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Mathematics and Transition to School: International Perspectives (Early Mathematics Learning and Development)
by Bob Perry Amy MacDonald Ann GervasoniThis edited book brings together for the first time an international collection of work focused on two important aspects of any young child’s life – learning mathematics and starting primary or elementary school. The chapters take a variety of perspectives, and integrate these two components in sometimes explicit and sometimes more subtle ways.The key issues and themes explored in this book are:the mathematical and other strengths that all participants in the transition to school bring to this period of a child’s life;the opportunities provided by transition to school for young children’s mathematics learning;the importance of partnerships among adults, and among adults and children, for effective school transitions and mathematics learning and teaching;the critical impact of expectations on their mathematics learning as children start school; the importance of providing children with meaningful, challenging and relevant mathematical experiences throughout transition to school;the entitlement of children and educators to experience assessment and instructional pedagogies that match the strengths of the learners and the teachers; the importance for the aspirations of children, families, communities, educators and educational organisations to be recognised as legitimate and key determinants of actions, experiences and successes in both transition to school and mathematics learning; andthe belief that young children are powerful mathematics learners who can demonstrate this power as they start school.In each chapter, authors reflect on their work in the area of mathematics and transition to school, place that work within the overall context of research in these fields, predict the trajectory of this work in the future, and consider the implications of the work both theoretically and practically.
Stories of Men and Teaching: A New Narrative Approach to Understanding Masculinity and Education (SpringerBriefs in Education #0)
by Ian DavisThis book investigates the dynamic relationship between masculinity, fiction and teaching answering one central question. How are male teachers influenced by fictional narratives in the construction of masculinities within education? It achieves this in three major steps: by describing a methodological system of narrative analysis that is able to account for the influence of a fictional text alongside a reading of interview data, by focusing on a specific cohort of male teachers in order to measure the influence of a fictional text and the literary tropes they contain, both widening and restricting perceptions of teachers and teaching. The book demonstrates how fictional narratives and their encompassing ideologies can become a powerful force in the shaping of male teachers professional identities. The book focuses on a collection of 22 fictional narratives drawn from the teacher text genre. Each text describes the world of teachers and teaching from differing perspectives, in differing forms including, literary texts; dramatic works such as plays or musicals; feature films; and television and radio series. The teacher text is a popular and prolific genre. As part of the analysis the book pilots an innovative methodological process hat reconciles the structural and textual differences between fictional texts and interview data in an effort to find points of commonality and mutual influence. Stories of Men and Teaching reveals how teaching professionals utilise tropes found in fictional texts in chaotic and unstructured ways to manage points of professional intensity as they arise. Key features such as legacy, fear, belonging, reparation and violence are identified as themes that occupy male teachers most when considering their own identity and professional performance, and each is also represented in the fictional teacher text canon.
Education as Cultivation in Chinese Culture (Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects #26)
by Shihkuan Hsu Yuh-Yin WuGiven the increasing global interest in Chinese culture, this book uses case studies to describe and interpret Chinese cultivation in contemporary Taiwanese schools. Cultivation is a concept unique to Chinese culture and is characterized by different attitudes towards teaching and learning compared to Western models of education. The book starts with a discussion of human nature in Chinese schools of philosophy and levels of goodness. Following the philosophical background is a presentation of how cultivation is practiced in Chinese culture from prenatal through high school education. The case studies focus both on how students are cultivated as they become members of Chinese society, and on what role teachers play in cultivating the children in school. In addition, supports from Chinese educational institutions, including public schools, families, and organizations such as private cram schools, are introduced and explained. In closing, the book presents a critique of the modern school reform movement and the conflicts between the reform proposals and traditional practices. Based on the collective work of Taiwanese researchers in the fields of education, history and anthropology, the book identifies the purpose of education as cultivating virtue in a process of creating an ideal person who serves society, and describes the way teachers have carried on this tradition despite its faltering status in contemporary educational discourse and in the face of reform movements.
