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This is a brief report on a yearly festival at a Shintō shrine in northern Japan, during which salt is produced by a traditional technique: sea water is filtered through layers of salt-saturated kelp in order to increase its salinity. The procedure, which lasts three days, is being kept alive as communal memory and for educational purposes. The successive steps are described as witnessed by the author in 2003. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ob River and its tributaries in the Arctic region have interesting ecological and ethical characteristics. Museum exhibits play an important role in educating people of all ages. However, in Western Siberia, where the Ob River flows, there are no exhibits that scientifically explain the nature of the local rivers. Another issue is that small towns are scattered over large areas, making it difficult to educate residents through a single museum exhibition. Therefore, this study applied the knowledge gained from traveling exhibition research carried out in Japan to Russian regional towns, developed a traveling exhibition package for learning about the Ob River and its tributaries in a fun and hands-on manner, and traveled to three cities in Western Siberia. We were able to develop a traveling exhibition that allowed visitors to learn about the Ob River from a perspective that integrated the arts and sciences, and that was also entertaining, with many interactive exhibits. This was significant because a wide range of people, regardless of ethnicity, were able to experience and learn from the exhibition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Zeitschrift für Pädagogik is the property of Julius Beltz GmbH & Co. KG Beltz Juventa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article presents two sequential case reports of how 60 schools in the London Borough of Camden used action research in three phases of development of their local school system reform, from a traditional council-led, top-down model of centrally based professional development and monitoring of schools, to one that is schools-led and ‘bottom-up’ in nature, but still in close partnership with its local council and community. The article uses a sociocultural lens through which to view this journey of self-reform, tracking change through three evolutions of the sociocultural model as professional learning becomes situated in classrooms and between schools in Camden, as motivations to develop and change become increasingly intrinsic and less driven by fear of failure or the consequences of failure. Of critical importance is the feedback-rich context created by adoption of enquiry- and coaching-based learning models at classroom, organizational and system levels. This both fuels and is fuelled by the strategic collaboration of head teachers and by system leadership also provided by middle leaders, whose increased cross-school agency builds improvement capacity and collaborative capital. The article does not report on the action research alone: unlike many accounts of action research for change, this account provides a narrative backdrop in which to locate both scientific and system developments. This is provided through three short vignettes that place the changes reported in a societal, political and community context, without whose energetic actors (in the form of local political and community leaders and school governors) the local ‘civic governance’ so strongly behind these reforms, would not have existed.

This article presents two sequential case reports of how 60 schools in the London Borough of Camden used action research in three phases of development of their local school system reform, from a traditional council-led, top-down model of centrally based professional development and monitoring of schools, to one that is schools-led and 'bottom-up' in nature, but still in close partnership with its local council and community. The article uses a sociocultural lens through which to view this journey of self-reform, tracking change through three evolutions of the sociocultural model as professional learning becomes situated in classrooms and between schools in Camden, as motivations to develop and change become increasingly intrinsic and less driven by fear of failure or the consequences of failure. Of critical importance is the feedback-rich context created by adoption of enquiry- and coaching-based learning models at classroom, organizational and system levels. This both fuels and is fuelled by the strategic collaboration of head teachers and by system leadership also provided by middle leaders, whose increased cross-school agency builds improvement capacity and collaborative capital. The article does not report on the action research alone: unlike many accounts of action research for change, this account provides a narrative backdrop in which to locate both scientific and system developments. This is provided through three short vignettes that place the changes reported in a societal, political and community context, without whose energetic actors (in the form of local political and community leaders and school governors) the local 'civic governance' so strongly behind these reforms, would not have existed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this text is to discuss the ways in which the creators/organizers of bottom-up cultural initiatives in local communities shape relationships with these communities and to present their involvement in the communities’ affairs and problems. This is considered in the context of concepts of local education and learning in the local community. I describe five ways of shaping relations with the local community that can be located on a continuum between two poles: retreat (distance from the community) and engagement in its affairs. In the conclusion I present three models of bottom-up cultural initiatives constructed on the basis of the research findings: enclave, niche and platform initiatives. At the end I point out that all three types of bottom-up cultural initiatives provide various opportunities for learning in local communities, but it is primarily ‘platforms’ that create a space of local education strictly connected with the needs and problems of the local community.

Copyright of Studies in Adult Education & Learning / Andragoška Spoznanja is the property of Andragoska Spoznanja and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

