Public Understanding of Cognitive Neuroscience Research Findings: Trying to Peer Beyond Enchanted Glass

This article considers the appeal of cognitive neuroscience research to the general public within the context of the deep puzzles involved in using our minds to understand how our minds work. It offers a few promising examples of findings that illuminate the ways of the mind and reveal these workings to be counter‐intuitive with our subjective experience. However, this promise is tempered by the powerful role that perception, attention, and cognition play in how we reason about evidence. It argues that the interplay between what we believe about the nature of our minds and what the findings suggest constitutes a primary challenge in encouraging public understanding of cognitive neuroscience findings.     

International trends in the public and private financing of higher education

Beginning by analyzing the major qualitative and quantitative changes in higher education around the world, this article examines international trends in their financial implications. It then demonstrates the state’s inability to bear the entire rising financial burden, and explores the role of self-financing, and of the non-profit and for-profit private sectors, in sharing the enrolment and the cost burden. Examples of cost-sharing from around the world are given, with an analysis of the complexities and ambiguities of the meanings of public and private in reference to financing higher educational institutions. A discussion of private–public partnerships follows, and of the role that non-profit and for-profit cross-border higher education plays in financing. The conclusion offers eight policy themes for coping with the underlying situation of financial strategy and the simultaneous need to supplement scarce public revenues with private revenues, meanwhile increasing access to and participation in higher education for those not yet benefiting from it.     

目的理性与工具理性关系的现实启示

工业革命以来的社会变化，使人类越来越清醒地认识到正确处理目的理性与工具理性关系的重要性。目的理性与工具理性的关系给予人类的现实启示在于：必须正确认识人与自然的关系，促进人与自然的和谐发展；必须正确认识物质需要与精神需要的关系，推进物质文明和精神文明的全面进步；必须正确认识科学结构的内在关系，实现自然科学与人文社会科学的有机整合。     

Cognitive complexity,the first year of teaching,and mentoring

Drawing on data from a US study of nine mentors and mentees, including mentee scores on the Reasoning about Current Issues (RCI) Test, which offers a measure of cognitive complexity, the authors explore how differences in cognitive complexity were related to role expectations, conceptions of teaching problems, and the use of evidence for justifying beliefs. Growing out of the Reflective Judgment Model developed by King and Kitchner [(2002). The reflective judgment model: Twenty years of research on epistemic cognition. In B. Hofer, & P. Pintrich (Eds.), Personal epistemology: The psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing (pp. 37–61). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates] the RCI defines cognitive complexity in terms of how individuals reason—make judgments and use evidence—about ill-structured, controversial, problems. The authors argue that differences in how individuals reason when problem solving may help explain some aspects of how relationships between mentees and mentors form and suggest that greater attention needs to be given to cognitive complexity when designing induction and mentor programs.     

Emptiness and the Education of the Emotions

This article argues that Buddhist philosophy offers a plausible theory of the education of the emotions. Emotions are analyzed as cognitive feeling events in which the subject is passive. The education of the emotions is possible if and only if it is possible to evaluate one’s emotional life (the normative condition) and it is possible to satisfy the normative condition through learning (the pedagogical condition). Drawing on the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, as well as the concepts of conditioned arising, emptiness and anattā, the article presents a view of the education of the emotions that rejects craving for permanence.     

Cross-age peer tutoring of science in the primary school: influence on scientific language and thinking

