Has John Hattie really found the holy grail of research on teaching? An extended review of Visible Learning

In this article the author reviews and discusses John Hattie’s book Visible Learning. In this book Hattie presents the results of a meta‐meta‐analysis on the conditions of successful teaching and learning in schools. Hattie’s work is based on more than 800 meta‐analyses, and these meta‐analyses are substantiated by more than 50 000 empirical research studies. Among the six groups of factors influencing successful learning in schools—student, home, school, teacher, curricula, teaching—the factor ‘teacher’ seems to have the strongest effect. Hattie not only evaluates empirical research but also places the results in a theoretical context of a theory of teaching and a certain concept of teacher professionalism. The author discusses Hattie’s approach to combine empirical research and conceptual work on teaching and on teachers’ work. The limits of meta‐analyses and future meta‐meta‐analyses are pointed out.     

Toward another ideal speech situation: A critique of habermas’ reinterpretation of speech act theory

With incredible daring Habermas has reinterpreted speech act theory in a way that poses a foundational challenge to rhetorical scholars.     

A Reading of John Edgar Wideman’s “Fever”

John Edgar wideman’s "Fever" is a multiple-voiced text, narrating experiences of the blacks during the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793. The "fever" is essentially a metaphor of racism and endangered human existence. This paper attempts to uncover what lies beneath the "fever" via disentangling the text’s narrative strategies and to foreground Wideman’s concern on his people.     

A critique of Koh’s (2014) ‘Doing class analysis in Singapore’s elite education’

Aaron Koh contributed to a collection of multi-site global ethnographic articles published here (2014, Vol. 12, No. 2) that present class reproduction as operationalised in elite education. While the collection adds to the current international critique of meritocracy, a close look at Koh's contribution reveals that critical ethnography can lose its representational and persuasive power if muddled by theoretical and methodological haziness and if it fails to forefront participants' voices. This response is meant to encourage Koh to re-present his data and position so as to sure up his comment on this important issue.     

Children’s development of a theory of mind

A critical review of the literature on the theory of mind is presented. Consistent with the “early onset” view, it is suggested that important precursors of a theory of mind are found much earlier than the age of 4. Research on emotional development and intentional communication is reviewed to suggest that some rudimentary understanding of other people’s minds occurs before the age of 2. Later, 3-year-olds’ engagement in pretense and deception demonstrates a more sophisticated understanding of other people’s mental states. Limitations of the false belief task for determining the acquisition of a theory of mind will be discussed with reference to findings in the adult literature.     

A critique of the Capability Approach’s potential for application to career guidance

In this article, we provide a balanced critique of Sen’s Capability Approach (CA) with reference to its potential to inform career guidance theory and practice. There are varying understandings and interpretations of the CA. Some see capabilities as universal, whilst others favour a more relativist view. The CA is also vulnerable to misunderstanding. Critiques based on misunderstanding are easily dismissed, so our focus is on substantive conceptual and practical critiques. Three main challenges are explored: conceptual debates about the nature of freedom and justice; limitations arising from the disciplinary origins of the CA; and challenges in operationalising the CA.

     

Father’s John Hancock

Teacher:Tom,you haven’t shown your parents the examination pa-pers,have you?Tom:Yes,I have,sir.Teacher:But I can’t find your father’s John Hancock on the papers.Tom:Here,sir.(Showing his whipped arm to the teacher.)Father’s John Hancock!山东@石继忠     

A Simple Study of the Teacher’s Influence on Students’ Psychology in English Learning

This paper analyzes the teacher’s influence on students’psychologyin English learning from two aspects and emphasizes the importance of English teachers’role in helping students establish healthy psychology in English learning.     

Teaching Television-A Review of John Hartley’s Uses of Television

This is to review and analyse the chapters of one of John Hartley’s works Uses of Television, and compare it with different readers related to the studies of TV. It mainly discusses teaching television in four parts: the effect of the audience on television, textual tradition and television, television and citizenship, and television as transmodern teaching.     

