Education response to COVID 19 pandemic,a special issue proposed by UNICEF: Editorial review

This editorial paper presents 11 papers related to the special issue proposed by UNICEF on the Education Response to COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic provoked an education emergency of unprecedented scale. At its onset in February 2020, school closures were announced in the worst-hit countries. At the peak of the crisis, 90 per cent of learners worldwide had had their education disrupted. Some learners, especially those from the most marginalised population groups, were put at risk of permanent dropout, provoking long-term and significant negative effects on children’s life-long wellbeing and the socio-economic development of their communities and countries. This special issue, which received contributions from UNICEF staff and various researchers, focuses on the impact of school closures, the effectiveness of remote learning solutions, equity implications, the mitigation of learning loss and notions around re-opening better. Different research perspectives and evidence is gathered to help strengthen policy considerations and future planning. The conclusion emphasizes building on the innovative solutions generated by the response to the crisis to make education systems more resilient, whilst also reinforcing the focus on equity and inclusion so that pre-existing disparities are not exacerbated in the future.     

The RIX Wiki: the use of multimedia advocacy to support person-centred planning in a special needs secondary school – implications for current policy and practice

The article documents findings from a pilot study undertaken in 2012–2013 in a special needs secondary school in the England, that trialled the use of a multimedia advocacy tool, “The RIX Wiki”. The trial was part of the pathfinder programme, which aimed to reform existing Special Education Needs provision, from the system of statementing to one of developing education health care plans. The reforms became enshrined in the Children and Families Act (2014). The findings were overall positive and helped with person-centred planning processes. The discussion is framed within current and future policy directives. We argue that multimedia advocacy approaches and software tools, like the “RIX Wiki” will have a continued role to play in ensuring the needs, aspirations and choices of children and young people with learning disabilities remain central.     

大学生思政课自主学习面临的“微”干扰及应对研究

微时代大学生思政课自主学习享有网络信息带来的便捷,同时也面临网络裹挟的一些干扰。克服这些干扰还存在一些主要障碍,需要在提高学生意识形态的鉴别力、增强自主学习环境的塑造力、提高教师自身网络教育的驾驭力和提升网络学习的保障力等方面下功夫。     

“健康中国2030”战略下健康数据协同治理体系研究

[目的/意义] 提升公民健康水平是经济社会发展到一定程度后的必然要求，健康数据协同治理体系的构建有助于从信息科学角度达成这一要求，治理体系需要以国家战略为宏观指导，全方位服务于公民健康水平提升的总体目标。[方法/过程] 通过对《"健康中国2030"规划纲要》文本精神的领会，在分析了各治理主体对健康信息治理需求的基础上，提出一种面向"健康中国2030"战略的健康数据协同治理体系，并针对关键环节提出保障措施。[结果/结论] 协调各层级、各部门与各利益主体的健康数据治理体系构建与保障，有助于在推动国家健康战略目标的同时实现健康数据的社会价值，拓展健康信息学的研究范畴。     

Young children working together. Cooperative learning effects on group work of children in Grade 1 of primary education

It was examined whether cooperative learning within the Success for All (SfA) program led to improved group work behaviour of Grade 1 pupils. 168 pupils of six SfA schools and 144 pupils of four control schools participated. Positive and negative group work behaviour was observed during a group task, taking into account socioemotional ethos, group participation, and type of dialogue. Longitudinal multilevel analysis was used for the sequence of observed 20-s time intervals. SfA groups showed more positive and less negative group work behaviour compared to control groups, whilst controlling for several group characteristics. Results suggest that negative group work behaviour increased gradually during the whole task in control groups, while in SfA groups it increased only towards the end of the task. The findings indicate that cooperative learning may lead to improved group work behaviour of young pupils (6–7 years old).     

