Using symbolic interactionism insights as an approach to helping the individual with Asperger's syndrome overcome barriers to social inclusion

This article outlines a case for using symbolic interactionism as a tool to help individuals with Asperger's syndrome reconcile situations in which communication might prove challenging. This study builds on previous work carried out by the author which describes an autoethnographical approach to help the individual with Asperger's syndrome gain insights into ways to engage effectively with the social situations they encounter. It is well documented that those with Asperger's syndrome find many social situations challenging and that commonly understood verbal and non‐verbal communication ‘signs’ and ‘symbols’ may be difficult for them to interpret in ways intended by others. It is within this context that the work seeks to examine communication issues in terms of the symbolic interactionism notion of the ‘Me’ and how this understanding can help the individual with Asperger's syndrome model their own behaviour from a symbolic interactionism point of view. The article begins with a discussion of the background to the research and how an inability to read the communication ‘signs’ and ‘symbols’ around them can make it difficult for the learner with Asperger's syndrome to have a commonly held understanding of the social setting in which he or she operates. The work gives a personal insight from a person with Asperger's syndrome into how symbolic interactionism coupled with autoethnography can be used as tools to enable the learner with Asperger's syndrome to explore the nature of communication patterns under such circumstances. The work includes vignettes which highlight experience from such a personal perspective.     

Learner-content interaction in distance education: The weakest link in interaction research

Interaction is a recurrent theme in the literature on distance education. Much of the research along these lines is dedicated to reciprocal interpersonal interaction, that is, learner–learner and learner–instructor interaction. But there is far less research interest in learner–content interaction despite its fundamental and critical role in ensuring the effectiveness of the distance learning experience and education more generally. This article reflects on the interrelationship and interplay between learner–content, learner–instructor and learner–learner interactions by drawing on the three-types-of-interaction framework, equivalency theorem and other interaction research literature. It concludes by calling for more effort to be made to understand how distance learners study course materials or content, arguing that distance learning course materials may not be able to cater for distance learners and achieve their intended learning outcomes unless their design and production are informed by empirical research on learner–content interaction.     

Homeschooling Associated with Beneficial Learner and Societal Outcomes but Educators Do Not Promote It

This article reviews research on homeschool learner outcomes and evaluates opposition to homeschooling. It synthesizes research on learner outcomes related to homeschooling in areas of students’ academic achievement and children's social, emotional, and psychological development and the success of adults who were home educated and finds generally positive outcomes on a variety of variables are associated with homeschooling. The author identifies four classes of negativity expressed toward home-based education by the education profession, such as the claims homeschooling is bad for the collective good and that without much state regulation significant numbers of homeschooling (home schooling) parents will harm their children. The evaluation reveals that proactive opposition to homeschooling and calls for significant state control over homeschooling do not offer any empirical research evidence that homeschooling is bad for individual children, families, neighborhoods, or the collective good. The alleged harms of homeschooling or arguments for more control of it are fundamentally philosophical and push for the state, rather than parents, to be in primary and ultimate control over the education and upbringing of children so they will come to hold worldviews more aligned with the state and opponents of state-free homeschooling than with the children's parents and freely chosen relationships.     

Content analysis of computer conferencing transcripts

Within the field of higher education, there are situations where the learner is not well served in a classroom setting. Problematic issues such as scheduling, critical mass, time, pace and location have the potential to be counterbalanced by e-learning. Within this, the asynchronous nature of today's online learning environments and computer conferencing tools have popularly been claimed to offer tremendous benefits for learners who are willing to take responsibility for their own learning, to progress at their own pace, and interact with their online teacher to get immediate feedback on their learning and progress. Indeed, increasingly, educators today are very keen to exploit some of these new technologies for the benefit of their learners. It is argued in this article that there is a need to address the practice and research of asynchronous computer mediated conferencing. As conferencing tools become an increasingly common feature in students' experience, teachers need to have an understanding of how these tools facilitate the formation and maintenance of collaborative learning communities.     

Being a Learner Using Social Media in School: The Case of Space2cre8

The aim of this article is to gain knowledge about what it means to be a learner using social media in an educational setting. The article presents an ethnographic study of students in a multiethnic community in Oslo who participate in a social networking site called Space2cre8 (S28). In this article, we set out to explore the kind of space for learning that can be created in a lower secondary classroom by a social networking site. The article provides a detailed study of how two students made use of this social networking site as part of school activities, and it outlines two specific ways in which to be a learner using social media in school. The findings suggest that a social networking site such as S28 can provide different resources for different students with different learner identities, and might represent a space in which everyday knowledge and school knowledge merge to offer a hybrid space for learning.     

