Exercising a bounded autonomy: novice and experienced teachers’ adaptations to curriculum materials in an age of accountability

This study explores teachers’ first enactments of a set of theory-based curriculum materials designed to support academic language instruction. Specifically, this multiple case study looks at how six middle school English teachers in three US schools adapted the materials; each case includes a pair of teachers, one novice and one more experienced. All schools were located in the same district where a school performance measurement system was being used to publicly rank schools’ academic performance and growth. Multiple measures were used to look for evidence of adaptations and why teachers made adaptations. We found that all teachers adapted the curriculum, most often in response to either perceived student needs or district reform pressures. In two cases, patterns of adaptation differed by teacher experience; experienced teachers appeared better able to adapt curriculum materials to meet instructional goals. This pattern did not hold up at the third school, where teachers faced greater reform pressures. Taken together, these findings suggest that researchers should pay more attention to the role of school and district policy on teachers’ enactments of theory-based reforms. We conclude with guidance to researchers, instructional leaders and others interested in the potential of theory-based curricula as a lever for improving classroom instruction.     

Does prior mathematics knowledge really lead to variation in elementary statistics performance? Evidence from a developing country

A model incorporating prerequisite mathematics performance and other variables deemed to be associated with learning elementary statistics (ES) is developed. The relationship between ES performance and the explanatory variables is well represented by the logistics form. Aptitude, effort and motivation are the only significant explanatory variables of ES performance. Since prerequisite mathematics is not significant, statistical thinking at the tertiary level may be mostly intuitive and non-mathematical. Students with low aptitude experience increasing returns to effort over the first half of the feasible effort interval, while high-aptitude students experience diminishing returns at all levels of effort. The levels of effort required to achieve a minimum pass are interpreted.     

EFL teachers’ perceptions of English language policy at the elementary level in Taiwan

Due in large part to the trends towards economic globalization, English has become the most widely disseminated and ubiquitous international language. The purpose of the study was to investigate what Taiwan’s EFL teachers at the elementary level believe about the policy of English as a compulsory subject and how they perceive the benefits and obstacles of the policy’s implementation. Ten elementary English teachers in Tainan City and its suburban areas participated in this study. Data were collected through teachers’ interviews, classroom observation and document analysis. Results found that all ten teachers agreed with the policy for English as a compulsory subject at the elementary level. They observed both positive and negative sides of this top‐down policy. Classroom observation and interview data revealed that EFL teachers had to plan their English classes with the constraints on a large class of students with mixed levels of proficiency, limited teaching hours and resources. Parents’ expectations of and attitudes towards English learning also became an obstacle.     

明朝嘉靖以前中央政府对宣府镇的惠农政策

以农为本一直是封建王朝的执政理念.明朝嘉靖以前中央政府对宣府镇采取的一系列保护和发展农业的政策和措施,如减免租税、屯田垦荒、救灾复业等成为宣府镇农业经济发展的决定性因素.     

世纪之交高等师范院校面临的挑战与抉择

世纪之交的中国高等师范院校面临着严峻的挑战,其中最主要的挑战来自五方面：即社会主义市场经济对现代师范教育体制的冲击;知识经济时代对高素质教师的要求;基础教育的发展对提高师资学历层次和专业素质的迫切需要,名牌综合性大学兴办师范专业对现行师范教育体制格局的打破;国家近年对重点大学的政策倾斜和重点投入拉大了差距;这些挑战,对于高等师范校的未来前途,都具有决定性、根本性、全局性的影响。中国的高等师范院校应     

浅析中国近现代历史发展的两次重大转变

中国由半封建半殖民地社会转变为社会主义社会、由闭关自守局面转为对外开放局面，这是中国近现代以来最重大的两次转变。如果从全球化的视域中进行考察，可以看出全球化浪潮对这两次转变的影响非常大．全球化潮流是使中国发生这两次转变的深远背景。     

Expectations versus reality: the case of Liberal Studies in Hong Kong’s new senior secondary reforms

This article reports the findings of a five-year longitudinal study investigating the introduction of Liberal Studies in the context of Hong Kong’s new senior secondary educational reforms. The aim of this empirical research, which adopted diachronic analysis to allow comparisons over time, was to compare teachers’ and students’ perceptions of the Liberal Studies curriculum before and after its introduction. Methodologically speaking, the study was informed by documentary inquiry, with approximately 560 newspaper articles and government reports collected to identify the issues surrounding the curriculum debate. Questionnaire-based surveys conducted in the pre- and post-reform periods revealed a sharp contrast between expectations and reality for both participant groups following the curriculum’s introduction. Whilst the students demonstrated favourable attitudes towards Liberal Studies before studying the subject, a certain degree of disappointment was expressed after the new curriculum came into effect. In follow-up interviews with teachers, they expressed a lack of confidence in teaching such a multi-disciplinary subject and criticised the overly ambitious nature of the curriculum. Liberal Studies, as currently taught, runs the risk of falling out of favour with Hong Kong secondary school teachers, and the question of whether it will play an increasingly important role in promoting patriotic education after the demise of Moral and National Education is deserving of research attention.     

基于Windows2000组策略的机房管理

本文在介绍Windows2000组策略的基础上,给出了如何利用组策略对计算机房进行统一管理的方法.     

新加坡的语言政策与官方语言的地位和功能

新加坡的语言政策可以分为英国殖民时期的“独尊英语,放开其他”、独立前后的“独尊巫语,多语并重”和20世纪70年代以来的“多语并存,英语独尊”三个发展阶段。目前其语言政策的基本精神可以概括为:尊重国内各种族语言文化之间的差异,以多语政策来谋求文化传承、民族和谐与政治稳定;以英语的通用来掌握学习西方先进科技的利器,推动经济繁荣和国际沟通．冀求建立对国家的忠心和认同。在这样的语言政策的制约和影响下,马来语、华语、淡米尔语和英语四种官方语言的地位和功能呈现出明显的分工并存的态势:马来语是名义上的国语,是马来人的共同语,是各种族之间的底层通用语言;华语是华族的民族共同语,是华族社群的高层语言:淡米尔语是印度族的通用语言;英语是实际上的国语,是社会的顶层语言,也是各种族之间的通用语言。     

我国教育政策价值的反思与前瞻

教育政策价值是教育政策理论与实践最根本、最核心的问题。近年来我国制定和实施的一系列教育政策还存在着诸多问题,而造成这些问题的一个重要原因是,我国尚缺乏对教育政策价值观的思考。从主体需要来说,我国未来的教育政策要重视其直接利益相应人的利益;要适当扩大教育政策制定、执行和评价主体的范围;要重视共同利益、长远利益、弱势利益和未得利益,做到共同利益与政治利益、长远利益与眼前利益、强势利益与弱势利益、既得利益与未得利益兼顾。从客体属性来说,我国未来的教育政策要重视其公共性,做到政治性与公共性的统一;要提升教育政策的合理性,做到合法性与合理性具体的、历史的统一;要加强教育政策的协调功能,做到管理功能与协调功能并重。从效应关系来看,我国未来的教育政策要提升其内在价值,做到外在价值与内在价值的统一;要重视教育政策应然价值,做到实然价值与应然价值的统一;要重视教育政策的隐性价值,做到显性价值与隐性价值的统一。