A Boy’s Journey: Public Sociology for in and Out of the Classroom

This essay is a response to Stein (2019; 2020) and his use of lived experience to tell the story of violence and the Holocaust. I discuss these works’ contributions to public sociology and teaching.     

Teaching technologies for immigrant children: an exploratory study of elementary school teachers in Russia*

ABSTRACT

Educational institutions are an important setting where psychological, pedagogical, sociocultural, and language adaptation of immigrant children occurs. A number of teaching strategies, practices, approaches, and methods have been described in the literature. In the Russian context, such strategies have been called ‘technologies’. The purpose of the present exploratory study was to describe teaching technologies used by teachers in Russia when working with immigrant students in elementary schools. Responses of forty-five elementary school teachers to open-ended questions describing technologies they use when teaching children with migration backgrounds were analyzed using content analysis. Findings suggest that Russian elementary school teachers used ethno-cultural group, communicative technologies, games, individualized instruction, and differentiated teaching. Many approaches mentioned can be used inclusively with groups of immigrant and non-immigrant students. Importantly, while teachers supplemented classroom instruction with additional Russian language lessons, none mentioned specific techniques for teaching Russian as a non-native language. These findings are discussed in relation to teaching strategies described in the international literature focused on migrant students. Finally, implications for further research are discussed.     

地方高校推行教师学术休假制度的现实意义与实施策略

教师学术休假是促进教师专业发展的重要形式，是教师自我完善的需要，是提升教师理论水平、科研能力和教学技能的主要手段，是提高教学质量的有效途径。探讨地方高校推行学术休假制的必要性，提出地方高校推行学术休假的建议，对地方高校教师队伍建设具有重要的现实意义。在实施策略上，应注重4个方面：（1）明确参加学术休假的对象主要是教师和教学科研人员；（2）根据教师职业发展的阶段性确定学术休假的时间；（3）合理设置学术休假人员遴选条件，首先应考虑为工作满5年以上的青年教师提供学术休假，其次应考虑为高级职称教师提供学术休假；（4）明确学术休假期间的教师待遇，并加强对学术休假人员的管理。     

信息技术背景下教育教学多维度创新体系研究

“互联网+”、3D打印技术为代表的信息化浪潮已经到来，创新创业教育的已经在全国展开，这既是高等教育教学的挑战，更是不可多得的机遇。为适应信息技术的需求，高等院校要未雨绸缪，及时应对，从创新体系构建信息技术要先行、教育教学创新体系构建要结合学科、专业特点进行、二级学院联动、对教师要求及激励等多个方面探讨信息技术背景下教育教学多维度创新体系。     

新生代乡村教师的离职意向与政策改进

新生代乡村教师是乡村教育的新生力量和未来的中流砥柱，他们能否安心留在乡村学校从教，关系着乡村教育的可持续发展。为解决乡村教师"留不住"的问题，国务院办公厅于2015年6月发布《乡村教师支持计划（2015-2020年）》，从经济待遇、社会地位、专业发展等方面着手，提出了具体措施。但是通过实证研究发现：当前新生代乡村教师的离职意向仍然普遍存在，尤其是其中的男教师和工作在乡村小学的教师；新时代乡村教师的离职意向，受经济待遇、社会地位、专业发展、个人偏好、乡村文化适应性、家庭和学校支持度、教师教育满意度等多方面因素的影响，其中个人偏好和乡村文化适应性是最主要的影响因素。因此，为了更好地留住新生代乡村教师，仍需在"乡村教师支持计划"现有政策支持的基础上，进一步补充和完善相关的政策措施：（1）重视乡村教师招聘和管理过程中对个人偏好的考察与培育；（2）积极帮助新生代乡村教师适应乡村文化；（3）关心新生代乡村教师的家庭问题，提供帮助和支持；（4）重视乡村学校建设，给予新生代乡村教师更多的组织关怀；（5）出台针对乡村教师的教师教育标准。     

