This paper offers pragmatic religious approach to handling moments of grief. It examines the mechanism for coping with distress in Islam. Though inferences were drawn from the Muslim Scripture (i.e. the Glorious Qur...This paper offers pragmatic religious approach to handling moments of grief. It examines the mechanism for coping with distress in Islam. Though inferences were drawn from the Muslim Scripture (i.e. the Glorious Qur'an) and the experiences of the prophets of God, the paper posits that every human being in today's world experiences moments of grief that are similar to those experienced by those prophets and as such, strategies adopted by them could still be found useful in the contemporary times. The paper has six parts. The introduction forms part one and this is followed by an examination of the causes of distress. In part three, the different signs and manifestations of distress in individuals are discussed while part four looks at the conventional or scientific ways of coping with moments of grief. The section that follows critically discusses the lslamic paradigm for coping with moments of grief. Thereafter the conclusions were drawn and some recommendations were offered.展开更多
The uncertainty of postmodern world is a common belief. This uncertainty influences citizens in all aspects of their lives (personal, professional, social, etc.). The question arises intensively: How can people be ...The uncertainty of postmodern world is a common belief. This uncertainty influences citizens in all aspects of their lives (personal, professional, social, etc.). The question arises intensively: How can people be prepared for this continuous changing? One of the suggestions presented in current literature is the development of critical reflection Educational environment can play a major role in this domain. The need for the development of critical reflection is especially noted in the higher education framework. Universities can become a "holding" environment for transformation. This study underlines the importance of preparing young students as future professionals and citizens, by developing their critical reflection. A practical method is discussed and concerns the use and benefits of the aesthetic experience in a transformative learning procedure. The research presented here is based on the application of this method and aims to the reinforcement of specific dimensions of adulthood in a university environment. The application was carried out on students of the department of educational studies at a Greek regional university. One of the topics analyzed through art was the notion of "useful knowledge" and was part of a wider range of applications that concern the process of learning展开更多
In recent years, numerous scholars have attached much importance to the pragmatic function of hedges and associated it with daily life. Scholars have conducted a lot of research on how hedges function in news broadcas...In recent years, numerous scholars have attached much importance to the pragmatic function of hedges and associated it with daily life. Scholars have conducted a lot of research on how hedges function in news broadcast, interview, trial, commercial negotiation, language teaching, entertainment, etc. However, there is still no research on its application in Public Speaking Contest (hereinafter referred to as PSC ). PSC is usually regarded as a great annual event for students. In order to analyze the efficiency of hedges in PSC to help students to he skirted in the application of different hedges, this article wiU analyze characteristics of hedges by the comparison with the relevant concept like probability and vagueness; then some scholars' approach of classifieation will be introduced; lastly, it will analyze different function of hedges under the context of some articles in"Filter Cup"English Public Speaking Contest. Adaptors can make the expression more polite and tact; rounders can make speaker' s information more believable and show his sincere attitude for judges; plausibility shields can show thoughtful and clear-headed property; attribution shields can help to avoid the responsibility for a fault.展开更多
Vagueness in English for business negotiation will be interpreted by pragmatic theories, such as, the cooperative principle, the polite principle, and the face theory through many practical cases picked from the real ...Vagueness in English for business negotiation will be interpreted by pragmatic theories, such as, the cooperative principle, the polite principle, and the face theory through many practical cases picked from the real communication between the negotiators, which aims at providing a systematic theory framework for the language users and researchers.展开更多
Although Web 2.0 tools like blogs and wikis have been used for supporting collaborative learning in higher education, there are not many reports about implementation of that resource on engineering in Brazil. In this ...Although Web 2.0 tools like blogs and wikis have been used for supporting collaborative learning in higher education, there are not many reports about implementation of that resource on engineering in Brazil. In this way, the main purpose of this research is to use a wiki platform for online activities and evaluate how students collaborate with each other in online tasks. It was investigated how collaboration can be measured on wiki platform During four-week online activities, 40 students of Civil Engineering course were monitored on Wikispaces~ platform. All students' actions were analyzed and classified as low, medium, or high level of collaboration. The data were collected through the statistical reports of Wikispaces~ and Google Analytics platforms. It computed 336 students' actions: 16.67% as high level, 45.24% as medium, and 38.10% as low. During informal interview, most of students (70%) related that wiki was a nice tool for collaboration work. The results indicated that wiki platform is an important way to develop innovative activities and tasks for the purpose of improving engineers' abilities and skills such as: writing communication, organization, collaboration, and critical thinking development.展开更多
