For Example? A Philosophical Case Study of Some Problems When Abstract Educational Theory Ignores Concrete Practice

In Philosophy of Education we frequently argue for or against different educational theories. Yet, as I illustrate in this analysis of two articles, in order to maintain the abstract theoretical distinctions, we are liable to ignore the concrete details of practice, caricature the theories we reject and make false distinctions. The two articles that I analyse, one from Golding and one from Boghossian, grapple with the pedagogical theories of transmission teaching, constructivism, pragmatism and Socratic pedagogy, in the context of dialogical philosophy teaching. As a result of my analysis, I first present three examples where the authors have rejected abstract theories based on arguments that I show to be strawmen: These theories would not or could not be adopted in practice. Then, I present two examples where the authors attempt to make distinctions between educational theories which seem sound in the abstract, but which turn out to be false distinctions if we consider the details of concrete practice. My conclusion is that, in these two articles, abstract educational theory is prone to problems when it ignores concrete practice. Although I am presenting a case study, and do not argue that my conclusion is generalisable, I do suggest some reasons why this conclusion might apply more widely to Philosophy of Education. My recommendation is that we be more discerning in our treatment of educational theories and more mindful of the educational practices that they entail. We should acknowledge the practical similarities between different abstract theories rather than forcing caricatured distinctions.     

Troubling theory in case study research

The article begins by examining the variety of meanings that can be given to the word ‘theory’, the different attitudes that may be taken towards theories of these various types and some of the problems associated with them. The second half of the article focuses on one of these types, explanatory theory, and the question of what is required if case study research is to be effective in producing sound theories of this sort. A range of important distinctions is outlined and questions are raised about the possibility of, and need for, such theories.     

A Theory of Imperfection

In most counseling classes, entering students are very eager to learn techniques and theories of counseling. It is as if the students believe that these techniques will then enable them to be good counselors. If students were to succeed at their initial intention—the mastery of counseling theory and technique—all they would have are tools to distance them from their clients. In essence, the students would have the tools to work on clients and not with them. This article comments on the paradoxical nature of the teaching of counseling theory. The article demonstrates that what is correct are people and not the image people have of themselves. What is correct are the counselor's feelings between his or her clients and him or her. All counselors need do is pay attention to the correctness of their own responses to each client. They can only take a client as far along the road as they have traveled. All counselors really need to know is themselves. At this point their imperfections may be viewed as perfect and they need not depend on theories of counseling.     

On the unrepresentability of affect in Lyotard’s work: Towards pedagogies of ineffability

Abstract

This article explores how Jean François Lyotard reflects on affect as unrepresentable in relation to contemporary affect theory and specifically post-Deleuzian perspectives and non-representational theories suggesting that we need to invent new theoretical ways of addressing our more-than-textual, multisensual worlds. The essay leans on this conversation to make a political and pedagogical intervention into the terrain of addressing affect in the classroom. It is discussed how Lyotard adds his own contribution to the work of other affect theorists, who are not saying that if we find the right vehicle—literature, art, etc.—we can translate or represent affect, but rather that pedagogy is itself always already an affective event that exceeds representation. Pedagogies of ineffability, as it argued, are those pedagogical practices that do not fall pray into the rhetorics of standardization and homogenization in the name of ‘emotional intelligence’ or ‘effectiveness’, but rather invent affective spaces of learning in which educators and students are opened precariously to the unknown.     

介词“in”容器隐喻的释义与翻译

文章在认知隐喻的理论框架下,基于中国文化和英美文化的差异,讨论了介词 in 容器隐喻的释义和翻译。研究发现：in 的基本空间义和“在……里面”并不完全对等;in 由空间域向其他域的映射用法,汉语里有的有,有的没有;in 由空间域向其他域的映射用法分为直接映射和间接隐射;汉语完全将“in”对应地译为“在……里面”的情况较少,绝大部分情况都译成其他表述形式。     