The development of deeper understanding and transferable skills in science requires continuous interactive discussion and feedback and extended practice in various contexts for generalisation. In primary schools, these desiderata are difficult to supply through direct teacher instruction, but might be feasible through interactive peer tutoring. This study aimed to evaluate cognitive and affective gains from cross-age peer tutoring for both tutees and tutors in science, using the “paired science” programme. For the first time this programme was used to focus on peer rather than parent tutoring and on junior school rather than early years pupils, and for the first time an objective measure of cognitive gain in science was used. Experimental peer tutees were a whole class (n=32) of seven- to eight-year-olds; tutors a whole class (n=33) of eight- to nine-year-olds in the same school. A parallel composite class of seven- to nine-year-olds (n=24) served as controls for tutees and tutors. A peer tutoring paired science intervention was implemented for two 30-minute sessions per week for eight weeks. Video and observational data indicated implementation integrity was satisfactory. Pre- and post-project assessments of understanding of scientific concepts and keywords of a random sample of tutees, tutors and their respective controls (4×n=10) were conducted. Additionally, the attitudes of all the tutees, tutors and their teachers towards their experiences were explored by post hoc questionnaire. On pre-post assessments of understanding of scientific concepts and keywords, the experimental group made significant gains while the control group made no gains, yielding effect sizes greater than one. Tutees made greater gains than tutors. The attitudes of the paired scientists and their teachers towards their experiences were generally very positive. It was concluded that cross-age peer tutoring of science using the paired science programme offers an effective pedagogical strategy, with both cognitive and affective benefits for both tutors and tutees. Recommendations for future research are made.     

A Study on the Impact of GPA on Perceived Improvement of Higher‐Order Cognitive Skills*

Colleges of Business (COBs) have experienced high growth rates in the past decade and many colleges are imposing minimum grade point average (GPA) requirements for students to enter or remain in the college. A primary reason for this requirement may be the belief that students with high GPAs are more inclined to demonstrate higher‐order cognitive skills (HOCS) than students with low GPAs. It is not clear whether the link is valid. This study hypothesizes that students with high GPAs who are taught in the same way as students with lower GPAs will have higher perceptions of improved HOCS. We conducted an experiment in which students, with varying GPAs, at three large universities primarily used multimedia instructional materials. We obtained the students' perceptions of their improved HOCS from their responses to a survey. A regression analysis of the data reveals that the relationship between GPAs and students' perceived improvement in HOCS is significant (p < .001). We conclude the study by recommending that (a) it is critical to use research methodologies to evaluate perceived and actual learning improvements, (b) COB policies to implement GPA restrictions on admission are worthwhile, and (c) case studies need to be used much more frequently in undergraduate COB classes.     

Relating self reports of writing behaviour and online task execution using a temporal model

Current theory about writing states that the quality of (meta)cognitive processing (i.e. planning, text production, revising, et cetera) is, at least partly, determined by the temporal distribution of (meta)cognitive activities across task execution. Put simply, the quality of task execution is determined more by when activities are applied than by how often they are applied. Planning and revising are two extreme writing styles, in which (meta)cognitive activities are temporally differently distributed across the writing process. Planners are writers who generate plans before text production. Revisers use text production as a means to arrive at a content plan. The present study investigates the question whether the online (meta)cognitive processing of secondary school students during writing tasks, as measured by think aloud techniques and keystroke logging, can be predicted by their responses to an offline questionnaire which measures to what degree students considered themselves to be planners and revisers. It was expected that different reported writing styles would entail different temporal distributions of six (meta)cognitive activities: reading the assignment, planning, text production, reading own text, evaluating own text and revising. This hypothesis was partly confirmed. The results show that the online temporal distributions of reading the assignment and planning are different for different degrees of reported writing styles. On the basis of these results, the validity of both the questionnaire and the concept of planner and reviser styles are discussed.     

Tracing culture in children’s thinking: a socioecological framework in understanding nature (Rastreando la cultura en el pensamiento infantil: una socioecología para comprender la naturaleza)

ABSTRACT

There is considerable agreement that cognitive development is shaped by culture. Less clear, however, is the mechanism by which culture exerts its influence as cognition unfolds. Prior work has primarily focused on culture as a species-specific medium of cognitive development or as an explicative factor of cognitive capacities. Here we describe a more recent alternative, the culture-as-ecosystem approach. In this view, concepts are embedded within epistemological orientations providing pervasive, widely distributed framework theories that organize people’s knowledge, learning and behaviour. To illustrate the promise of this approach, we review new evidence about how the Wichi, an indigenous population from the Chaco region in North Argentina, reason about hunhat lheley (inhabitants of the earth). By adopting the culture-as-ecosystem approach, we identified a distinct socioecological framework, undocumented elsewhere. This framework, evidenced in young children and adults, is well aligned with Wichi epistemology. We hope that highlighting the theoretical promise and empirical power of the culture-as-ecosystem approach will offer new insights into the intriguing interface between culture and cognition in development.     