Knowledge Management for School Education (SpringerBriefs in Education)
by Eric C. ChengThis book introduces the application of knowledge management (KM) theories, practices, and tools in school organization for sustainable development. Schools in Asia Pacific have long faced a variety of challenges in terms of sustainable development under the education reforms and curriculum reforms to meet the demands of a knowledge society. Schools are inevitably expected to develop human capital for the knowledge society within the competitive global economy, and to interact with its policy environment and know how to leverage pedagogical knowledge. The high speed of expansion change and expansion of knowledge have dramatically influence the development of flexibility of teacher and school works. The nature of teacher work becomes increasingly less routine, more analytical, and disruptive yet often come with a sense of urgency and need to be more collaborative. Teachers not only require data and information, but also knowledge and experience of individual, they also need to collaborative task execution, decision making and problem solving. Helping school leaders and teachers to manage their knowledge and become “know how” to cope with the change is important.
Learning to Teach with Assessment: A Student Teaching Experience in China (SpringerBriefs in Education)
by Heng JiangThis ethnography asks the question, what does learning to teach mean to student teachers and to those around them in an exam-driven rural school in China? The author writes of the process of using the assessment as a tool for teacher learning, understanding disadvantaged students in the community of practice, and of beginning teachers seeking their identities. She offers a perspective of learning to teach with assessment instead of for assessment, and examines how it shapes the learn-to-teach experiences.
New Media and Learning in the 21st Century: A Socio-Cultural Perspective (Education Innovation Series)
by Tzu-Bin Lin Victor Chen Ching Sing ChaiThis volume brings together conceptualizations and empirical studies that explore the socio-cultural dimension of new media and its implications on learning in the 21st century classroom. The authors articulate their vision of new-media-enhanced learning at a global level. The high-level concept is then re-examined for different degrees of contextualization and localization, for example how a specific form of new media (e-reader) changes specific activities in different cultures. In addition, studies based in Singapore classrooms provide insights as to how these concepts are being transformed and implemented by a co-constructive effort on the part of researchers, teachers and students. Singapore classrooms offer a unique environment to study the theory-practice nexus in that they are high achieving, implicitly grounded in the eastern cultural values and well-equipped with ICT infrastructure. While these studies are arguably the state-of-the-art exemplars that synergize socio-cultural and technological affordances of the current learning environments, they also serve as improvable ideas for further innovations. The interplay between theory and practice lends support to the reciprocal improvements for both. This book contributes to the continuing debate in the field, and will lead to better learning environments in the 21st century.
Science Investigation: Student Views about Learning, Motivation and Assessment (SpringerBriefs in Education)
by Azra MoeedThis book reports the findings of an interpretive case study of the phenomenon of science investigation (science inquiry) from students’ perspective. Data were collected from a class of twenty-four Year 11 students in a middle size, co-educational New Zealand school, through Science Laboratory Environment Inventory, student questionnaires, focus group interviews and classroom observations. The participants provided some insightful comments about their learning of science investigation. Illustrative examples highlight; what students found motivational and what demotivated them, what and how they learnt through carrying out science investigation, and how internal assessment influenced their motivation to learn and learning. The connectedness between the complexities of learning science investigation and how motivation, and assessment influenced these 15 year old students’ learning is discussed.
Taylor’s 7th Teaching and Learning Conference 2014 Proceedings: Holistic Education: Enacting Change
by Siew Fun Tang Loshinikarasi LogonnathanThese conference proceedings showcase a rich and practical exchange of approaches and vital evidence-based practices taking place around the world. They clarify the complex challenges involved in bringing about a holistic educational environment in schools and institutes of higher learning that fosters greater understanding and offer valuable insights on how to avoid the pitfalls that come with rolling out holistic approaches to education. To do so, the proceedings focus on the subthemes Support and Development, Mobility and Diversity and Networking and Collaboration in Holistic Education.