Learning in the liminal space: a semiotic approach to threshold concepts

The threshold concepts approach to student learning and curriculum design now informs an empirical research base comprising over 170 disciplinary and professional contexts. It draws extensively on the notion of troublesomeness in a ‘liminal’ space of learning. The latter is a transformative state in the process of learning in which there is a reformulation of the learner’s meaning frame and an accompanying shift in the learner’s ontology or subjectivity. Within the extensive literature on threshold concepts, however, the notion of liminal space has remained relatively ill-defined. This paper explores this spatial metaphor to help clarify the difficulties that some teachers observe in the classroom in regard to their students’ understanding. It employs a novel and distinctive approach drawn from semiotic theory to to provide some explanatory insight into learning within the liminal space and render it more open to analysis. The paper develops its argument through four distinct phases. Firstly it explores the spatial metaphor of liminality to gain further purchase on the nature of this transformative space. The second section introduces semiotic theory and indicates how this will be used through a series of graphical and visual devices to render the liminal space more open to analysis. The third section then employs semiotic analysis to nine dimensions of pedagogical content knowledge to gain further insight into what may characterise student conceptual difficulty within the liminal state. The fourth and concluding section emphasises the role of context in conceptual discrimination before advocating a transactional curriculum inquiry approach to future research in this field.     

Women's Empowerment and Education: linking knowledge to transformative action

Women's empowerment is a concept that has acquired substantial recognition in the past decade. However, it is better known among international development organisations, NGOs, and grassroots groups than in academic circles. This article examines the concept of women's empowerment as a foundational element in a theory of social change in which the oppressed must be key actors in the change process. On the basis of empirical evidence, it highlights four dimensions of empowerment: economic, political, knowledge, and psychological. The knowledge dimension is fostered by one of the most respected and universal of institutions: formal education. Yet schools do not always provide friendly or even safe spaces for girls; moreover, the school curriculum emphasises academic subjects and avoids ‘life skills’ discussions. Most successful cases of empowerment through education have occurred in non-formal education programmes that specifically promote critical reflection on gendered social norms and encourage corrective responses. The article argues that the empowerment process must consider the close connection between the private and the public arenas, as the private space seriously constrains women's availability and possibilities for transformative action; therefore, both macro- and micro-level interventions are needed to create a modified gender division of labour. The promotion of agency — at both the individual and collective levels — plays a major role in the development of women's empowerment. Such a process requires the engagement of non-state actors, particularly women-led NGOs. The article ends with challenges for policy.     

Students' and teachers' misapplication of le chatelier's principle: Implications for the teaching of chemical equilibrium

The aim of this article was to study the reasons, strategies, and procedures that both students and teachers use to solve some chemical equilibrium questions and problems. Inappropriate conceptions on teaching and a lack of knowledge regarding the limited usefulness of Le Chatelier's principle, with its vague and ambiguous formulation and textbook presentation, may be some of the sources of misconceptions about the prediction of the effect of changing conditions on chemical equilibrium. To diagnose misconceptions and their possible sources, a written test was developed and administered to 170 1st-year university chemistry students. A chemical equilibrium problem, relating to the students' test, was solved by 40 chemistry teachers. First, we ascertained that teacher's conceptions might influence the problem-solving strategies of the learner. Based on this first aspect, our discussion also concerns students' and teachers' misconceptions related to the Le Chatelier's principle. Misconceptions emerged through: (a) misapplication and misunderstanding of Le Chatelier's principle; (b) use of rote-learning recall and algorithmic procedures; (c) incorrect control of the variables involved; (d) limited use of the chemical equilibrium law; (e) a lack of mastery of chemical equilibrium principles and difficulty in transferring such principles to new situations. To avoid chemical equilibrium misconceptions, a specific pattern of conceptual and methodological change may be considered.     

Motives for ‘Laddishness’ at School: Fear of failure and fear of the ‘feminine’

‘Laddish’ behaviours in school have been identified as impediments to the academic progress of some boys and girls. This article provides and discusses empirical evidence to support Jackson's proposal in an earlier article that ‘laddish’ behaviours may act to protect the self‐worth and/or social worth of many boys, and that ‘laddishness’ may be prompted by both a fear of academic failure and a fear of the ‘feminine’. Drawing upon data from interviews with 50 boys across two secondary schools, the article focuses upon a key characteristic of ‘laddishness’, namely, the overt rejection of academic work. It is suggested that overtly rejecting academic work serves a dual function for some boys. First, it enables them to act in ways currently consistent with hegemonic forms of masculinity in their schools. Secondly, it provides an excuse for failure and augments success.     