Pictures and adult learning

Instructional pictures may be classified on the basis of how they convey meaning including classification as representational, analogical, or arbitrary (Gropper, 1963; Knowlton, 1966). Some previous reviews of picture effects have dealt with only the first category of pictures-that is, pictures that are isomorphic with the objects or concepts that they represent (Alesandrini, 1982; Levin and Lesgold, 1978). Other reviews have also considered arbitrary or non-representational pictures such as flowcharts and graphs (Levie and Lentz, 1982; Macdonald-Ross, 1977a). This article discusses research on all three types of pictures and considers how each type may play a crucial, yet different, role in the learning process. The focus is on picture effects in adult meaningful learning such as concept learning, learning from prose materials, and learning from expository text.     

Cognitive versus stimulus-response theories of learning

In his 1948 address to the Division of Theoretical-Experimental Psychology of the American Psychological Association, Kenneth W. Spence discussed six distinctions between cognitive and stimulus-response (S-R) theories of learning. In this article, I first review these six distinctions and then focus on two of them in the context of my own research. This research concerns the specification of stimulus-stimulus associations in associative learning and the characterization of the neural systems underlying those associations. In the course of describing Spence's views and my research, I hope to communicate some of the richness of Spence's S-R psychology and its currency within modern scientific analyses of behavior.     

Westward bound? Dutch education and cultural transfer in the mid-twentieth century

This article discusses the transition from philosophy to psychology as the main source of inspiration for education during the mid-twentieth century in the Netherlands, situated between Germany in the east and the English-speaking world in the west. Claims have been made that educational theory in the Netherlands was dominated by German philosophy before 1945 and subsequently turned westward for inspiration. The transnational transfer of ideas and concepts to the Netherlands is studied using textbooks on childhood and education for teachers-to-be, published between 1925 and 1970, as sources. Did the Dutch indeed turn from the east to the west for inspiration, and if so when and along the lines of which theories? This article shows that the authors of the textbooks did not simply copy theories from abroad, but gave them a reading of their own and selected what they liked. A shift from the east to the west as a source of inspiration did not occur before the 1970s. Developmentalism, personalism, phenomenology, characterology and individual psychology were all imported from German-speaking countries. It is true that some of these theories were brought to the west as their founders fled Nazism, but that does not undo their continental European origins.     

Pedagogic identities for sale! Segregation and homogenization in Swedish upper secondary school

The aim of this article is to illustrate how Swedish schools construct different pedagogic identities in the way they marketize themselves. We examine through a Bernsteinian lens how upper secondary schools promote themselves; what identities are being called for by the schools and how these identities are expressed. Moreover, the article intends to study how these identities are reflected in studied school actors and how they can be understood in relation to the labour market. We have analysed texts from various kinds of marketing materials, including websites and prospectuses of the schools. The empirical data also include interviews with various school actors. In addition, we attended and recorded observations at open houses and school fairs. Our findings indicate a strong differentiated market-oriented education system, mediated not only through distinctions in courses and programmes, but also through schools creating highly specific niches and targeting specific students as valuable commodities.     

How Mathematicians Obtain Conviction: Implications for Mathematics Instruction and Research on Epistemic Cognition

The received view of mathematical practice is that mathematicians gain certainty in mathematical assertions by deductive evidence rather than empirical or authoritarian evidence. This assumption has influenced mathematics instruction where students are expected to justify assertions with deductive arguments rather than by checking the assertion with specific examples or appealing to authorities. In this article, we argue that the received view about mathematical practice is too simplistic; some mathematicians sometimes gain high levels of conviction with empirical or authoritarian evidence and sometimes do not gain full conviction from the proofs that they read. We discuss what implications this might have, both for mathematics instruction and theories of epistemic cognition.     

