Evaluation of Affective and Cognitive‐Affective Domains in Socially‐Oriented Innovative Science and Technology Curricula

Summaries

English

The present work is an attempt to contribute to the field of evaluation of the affective domain in socially‐oriented innovative science and technology curricula. The main concern of such curricula is the long‐term development of the student's personality in terms of decision‐making capability, attitudes, intellectual power, and social involvement.

Since it appears that the realistic choice in the evaluation of such curricula is between ‘no measures’ (subjective judgements) and ‘imperfect proxies’, it is proposed to concentrate on finding adequate (and agreeable) measures to evaluate the long‐range intended (but also the unintended) effects of the programmes in hand, and only then to switch to evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum in achieving these effects (i.e. the educational objectives) in the affective domain. Selected ideas with respect to the above are ‘translated’ here into manageable and applicable procedures within the science class, taking into consideration the ‘local realism of constraints’ within which every science teacher performs.

The development of feasible methods for measurement of curricular outcomes in the affective and affective‐cognitive domains is a precondition for future summative evaluation of socio‐technologically oriented science and technology curricula. Contending with the moral and value‐judgement components of any future science curriculum is therefore the inescapable task ahead.     

Developing ‘reflective’ development practitioners through an action-learning curriculum: problems and challenges in a South African context

Abstract

The paper begins by looking at the ‘context of practice’: the programmes of the SRCD are briefly described and even more briefly the dominant (global) socio-economic trends as they impact on ours and other tertiary institutions. Because it is important in order to make sense of the programme we then attempt to provide a detailed profile of our students.

The central questions with which we grapple, viz., the problems encountered in the curriculum activities designed to enable students to gain competence in ‘soft’ systems thinking and learning to learn, are dealt with in the sections ‘The Programme’, ‘The Results’ and ‘Bad practice, bad theory, or both’. In the first of these we give a very brief overview of Kolb's learning theory and Checkland's SSM and then show how the two can be (theoretically) integrated — Checkland's learning system is embedded in Kolb's learning cycle (LC). In the next section we report on an evaluation of the programme from the student's perspective. And then, finally, we discuss the shortcomings of Kolb's theory in our context as well as our use of Checkland's SSM. Our critique of Kolb is central to the entire endeavour, because his theory of experiential learning provides the theoretical underpinning of our curriculum development endeavour.

In the final section we make some suggestions for a way forward based on our critique.     

Using the PSSC Laboratory Course in the First Year of College

Summaries

English

In the physical sciences, laboratory instruction has always taken place alongside classroom instruction. Undergraduate physics education has been a mixture of theoretical and experimental instruction, where the theoretical part plays the dominant role. The freshman laboratory holds a prominent role because it is the place where the student acquires the skills and attitudes that will help him understand the advanced subjects.

The freshman laboratory is particularly important in countrieswhere the student's instruction in experimentation is practically non‐existent at the secondary‐school level. In these cases, where the freshman laboratory is the student's first exposure to experimental science, we are particularly concerned that together with learning the ‘right’ things the student should develop the ‘right’ attitudes; as the ‘right’ attitudes can encourage curiosity and motivation for lifelong learning.     

Cognitive and Motivational Effects of Seeking Academic Assistance

Abstract

The instructional needs of a student who sought assistance for his continuing academic difficulties within his high school setting were examined. The authors evaluated how his perception of his academic and motivational performances compared with the perceptions of his parents, school officials, and those professionals who conducted 3 psy-choeducational evaluations for a learning disability during his middle and high school years. None of the 3 evaluations considered the quality of the student's classroom instruction, school grading practices, or study strategies, all of which increased his vulnerability to risk. Discussion focuses on the question of whether the student's negative learning and motivational profiles might have improved if his school's attempts to provide academic assistance had adopted a broader and more comprehensive focus.     

Socio‐emotional adjustment in elementary school boys and girls: Does giftedness make a difference?

Fifty 10‐year‐old gifted children were matched with 50 pupils of average intelligence on the variables ‘gender’ and ‘socio‐economic status’. Three data sources (children, parents, and teachers) on the children's personality and socio‐emotional behavior were used.     

‘Class-bucks’: a motivational tool to encourage active student participation during lectures

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the influence of an extrinsic motivational tool, ‘class-bucks’, on the possibility of improving first year student-teachers’ participation in active learning at Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa. Research participants (n=289) were divided into four classes and engaged in this study during the second and third semester of the course. During the second semester, the students in Class 1 and Class 2 were awarded with ‘class-bucks’ for active participation in lectures, while Classes 3 and 4 were not awarded. Then, during the third semester, the students in Classes 3 and 4 were awarded, while those in Classes 1 and 2 were not. Semester test results and the number of instances of active participation during lectures were recorded and compared to formulate findings and recommendations. The results presented in this article will assist lecturers in valuing an extrinsic motivational tool, ‘class-bucks’, which can be used to encourage active student participation during lectures, thus contributing to the expansion of quality education and improving the student's ability to retain learning content for longer.     