Children and Violence: Nurturing Social-Emotional Development to Promote Mental Health

The absence of violence against children is a fundamental children's right and a major milestone of civilized society. Similarly, reports on incidences of violence by children and youth, including severe cases with devastating consequences, speak to the need that the trauma of exposure to violence in childhood needs to be addressed. While violence and its risk factors are generally understood, what is less clear are the essential protective factors, how we can identify those as early as possible, and how we can use them to prevent and address the trauma of violence exposure in children and youth. In this report, I review pathways of child and youth violence through the lens of social-emotional development as a central protective factor. Negative emotions of frustration and anger can underlie violence and aggression. Kind emotions, such as caring and our ability to connect with others emotionally, can serve as social-emotional protective factors. A brief review of the central social-emotional processes and their development is provided, including the human capacity to feel with others and express empathy, be emotionally aware and care about the effects of one's own actions on others, and be able to regulate the self and their emotions. Given the negative widespread and long-term impact of exposure to violence, I describe research-informed attempts to prevent violence exposure across development. Taking a humanistic, strength-based perspective, the focus is on social-emotional protective factors to address violence and nurture mental health in every child. I conclude with recommendations for practice and policy.     

Enhancing practitioner-led education in social work: developing a secondment project

ABSTRACT

This paper illustrates the development of a secondment project designed to enhance practitioner-led social work education in a Higher Education Institution. The project was developed as part of a Teaching Partnership initiative to establish joint working and standardized approaches to social work education between Higher Education Institutes and Local Authorities across a UK region. Highlighted is how the project utilized a six-stage strategy designed to gather information to produce an evidence-base to support the implementation of a pilot practitioner secondment arrangement. The paper discusses strategies used to gather information from a range of stakeholders to inform the project, the project outcome and some considerations for future secondment arrangements. Contributing to a limited source of literature, challenges and limitations of developing formal secondment arrangements and delivering practitioner-led education in Higher Education Institutes are highlighted. This paper will assist Higher Education Institutes and Local Authorities in the design and implementation of formal secondment arrangements where these are identified as in need of development.     

Understanding perceptions of substance use education in social work: an analysis of survey responses from MSW program leaders

ABSTRACT

This article details the findings of a series of analyses regarding how the institutional leaders of Master of Social Work Programs (MSW) in the United States form their perceptions on the role and implementation of substance use concepts in social work education. Five statistical tests were performed on data collected from a 2017 substance use education (SUE) survey of MSW program leaders, and the analyses were used to explore how program leaders form their perceptions on: the importance of SUE to social work, the need for regulatory measures for SUE in social work, the SUE needs of individual MSW programs, the implementation of substance use course content, and graduating students’ substance use intervention capacities. Significant findings from the analyses showed that: the amount of foundational course emphasis on clinical SUE within individual programs is a significant predictor of program leader perceptions on students’ clinical substance use intervention capacities; different categories of substance use intervention preparedness have interconnected effects among domains of preparedness; and perceptions on the importance of SUE to social work have a significant impact on program leaders’ opinions regarding regulatory measures for SUE in social work.     

案例行动学习法——效率与效果的兼顾

案例教学法、行动学习法等主流商科情境教学模式虽在国内商学院中得到广泛的应用,但囿于使用过程中的资源限制、实施变形及方法本身的局限性,导致教学双方的反馈尚不尽如人意。本文介绍了一种全新的商科情境教学方法--"案例行动学习法"。论文应用建构主义理论探讨了"案例行动学习法"的基本原理,研究了该种方法的能力建构机理,分析了其成为工商管理主流情境教学方法的效率与效果的平衡机理,介绍了前期应用的效果。研究结果表明,"案例行动学习法"作为一种全新的工商管理情境教学方法,能够将案例教学与行动学习两种方法的优点有机结合在一起,具备在全国范围内推广的条件。