Cases of Mathematics Professional Development in East Asian Countries: Using Video to Support Grounded Analysis (Mathematics Teacher Education #10)
by Swee Fong NgThis book shows how video technology can be used to inform teachers’ personal practice, and provides new data and real-world case studies not covered by any previous book on the subject.Initial chapters explore how practicing teachers can view their own recorded lessons and take steps to improve their methods, while subsequent chapters examine how pre-service and in-service teachers can use recorded lessons to improve how they teach selected concepts, or to better convey specific learning processes such as mathematical modeling and problem solving.
Design Thinking for Education: Conceptions and Applications in Teaching and Learning
by Joyce Hwee Koh Ching Sing Chai Benjamin Wong Huang-Yao HongThis book explores, through eight chapters, how design thinking vocabulary can be interpreted and employed in educational contexts. The theoretical foundations of design thinking and design in education are first examined by means of a literature review. This is then followed by chapters that characterize design thinking among children, pre-service teachers and in-service teachers using research data collected from the authors’ design-driven coursework and projects. The book also examines issues associated with methods for fostering and assessing design thinking. In the final chapter, it discusses future directions for the incorporation of design thinking into educational settings. Intended for teachers, teacher educators and university instructors, this book aims to provide them with the theoretical foundations needed to grasp design thinking, and to provide examples of how design thinking can be interpreted and evaluated. The materials covered will help these groups of professionals to consider how design thinking can be integrated into their own teaching and learning contexts. The book will also promote a discourse between educational researchers on the theoretical development of design thinking in educational settings.
Early Childhood Pedagogical Play: A Cultural-Historical Interpretation Using Visual Methodology (SpringerBriefs in Education)
by Avis Ridgway Gloria Quiñones Liang LiThis book re-theorizes the relationship between pedagogy and play. The authors suggest that pedagogical play is characterized by conceptual reciprocity (a pedagogical approach for supporting children’s academic learning through joint play) and agentic imagination (a concept that when present in play, affords the child’s motives and imagination a critical role in learning and development). These new concepts are brought to life using a cultural-historical approach to the analysis of play, supported in each chapter by visual narratives used as a research method for re-theorising play as a pedagogical activity. Whenever a cultural-historical approach is applied to understanding pedagogical play, the whole context of the playful event is always included. Further, the child’s cultural environment is taken into account in order to better understand their play. Children from different countries play differently for many reasons, which may include their resources, local cultural beliefs about play and specific pedagogical practices. The inclusion and acknowledgement of social, cultural and historical contexts gives credence and value to understanding play from both child and adult perspectives, which the authors believe is important for the child’s learning and development. As such, the relationships that children and adults have with human and non-human others, as well as any connections with artefacts and the material environment, are included in all considerations of pedagogical play.
Promoting Service Leadership Qualities in University Students: The Case of Hong Kong (Quality of Life in Asia #6)
by Daniel T.L. Shek Po ChungThis book outlines the development of service leadership curricula, programs and materials designed for university students in Hong Kong. In addition, it includes evaluation studies and specific service leadership programs, making it a pioneering book that integrates service leadership and student wellbeing for Chinese university students. In view of the transformation of industries resulting in shifts from manufacturing economies to service economies, the book takes a holistic approach to leadership development, focusing on three basic components of effective service leadership that are closely related to student wellbeing: leadership competencies such as emotional intelligence and resilience, moral character, and a caring disposition. This approach represents a move away from literature that emphasizes the elite leadership model, assuming that leadership is the privilege of a talented few. By extension, it argues that the promotion of service leadership qualities is a good strategy for promoting student wellness. The individual chapters are extended versions of papers presented at the “International Conference on Service Leadership Education for University Students: Experience in Hong Kong,” which was held in May 2014. The book offers a valuable contribution to Chinese and global academic literature on service leadership and will benefit researchers and educators alike.