Important Considerations for Assessment to Function in the Service of Education

Professor Gordon argues for a significant reorientation in the focus and impact of assessment in education. For the types of assessment activities that he advocates to prosper and positively impact education, serious attention must be paid to two important topics: (1) the conceptual underpinnings of the assessment practices we develop and use to support learning and instruction, and (2) the arguments and evidence we establish for their validity given the intended interpretive use. Such a focus highlights fundamental concepts that have long existed in the broader assessment literature – carefully defining and operationalizing our constructs and then validating the assessments of those constructs. What differs now are the conceptual frameworks, briefly outlined here, that can and must be used to guide both aspects of such work.     

Supporting groups’ emotion and motivation regulation during collaborative learning

This study investigates when and how students activate co- and socially shared emotion and motivation regulation in collaborative learning and whether the S-REG mobile application tool can support this regulation. In a mathematics course, 44 higher education students worked with a collaborative assignment. The S-REG tool traced groups' emotional and motivational states in different sessions, and the occurrence of co-regulation and shared regulation of motivation and emotions were coded from video-recorded collaborative work (44 h). The groups activated more co-regulation than shared regulation of emotions and motivation, but the shared-regulation episodes were longer-lasting. The groups’ emotional and motivational states were associated with the occurrence of co-regulation in the beginning of the learning sessions. The results suggest that the S-REG tool balanced collaboration by prompting the groups to regulate emotions and motivation right in the beginning of the motivationally and emotionally challenging learning sessions.     

乡村振兴战略下农村公共体育服务的协同治理研究——基于多元主体协同治理模型

农村公共体育服务作为农村体育中的基本组成部分,其发展与治理是实现乡村振兴的重要内容,是提升体育治理能力现代化和实现体育强国梦的必经之路。运用文献资料、专家访谈等研究方法,结合乡村振兴战略的时代背景,基于协同治理的基本理论,把握农村公共体育服务协同治理的现实动因,分析农村公共体育服务协同治理中存在的均等化供给落实不到位、服务管理体制结构失衡、市场经济模式功能缺失、农民需求表达体系欠缺等现实问题。通过构建农村公共体育服务多元主体协同治理模型,确保治理公正平等、完善政府职能结构、促进机制融合发展、激发需求主体活力等方面实现农村公共体育服务有效治理。     

Facilitating flexible learning by replacing classroom time with an online learning environment: A systematic review of blended learning in higher education

Higher education institutions are trying to provide more flexibility and individualization, which is mainly realized through the use of new technologies and implemented in online or blended learning designs. This systematic review aims to investigate the impact of replacing classroom time with an online learning environment. The meta-analysis (k = 21 effect sizes) applied strict inclusion criteria concerning research design, measurement of learning outcomes and implementation of blended learning. The estimated effect size (Hedge's g) was positive, although not significantly different from zero and the confidence interval [-0.13, 0.25], suggesting that overall differences between blended and conventional classroom learning are small, and, at best, very small negative or moderate positive effects are plausible. This means that despite a reduction in classroom time between 30 and 79 per cent, equivalent learning outcomes were found. Consequently, blended learning with reduced classroom time is not systematically more or less effective than conventional classroom learning.     

Adaptation and evaluation of a learning analytics dashboard to improve academic support at three Latin American universities

Despite the success of academic advising dashboards in several higher educational institutions (HEI), these dashboards are still under-explored in Latin American HEI's. To close this gap, three different Latin American universities adapted an existing advising dashboard, originally deployed at the KU Leuven to their own context. In all three cases, the context was the main ruling factor to these adaptations. In this paper, we describe these adaptions using a framework that focuses on four different elements of the context: Objectives, Stakeholders, Key moment and Interactions. Evaluation of the adapted dashboards in the three different Latin American universities is conducted through pilots. This evaluation shows the value of the dashboard approach in different contexts in terms of satisfaction, usefulness and impact in academic decision-making and advising tasks. The main contribution of this paper is the systematic reporting of the adaptations to an academic advising dashboard and showing the value of an academic advising dashboard on academic decision-making and advising tasks.