Dynamic learner profiling and automatic learner classification for adaptive e-learning environment

E-learning allows learners individually to learn “anywhere, anytime” and offers immediate access to specific information. However, learners have different behaviors, learning styles, attitudes, and aptitudes, which affect their learning process, and therefore learning environments need to adapt according to these differences, so as to increase the results of the learning process. In addition, providing the same learning content to all the learners may lead to a reduction in the learner's performance. Hence, there is a need to classify the learners based on their performance and knowledge level. Learner profiles play an important role in making the e-learning environment adaptive. Providing an adaptive learning environment, catering to the changing needs and behavior of the learner can be achieved by evolving dynamic learner profiles. Navigation logs can be used to analyze learners’ behavior over a period of time. In this work, we propose dynamic learner profiling to cater to changing learner behaviors, styles, goals, preferences, performances, knowledge level, learner's state, content difficulty, and feedbacks. Based on the continuous observation of learner preferences and requirements, the learner profile is dynamically updated. Furthermore, we propose an automatic learner classification to construct the learner profile and identify the complexity level of learning content, using the Bayesian belief network and decision tree techniques. We evaluated our system with two traditional adaptive e-learning systems, using static profiles and behavioral aspects, through our performance evaluation method of different learner types. In addition, we compared the actual learners’ data with the system generated results for various types of learners, and showed the increased interest in their learning outcomes.     

Enhancing classroom teaching through Interactive Radio in South African primary schools: An evaluation of the OLSET programme

Abstract

This article provides a summative evaluation of the development and implementation of the Open Learning Systems Education Trust's (OLSET's) “English in Action” programme from 1992 to the end of 2009. It describes the programme's development from a uni-modal distance education model focused on enhancing learner involvement and learner gains to a multi-modal model focused on enhancing teacher and learner involvement, teacher and learner gains, school, classroom and teacher support and in-service teacher training. It also describes the expansion of schools, teachers and learners involved in the programme over a 17 year period. Reasons for the wide-spread support of the programme by teachers, principals and educational officials in South Africa are identified, and constraints and limitations highlighted. Conclusions are then drawn on the value of the programme's model relative to the resurgence of international interest in the potential of using radio as a basis for teacher support in developing countries.     

Has Consultation Achieved Its Primary Prevention Potential?

Since the practice of consultation first began, primary prevention has been posited as an important outcome. In this article the empirical basis for this element of consultation is examined. It is concluded that consultation's preventive benefits should not be oversold, as at this time there is only emerging evidence for this aspect of the process.     

Children's Metacognition About Reading: issues in Definition,Measurement, and Instruction

Metacognition has become a popular term in theories of cognitive development and reading. What children know about the goals, tasks, and strategies of reading can influence how well they plan and monitor their own reading. Despite the appeal of metacognition and the emphasis on executive management of reading, there have been relatively few empirical studies that measure or promote children's metacognition about reading. This article briefly reviews some key studies of children's knowledge about reading and identifies some difficulties in defining and measuring metacognition. An Index of Reading Awareness (IRA) is offered as an informal assessment of metacognition derived from both theory and empirical data that can be used to measure children's understanding of reading comprehension processes. Data are presented illustrating that the instrument is sensitive to developmental and instructional differences in children's metacognition about reading. It is argued that the usefulness of the term metacognition depends on the development of both formal and informal tests of children's knowledge about reading and effective instruction that promotes metacognition.     

Inspired by Statistics?

This article considers being inspired by statistics as both a learner and a teacher. It looks particularly at a task involving research of Minard's Map, a statistical representation, to create and present a statistical task for a learner. It describes how the use of imagery, and the enthusiasm that developed as the map and its context were explored by the teacher, were passed on to the learner.     

Research Matters: a call for the application of empirical evidence to the task of improving the quality and impact of environmental education

This paper argues for an increase in the application of empirical evidence to the task of improving the quality and impact of environmental education. Whilst the global scene in environmental education appears to portray optimism and great endeavour, there remain key issues to resolve. Such issues include the apparent lack of impact of formal educational programmes on individual's environmental awareness and concern. The paper argues that an empirical research base can illuminate significant findings relating to human motivation and cognition which may help to resolve such issues. It provides an overview and discussion of some of the findings of one particular substantial international research project in order to illustrate the underpinning case for using research to inform both policy and practice and gives some examples of how the evidence generated from this research programme is being used to shape educational policy and practice.     

