Fictitious Academic Expertise and Processing Resources

A previous study showed that pairs of students interacting in a second language produced more words when they were assigned a fictitious expert position in a specific competence dimension than when they were assigned a nonexpert position. It has also been shown that the usual level of expertise has an impact on the assigned fictitious expertise effect. The present study was designed to determine whether the processing capacity allotted to the current task could partly determine performance. A given position of expertise may demand a large or small attentional capacity. Two experiments were conducted using a dual-task paradigm. As expected, the different expertise positions led to different reaction times on the secondary task. The second experiment showed that the impact of assigning a position of expertise to students depends on their usual academic standing. This study supports the idea that in interactive situations, performance variations as a function of the expertise position can be partially explained by differences in the processing resources allocated to the task. Implications for teaching are discussed.     

Gender differences and styles in the use of digital games

This paper reports work in progress investigating gender differences and styles in the use of digital games amongst advanced level biology students. It is an elaboration on previous work exploring the relationship between cognitive style and academic performance in Maltese students taking biology at advanced level. In this previous work the cognitive style of 581 (212 male and 369 female) advanced biology students was correlated with their academic performance in five different subjects. Pearson's correlation showed that the wholist–analytic dimension, the verbal–imagery dimension, and gender were not correlated. Regression analysis showed that none of the style dimension combinations had a significant effect on performance in any of the subjects. However, gender proved to be a stronger determinant of performance. These results were interpreted from a cognitive neuroscience perspective. Numerous studies have consistently found gender differences in language and visuospatial skills. Female superiority is seen on tests of both receptive and productive language, and on more complex tasks such as making analogies and creative writing. Males have an advantage in visuospatial reasoning, being more adept at performing disembedding and internal spatial transformations. In view of these results and the constantly reported gender difference in the use of digital games, this paper describes the initial stage of an investigation about gender‐determined propensities to digital media. Different studies claim that males dedicate more time than female students to playing digital games. A marked emphasis on the use of particular game genres by the different sexes is also reported. This reported phenomenon is investigated within the context of Maltese students taking advanced biology. Through a questionnaire, data were collected about the time students spend playing digital games, their preferred platform, and their preferred games. Data were analysed to establish gender differences in the time spent on playing digital games, the preferred platform, the most popular digital games amongst males and female students, and the preferred game genre. The results are interpreted from neurocognitve and psychosocial perspectives. Suggestions are made for possible integration of digital games in learning.     

Capacité cognitive,sentiment d’auto-efficacité et autorégulation

Feelings of self-efficacy have been the object of several studies that have confirmed its ability to predict performance in different contexts. Yet few studies have been conducted using cognitive or academic tasks in which it is more difficult to clearly distinguish self-efficacy from competence. The present study aims to study the moderating role of cognitive capacity in determining the relationship between self-efficacy and on-line self-regulation observed while solving a verbal concept formation task. In order to distinguish self-efficacy from competence, 44 subjects were selected based on the results of their SSPI; these results of which are related to comprehension ability. Analyses of results allow us to observe that, when compared to subjects who consider themselves less efficacious, subjects who have strong feelings of self-efficacy have a higher success rate, are more certain of these successes and reject fewer correct hypotheses, no matter what their cognitive ability. These results once again bring to light the relative independance of cognitive ability and motivational determinants of a person’s actual accomplishments.     

From a social to a cultural approach in the study of cognitive activities: The fundamental role of semiotic systems

The consideration of the semiotico-cultural dimension of cognitive development has failed to appear in most of the studies conducted in the psychosociology of cognitive constructions. The theoretical and epistemic implications which follow from it are discussed in relation to the contribution of the pragmatic and dialogical approaches of Peirce and Vygotsky. Recent research on the cognitive effects of the social signification of tasks can provide evidence of the semiotic dimension of social contexts of the knowledge insertion and thus introduce the notion of ‘virtual social reality’. A new interpretation of the effects of the performance transfers, observed in this kind of studies is proposed. The traditional explanations in terms of social experience and social marking are questioned through original research that whose results illustrate the fundamental role of the use and self-appropriation of sign systems.     

