Torsten Husén: A case of ethnocentrism in U.S. educational research?

This paper documents and discusses the lack of reference by U.S. educational researchers to the work of noted Swedish social scientist and educational researcher, Torsten Husén. The paucity of U.S. textbook or journal citations of Husén's writings and research is interpreted as an example of cultural ethnocentrism and academic imperialism in U.S. educational and psychological research. Crosscultural perspectives, interdisciplinary analyses, and global learning are proposed as methods of overcoming the methodological parochialism, overspecialization, and international fragmentation Husén describes as characteristic of much educational and social scientific research.     

Response: Dempster and Corkill's “Interference and Inhibition in Cognition and Behavior: Unifying Themes for Educational Psychology”

Dempster and Corkill present a persuasive case for the utility of the concepts of interference and inhibition in their review, Interference and Inhibition in Cognition and Behavior: Unifying Themes for Educational Psychology. We were especially attracted to their drawing attention to the role of inhibition in learning and to the argument that closer links of educational psychology to neuroscience are needed. At a general level of analysis, we agreed that the concepts of interference and inhibition can provide a unifying framework for describing phenomena in several areas of inquiry, but these concepts seemed to us to be less useful for understanding structured, meaningful learning in instructional domains. Overall, we viewed Dempster and Corkill's review as a creative effort that usefully redirects our attention to neglected basic learning processes.     

Visions for ICT, Ethics and the Practice of Teachers

The failure of educational computing is often attributed to deficiencies of practice: resisting teachers and lack of will, competence and sincerity on behalf of the teaching profession. But the complexity of school life and teachers work has been underestimated by the entrepreneurs of educational computing. Theoretically there is a need to approach this area from a different angle. We will suggest there is a need to reframe the issue of ICT in schools with educational policy and discourse with education, rather than with technology in mind. In order to reach that goal there is a need to inculcate technology as an ordinary part of teachers vocabulary about their own work and as a part of their professional ethos. Teachers need to examine the moral values inherent in their practices and use those values as bases for debate. Not taking up these issues and instead adopting defensive stances is dangerous to the profession. The danger is that defensiveness can be seen by others outside the school as rigidity and play into the hands of those who are impatient with teachers. It would serve teachers well if they had a more robust ability to communicate the nature of the difficulties they face and how they deal with them.     

Modelling students' construction of energy models in physics

One of the main differences between novice and expert problem solving in physics is that novices mostly construct problem representations from objects and events in the experimental situation, whereas experts construct representations closer to theoretical terms and entities. A main difficulty in physics is in interrelating these two levels, i.e. in modelling. Relatively little research has been done on this problem, most work in AI, psychology and physics education having concentrated on how students use representations in problem solving, rather than on the complex process of how they construct them. We present a study that aims to explore how students construct models for energy storage, transformation and transfers in simple experimental situations involving electricity and mechanics. The study involved detailed analysis of problem solving dialogues produced by pairs of students, and AI modelling of these processes. We present successively more refined models that are capable of generating ideal solutions, solutions for individual students for a single task, then models for individuals across different tasks. The students' construction of energy models can be modelled in terms of the simplest process of modelling — establishing term to term relations between elements of the object/event world and the theory/model world, with underlying linear causal reasoning. Nevertheless, our model is unable to take into account more sophisticated modelling processes in students. In conclusion we therefore describe future work on the development of a new model that could take such processes into account.1. CHENE = CHaîne ENErgetique, or Energy Chain. (In French Chêne also means oak).2. Throughout the rest of the paper we use the following simple notation in order to avoid possible confusion between modelling as a process performed by the students, in the domain of physics, and AI modelling of the former modelling process: students' modelling in physics = modelling _SP ; AI modelling (of modelling _SP ) = modelling _AI .3. It has not been necessary to use more sophisticated strategies at the stage of our work reported here. The next system, modelCHENE, will directly address this issue.4. Note that what we refer to in this context as problem solving may in another context be viewed as construction of a qualitative representation for subsequent quantitative problem solving.5. The protocols indicate that students use this as a kind of anchor in their reasoning-some students returning to it in order to resolve impasses. As the current problem solver provides no mechanism for handling impasses we cannot model the reuse of information in any meaningful way.6. We are grateful to an anonymous reviewer for this example.7. This provides the minimum distinction for our initial needs.8. Though there is a difficult step in deciding that the moving object really is the last unassigned object-since that requires setting aside any need to assign roles to, for example, connecting strings etc.9. At the moment we have to provide psCHENE with slightly different rulesets: providing rules with priorities would be more convenient.     

