Experienced College Instructors＇ Personal Epistemology in Teaching Social Studies and Their Perception of Using Technology

Experience includes explicit and tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is from a person＇s ＂espoused theory＂ which is what a person believes and claims to follow. Tacit knowledge is from a person＇s ＂theory-in-use＂ which lies behind a person＇s action or behavior. The knowledge of teaching demonstrated in the classroom can be referred to as tacit knowledge or theory-in-use which is often the theory behind the practice of experienced teachers. Freema Elbaz （1983） points out that the ＂experience＂ is referred to as ＂practical knowledge＂, which ＂provides the basis for a conceptualization which sees the teacher as possessing valuable resources＂ （6） and allows teachers to explicitly indicate and tacitly demonstrate their experience in teaching. The purpose of the study is to investigate how experienced college instructors apply their good teaching qualities to teaching social studies. The participants are three experienced college instructors teaching social studies. A concept map and a final reflection are used to elicit experienced instructors＇ personal epistemology in teaching social studies and their perception of technology use in the classroom. Each participant was asked to generate nine good teaching qualities and draw their concept map based on the nine qualities. Their concept maps reflected their theory-in-use and showed the relationship among their teaching qualities by displaying them together in a graphic form and how each teaching quality is connected to another. Participants＇ technology use was also explored to get their perception of the role of technology and their actual use of it in teaching. Then they were asked to validate their concept map data and reflect on their classroom teaching and use of technology. The findings show the three instructors taught under different schema and decided what their means and ends should be and how technology can help facilitate teaching and learning. However, most of them seemed to treat the content （e.g., democracy education） as their ends and thus used pedagogy （e.g., technology） as the means to reach the ends. Their technology use also reflected their perception of technology in teaching and revealed their limited understanding of technology integration, which leads to potential problems.

Advanced Research Projects in the Humanities： New Trends on Literature, Languages, and Linguistics Studies

Following the author＇s own experiencing in supervising Ph.D. theses in literature, languages, linguistics, and teacher education, the author will focus on new trends of advanced research projects that have been contributing to reinforce the importance of research in these areas in a time of crisis in the humanities. The organization and funding of science and scholarship in Europe has been promoting anything else but social sciences research, including educational areas. The author will follow the recent call from the Board of Trustees da Academia Europaea to redirect policies toward the organization of multidisciplinary research projects. Among these so-called ＂small subjects＂, we will find original, inspired, and valuable research projects in the humanities, It is worth mentioning that the crisis that has been diminishing this type of scholarship strangely cohabits with several policies promoted by the European Commission and the Council of Europe to develop programs for plurilingual education and linguistic diversity, new framework strategies for multilingualism, and the use of new technologies for language teaching and learning. A strong emphasis on research projects leading to interdisciplinary studies involving literature and pure sciences, plus the development of outreach research projects will be proposed.

Analysis on the Teaching Model of Physical Education in Colleges based on Interactive Teaching Method and Participatory Teaching Method

In this paper, we conduct research on the teaching model of physical education in colleges based on interactive teaching method and participatory teaching method. Campus sports culture is a combination of basic social culture and sports culture in the campus group products, with cultural characteristics. System science is to provide the comprehensive approach for us, whether it is system engineering or operations research, whether the system analysis and network planning, the system provides the scientific research methods are first in the whole system of standing height above, students through the independent thinking, listening carefully, hands-on operation, active speech and other explicit behavior, and while constantly internalized teaching content and enrich their knowledge structure. Under this basis, this paper proposes the new idea of the teaching model of the physical education in colleges based on interactive teaching method and participatory teaching. The effect will be evaluated in the future research.

New Ideas on Teaching Translation

With the rapid development of the society, some new questions of how to teach translation more scientifically have been put forward to the traditional translation teaching in the new century, which is characterized with high informationization and rapid development of science and technology. This paper aims at a general analysis of the characteristics of the modem society and its impact on translation teaching. Meanwhile, this paper provides the translation teachers with some teaching methods and concepts. Finally, this paper points out that translation teachers must take the characteristcs of the modem society in the new century into consideration, and tries to follow some new ideas when teaching translation so as to adapt to the social changes and achieve the goal of translation teaching in the universities.

Attitude, Secondary Schools and Student Success in a Tertiary Mathematics Unit

There is a consensus in the literature that mathematical ability contributes to student success in tertiary education. More importantly, mathematical skills are necessary when successfully completing mathematics- and/or science-based degrees. Social sciences such as psychology and economics require statistical skills which also require knowledge of mathematics. Even business students, such as marketing and accounting students need the necessary mathematical skills to successfully complete their degrees at university. This paper suggests that student success in a core business subject is dependent on their mathematical aptitude, attitude, and type of secondary schooling whether government or non-government schools. There is urgency for universities to recognize that high failure rates are due to insufficient mathematics exposure in secondary schooling and remedial classes might not be enough. Specifying a minimum （maths, e.g., two units） requirement for entry and/or providing bridging programs to ensure students have the necessary basic mathematical skills would increase student success in quantitative units.

