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1.
The purposes of this study were to examine how Turkish students perceived their biology classroom environment, how their perceptions compared to those of students in other countries, and what classroom learning environment profiles could be discerned in Turkish high school biology classrooms. Data were gathered from 1,474 high school students in four inner city schools, in Bursa, Turkey. A total of 11 biology teachers participated in the study with 52 of their classes. Data on students’ perceptions of their learning environment were collected with the What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire. Results indicated that Turkish classrooms were perceived as being low in terms of Teacher Support and high in terms of Task Orientation. Six distinct classroom learning environment profiles were found: the ‘self-directed learning classroom’, ‘task-oriented cooperative learning classroom’, ‘mainstream classroom’, ‘task-oriented individualised classroom’, ‘low-effective learning classroom’ and ‘high-effective learning classroom’. The most common profile was the ‘mainstream classroom’ for which all WIHIC scales had medium–high scores.  相似文献   

2.
The aim of this study was to develop an instrument for evaluating how an education program has been implemented. Such evaluation can provide insight into the effectiveness of a program. Examined here was the Olympic Education Program used in Greek schools since 2000. In it, students learn the history of the Olympic games and the importance of exercise for health along with the principles and values of sports and volunteerism. The evaluation instrument underlying this study addressed the following six factors: ‘facilities’, ‘administration’, ‘educational material’, ‘student–teacher relationships’, ‘educational procedures’, and ‘training’. Results indicate that the instrument, while adequate for assessing effectiveness, should be combined with advanced statistical methods.  相似文献   

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Educational research has been criticised by governments and practitioners. For some politicians and policy makers, there is a tendency to look for direct links between research and successful, effective and efficient practice. Research is needed to inform their evidence-based practice as policy makers, and to provide the kind of research teachers need to base their practice on the best available evidence for doing ‘x rather than y’ (Hargreaves 1996) or predicting the ‘size of the effect of A on B’ (Blunkett 2000). There is no doubt that both teachers and policy makers do make decisions on a daily basis based on some form of evidence. This paper explores Hargreaves’ notion of evidence-based practice, providing a range of criticisms. It also examines Carr’s historical account of ‘praxis’ and ‘poiesis’ to suggest a notion of evidence-based praxis based partly on the historical notion of ‘phronesis’ — practical wisdom. The basis for this is the argument that wise and practical ethical and moral judgements are central to an understanding of teachers’ daily work. What to do in a specific educational situation cannot be determined solely by theoretical beliefs or by ‘techne’. However the ethical dimension is not the only consideration. The paper suggests that evidence-based praxis use Stenhouse’s notion of ‘actionable evidence’, which includes the ethical dimension, but also Thomson’s concept of ‘thisness’, which describes the unique contextual characteristics of a school. If disadvantaged schools can make some sort of difference to learning opportunities for students, it is argued that teachers might engage in evidence-based praxis which involves them in reflecting on, and theorising what is happening in classrooms, schools and neighbourhoods. This ‘praxis’ also involves them in modifying their theories, critically analysing ‘what works’, questioning how they know and developing ideas about how things might be done differently. There will be an element of developing knowledge about teaching and learning strategies (Hargreaves’ ‘body of knowledge’), but it will be in the context of the ethical and moral dilemmas associated with education. It will take up the question of local differences as well as a realistic approach to what constitutes actual school improvement. Evidence-based praxis is also essentially a collective activity not an individual approach. Future development of the notion of evidence-based praxis might also include involving students in a more reciprocal and open learning process like that highlighted by researchers who focus on student participation linked to school reform.  相似文献   

5.
The purpose of this article is to analyze the meaning and presumptions of competence in the concrete context of knowledge capitalism. First, the nature of competence as a ‘commodification of human ability’ that obtains a standardized monetary value to sell in the labor market, is elucidated by applying Karl Marx’s critical theory. Second, it is further investigated that, in the new context of the global learning economy, the production of the competence as a commodity itself becomes a key industry, representing itself a crucialsub- system of knowledge capitalism. Third, this paper explains how competence discourse has a great deal to do with the current drastic changes in the educational paradigm from ‘nation-state education’ to ‘global learning economy’. These changes are illustrated by how traditional school subject-based curricula are replaced by competency-based curricula, academic qualifications integrated into a unified form of qualification framework, and school achievement is evaluated according to the ‘demanded workplace competence’. It is also argued that human competencies by nature have ‘double-bind’ characteristics: while it is pushed to meet the demands as knowledge commodities, human beings themselves are beyond any notion of tradability, and the new capitalism based on human commodities, if any, should reveal new rules to play the game.  相似文献   