Peer interaction effects in the activation of categorical concepts

This study was aimed at investigating the effects of social interaction in a task involving the utilization of categorical concepts by 7- and 9-year-olds from two contrasting socio-economic backgrounds (upper class and lower class). The task, presented as a guessing game, was performed under two experimental conditions: an individual condition (one subject alone asked his/her partner questions) and a dyadic condition (two subjects formulated questions together to ask two other partners). In both experimental conditions, the «questioned» subjects answered «yes» or «no» to their partner’s (or partners’) questions. Two pre-test and post-test tasks (a nonmember task and a similarity task) involving the same categorical concepts as the training tasks were set up to assess the effects of training condition and socio-economic background on progress. An untrained group of subjects served as the control group. The results showed that the experimental setup was very beneficial for all subjects, regardless of what kind of training they had undergone (individual or dyadic) and what background they came from. These findings provide evidence of the effectiveness of the social regulation at work in both of these experimental conditions (yes/no feedback) for a task where the socially-defined goal to be attained by the subjects is represented in an unambiguous manner.     

‘But this isn’t school’: exploring tensions in the intersection between school and leisure activities in classroom game design

While there are several positive outcomes from implementing game design in a formal learning context, there are also challenges that have to be considered in order to improve game-based learning. This is explored in the article, using the concepts of activity frames and stancetaking, focusing on the social organization of the game design activity. Building on video data from one 6th grade class and one 7th grade class designing computer games based on their social studies curriculum, this article shows that tensions arise when students fail to agree on what the activity they are doing is really about: The academic content and what students commonly perceive as school activities, or a game design activity informed by their leisure time. The main argument is that the students position themselves as students, game designers or characters, and that this may cause tensions in the students’ social interactions.     

Diversity, child care quality, and developmental outcomes

It is widely accepted that high quality child care enhances children’s cognitive and social development, but some question whether what constitutes quality care depends on the child’s ethnic and cultural background. To address this question, secondary analysis of data from the two largest studies of child care experiences in the United States, Cost, Quality, and Outcomes Study and the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, tested whether standard measures of child care quality were less reliable or valid for African-American and English-speaking Latino children than for white children. Widely used measures of child care quality showed comparably high levels of reliability and similar levels of validity for white, African-American, and Latino children. Analyses tested whether cognitive and social skills were related to child care quality, the match between child’s and caregiver’s ethnicity, and the match between the mother’s and caregiver’s beliefs about child-rearing. Results indicated children from all three ethnic groups showed higher levels of cognitive and social skills on standardized assessments shown to predict school success when caregivers were sensitive and stimulating. Children’s skills were not consistently related to whether the child’s and caregiver’s ethnicity matched or whether the mother’s and caregiver’s beliefs about child-rearing were similar. These two large studies suggest that children from all three ethnic groups benefit from sensitive and stimulating care on child outcomes related to school success. The results are interpreted as indicating that the global dimension of quality may be reflected in very different types of practices that reflect cultural differences.     

The social context of human learning: Some prospects for the study of socio-cognitive regulations

Numerous studies conducted by social, cognitive, and educational psychologists suggest that learning, cognitive functioning and development, and education are fundamentally embedded in a complex social matrix. Recent studies have demonstrated the influence on cognitive performances of several basic social variables, including evaluative pressure, group membership, situations of personal or categorical social comparison, and the academic value of the task. These findings clearly point out the necessity of considering the autobiographical dimension of the individual to explain this influence, an idea which is clearly consistent with other results obtained in studies on scholastic self-schemas. The present paper shows that the influence of the social context of cognition cannot be explained unless it is viewed from a sociocognitive perspective which considers the autobiographical memory of the individual.     

Temperament and the Cognitive Modifiability of Academically Superior Black Adolescents in South Africa

TEMPERAMENT is characterised as the relatively stable dimension of human functioning, while intelligence is increasingly seen as a dynamic process. This study investigated the relationship between temperament and cognitive modifiability in an academically successful but disadvantaged South African population. For 92 adolescents in the Soweto Gifted Child Programme, the relationship was determined between their ratings on the Teacher Temperament Questionnaire and their performance on the Learning Potential Assessment Device and other measures of cognitive ability and learning. The Task Orientation and Personal‐Social Flexibility temperament dimensions were directly related to learning, academic performance and cognitive change. A more complex relationship was suggested for the Reactivity dimension, in that more intense and reactive subjects tended to perform better in unstimulating situations, while under more facilitative learning conditions, a higher performance level tended to be associated with a lower reactivity level. The findings support the possibility of an interaction between temperament and cognitive growth and demonstrate the usefulness of considering these individual difference variables in combination with each other.     