论学生场依存--独立型认知方式与语文阅读教学的关系

阅读是学生个体复杂的认知活动 ,必然受到认知方式的影响。在教学中 ,教师要在遵循学生认知方式发展规律的基础上开展阅读教学 ,并采用相宜的教学策略帮助学生进行认知方式的改组与整合 ,才能更有效地提高阅读教学的效率。场依存 -独立型认知方式的研究为语文教师更好地认识学生认知方式的特点提供了指导 ,也为学生认知方式与阅读教学关系的研究提供了理论依据。     

信念的形成

人类认识的发展经历了三个阶段，即感性、知性和理性，只有理性阶段才能形成理念，才为信念的形成提供了认识论基础。理性与知性相比有很大区别；知性以概念、判断、推理为形式，只能获得片面性知识，只能给人以是即是，非即非的形而上学思维方式；而理性是建立在多种规定性综合统一逻辑论证基础上的，最整体性和具体性的理性重构，给人提供智慧和理念，教给人一种辩证的思维方式，所以，理念和实践各环节综合，就使理念转变为信念，成为人的精神支柱。     

School Teachers' Continuous Professional Development in an Online Learning Community: lessons from a case study of an eTwinning Learning Event

A social revolution is occurring in the way information is shared, knowledge is generated and innovation takes place over the Internet and there is renewed interest in the social concept of ‘community’ to support online learning. This article describes action research conducted in the context of an eTwinning Learning Event (LE) that provides useful insights into how an online learning community can support the continuous professional development (CPD) of school teachers. Using the Community of Inquiry framework (Garrison et al., 2000), it offers empirical evidence of how cognitive, social and teaching aspects impact competence development. It suggests that online learning communities offer an appropriate environment for teachers' intellectual and emotional reflection, characterised by trust, mutual respect and shared values centred on improving pupils' learning. It also suggests that the educational experience within such a community is significantly influenced by the tutor's design and moderation of activities aimed at fostering critical thinking. The article concludes that online learning communities offer a valuable alternative to traditional teacher training by supporting teachers to learn in the context of their everyday practice, whilst collaborating and reflecting on their experience with peers across regions and countries. Concerning the wider use of social networking for learning, it suggests that educators still have a valuable role to play in ensuring that collaboration leads to an effective educational experience.     

Comparing Simple and Advanced Video Tools as Supports for Complex Collaborative Design Processes

Working with digital video technologies, particularly advanced video tools with editing capabilities, offers new prospects for meaningful learning through design. However, it is also possible that the additional complexity of such tools does not advance learning. We compared in an experiment the design processes and learning outcomes of 24 collaborating participant pairs (dyads) using 2 contrasting types of video tools for history learning. The advanced video tool WebDIVER supported segmenting, editing, and annotating capabilities. In the contrasting condition, students used a simple video playback tool with a word processor to perform the same design task. Results indicated that the advanced video editing tool was more effective in relation to (a) fostering student understanding of the topic and acquisition of cognitive skills, (b) the quality of student design products, and (c) the efficiency of dyad interactions. The implication of our experimental findings for constructivist design-based learning is that mediating functions of video tools may be used as cognitive and social supports, for example when students learn by solving design tasks in school.     

