Improved Appreciation of Mathematics Through an IBL Liberal Arts Mathematics Course

Abstract

The author has taught an inquiry-based liberal arts mathematics class using the text “The Heart of Mathematics: An Invitation to Effective Thinking” by Edward B. Burger and Michael Starbird a total of 20 times since Spring 2001. The students in this class have almost all been in non-technical majors and many started the semester with negative or ambivalent attitudes toward mathematics based on their prior experiences. The author has gathered responses from students in this class that illustrate significant changes in their attitudes towards mathematics during the course. In particular, the responses gathered at the end of the semester are often eloquent about understanding the great ideas of mathematics that students confronted in this course and about seeing many more and varied connections between mathematics and the “real world” than they had previously realized existed.     

国际职业格斗赛事的类型分化与序列演化

职业格斗赛事是以职业选手为参赛主体,以高水平格斗赛事为商品,以此获得经济效益的专门性体育经济活动。在职业格斗赛事领域,格斗赛事经由类型分化,以及同质性格斗类运动项目的聚类融合,呈现出职业拳击赛事、职业站立格斗赛事和职业综合格斗赛事3大类型赛事并行发展的态势。在职业拳击赛事方面,赛事组织经分化呈现出以WBA、WBC、IBF和WBO这4大职业拳击组织举办的赛事序列演化格局。在职业站立格斗赛事方面,“K-1”时代的更迭先后经历了创立与探索发展阶段、由兴盛而衰落阶段与重建阶段;在后“K-1”时代,“K-1”主导的站立格斗赛事发展格局被打破,呈现出多元竞争与发展的格局。在职业综合格斗赛事方面,以美国“UFC”为主导的职业综合格斗赛事经过了从早期“无限制”赛事向“综合格斗”赛事的转型,从“边缘化”走向中兴。在一定时期内,美国“UFC”将主导国际职业综合格斗赛事的发展,在“UFC”的主导下,职业综合格斗赛事将进一步扩张,并呈现全球化发展之势。     

格物致知:博物馆艺术教育的活动规划方式研究

博物馆是承载社会记忆的时空胶囊,是文化交流的最佳窗口。博物馆艺术教育不仅可以保护文化遗产的整体性,还可以培养观众的美感素养及文化品位。通过博物馆艺术教育,观众可以汲取知识,激发好奇心,增进审美能力。通过归纳博物馆艺术教育的功能及其类别,分析博物馆艺术教育的教学理念,提出三种博物馆艺术教育的活动规划方式。     

Teachers Curating Virtual Exhibitions for Learning Visual Arts: A Study of Impact and Effectiveness

Although visual arts teachers have free access to high quality online artwork images offering them immense teaching resources, making meaningful use of them remains a pedagogical challenge. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the transition from face-to-face to online teaching caused an immediate need for teachers to enhance their digital competencies and technological capability for planning and delivering a blended art curriculum. Herein, I propose a ‘teacher-curator pedagogy’ via a study in six primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong to assess its effectiveness. The study took place in the academic year of 2021-22 with 331 student participants. The proposed pedagogy puts visual arts teachers in the role of ‘digital curators’ who create virtual exhibitions for teaching art appreciation and artmaking. This paper addresses the theoretical framework, implementation strategies, and the results of the study highlighting its effectiveness, impact and limitations on teaching when using teacher-curated virtual exhibitions in both physical and virtual learning contexts. It was found that the technological capacity and confidence of the teacher participants was enhanced through the use of online resources and virtual exhibition tools. Making use of the 3D presentation of exhibits in themes and context through digital content curation, the teachers engaged students with deep interaction through the blending of online and face-to-face teaching. However, the proposed pedagogy was limited by the high demand of training and preparation work, hardware and software support, and difficulties in assessing and monitoring learning beyond class.     

