2010英伦学术散记4 - 日志 - 鲁子问 - 21英语 - China Daily 学...

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2010英伦学术散记4

已有 97 次阅读  2010-05-06 14:11   标签:  散记  英伦  学术  自从看到IATEFL2010会议的内容介绍并在最终确定参会之后,就期待这一时刻:听国际著名想象力教育头牌大家Kieran Egan讲想象力教育。这是我今天唯一必须听的内容,然后的内容能否听,要看时间安排,因为我需要准备今天下午5-6点我参与的一场讨论。好在现场网络不错,可以边听边发上来我的现场感受--新鲜出炉,未经任何化学处理。

    会议Programme介绍,他要讲Students’ minds and imaginations,摘要为:In this talk I will offer a rather new way of thinking about the process of students' cognitive development. It focuses on the kinds of "cognitive tools" or learning toolkits students develop as they grow up in a society like ours. In schools and in most currently dominant psychological theories of development, short-shrift is given to some of the most powerful learning tools students have available to make sense of their world and experience and the languages that surround them.

We tend also to think of the imagination as something of an educational frill--something to try to engage after the hard work of learning had occurred. I will try to show that focusing on central features of students' learning "toolkits" makes it clear that the imagination is one of the great workhorses of learning, and that we ignore it at the cost of making learning more ineffective than it should be and much schooling more tedious than it need be.

但我对这位学者的关注却来自我之前对于thinking的阅读,他的Imaginative approach to teaching让我找了好久,到现在没有买到原著,只是看了一些内容。这也是我打算尽快去一趟美国的原因,那里的thinking education是我必须尽快全面了解学习的。

网上看到他的书的介绍,很有意思,内容很多,其中一节为:

An Imaginative Approach to Teaching is a groundbreaking book that offers an understanding of how students’ imaginations work in learning and shows how the acquisition of cognitive tools drives students’ educational development. This approach is unique in that it engages both the imagination and emotions. The author clearly demonstrates how knowledge comes to life in students’ minds if it is introduced in the context of human hopes, fears, and passions.  To facilitate this new educational approach, the book includes a wide variety of effective teaching tools--such as story, rhythm, play, opposition, agency, and meta-narrative understanding--that value and build upon the way children understand their experiences. Most important, Egan provides frameworks for lesson planning and more than a dozen sample lessons to show how teachers can use these tools to awaken intelligence and imagination in the classroom.
Teachers, teacher educators, and staff development professionals will find this book to be an invaluable resource for understanding the theoretical underpinnings and practical strategies for effectively engaging students' imaginations.
 

    9点,在IATEFL主席的隆重介绍下,Egan教授登场了。显然,Egan教授不是有些大牌那样authoritative,话语平和。

    他介绍了关于儿童心智发展的四种理论:socializing, accumulative privileged knowledge, psychological development, cognitive tool acquisition.

    他接着介绍了他对于understanding的研究,逐一解释了三类理解:somantic understanding, mythic understanding, romantic understanding,还有两类philosophic understanding, ironic understanding没有介绍。

    讲解中,他不断使用案例、故事,使其艰深的学术内容让与会的普通老师都能听懂,而且理解清楚、准确,印象深刻。

    其实,外语专业委员会的学术也曾请认知科学的专家讲座,与本次内容异曲同工,我也在现场听,但其效果显然不同,尽管那是用汉语讲的,但有太多概念、数据,需要听众理解概念,自己解读数据,所以intake非常有限。

    Egan教授详细介绍Mythic understanding(其实就是语言的理解力)的主要认知工具:story; metaphor; abstract binary opposites; rhyme, meter, and pattern; joking and homour; forming images; sense of mystery; games, drama and play。这些都是我们在课堂里正在的,但基本上不够系统,挖掘也不够,应该强化。

   最后他结合外语教学举了一个小例子说明,具体讨论会在下午的专场进行,只是届时我没时间了。

  应该说,想象力是人类发展、创新的基础,语言教学是培养想象力最直接、最经济的方法,是不是最有效的方法呢,还需要我们去努力,尤其是对于缺乏创新文化的中国。

回国后争取尽快与他们联系,并且联系一些语文老师,在全国推广一下想象力教育,为民族创新培养更多新生力量。

 

   他的具体介绍Programme的内容如下:

Kieran Egan was born in Clonmel, Ireland in 1942. He was brought up and educated in England. He read History (Hons.) at the University of London, graduating with a B.A. in 1966. He worked for a year as a Research fellow at the Institute for Comparative Studies in Kingston-upon-Thames and then moved to the USA to begin a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Education at Stanford University. He worked concurrently as a consultant to the I.B.M. Corp. on adaptation of a programming method, called Structural Communication, to new computing systems. He completed his Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1972. His first job was at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, where he has remained ever since. He is the author of over 20 books, and co-author, editor, or co-editor of a few more. In 1991 he received the Grawemeyer Award in Education. In 1993 he was elected to the Royal Society of Canada, in 2000 he was elected as Foreign Associate member to U.S. National Academy of Education, he received a Canada Research Chair in 2001, won the Whitworth Award in 2007.

