Whitehead and a new look at teaching elementary science

If Whitehead is right, science teachers who try to increase student interest by making the science they teach more pure and by covering more material are going about their work in just the wrong way. Science, for purposes of precision in measurement, translates the dynamic world of feeling and force, of causal efficacy (for example, the San Francisco earthquake), into a static representation spatialized and given presentational immediacy (for example, the Richter scale). But notice that the Richter scale isn't very interesting (even as abstract art) apart from its connection, via symbolic reference, to the earthquake. Such reference is essential to give both a sense of reality and a feeling of interes to the subject, but it makes the science less pure, and it takes more time to cover the material. An example of teaching pure and impure formal logic is given as a case study.     

Exploring the Concept of ‘Habitus’ with Preservice Teachers Through the Use of Popular School Films

The thesis of this paper is that it is a productive venture to introduce preservice students to social theories that are typically not a part of teacher preparation programs. Examples of these theories are those associated with terms such as habitus, the carnivalesque, power / knowledge, seduction, detournement, the spectacle,la perruque, (the wig), and the art of making do,as well as others. In this paper, I describe a project that involved exploring the theory of habitus to problematize the tendency of preservice students to not think in terms of relations between what goes on in the classroom and what goes on in society. I introduced habitus by having preservice students read selected print materials and by having them view, analyze, and respond in writing to popular school films. Students also analyzed their experiences in classrooms in terms of habitus, making a connection between theory and practice.     

Much ado about nothing: Science and hermeneutics

Insofar as the basic concepts (in particular, meaning, interpretation, text) and theses of Martin Eger's hermeneutics of the sciences are intelligible they are not distinctive, and insofar as they are distinctive they are unintelligible and/or lack backup arguments. Ambiguity characterises much of the argument. James Cushing's elaboration of hermeneutics, using the history of quantum mechanics as an illustration of its supposed strengths, does nothing to rescue the position against the criticisms here levelled at Martin Eger's formulations of it.     

Critical thinking and the Spock Fallacy

Conventional instruction in critical thinking technique tends to conflate logical thinking with rational or good thinking. But in doing so, it ignores the creative and intuitive functions of rationality, thereby encouraging a mechanically rote approach to textual analysis, problem solving and problem construction. This overemphasis upon straightforwardly logical calculus of justification functions, and its concomitant deemphasis of intuitive pattern of discovery ones, constitute the Spock Fallacy. Its epistemological weakness and pedagogical hazards are explored.The author of two books and numerous articles, one of his specialties is philosophy of education and critical thinking.     

The Changing Debate on Internationalisation of Higher Education

Internationalisation, the growing border-crossing activities between national systems of higher education is losing ground to globalisation, increasing border-crossing activities of blurred national systems which is often employed to depict world-wide trends and growing global competition. This article addresses recent issues of knowledge transfer. It points out tensions between increasing diversity in higher education and efforts to facilitate recognition of prior studies on student mobility. It shows the diversity of steering and management policies with respect to internationalisation and globalisation. Finally, it asks whether globalisation of higher education has to be viewed as a manifestation of turbo-capitalism or could be viewed instead as a move towards global understanding.     

University and community: Evolving perceptions of the African university

For the past two decades universities in Africa have been engaged in a re-examination of their relationship with society. In the light of this, the popular characterization of the African university as reflecting colonial, international, stages of development, or levels of integration models, appears inadequate to describe the challenge involved in creating an African identity for the university. Similarly, conceptions of the university as an instrument for creating an educated, planned or changed society or to think of it in terms of preserving and reflecting the dominant features of society, seem inadequate to describe fully the demands of contemporary and future society upon the university. A new framework of thought is urgently required; such a framework would encompass the desired aims of both the university and society and the relationships - dynamic and organic - between them. This article attempts to formulate such a framework and indicates its implications for the structure, content and operation of the university in Africa.     

Consciously Thinking About Consciousness

Merker hypothesized that because mobile creatures move around and must constantly readjust their map of the world and because the demands are so great for continually processing information for a map of the world, evolution has created a space in the brain where such preprocessing has been eliminated. This space he calls consciousness with the preprocessing in the unconscious. Using Merker's view, this paper explores the process of changing paradigms, giving advice and the implications for learning.     

Print and reading: What do preschoolers know?

John Downing, an eminent reading researcher at Canada's University of Victoria, says that many children come to school in a state of cognitive confusion about the functions of reading and the terms we use when we start to teach them to read formally. Adults take for granted that young children know what they mean when they talk about a word, a letter, a sound, and other print-related terms. In his studies done in England and in Canada, Downing (1970; 1973–74) has found that many children, especially those who have not been read to regularly, simply don't understand the conventions of print and really don't understand what reading is all about.Joan T. Feeley is Professor of Reading and Language Arts at William Paterson College in Wayne, New Jersey.     