The concept of "equality" and the importance of "rational and critical thinking" are essential components of humanism. New English Curriculum for Chinese Primary Schools and Junior/Senior High Schools indicates En...The concept of "equality" and the importance of "rational and critical thinking" are essential components of humanism. New English Curriculum for Chinese Primary Schools and Junior/Senior High Schools indicates English is not only a "Tool", but also carries information and features of "Humanism". This article conducted one year-long qualitative case study of three high school English teachers from different districts in Beijing. Data were collected through class observation, teachers' office observation, and interviews with teachers, students, and parents Data analysis followed qualitative procedures. Findings show that the three English teachers do not have strong awareness of humanism: None of them believes students and teachers are equal. Two teachers incorporate "rational and critical thinking" when they work as head teachers, but neither applies it when they serve as English teachers. Humanistic education is not prevalent but effective in teachers' development training. More relevant trainings are expected to benefit more teachers.展开更多
In the history of the western civilization, the trial of Socrates and the trial of Jesus in the Christian history are equally famous. This trial implied several enduring and classical topics in the history of the west...In the history of the western civilization, the trial of Socrates and the trial of Jesus in the Christian history are equally famous. This trial implied several enduring and classical topics in the history of the western legal thoughts. Why did Socrates accept the results of the "Miscarriage of Justice"? Who led to the wrong decision? Why would Socrates be executed? This article is precisely embarked from this trial, to explore ajurisprudent issue related to the trial: the debate on Evil law is law and Evil law is illegal.展开更多
Pedagogy teaches teachers how to teach, so that they may effectively teach students how to learn; it offers important training for teachers to transform students from mere parrots of information into challengers of an...Pedagogy teaches teachers how to teach, so that they may effectively teach students how to learn; it offers important training for teachers to transform students from mere parrots of information into challengers of and innovators of knowledge. Yet, while Bangladesh has had a long history of university teaching, pedagogy has hardly entered the imagination of university educators. At the university level, pedagogical training would address cultural hindrances to students' advanced learning. Today's teachers are yesterday's students, with each generation being groomed in the same cultural patterns of learning that are continually repeated without examination. At the same time, the majority of faculties lack pedagogical methods for adjusting their teaching framework to accommodate the diversity of students' worldviews to nurture knowledge progression in classroom settings. Importantly, students acquire cultural practices of rote learning and memorization by way of lectures and homework that parrots texts and lectures. Many faculties are unaware that the purpose of a university is to stimulate new ideas and knowledge, provoke assumptions, and teach and encourage critical thinking. The pedagogical challenge also derives from Bengali culture, from which teachers assume a hierarchical mindset and attitude that is counter-productive to students' learning.展开更多
This paper focuses on current theoretical research in second language education and on how the Language Awareness Approach, specifically, is key to successful second language teaching. LAA methodology gives students t...This paper focuses on current theoretical research in second language education and on how the Language Awareness Approach, specifically, is key to successful second language teaching. LAA methodology gives students the tools and confidence to internalize the second language for the long term. Through the Language Awareness Approach, students become highly motivated self-learners, expertly analyzing the syntax of their native language as well as that of the second language. As students become more skilled in understanding how language works, they are able to internalize the new language and make it their own. Eventually, students do not have to "change the chip to the target language" when they walk through the classroom door.展开更多
