What remains of history? Historical epistemology and historical understanding in Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence

This paper critically examines the framing of historical knowledge in the primary and ‘broad general education’ phases (ages 4–14) of Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence. The paper focuses on curriculum documentation, particularly the curriculum's aims and ‘Experiences and Outcomes’ and evaluates these in light of recent research on children's historical understanding. It is argued that the decision to frame historical understanding as ‘People, Past Events and Societies’ within the context of a ‘social studies’ curriculum area has been motivated by a misunderstanding of history's unique disciplinary identity. It is argued that history curricula must take account of the unique ontological and epistemological challenges posed by investigating the past and that by failing to do this, ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ offers children in Scotland a problematic representation of what it means to study the past. The paper challenges the curriculum in both epistemic and pedagogical terms, before suggesting that a rigorous study of history as a discipline can make a valuable contribution to children's personal and social development.     

地方性高校人文社会科学研究发展策略研究

近年来地方性高校的人文社会科学研究发展迅速，但由于体制、观念等方面存在一些问题，影响其进一步快速发展，应从学科建设、评价机制、经费管理等方面加以改进。     

Gender differences in reading performance on documents across countries

Females are known to excel over males in most reading tasks, but notconsistently so in tasks that require processing information from maps,tables, charts and diagrams, so called `Documents'. The IEA ReadingLiteracy data provides possibilities to investigate gender differencesacross countries in such tasks in two age groups, 9-year-olds and14-year-olds. The general question about cultural influences vs. aninvariant pattern of gender differences is of great interest for genderresearch, and central in this study. The aim of the paper is to describeand analyze gender differences on Document tasks, and investigate if andhow the pattern of differences varies over countries. Another aim is todemonstrate the power of using a multivariate analysis technique bycontrasting it against traditional univariate approaches. The univariateanalysis indicates female advantage as the most common in the youngergroup and a mixed pattern in the older. The multivariate analysisindicate that Document tasks are not unidimensional, because bothgeneral and specific dimensions can be extracted from the raw scores.The traditional univariate analysis often disguised true patterns ofdifferences in the data, both in terms of country differences and interms of the direction of the gender differences. Raw score differencesbetween the genders proved to be due to differences in both general andpassage specific dimensions. Ten of the countries showed genderdifferences in both directions in the general dimension among9-year-olds, while an almost consistent pattern of female advantage wasfound among 14-years-olds. Many of the specific passage dimensionsturned out to favor either males or females. This complex pattern variedover both age groups and across countries, although commonalities in thepattern among subgroups of countries were common.     

流派研究的方法论及其当代价值

文学流派的出现和繁荣是中国现代文学接受外国文学思潮的影响，突破传统文学格局的一项重要收获，它的形成离不开社会、政治、文化对它的诸多作用。作为一个有生命力的文学构成和文学过程，在其张扬个性和组合个性中不同程度地具备五个要素：风格要素，师友要素，交往行为要素，用人刊物和报纸专栏要素，社团要素，流派是文学的整体性和个体性中间环节，是个体性的综合，又综合成整体性的肌理。流派研究对于整个现代文学研究的深化，既有认识论的价值，又有方法论的价值，它使现代文学研究立体化、层面化、动态化。     

道家养生文化的人学解读

道家养生文化关注人的精神健康,推崇清心无为、见素抱朴、致虚守静、少私寡欲,不为物累的自然人性思想,强调心灵的内在超越;道家把人生命的价值放在首位,提倡内养和外炼结合、静功和动功结合的养生之道;道家特别关注人与自然的关系与发展,将人的命运轨迹与自然的无形而化联系起来,体现了人学的基本精神.     