Conceptualizing sound as a form of incarnate mathematical consciousness

Much of the evidence provided in support of the argument that mathematical knowing is embodied/enacted is based on the analysis of gestures and bodily configurations, and, to a lesser extent, on certain vocal features (e.g., prosody). However, there are dimensions involved in the emergence of mathematical knowing and the production of mathematical communication that have not yet been investigated. The purpose of this article is to theorize one of these dimensions, which we call incarnate sonorous consciousness. Drawing on microanalyses of two exemplary episodes in which a group of third graders are sorting geometric solids, we show how sound has the potential to mark mathematical similarities and distinctions. These “audible” similarities and distinctions, which may be produced by incarnate dimensions such as beat gestures and prosody, allow children to objectify certain geometrical properties of the objects with which they transact. Moreover, the analysis shows that sonorous production is intertwined with other dimensions of students’ bodily activity. These findings are interpreted according to the “theory of mathematics in the flesh,” an alternative to current embodiment/enactivist theories in mathematics education.     

传统成本与战略成本研究对象的区别

本文先从介绍战略成本会计的研究对象与传统成本的研究对象入题,又在各自描述传统成本会计和战略成本会计的研究对象之后,详细比较了两者的区别,进行了范围、计量方法和侧重点的比较。     

十年来我国师生关系观述评

近十年来我国对师生关系的研究,观点多样,主要有:师生应是民主、平等、合作的关系,这是占主要地位的观点;教师主导下的民主、平等关系;教师是主导,学生是主体;师生之间不应是民主平等的关系;师生之间是平等而又不对等的关系;师生关系是主导与主动的关系等。这些观点从不同视角对师生关系进行了较为广泛的论述,超越了师生主客体的二元对立范畴,顺应了时代潮流,体现了以人为本的思想。但有生搬硬套西方哲学理论的趋向,对中国传统师生关系思想重视不够,一些观点有片面性,在研究的深度和广度上也还有待加强。我们应坚持以学生为本,充分发挥教师的主导作用,建立民主平等的和谐师生关系。     

The Comparative Study between Metonymy and Metaphor within Cognitive Linguistics

Both metonymy and metaphor are very important in our cognitive activities, but there are some distinctions and common grounds between them. This paper mainly deals with in what way they distinct in some aspects, while how they are related to each other in other aspects.     

An Examination of Descriptive and Injunctive Norm Influence on Intention to Get Drunk

The influential impact of norms on problematic drinking is widely documented; however, the relevant theories purporting these effects point to multiple and varied normative components. A better understanding of the conceptual distinctions and the differential role they play can have practical implications for college prevention efforts. The purpose of the current study was to test the role of campus drinking norms, as posited by Social Norms theory (SNT) in predicting intentions to get drunk using a Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) framework. Results found that SNT components did not significantly add to the prediction of intent beyond that of attitudes, subjective norms, and past behavior. Implications for prevention campaigns are discussed.     

Parallel professionalism in an era of standardisation

Today’s American educational context is characterised by increasing standardisation coupled with heightened accountability. While some view standardisation as a lever for equity, many view it as problematic for the work of teachers. Efforts to improve student achievement by focusing on the activities of teachers have resulted in an over-riding sense that teachers have lost control over their work and that teachers’ professional identities are being worn away by the changes asked of them. Research has demonstrated the ways in which understandings of teachers’ professionalism have changed over time. Here, I argue that not only have views of professionalism changed over time, but that different teachers or here different groups of teachers, experience and understand professionalism differently. In this article, I first look at teachers’ professionalism across two decades using data from a large national database and then focus on how different generations of teachers experience professionalism in a context of standardisation in multiple ways based on qualitative interviews. The findings show that unlike veteran teachers from the Boomer generation (born 1943–1960) who started their careers as idealists but have become increasingly bitter about changes being asked of them, many Generation X (born 1961–1981) teachers are able to accommodate the changes asked of them in a more neutral fashion. While these teachers do not particularly like all aspects of standardisation, they feel that it is just part of the work they do, not who they are. This flexibility is not a function of diminished professionalism but rather a generational difference, as teachers from Generation X tend to be more flexible, less rule-bound than those from the Boomer generation whose mission is who they are. The data presented demonstrate the need to understand professionalism in a new light. Some teachers feel more control in this era of standardisation, and some feel less. Rather than viewing professionalism as a singular phenomenon that everyone experiences in the same way, it is increasingly important to view it as a complex phenomenon that can be experienced in unique ways at the same time by disparate groups of teachers. In this sense, professionalism can morph from more than ‘old’ or ‘new’ to complex, or what I term in this article parallel professionalism.     