Rising Acceptance of Life and Negative Capability—A Reading of John Keats’s Odes

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty"-the famous line in English romantic poet John Keats’Ode on a Grecian Urn-has triggered wide discussion and numerous interpretations. From the point of"negative capability", a phrase first coined by Keats himself, this paper is attempting to display the consistency between that poetic line and the poet’s creation and life attitude on the whole. For this purpose, this paper will mainly introduce and interpret five of Keats’famous odes in the order of their display of his"rising acceptance of life": Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode to Autumn, Ode on Melancholy and Ode on Indolence. This paper would like to show in the first three Keats’s positive quest in different aspects and on certain levels, the fourth the underlying tone of life’s polyphonous song, and the final the"negative capability"that constitutes his healthy attitude toward creation and life. Finally, this paper hopes to demonstrate that it is such capability that enables the poet to growingly accept life, and it is also essential to him as a philosophical poet.     

A Critique of Ali Shehadeh’s Non-native Speakers’Production of Modified Comprehensible Output and Second Language Learning

This study examined the NNSs’ ability of modifying their interlanguage utterances in modified comprehensible output to give response to other-initiation and self-initiation,which was studied in both NS-NNS and NNS-NNS interactions.It was the qualitative study by using two different tasks which were picture-dictation task and opinion-exchange task to collect the data.There were 32 participants whose age ranged of 22 to 37.The author proposed two hypotheses based on his expectation that NNS-NNS interactions would provide more opportunities for NNS participants to give comprehensible output for other-initiated clarification requests and self-initiated clarification attempts than NS-NNS interactions.The author was good at using numbers to illustrate and describe the data in his writing.     

A critical feminist and race critique of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-first Century

Abstract

Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-first Century documents the foreboding nature of rising wealth inequality in the twenty-first century. In an effort to promote a more just and democratic global society and rein in the unfettered accumulation of wealth by the few, Piketty calls for a global progressive annual tax on corporate capital. Employing a critical feminist and race perspective on the political economy, this article examines Piketty’s historical understanding of inequality, and considers how his proposed solution to redistribute corporate profits through a global tax on corporate capital would impact the racialized, gendered, and geographically based inequalities experienced by marginalized girls and women, including access to education, employment, and other basic needs. The article argues that Piketty’s proposed solution would leave corporate strategies for accumulating wealth untouched, and would do little to transform the durable, deeply entrenched inequalities experienced by poor, racialized girls and women.     

Growth of Sammy and the Hope Shadowed In John Updike’s A & P

John Updike has been an acute observer of human conditions.Social conformity and individualism is a pair of collision.To be submissive or rebellious determines the direction of the protagonist’s growth and a forward looking sight of hope on younger generation.By depicting such conflict,Sammy in "A & P" undergoes a short but hard spiritual maturation.     

Analysis of John Dewey’s Philosophy of Education and Its Value

John Dewey was a pragmatic philosopher,psychologist,and educator commonly regarded as the founder of the pro gressive education movement.His philosophy of pragmatic education not only exerts great influence on Western education,but also on China’s education.This paper attempts to make a detailed analysis of Dewey’s philosophy of education and its value.     

Learning to Live Together: A Review of UNESCO’s Associated Schools Project Network

Some 7400 schools belong to the global network of UNESCO’s Associated School Project Network. They are committed to promoting ideals such as human rights, intercultural understanding, peace and environmental protection. This study is based on an extensive review undertaken in 2003. It discusses the origins and analyzes the achievements of the Associated School Project Network in bringing change to schools, communities and national policy. The analysis employs a variety of models of educational innovation and reform in order to assess the horizontal and vertical impact of the Associated School Project Network. It draws general conclusions on the usefulness of such networks for intercultural learning and educational and social change. Key issues include the commitment of stakeholders; the treatment of culturally sensitive issues; cultural interpretations of certain subjects; the value of horizontal networks; and the difficulty of achieving vertical impact on national policy-making.