Perspectives on educational psychology

As a background, the views are presented of Jean Jacques Rousseau, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Friedrich Froebel, and Johann Friedrich Herbart, who had a five-step proposal for teaching. I then review briefly the new psychology of G. Stanley Hall and William James, followed by trends in psychology and education in the early twentieth century. The influences of psychoanalysis and Gestalt psychology are addressed, as well as the development of educational psychology textbooks and the growth of instructional psychology.     

The Pendulum of Reform: Educational Change in Japan from the 1990s Onwards

The purpose of this paper is to sketch thecontexts, nature and actual impacts of currenteducational reforms in Japan. A brief overviewis provided of the basic characteristics of theJapanese education system and trends ineducational reforms since the 1990s. Focusingon curriculum and teaching in primary andsecondary education, the actual impact of theseeducational reforms upon schools is examined. The basic character of present day educationalreforms in Japan may be referred to as educational disarmament, since the emphasisis on considerably loosening up the system interms of reducing curriculum content and thenumber of weekly hours of schooling. This iscontributing to making the educational climateof Japanese schools much milder than before,and is said to have contributed to a loweringof pupil's educational achievement and toeducational opportunities among differentsocial groups becoming more polarized. TheJapanese situation has implications for thefuture orientation of educational reforms inother countries, particularly in theAsia-Pacific region.     

From ideal to real: Understanding the development of new educational settings

Summary and Conclusion In this paper we presented a framework for viewing the development of new educational settings. We also postulated the necessity of two conditions for the creation of a coherent self-renewing educational program: the development of a community, especially in a linguistic sense, and on-going practical dialog that defines and redefines the setting over time in light of collective action and experience. In doing so, we took the position that educational program and program development mean something more than what is implied in most theories of organizational and program development. We argued that a collection of educational activities constitutes a program only when the activities are grounded in a commonly perceived core of beliefs and values about what is and what ought to be.Clearly, we have only begun to sketch out the nature and operation of the processes by which a new educational setting evolves and develops into an organization. We need to know why development and growth through the application of the dialectic are typically not present in new programs. Our future research efforts are oriented in this direction and we hope that by setting forth our tentative ideas at this point we may encourage others to react to them and perhaps to pursue a similar line of inquiry.OISE     

Research and teaching in the universities of Denmark: Does such an interplay really exist?

The unity of research and teaching is an ingrained principle in university policy in Denmark, but this principle has also been subjected to increasing criticism. This article presents an investigation, consisting of about 50 interviews with teachers from higher educational institutions in Denmark, aiming at the illumination of this issue. According to the conclusions of this investigation it is the basic experience of the teachers that an important interplay exists between research and teaching of the individual teacher, and that almost none would prefer to work in a pure research institution. At the same time the teachers have some crucial reservations. Firstly it can be difficult to administer this twofold task. Secondly the interrelationships are dependent on several factors, the most important of which is the level of teaching and the disciplinary context. This latter factor is explained by differences pertaining to the very nature of varying disciplines - demonstrated and analyzed with reference to Thomas Kuhn and Basil Bernstein. Finally, the importance of the interrelationships between research and teaching for higher educational and research policies in broader perspective is discussed.     

