Conceptualising Curriculum Change

Recent developments in UK higher education are turning attention to the undergraduate curriculum. Drawing on Lyotard's concept of performativity, this paper explores broad patterns of curriculum change in five subject areas. The curriculum is understood as an educational project forming identities founded in three domains: knowledge, action and self. Curriculum models are proposed that identify these components and their relationships with each other. The evidence suggests that the weightings and levels of integration of these components vary between the sciences and technology subjects, the arts and humanities, and professional courses. Attempts to develop curriculum strategies should take account of the patterns of curriculum components as they vary between the subject areas.     

CREATIVITY, KNOWLEDGE AND CURRICULUM IN FURTHER EDUCATION: A BERNSTEINIAN PERSPECTIVE

ABSTRACT:  This paper draws on the work of Basil Bernstein to offer a (re-) conceptualisation of creativity for the English further education (FE) sector. It begins by locating creativity within the political economy of FE and argues that teaching and learning is constrained by an instrumental remit for the sector, which prioritises perceived economic needs over broader conceptions of education and training. The paper goes on to analyse the FE curriculum, relating Bernstein's work on generic modes to critiques of competence. It proposes a central role for knowledge and broad conceptions of skill in FE in order to contest an instrumental approach to teaching and learning arising from official discourse on competitiveness. The paper uses Bernstein's typology of vertical and horizontal discourse to argue that creativity needs to be re-defined in a way that recognises the value of principled, conceptual knowledge in vocational education whilst acknowledging the socially constructed nature of creativity and knowledge.     

对一类函数的一致有理逼近的研究

对于f∈C^∞（　∞，0]，limf（x）=0这类函数，我们在这篇文章中介绍新的一致有理逼近曲线，这类曲线其实是从泰勒公式转化过来的，但它却修正了泰勒公式的不足之处，特别是对于上列的函数类，且对有界函数也有很好的逼近．它在逼近问题上，能解决泰勒逼近曲线不能解决的问题．     

融合与内化——兼评伯恩斯坦、布迪厄对批判话语分析的理论贡献

批判话语分析是近二三十年来兴起的社会科学研究的新方法,它在文本分析中融入广泛的社会理论,旨在捕获话语与社会之间的各种动态关系,诸如权力结构、资本交换、互动方式、话语秩序及符号暴力等。但随着分析对象的不断变化,它需要更多新的、交叉的分析技术与社会理论的融合。正是在这样的时代潮流中,伯恩斯坦与布迪厄提出了“场域”、“惯习”、“声音”、“语境重置”等一系列新颖的社会学概念,它们与批判话语分析术语之间建立起了某种特殊关联,并在融合和内化的过程中极大地丰富和完善着批判话语学理论。     

Difference as privilege: identity,citizenship and the recontextualisation of human rights in Japan’s social studies curriculum

ABSTRACT

While global human rights knowledge has become a central facet of curricula used to shape multicultural societies and develop cosmopolitan citizenry, such knowledge is shaped by sociopolitical context. Japan has a long history of incorporating human rights concepts into its citizenship curriculum; however, this curriculum is produced in a political context where there is resistance to extending rights to minorities and the disadvantaged, and where there are renewed attempts to emphasise traditional Japanese cultural values through education. Potential tensions have been recognised, yet little has been written about educational knowledge as end product. Based partially on Basil Bernstein’s concepts, a mixed-method approach utilising computer-based analytical techniques was used to examine the structure and content of human rights knowledge within upper-secondary Contemporary Social Studies textbooks representing Japan’s official curriculum. This article will argue that the curriculum establishes an inconsistent standard toward rights that undermines respect for individuals.     

Bernstein revisited: the recontextualisation of equity in contemporary Australian school education

This article draws on the sociology of Basil Bernstein to show how his detailed theories of ‘recontextualisation’ and the ‘pedagogic device’ provide useful analytic levers to examine the politics of educational change. We focus on recent policy developments that have significantly impacted Australian school education: the Program for International Student Assessment; the National Assessment Programme for Numeracy and Literacy; and the government’s public dissemination of school achievement data through the MySchool website. The analysis illustrates the ways in which the logics of economic rationalism not only have become ubiquitous in Australian education policy, but have come to recontextualise – or reshape – discourses of social and educational equity through new norms of competition, standardisation and commensurability. In doing so, the paper highlights the value of a Bernsteinian approach to understanding the vernacular character of neoliberalism in contemporary educational policy.     

Changing pedagogic codes in a class of landscape architects learning ‘ecologically sustainable development’

Professional discourse in education has been the focus of research conducted mostly with teachers and professional practitioners, but the work of students in the built environment has largely been ignored. This article presents an analysis of students’ visual discourse in the final professional year of a landscape architecture course in Brisbane, Australia. The study has a multi‐method design and includes drawings, interviews and documentary materials, but focuses on the drawings in this paper. Using the theory of Bernstein, the analysis considers student representations as inter‐relations between professional identity and discretionary space for legitimate knowledge formation in landscape planning. It shows a shift in how students persuade the teacher of their expanding views of this field. The discussion of this shift centres on the professional knowledge that students choose rather than need to learn. It points to the differences within a class that a teacher must address in curriculum design in a contemporary professional course.     

Classification and framing in the case method: discussion leaders' questions

Basil Bernstein's classification and framing was adopted as a theoretical model to analyse the instruction of two university professors who incorporated case studies into their graduate business and education courses. Classification and framing allows for a meaningful analysis of the discussion leader's questions that facilitate students' understanding of a case. The investigation identified values related to the questioning process that purportedly fosters students' communication skills, critical‐thinking abilities, and problem‐solving skills in a case discussion. This study contributes to a growing body of literature that seeks a deeper understanding of the facilitator's role in case‐based discussions.     

对伯恩施坦“社会主义的最终目的”理论的再认识

长期以来,学术界将伯恩施坦＂运动就是一切,最终目的是微不足道的＂的思想视为社会主义运动是没有任何确定目的的典型,实际上伯恩施坦并不是认为社会主义运动没有确定目的,他对于＂最终目的＂的理解是＂未来社会的具体模式或设想＂,但在他看来这是不可想象的。因而他认为应该关注于日常合法斗争,而不是＂最终目的＂。伯恩施坦认为关于最终目的与运动是分离的,而马克思整个理论的魅力恰恰是发现了资本主义发展的内在逻辑中蕴涵着新社会的因素。伯恩施坦的失误归根到底还在于他对辩证法的蔑视。     

应用Bernstein多项式求解一类分数阶微分方程

给出了基于 Bernstein多项式求解分数阶微分方程的配置方法。首先,在 Bernstein级数的截断式中用tα（0〈α〈1）代替t得到分数阶Bernstein级数截断式,采用Caputo分数阶导数构建分数阶Bernstein级数截断式的矩阵形式。其次,把方程中的每一项用分数阶Bernstein级数截断式转换成矩阵形式,选取配置点,得到相应于非线性代数方程的基本矩阵方程。最后得到由条件矩阵形式和基本矩阵方程构成的新方程组,其解给出了截断项为N的近似解,同时给出了基于残余函数的误差分析。举例说明了这种方法的有效性和可行性。