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Zusammenfassung LERNEN, ZUSAMMEN ZU LEBEN: EINE ÜBERPRÜFUNG DES ASSOCIATED SCHOOLS PROJECT NETWORK DER UNESCO – Ungefähr 7400 Schulen gehören dem weltweiten Netzwerk des Associated Schools Project Network der UNESCO an. Sie widmen sich der Förderung von Idealen wie Menschenrechten, interkulturellem Verständnis, Frieden und Umweltschutz. Diese Studie basiert auf einer ausführlichen Überprüfung, die im Jahre 2003 durchgeführt wurde. Sie diskutiert die Ursprünge und analysiert die Errungenschaften des Associated Schools Project Network im Herbeiführen von Veränderungen an Schulen, Gemeinden und nationaler Politik. Die Analyse bedient sich einer Vielzahl von Beispielen erzieherischer Erneuerung und Reform, um die horizontalen und vertikalen Auswirkungen des Associated Schools Project Network einzuschätzen. Sie zieht allgemeine Schlüsse bezüglich des Nutzens derartiger Netzwerke für interkulturelles Lernen und erzieherischen sowie gesellschaftlichen Wandel. Schlüsselthemen sind das Engagement der verantwortlichen Personen, die Behandlung kulturell sensibler Themen, kulturelle Interpretationen bestimmter Gegenstände, der Wert breit gestreuter Netzwerke und die Schwierigkeit, tief greifenden Einfluß auf die Gestaltung nationaler Politik zu gewinnen.

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Resumen APRENDER A CONVIVIR: UNA PRESENTACIÓN GENERAL DE LA RED DEL PROYECTO DE ESCUELAS ASOCIADAS A LA UNESCO – La Red del Proyecto de Escuelas Asociadas a la UNESCO está integrada por unas 7.400 escuelas que se han comprometido a promover ideales tales como derechos humanos, entendimiento intercultural, convivencia pacífica y protección ambiental. Este trabajo está basado en una extensa investigación realizada en el año 2003. El estudio enfoca los orígenes y analiza los resultados obtenidos por la Red del Proyecto de Escuelas Asociadas en cuanto a los cambios que ha ocasionado en las escuelas, comunidades y políticas nacionales. El análisis emplea una serie de modelos de innovación y reforma educativa para evaluar el impacto horizontal y vertical de la Red del Proyecto de Escuelas Asociadas, esbozando conclusiones generales sobre la utilidad que tienen estas redes para el aprendizaje intercultural y el cambio educativo y social. Algunos de los aspectos esenciales del trabajo son la participación comprometida de individuos y grupos implicados (stakeholders), el tratamiento de temas culturalmente sensibles, las interpretaciones culturales de determinados asuntos, el valor de las redes horizontales y la dificultad de conseguir un impacto vertical sobre la elaboración de políticas a nivel nacional.

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Résumé APPRENDRE À VIVRE ENSEMBLE : COMPTE RENDU DU RÉSEAU DU PROJET DES COLES ASSOCIÉÉES DE L’UNESCO – Quelques 7400 écoles appartiennent au réseau global du Réseau du Projet des Écoles Associées de l’UNESCO. Elles ont le devoir de promouvoir des idéaux tels que les droits de l’Homme, la compréhension interculturelle, la paix et la protection de l’environnement. Cette étude est basée sur un vaste compte rendu entrepris en 2003. Elle délibère des origines et analyse les acquis du Réseau du Projet des Écoles Associées par rapport à ce qu’il a apporté comme changements au sein des écoles, des communautés et de la politique nationale. L’analyse utilise une variété de modèles d’innovation et de réforme éducative afin d’évaluer l’impact horizontal et vertical du Réseau du Projet des Écoles Associées. Elle en tire des conclusions générales quant à l’utilité de ce genre de réseaux pour l’apprentissage interculturel et le changement éducatif et social. Les thèmes clés comprennent l’engagement des intéressés, le traitement des débouchés sensibles sur le plan culturel ; les interprétations culturelles de certains sujets ; la valeur de réseaux horizontaux ; et la difficulté d’acquérir un impact vertical sur l’élaboration de la politique nationale.