The axis tlhesis of this paper is that, today, it is ESP (English for Specific Purposes) in particular, rather than General English, that is the agent of the spread of globalization. Currently, ESP is witnessing an ...The axis tlhesis of this paper is that, today, it is ESP (English for Specific Purposes) in particular, rather than General English, that is the agent of the spread of globalization. Currently, ESP is witnessing an unprecedented spread, to a point of almost taking over the relevance and frequency of teaching of General English. Hereby, we look at the phenomenon of globalization as a social concept that demands of education that students are taught performativity, therefore just skills needed for the global economy functioning, and not education as a move towards change, refinement, and individuation of a personality. ESP is taught as a sort of socially neutral language, as it presumably deals only with the language of some specific science or profession. Relying on the relevant work of the acclaimed social theorists, it is our claim that as there is no socially and/or ideologically neutral language, and that this fact applies for ESP. It is because of this, that we hereby advocate a strong and urgent need for the application of critical pedagogy and critical literacy stances in the practice of ESP, and we give some broad directions of how that can be achieved.展开更多
The purpose of college English teaching is to cultivate students ' English proficiency, one is listening, speaking, reading, writing, translation ability, on the other hand is the ability to think in English. Among t...The purpose of college English teaching is to cultivate students ' English proficiency, one is listening, speaking, reading, writing, translation ability, on the other hand is the ability to think in English. Among them, listening, reading is input, speaking, writing, translation is output. Chinese college students is learning foreign language in a non-native environment, which requires students to have a certain amount of input, output while there are plenty of opportunities; English thinking mainly refers to the critical thinking skills (Critical thinking), which is using fluent English to consider things speculatively and express their views on the basis of listening, speaking reading, writing, and the translation.展开更多
The neo-liberal re-positioning of the educational-explorative realm to a vocational market-confinement has already impacted quite heavily on the educational sector in England and Wales and is now being imposed on a Eu...The neo-liberal re-positioning of the educational-explorative realm to a vocational market-confinement has already impacted quite heavily on the educational sector in England and Wales and is now being imposed on a European wide scale. However, global as well as European students' protests illustrate that resistance to this ideology is gathering pace, and not only involves students and academics but also reaches wider parts of societies. This paper seeks to demonstrate the need for critical pedagogical practices that seek to sensitise students to the modes of current "conditions of domination". It further suggests critical criminologists to foster and engage in a process of public, intellectual, and intercultural exchange of ideas about education and educational institutions away from merely rationalistic, one-dimensional and profit-orientated ambitions toward a multitude of exchanges about meanings and purposes of such important socio-cultural and political institutions and processes that shape "subjectivities", inter-subjectivities and thus entire socio-cultural and political spheres. Such processes and active engagements are crucial to the agenda of critical criminologists, and perhaps most importantly, vital to the continued existence of a critical criminology that understands itself as proper ideology critique.展开更多
The study aimed to reveal the effectiveness of the integration between some constructive learning strategies in teaching a unit of the English language course to collect translation skills, using grammar, and the acqu...The study aimed to reveal the effectiveness of the integration between some constructive learning strategies in teaching a unit of the English language course to collect translation skills, using grammar, and the acquisition of critical thinking skills for intermediate third grade students in Mecca. Also, it aimed to acknowledge the statistical differences between the modified averages for the study sample groups degrees in the dimensional collecting of grammar and translation skills at the knowledge of the grammar level and using it, and at the macro level for collecting translation and grammar skills after adjusting the old collecting, as well as the knowledge of the statistical differences between the modified averages for the study sample groups in the total telemetric for the critical thinking skills after adjusting the old collecting. To achieve the study objectives, the researcher used the semi-experimental method that had several experimental groups (four groups), and applied it to a sample of intermediate third-grade students in the city of Makkah (99 students) in teaching the unit of the English language course, which is (Healthy Eating) in the second semester in 2011/2012. After using the appropriate statistical methods, the study came to a result that there are no statistically significant differences in the old implementation for the test of skills of academic achievement of grammar, translation, and critical thinking skills, and that there are statistically significant differences in the new implementation due to the four strategies. According to the results of the study, the researcher recommended a number of recommendations including: the necessity to focus on the constructive theory in teaching English language skills, the importance of expanding the use of the suggested integrative oriented and its development in the field of English language teaching, to hold an intensive training courses for teachers of the English language to train them on using the suggested integrative strategy, the emphasis on the importance of the curriculum activities which focus on the integration between the constructive learning strategies, the importance of expanding of scientific research in the field of integrative strategies, and the development of synthesis methods that combine two strategies or more.展开更多