Scaling Educational Innovations (Education Innovation Series)
by Chee-Kit Looi Laik Woon TehThis volume stimulates critical discussions of the different variants of implementation, translation and scaling research approaches. It presents an integrated collection of different implementation and scaling studies that analyse the different facets of co-design, learning design, curriculum development, technology development, professional development and programme implementation. It also provides critical reflections on their impact and efficacies on transforming practices, informing policy-making, and theory derivation and improvement. The chapters in this volume will provide readers a deeper understanding of scaling of educational innovations in diverse socio-cultural contexts.
Class Size Reduction: Key Insights from Secondary School Classrooms
by Gary James HarfittThis book provides a timely examination of the effects of class size reduction (CSR) on teaching and learning processes. It represents a departure in that the research covered focuses solely on the relationship between CSR and effective teaching in real secondary school classrooms. The book also presents a much-needed and powerful student voice on the impact of class size reduction on teaching and learning processes. It conceptualises the effects of class size on teaching and learning processes in secondary school classrooms, which are another under-researched perspective in this field. Drawing on multiple case studies concerning teaching and learning processes in large and small Hong Kong secondary-school classes, it highlights the qualitative differences in teaching and learning processes. On the basis of those studies, the book argues for a more purposeful, dynamic approach to education for teachers working in small or reduced-size classes.
The Psychology of Asian Learners: A Festschrift in Honor of David Watkins
by Ronnel B. King Allan B. I. BernardoThis book celebrates the scholarly achievements of Prof. David A. Watkins, who has pioneered research on the psychology of Asian learners, and helps readers grasp the cognitive, motivational, developmental, and socio-cultural aspects of Asian learners learning experiences. A wide range of empirical and review papers, which examine the characteristics of these experiences as they are shaped by both the particularities of diverse educational systems/cultural milieus and universal principles of human learning and development, are showcased. The individual chapters, which explore learners from fourteen Asian countries, autonomous regions, and/or economies, build on research themes and approaches from Prof. Watkins’ research work, and are proof of the broad importance and enduring relevance of his seminal psychological research on learners and the learning process.
Future Learning in Primary Schools: A Singapore Perspective
by Ching Sing Chai Cher Ping Lim Chun Ming TanThis edited book tells the story of the multifaceted efforts devoted by a “future school” in Singapore—The Nan Chiau Primary School—in shaping future learning. It documents the various measures implemented by one primary school to improve student learning outcomes in a technology-rich teaching and learning environment. With the current interest in Singapore’s “Masterplan for ICT (information and communication technology) in Education,” and the increasing focus on teaching and learning design by leading education researchers and professionals, this well-timed book will appeal to policy makers, educators and researchers.
Student Well-Being in Chinese Adolescents in Hong Kong: Theory, Intervention and Research (Quality of Life in Asia #7)
by Tak Yan Lee Daniel T.L. Shek Rachel C. F. SunThis book reviews the theories regarding commonly occurring developmental issues among Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong, the application of Positive Youth Development (PYD) to a large-scale primary prevention program and the impact of PYD on student well-being, indexed according to adolescent developmental issue. Using multiple strategies, it presents the overall constructs and frameworks supporting P.A.T.H.S. in response to the various psychosocial needs of Hong Kong’s youth. Some of the issues covered include substance abuse, sexual behavior, internet addiction, bullying and cyber-bullying. The book argues for the effectiveness of the school-based program in promoting student well-being in modern Hong Kong society and will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students, university instructors, researchers, social workers, pediatricians, youth workers, educators, administrators, psychologists, school principals and allied professionals looking to promote whole-person development in junior form students and especially those with an interest in education in China.
Multidisciplinary Contributions to the Science of Creative Thinking (Creativity in the Twenty First Century)
by Giovanni Emanuele Corazza Sergio AgnoliThis book offers a multidisciplinary and multi-domain approach to the most recent research results in the field of creative thinking and creativity, authored by renowned international experts. By presenting contributions from different scientific and artistic domains, the book offers a comprehensive description of the state of the art on creativity research. Specifically, the chapters are organized into four parts: 1) Theoretical Aspects of Creativity; 2) Social Aspects of Creativity; 3) Creativity in Design and Engineering; 4) Creativity in Art and Science. In this way, the book becomes a necessary platform for generative dialogue between disciplines that are typically divided by separating walls.
