The Development of Home-School Partnership Courses: A Practice Based on Xingzhi Tao’s Life Education Theory

Home-school partnership plays a critical role in student growth and the home-school partnership courses provide important paths to achieving ideal results of the partnership. Under the guidance of the three principles of “life is education”, “society is school” and “integrating teaching, learning and practice” in Xingzhi Tao’s life education theory, Shandong 271 Education Group developed the parent school course and the family civilization course, which turn out to be a systematic support for the home-school partnership program. This paper analyses the status quo of home-school cooperation in China and focuses elaborations on the components and practice of the two courses in Shandong 271 Education Group.

The Development of Home-School Partnership Courses: A Practice Based on Xingzhi Tao’s Life Education Theory

Home-school partnership plays a critical role in student growth and the home-school partnership courses provide important paths to achieving ideal results of the partnership. Under the guidance of the three principles of “life is education”, “society is school” and “integrating teaching, learning and practice” in Xingzhi Tao’s life education theory, Shandong 271 Education Group developed the parent school course and the family civilization course, which turn out to be a systematic support for the home-school partnership program. This paper analyses the status quo of home-school cooperation in China and focuses elaborations on the components and practice of the two courses in Shandong 271 Education Group.

DEVELOPING STUDENTS’ 21ST CENTURY SKILLS IN STEM MENTOR-MENTEE OUTREACH PROGRAMS

STEM education has increasingly drawn attention internationally in recent years. In Malaysia, efforts to encourage students to take up STEM subjects have risen, but student enrolments in almost every STEM subject area have continued to fall over the last decade. The situation is even more challenging in Sabah, an East Malaysian state where 72 percent of its schools are located in rural areas with basic utilities and limited infrastructures. Therefore, a STEM Mentor-Mentee outreach program through university-school partnership was developed to address the gap in STEM education attainment. The program targeted tenth graders (aged 16 years) from rural secondary schools to help them learn STEM by relating it explicitly to their local environment. STEM activities were guided by the engineering design process while harnessing their 21st century skills. Mentors consisting of in-service and pre-service teachers who provided guidance, support and assistance to mentees. Data were captured through mentees’ responses to open-ended questions, mentors’ field notes, focus group observation and interviews. A total of 732 students, 342 in-service and 99 pre-service teachers were involved in the programs from 2015 to 2019. Findings suggest that the program was able to develop creativity, problem solving, critical thinking and teamwork skills among rural secondary school students. Keywords: 21st century skills, mentor-mentee, outreach program, rural schools, STEM Education, university-school partnership

The program of communicative and personal development of primary schoolchildren within the framework of an innovative university-school partnership: Evaluation of the effectiveness

Introduction. The article addresses the problem of primary schoolchildren’s communicative and personal development within the frameworks of an innovative university-school partnership. The purpose of the article is to evaluate the effectiveness of the program aimed at communicative and personal development of primary schoolchildren and to identify psychological and educational factors contributing to its implementation. Materials and Methods. The research follows learner-centered, semiotic, and hermeneutic approaches. In order to assess communicative development of primary schoolchildren, the following empirical methods were used: G. A. Zuckerman’s ‘Mittens’ inventory, O. G. Mishanova’s ‘Polite words’ inventory, G. A. Zuckerman’s ‘Dictation Pattern’ inventory, the ‘Brothers and Sisters’ method (modified samples of Zh. Piaget). The study involved 50 primary schoolchildren and 4 primary school teachers. To analyze the empirical data and evaluate the dynamics, the Wilcoxon T-test was used, which ensures the validity and reliability of research findings. Results. The article analyzes and summarizes the experience of currently available programs aimed at social and communicative development of primary schoolchildren. The authors have developed a program enhancing primary schoolchildren’s communicative development, theoretically justified and implemented it. The explanatory and heuristic potential of methodological principles and approaches to solving this problem has been revealed. The authors describe an educational technology called ‘a hermeneutic circle’ and illustrate it by means of a text analyzes focusing on its expediency, relevance, and communicative significance for effective cognition of the language essence and training communicative skills. The research findings indicate the effectiveness of the program called ‘Culture of speech and ethics of communication’ in the communicative and personal development of primary schoolchildren in four areas: communication as cooperation; communication as management; communication as interiorization; communication as interaction. Relying on these directions, the authors have identified and described the following parameters of the integral communicative and personal development: the level of dialogic communication, the level of communication ethics, the level of communication productivity, the level of understanding of the other participants. Conclusions. The article concludes that the implementation of ‘Culture of speech and ethics of communication’ program and creating a psychologically beneficial learning environment have led to a high level of communicative and personal development of primary schoolchildren who consider language as a cultural, ethical, and aesthetic value.

Collaborating for Equity in Urban Education: Comprehensive Reform in an Innovative University/School Partnership

Using data from a participatory ethnography of an urban high school slated for closure, this article examines the impact of comprehensive transformation on the university-school partnership’s goal to change from a culture of underachievement and negativity toward a culture of collaboration and excellence. We explore these question/s: How do comprehensive changes in infrastructure, policies, leadership, and instructional practices shape school culture? What role do shifting power relations (generative frictions) and authentic trust play in developing shared ownership of outcomes? We argue generative frictions produced changes in culture that impacted changes in outcomes.