Schools and Moral Education: Conformism or Autonomy?

In pluralistic Western societies, schools have a specific task in moral education. This task is to be understood neither as the transmission of specific values, nor as the development of moral reasoning skills or universal values, but as teaching pupils to handle plurality in an autonomous way. The concept of autonomy is interpreted from a Vygotskian and Deweyan position, where learning in school means learning to participate in cultural activities in a reflective and critical way. Participation has both intellectual and moral aspects, and thus moral education can never be separated from cognitive education.     

Chess Instruction Improves Cognitive Abilities and Academic Performance: Real Effects or Wishful Thinking?

Educational Psychology Review - In accordance with the outcomes from a number of reports, there are cognitive and academic improvements derived from chess learning and chess playing. This evidence,...     

Measurement of Group versus Educational Leaders’ Perception of Leadership Style and Administrative Theory Orientation

Abstract

Early studies of leadership traits proved inconclusive. More recent research has focused on behaviors and the interactions of leader traits with situational variables. Whatever the situational variables might be, however, leaders do project an image through behaviors which can be perceived by the groups they lead. In the present research it was hypothesized that educational leaders’ perceptions of their own task-human relations orientation would tend to be related to their group’s perception. It was hypothesized that the leaders’ administrative theory orientation, on the other hand, would not readily be perceived as behaviors but would nevertheless be related to their behavior. Analysis of the data from the present study supports the.se notions.     

Do Human‐Figure Drawings of Children and Adolescents Mirror their Cognitive Style and Self‐Esteem?

The investigation probed relationships among human‐figure drawing, field‐dependent‐independent cognitive style and self‐esteem of 10–15 year olds. It also attempted to predict human‐figure drawing scores of participants based on their field‐dependence‐independence and self‐esteem. Area, stratified and multi‐stage random sampling were used to select a sample of 600 10–15 year olds residing in Kolkata city, India. The sample comprised three age‐based strata: 10 and 11 year olds; 12 and 13 year olds; and 14 and 15 year olds. Each stratum comprised 100 girls and 100 boys. Participants’ actual age‐ranges were 10 years 1 month – 11 years 10 months (first stratum); 12 years 4 months – 13 years 10 months (second stratum); and 14 years 3 months – 15 years 9 months (third stratum). Goodenough‐Harris Drawing Test, Group Embedded Figures Test and Coopersmith Inventory were administered for assessing participants’ human‐figure drawing, field‐dependence‐independence and self‐esteem respectively. Results revealed significant positive relations among pertinent variables. Participants’ human‐figure drawing scores could be significantly predicted by their field‐dependence‐independence and self‐esteem.     

Administering Spatial and Cognitive Instruments In-class and On-line: Are These Equivalent?

Standardized, well-established paper-and-pencil tests, which measure spatial abilities or which measure reasoning abilities, have long been found to be predictive of success in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. Instructors can use these tests for prediction of success and to inform instruction. A comparative administration of spatial visualization and cognitive reasoning tests, between in-class (proctored paper and pencil) and on-line (unproctored Internet) (N = 457), was used to investigate and to determine whether the differing instrument formats yielded equal measures of spatial ability and reasoning ability in large first-semester general chemistry sections. Although some gender differences were found, findings suggest that some differences across administration formats, but that on-line administration had similar properties of predicting chemistry performance as the in-class version. Therefore, on-line administration is a viable option for instructors to consider especially when dealing with large classes.     

Cognitive Neuroscience and Educational Psychology: What Season Is It?

Byrnes and Fox get much right in their review of the relevance of cognitive neuroscience for educational psychology. They are correct that theoretical reduction is to be welcomed. They are also right that neurophysiological findings can constrain psychological theory and that this too is to be welcomed. Their review is on the mark in recommending that educational psychologists must become bilingual in their understanding of neurological terms and their analogous psychological constructs. The one difference in our positions that I do highlight is one of calibration rather than strong disagreement—my level of enthusiasm for scientific reduction in domains related to education is somewhat more muted than that of Byrnes and Fox because of wariness bom of the premature reductive attempts that litter our field.     

Excellence and choice: Friends or foes?

This paper explores the contrasts dividing the excellence and choice movements to date. The orientations of both are examined, along with key features and impacts of each. Particular attention is given the predicament and the challenge of at risk youngsters. Yet there are developments suggesting a growing mutuality between the two movements. The elaboration of a conception of Excellence that makes educational sense reveals the centrality of motivation to educational accomplishment. This in turn exposes the choice principle as an important aid to the pursuit of excellence.     