Building Autonomous Learners: Perspectives from Research and Practice using Self-Determination Theory
by Woon Chia Liu John Chee Keng Wang Richard M. RyanThis edited work presents a collection of papers on motivation research in education around the globe. Pursuing a uniquely international approach, it also features selected research studies conducted in Singapore under the auspices of the Motivation in Educational Research Lab, National Institute of Education, Singapore.A total of 15 chapters include some of the latest findings on theory and practical applications alike, prepared by internationally respected researchers in the field of motivation research in education. Each author provides his/her perspective and practical strategies on how to maximize motivation in the classroom. Individual chapters focus on theoretical and practical considerations, parental involvement, teachers’ motivation, ways to create a self-motivating classroom, use of ICT, and nurturing a passion for learning.The book will appeal to several different audiences: firstly, policymakers in education, school leaders and teachers will find it a valuable resource. Secondly, it offers a helpful guide for researchers and teacher educators in pre-service and postgraduate teacher education programmes. And thirdly, parents who want to help their children pursue lifelong learning will benefit from reading this book.
Creativity, Culture, and Development (Creativity in the Twenty First Century)
by Ai-Girl Tan Christoph PerlethThis volume presents a collection of writings on the relations among creativity, culture and development. The editors invited “like-minded” researchers of creativity from around the world to share their respective notions of creativity. Given that human creativity is a potential that can and should be nurtured in the course of lifespan development and across all cultural backgrounds, the volume emphasizes the importance of promoting creativity in all cultures and through societal-educational opportunities, and offers a venue for the authors to make conceptual, empirical and practical inquiries into the relations among creativity, development and culture. The authors represent a varied “mix” of contemporary and emerging creativity researchers who use different methodologies to investigate the importance of culture in creativity development and the reciprocal role of developing creativity and cultural enrichment. The volume represents an attempt on the part of the editors and the authors to broaden our current understanding of creativity in the contexts of human and cultural development, and in so doing to enhance our understanding of creativity, culture and development in the contexts of flourishing human and societal activities. As the first volume in a book series on “Creativity in the Twenty-First Century”, the book invites readers and researchers to engage in future interdisciplinary and intercultural discourses and dialogues on the importance of creativity for human and cultural development.
7th International Conference on University Learning and Teaching (InCULT 2014) Proceedings: Educate to Innovate
by Chan Yuen Fook Gurnam Kaur Sidhu Suthagar Narasuman Lee Lai Fong Shireena Basree Abdul RahmanThe book comprises papers presented at the 7th International Conference on University Learning and Teaching (InCULT) 2014, which was hosted by the Asian Centre for Research on University Learning and Teaching (ACRULeT) located at the Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia. It was co-hosted by the University of Hertfordshire, UK; the University of South Australia; the University of Ohio, USA; Taylor’s University, Malaysia and the Training Academy for Higher Education (AKEPT), Ministry of Education, Malaysia. A total of 165 papers were presented by speakers from around the world based on the theme “Educate to Innovate in the 21st Century.” The papers in this timely book cover the latest developments, issues and concerns in the field of teaching and learning and provide a valuable reference resource on university teaching and learning for lecturers, educators, researchers and policy makers.