Community of Inquiry as Pedagogy of Doing Philosophy for Children: Adding the African Dimension

To what extent are contemporary classrooms communities and what is the place of the learner and the teacher in this set-up? This article offers a critical exploration of the notion of a community of inquiry in the context of Lipman's Philosophy for Children (P4C). We debate the place of the community of inquiry characterised by a lack of indoctrination, reciprocity of respect and a willingness to reason as pedagogy and an essential ingredient of doing P4C in contemporary classroom practices by using the conception of community from an African perspective. We argue that the ukama (relationality) ethic can add a new dimension to a novel understanding of the community of inquiry as a pedagogical framework for doing P4C in the 21st century.     

The Psychological Basis for the Identification of Physical Environmental Parameters in the Development of Early Cognitive Competence1,2

Abstract:Ulvund, S. E. 1981. The Psychological Basis for the Identification of Physical Environmental Parameters in the Development of Early Cognitive Competence. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 25,125‐140. A theoretical analysis focussing on the identification of physical environmental parameters in the development of early cognitive competence is presented. Referring to cognitive competence as a collective term of cognitive behavior as considered by Piaget (1952) and Hunt (1965), a theoretical frame of reference based on Brunswik's (1955) unit and Wohlwill's (1973) conceptions of the environment as a source of stimulation versus the environment as a context for behavior, is discussed. It is further suggested that different variants of the optimal stimulation hypothesis, combined with a transactional model of development (Sameroff, 1975a), form a highly relevant psychological basis for the identification of physical environmental parameters. Some implications for coming research are suggested.     

叔本华充足理由律及其理论价值

叔本华认为主体具有感性、自我意识、知性和理性四种认识能力,其作用机制分别是充足理由律的存在理由律、动机理由律、生成理由律和认识理由律四种形态。叔本华的“充足理由律”理论首次阐明了人类知识必然性的具体图景,为人类经验和知识的确定性奠立了基础,具有重要的认识论意义。     

The Impossibility of a Core Curriculum: a Reply to Alan Harris

Two main reasons are given for the continuing educational deployment of Piaget's psychological theory. The first reason is that his theory survives psychological scrutiny. In support, it is argued that none of five criticisms directed by Peter Bryant (Oxford Review of Education, 10/3 1984) requires the rejection of Piaget's theory. It is, in particular, contended that the development of cognitive ability is accorded a relative, rather than absolute, construal; that both principles of matching and of mismatching are compatible with Piaget's theory; and that decisions about the validity of Piaget's recent equilibratory model should not be taken prematurely. The second reason is that Piaget's constructivist theory has undergone recent revision and so is of interest to those with psychological or educational commitments to constructivism.     

The Comprehensive Assessment of Rational Thinking

The Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded in 2002 for work on judgment and decision-making tasks that are the operational measures of rational thought in cognitive science. Because assessments of intelligence (and similar tests of cognitive ability) are taken to be the quintessence of good thinking, it might be thought that such measures would serve as proxies for the assessment of rational thought. It is important to understand why such an assumption would be misplaced. It is often not recognized that rationality and intelligence (as traditionally defined) are two different things conceptually and empirically. Distinguishing between rationality and intelligence helps explain how people can be, at the same time, intelligent and irrational. Thus, individual differences in the cognitive skills that underlie rational thinking must be studied in their own right because intelligence tests do not explicitly assess rational thinking. In this article, I describe how my research group has worked to develop the first prototype of a comprehensive test of rational thought (the Comprehensive Assessment of Rational Thinking).     

Toward a Synthesis of Cognitive Load Theory, Four-Component Instructional Design, and Self-Directed Learning

This article explores the opportunities to apply cognitive load theory and four-component instructional design to self-directed learning. Learning tasks are defined as containing three elements: learners must (a) perform the tasks, (b) assess their task performance, and (c) select future tasks for improving their performance. Principles to manage intrinsic and extraneous load for performing learning tasks, such as simple-to-complex ordering and fading-guidance strategies, are also applicable to assessing performance and selecting tasks. Moreover, principles to increase germane load, such as high variability and self-explanation prompts, are also applicable to assessment and selection. It is concluded that cognitive load theory and four-component instructional design provide a solid basis for a research program on self-directed learning.