Participatory instructional redesign by students and teachers in secondary education: effects on perceptions of instruction
Students’ perceptions of instruction are important because they direct the learning of students. The fact that teachers have only limited knowledge of these perceptions is likely to threaten the effectiveness of learning, because congruence between interpretations of an instructional intervention is necessary for its optimal use. This study examines participatory design as a strategy for taking student perceptions into account in instructional re/design. Participatory design meetings of groups of teachers and seven co-designing students in a secondary education setting identified changes to improve the regular education process. The results on changes in student perceptions, perceived-desired discrepancy, and teacher–student disagreement showed some improvement for the co-designers but, unexpectedly, limited or even negative effects for the non-co-designing students. Possible causes are discussed. Participatory design seems to have potential for improving education, but further research is needed.
We find in four large irrigation districts of the Yellow River Basin that village col- lective management has been replaced either by Water User Associations or contracting manage- ment.Characterized by top-down policy intervention,most cases of water management reform have been nominal.Only those institutions with incentive mechanism have met the objective to save water.Our further empirical research indicates that water management reform with incentive has reduced wheat yield,but has no significant influence on yields of maize and rice,farmer in- come and poverty.