Educational “excellence” versus teacher “professionalism”: Towards some conceptual clarity

The educational literature of the last several years is replete with both continuing calls for educational excellence reforms and for enhancing and upgrading the teaching profession. Importantly, both types of calls rely on the contribution of science. The educational research-and-development community continues to push for and believe in the notion that educational innovation is based on scientific advances in understanding child development and school functioning. Similarly, many teachers and teacher educators continually call for increased classroom autonomy and social status among teachers, based upon the supposedly scientific nature of their professional training. This paper takes issue with both of these points, arguing that the origin and success of most educationally innovative policies have as their origin the changing political, economic, and social forces visible in the country during the history of American education. Relatedly, since the science of teaching and learning takes a back seat in issues of school policy, teachers cannot and will not be able to convince the public and those in authority in the school that their insights and practices derive from any privileged understanding of the real needs of children. Arguing that teachers should, in fact, have more input into policy decisions in education, the paper concludes with a review and discussion of various strategies currently visible for improving the autonomy and control of classroom educators.     

Understanding Motivation and Schooling: Where We've Been, Where We Are, and Where We Need to Go

This paper presents an interpretive summary of the progress that has been made in the study of motivation, especially as this work relates to the area of education. Motivation research has come of age with theoretical frameworks rooted in an established body of findings, and with the development of core methodologies for pursuing further knowledge. It has begun to provide a firm base for guiding educational practice. Current work is clearly in accord with mainstream psychology in that cognitive models of motivation are the predominant guides for research. Future work is likely to focus increasingly on how the meaning construction process affects engagement in tasks. Researchers should consider a wider array of research procedures and give greater attention to understanding motivation as it occurs in natural settings, especially as educational interventions are attempted. A serious deficiency in the motivation literature is that relatively little attention has been given to differences related to sociocultural backgrounds.     

Working Towards Building Cultures of Peace: A Primer for Students and New Professionals

As the counseling profession moves into the 21st century, counselors and psychologists are increasingly expanding their roles in the reduction of violence across settings. For students and new professionals, this new horizon of needs and opportunities can create some role confusion as traditional direct service functions of individual and group therapy are evolving into indirect services that focus on broader interventions to help create peace. This article seeks to contribute a foundational guide for readers interested in peace psychology. The article provides a brief overview of the peace psychology movement, current trends, and informational sources. It reflects on factors that influence the decision to get involved and provides possible ways to participate in social action, as well as citing a personal example of how one student got involved in building cultures of peace within an international setting.     

Adolescent Activism for Postmodern HIV/AIDS Education: A New Social Movement

The present research argues that YELL (Youth Education Life Line), a committee of the group AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), faces limitiations in its effort to pressure for frank HIV/AIDS education, not only because of its postmodern approach to education, but also its lack of political and economic resources. Using Touraine's perspective on social movement and the postmodern approach to education, the present research argues that resource mobilization and identity paradigms combined, rather than separately, offer a better theoretical understanding of the new social movement that adolescent activism for frank HIV/AIDS education represents.     

Psychological Expertise and the Role of Individual Differences: An Exploration of Issues

Cognitive scientists have suggested that individual differences are relatively unimportant in predicting who will become an expert in any particular domain. This stance is at variance with the admissions screening practices of graduate programs in professional psychology as well as with counseling psychology's individual differences tradition. The purpose of this article was to consider some of the issues involved on both sides of this apparent contradiction, with particular emphasis on expertise in professional psychology. I first examine some of the possible operational definitions of expertise in this domain. I then consider salient literature and conclude that there almost certainly are threshold levels of intellectual and interpersonal skills that trainees in professional psychology should have. Beyond these levels, though, it may be that motivation and persistence are the most important variables in predicting the eventual attainment of expertise in professional psychology.     

Exploring the Concept of ‘Habitus’ with Preservice Teachers Through the Use of Popular School Films

The thesis of this paper is that it is a productive venture to introduce preservice students to social theories that are typically not a part of teacher preparation programs. Examples of these theories are those associated with terms such as habitus, the carnivalesque, power / knowledge, seduction, detournement, the spectacle,la perruque, (the wig), and the art of making do,as well as others. In this paper, I describe a project that involved exploring the theory of habitus to problematize the tendency of preservice students to not think in terms of relations between what goes on in the classroom and what goes on in society. I introduced habitus by having preservice students read selected print materials and by having them view, analyze, and respond in writing to popular school films. Students also analyzed their experiences in classrooms in terms of habitus, making a connection between theory and practice.     

