African Universities and the African Heritage     

Birgit Brock-Utne 《International Review of Education/Internationale Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft/Revue internationale l'éducation》1999,45(1):87-104

This article deals with the role of the universities in Africa. What are the challenges for educators who want to root African education in African traditions? After a brief look at pre- colonial and colonial education the article goes on to describe the situation after independence and especially the effects on higher education of a concentration of resources on basic education. To what extent do the link arrangements built up between universities in the North and the South perpetuate a colonial situation? What can be done to restore the dignity and heritage of the African people through university training? Examples are mostly taken from Tanzania, the country in Africa the author knows best.  相似文献   

Effects of learning cycle and traditional text on comprehension of science concepts by students at differing reasoning levels     

Birgit V. Musheno  Anton E. Lawson 《科学教学研究杂志》1999,36(1):23-37

Research has found the learning cycle to be effective for science instruction in hands‐on laboratories and interactive discussions. Can the learning cycle, in which examples precede the introduction of new terms, also be applied effectively to science text? A total of 123 high school students from two suburban schools were tested for reasoning ability, then randomly assigned to read either a learning cycle or traditional text passage. Immediate and delayed posttests provided concept comprehension scores that were analyzed by type of text passage and by reasoning level. Students who read the learning cycle passage earned higher scores on concept comprehension questions than those who read the traditional passage, at all reasoning levels. This result supports the hypothesis that reading comprehension and scientific inquiry involve similar information‐processing strategies and confirms the prediction that science text presented in the learning cycle format is more comprehensible for readers at all reasoning levels. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 23–37, 1999.  相似文献   

The contributions of ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ executive function to children's academic achievement, learning-related behaviors, and engagement in kindergarten     

Laura L. Brock  Sara E. Rimm-Kaufman  Lori Nathanson  Kevin J. Grimm 《Early childhood research quarterly》2009,24(3):337-349

Executive functioning (EF) refers to higher order thought processes considered foundational for problem-solving. EF has both ‘cool’ cognitive and ‘hot’ emotional components. This study asks: (a) what are the relative contributions of ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ EF to children's academic achievement? (b) What are the relative contributions of ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ EF to learning-related classroom behaviors and observed engagement? (c) Do learning-related classroom behaviors and observed engagement account for the relation between EF and achievement? For a sample of 173 kindergarteners, cool EF predicted math achievement, learning-related classroom behaviors, and observed engagement. Hot EF did not predict any achievement or behavior outcomes when examined concurrently with cool EF. Children's classroom behavior did not account for the relation between cool EF and math achievement, suggesting cool EF and math performance are directly associated.  相似文献   

Research and policy on the language of instruction issue in Africa     

Birgit Brock-Utne 《International Journal of Educational Development》2010

Since 1995 I have been engaged in consultancies and since 2001 in research dealing with the language of instruction policies in Africa. To what extent are the policies being implemented? What is the role of research and consultancy when it comes to language policy? What happens when researchers or consultants come up with recommendations which do not please donors or the people of power? My paper builds on a consultancy on the language policy of Namibia from 1995, the stock-taking exercise of ADEA/GTZ/UIL of 2006, as well as on research results and experiences gathered within the LOITASA (Language of Instruction in Tanzania and South Africa) project. In the first part of the article I give two examples where the policy recommendations by the consultants/researchers have not been followed up. I give an example of a consultancy that has had some impact on the policy formulation in some African countries. Recommendations from only one of the four studies/consultancies looked at have been thoroughly followed up. These recommendations were in line with what the donors wanted, but did not logically follow from the research done. In the second part of the article I deal with the challenge of making policy research relevant for those most greatly affected by the policy. This means working for a paradigm shift in the research and consultancy on language policies in Africa. It also means looking at the power of misconceptions held by lay people. Towards the end of the article I discuss changing a belief system which has become common knowledge. I show examples of how Tanzanian colleagues in the LOITASA project are trying to do this.  相似文献   