English with day release classes

‘We may assert that thought is possible without language, but that the educator would be well advised to assume that it is not.’

(From Thought and Language, P. B. Ballard.)

‘A man to be greatly good must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own. The great instrument of moral good is the imagination.’

(From A Defence of Poetry, P. B. Shelley.)

‘A school's motto might well be: “To hell with thought! How do you feel?”’

(From Hearts not Heads in the School, A. S. Neill.)

     

‘Emplaced Transcendence’ as Ecologising Education in Michael Bonnett's Environmental Philosophy

At the 2019 Annual Conference of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, Michael Bonnett was an invited speaker, giving a paper entitled ‘Transcendent nature, sustainability, and ‘ecologising’ education’. In this keynote, Bonnett shared portions of his forthcoming book, Environmental Consciousness, Nature, and Philosophy of Education: Ecologizing Education (London, Routledge). A day earlier at the conference Jeff Stickney gave a paper entitled ‘Informal place-based learning in environmental sustainability education: Seeing anew the Cloister oak tree at New College through Heidegger & Wittgenstein's Philosophies.’ Here we offer a section of Stickney's paper discussing Bonnett's environmental philosophy, focusing on a central aspect of his work: aesthetic and place-based education as a way of connecting more deeply with ‘nature’. Instead of delivering his paper at the conference, Stickney led participants on a walk across the Oxford campus, talking about the place and seeking to enhance appreciation of the evergreen oak tree in the cloister by entertaining different philosophical perspectives while those gathered drew the tree. The exercise was meant to illustrate what aesthetic, emplaced transcendence might actually look and feel like, in practice. Bonnett humbly agreed to write a brief response for this Special Issue.     

Contrasting Case Studies of Frequent Internet Use

Abstract

Two case studies that describe individuals who use the Internet eight hours or more per day are presented. The first portrays and discusses the severe problems that occurred in a student's social, occupational and scholastic life as a result of his frequent Internet use. The second case study shows how the Internet has both improved and hindered a foreign exchange student's life. These cases illustrate how interactive technologies engage users psychologically, and may prompt both adaptive and maladaptive behaviors and consequences among college students.     

The Relationship between the Concepts of ‘Pastoral Care’ and ‘Authority’

Abstract

The term ‘pastor’ clearly has a religious origin and is thought of in connection with providing spiritual sustenance. Such provision must be seen in relation to some concept of authority since the pastor's job could otherwise not be done.

It is likely that the connotation of a pastor in the religious sense has been carried over to the schools, especially when it is considered that schools are traditionally structures of authority.

What is necessary is to insist upon the conceptual link between ‘pastoral care’ and ‘authority’ explicitly, so as to judge the final appropriateness of ‘pastoral care’ in schools.     

The upward Brain drain and a myth

Abstract

A recent article on education in China succeeded in giving a fresh tweak to the arguments concerning whether aptitude or achievement testing is more likely to promote equality of educational opportunity. In ‘The Diploma Disease’ Ronald Dore expounded the view that aptitude testing is to be preferred for selection purposes on the grounds that it gives more weight to ‘innate potential’ (his term) than does achievement testing which produces results more affected by quality of schooling, an influence which is all too variable, especially in emerging countries. Although shot through with considerable ambivalence, Dore's view could still be instrumental in persuading educational and political authorities in those countries that aptitude testing will do what he says it will do ‐ ‘make for greater equality of educational opportunity and be more effective in mobilizing all available talent’. And even if these authorities have never set eyes on Dore's book, there is sufficient evidence that some of them are acting as if they had taken Dore's view on board for it to be worth re‐opening the question. It is argued here that Dore's position cannot be supported.     

Education and Families in The Spirit of Community: questions of identity,individuality and diversity

ABSTRACT

This paper [1] [1] Sections of this article will appear as part of chapter 1 in Demaine & Entwistle (1996), and some sections were included as part of a paper entitled ‘The politics of identity and the identity of sociology’ presented to the International Sociology of Education Conference on ‘Pedagogy, Identity and the Politics of Difference’ at Sheffield, United Kingdom, 3‐5 January 1996. examines communitarian argument on schools, families and youth culture in Amitai Etzioni's influential book, The Spirit of Community. The paper concludes that in lieu of detailed policy argument Etzioni's readers are presented with appeals to ‘changes of heart’ and a circular (and inconclusive) account of the supposed role of various social institutions in inculcating ‘appropriate moral values’. The paper also discusses Ray Pahl's critique of communitarianism and his account of identity, individuality and diversity in what he refers to as the ‘friendly society’.