Power relation can be revealed in discourse. Teacher power, to a large extent, is manifested through teacher talk. This paper attempts to provide an analysis of classroom language from a critical discourse perspective...Power relation can be revealed in discourse. Teacher power, to a large extent, is manifested through teacher talk. This paper attempts to provide an analysis of classroom language from a critical discourse perspective as to uncover the power hidden in teacher talk and of how language contributes to teacher power.展开更多
Critical thinking ability is the core skill of higher education. How to train the non-English major students' critical thinking ability in the English writing instruction plays an important role in the compound perso...Critical thinking ability is the core skill of higher education. How to train the non-English major students' critical thinking ability in the English writing instruction plays an important role in the compound personnel training. In this paper, the reading-discussion-writing approach which guarantees the innovative construction of writing is proposed to train college students' critical thinking ability, and specific suggestions on the practice are articulated such as designing diversified listening and speaking lead-in activities to activate or supplement the relative notion and background knowledge, using variety of challenging reading-discussion-writing tasks, and conducting mutual evaluation, etc., to let students deeply understand the text through discussion and promote their language competence and writing ability as well as their reflective thinking ability.展开更多
In this paper, the authors present a modelling activity developed from a thematic project in the models and mathematical modelling class of the professional master's degree program in mathematics education at the Fed...In this paper, the authors present a modelling activity developed from a thematic project in the models and mathematical modelling class of the professional master's degree program in mathematics education at the Federal University of Ouro Preto. The students enrolled in the class chose to study the theme Brazilian Public Politics. After several debates regarding the theme, the students were separated into three groups and each group chose a subtheme to study. The themes were IDH (index of human development), minimum wage and social security. As an example, a description of the thematic project about the minimum wage in Brazil is presented. The principal results obtained in the study of this theme include a discussion about the potentialities of the theme as a classroom activity in different levels of schooling. As an educational activity, the thematic project demonstrated itself to be greatly relevant, since not only did it provide the learning possibility of mathematics related to the issues studied, but also promoted various discussions regarding the theme, which, in our conception, contributes to the social-critical development of the students. Finally, from the point of view of applied mathematics and mathematics education, the development of a modelling activity from thematic projects showed itself to be a good source of researches.展开更多
This paper examines the study abroad experiences of undergraduates, explores the students' values and perspectives on being global citizens, and expresses the way they think of themselves as members of the broader wo...This paper examines the study abroad experiences of undergraduates, explores the students' values and perspectives on being global citizens, and expresses the way they think of themselves as members of the broader world community. The research was conducted by interviewing students who had experiences studying abroad. It aims to open a debate about the meanings and understandings of global student mobility which is based on the opinions and values of college students who had either long or short-term study abroad experiences. The study shows that students have grasped the transformation of globalization and are concerned with their competitiveness in the global stage. They pointed out that their higher education courses are lacking in providing enough opportunities for students to encounter the broader world. Also, students often cope with culture shock issues such as the way they interact with classmates, the attitude of contributing toward society, and the barrier to communicate using local languages. Proposed changes can start with professors, for example, by bringing the reality of other cultures into the students' learning process, by showing the common values and competencies of modern college students, and by contributing to critical thinking.展开更多
文摘This paper offers pragmatic religious approach to handling moments of grief. It examines the mechanism for coping with distress in Islam. Though inferences were drawn from the Muslim Scripture (i.e. the Glorious Qur'an) and the experiences of the prophets of God, the paper posits that every human being in today's world experiences moments of grief that are similar to those experienced by those prophets and as such, strategies adopted by them could still be found useful in the contemporary times. The paper has six parts. The introduction forms part one and this is followed by an examination of the causes of distress. In part three, the different signs and manifestations of distress in individuals are discussed while part four looks at the conventional or scientific ways of coping with moments of grief. The section that follows critically discusses the lslamic paradigm for coping with moments of grief. Thereafter the conclusions were drawn and some recommendations were offered.
