Abstract

This article suggests that attempts to date to unravel the paradox of the Chinese learner are incomplete and inadequately modeled, and that the complexities of the paradox have not yet been fittingly operationalized or alternative explanations of research data investigated. It contends that attempts either to state or to unravel the paradox are chimerical, as they risk oversimplifying a complex phenomenon, the extent and nature of which are insufficiently understood to date. The article argues that investigating the phenomenon of Chinese learners’ strong performance in international measures of achievement requires researchers to operate more rigorously in their search for alternative and multiple explanations of results in terms of causality, sampling, and representing heterogeneity. Several explanations of data on the paradox are presented, and alternative explanations which might be more usefully explored are provided. The article also questions the extent to which research on the Chinese learner, with a search for a unitary set of characteristics, is not, itself, prey to totalizing, collectivist ideologies cast in unrealistic meta-narratives. Recommendations are made for further research.

Abstract

In this study, 13 pre-service teachers who were enrolled on a teacher education program wrote weekly journals in response to issues discussed in class over two semesters that lasted 20 weeks. They submitted the response journals three times in the first semester and two times in the second semester, and the instructor read and provided feedback on the journal entries each time they were collected. At the end of the academic year, the pre-service teachers completed a questionnaire and were interviewed individually to seek their views of journal writing. They were also asked to reflect on the journal writing experience in the last journal entry. The three sources of data together show that journal writing was seen as a beneficial experience, fostering reflective thinking and helping the pre-service teachers develop better understanding of teaching and learning issues discussed on the teacher education program.

Abstract

The present study investigated the effects of a pre-service teaching program on changes in student teachers’ pedagogical knowledge. Twelve student teachers drew a concept map on “effective teaching” on four separate occasions at two designated points each before and after field teaching during a period of eight months. Five in-service teachers were also recruited to draw the map. The results showed a developmental trajectory of pedagogical knowledge in this particular group of student teachers during the period in which they received the training program. Their pedagogical knowledge appeared to be enriched and more connected during the time they were taking the required courses and participating in the field teaching sessions. However, their enhanced knowledge appeared to involve more detailed elaboration of the existing constructs appearing in the previous maps rather than those of structural reorganization of pedagogical knowledge. Experience gained in the guided field teaching helped make these aspects salient for the student teachers that are more directly related to classroom teaching. This has the potential as a precursor to the declarative-to-procedural knowledge transformation in student teachers’ learning to teach. The results suggest some important issues to be considered for improving quality of teacher training programs.

Abstract

This article illustrates how the overhead projector can be used as a light source in some peculiar ways for physics demonstrations. Five examples are included:

1. Study of chromatic aberration

2. Making giant Newton’s rings

3. Comparison of the rate of heat absorption by different surfaces

4. Demonstration of greenhouse effect

5. Production of an intense parallel light beam

摘要

當代的學者多半覺知「課程」一詞多義的現象。面對這種情況，我們可以努力釐清課程的意義，而非放任地讓語義混淆的情況惡化。本文採取理論分析的方式，首先搜集學者們提出的各種課程定義、概念、種類、類比、說明或比喻，隨後進行分析、比較與分類，最後提出課程的兩項本質意義：形式和質料。課程的形式指課程的根源成因、存在目的和組織與造型，課程的質料指事前計劃的概念、知識、經驗及活動等。課程正是達成教育目的之工具，它相對於教育的形式，就是教育的內容或質料（即教材）。

Abstract

This article explores the essential meanings (or semantics) of curriculum by theoretical analysis. The article collects a great deal of data describing the use of curriculum in Western societies, and certifies that curriculum are popular term (topic) in recent academic areas. Then, the article analyzes the character of curriculum in different literatures. Through the analysis, comparison, and classification, the author establishes the main character about the essential meanings of curriculum: (a) there are two kinds of essential meanings of curriculum — the form of the curriculum and the matter of the curriculum; (b) curriculum is the educational matter (content), the mean to achieve educational end (the form of education).

摘要

中學中文教師判別、描述和修正學生作文中語誤的能力，反映出他們的語文專業修養、語文知識水平，跟他們的教學素質有著密切的關係。參加測驗的包括95所津貼中學共95位中文科學位教師，測驗的結果大體能反映出香港部分中學中文科教師分析語誤的情況。測驗結果顯示，教師在描述語誤時，多採用「印象式」的方法， 憑「語感」去判斷一句話「通」還是「不通」。他們在腦子裏並不會想到語法問題。本研究結果顯示：老師改正學生作文語誤的能力不大理想，描述語誤的能力更差。事實上，運用語法知識去解決問題才是正確的方法。

Abstract

The ability of secondary Chinese language teachers in differentiating, describing, and correcting errors in students’ compositions reflects their language professionalism and proficiency, and has a close relationship with their teaching quality. A total of 95 Chinese language graduate teachers from 95 subsidized secondary schools have participated in the test. Therefore, the test can reflect the general situation of error analysis of some secondary Chinese language teachers. The test result shows that teachers mostly adopt “impression” method to describe errors, using “language intuition” to judge whether a sentence is “grammatically correct” or not without considering the “grammar” issue. This research result illustrates that the ability of the teachers in correcting errors in students’ compositions is not satisfactory, and their ability in describing errors is even worse. Using the knowledge of grammar, indeed, is the right way to solve the problem.

摘要

1997年香港回歸中國之後，由於香港政府積極倡導「兩文三語」的語文政策，大力推行普通話，使普通話在香港初等和中學教育中得以長足發展，與廣州話和英語鼎足而立，成為香港基礎語文教育的重要成果之一。2004年3月，本研究以隨機抽樣方式，對香港6所中學的437位在校學生進行了一次問卷調查，目的是了解在回歸七年之後的特定歷史條件下，有一定獨立思考能力的香港中學生對學習普通話的態度。調查發現，截至調查時為止，對學習普通話持有清晰的正面態度的香港中學生不足一半；對學習普通話持明確負面態度的中學生約佔學生人數的一成半；另有約四成中學生對學習普通話持猶豫態度。此外，調查結果還顯示，從中國內地來港的新移民學生對學習普通話的態度比較複雜和不穩定。這些新移民學生雖然有比較好的普通話基礎，但卻有超過半數的人由於擔心說普通話會受社會歧視而對學習普通話抱有一定的抗拒心理。

Abstract

On July 1, 1997, Hong Kong ceased to be a colony of the United Kingdom and became a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.). The political transition has greatly affected many aspects of Hong Kong society, including language education. Putonghua, the official language of the P.R.C., has grown to be a powerful and important language in primary and secondary schools, sitting together with English and Cantonese side by side. The principal research question addressed in this study was students’ attitudes toward the learning of Putonghua in the context of post-colonial Hong Kong. This article documents findings obtained in a survey conducted in March 2004 on a random sample of 437 secondary school students in Hong Kong. Statistical analyses of the data showed that Hong Kong secondary school students had complicated attitudes toward the learning of Putonghua. In general, only half of the students held positive attitudes toward the learning of Putonghua based on more pragmatic and political reasons; and the other half was inclined to hold negative or ambiguous attitudes. In addition, students who were new immigrants from the Chinese mainland held hesitating or paradoxical attitudes toward the learning of Putonghua, because they were worried about being looked down or discriminated against if they spoke Putonghua.