     

Heidegger’s Reinscription of Paideia in the Context of Online Learning

Abstract

One of the questions that Heidegger presents in his paper, ‘Plato’s Doctrine on Truth’, is the distortion as he sees it of paideia—that is the loss of the essential elements in education. This loss is characterised according to Heidegger, by a misconception of Plato’s concept of teaching and learning. By undertaking an historical examination, Heidegger provides a means to rectify this loss. With reference to past, present and future philosophical perspectives of teaching and learning as particular spaces, an attempt is made in this paper to examine Heidegger’s reading of paideia within the context of online learning. This, for many contemporary writers on education, is an encounter with new literacies, new knowledge and the adoption of an online environment that challenges the hegemonic order of the institution as the purveyors of knowledge. Teachers within this new environment are, however still constituted as experts and their knowledge is seen as ultimately inviolate. Heidegger in his re-interpretation of Plato sees the teacher as leading the students to where they might make themselves intelligible within the space of their being. This alignment forms an acceptance and a challenge to the metaphysical concepts of uniformity of being and place that limits the potential of knowledge as something that is fixed and complete. The experience of the social web or Web 2.0 has seen a shift in learning premised upon dialogue, exchange and constantly shifting horizons. Within this context, the teacher is recast as a craftsman, creating learning opportunity within dialogic exchange. The heightened sense of involvement that is revealed in this context lays the ground for a future visioning of education where emergence is seen as essential, unlike a re-working of authorisation to learn that inhibits student and teacher alike in new attempts at revitalising education.     

Applying the Science of Learning to the Learning of Science: Newton’s Second Law of Motion

Science teaching and learning require knowledge about how learning takes place (cognition) and how learners interact with their surroundings (affective and sociocultural factors). The study reported on focussed on learning for understanding of Newton’s second law of motion from a cognitive perspective that takes social factors into account. A cognitive refinement instructional approach (CRIA) was used to organise and sequence learning activities, while students were engaged through inquiry and group work. Students’ real-life experiences were used as starting point of the learning sequence. The efficiency of the sequence was determined with the aid of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) and complemented with the students’ reflections on the sequence, showing their epistemological preferences. The results indicated that a CRIA aided in constructing more coherent scientific knowledge and enhanced understanding, while reducing misconceptions on the topic. In their reflections, the students acknowledged that experiential and experimental evidence, as well as guided formation of a scientific explanatory framework, are foundational for a deeper understanding of the challenging topic.     

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory in the context of globalization

The article reviews the social-educational theorization of the early Soviet psychologist L. S. Vygotsky (1896–1934) in the light of the impact of communicative globalization in educational practice. Vygotsky proposed four “genetic domains” for investigating higher cognitive processes: the phylogenetic (humans undergoing natural evolution), the cultural-historical (social activity of humans), the ontogenetic (individual lifespan), and the microgenetic (immediate events). Vygotskian sociocultural theory is widely used in educational research, especially Vygotsky’s notion of mediated development via tools and signs. Since Vygotsky, communicative globalization has transformed educational potentials. Nevertheless, provided adjustments are made to Vygotsky’s genetic method to incorporate time-space compression, the mutual presence of the genetic domains, and the glonacal heuristic, Vygotskian theory continues to be useful in socially-situated investigations of educational development and transformation, and opens another way into the global, for example investigation of the role of global mediation in learning.     

John Wilson’s confused ‘Perspectives on the Philosophy of Education’

In his ‘Perspectives on the Philosophy of Education’ John Wilson laments the confusion that surrounds the current state of the philosophy of education. Unlike other branches of philosophy, he claims, it is not clear what the philosophy of education is about, and a snapshot of current work in the field reveals its lack of coherence. To remedy this he advocates starting ‘from scratch’: the philosophy of education is to be understood as a discipline concerned with the logic of value judgements and focused on questions of learning. While the present paper acknowledges the extent of Wilson’s contribution to the field, it draws attention to the confusion in the position that he holds, and shows that his assessment of the current state of the philosophy of education is both inaccurate and politically blinkered. In the process, the paper challenges his account of the philosophy of education as a branch of philosophy and offers a more coherent characterisation.