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Volume 8 Number 2 June 2022

Teaching Medieval Literature and Culture in Contemporary Universities Challenges and Opportunities from Past to Present. Exemplary Case Studies of the Roman de Silence and Mauritius von Craûn


Authors: Albrecht Classen
Pages: 42-49
DOI: doi.org/10.32861/rje.82.42.49
Abstract
In face of an ever-changing academic framework, all scholars working with pre-modern literature, art history, philosophy, are currently deeply challenged to explain and justify their fields of investigation. More and more foreign and language departments in the United States decide to cut out the Middle Ages and the early modern period as irrelevant to their teaching and research portfolio. Nevertheless, medieval research continues strongly, as the wealth of relevant publications indicates, coupled with energetic conferences, symposia, and other activities. But there are hardly any academic job opportunities, which make it harder and harder to convince graduate students to pursue a degree in medieval literature, for instance. The present study does not promise to offer a panacea against this general malaise, but will indicate, through the close reading of two literary examples, the enormous potentialities of this primary material to attract students and to provide meaningful, relevant, and perhaps even transformative seminars on the undergraduate and graduate level.

Towards the Strengthening of the Teaching Role from its Professionalization


Authors: Camilo Marín ; Diana Fernandez ; Nataly García
Pages: 33-41
DOI: doi.org/10.32861/rje.82.33.41
Abstract
This paper focuses on analyzing the relationship between pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and teaching professionalization, taking into account a case study by a Social Science teacher. The case study was conducted in an official school with sixth graders. The intervention focused on promoting in the teacher the design of teaching strategies taking into account the elements of the PCK. Given this, the teacher designed ICT-mediated teaching strategies, with different technological tools; which she integrates consistently and according to teaching needs, bearing in mind not only the curriculum but also the pedagogical intentionality. Thanks to that, it was possible to understand when assessing the impact of the intervention, that her level of teaching professionalization was strengthened, since the teacher was evoked to plan her teaching tools based on the aspects that make up the PCK, refining her disciplinary knowledge, technological competences and also the importance of the emotional aspect in the teacher professionalization since positive emotions fostered on her, the ability to reflect on their pedagogical practices. Given the above, it is important to highlight the teaching professionalization in the educational processes.

Monopolistic Competition and the University Industry the Determinants of University Choice by Students and the Choice of University Location


Authors: Takaharu Ishii
Pages: 24-32
DOI: doi.org/10.32861/rje.82.24.32
Abstract
This study applies the state of the Japanese university industry to a theoretical model of monopolistic competition. Using a model of spatial economics, it is possible to identify how and why an increasingly competitive university environment leads to university agglomeration and dispersion. The study analyses whether the location of universities will be less unevenly distributed in cities and whether the number of universities and students in rural areas will increase. Using a model of spatial economics, the study analyses two aspects: the demand aspect of the choice of universities by students and the supply aspect of location by universities. A decrease in the number of students per university results in a decrease in the quality of education through a decrease in university income. The results of this study can also explain the impact on the quality of education. The analysis leads to the following conclusions. The higher the cost of inter-regional travel during the job search, the fewer students are willing to move from one region to another to find a job, and the lower the number of students enrolled. When the substitutability between university varieties is weak, the number of universities increases because prospective students need more variety, and the number of students per university decreases. When fixed inputs are low, e.g. when the fixed costs of a university are low due to online etc., the number of universities increases because it is easier to establish new universities and the number of students and graduates per university decreases. In a model that assumes two types of students within the same university who want to work in their region or another region, there will be more students who move between regions. The location of universities is determined by the balance between market size and the level of competition. As people move from one region to another in the course of their job search, there will be competitors in the other region, and the effect of new competition will be weaker in regions with more universities than in regions with fewer universities. Thus, regions with more universities will have a larger market relative to the level of competition, and more universities than their share of the population will be located there. Even in a model with two regions, one with universities in higher education and the other with homogeneous goods in non-university production, the region with the largest population has a larger share of university enrolments than its share of the population. This means that even if the two regions have the same level of technology and resources, they will experience a reduction in enrolment simply because of their small population size. Smaller universities in rural areas mean that a negative spiral of declining enrolments will occur.

Existing Problems and Development Countermeasures of Biology Teaching in Rural Middle Schools


Authors: Bo Peng ; Piaopiao Sun ; Chuanling Zhang ; Yanfang Sun ; Xuezhong Sun ; Xiayu Tian ; Ruihua Pang ; Wei Zhou ; Quanxiu Wang
Pages: 17-23
DOI: doi.org/10.32861/rje.82.17.23
Abstract
At present, with the rapid development of biology, the national basic education also pays more and more attention to the biology curriculum, updates the educational concept, and implements the curriculum reform, which has significantly improved the quality of biology teaching in middle school. However, due to the uneven distribution of educational resources between urban and rural areas, there is still a big gap in biology teaching between rural and urban areas. This paper mainly analyzes the main problems of biology teaching in rural middle schools through literature research and combined with the current teaching situation of several rural middle schools in Henan Province. The results show that the problems existing in biology teaching in rural middle schools mainly focus on three aspects: teachers, biology experiment teaching, and the development and utilization of biology curriculum resources. This paper aims to investigate and study the main problems existing in biology teaching in rural middle schools, and then put forward targeted development countermeasures to improve the quality of biology teaching in rural middle schools and narrow the teaching gap between urban and rural areas. Such as strengthening the construction of biology teachers and promoting teachers’ professional development, changing the concept of biological experiments,s and strengthening the construction of laboratories, on the basis of making full use of school resources, vigorously developing natural resources, and network resources. The number of rural middle schools in China is huge and the teaching situation is complex. Therefore, this study is not comprehensive. It is the problem of most rural schools, not all schools. Rural education is the weak point of Chinese education, and biology teaching is the weak point of rural education. Analyzing the existing main problems of biology teaching in rural middle schools and putting forward development countermeasures can not only enrich the theoretical research of rural education, but also provide reference for the teaching practice of rural teachers.