6.
This paper is concerned with highlighting young children’s ideas about the nature, location and appearance of germs, as well as their reasoning strands about germs’ ontological category and biological functions. Moreover, it is concerned with exploring how all these could be taken into account for shaping a potentially fruitful learning environment. Conducting individual, semi-structured interviews with 35 preschoolers (age 4.5–5.5) of public kindergartens in the broader area of Patras, we attempted to trace their ideas about what germs are, where they may be found, whether they are good or bad and living or non-living and how they might look like in a drawing. Moreover, children were required to attribute a series of biological functions to dogs, chairs and germs, and finally to create a story with germs holding a key-role. The analysis of our qualitative data within the “NVivo” software showed that the informants make a strong association of germs with health and hygiene issues, locate germs mostly in our body and the external environment, are not familiar with the ‘good germs’-idea, and draw germs as ‘human-like’, ‘animal-like’ or ‘abstract’ entities. Moreover, they have significant difficulties not only in employing biological functions as criteria for classifying germs in the category of ‘living’, but also in just attributing such functions to germs using a warrant. Finally, the shift from our findings to a 3-part learning environment aiming at supporting preschoolers in refining their initial conceptualization of germs is thoroughly discussed in the paper.  相似文献   

7.
Teachers often comment that using manipulatives to teach mathematics is ‘fun!’ Embedded in the word ‘fun’ are important notions about how and why teachers use manipulatives in the teaching of mathematics. Over the course of one academic year, this study examined 10 middle grades teachers’ uses of manipulatives for teaching mathematics using interviews and observations to explore how and why the teachers used the manipulatives as they did. An examination of the participants’ statements and behaviors indicated that using manipulatives was little more than a diversion in classrooms where teachers were not able to represent mathematics concepts themselves. The teachers communicated that the manipulatives were fun, but not necessary, for teaching and learning mathematics. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.  相似文献   

8.
The theoretical frameworks presented in this Special Issue are appraised with respect to how they might enhance teachers’ or researchers’ work with ‘special needs’ students learning mathematics. The notion of ‘special needs’ is used in a broad sense, encompassing specific Special Educational Needs as well as students with low attainment. The analysis indicates that the different frameworks offer some distinctive methods for research or ideas for interventions, either individually or within multi-lens approaches. It also points to other perspectives, not represented here, that could be relevant for a growing understanding of issues of affect in mathematics education.  相似文献   

9.
The notions of ‘idealisation’ and ‘approximation’ are strongly linked to the question of ‘how our theories represent the phenomena in their scope’. Although there is no consensus amongst Philosophers on the nature of the process of idealisation and how it affects theoretical representation, at the level of science education much can be gained from the insights of existing philosophical analyses. Traditionally, teaching methodologies treat the observed divergence between theoretical predictions and experimental data by appealing to the more common-sensical notion of ‘approximation’. The use of the latter notion, however, to explicate discrepancies between theory and experiment obscures the theory/experiment relation. It does so, I argue, because from the viewpoint of scientific modelling ‘approximation’ either depends upon or piggybacks on ‘idealisation’.  相似文献   

10.
This paper argues that the conceptions of ‘space’ (and increasingly ‘time’) in the discussion of ‘the university’ (in its most transcendent sense) have gone through four distinct phases in the UK. Using a Heideggerian conception of ‘space’ where usefulness is more important than proximity, the ‘ancient’ universities were ‘useful’ to the gentry and thus were ‘closer’ to them than to the excluded ‘local’ poor in the institutions’ vicinities. The ‘civic’ universities on the other hand stressed ‘localism’ as part of their mandate – to educate the people of their locality (but only those of the new industrial middle class). The ‘Robbins’ universities were a partial return to the ‘ancient’ notion of learning as a ‘lived’ activity, providing scenic landscapes on green-belt campuses where students could ‘retreat’ from the ‘real world’ for the duration of their studies. The ‘spatial’ quality of these places was thus part of a conception of higher education as ‘lifestyle choice’ where young people moved away from their locality to study. As such ‘proximity’ was an issue only insofar as the greater the distance from one’s point of origin the better for successful immersion in the growing student ‘culture’. The ‘new/post-1992’ universities partially retained their polytechnic mandate to educate local people, but embraced a colonialist impulse regarding local space usage. ‘ ‘The discussion can be further refined to argue that these four stages are merely two phases which have repeated themselves: from ancient ‘exclusivity’ to civic ‘localism’ and back to Robbins era ‘exclusivity’ and thence to post-1992 ‘localism’ once more’. The opening up of higher education via the Internet in the late 20th and early 21st centuries provides for the possibility of the growth of entirely non-spatial and asynchronous learning experiences, and as such we may well be on the verge of the fifth stage of university development.  相似文献   

