The exploratory studies in Educational Computing (ESEC) are nominally 15 studies, (actually 19) set up at the request of, and funded by, the Department of Education.
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As we write we construct knowledge, we manipulate information, we develop ourselves, and we get, as a bonus, the pleasure of authorship. Our writing develops and we use it for a wide range of constructive purposes, including learning.
This present day view of writing is in sharp contrast with the older practice which, in fact if not in theory, saw writing as useful only for getting facts down or for testing what had been learnt in examinations.
In an effort to get students to think for themselves, to be involved in their learning and to use information sources, teachers often set project assignments. Sometimes this independent work is supported with lots of information and guidance from the teacher. Sometimes the children are really on their own. In the classroom, the children are enthusiastic about projects and they can easily tell you how to go about finding information in the library. Yet often the teachers are disappointed with the end product.
Mediation is a voluntary service, in which two mediators help the parties in dispute to find a way of resolving their problems. In mediation the disputants (or parties) are asked to tell their 'story' about what happened, helped to clarify the issues involved, encouraged to understand how each other feels about these, and are helped to find some resolution which each party agrees to, which can work, and for which both can share responsibility. Even though a logical resolution might be obvious to the mediators, they do not tell, or even suggest to, the disputants what they should do.
These 'Ocean Men' are tall beasts with deep sunken eyes and beak-like noses ... Although undoubtedly men, they seem to possess none of the mental faculties of men. The most bestial of peasants is far more human .. It is quite possible that they are susceptible to training and could with patience be taught the modes of conduct proper to a human being.
The beasts in question were Jesuit priests, seen through the eyes of a Confucian scholar in the Sixteenth Century.
Our past suggests that prejudice, discrimination, aggression, and extermination are part of the human condition.
Over the past twelve months, I have been working with a group of Australian teachers in the mid-primary school, and with children of about the age of eight. The study which initiated this work is aimed at reviewing classroom practice in teaching and assessing literacy across the country. It involved getting the teachers to comment on their teaching philosophies, classroom strategies and assessment criteria, and a large selection of these comments will eventually be published for other teachers to share.
While females have competed successfully in athIetics for many years, t~e athletic arena ha.s traditionally been the domain of the male. During the early 1970s, female athletics underwent a dramatic revolution. Demands were made for equality in budget, facilities, equipment, coaching, and competitive opportunities to gain a status or position in the world of athletics comparable to that enjoyed by the male.
Information becomes more meaningful as it is interrelated with what we already know. Learners may be helped to learn how new ideas should be fitted into their mental scaffolding through the use of learning strategies. Certain learning strategies enable learners to reproduce or map their own knowledge structures and insert new concepts into it in a way that is meaningful to them. Knowledge is personally constructed, so giving someone information we think they should know will not necessarily help him or her to acquire it.
In December 1986 ACER published a major report on this topic. Rates of participation have climbed a bit since then but the factors which influence who gets what education have not. The report itself has the details, this summary looks at the broad trends.
Everyone goes to school till 15. After that you may choose. What do Australians choose? Are there factors which limit their choices? If there are, what can be done about it?