     

Public policy failure and fiasco in education: perspectives on the British examinations crises of 2000–2002 and other episodes since 1975

Abstract

This article is the first part of a debate with David Hargreaves about the ideas expressed in his article ‘Diversity and choice in school education: a modified libertarian approach’. It discusses the difficulties of using cost‐benefit analysis in education, examines in detail some of the documents on which Hargreaves's argument is based and traces the development of policy on school choice. It is argued that policy on choice must be understood within a consideration of the wider social and political context in which that policy has arisen. The article then documents the various new forms of selection that have accompanied increased choice and considers problems of social segregation. The article concludes with suggestions on how the system might be reformed.     

‘The fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom’: A defence of religious education in county schools

ABSTRACT

It is argued here that understanding John Dewey's thought as that of a prodigal liberal or a fellow traveller does not capture the complexity of his work. It is also important to recognise the portion of his work that is historie morale. In the very best sense it is epic, encapsulating the hopes and dreams of a history of the American people in the early 1900s. It is a work that simultaneously pursues modernity and the past – for the sake of coping with the present. It also calls attention to an unnoticed element in his work ‘inexperience’.     

Missing Something: A Review Essay on Joseph North’s Literary Criticism: A Concise Political History

ABSTRACT

This is a review essay of Joseph North’s Literary Criticism: A Concise Political History. I interrogate many of North’s claims, most notably his argument about the way a shift from literary criticism to literary scholarship has blunted the capacity of people working in literary studies to engage in a socially critical praxis. I use his book as an occasion to explore the relationship between literary studies (as ‘knowledge’) and the meaning-making that occurs within English classrooms when students engage with the texts chosen for study. I argue that North’s failure to make connections between English teaching and the literary critical projects of people like I.A. Richards, F.R. Leavis and Raymond Williams ultimately limits the reach of his book. For each of these critics, literary criticism was deeply embedded in an educational project that extended far beyond the confines of the academy, and their literary criticism might usefully be reread in these terms.     

Effectiveness of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test with Seventh-Grade Pupils

Abstract

This is an exploration of college students’ motivations that affect their performance, and that might eventually provide educators with suggestions for program modifications. S's were 343 women's college freshmen. Student responses to the author's College Assessment Inventory gave information on eight student motivational variables. Students’ perceptions of meaningfulness of daily college tasks were positively related to overachievement, with r=.22, significant at .001 level. Field of interest (liberal arts and professional), relevance of college to the student's future goals, and warmth of interpersonal relations predicted voluntary dropout, with chi-squares significant beyond the .05 level. A combination of liberal arts, low on future goals, and low on warmth resulted In a 55 percent chance of a student's staying and a 41 percent chance of voluntarily dropping. A professional field" high on future goals, high on warmth combination indicated an 82 percent chance of staying and a 10 percent chance of voluntarily dropping. Further explorations seem called for, but practical applications are not yet warranted.     

Chapter 7: Fostering Development

Summary

This chapter reports a case of college student psychotherapy involving short 1doses” of counseling over the course of a student's four-year college career. During treatment, the student addressed and increasingly came to terms with issues involving relationships with his family, friends, and love interests. By his own report, he gained considerably from this experience.     

Dickens and adult education

Abstract

This article argues that Rousseau's endorsement of male domination and his illiberal views of rape, punishment and the education of women have been seriously underestimated by twentieth century commentators who tend to produce expositions of his work that evade, ignore or marginalise this ‘darker side’ of his educational philosophy.     

Piaget's Cognitive Psychology and its Consequences for the Teaching of Science

Summaries

English

Dr Kubli investigates several central statements from Piaget's cognitive psychology and their meaning for science eduction in that he attempts to clarify them. Among these statements are theses such as: ‘The basis of thought is action’ and ‘The development of thought is characterized by an ever more flexible equilibrium of the structure of the operative entirety’. These statements are supported by Piaget's experiments. In this article, interpretations which appear most suitable for use in deriving consequences for science education are presented. Some characteristic levels of thinking in children are explained in terms of the child's difficulty to switch from a subjective egocentric assimilation of the material world to an objectively verifiable one. The conclusion derived from this is a general one: the communication of the teacher must be conducted as reversibly as possible by presenting in his teaching those of his own assimilation schemata which can be equilibrated by the pupils with the schemata already available to them.     

Philosophy and educational policy: possibilities,tensions and tasks

In this study, we investigate two principals’ learning in a progressive district in the southern United States. Both principals talked about ‘ownership’ and ‘continuous progress'as key to education reform, yet their words carried different meanings for learning. Principals’ use of reform terminology was embedded within two distinctly different communities of principal's practice ‐‐ Total Quality Management and ‘whole language’. We conclude by discussing ways to bridge such gaps in understanding among principals and communities by creating opportunities for learning and discourse. Educational administrators might thereby talk about and explore the different nuances of meaning they bring to their practice.