Environmental and sustainability education in a post-truth era. An exploration of epistemology and didactics beyond the objectivism-relativism dualism

This article focuses on environmental and sustainability education (ESE) in the context of the topical post-truth debate. It aims to progress theoretical research as well as empirical investigations on how ESE practices can avoid the pitfalls involved in an objectivist as well as a relativist approach to teaching and learning. After elaborating the problems implied in both these approaches, the article explores concepts developed in science and technology studies (STS) that have the potential to inspire ESE research and practice to move beyond this problematic dichotomy: Latour’s ‘matters of concern’ and ‘compositionism’ and Jasanoff’s ‘co-production’ and ‘socio-technical imaginaries’. Drawing on pragmatist educational theory the author develops a conceptual framework that serves as a theoretical model for investigations of how ESE subject matter and teaching methods can be introduced, handled and experienced in a way that moves beyond the dualism of objectivism versus relativism. Building on the work of scholars who have connected Dewey’s pragmatic, transactional perspective to the domain of didactical research, it is shown how this theoretical model can be operationalised for empirical studies with the help of well-chosen analytical methods. The article is concluded with some reflections on the limitations and potential of the presented framework.     

Changing What Is Taught: Hearing the Voices of the Underrepresented

A major challenge facing institutions today is determining the role of multiculturalism in the curriculum. Institutions that decide to incorporate multicultural perspectives into the general education curriculum will face a long and complex process. In 1991, policy makers at Florida State University made the decision to require all students to take multicultural courses to fulfill general education requirements. This article provides insight into the challenges that institutional policy makers face as they seek to change the curriculum to include the voices of those previously underrepresented.     

生态价值学论纲

生态价值学是从价值哲学的角度出发，探讨生态环境与人类社会生存与发展的关系问题，它是生态价值观的理论体系。人类思想史上曾出现过三种不同的生态价值观。生态哲学、生态伦理学等学科也涉及生态环境的价值问题，它们探讨的是生态环境的具体价值。要全面地把握生态环境对整个人类社会生态与发展的积极作用，有必要在概括以往研究成果的基础上，建立起一门揭示生态环境一般价值的学科--生态价值学，从而有助于人们形成对生态价值问题的科学认识，树立正确的生态价值观。     

Between teachers’ perceptions and civic conceptions: lessons from three Israeli civics teachers

Building on sociocultural theories of teaching and learning, rooted in constructivist traditions, this study examined the teaching of civics in relation to contextual sociocultural factors in the Israeli educational system. The study focused on ways in which three civics teachers conceptualized and framed notions of good citizenship in relation to the teaching of the civics subject matter, and on the ways in which such notions manifest in their planned teaching. The main finding points to how the teachers framed their civics lessons in a manner that was in congruence with their perceptions of their students’ approaches to citizenship. Thus, the study reaches the conclusion that teachers’ perceptions are a key element in framing and conceptualizing civics lessons, resulting in a reality in which students from different backgrounds may experience significant differences in their orientation to the notion of good citizenship, limiting their exposure to multiple views.     

The humanities in the primary school – where are we and in which direction should we be heading? A perspective from Scotland

ABSTRACT

In Scotland, although there is no agreed definition of what constitutes the humanities, they have their locus principally within two of eight curricular areas in Curriculum for Excellence (CfE): Social Studies (SS) and Religious and Moral Education (RME). Both SS and RME are contexts for learning where broad principles apply in relation to curricular coverage. These principles are formalised in Experiences and Outcomes for each of these curricular areas which provide broad guidance around topic areas for study while allowing for the use of local contexts for learning and flexibility in pedagogy. Key opportunities in SS include: exciting and engaging learners, enabling personalisation and choice and equipping learners with a range of skills. In RME, opportunities include helping learners to: understand themselves and others; draw upon religious and other beliefs in forming their own views and engaging in positive social change. Key challenges for SS include: ensuring breadth and depth of coverage; reaching agreed standards across the educational community; responding to the requirement for an increased focus on literacy and numeracy. In RME challenges include: ensuring that national expectations are met; ensuring breadth and depth in learning; the nature and role of assessment; practitioner and parental conceptualisations of the curricular area.