Is There a Role for Mathematical Disciplinarity in Productive Learning for the Workplace?

This paper situates mathematical content and process knowledge within the construct of broad occupational competence. It is critical of many developments in vocational mathematics curriculum and pedagogical practice in Australia over the last decade or so, especially the trend towards the de-institutionalisation of disciplinary knowledge. This has been accompanied by a chronic lack of professional development for many involved in vocational education to enable development of this mathematical knowledge. Meanwhile, workers' actual and potential mathematical knowledges remain largely unrecognised, whilst irrelevant, often infantile, pedagogic texts form their subjectivities as doers rather than knowers, always in need of more training to adapt to ever-changing technologies of workplace plant and management. It argues that to attempt to satisfy government and industry demands for a creative, problem-solving workforce?to say nothing of workers' entitlement to democratic participation?there is a need for mathematical disciplinarity beyond current practice.     

Is There a Doctor in the House?

Doctor Jim Bruce was on night duty when the hospital received an urgent call.A doctor was needed at once to attend a birth.Jim was given a sheet of paper withthe address.Without delay,he hurried to his car and set off for the house,whichwas about ten minutes'drive from the hospital.He had been driving for about fiveminutes when his car broke down.Jim tried to start the engine again,but nothinghe did had any effect.He gave up trying and set off walking.     

Is There a Need for a European Institutional Research?

Recent changes in European higher education have accompanied a strong desire and need by national ministries to have comparable data across institutions and a growing recognition from campus leaders that effective planning and decision-making requires reliable institutional data and analyses. This has induced changes and restructuring of duties and roles of administration, administrative staff and academic staff. In North America, internal institutional data analysis is often referred to as institutional research. We examine the roles and functions of institutional research within North America and how the changes within European higher education have created a purpose for institutional research. Specifically, we explore the topical areas of institutional assessment, data management, institutional governance, as well asthe changing identity of academic professionals within European universities. Within our examination, we explore in-depth one European country’s higher education system to demonstrate how history, culture and legislative changes manifest into a need for institutional research.     

Clinical Anatomy and Unexpected Careers: Is There Curriculum for That?

Reduction in faculty positions in higher education and increased graduate matriculation rates represent a higher education conundrum. Planned happenstance theory (PHT) is a career development model focusing on positive outcomes resulting from unpredictable precareer events. This mixed methods study explores how PHT applies to the career paths of a clinical anatomy (CA) postgraduate cohort. It provides insight into educational practices designed to equip students for labor markets inside and outside academia. Alumni of CA (n = 12; 2014-2018) were interviewed about career-related events transpiring from graduate studies to present, allowing exploration on how PHT contextualizes their shared experiences. Planned happenstance career inventory (PHCI) enumerated planned happenstance skill (PHS) scores. Total PHS was referenced 527 times across 12 interviews. Of the PHS references, curiosity established highest incidence (154 references, 29%), optimism (132 references, 25%), flexibility (101 references, 19%), risk-taking (85 references, 16%), and persistence (55 references, 10%) and 43 distinct happenstance events were documented. In addition, social networking (52 references) arose as an emergent code and was divided into internal networking (28 references, 54%) and external networking (24 references, 46%). Application of the five-point PHCI scale revealed: curiosity (4.4 ± 0.3; mean ± SD), flexibility (3.6 ± 0.7), persistence (4.4 ± 0.3), optimism (4.3 ± 0.4), and risk-taking (4.1 ± 0.5). Curiosity had the strongest association with happenstance event incidence. Social networking was a key substituent of PHT not yet described in the literature. Educational practices incorporating PHT concepts, with emphasis on curiosity, may provide graduates novel metacognitive skills needed to develop novel career paths.     

HPT and Six Sigma: Is There a Difference That Matters?

This article explores the major differences and similarities between Six Sigma and human performance technology or human performance improvement (HPT or HPI). It addresses the definitions and foundations of both Six Sigma and HPT as major performance improvement approaches. It explains how their methodologies are similar in some aspects and different in others. It compares the popularity and applicability of the two approaches in both small and large companies. It discusses the psychological elements underlying each method. Moreover, it considers the criteria of success in managing HPT and Six Sigma projects. It also addresses the reasons for the similarities and differences between the two processes and suggests an integrated approach that focuses on both human and nonhuman improvement in an attempt to overcome the limitations of each approach.     

Is There a Role for Executive Functions in the Development of Mathematics Ability?

ABSTRACT— This article examines the role of working memory, attention shifting, and inhibitory control executive cognitive functions in the development of mathematics knowledge and ability in children. It suggests that an examination of the executive cognitive demand of mathematical thinking can complement procedural and conceptual knowledge-based approaches to understanding the ways in which children become proficient in mathematics. Task analysis indicates that executive cognitive functions likely operate in concert with procedural and conceptual knowledge and in some instances might act as a unique influence on mathematics problem-solving ability. It is concluded that consideration of the executive cognitive demand of mathematics can contribute to research on best practices in mathematics education.     

Is There a Link Between Teachers' Beliefs and Behaviors?