Effects of Restructuring Training and Cognitive Style

Herman Witkin's research in differentiation theory proposed a conceptual framework describing the cognitive style known as field dependence‐independence. The operational measures of this construct are restructuring skills and interpersonal competencies, and were originally conceived to be fixed in an individual. A recent reconceptual‐isation, however, suggested that there may be some malleability in learning strategies that flow from cognitive style. Learners predisposed to field dependence might gain access to restructuring skills brought to problem‐solving situations by field independents. This study undertook to examine the effects and practicability of restructuring training as a means of addressing individual learner differences. Field independent subjects significantly out‐scored field‐dependent subjects on all three test tasks in the control group. Experimental group field independents did not significantly outscore experimental field dependents. Training enhanced field dependent subject performance on two dependent measures tasks. There was interaction across treatment and field dependence on all three dependent measures.     

Learning by viewing versus learning by doing: Evidence‐based guidelines for principled learning environments

A learner‐centered approach is a central feature of instruction based on a constructivist learning model. However, there is some confusion regarding the requirement for behavioral activity as a prerequisite for a learner‐centered environment. We offer evidence in this article that some types of behavioral activity can interfere with cognitive learning processes. We recommend that instructional professionals focus on cognitive activity and summarize evidence‐based methods that support appropriate cognitive activity in behaviorally passive and active learning environments.     

Abduction—A logical view for investigating and initiating processes of discovering mathematical coherences

According to theoretical concepts like constructivism, each learner has to build up knowledge on his or her own. The learner creates hypotheses in order to explain ‘facts’. Hypotheses do not guarantee certainty. They have to be verified. In this article, a theoretical framework will be presented which can help to understand and analyse the processes of creativity and reasoning. Peirce’s theory of abduction plays a decisive role in this framework. He elaborated abduction as the third elementary inference, besides deduction and induction. While abduction will be used to describe and analyse the process of discovering an explanatory hypothesis, deduction, induction and their combinations will be used to describe the different processes of verifying knowledge. Theoretical and empirical ways of discovering and verifying mathematical coherences will be presented and illustrated by fictive and empirical examples.     

“The ‘Effects’ of infant day care reconsidered” reconsidered: Risks for parents,children, and researchers

In his article “The ‘Effects’ of Infant Day Care Reconsidered”, Belsky (1988) concludes that maternal employment puts infants at risk for developing emotional insecurity and social maladjustment. After a review of Belsky's and other research, this article offers a different conclusion. It is agreed that infants whose mothers work full-time during their first year are consistently and statistically significantly more likely than infants of mothers who work part-time or not at all to be classifed as insecurely attached when such infants are observed with their mothers in the Strange Situation. However, the difference is not large (8% greater probability), and it does not necessarily reflect emotional maladjustment. It is based on a single assessment procedure with a single partner, a procedure in which day-care infants may feel more comfortable than do other infants. Observations of heightened aggression in children who have been in day care as infants offer limited evidence of maladjustment as a consequence of maternal employment. But, there is no clear evidence that day care places infants at risk. Belsky suggests that observed day-care effects on attachment and aggression may be moderated by day-care quality; children's age, sex, and temperament; hours of separation from mother; overstimulation by mother; and congruence between the mother's attitude and work status. However, there is no convincing evidence that these factors are involved. The most promising factors to be used in accounting for individual differences in daycare infants' emotional development are the mother's attitude toward the infant, her emotional accessibility and behavioral sensitivity, and her desire for independence (her own and the infant's). What is needed now is research to assess and investigate such mediating factors, rather than blanket generalizations about day-care effects and implicit or explicit condemnations of maternal employment.     

Let right be done: trying to put ethical standards into practice

The development of ethical standards by professional associations, boards, councils and colleges of teachers, responds in part to a moral imperative that teachers and school leaders be accountable to the wider community, and in part to a desire to enhance the overall professionalism of educators' behaviour. This article explores the conceptual and practical complexities inherent in defining ethical standards for the teaching profession with a particular focus on their questionable capacity for implementation. In combining empirical evidence from previously reported research studies with newly fabricated first person narrative responses to the evidence, the article seeks to illustrate the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of applying ethical standards to actual situations in any professionally and ethically satisfying way. It argues further that moral dilemmas facing teachers are potentially resolvable only by communities of educators internalizing and applying principles of ethics, not formalized codes or standards.