Louise C. Wilkinson教授演讲通知

应华东师大国际教师教育中心、课程与教学系和学习科学研究中心之邀，Louise C. Wilkinson 教授将于本月18、19日来访并发表演讲。Louise C. Wilkinson教授曾任美国罗格斯（新泽西州立）大学（Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey）原教育学院院长、美国教育研究学会（AERA）副主席，现任意大利Syracuse University教育学院院长，是国际知名的教育、心理和沟通研究学者，主要研究学龄儿童的语言和读写学习。欢迎学习科学与技术设计、比较教育学、课程与教学论、学科教学论等相关专业的师生前来听讲交流。

场次1：
时间：4月17日（周二）10：00－12：00
Topic: U.S. TEACHER QUALITY AND THE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT GAP
主持人：周南照教授

场次2：
时间：4月18日（周三）16：00－18：00，
地点：文科大楼1613（多功能厅）
Topic: STUDENT LEARNING AND ACADEMIC LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY
主持人：任友群副教授

附:演讲摘要

STUDENT LEARNING AND ACADEMIC LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY
This presentation outlines the critical role that academic language proficiency plays in students'' academic success in American schools.Students'' success depends upon their being proficient in academic language:  The language of classroom instruction and learning.  Whether English is the first or second language, academic language proficiency is a critical competence for students and refers to their learning to read, write, and spell. Just like the home and community, American classrooms are also special social situations, with their own requirements regarding the ways that teachers and students use ?language to communicate the curriculum. Three negative outcomes are likely when students lack proficiency in understanding and using academic language: First, they are unlikely to learn as they must from classroom experiences, including reading and writing activities. Second, their participation in classroom activities is significantly reduced.  Third, this reduction in participation then interferes with their overall adjustment to school and hinders their subsequent academic achievement. Students who do not have English as their first language, are particularly at-risk for failing to benefit from the academic opportunities made available in classrooms.  Although many English language learning students may enter school having some level of proficiency with everyday social language skills, such as skills in face-to-face talk, everyday social language knowledge is not enough for academic success.  The educational failure of some English language learning students may be caused in part by differences in their academic language proficiency, particularly for those students who come from cultural and linguistic backgrounds that differ from the teacher and/or other students.  While academic language plays a mediating role in well-run and successful classrooms, many English language learning students who enter school not speaking English, are at risk for reading failure due to their minority linguistic status.   As a group, too many of these students from lower income backgrounds enter school are marginalized, which then increases their risk for not having sufficient attention and status in the classroom. Because their English speaking teacher and peers may not readily understand them, the English language learning student may lose the motivation to learn and withdraw from classroom participation. These social dynamics can potentially deny them the numerous and varied opportunities needed to become successful readers and writers.

U.S. TEACHER QUALITY AND THE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT GAP
This presentation provides an overview, assessment and critique of the implementation of the landmark educational policy reform in American education:  The legislative act, No Child Left Behind (NCLB; 2001). In particular, the requirement that there will be a qualified teacher in every American classroom by 2006 will be examined.  The context for the passage of NCLB was a perceived crisis of illiteracy and student achievement in the United States.  At the turn of the last century, the vast collection of federal data reported points to four conclusions:(a)there is a racial/ethnic and socioeconomic gap in literacy knowledge that is evident when children enter kindergarten; (b) the gap is greater for children who enter school with a combination of multiple risk factors, including mothers with less years of schooling, living in a single parent family, whether the family receives welfare benefits, and whether the primary language spoken in the home is not English; (c) by grade 4, a significant discrepancy exists between the reading comprehension proficiency of Caucasian non-Hispanic students and their African-American and Hispanic peers, and this discrepancy continues through grade 12; and (d) these gaps generally have been stable for more than a decade. These patterns point to the most intractable problem in American education:  The achievement gaps among groups of children by socioeconomic status, first language preference, and/or race and ethnicity.  Importantly, the federal legislation requires that states report student achievement data by school and that the data be disaggregated for students by poverty level, special education status,first language, and race/ethnicity. If any group of students fails to meet the bar, then schools could lose their share of federal funding.There are four key provisions of the law; (a) increased accountability,(b) increased choices for parents and students, (c) putting reading first, and (d) an emphasis on "highly qualified teachers. NCLB requires that, by 2005-2006, states must have highly qualified teachers in every classroom who can deliver evidence-based education, a mandate that also applies to teachers in charter schools. This provision of the law stems from the long-standing concern that low-income students elementary, middle, and high schools are more likely to be taught by general education teachers who are less experienced and do not have certification in the core academic subjects that they are teaching.NCLB largely leaves to states the task of developing their own definitions of highly qualified as long as these definitions include: (a) at least a bachelor''s degree, (b) full state certification or licensure (which can be obtained through alternate routes), and (c) a rigorous method for assessing an individual''s subject knowledge and teaching skills in the content area.