Professionalism and coordination: allies or enemies?

Professionalism arose concurrently with coordination policies among service providers and between parents and service providers in deaf education practices. The author examines the effects of professionalism on coordination among service providers from different disciplines (deaf education, speech-language pathology, elementary education, secondary education, audiology, otolaryngology, and pediatrics), as well as coordination between parents and these service providers in multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary teams in the light of her own experience as a teacher of children who are deaf and hard of hearing in Cyprus. The author concludes that professionalism and coordination can coexist, and that the key issue in this relationship is the personal attitudes of those involved.     

Relationship between Cognitive Style and Teachers’ Perceptions of Young Children’s Academic Competence

The study investigated the significance of matching cognitive style of first- and third-grade students to their teachers. The Articulation of the Body-Concept Scale was administered as a measure of cognitive style to 20 first- and 20 third-grade female teachers and a sample (480) of six boys and six girls for each teacher. Teachers ranked their students according to their judgment of the students’ academic competence. Discrepancy scores were obtained based on the degree to which teachers differed in ranking their students in comparison to rankings on the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills. A repeated measures analysis of variance indicated statistically significant main effects for grade level and a statistically significant interaction among the cognitive styles of teachers in ranking their matched and mismatched students according to sex in relation to the students’ academic achievement scores.     

Democratic Values Education Revisited—Moral Realism or Pragmatism?

In an article discussing the means by which democratic values education is to be inculcated, Tapio Puolimatka argued that 'it is possible to educate in democratic values in ways that foster the development of the rational and moral autonomy of children only within the moral realist context'. Examining in detail Puolimatka's defence of moral realism, we will offer a Rortyan response to moral realism as well as a pragmatist account of democratic values education.     

Boffin and geek identities: abject or privileged?

High achievement, and in particular, the role of the academically diligent and successful ‘boffin’ or ‘geek’, are notably under-researched areas in the sociology of education. Issues around gender and other aspects of identity in relation to such pupils are particularly under-researched. In this Viewpoint article we draw on evidence from our recent research projects including young people interpolated to, or identifying with, the subject position of ‘boffin/geek’ and media representations of such positions. We debate some tensions between our work, drawing out shared findings. The article considers issues around capital, experience, and the extent of exclusion/inclusion for boffins/geeks, discussing to what extent such young people can be considered marginalised and abjected or agentic and privileged. We argue that structural factors such as gender, social class, ‘race’, age, and institutional location impact on these constructions and outcomes.     

Cognitive Style and Learning Strategies JoAnn Salvisberg looks at current SLA theories and their possible applications to the classroom situation

People learn and process new information in different ways.For decades researchers have been studying and com- paring the personality traits any cognitive learning styles of students to discover any distinguishing trait patterns(i.e.more characteristic of academically successful students than other learners).Moreover,many believe that if the classroom envi- ronment and even the teachers'teaching style can be tailored to meet the students'learning styles,learning as well as the students'self-concept as a learner will increase (Corzza,Gustin and Edelkind,1995).This article will offer a brief overview of differences in style and strategies and discuss the implications for teaching.     

Imaginative Possibilities or Moral Fable? Different Ways of Reading A Christmas Carol

This essay considers the assumption that the study of English involves engaging students’ imaginations to explore a range of interpretations and hypothesise about meaning. It goes on to explore the reading positions of two students in a Year 10 class, who were studying A Christmas Carol at GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education). While one of the students exemplifies the dominant assumptions about reading, this essay argues that the other student challenges them, by seeking certainties from the novella. Finally, the essay considers the ways in which progression is framed with relation to reading practices, and the implications for my practice.     

Moral Education or Indoctrination in South Africa? A Brief Response to Potgieter

Abstract

This paper is a brief and informal response to Professor P. C. Potgieter's paper Moral Education in South Africa which appeared in the January 1980 edition of this Journal (Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 130‐3). In response to Potgieter the author attempts to present some of the more obvious philosophical and sociological inconsistencies and problems appearing in Potgieter's paper. He concludes, basically, that Potgieter has assumed a marked consensual model of South African society and, therefore, his analysis serves only to misinform the reader as to the complexities of moral education in South Africa.