Personality development and the college experience

Studies of freshman-senior data on undergraduates show that, despite major differences among institutions and students, the direction of net change was basically the same in several diverse colleges. Institutional freshmen means spanned a wide range, yet students became more autonomous, more aware, more integrated, more aesthetically sensitive, more tolerant, more liberal in religious views, and less concerned about material possessions. Although all students tended to change in the same direction at all colleges, they did not become more similar; diversity increased for the total group and, more often than not, diversity increased within each college.When sub-groups of similar students were examined within institutions, different patterns of change appeared, and were systematically related to such factors as college climate, student characteristics, teaching practices and study activities, and student-faculty relationships. Thus, differential change occurred as a function of institutional fit. When there is a close fit change proceeds along lines indicated by cultural and genetic forces and is consistent among diverse colleges. Where there is a misfit — students who have not developed to the general level at which a college operates, or whose development has gone beyond the operating level of a college — significant changes occur which are strongly associated with varied college characteristics and educational practices.The research reported here was supported by NIMH Grant #MH14780-05     

The Effects of Storytelling and Story Reading on the Oral Language Complexity and Story Comprehension of Young Children

What began as a case study of intergenerational initiatives in university-based early childhood programs evolved into a comparative study of two different program implementation processes. Despite operating with the same goals, university partners, and resources, two early childhood centers pursued fundamentally different strategies for launching their intergenerational programs. One site followed what we call an explicit intervention with a set timeline and series of planned steps for finding, placing, and involving seniors in classroom activities. The other pursued what we call an emergent (or organic) strategy with no predetermined plan for finding senior volunteers and integrating them into classroom activities. Drawing on data collected from interviews with program staff and parents, and observations of intergenerational activities, this study serves to describe, compare, and contrast these alternative program initiation strategies. Both models are effective, but represent different approaches to valuing the contributions of older adults in the lives of young children.     

Crafting educational intervention research that's both credible and creditable

Pressley and Harris' concerns about the current quality of educational intervention research are applauded. They are also extended to distinguish between research credibility (scientific believability) and research creditability (educational commendability). A best possible design philosophy is introduced to enable intervention researchers to craft research that is both credible and creditable.     

A two-dimensional analysis of student ratings of instruction

Student ratings of instruction were analyzed in terms of two global factors. One factor, which includes items on advanced planning, presentation clarity, and increased student knowledge, was named pedagogical skill. The other factor taps information about class discussion, grading, and the availability of help and was named rapport. Ratings on the skill factor did not covary with class size or the leniency of the instructor's grading but did correlate with a reasonable external criterion of student learning. Ratings of rapport correlated inversely with class size and directly with average class grade and showed only a weak relationship to the external criterion of student learning. The skill factor showed more interclass stability than the rapport factor. Previous research studies which have examined the reliability and validity of instructional ratings and their relationship to student grades and class size have reported inconsistent findings. These inconsistencies appear to result from an inappropriate unidimensional analysis of ratings which should be examined in terms of two of more separate attitude dimensions.     

Remarks on the paper “Educational Reform: Implications for Educational Psychologists”

The article, Educational Reform: Implications for Educational Psychologists, by Benton and Hoyt is an example of the consequences of asking the wrong questions to the right question. Educational psychologists do, indeed, have a vested interest in the current debate over reform in education, particularly teacher education. The data that Benton and Hoyt chose to dissect, however, completely omitted the substantial body of information where educational psychologists have special expertise. The elaborate factor analysis reformed by Benton and Hoyt simply confirms that if one starts with flawed data, no amount of statistical manipulation will lead to a valid conclusion.