His main area of interest is education. His work focuses on a new educational theory, which he has developed during the past two decades, and its implications for a changed curriculum, teaching practices, and the institution of the school. His work deals both with innovative educational theory and detailed practical methods whereby implications of his theory can be applied at the classroom level.
Various of his books have been translated into about 10 European and Asian languages. His recent books include Teaching as Story Telling and Imagination in Teaching and Learning (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), The Educated Mind: How cognitive tools shape our understanding (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), Getting it Wrong from the Beginning: Our progressivist inheritance from Herbert Spencer, John Dewey, and Jean Piaget (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), An imaginative approach to teaching (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,2005), and Teaching literacy: Engaging the imagination of new readers and writers (Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2006), and most recently The Future of Education: Reimagining our schools from the ground up (New Haven: Yale University Press).

 

 

   随后去一个session听了一个关于模拟联合国的介绍。发言者是奥地利的Otto Ernest Gutmann (Knittelfeld Academic Secondary UNESCO School of Austria),题目直接就是Model United Nations: Understanding the international dimension in teaching。

    Otto介绍在奥地利,老师一般都不知道模联,他自己90年代在美国学习,接触到这一活动,然后回国开展,现在奥地利有一个面向全体学生的模联活动,明年会增加一个面向中学生的模联,只有10几所学校开展这一活动。奥地利的人口少于浙江省,浙江没有10几所学校开展模联,这说明,我国的模联活动不如奥地利广泛。

    Otto做的是启蒙工作,告诉听会的19位代表,什么是模联,模联的代表规则,发言规则等等,没有具体的实证研究,也没有定性研究,但方法的介绍对于新手还是有用的,总的来说是一个不错的推介,很具体,操作性很强。对我则是有点浪费时间了,中途出去很礼貌,只好等到结束。

不过结束后还是忍不住告诉他,中国有也不少学校开展模联,并邀请他方面时带团到中国参加模联活动,为国家增加一点旅游收入哈。

而且遇到哈罗学校北京分校的一位外教,他们也希望与国内参加模联的学校联系。

    上午最后一个session去听了曾经在剑桥的一个研修课程中给我讲过课George Pickering的专题,讲的仍然是管理专题,今天的重点是How to become an even better leader,内容非常具体、使用,但又系统、全面,George 的讲座还是那么风趣、幽默,让人感觉不到时间。一小时的内容很快过去了,使我感受到非常实用的很多,比如find a critical observer for your leading at a programme or a conference, get 15 minutes a day to help members in your team等等。我想我会尝试,当然不大可能照搬。

    这个session的收获主要在于理念、做法,而不是在于作为workshop的讨论,所以其实这个内容作为talk比作为workshop更好,因为这个话题作为workshop可能需要几天的时间。

我深知,在我国,真正需要leadership and management培训的是教研员、教研组长。我在想,如果设计一个面向他们的这个专题,可能两三天时间,学会设计、领导和组织一个研究项目,这可能是非常有效的,也可能价值超值。此前开展教研员的命题设计研修,在这个方面存在很多不足。当然George不只是语言教学管理的专家,更是管理的培训专家。回国与这个领域的朋友再联系联系,或许可以重新设计一下培训内容、方法、流程。术业有专攻,是然。

下午准备5-6点参加的活动的内容,不再去session了。

我应邀参与的活动要我简要介绍一下中国的考试改革。准备好了,就是信息介绍,没有任何研究信息,因为我们的一项调查数据还没出来。我介绍的主要内容是:

Development of task-based testing in China

Background

China initiated a task-based national curriculum of English in 2001.

China’s college English test was strongly critised because the certificate holders could not use English in speaking, listening and writing in real-world situations.

Initial stage

Since 2001, task-based testing emerged as new test types in term summative tests.

Since 2003, task-based testing emerged as new test types in high-stake senior high school entrance tests by local examination authorities.

Some nation-level training on task-based test item writing offered by China’s MoE.

Turning point

2005, a task-based test type was introduced in nation-level fate-decisive matriculation test of English by China’s National Educational Examination Authority.

It is an informative words gap filling type for listening and reading.

Present

Task-based speaking test type was used in some provinces.

Over 10 task-based reading test types were widely used in China.

2 task-based listening test types were used in China’s CMET.

3 Task-based writing test types were used in China’s MET.

Test types for listening

Informative words gap-filling as listening tasks

Information matching

Test types for speaking

Self introducing

Question answering

Pair discussing

Situation describing

Test types for reading

Informative words gap-filling as listening tasks

Structure of passage building

Key informative word map building

Information matching

Question answering

Passage completing

Test types for writing

Reply writing

Summary writing and ideas presenting

Picture illustrating and interpreting

Examples

Examples

Examples

Examples

Positive backwash

Students are learning to use English instead of just about English.

Teachers started to learn how to teach for task-based testing.

From nation-level teaching demonstration, we can see the abilities for using English of students and teachers have been improving fast.

Ongoing development

Scholars are promoting task-base assessment in China. In the latest national curriculum, task-based test types were introduced.

Better task-based testing has been introduced in China. Trinity College London’s spoken English exam is becoming nation-wide popular.

Long way to go

No only-task test yet

Tasks but objective marking scheme because of the no-adding marking budget

介绍时因为时间关系,题型没有详细介绍。