Guest Editor's Introduction

This issue and the next deal with aspects of the examination system in China, in particular the gaokao (college and university entrance examination) and huikao (upper middle school general graduation examinations). The aim is to provide background information regarding policies, recent reforms, opinions, suggestions, and criticisms. While most attention is focused on the changes in the period since 1988, brief references are also made to reforms since 1949 and even earlier periods, including the keju (imperial examination system). Aside from such contextual references, occasional comparisons are also made with American and other Western examination systems.     

Using the Phono‐Graphix reading programme as a literacy support intervention strategy

The study outlined here was an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of using the Phono‐Graphix reading programme with a group of four struggling readers/non‐readers. The children selected were in Primary 2 and had already had one‐and‐a‐half years of mixed reading instruction strategies – primarily Jolly Phonics with a ‘look and say’ approach. The children were taught in twice weekly ‘pull out’ sessions in addition to learning with their peers in their normal, daily classroom lessons. Results showed that they had improved in all literacy sub‐skills being assessed. Two of them also improved on standardised assessments. All children were observed to be reading (and spelling) more accurately than at the beginning of the project.     

Using adult education principles for HIV/AIDS awareness intervention strategies in Botswana

This paper reports on a mainly qualitative study into company strategies for HIV/AIDS information, education and communication (IEC) strategies in the Botswana workplace. The authors argue that HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention strategies in Botswana need a new approach. The research proposal hypothesized that IEC strategies need to take account of adult education theory that promotes the active involvement of learners in developing their own curriculum. It also proposed that an Africa‐centric gender perspective should be incorporated into future IEC materials. That is, the particular cultural position of women and their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS infection in Botswana needs to be theorized as an issue of power. Integrated with this issue is the argument that it is not always appropriate to try to persuade women to take the initiative in preventing infection when culturally they have no power to do so. The paper therefore critiques some of the adult education and feminist arguments for empowerment that do not take account of existing male power positions within the Botswana social framework. Using new educational material that derived from the research findings the authors argue for a dual strategy towards behavioural change; one that takes account of the current health crisis, but also one which uses a radical pedagogical approach that engages with ‘where people are at’.     

Research,Information and Education in Building: Where Are the Links?

RESUMÉ

A recent systematic study showed that the transfer of information from research to practice in construction is not efficient: results are disseminated badly, are difficult to trace and are little used by practitioners, whose information-gathering routines are defective. The way in which the building process is organized, characterized by discontinuity and variety, creates a context where the well-proven recipe is preferred to scientific knowledge, too difficult to apply with haste. How can one educate future practitioners and teach them to reconcile the need for better building—based on science—within the chaotic environment of the building industry? One answer to this question lies in improved exploitation of information, its systematic transformation and its valorization. A second answer lies in a search for operational continuity, thus paving the way for informed innovation.

Une étude systématique ricente a démontré I'inefficacité du passage de I'information de la recherche à la pratique en construction: les résuhats sont mal disséminés, difficiles a repérer et peu utilisés par les praticiens, eux-mêmes rarement avertis de I'importance de I'information. L'organisation de l'acte de bâtir, avec la discontinuite et la variété qui le caractérisent, crée un environnement o[ugrave] la recette éprouvée passe avant les connaissances scientifiques, trop difficiles à appliquer ‘àla va-vite’. Comment peut-on éduquer les futurs praticiens, et leur faire comprendre la nécessite de mieux construire—grâce a I'apport de la science—dans I'environnement chaotique du secteur du bâtiment? Une meilleure exploitation de I'information, de sa transformation systematique et de sa valorisation est sans doute une premiére réponse à cette question primordiale; une deuxième réponse préconise en outre la continuité operationnelle, ouvrant ainsi la parte à L'innovation guidée par I'information.