Should teachers be taught to be rational?1

Programs of teacher education have tried often to make teachers follow a priori models of the rationality. These models fit poorly with the way teachers actually think. Rather than concluding that even more teacher training is required, recent research on teacher thinking has tried to uncover the rationality underlying teachers’ practice. The temptation to demand conformity with the new models of rationality uncovered should be resisted. Instead, research on teacher thinking should be used to make teachers aware of possible modes of thought, to give teacher educators a sense of how their students may change, and to give in‐service educators an idea of how their students may view instruction.

     

Can giftedness be taught?

This study investigates the relationship between giftedness and strategic flexibility using cognitive training methodology. The two experiments showed that the metacognitive training influenced strategic flexibility and metacognition of students. The results further showed that it is much easier to enhance performance on closed problems than with open problems which call for creativity.     

Should History be Forgotten?

History is a recurring motif contained in various literary works.Actually,it has found omnipresent expression in our daily life.Yesterday is history and even the very past one minute can be reckoned to be history.However,whether history should be erased from our life has never failed to arouse a widespread bitter controversy.     

Do students need to be taught how to reason?

In this theoretical essay, the author addresses the existence of divergent evidence, portraying both competence and lack of competence in a fundamental realm of higher order thinking - causal and scientific reasoning - and explores the educational implications. Evidence indicates that these higher order reasoning skills are not ones that can be counted on to develop naturally among students exposed to a traditional curriculum. Instead, it is argued, such skills warrant attention in their own right as legitimate and significant educational objectives.     

The mythical ‘boy crisis’?

The popular press has put forth the idea that the US educational system is experiencing a “boy crisis,” where boys are losing ground to girls across multiple dimensions. Here, we analyze these claims in the context of math and reading achievement during early primary school. We reach two conclusions. First, white boys outperform white girls in math across virtually the entire distribution by the end of third grade; there is less evidence for other races. Second, boys lag behind girls in reading at the start of kindergarten and at the end of third grade across all races, but only the lowest-achieving boys lose ground over the first 4 years; boys gain ground between first and third grades.     

Should Science be Taught in Early Childhood?

This essay considers the question of why we should teach science to K-2. After initial consideration of two traditional reasons for studying science, six assertions supporting the idea that even small children should be exposed to science are given. These are, in order: (1) Children naturally enjoy observing and thinking about nature. (2) Exposing students to science develops positive attitudes towards science. (3) Early exposure to scientific phenomena leads to better understanding of the scientific concepts studied later in a formal way. (4) The use of scientifically informed language at an early age influences the eventual development of scientific concepts. (5) Children can understand scientific concepts and reason scientifically. (6) Science is an efficient means for developing scientific thinking. Concrete illustrations of some of the ideas discussed in this essay, particularly, how language and prior knowledge may influence the development of scientific concepts, are then provided. The essay concludes by emphasizing that there is a window of opportunity that educators should exploit by presenting science as part of the curriculum in both kindergarten and the first years of primary school.     

Should Creationism be Taught in the Public Schools?

This article discusses philosophicalarguments relevant to the question of teachingcreationism, especially with regard to developments inthe debate since the early 1990s.Section 1 reviews the newfactions within the creationist movement, and theoverlapping views from young earth to intelligentdesign creationism, as well as non-Christianvarieties. It also considers what are the relevantdifferences for the policy question for private,public schools, and for home schoolers, as well aspossible differences in what it means to teachcreationism. Sections 2 & 3 discuss the main legal argumentsthat have ruled in the public school case, as well asarguments from academic freedom, fairness, censorship,parental rights and majority rule. Section 4 evaluates theepistemological issues regarding competing claims oftruth, and the contention that excluding whatChristians know (Alvin Plantinga) amounts toviewpoint discrimination (Phillip Johnson). Section 5argues that religious protection arguments actuallyfavor excluding creationism more than including it. Section 6 considers the goals of education, especiallyDewey's views on science education, and what theseimply regarding the teaching of a theistic science. In Section 7, I review a new argument of Alvin Plantingabased upon a purported Rawlsian basic right of aparent not to have her children taught anything thatviolates her comprehensive beliefs, and show whyRawlsian agents would reject it.     

Should Farmers' Locus of Control be used in Extension?

Abstract

To explore whether Farmers' Locus of Control (LOC) could be useful in agricultural extension programmes to improve managerial ability. This test records a farmer's belief in her/his control over production outcomes. A mail survey of 2300 New Zealand farmers was used to obtain a range of variables, and to measure their LOC using a question set created from farming situations and terminology. Using regression analysis the farmer LOCs were related to many variables including the Farmers' self assessment of his/her managerial ability as well as their true ability. The LOC had adequate reliability and consistency. The analysis indicated LOC measures some independent characteristics of farmers as its prediction from other variables is by no means perfect. Furthermore, LOC proved to be partially related to a range of output variables. This indicates a farmer's LOC originates in part from fundamental personality traits which in turn relate to managerial ability. When the fundamental variables are available they can be used to help explain, and improve, managerial ability. However, extension programme efforts to change a farmer's view of his control (LOC) will have benefits as, when considered on its own, a farmer's LOC is still related to successful outcomes. Furthermore, LOC may be related to other aspects of farming such as the general satisfaction obtained. The LOC test provides benchmarks to assess Farmers' control belief, and improvements from training.     

