ANALYSIS OF THE LEARNING EXPECTATIONS RELATED TO GRADE 1–8 MEASUREMENT IN SOME COUNTRIES

This study analyzes measurement learning expectations involving area and volume in grades 1–8 across several U.S. states and high-performing TIMSS Asian countries, including Singapore, Taiwan, and Japan. Based on a review of official curriculum documents, results of this study indicate that the mathematics content, grade placement, and cognitive level of learning expectations related to selected measurement topics vary markedly across states and countries. This variability in learning expectations results in striking differences in students’ opportunity to learn.     

THE LEVELS OF DECISION MAKING IN MULTI‐UNIT COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEMS

This study advances a foundation for future exploration of applied understandings of factors that influence decision levels in multi‐unit community college systems. The purposes of the study were to examine the levels at which decisions were made in nine selected decision areas, and to determine the relationship between (a) the levels at which decisions were made in systems, (b) the factors of institutional size and history, and (c) the number of system‐level personnel. The data for analysis were collected from 26 community college systems that were responsible for only a portion of higher education in the state, had a system‐level president or chancellor as the chief executive officer, and had a central office separate from the campuses in the system. The Aston method of collecting data from formal organizations was utilized to identify the formal structure and context of the systems. The major findings are that faculty‐ and student‐related matters are generally decided at the campus level and that major managerial matters are generally decided at the central‐office level.     

SEXUAL KNOWLEDGE AS THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN YOUTH AND ADULTHOOD AND THE IDEAL OF INNOCENCE IN THE DUTCH DEBATE ON SEXUAL INSTRUCTION 1890‐1960

In this article the changing role of sexuality in the definition of the boundary between youth and adulthood is discussed. Sexual activities as well as knowledge of it used to be strictly reserved to adults after marriage, but this deep artificial segregation could not be upheld in the modernization process. Examples from the debate on sexual education in the Netherlands in the last two centuries are given to illustrate the deep ambivalence educationalists felt in the removal of this distinction between young and old by the gradual spreading of sexual instruction and by lowering the age at which younsters become sexually active.     

CATHOLICS IN THE REA, 1903–1953

This article describes the involvement of Roman Catholics in the Religious Education Association during the first 50 years of its existence. It examines attitudes of Protestants toward Catholics expressed in journal articles, convention speeches, and archival material. It presents the contributions of Roman Catholics at conventions and in journal articles during this period. The article contends that Roman Catholics deepened involvement in the REA went a long way to making the association a multifaith organization. The history also documents changes in Roman Catholic viewpoints and emphases over the period of these 50 years from an exclusive concern with schooling to a broader view of the educational mission of the church and from education in an authoritarian and dogmatic spirit to one slightly more open to outside influences and cautiously willing to cooperate with other religious groups.     

FROM A MARGINAL INSTITUTION TO INSTITUTIONAL MARGINALIZATION. DEVELOPMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF ‘CRIMINAL’ CHILDREN IN THE DUTCH PRISON SYSTEM. 1833‐1884

In half a century's time, between 1830 and 1880, the common treatment of criminal children in the Netherlands was totally overhauled. After discovering that the criminal child needed a different treatment than its adult companion, it was swiftly concluded that confinement in special prisons on its own wasn't a sufficient guarantee for better results. Next attention was shifted toward those children in the general group of criminal children, who hadn't been convicted by the judge and had been expressly sent in to receive reeducation. In the end, by an interplay of demand and supply, the majority of criminal children was not convicted but sent in to be re‐educated in newly founded reformatories.

This development wasn't initiated by the government but fostered by private enterprise, embodied in the Dutch Prison Society (the ‘Nederlandsch Genootschap tot Zedelijke Verbetering der Gevangenen’).

Although the reported results of the new institutions were positive, their animators lost interest and left for the neighbouring working area of residential care for children in danger who hadn't been tried in court.     