A multivariate approach to the assessment of quality

Most quality assessment studies utilize a univariate approach to the assessment of quality. While the univariate approach has some merit, this study presents an alternative—the multivariate approach. Factor analysis identified three clusters of variables potentially linked to quality. These clusters, labeled faculty research, input, and student, were later used as bases for measuring departmental excellence. Seven indicators based on these clusters were developed. The indicators that combined the first and second clusters and the indicators that combined all three clusters appeared to have produced the best estimates of departmental excellence.     

The Humanities in the Era of Cooperation: Beyond C. P. Snow's “Two Cultures”

During the forty years since C. P. Snow decried the existence of two cultures and castigated literary intellectuals for their lack of concern for humanity as a whole, an intellectual revolution in the humanities, driven in part by the intellectual obliteration of boundaries between disciplines and in part by globalization, has reoriented scholars toward engagement in the world and communication with scientists. A recognition that interdependence makes cooperation essential, whether among scholars or among nations, is bringing about an era of cooperation among disciplines and between academic and non-academic institutions.     

Language factor: Does it affect children's performance on word problems?

48 children from primary 4 in private and public schools (24 from each) were asked to solve 10 arithmetic word problems (involving more or less as the cue word) presented in English and in their native language. Retrospective clinical interviews were also conducted to find out how each child analyzed the meaning of each problem, before deciding which operation to use to solve it. The results revealed that both public and private school children performed better both in skills and in strategies when problems were presented in their native language than when presented in English, but only public school had the result to be significant (P<.025). Also data obtained from the interviews are in accord with psycholinguistic theories concerning the polarized comparative pair of less and more.     

The role of professionalization in a collective bargaining election

This study examined a university's faculty voting in a collective bargaining election. Not only were the votes for and against bargaining collected, but also relevant demographic data were includedon each ballot. These data permit analysis of which specific faculty members at a comprehensive university tend to favor or oppose faculty bargaining. The variable of professionalization is identified as being important to the faculty members' decision. The findings have ramifications for faculties, governing boards, and governmental labor-relations agencies in considering how bargaining units should be composed and imposed.     

Math activities for young children

Children use mathematical terminology throughout their daily play. While observing a group of children during play, one is likely to hear comments such as: He has more, These are my numbers, Jane has the biggest half, I'm bigger than you 'cause I'm five years old, Give me the round one, I gave each child one cupcake, and so on.Diane M. Kohl is Assistant Professor of Child and Family Development, The University of Georgia.     

A Textbook Case of the Nature of Science: Laws and Theories in the Science of Biology

The two concepts law and theory are among the most important elements of the nature of science. They represent both the tools and products of science itself. Unfortunately, the variable meanings and use of these terms in general discourse and in other school disciplines results in much confusion with respect to their proper application in a science context. The project included the design of a six-part model definition for law and theory based on a review of the literature of the philosophy of science with special reference to biology. These model definitions were then compared with those provided in a range of U.S. secondary school biology textbooks. The majority of all current major U.S. secondary school biology texts were reviewed and analyzed with respect to how the concepts of law and theory were defined and applied, in an attempt to determine whether students and teachers using such texts would gain an accurate impression of these terms and the distinction between them. This study focuses on biology instruction since a life science course is completed as a graduation requirement by virtually all U.S. high school students and as such serves as a widely shared educational experience across the nation. The term law is rarely defined in any text but various laws such as those found in genetics are frequently included as examples. The term theory is frequently defined but with a wide range of completeness of the definitions. Only rarely are theories in biology included as examples.     

Working Towards Building Cultures of Peace: A Primer for Students and New Professionals

As the counseling profession moves into the 21st century, counselors and psychologists are increasingly expanding their roles in the reduction of violence across settings. For students and new professionals, this new horizon of needs and opportunities can create some role confusion as traditional direct service functions of individual and group therapy are evolving into indirect services that focus on broader interventions to help create peace. This article seeks to contribute a foundational guide for readers interested in peace psychology. The article provides a brief overview of the peace psychology movement, current trends, and informational sources. It reflects on factors that influence the decision to get involved and provides possible ways to participate in social action, as well as citing a personal example of how one student got involved in building cultures of peace within an international setting.     

Science, Society, and Technology—Three Cultures and Multiple Visions

The article reviews the strikingly divergent viewpoints of intellectuals—scientists and non-scientists—about Science and Technology. It shows that while scientists implicitly accept the difference between Science and Technology, to non-scientists that difference is irrelevant. The most important differences between Science and Technology that lie in their relative scales, outputs and accuracy of predictions are highlighted. The complexity of and difficulty in trying to quantify the contribution of science and technology to economic growth are discussed. Views of science and technology that include their societal perceptions are recommended.     

Three-dimensional art and sculpture

I am making it BIG (Evan). A secret slide with gold in there (Sydni). Look even a little car could fit in it (Joshua). This is a circle! Round, a tiger jumps through this hoop (Emily). Excitement runs high when children experiment with three-dimensional art projects using paper, boxes and styrofoam.Liz Seelhoff Byrum teaches four- and five-year-olds at a private school in New York City.     

