Routines and collective orientations in mathematics teachers’ professional development

There is an increasing awareness of the social dimension in mathematics teacher education. Collaboration and co-operation are regarded as key factors in professional development. In this paper I will analyse some tensions that might arise when the professional development of mathematics teachers is considered a collective enterprise. I will present phenomenological group interview as a method that is designed to reveal the collective character of teacher development. Some primary teachers’ collective reflections on an ongoing professional development process will be interpreted by focusing on the concepts of routine and collective orientation. The discussion is centred on the ambivalence of routines, as facilitators of practice, and collective orientations, as socially-agreed-upon knowledge base, for mathematics teachers’ professional development.

美中商业文化的冲突与沟通

美国和中国是主要经济合作和贸易伙伴，但在商业化的价值取向方面存在明显差异并由此产生各种冲突。章把美中商业化的冲突分为三个层次；第一层与生活习惯有关，第二层与思维方式有关，第三层与取向有关。通过分析和比较，揭出出美中不同价值取向的化根源，指出了进行有效沟通的途径和方法。     

对新升本科院校教学计划修订的认识

就河北省1997年以来由专科升格为本科院校的实际，针对普遍存在的“以学历教育代取整个本科层次人才培养”的现象，提出通过修订教学计划来解决和落实存在的问题。     

Library Connection: An Interactive,Personalized Orientation for Online Students

Library orientations are a very common learning experience for residential and online students. These all have similar goals of introducing students to the library and helping them feel more comfortable in navigating the library. The Library Connection is a unique type of library orientation that provides meaningful feedback to students in a personalized, connected learning environment. This program is offered through digital badges. A conventional qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the text responses of students completing this orientation. Six interesting themes emerged from these data including student perceptions of the use of the library, developing advanced search techniques, and managing a complex information environment. Interesting trends include the disparities between student and instructor perspectives of their learning and the need for a hybrid orientation that provides scaled instruction while still giving meaningful feedback and personalized responses to students from librarians.     

新建学前教育（本科）专业内涵建设——基于C校的实践探索

以C校新建学前专业发展为例,重点探索专业内涵建设过程中的观念确立、培养方案构建、教育资源创设和培育、教学改革实施等问题。     

Anticipatory socialization of graduate students

Most observers in higher education and most faculty agree that more student-oriented teachers are needed; but there is no consensus on how to get them. Options include finding new faculty and/or changing present faculty. The latter seems practically impossible, since most faculty are intransigent, and faculty development is addressed to too few. Graduate education, too, is unlikely to change, as present faculty guide its directions. The alternative is to find students with the proper dispositions on entrance to graduate schools. The question addressed herein is whether among current admittees to graduate schools there are sufficient numbers of persons with orientations significantly different from those of current faculty. The article reports on empirical assessments of preferences for 320 discrete tasks in the academic role by accepted graduate school applicants and younger and older faculty.This paper was presented at the 17th Annual Meeting of the Association for Institutional Research, Montreal, Canada, May 9, 1977. The research was supported by a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, Department of Health, Education and Welfare.     

现代高等教育价值向度的僭越与复归

西方高等教育现代化是以某种价值为取向的社会历史发展进程。高等教育现代化既有积极正面的好处,但又往往伴随某些负面的化后果的产生。根据高等教育现代化进程中的积极和消极影响,应建立“和谐”、“统一”的发展模式,可使我国高等院校在推进现代化过程中避免重复西方高等教育现代化的弯路。     

The role of perceived cultural distance,personal growth initiative,language proficiencies,and tridimensional acculturation orientations for psychological adjustment among international students

We investigated the acculturation process of international students (N = 319, 162 female) from 62 countries who were residing in the Netherlands, using the acculturation framework by Arends-Tóth and Van de Vijver (2007). We applied SEM to test the model that acculturation conditions (perceived cultural distance [PCD], personal growth initiative [PGI], proficiency in English and the host language, and length of residence) in conjunction with acculturation orientations as mediators (host, heritage, expatriate) predict psychological adjustment as acculturation outcome (acculturative stress, satisfaction with life, mental health problems). We found direct and indirect effects of acculturation conditions on adjustment; high PGI, high English and Dutch proficiencies, and low PCD were associated with better adjustment. Host orientation (predicted by high PGI, Dutch proficiency, and low PCD) was positively associated with adjustment. Heritage orientation (predicted by low English proficiency) was negatively associated with adjustment. As a novel aspect, we included expatriate orientation - an orientation towards other expatriates in the host community. Expatriate orientation was predicted by low Dutch proficiency and was positively associated with adjustment. We also observed direct links between acculturation conditions and outcomes: positive associations between PCD and acculturative stress and between length of residence and acculturative stress; and negative associations between PGI and mental health problems and between English proficiency and acculturative stress. We provide evidence that including expatriate orientation is relevant among international students: It is stronger than both host and heritage orientations, thereby underlining the importance of studying acculturation in a contextualized way.     

Physical education teacher educators’ views regarding the purpose(s) of school physical education

The aim of this paper was to gain an understanding of the views of a group of physical education teacher educators on the purpose(s) of school physical education and whether, how and why these views have changed over time. Semi-structured individual interviews were carried out with thirteen physical education teacher educators; a fourteenth participant responded to interview questions in writing. Participants were based in seven countries: Belgium, Finland, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Switzerland and the USA. A relative consensus on the overarching purpose of physical education was evident, centred on physical education preparing young people for a lifetime of physical activity. The framing of this shared purpose differed somewhat between participants, reflecting a range of perspectives on the value of physical activity. Delineating the boundaries of their subject, participants characterised obesity prevention and maximising in-class physical activity as potential by-products rather than as goals of the subject. The views of many had changed over time, influenced by such factors as findings from research, societal expectations and a perceived need to legitimise physical education within school and university contexts. We note that many of the influences acting on the views of the physical education teacher educators are also known to affect practicing teachers. This suggests a possibility, in the open reflection of physical education teacher educators on the interaction between their views and the institutional and societal contexts within which they work, to provide future teachers with alternative value pathways paved with relatable explanations and shared experiences.     

Resilience and acculturative pathways underlying psychological well-being of immigrant youth

Most immigrant adolescents in Western Europe seem to feel well despite social-economic-cultural disadvantage. Researchers tend to relate the well-being of these youths to immigrants’ distinctive experiences associated with their background culture, i.e., relatedness. Combining insights from resilience and acculturation perspectives in light of an ecological perspective, we tested the hypothesis that communal (e.g., school) and individual resources (e.g., autonomy) that highlight mainstream culture and values of independence are also conducive to the well-being of immigrant youth, especially when these youths are high on mainstream culture adoption. A questionnaire study among immigrant and nonimmigrant vocational school students in Belgium (N = 290) revealed that not only relatedness but also school engagement and autonomy were predictive of a high well-being of immigrant youth, particularly of those who adopted mainstream culture. Results suggest that in different cultural contexts acculturating youth rely on multiple resources to cope with social adversity and use acculturation orientations to maximize their benefit from these resources.