THE LYCEUM MOVEMENT IN AMERICAN EDUCATION, 1826–1845

One of the earliest American reeducation programs designed for the transformation of political attitudes and the inculcation of American democratic ideals among Germans came into being shortly before the end of the Second World War. Initiated by the Special Projects Division of the War Department in 1944, this top secret experiment in reeducation brought together a group of university professors, including philosopher Thomas Vernon Smith from the University of Chicago, at selected prisoner‐of‐war camps in Rhode Island and Virginia. Consistent with his faculty colleagues. Smith drew heavily from the liberal arts tradition and classical humanism to teach his German charges about the plausibility of the “democratic way of life. “ The relatively brief initial foray by Smith into the reeducation of Germans under captivity revealed American aspirations and democratic ideals for the new German citizen of the post war era, elements of which subsequently reappeared in the activities of American Military Government on German soil. Not the least significant in this endeavor was the formation of a German citizenry supportive of American interests, a foundational goal of the Special Projects combining reform idealism with “Realpolitik”.     

THE RATIONALE FOR JEWISH EDUCATION AS EXPRESSED IN THE JEWISH EDUCATION MAGAZINE — 1929–1955

Questioning-asking has not only long been seen as a central component of Jewish educational practice but has also been thought to be part of a broader culture of Judaism. In this article, we apply cognitive-developmental theories to advance the discussion of the use of questioning in Jewish education. Such theories allow Jewish educators to more fully understand the function of questioning and to appreciate affective elements involved in the context of question-asking. Further, these theories connect question-asking with issues of identity development. Recommendations are made for Jewish educational practice, including an example of a cognitive-developmentally based questioning strategy applied to a biblical text.     

SCIENTISTS’ PARTICIPATION IN TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: THE IMPACT ON FOURTH TO EIGHTH GRADE TEACHERS’ UNDERSTANDING AND IMPLEMENTATION OF INQUIRY SCIENCE

The impact of a professional development experience involving scientists and fourth to eighth grade teachers of science was explored. Teachers attended a summer program at a research facility where they had various experiences such as job shadowing and interviewing scientists. They also participated in authentic inquiry investigations and planned inquiry units for their classrooms. Data on teachers’ understanding and implementation of inquiry were collected through surveys, questionnaires, and classroom observations. Findings show that the teachers’ understanding of inquiry improved and most participants were able to successfully implement inquiry science in their classrooms. Barriers to the implementation of inquiry practices and the impact of specific experiences with the scientists were explored.     

THE SURVIVORS,THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW COMMUNITY AND A SYSTEM OF ZIONIST EDUCATION IN GERMANY 1945–1950

I — Reminiscences Deuteronomy 32:7

Back in 1925, upon graduation from the Teachers Institute of Yeshiva University, I started my career as teacher in the first and oldest Talmud Torah in the United States, the Machzikey TT on East Broadway in Manhattan. I recall with pleasure how boys and girls spent ten hours a week in Jewish studies: giving the 12-13 year olds intensive instruction in Torah, Neviim, Mishnah, Hebrew Grammar, Hebrew Literature and Yiddish. For many years the Machzikey TT had a school enrollment of one thousand students and more. When the '30s came and the enrollment fell considerably, it became necessary to consolidate the school with the National Hebrew School, especially when the Downtown TT closed it doors.     

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PREDICT–OBSERVE–EXPLAIN TECHNIQUE IN PROBING STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING ABOUT ACID–BASE CHEMISTRY: A CASE FOR THE CONCEPTS OF pH, pOH, AND STRENGTH

The present study describes high school students’ conceptions about acids and bases in terms of pH, pOH, microscopic level, strength, and concentration. A total of 27 high school students participated in the study. The data was collected using 3 POE tasks and a semi-structured interview. The data analysis demonstrated that most of the students had poor understanding related to a drawing of weak and strong acids. In addition, the findings revealed that the POE’s were effective in terms of gathering students’ predictions and reasons for the prediction of outcomes in an open-ended format. The POE tasks also revealed that some of the students had misconceptions regarding pH and pOH. The students believed that pH was a measurement of the acidity, while pOH was a measurement of the basicity. The findings obtained have certain implications for the secondary chemistry program.