文摘The uncertainty of postmodern world is a common belief. This uncertainty influences citizens in all aspects of their lives (personal, professional, social, etc.). The question arises intensively: How can people be prepared for this continuous changing? One of the suggestions presented in current literature is the development of critical reflection Educational environment can play a major role in this domain. The need for the development of critical reflection is especially noted in the higher education framework. Universities can become a "holding" environment for transformation. This study underlines the importance of preparing young students as future professionals and citizens, by developing their critical reflection. A practical method is discussed and concerns the use and benefits of the aesthetic experience in a transformative learning procedure. The research presented here is based on the application of this method and aims to the reinforcement of specific dimensions of adulthood in a university environment. The application was carried out on students of the department of educational studies at a Greek regional university. One of the topics analyzed through art was the notion of "useful knowledge" and was part of a wider range of applications that concern the process of learning
文摘In recent years, numerous scholars have attached much importance to the pragmatic function of hedges and associated it with daily life. Scholars have conducted a lot of research on how hedges function in news broadcast, interview, trial, commercial negotiation, language teaching, entertainment, etc. However, there is still no research on its application in Public Speaking Contest (hereinafter referred to as PSC ). PSC is usually regarded as a great annual event for students. In order to analyze the efficiency of hedges in PSC to help students to he skirted in the application of different hedges, this article wiU analyze characteristics of hedges by the comparison with the relevant concept like probability and vagueness; then some scholars' approach of classifieation will be introduced; lastly, it will analyze different function of hedges under the context of some articles in"Filter Cup"English Public Speaking Contest. Adaptors can make the expression more polite and tact; rounders can make speaker' s information more believable and show his sincere attitude for judges; plausibility shields can show thoughtful and clear-headed property; attribution shields can help to avoid the responsibility for a fault.
文摘Vagueness in English for business negotiation will be interpreted by pragmatic theories, such as, the cooperative principle, the polite principle, and the face theory through many practical cases picked from the real communication between the negotiators, which aims at providing a systematic theory framework for the language users and researchers.
文摘Although Web 2.0 tools like blogs and wikis have been used for supporting collaborative learning in higher education, there are not many reports about implementation of that resource on engineering in Brazil. In this way, the main purpose of this research is to use a wiki platform for online activities and evaluate how students collaborate with each other in online tasks. It was investigated how collaboration can be measured on wiki platform During four-week online activities, 40 students of Civil Engineering course were monitored on Wikispaces~ platform. All students' actions were analyzed and classified as low, medium, or high level of collaboration. The data were collected through the statistical reports of Wikispaces~ and Google Analytics platforms. It computed 336 students' actions: 16.67% as high level, 45.24% as medium, and 38.10% as low. During informal interview, most of students (70%) related that wiki was a nice tool for collaboration work. The results indicated that wiki platform is an important way to develop innovative activities and tasks for the purpose of improving engineers' abilities and skills such as: writing communication, organization, collaboration, and critical thinking development.
文摘The concept of "equality" and the importance of "rational and critical thinking" are essential components of humanism. New English Curriculum for Chinese Primary Schools and Junior/Senior High Schools indicates English is not only a "Tool", but also carries information and features of "Humanism". This article conducted one year-long qualitative case study of three high school English teachers from different districts in Beijing. Data were collected through class observation, teachers' office observation, and interviews with teachers, students, and parents Data analysis followed qualitative procedures. Findings show that the three English teachers do not have strong awareness of humanism: None of them believes students and teachers are equal. Two teachers incorporate "rational and critical thinking" when they work as head teachers, but neither applies it when they serve as English teachers. Humanistic education is not prevalent but effective in teachers' development training. More relevant trainings are expected to benefit more teachers.
文摘In the history of the western civilization, the trial of Socrates and the trial of Jesus in the Christian history are equally famous. This trial implied several enduring and classical topics in the history of the western legal thoughts. Why did Socrates accept the results of the "Miscarriage of Justice"? Who led to the wrong decision? Why would Socrates be executed? This article is precisely embarked from this trial, to explore ajurisprudent issue related to the trial: the debate on Evil law is law and Evil law is illegal.