Reviews

This study examines six US social studies teachers’ beliefs and curricular decisions that impact their teaching about Asia. Using interview data, the study seeks to understand the forces that influence what, how, and when teachers teach about Asia in their secondary classes, if and how they position Asians as ‘others’, and what bearing that has on how these teachers represent Asia in the curriculum. As the study investigates these topics in light of the wider social perceptions of Asia in US society, it uses cultural studies as a major theoretical framework. Major findings show that there is a significant gap between teachers’ personal goals for instruction and students’ perceptions about Asia, the latter of which are often influenced by mass media and popular culture. The study provides a new perspective on understanding the nature and social function of the school curriculum as producer of the collective perception of other peoples and cultures.     

Are local students disadvantaged? Understanding institutional,local and national sense of belonging in higher education

Research on inequality in higher education (HE) is often dominated by class-based assumptions about traditional and non-traditional students. This binary distinction emphasising students’ socio-economic status tends to oversimply the complexity of educational inequality, neglecting crucial factors which affect the perception of social position. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the understanding of inequalities in HE with new data on the meaning of locality, using evidence from comparative studies of institutions. Locality is interpreted as an inclusive concept capturing place identity as well as local attachments based on language, culture and the natural environment. The qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 192 participants in three distinctly different HE institutions, which were deliberately selected according to their socio-economic, cultural, and institutional status. This mixed methods research confirms the importance of different types of belonging at institutional, local and national levels, and their different effects on student groups. The study captures to what extent geographical mobility is associated with social class, by examining students’ sense of belonging and their interpretation of locality in universities across Wales. It challenges the notion of disadvantaged background, and poses a critical question about cultural and geographical familiarity. This study therefore enriches the current debates about the impact of social inequality alongside social class on students’ belonging, success and retention in HE.     

Socially biased learning in monkeys

We review socially biased learning about food and problem solving in monkeys, relying especially on studies with tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) and callitrichid monkeys. Capuchin monkeys most effectively learn to solve a new problem when they can act jointly with an experienced partner in a socially tolerant setting and when the problem can be solved by direct action on an object or substrate, but they do not learn by imitation. Capuchin monkeys are motivated to eat foods, whether familiar or novel, when they are with others that are eating, regardless of what the others are eating. Thus, social bias in learning about foods is indirect and mediated by facilitation of feeding. In most respects, social biases in learning are similar in capuchins and callitrichids, except that callitrichids provide more specific behavioral cues to others about the availability and palatability of foods. Callitrichids generally are more tolerant toward group members and coordinate their activity in space and time more closely than capuchins do. These characteristics support stronger social biases in learning in callitrichids than in capuchins in some situations. On the other hand, callitrichids’ more limited range of manipulative behaviors, greater neophobia, and greater sensitivity to the risk of predation restricts what these monkeys learn in comparison with capuchins. We suggest that socially biased learning is always the collective outcome of interacting physical, social, and individual factors, and that differences across populations and species in social bias in learning reflect variations in all these dimensions. Progress in understanding socially biased learning in nonhuman species will be aided by the development of appropriately detailed models of the richly interconnected processes affecting learning.     

Collaborative Problem Solving in Five‐Year‐Old Children: Evidence of social facilitation and social loafing

Children’s problem solving while working by themselves or with a partner was investigated to explore whether young children are susceptible to social facilitation and social loafing. Five‐year‐olds were asked to complete easy or hard puzzles, either alone or with a partner. Half of the children were given instructions indicating that their performance would be evaluated and the other half were not. Children showed social facilitation, in that they performed better with a partner than when working alone under evaluation conditions, with the easy puzzle. Children also showed social loafing, in that performance with a partner was poorer when working under no evaluation than evaluation conditions, with the easy puzzle. Performance with the hard puzzle did not differ whether children worked alone or with a partner, but children working on the hard puzzle under no evaluation conditions performed better than those working under evaluation conditions. The findings suggest that evaluation affects children’s performance in group settings in different ways depending on task difficulty.     

美国标准化运动中的社会科课程改革

在美国的课程标准化运动中，全国性专业协会和各州纷纷推出各自的社会科课程标准。社会课程旨在增进公民竞争力，其主题轴或者学科轴作为课程框架，目的在于发展课程标准和期望表现。目前，美国社会科课程在多样性的基础上表现出统一性的特征。     

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Shia Ismaili Muslim Girls Negotiate Islam in the Classroom

ABSTRACT

This case study investigates the experiences of Shia Ismaili Muslim girls as they encounter themselves as subjects of social studies curriculums on Islam. A postcolonial lens is used to examine differently empowered subjectivities and curricular epistimes within the high school world history context. In an effort to understand their experiences, this study focuses on how the students position themselves in relation to the curriculum, and ultimately asks, to what extent do students from minority communities of interpretation appropriate or resist the authoritative narrative of Islam offered in their classrooms, particularly around the question, “Who is a Muslim?” The central finding revealed a paradox of representation and participation for these students, who found their practice and interpretation of Islam silenced in the classroom curriculum, and yet felt obliged to defend Islam and educate others against stereotypes of Muslims. The implications of this study compel educators to explore decolonial approaches to teaching about the religious other.     