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Ka Ho Mok 《Higher Education》2010,60(4):419-440
With strong intention to enhance the global competitiveness of their university systems, both the Singapore and Malaysia governments have introduced reforms along the lines of ideas and practices embedded in neo-liberalism. In the last decade or so, we have witnessed reforms being introduced to the higher education sectors in these Asian states, particularly when corporatization and incorporation strategies are adopted to transform national/public universities. With particular reference to how academics evaluate the impact of the reforms on their academic life, this article reports and analyses findings generated from campus visits and field interviews conducted in Singapore and Malaysia from 2007 to 2009. Although the senior management of corporatized/incorporated universities in these Asian states has been given more discretion to decide how to operate their universities, most of the front line academics that we interviewed have not experienced major differences in university governance after the reforms took place. Instead of feeling ‘emancipated’ and ‘empowered’, many academics feel more pressures and control from the university administration and government ministries. Despite the fact that both the Singapore and Malaysia governments have tried to embrace the ideas and practices of ‘neo-liberalism’ to transform university governance, academics still see the state’s reluctance in withdrawing from steering/controlling higher education development. Such observations clearly reflect the ‘clash’ of two major governance philosophies, namely, ‘state centralism’ and ‘neo-liberalism’. In short, this article critically examines how far the proposed university governance reforms by adopting the corporatization/incorporation strategies have actually transformed university management and academic life style in Singapore and Malaysia.  相似文献   

13.
The aims of this study were considered under three headings. The first was to elicit misconception that science and physics student teachers (pre-service teachers) had about the terms, ‘‘inertial mass’’, ‘‘gravitational mass’’, ‘‘gravity’’, ‘‘gravitational force’’ and “weight”. The second was to understand how prior learning affected their misconceptions, and whether teachers’ misconceptions affected their students’ learning. The third was to determine the differences between science and physics student teachers’ understanding levels related to mass and gravity, and between their logical thinking ability levels and their attitudes toward physics lessons. A total of 267 science and physics student teachers participated in the study. Data collection instruments included the physics concept test, the logical thinking ability test and physics attitude scale. All instruments were administered to the participants at the end of the 3rd semester of their university years. The physics test consisting of paper and pencil test involving 16 questions was designed, but only four questions were related to mass and gravity; the second test consisted of 10 questions with two stages. The third test however, consisted of 15 likert type items. As a result of the analysis undertaken, it was found that student teachers had serious misconceptions about inertia, gravity, gravitational acceleration, gravitational force and weight concepts. The results also revealed that student teachers generally had positive attitudes toward physics lessons, and their logical thinking level was fairly good.  相似文献   

14.
This article sets out to examine how school science activities can encourage students’ participation while supporting a specific science content. One ordinary class with 12-year-old students was chosen and their regular classroom work was studied without intervention and with a minimum of interference. Lessons were video filmed, transcribed and analyzed focussing on the participants’ speech acts. It was found that students’ initiatives and experiences were important parts of their participation. The results show how students’ participation was orchestrated with a science content by means of four different kinds of activities. The activities are called ‘individual inventory of experiences’, ‘building a common platform of experiences’, ‘sharing new experiences’ and ‘concluding a common platform’. The activities form a foundation for participation in human biology topics. For example, to ‘build a common platform of experiences’ seems to level out students’ different prerequisites for participating in subsequent tasks. Furthermore, to ‘conclude a common platform’ implied a checkpoint of the shared new experiences. The activities support students’ tentative use of scientific words as well as their learning of what counts as knowledge in the school science setting. However, it can be questioned if the time spent on each separate activity is necessary or if similar achievements could be made even if some activities were integrated. The question is open for further research.
Mattias LundinEmail:
  相似文献   

15.
This paper examines the change in young children’s understanding of ‘equal’, ‘more’, ‘less’, and ‘between’, words commonly used in equivalent and non-equivalent situations, over a 3-year period. Seventy-six children participated in the longitudinal study. Each year they were asked to share their understanding of these four words. Past research has indicated that many children have limited understanding of ‘equal’ as quantitative sameness. The results of this research suggested that many children also have limited understanding of ‘more’ and ‘less’ and that these understandings did not significantly change over the 3-year period.  相似文献   