É essencial uma criança sentir que a sucessão de anos que passa na escola lhe permite efetivamente entender o contexto onde vive, apropriar-se da realidade que a cerca. A criança, mais que o adulto que tem oportunidades de conhecer diversas regiões, interpreta o mundo pela cidade ou pelo bairro onde mora. O seu espaço de referência é o espaço local. Proibir-lhe que brinque no córrego vizinho da sua casa é prudente, mas gera apenas medo. Entender os fluxos dos riachos e as fontes concretas de poluição lhe assegura desde já ancorar o conhecimento abstrato em vivências concretas, e lhe permitirá mais tarde entender a gestão de bacias hidrográficas. Aprender a representação em escala do seu próprio bairro, das ruas que conhece, evitará mais tarde a quantidade de adultos que sabem decorar uma aula de geografia, mas que são incapazes de interpretar um mapa para se orientar. Trata-se de um investimento poderoso, tanto para tornar o ensino mais produtivo, capitalizando a motivação da criança por entender as coisas que a cercam, como por permitir que mais tarde seja um adulto que conhece a origem ou as tradições culturais que constituíram a sua cidade, os seus potenciais econômicos, os desafios ambientais, o acerto ou irracionalidade da sua organização territorial, os seus desequilíbrios sociais. Pessoas desinformadas não participam, e sem participação não há desenvolvimento. Trata-se de fechar desde cedo a imensa brecha entre o conhecimento formal curricular e o mundo onde cada pessoa se desenvolve. Estas linhas são escritas por um economista, que na era da economia do conhecimento se convenceu de que a economia não se basta a si mesma, de que uma articulação com o mundo que ensina e difunde o conhecimento é essencial.It is essential for children to feel that the years they spend in school help them understand the reality they face in their daily lives. Children, more than adults who had the opportunity to travel, see the world in comparison with the city or neighborhood where they live. The space they refer to is local space. It may be wise to forbid children to play in a stream in the city. But understanding that particular stream and why it is polluted, and who pollutes it and how, allows them to anchor abstract knowledge in the concrete reality they know by experience. Besides, how can we expect adults to participate in the development of their regions if they have never studied anything about them? We produce children who know the length of the Nile, but are incapable of reading a city map when adults, who never studied the potentials and problems the reality they will have to face. We may follow the example of a small place in the Northeast, Pintadas, where the children are now taught the characteristics of the "semi-árido", of the concrete problems dry regions present in such fields as agriculture, watersheds, environment and so forth. The author of this paper is an economist convinced that in this era of knowledge economy we need to share knowledge in a more balanced way. Teaching children to understand their own space can be a powerful instrument to promote children’s interest and adult citizenship.

The purpose of this research is to systematically study the information need, seeking, and use behavior of middle school teachers of Taiwan historical resources, and to explore the implications of the findings for digital library system design. This research employs multiple methods, first by qualitative approach followed by quantitative approach. The study investigated elementary and high school teachers, and compared the findings with those of the scholar user group, using literature analysis, deep interview, and questionnaire survey as the methods for data collection, and content analysis, case study, and statistic analysis for data analysis. The results lead to (1) a better understanding of information seeking and use behavior of primary and middle school teachers of Taiwan historical archives; (2) deeper knowledge and empirical data for developing theory on human information behavior of Taiwan local people; (3) identification of important teaching and learning resources on Taiwan and the salient characteristics of those resources; (4) development of information organization guideline for localized digital library and museum systems. (Article content in Chinese with English abstract)

During the process of modernization, urbanization and globalization in China, the return and rejuvenation of local education has increasingly become a crucial issue that needs addressing to preserve local culture and stimulate local consciousness. To be specific, local education is an important part of education system in modern China and is one of the significant topics of national education such as citizen education, labor education, productive education and life education. Back in the 1920s and 1930s, influenced by the progressive Western educational thoughts, many mass educators emerged in China and LI Lian-fang was one of the eminent representatives. Basing upon the local culture, LI focused on mass education and attached great importance to local teaching. He advocated that education should be adapted to environment; primary school textbooks should be based on local culture and adapted to local and children's needs. Kaifeng education pilot area, built by LI, compiled textbooks and carried out effective local education practice by using "Lian-fang Teaching Method". This pilot area had not only macroscopic course planning and organization, but also systematic textbooks and teaching methods. Both students and teachers benefited a great deal from the local education practice. Experts rated the education practice in Kaifeng education pilot area as one of the eight educational experiments before the Anti-Japanese war. Although the experiment did not continue because of the restriction of the then social and historical conditions, current education reforms can learn instructive lessons from LI's efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We will introduce MAGDAS project of Space Environment Research Center (SERC), Kyushu University (KU) for space weather. The new MAGDAS data can be used to monitor global electromagnetic and plasma environment change in geospace, and then to bring about a better understanding of the complex and compound Sun-Earth system. The SERC also conducts daily space weather "now casting", to train and educate KU students, and to globally disseminate space weather information to the scientific community and the general public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to systematically study the information need, seeking, and use behavior of middle school teachers of Taiwan historical resources, and to explore the implications of the findings for digital library system design. This research employs multiple methods, first by qualitative approach followed by quantitative approach. The study investigated elementary and high school teachers, and compared the findings with those of the scholar user group, using literature analysis, deep interview, and questionnaire survey as the methods for data collection, and content analysis, case study, and statistic analysis for data analysis. The results lead to (1) a better understanding of information seeking and use behavior of primary and middle school teachers of Taiwan historical archives; (2) deeper knowledge and empirical data for developing theory on human information behavior of Taiwan local people; (3) identification of important teaching and learning resources on Taiwan and the salient characteristics of those resources; (4) development of information organization guideline for localized digital library and museum systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]