Resubsumption: A Possible Mechanism for Conceptual Change and Belief Revision

Successful learning sometimes requires that the learner abandons or rejects one or more prior concepts, beliefs, or intuitive theories. Such nonmonotonic changes are widely believed to have a low probability of occurring spontaneously and to be difficult to promote with instruction. A theory of nonmonotonic cognitive change should explain both why such changes are difficult and why they are possible. The purpose of this article is to develop the idea that nonmonotonic change happens when the learner resubsumes a domain of experience under a conceptual system originally developed for some other domain. The resubsumption theory is built on three main cognitive processes: In the course of routine knowledge formation, people grow informal theories for different domains of experience in parallel, maintaining local but not global coherence. The trigger for conceptual change is bisociation, the realization that an informal theory developed to make sense of one domain also applies to some other domain, giving the learner two alternative ways of thinking about the latter. The conflict between the two alternative ways of thinking is settled through competitive evaluation of their cognitive utility. The pedagogical implications of the resubsumption theory differ from those of prior theories but are as yet untested.     

Carl Hempel's Philosophy of Science: How to Avoid Epistemic Discontinuity and Pedagogical Pitfalls

Mathematical theories are essential for explanations in physics, chemistry andengineering. These theories often incorporate functions that are defined by theirrelation to other variables in the theory but not with reference to experimentalobservations. The wave function in quantum mechanics is perhaps one of thebest known example of such function, even though classical theories also providemany examples of such functions. These functions, which seem to hang in thin airdisconnected to experimental data, offer a daunting challenge to the instructor. Inthis article we consider the epistemic status of such functions and a method ofintroducing them to the students, a method that does not distort the original theory.We build our model for explanation on Hempel's analysis of relation between theoryand experiment and refine it further to show their roles in concept formation.     

The Significance of the Learning Society for Women and Men with Learning Difficulties

This article draws on work undertaken as part of the Economic and Social Research Council's Learning Society Programme. The project from which data are drawn, entitled 'The Meaning of the Learning Society for Adults with Learning Difficulties', focused on lifelong learning opportunities available to people with learning difficulties and experiences of these services. The article begins by examining theories of late modernity, their use by feminist and disability studies theorists and their relationship to ideas of a learning society. Subsequently, using case study material, it is argued that the identities of people with learning difficulties are not chosen freely from a range of options but are socially ascribed. The status of learning difficulties is used as a dominant category to justify deprivation of basic political and economic rights. In addition, the lives of people with learning difficulties are structured by gender and class, and these intersect with the category of learning difficulties. For both women and men, the advantages of middle-class social and economic capital are overridden by the negative category of learning difficulties. In relation to gender, men with learning difficulties are more likely to receive post-school training, but in inappropriate areas of the labour market. Their domestic needs are also likely to be attended to by others, but in the absence of employment, they find themselves without any valued social role. Women with learning difficulties are also likely to be excluded from the labour market, but are more likely to be involved in reciprocal, albeit limited, social relationships. It is concluded that postmodernist theories are inadequate to describe the structuring of the lives of people with learning difficulties.     

Theoretical and Experiential Knowledge in Teacher Education

The author analyses the relationship between theory and practice in teacher education by means of a grid, constructed from two traditional distinctions of knowledge made in philosophy. It is argued that the experiential knowledge of that and how underlies all education, but that it must be expanded by mediated knowledge of that and how. This knowledge originates from scientific research. In order to understand the epistemic nature of research‐based knowledge, intending teachers must learn methods of inquiry and apply them to research questions which they themselves have posed. Secondly, the application involves putting the theoretical and thinking models of teaching into practice in classroom teaching. As a concrete example, the author reviews how theory and practice are integrated in the Finnish system of teacher education.