This study examined the link between beliefs and behaviors for early childhood teachers. Currently, consensus has not been reached regarding the belief-practice relationship for early childhood educators due to inconsistent attention to measurement specificity, perceived ability to practice beliefs, and strength of teacher training. The participants in this study were 47 early childhood educators. Teachers were primarily female and all worked with children aged 3–5. Teachers had worked with children aged 3–5 an average of 7.6 years (range = 0–30). Many teachers had training in early childhood. Twenty-nine had majored in early childhood and 26 held teaching certificates. Teaching beliefs were measured with a self-report questionnaire. Teaching actions were assessed with four observational measures via videotape. The results showed that there was not a relationship between teachers' beliefs and actions. In addition, the results indicated that when teachers had more experience with children they were less sensitive and that early childhood teaching certification held was a positive predictor of high level involvement and verbalizations.     

Is There a Need for Transcendental Arguments in Discourse Ethics?

In this essay, James Scott Johnston examines Jürgen Habermas's transcendental justification of his discourse theory of morality. According to Johnston, the application of Habermas's theory to educational issues often assumes that this justification is a cogent one. However, if the theory is to provide reasoned and appropriate guidance for educators, the justification of discourse ethics requires closer examination. Johnston argues that Habermas's so‐called “weak” transcendental approach is in fact unsustainable because it fails to reconcile two conflicting schools of philosophical thought: Kant's transcendental idealism and George Herbert Mead's social pragmatism. Johnston concludes that a more plausible justification of the discourse ethical project can be achieved by rejecting Habermas's Kantianism and appealing solely to Mead's social pragmatic conception of rationality.     

Is There a Double Standard of Aging?: Older Men and Women and Ageism

This study was designed to determine current young adults' attitudes toward older adults and to explore, more specifically, whether they hold different attitudes towards older men and women. An additional objective was to examine the association between knowledge of aging processes and attitudes towards older adults. A total of 405 (210 males, 195 females) undergraduate students at a small Midwestern university were assessed on their attitudes toward an older male and an older female and on their knowledge of aging. Data analyses revealed that the participants showed more positive, rather than negative, attitudes towards older adults, and they rated older women significantly more positively than older men. No relationship was found between knowledge of aging processes and attitudes toward aging. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Network Applications for Group-Based Learning: Is More Better?

Group-based learning is being introduced into many settings in higher education. Is this a sustainable development with respect to the resources required? Under what conditions can group-based learning be applied successfully in distance education and in increasingly flexible campus-based learning? Can networked support facilitate and enrich courses where group-based learning is applied? These questions formed the basis of the motivation for the research project whose main results are presented here. The goals set for the research were the identification of problems associated with the planning, operationalisation, and monitoring of group tasks in group-based learning in higher education, and the identification of networked support options which, in combination with appropriate instructional decisions, have the potential to remedy these problems. The solutions identified were tested in the context of three case studies.     

Learning from MacIntyre about Learning: Finding Room for a Second-Person Perspective?

In this article I try to bring into relief the background significance of learning in Alasdair MacIntyre's writings. After briefly adverting to his own manner of learning from other thinkers, I begin by outlining what he sees as essential to learning in early childhood (§I). Next, I spell out what I take to be important implications for learning, mainly in the context of schooling, of his conception of ‘practice’ (§II). Turning then to the ‘revolutionary Aristotelianism’ of his later work, I elucidate the kind of transformative learning that he deems necessary because of dominant tendencies in late modern societies (§III) and because of key features of human lives—including fallibility, narrativity and ‘final end’—that he analyses in his most recent book, Ethics in the Conflicts of Modernity (§IV). I then consider his conception of how one person's learning can be aided by another, suggesting that this conception would be strengthened by the incorporation of a second-person perspective (§V). I link the absence of such a perspective to what I see as his underestimation of the salience of the teacher–student relationship and his consequently diminished account of teaching—a largely Aristotelian-Thomist account whose strengths in other respects I acknowledge (§VI). I conclude by asking whether this line of criticism, if valid, might not indicate a lack in MacIntyre's conception of personal relationships more generally—despite the great import that he grants to them, for weal or woe, in all human lives (§VII). [The present article is included in wider discussion of issues bearing on learning and teaching in my Persons in Practice: Essays between Education and Philosophy (Wiley, forthcoming)].     

Childbirth Education and Obstetric Interventions Among Low-Risk Canadian Women: Is There a Connection?

The objective of this study was to examine the associations between attendance at childbirth education classes and maternal characteristics (age, income, educational level, single parent status), maternal psychological states (fear of birth, anxiety), rates of obstetric interventions, and breastfeeding initiation. Between women’s 35th and 39th weeks of gestation, we collected survey data about their childbirth fear, anxiety, attendance at childbirth education classes, choice of health-care provider, and expectations for interventions; we then linked women’s responses (n = 624) to their intrapartum records obtained through Perinatal Services British Columbia. Older, more educated, and nulliparous women were more likely to attend childbirth education classes than younger, less educated, and multiparous women. Attending prenatal education classes was associated with higher rates of vaginal births among women in the study sample. Rates of labor induction and augmentation and use of epidural anesthesia were not significantly associated with attendance at childbirth education classes. Future studies might explore the effect of specialized education programs on rates of interventions during labor and mode of birth.