16.
Generic attributes such as ‘holding a critical stance’, ‘using evidence to support claims’, and ‘projecting an impersonal voice’ are central to disciplinary academic writing in higher education. These attributes, also referred to as ‘skills’, have for a long time been conceptualised as transferable in that once learnt students are able to use them in a variety of contexts and for a range of needs. Over the past few years, however, the conceptualisation of these attributes as transferable has come under close scrutiny as they have been identified to be highly context-sensitive rather than context-flexible as they were once thought to be. Drawing on data from a 2-year study on undergraduate academic writing in nursing and midwifery at a university in the UK, this paper critically examines the role of disciplinary epistemologies in the conceptualisation of these attributes in the two disciplines, and demonstrates how these beliefs help to shape academic writing at undergraduate level, thus contributing to debates on generic skills and attributes and specificity in disciplinary discourses. The paper concludes by highlighting the importance for writers to examine how knowledge is displayed, constructed and communicated in their disciplines, and the significance of analysing the relationship between disciplinary epistemologies, generic attributes and academic writing as a way of gaining access to and producing central discourses in their professional community.  相似文献   

17.
Comparing popular education in the Philippines and South Korea, it is clear that a number of similarities and differences exist regarding the characteristics, methods, and main fields in which popular education has operated. ‘Church-related practices,’ ‘uniting with CO movements,’ ‘an eliteled tendency,’ and ‘a disregard for the Left’ have all occurred in similar ways in both countries. While introducing the socio-political situation during 1970s and 1980s of these two countries, this paper discusses the theories and practices of popular education. Our findings indicate how popular education in both countries has played a significant role in raising the levels consciousness in the powerless and transforming societies and enabled them to establish a better community. Moreover, each country developed different concepts, initiatives and methods in relation to popular education. In addition, popular educators have been asked to play different roles in each popular education field while most methods were in fact heavily dependent upon eliteled practices.  相似文献   

18.
The theory of dialogism, developed by the Russian linguist Mikhail Bakhtin (1895–1975) with regard to literature and everyday communication, can be used to improve the teaching of science. Some of Bakhtin's conceptual instruments are helpful in analysing the teaching process, and it is interesting to compare them with former ideas about teaching and learning, especially with the points of view of other constructivists. Together with Lev Vygotsky's analysis of thought and language, Bakhtin's dialogism shows how teachers can support students effectively by addressing them as producers of a meaningful picture of the world. The differences between ‘dialogic’ teaching and the well-known ‘Socratic’ method are shown and analysed, as are Bakhtin’s discussions of a ‘carnivalistic’ approach to the students.  相似文献   

19.
As teacher-educators, we designed and implemented a small study that mapped teacher-education students' understandings of their own identities and how they made sense of ethnicity and class differences among their secondary students while on teaching rounds. While we didn't set out to ‘teach’ our research participants, it was during the analysis of data from the research project, that we began to realise the potential of research to create opportunities for learning. In this paper we speculate on the ‘conditions’ of knowledge production and suggest that the dialogic nature of interviews and focus group discussions can offer pedagogical spaces for learning. Research designs that incorporate opportunities for participants to re-tell narratives over periods of time, may position participants as experts in knowledge production and may reposition them and researchers in more equitable power relations. We present an example of one participant's narrative together with our interpretations to explore how research potentially offers ‘evidence’ of learning. While this is tentative only, we suggest there is a need to create spaces for pedagogy in the design and execution of educational research.  相似文献   

20.
This article presents recent reform processes in Japanese higher education, concerning the tensions emerging within the system regarding ‘excellence’ and ‘diversity’. The article particularly focuses on how Japanese universities have reacted to the recent ‘competition’ and ‘differentiation’ policy promoted by the government, drawing on recent survey results conducted with academic managers at Japanese universities. It is interesting to examine the case of Japan, a historically diversified and differentiated national system, which has been changing rapidly with recent national ‘top-down’ policy reforms, followed by more recent and new bottom-up institutional initiatives. The study shows that universities are trying to achieve excellence, fulfilling different functions at the same time, aspiring to be excellent in teaching, research and social contribution without having institutional capacity to meet these expectations. Appropriate internal governance and external mediation mechanisms need to be created at the institutional level to manage diversification of the higher education system as a whole.  相似文献   

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