Virtual Classroom in the Cloud Transnational Scandinavian Teaching With Digital Technology

In the Scandinavian countries： Sweden, Norway and Denmark, the project GNU （Gr^enseoverskridende Nordisk Undervisning, i.e. Transnational Nordic Teaching） is experimenting with ways of conducting teaching across the borders in the elementary schools. The cloud classes are organised with one class from each country in the subjects： language, science, math, social science/history. The teachers from the three classes work together to design teaching they conduct together with assignments the students will be able to solve only in collaboration with their fellow students in the three classes. The three year project ends in 2014 but already now there are some interesting findings on how transnational teaching collaboration works for teachers and students. This paper will focus on the different uses of web based tools of synchronous and asynchronous communication and discuss challenges and benefits in regard to learning and pedagogy with virtual classroom.

Igniting the Statistical Spark in the Social Sciences—Abilities, Student Feedback and Teacher Observations

A quasi-experimental design was used to measure file impacts on student attainment in statistics, mathematics and critical thinking （16-18 years of age） on an experimental group who received a 21 week long contextualised statistics course （called the Pilot Scheme in SA （social analytics））, in South Wales. This paper will discuss the changes in statistical abilities observed, student feedback from the course and also teacher observations, in relation to the Pilot Scheme in SA. Results suggest that the course did lead to increase in students＇ abilities, in comparison to two control groups. Whereas students in both control groups who did not receive the treatment, showed a decrease in their abilities with respect to mathematics and statistics. Student feedback suggests they could see the value of the course to their other studies and they also felt the statistics delivered was linked well with relevant examples. Results from an analysis of teacher observations support findings from the course evaluation of the Pilot Scheme in SA, which include an increase in student confidence with mathematics and statistics.

In Colombia We Are All Poor

For many, poverty is one of the fundamental problems of Colombia, despite the fact that the economy of the country has been growing and there are efforts of the national government, business, academia, and civil society to contribute to the improvement of this condition. In March 2015, the National Administrative Department of Statistics （DANE, for its Spanish acronym） indicated that in 2014 there was a reduction in the monetary and multidimensional poverty in Colombia. But the truth is that in Colombia we are all poor. We have not been able to take advantage of the visible and invisible wealth we possess. In this sense, this paper provides reflective elements about the fundamental role of three key players in reducing this condition, such as the social sciences from community psychology; the State, with the strengthening of cultural policies; and higher education, viewed from the paradigm of university social responsibility. These reflections are the results of the first phase of a research that is being carried out in an area of the city of Bogota, in which the Catholic University of Colombia, since 2 011, has been developing a process of community intervention to contribute to overcoming poverty. This research is a partnership with universities of Brazil and Mexico, with the purpose to develop knowledge and have an impact on public policy in the respective countries.

Discussion of the importance of the stage art practice in the vocal music teaching

As a special art of the music performances, the vocal music is different from the philosophy and the social sciences, which is reflected not through the theoretical explanation or the theoretical researches, but should reflect the connotation of its own through the form of manifestation of the specific voices. At present, in the vocal music teaching in our country, different teachcrs will carry out the explanation combined with the related theoretical knowledgc and their own experience in the vocal music teaching. In the theoretical teaching, often they will use the related Irainlng methods, and the application of the training methods fully shows the quality of the teaching work, which will often under the influence of the stage art practice. The theoretical teaching is only to impart the theoretical knowledge of the vocal music to the students, but in the aspect of the specific practice, wc will need the support of the stage art practice. In this paper, with the importance of the stage art practice in the vocal music teaching as the research object, based on the analysis of the present situation ofthc vocal music teaching, this paper discusscs the relationship bctween thc stage art practice and the vocal music teaching, and the specific application of the stage practice in the vocal music teaching, and analyzes the importance of the stage art practice in the vocal music teaching, in order to promote the application of the stage art practice in the teaching of the vocal music art, and improve the levels of the vocal music teaching in China.

A quantitative analysis on the operating conditions of 71 key universities in China from 2000 to 2004

Through a quantitative analysis on the school conditions of 71 key universities in the light of some measurable indicators,this paper concludes that all these universities have positively adapted themselves to the massification and diversification of higher education.Suggestions are as follows:(1)the construction of the quality assurance system of universities should be accelerated;(2)more focus should be put on human resources;(3)the education and management of postgraduates should be further enhanced;(4)the work load of faculty members should be reassessed.