.