学生合约与学生消费者：学习的市场化与高等教育公共产品性质的侵蚀

自20世纪80年代中期以来,全世界范围内接连出现的政府主导的改革将高等教育系统向"教科书般"经济市场越推越近已实施的改革包括公司化、引入竞争性资助、增加学费和其他费用、使用高校管理中产出模式和绩效报告。但是,没有一个国家面向本国学生的第一学位教育是按照真正的资本主义经济市场来运作的,没有研究型大学的发展是被股东、利润、市场份额、配置效率或商品形式所驱动的。在一些国家,只有职业培训和国际教育才会真正收取商业性质的学费。虽然高等教育中普遍存在激烈的竞争、企业家精神和消费者话语,但资本主义在其中没有一席之地;现有的高等教育市场充其量是一个受监管的准市场在许多国家,高等教育领域的"市场改革"不同于交通、通信、广播电视和医疗保险界的私有化和商业化。究其原因,本文发现真正的市场改革受制于高等教育领域特定的内在限度(公共产品、地位竞争)以及与这些限度相关的政治因素、高等教育市场改革计划在本质上是乌托邦式的,目前市场改革的抽象理想仍在持续并不是因为它具有真正实现的前景,而是由于外源性政策的推动(如财政缩减、政府控制等)。如果资本主义市场是无法实现的,为什么要继续假装它们可以实现呢?我们需要一个与教育系... 更多还原     

The Effect of Visual‐Chunking‐Representation Accommodation on Geometry Testing for Students with Math Disabilities

Students who struggle with learning mathematics often have difficulties with geometry problem solving, which requires strong visual imagery skills. These difficulties have been correlated with deficiencies in visual working memory. Cognitive psychology has shown that chunking of visual items accommodates students’ working memory deficits. This study investigated the effects of visual‐chunking representation as a testing accommodation for improving students’ geometry problem‐solving performance. Participants were four third‐graders with difficulties in mathematics. An adapted reversal design was employed to examine the students’ performance changes during standard testing conditions and accommodated testing conditions. During the accommodated condition, students were presented with visual‐chunking images. Results suggested that the visual‐chunking representation accommodation improved students’ performance on geometry problem‐solving tasks, and an interview confirmed students’ preference for the visual‐chunking representation approach.     

Teaching learning disabled adolescents to think critically using a problem‐solving schema

Abstract

In this study we describe and examine the effectiveness of an instructional program designed to teach learning disabled adolescents to make better personal decisions. We presented problems in short narratives based on the types of problems these students must solve in their own lives. The program, conducted as part of the students' regular resource room curriculum, incorporated schema‐general questions for problem solving coupled with practice in generating problem‐specific questions to reach an appropriate decision. Participants were 70 resource room students in two large, urban high schools. We employed a pretest‐posttest comparison group design. On the posttest, instructed students performed significantly better on (1) identifying a general schema for making a personal decision and (2) applying the schema to reach appropriate decisions concerning novel problem narratives. The results support the view that application of a general schema to specific problems can be an effective instructional method to improve critical thinking and decision making.     

The Combined Effects of Instructor Communicative Behaviors,Instructor Credibility,and Student Personality Traits on Incivility in the College Classroom

This study investigated the combined role of instructor communication variables (nonverbal immediacy and self-disclosure), instructor credibility (competence, caring, and trustworthiness), and student personality traits (extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness) in predicting students’ uncivil behaviors in class. A total of 406 students completed online questionnaires regarding the instructor of the class they attended prior to the one in which the study was administered. Personality and instructor behavior variables contributed approximately equally to explaining variance in student incivility. Students’ conscientiousness and agreeableness had direct negative relationships with incivility, whereas instructors’ amount and negativity of self-disclosure had direct positive relationships with incivility.     

IMPROVING OUTCOMES IN MATHEMATICS IN NEW ZEALAND: A DYNAMIC APPROACH TO THE POLICY PROCESS

Intervention at scale with the aim of improving student participation, engagement and outcomes in mathematics education is a challenge for educational policy makers and reformers. This article argues that an iterative annual cycle of policy formulation, implementation and evaluation enabled ongoing adjustments to the strategic focus, the professional development model and the system infrastructure as the New Zealand Numeracy Development Project was taken to scale. The analysis draws on the project’s evaluation data over a 6-year period to demonstrate how adjustments were made over time to the pedagogical tools and to the professional development processes. The ongoing development of knowledge supported the management of strategic risks in taking the project to scale: the ongoing appropriation of adequate levels of resourcing to support the school-based professional development model and the availability of system-wide expertise for effective implementation. The analysis suggests that conceptualising implementation as an interdependent and interrelated component of an iterative policy process and as an opportunity for knowledge building ensured a continuing focus on student outcomes. The dynamic approach to the policy process appeared central to building this intervention’s effectiveness and feasibility at scale.     

Religious discrimination discourse in the mono-cultural school: the case of Poland

The article forms an analysis of the religious discrimination discourse in Polish public schools, with special attention paid to the culturally specific, Polish understanding of the notion of religious discrimination. The introductory part presents the concept of religious discrimination as present in anti-discriminatory policies. The following part outlines the Polish system of religious education and its relation to the religious discrimination. Studies on religious discrimination in Poland are presented and discussed. Important context is supplied by a presentation of two recent cases of religious discrimination in Polish public schools, and the actions undertaken by the Freedom from Religion Foundation. Authors of the article point out the important influence of cultural context on the perception of religious discrimination. The attention is drawn to the seemingly homogenous environment of the Polish school and of the discriminative discourse used in political and social debates. The analysis shows that the presence of religion as a subject in Polish schools remains a cause of conflict between the religious and atheist citizens, a conflict in which concepts of religious discrimination and religious freedom are used as arguments by both sides.     

Beyond chip monks and paper tigers: towards a new culture of archival format specialists

The emergence of the new format of electronic/digital records provides the opportunity for archivists to reconsider the presumed format-neutrality of professional practice. As research in electronic records has served to re-emphasise, without an understanding of the needs and forms of material, then the work of archivists can have a profound impact on the evidential value and long-term research potential of the material. This paper attempts to broaden the debate about the requirements of all archival formats, and to build a new regime of 21st-century format specialists.