文摘Pedagogy teaches teachers how to teach, so that they may effectively teach students how to learn; it offers important training for teachers to transform students from mere parrots of information into challengers of and innovators of knowledge. Yet, while Bangladesh has had a long history of university teaching, pedagogy has hardly entered the imagination of university educators. At the university level, pedagogical training would address cultural hindrances to students' advanced learning. Today's teachers are yesterday's students, with each generation being groomed in the same cultural patterns of learning that are continually repeated without examination. At the same time, the majority of faculties lack pedagogical methods for adjusting their teaching framework to accommodate the diversity of students' worldviews to nurture knowledge progression in classroom settings. Importantly, students acquire cultural practices of rote learning and memorization by way of lectures and homework that parrots texts and lectures. Many faculties are unaware that the purpose of a university is to stimulate new ideas and knowledge, provoke assumptions, and teach and encourage critical thinking. The pedagogical challenge also derives from Bengali culture, from which teachers assume a hierarchical mindset and attitude that is counter-productive to students' learning.
文摘This paper focuses on current theoretical research in second language education and on how the Language Awareness Approach, specifically, is key to successful second language teaching. LAA methodology gives students the tools and confidence to internalize the second language for the long term. Through the Language Awareness Approach, students become highly motivated self-learners, expertly analyzing the syntax of their native language as well as that of the second language. As students become more skilled in understanding how language works, they are able to internalize the new language and make it their own. Eventually, students do not have to "change the chip to the target language" when they walk through the classroom door.
文摘The axis tlhesis of this paper is that, today, it is ESP (English for Specific Purposes) in particular, rather than General English, that is the agent of the spread of globalization. Currently, ESP is witnessing an unprecedented spread, to a point of almost taking over the relevance and frequency of teaching of General English. Hereby, we look at the phenomenon of globalization as a social concept that demands of education that students are taught performativity, therefore just skills needed for the global economy functioning, and not education as a move towards change, refinement, and individuation of a personality. ESP is taught as a sort of socially neutral language, as it presumably deals only with the language of some specific science or profession. Relying on the relevant work of the acclaimed social theorists, it is our claim that as there is no socially and/or ideologically neutral language, and that this fact applies for ESP. It is because of this, that we hereby advocate a strong and urgent need for the application of critical pedagogy and critical literacy stances in the practice of ESP, and we give some broad directions of how that can be achieved.
文摘The purpose of college English teaching is to cultivate students ' English proficiency, one is listening, speaking, reading, writing, translation ability, on the other hand is the ability to think in English. Among them, listening, reading is input, speaking, writing, translation is output. Chinese college students is learning foreign language in a non-native environment, which requires students to have a certain amount of input, output while there are plenty of opportunities; English thinking mainly refers to the critical thinking skills (Critical thinking), which is using fluent English to consider things speculatively and express their views on the basis of listening, speaking reading, writing, and the translation.
文摘The neo-liberal re-positioning of the educational-explorative realm to a vocational market-confinement has already impacted quite heavily on the educational sector in England and Wales and is now being imposed on a European wide scale. However, global as well as European students' protests illustrate that resistance to this ideology is gathering pace, and not only involves students and academics but also reaches wider parts of societies. This paper seeks to demonstrate the need for critical pedagogical practices that seek to sensitise students to the modes of current "conditions of domination". It further suggests critical criminologists to foster and engage in a process of public, intellectual, and intercultural exchange of ideas about education and educational institutions away from merely rationalistic, one-dimensional and profit-orientated ambitions toward a multitude of exchanges about meanings and purposes of such important socio-cultural and political institutions and processes that shape "subjectivities", inter-subjectivities and thus entire socio-cultural and political spheres. Such processes and active engagements are crucial to the agenda of critical criminologists, and perhaps most importantly, vital to the continued existence of a critical criminology that understands itself as proper ideology critique.