Integrating Creative Thinking Skills Pedagogies into a Higher Education Visual Arts Course

Although there has been increasing international emphasis on creativity in education, many creativity training programmes have focused on enhancing students' creative thinking skills with few studies on how these skills can be integrated into the teaching of subject disciplines. As a member of a Community of Practice project that ran from spring 2021 to summer 2022 at my university, I worked with ten university teachers from multiple disciplines to develop and implement instructional strategies to foster students' creative thinking skills. The paper documented the development, implementation and evaluation of creative thinking skills teaching strategies for a higher education course in visual arts. Both the development of the teaching strategies and the measurement of the impact on student learning have undergone vigorous research procedures and made reference to the existing literature. The effectiveness of the activities was assessed using multiple methods including the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, a self-report inventory, and a focus group interview. The results indicated the new learning activities enhanced students' creative thinking skills. They also showed that creativity can be developed through teaching while revealing that playfulness, freedom and structure, group interactions, and problem-solving activities are beneficial for the development of creative thinking skills. Readers may better understand the different ways in which creative thinking skills instruction materials can be developed and incorporated into teaching of visual arts by making reference to the strategies suggested and the process of development in the paper.     

禅境的映现——论中华武学心法

研究中华武学心法不仅可以提高武术技艺,而且可以提升人的心性修养。应用文献资料法、观察法、调查研究法对武学部分拳种和禅宗知识进行研究。禅宗与中华武学的融合的历史背景及其现实条件进行探析,认为中华武学以禅宗的修持方法为心法基础,对武学的内功炼气、运气方法和实战技击进行了有机的融合,使内功炼气与功夫技击相为表里,成为一个有机的整体。和禅宗提倡的"定慧一体、道由心悟、契自心源、回光就己,返境观心"理路相通。同时看到禅宗与中华武学的融合的矛盾:"武"毕竟以格杀为手段和目的,而禅宗则是品格人生的华育,一生一杀正是截然相反的对立面,"武"终究以动彰显,禅宗静默不言之教。在中华武学中相融就要有着本质的转换。研究中华武学心法为研究中外文化融合的历史轨迹和内在机制提供了参考,同时对当代人提升心性修养和武术技艺提供理论支持。     

大武术观指导下学校武术师资的培养路径探析——以广东省为例

运用文献资料、问卷调查、专家访谈、逻辑分析等研究方法,对广东省学校武术师资现状、培养路径进行研究。结果显示,当前广东省学校武术师资少、分布不均衡、素质不高、培训少,教师希望参加武术培训的愿望高。研究认为,发展大武术观指导下的学校武术,师资培养是关键,其路径应该是省教育主管部门成立武术继续教育中心开展师资培训、地方教育主管部门和学校支持教师参加武术培训、组织专家成立武术讲师团开展＂走基层＂武术进学校活动、学校与专家结对子定点指导培训师资、定期举办多层次多形式的武术活动和比赛等。     

传统武术发展的时代性思考

文章以传统武术作为研究对象,运用文献资料法、逻辑分析等研究方法,对传统武术的概念进行了从新的界定,并对传统武术目前的“尴尬”现状和问题做出系统的研究和分析。研究发现：传统武术的发展现状不容乐观,其生存环境和空间受到了前所未有的挑战和威胁。认为：解放思想、改革创新、文化回归、传承和保护并重是传统武术未来发展的时代需求、立足之本、必然趋势、有效保障。试图为中国传统武术的发展提供一定的理论依据。     

创新评价机制点亮美术课堂--对小班化美术评价的思考

课堂评价是小学美术教学的重要环节,是激发学生美术学习兴趣、培养美术综合能力的重要途径。本文指出,当代小班化课堂仍沿用传统大班的美术课堂评价机制,存在很多问题,这严重影响了小班化优势的发挥。为适应小班化要求,应树立“学生中心”的课堂评价观。同时本文重点论述了多元评价方法的实施策略,强调美术评语要有“美术味儿”,以此激励学生,进而增强学生的兴趣和信心,唤醒学生对美术的热爱之情,点亮小学美术课堂。     

浅析小城市新课程体系下的中学美术教学

作为新一轮基础教育课程改革的重要内容之一,美术教学改革之后新的课程对中学美术教学提出了一些新问题,每个美术教育工作者都应直面这些挑战,使美术教学更好地适应时代发展。本文立足于新课程体系下中学美术教学现状和特点,分析和研究当下中学美术课堂中存在的一些问题,并提出相应的对策。