Lucky Belief in Science Education     

Richard Brock 《Science & Education》2018,27(3-4):247-258

The conceptualisation of knowledge as justified true belief has been shown to be, at the very least, an incomplete account. One challenge to the justified true belief model arises from the proposition of situations in which a person possesses a belief that is both justified and true which some philosophers intuit should not be classified as knowledge. Though situations of this type have been imagined by a number of writers, they have come to be labelled Gettier cases. Gettier cases arise when a fallible justification happens to lead to a true belief in one context, a case of ‘lucky belief’. In this article, it is argued that students studying science may make claims that resemble Gettier cases. In some contexts, a student may make a claim that is both justified and true but which arises from an alternative conception of a scientific concept. A number of instances of lucky belief in topics in science education are considered leading to an examination of the criteria teachers use to assess students’ claims in different contexts. The possibility of lucky belief leads to the proposal that, in addition to the acquisition of justified true beliefs, the development of reliable belief-forming processes is a significant goal of science education. The pedagogic value of various kinds of claims is considered and, it is argued, the criteria used to judge claims may be adjusted to suit the context of assessment. It is suggested that teachers should be alert to instances of lucky belief that mask alternative conceptions.  相似文献   

Does ethnic bias affect kindergarten teachers’ school entry recommendations?     

Birgit Becker 《Educational research; a review for teachers and all concerned with progress in education》2018,60(1):17-30

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Using a narrative approach to researching literacy and non-formal education in Africa and Asia     

Birgit Brock-Utne 《International Review of Education/Internationale Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft/Revue internationale l'éducation》2018,64(6):701-711

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Testgütekriterien der „Profilanalyse nach Grießhaber“. Evaluation eines Verfahrens zur Erfassung grammatischer Fähigkeiten von ein- und mehrsprachigen Grundschulkindern     

Birgit Ehl  Michèle Paul  Gunnar Bruns  Elisabeth Fleischhauer  Miriam Vock  Anna Gronostaj  Michael Grosche 《Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft》2018,21(6):1261-1281

A diagnostic goal of the “Profile analysis according to Grießhaber” is the assessment of the grammatical ability to place verbs in German sentences in the correct syntactical position. To evaluate the test quality for the first time, 403 monolingual and multilingual primary school children were randomly assigned to three different test materials: Test material that specifically stimulated the target competence led to the best test results. This indicates a low objectivity of application. In addition, ceiling effects for primary school children were detected, which means that the profile analysis can only slightly differentiate among the grammatical abilities of the children. Retest reliability and objectivity of analysis are also too small. In summary, the test quality of the assessment tool should be improved with respect to all of the test quality criteria considered. Hence, we recommend standardizing the profile analysis better and adding more sensitive diagnostic criteria for primary school aged children. Other aspects of profile analysis, for example the improvement of diagnostic competencies of teachers, are recommended for future research.  相似文献   

Iron status in Winter Olympic sports     

D. B. Clement  D. R. Lloyd‐Smith  J. G. Macintyre  G. O. Matheson  R. Brock  Michel Dupont 《Journal of sports sciences》2013,31(3):261-271

Iron status was surveyed amongst 92 Winter Olympic sport athletes from Nordic and Alpine skiing, figure and speed skating and ice hockey. Haemoglobin and serum ferritin values were obtained by physicians as part of a monitoring programme, since iron deficiency would have an adverse effect on maximal performance. Four (7%) of 56 men were anaemic (Hb < 14.0 gdl^‐1) and three (8%) of 36 women had haemoglobin values less than 12.0 gdl^‐1. Nine men (16%) and 14 women (39%) had prelatent iron deficiency (serum ferritin < 30 ng ml^‐1). Ice hockey had the lowest while Nordic skiing had the highest incidence of sub‐optimal iron status. A total of 50% of Nordic women skiers had prelatent iron deficiency and 7% were anaemic. An equal percentage of women speed skaters were low in serum ferritin as well. Only one of 20 male ice hockey players was low in serum ferritin. These results suggest there would be value in instituting screening procedures for iron status in Winter Olympic Sports.  相似文献   

Education and Development: A Developing Theme     

Brock-Utne  Birgit 《International Review of Education/Internationale Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft/Revue internationale l'éducation》2002,48(1-2):45-61

The following article is based on an analysis of selected examples from the approximately 2500 main articles that have been published in the International Review of Education (IRE) since its inception in 1931 until the fall of 2001. The scope of the topic is education within developing countries and the promotion of such education by industrialised countries and development agencies. After an introduction on the growth of the concern over education and development over seven decades of the journal, three themes are looked at in some more detail: (1) The discussion on nationalism versus internationalism in education, a theme that bears clear relevance to the field "Education and Development" and has been with the journal from its inception but on which one finds more emphasis in the earlier volumes. (2) The language of instruction in developing countries. This theme has also been with the journal from its inception and it is still much debated. (3) The effects of external aid on the education sector in developing countries. Though massive economic aid in the form of grants or loans to the education sector in developing countries is of more recent nature external influence on the education sector has been there since colonial times.  相似文献