Should contentment be a key aim in higher education?

Higher education institutions are major concentrations of political, social, economic, intellectual and communicative resources. They reach freely across populations and cultures and connect to government, professions, industry and the arts. The neoliberal logic of markets has entered the realm of (higher) education. This leads to discourse on the benefits of education being positioned almost exclusively in terms of their effect on income. The perspective taken in the paper is the development of a happiness motive that asks education to challenge what it is to be a member of society: What moral and ontological stance one will seek to take in developing one’s future? The satisfied student perpetuates the current lifeworld in which they find themselves, seeking to improve the quality of the services provided. It is proposed that an overly emphasised desire satisfaction culture inhibits the edifying mission of universities. This is not to argue against high-quality service provision but to differentiate it from the edifying role of personal challenge, determination and social responsibility, conceptualised here as profound happiness or contentment, and the university’s role in its development. It calls for a different and more refreshing approach to higher education.     

Should the Cambridge primary review be wedded to Vygotsky?

The Cambridge Primary Review's (CPR) preference for a Vygotskian model of schools learners and learning rather than a Piagetian is queried. There are weaknesses and uncertainties with major Vygotskian ideas such as the ‘zone of proximal development’, ‘internalisation’, ‘joint construction’, ‘language mediation’ and educational acculturation, relative to the Piagetian, while human scientific research with babies suggesting inherited capability thrust humans forearmed into physical and social worlds gives some succour to Piaget's cause. The Vygotskian and CPR premise that teachers can push learners beyond developmentally set limits is not unadulterated good news, depending on how we judge education's acculturation purposes and depending on the kind of learners we want within our educational system.     

Should we be encouraging pupils to ask more questions?

This article investigates the issue of secondary school pupils asking questions. This is an important topic on which very little has been published to date. The article reviews the current literature, which almost exclusively reports the lack of student initiated, content related questioning in classrooms. A small study is described that challenges this view, finding a significantly greater level of student participation, a high percentage of inquiry driven questions and little reluctance on the part of pupils to participate actively in lessons. However, when these questioning patterns, which appear to indicate exemplary lessons on paper, are examined in terms of pupil learning, it is found that large numbers of student questions can lead to severe disruption unless adequately controlled. For effective learning to take place, it is a vital that the learner has the opportunity to ask questions of the teacher. The vast bulk of the literature explores this topic through quantitative analysis of questioning patterns and suggested strategies for increasing the quality and frequency of pupil’s questions. This article reviews this research and explores the issue further through classroom observations, pupil questionnaires and interviews with teachers. The findings are compared with the current paradigm and the issue is discussed in terms of impact on pupil learning.     

When Should Zero be Included on a Scale Showing Magnitude?

This article addresses an important problem of graphing quantitative data: should one include zero on the scale showing magnitude? Based on a real time series example, the problem is discussed and some recommendations are proposed.     

Should Intelligent Design be Taught in Public School Science Classrooms?

A variety of different arguments have been offered for teaching “both sides” of the evolution/ID debate in public schools. This article reviews five of the most common types of arguments advanced by proponents of Intelligent Design and demonstrates how and why they are founded on confusion and misunderstanding. It argues on behalf of teaching evolution, and relegating discussion of ID to philosophy or history courses.     

What ‘ideas-about-science’ should be taught in school science? A chemistry teachers’ perspective

The objective of this study is to facilitate in-service chemistry teachers’ understanding of nature of science and what ‘ideas-about-science’ can be included in the classroom. The study is based on 17 in-service teachers who had registered for a 11-week course on ‘Epistemology of Science Teaching’ as part of their Master’s degree program. The course is based on 17 readings drawing on nature of science and its critical evaluation. Course activities included written reports, classroom discussions based on participants’ presentations and written exams. Based on the results obtained this study has the following educational implications: (a) Experimental data need to be interpreted carefully due to underdetermination of theories by data; (b) Kuhn’s normal science manifests itself in the science curriculum through the scientific method and wields considerable influence; (c) Trilemma posed by Collins (Stud Sci Educ 35:169–173, 2000), viz., creation of new knowledge ⇔ Kuhn’s normal science ⇔ teaching nature of science, provided a big challenge and was thought provoking; (d) Of the different aspects of nature of science suggested by experts, these teachers endorsed the following as most important: Creativity, Historical development of scientific knowledge, Diversity of scientific thinking and Scientific method and critical testing; (e) With respect to the contradiction between the positions of Lederman et al. (J Res Sci Teach 39:497–521, 2002) and Osborne et al. (J Res Sci Teach 40:692–720, 2003), few supported the position of latter, viz., inclusion of scientific method in the classroom and a majority supported the former, viz., scientific method as a myth; and (f) Participants were critical of the present stage of research with respect to the scientific method and suggested the introduction of history, philosophy and epistemology of science to counteract its influence.