Using problem solving teaching styles to prepare candidates for the CXC basic proficiency examinations

Two Grade 10 classes in an urban Jamaican High School were taught over a period of one academic year in two problem solving styles: an Explicit Style derived from Charles, and an Implicit Style derived from Isaacs. At the end of the academic year there was no significant difference in their performance on a problem solving test, or on the Problem Solving Profile of the Caribbean Examinations Council's Basic Proficiency papers. The two classes performed much better than the population who sat the Basic papers on the tasks measuring Recall and Algorithmic Thinking but only moderately better than the population on tasks measuring Problem Solving.The teaching project described in this paper was supported in part by grants from the Research and Publications Fund Committee of the University of the West Indies (Mona), and the Wolmers Trust, Kingston. The author wishes to thank the Registrar and the Pro-Registrar of the Caribbean Examinations Council for permission to use the CXC papers and data in this study. A modified version of this paper was presented at the 63rd Annual Conference of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics held in San Antonio, Texas in 1985.     

Student-environment interaction in the development of physical symptoms

This study identifies personal characteristics which distinguish university students who conform to living group norms in complaints of physical symptoms from those who do not. Discriminant function analyses indicated significant differences between these two groups of students, and between males and females. For example, low-symptom females living in high-symptom living groups who did not themselves increase in symptoms (environmental resisters) were higher in dominance and religious concern and lower in social participation than those who increased in symptoms. For males, important discriminators between conformers and resisters were academic achievement and alcohol consumption. Further specification of psychological variables which relate to the degree of conformity or resistance to environmental influence is central to understanding the impact of educational settings such as student living groups and classrooms.     

Sociological theory and the analysis of strategies of educational redress

In this paper, three sociological models or theoretical templates for the analysis of social order are outlined: (a) the order-consensus model, (b) the conflict model and (c) interactionist models. The paper then discusses how each model can be applied to what is here called educational redress. Special reference is made to those redress strategies addressed to pre-school-age children-strategies customarily termed Compensatory Education Programmes. The paper goes on to show how proponents of each model would approach the analysis of such programmes, and how proponents of each model would criticize the other models' analyses. It is shown that the three sociological models are located in, and formalizations of, commonsense conceptions of social structure tacitly held by lay members of society, and that even professional educators typically do not make their model of society very explicit. Finally the paper upholds the belief that the above elements constitute what sociologists can add to the understanding of educational redress strategies.

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Zusammenfassung In diesem Artikel werden drei soziologische Modelle oder theoretische Schablonen für die Analyse der Sozialstruktur umrissen: (a) das Struktur-Konsens-Modell, (b) das Konfliktmodell und (c) das Wechselwirkungsmodell in seinen verschiedenen Varianten. Dann wird untersucht, wie jedes dieser Modelle auf den Bildungsausgleich angewandt werden kann, insbesondere auf die Ausgleichsstrategien für Kinder im Vorschulalter, die gewöhnlich mit Kompensierende Erziehungsprogramme bezeichnet werden. Anschliessend wird beschrieben, wie Protagonisten jedes dieser Modelle diese Programme analysieren und wie sie mit Hilfe der anderen Modelle vorgenommene Analysen kritisieren würden. Weiterhin wird ausgeführt, dass die drei Modelle Formalisierungen der unter Laiengruppen verbreiteten Vorstellungen von der Gesellschaftsordnung darstellen, und dass selbst Pädagogen ihr Gesellschaftsmodell gewöhnlich nicht klar definieren. Zum Schluss spricht der Verfasser seine Ansicht aus, dass die Soziologie durch die obigen Elemente zum Verständnis der Bildungsausgleich-Strategien beitragen kann.

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Résumé Dans ce rapport sont décrits trois modèles sociologiques ou échantillons theoriques pour l'analyse de l'ordre social: (a) le modèle ordre-consensus, (b) le modèle conflit et (c) les modèles interactionnistes. Le rapport examine ensuite comment pouvoir appliquer chaque modèle à ce qu'on appelle ici redressement éducatif. Sont mentionnés particulièrement les stratégies de redressement que l'on adresse aux stratégies pour enfants d'âge préscolaire, appelées habituellement Programmes d'éducation compensatoire. Le rapport montre ensuite comment les défenseurs de chaque modèle aborderaient l'analyse de ces programmes, et comment ils critiqueraient les analyses des autres modèles. On montre que les trois modèles sociologiques sont situés dans — et sont en fait des formalisations — des conceptions courantes de structure sociale qu'ont tacitement les membres laïques de la société, et que même les éducateurs professionnels ne rendent typiquement pas leur modèle de la société très explicite. Enfin, l'auteur est convaincu que les éléments susmentionnés constituent ce que les sociologues peuvent ajouter à la compréhension des stratégies de redressement éducatif.