Mathematics, Affect and Learning: Middle School Students’ Beliefs and Attitudes About Mathematics Education (SpringerBriefs in Education)
by Peter Grootenboer Margaret MarshmanThis book examines the beliefs, attitudes, values and emotions of students in Years 5 to 8 (aged 10 to 14 years) about mathematics and mathematics education. Fundamentally, this book focuses on the development of affective views and responses towards mathematics and mathematics learning. Furthermore, it seems that students develop their more negative views of mathematics during the middle school years (Years 5 to 8), and so here we concentrate on students in this critical period. The book is based on a number of empirical studies, including an enquiry undertaken with 45 children in Years 5 and 6 in one school; a large-scale quantitative study undertaken with students from a range of schools across diverse communities in New Zealand; and two related small-scale studies with junior secondary students in Australia. This book brings substantial, empirically-based evidence to the widely held perception that many students have negative views of mathematics, and these affective responses develop during the middle years of school. The data for this book were collected with school students, and students who were actually engaged in learning mathematics in their crucial middle school years. The findings reported and discussed here are relevant for researchers and mathematics educators, policy makers and curriculum developers, and teachers and school principals engaged in the teaching of mathematics.
Chronic Regulatory Focus and Financial Decision-Making: Asset and Portfolio Allocation (SpringerBriefs in Finance)
by Navin KumarIn this book, the relationship between financial decision-making and chronic regulatory focus is explored to provide a better understanding of consumer decisions. Financial decisions are modelled on the basis of assets and portfolios sensitive to particular regulatory foci. Studies in the book test whether participants select assets/portfolios that conform to their respective foci. In addition, given that gender, age and education can shape financial decisions, further hypotheses are put forth to explore whether these are related to asset and portfolio selection and regulatory focus. As consumers tend to make financial decisions prior to priming, this book diverts from previous research involving primed states of regulatory focus and instead explores the chronic state. The study employs two complementary instruments, the eye tracker and self-report, to explicate the hypotheses. As the main hypotheses were not supported, the author posits that the harsh worldwide financial climate may have acted as an external influence, moving participants to select assets and portfolios not aligned with their foci. This study marks a valuable contribution to the current literature concerning financial decision-making, the underlying motivational systems and external influences, and will promote further research in these areas. It offers an essential resource for academics and students interested in how regulatory focus interacts with financial decisions and the overarching economic climate.
New Theory of Children’s Thinking Development: Application in Language Teaching (Lecture Notes in Educational Technology)
by Kekang HeThis book proposes a new theory on children’s thinking (cognitive) development. According to this theory, the stages of said development should be divided into four stages: first, the stage of animalistic thinking (birth–before possessing basic language ability); second, the stage of elementary thinking (beginning to possess basic language ability–beginning to possess proficient oral ability); third, the stage of intermediate thinking (beginning to possess proficient oral ability–before the formation of comprehensive cognitive ability); and fourth, the stage of advanced thinking (after the formation of comprehensive cognitive ability). In this context, thinking includes logical thinking, visual thinking and intuitive thinking. Based on the new theory, the author points out the serious negative impact that Piaget’s stage theory of children’s cognitive development has had on Chinese language education in China. The book also offers a number of practical principles, such as five teaching activities for language teaching of extension, typing, writing, passage, and thinking.
Understanding the Nature of Motivation and Motivating Students through Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (SpringerBriefs in Education #0)
by David KemberThis book is based upon three interrelated open naturalistic studies conducted to better characterise the motivational orientation of students in higher education. Open semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with undergraduates, students at community colleges and students in taught postgraduate courses in Hong Kong. The analysis used an exploratory grounded theory approach and resulted in a motivational orientation framework with six continua with positive and negative poles. On enrolment students had positions on the six facets of motivation, which shifted as they progressed through their degree according to their perceptions of the teaching and learning environment. The framework can, therefore, be used to explain both initial decisions to enrol and motivation to continue studying. The interviews included descriptions of teaching approaches and learning activities and their effects on motivation. This made it possible to describe a teaching and learning environment conducive to motivation, with eight supportive conditions. Each facet of the teaching and learning environment is illustrated with quotations from the three groups of students, resulting in a guide to configuring a teaching and learning environment conducive to motivating students. The emerging community-college sector in Hong Kong is used as a case study of the effects on student motivation of the expansion of the higher education sector through private colleges. Cultural issues are discussed, particularly the performance of Asian students relative to those in the West.