Temperament Predicts Processing Speed in Low Socioeconomic Status Rural Preschoolers

Extreme poverty all over the world is concentrated in rural settings. However, studies about cognition in low socioeconomic status (SES) children are for the most part conducted in urban populations. This paper investigates, in a poor rural sample, what are the individual and socioenvironmental variables that make the difference in performance in a processing speed task. Forty four 5‐year‐old children were evaluated with a processing speed task; individual and socioenvironmental information was obtained from parents' interviews. Higher scores in the effortful control dimension of temperament were associated with higher performance in the processing speed task. No other individual or socioenvironmental variable predicted the performance. These results showed that effortful control is important in processing speed and suggest that in low SES rural contexts, low effortful control children would require stronger interventions.     

Social Class,Ability and Choice of Subject in Secondary and Tertiary Education in Britain

This article examines the impact of family background (social class, cultural and economic capital) and ability on the choice of subjects in secondary and tertiary education in Britain. Using a framework that integrates rational choice perspectives and cultural reproduction theory, we assume that children take their parents' social position as a reference for their own choices, and are guided mainly by the amount of economic and cultural capital that is available within the family. Using longitudinal data from the 1958 British birth cohort (N =13,245), the empirical analysis shows that children from higher social class backgrounds achieved a higher standard in both humanities and scientific subjects in primary and secondary school. Furthermore, children of the professional class were relatively likely to choose the prestigious subjects of medicine and law in university, independent of ability. Both absolute and relative levels of ability were relevant to the choice of subject at degree level, as it was found that people chose subjects that they were relatively good at compared to other subjects. This concept of ‘comparative advantage’ gives additional insight into field‐of‐study choices, but does not explain the gender segregation across disciplines.     

学科准入与分等视野下学科的合法性危机探讨——以思想政治教育学科为例

一种知识体系或类型要获得学科的准入,必须满足各合教性、合人文性、合政治性、合认识性、合社会性/市场性五种条件中的一种。在获得学科身份后,学科又因学科的认知维度、组织维充和效用维度的差异而存在等级差异。思想政治教育学科准入最主要的机制是合政治性,由于思想政治教育学科的认知维度较低、组织维度较低、在效用维度中只有政治效用维度高,故在整个学科序列中等级较低,存在着不容忽视的合法性危机。因而有必要不断提高这门学科的认知维度、组织维度、效用维度的等级,增强其认知性、人文性、社会性/市场性,推动思想政治教育学科的内涵发展。     

Inclusion and homophily: an argument about participatory decision-making and democratic school management

Abstract

This paper reports findings from a study about school staff’s perceptions of the preferences for social interaction that young people have with similar and different others. This tension was explored empirically using scenarios of moral dilemmas to conduct in-depth semi-structured interviews with school staff from special and mainstream secondary schools. The issue was explored with reference to a tension between social inclusion, the principle of embracing difference, and homophily, the concept that similarity breeds connection. The data suggest that homophily and inclusion can come into a tension with an ethical dimension. In education, the homophily/inclusion tension is one between students’ preferences for being among similar others and the moral imperative of including everybody; or between individuality and commonality. Inclusion is often translated into a demand for full participation as the only way to respond ethically to difference. However, the recognition of students’ rights to negotiate their preferences, even when they come into tension with what is considered to be politically correct, is also an ethical position. The paper concludes that the homophily/inclusion tension is constructive as it challenges the moral necessity of inclusion for all, and opens a debate about participatory decision-making and democratic school management.     

A comparison of Saudi and Canadian children's knowledge of the causes of learning difficulties

In this comparative study, students from inclusive schools in Canada and Saudi Arabia shared their beliefs about factors associated with learning difficulties. Qualitative data were collected through interviews with 36 Canadian and 62 Saudi elementary students in Grades 5 and 6. Thematic analysis uncovered six themes: lack of knowledge, achievement or academic skills; cognitive and social‐emotional barriers; lack of attention and/or motivation and behavioural issues; home and parental concerns; teacher‐related issues; and physical/sensory disabilities and innate conditions. Although participants from both countries had a general understanding of the factors associated with learning difficulties, Canadian students showed a deeper understanding of cognitive and social‐emotional factors associated with learning difficulties. Educational and research implications are discussed.