文摘The study aimed to reveal the effectiveness of the integration between some constructive learning strategies in teaching a unit of the English language course to collect translation skills, using grammar, and the acquisition of critical thinking skills for intermediate third grade students in Mecca. Also, it aimed to acknowledge the statistical differences between the modified averages for the study sample groups degrees in the dimensional collecting of grammar and translation skills at the knowledge of the grammar level and using it, and at the macro level for collecting translation and grammar skills after adjusting the old collecting, as well as the knowledge of the statistical differences between the modified averages for the study sample groups in the total telemetric for the critical thinking skills after adjusting the old collecting. To achieve the study objectives, the researcher used the semi-experimental method that had several experimental groups (four groups), and applied it to a sample of intermediate third-grade students in the city of Makkah (99 students) in teaching the unit of the English language course, which is (Healthy Eating) in the second semester in 2011/2012. After using the appropriate statistical methods, the study came to a result that there are no statistically significant differences in the old implementation for the test of skills of academic achievement of grammar, translation, and critical thinking skills, and that there are statistically significant differences in the new implementation due to the four strategies. According to the results of the study, the researcher recommended a number of recommendations including: the necessity to focus on the constructive theory in teaching English language skills, the importance of expanding the use of the suggested integrative oriented and its development in the field of English language teaching, to hold an intensive training courses for teachers of the English language to train them on using the suggested integrative strategy, the emphasis on the importance of the curriculum activities which focus on the integration between the constructive learning strategies, the importance of expanding of scientific research in the field of integrative strategies, and the development of synthesis methods that combine two strategies or more.
文摘Power relation can be revealed in discourse. Teacher power, to a large extent, is manifested through teacher talk. This paper attempts to provide an analysis of classroom language from a critical discourse perspective as to uncover the power hidden in teacher talk and of how language contributes to teacher power.
文摘Critical thinking ability is the core skill of higher education. How to train the non-English major students' critical thinking ability in the English writing instruction plays an important role in the compound personnel training. In this paper, the reading-discussion-writing approach which guarantees the innovative construction of writing is proposed to train college students' critical thinking ability, and specific suggestions on the practice are articulated such as designing diversified listening and speaking lead-in activities to activate or supplement the relative notion and background knowledge, using variety of challenging reading-discussion-writing tasks, and conducting mutual evaluation, etc., to let students deeply understand the text through discussion and promote their language competence and writing ability as well as their reflective thinking ability.
文摘In this paper, the authors present a modelling activity developed from a thematic project in the models and mathematical modelling class of the professional master's degree program in mathematics education at the Federal University of Ouro Preto. The students enrolled in the class chose to study the theme Brazilian Public Politics. After several debates regarding the theme, the students were separated into three groups and each group chose a subtheme to study. The themes were IDH (index of human development), minimum wage and social security. As an example, a description of the thematic project about the minimum wage in Brazil is presented. The principal results obtained in the study of this theme include a discussion about the potentialities of the theme as a classroom activity in different levels of schooling. As an educational activity, the thematic project demonstrated itself to be greatly relevant, since not only did it provide the learning possibility of mathematics related to the issues studied, but also promoted various discussions regarding the theme, which, in our conception, contributes to the social-critical development of the students. Finally, from the point of view of applied mathematics and mathematics education, the development of a modelling activity from thematic projects showed itself to be a good source of researches.
文摘This paper examines the study abroad experiences of undergraduates, explores the students' values and perspectives on being global citizens, and expresses the way they think of themselves as members of the broader world community. The research was conducted by interviewing students who had experiences studying abroad. It aims to open a debate about the meanings and understandings of global student mobility which is based on the opinions and values of college students who had either long or short-term study abroad experiences. The study shows that students have grasped the transformation of globalization and are concerned with their competitiveness in the global stage. They pointed out that their higher education courses are lacking in providing enough opportunities for students to encounter the broader world. Also, students often cope with culture shock issues such as the way they interact with classmates, the attitude of contributing toward society, and the barrier to communicate using local languages. Proposed changes can start with professors, for example, by bringing the reality of other cultures into the students' learning process, by showing the common values and competencies of modern college students, and by contributing to critical thinking.