Coincidences: the truth is out there

We give a simple way of demonstrating that coincidences really are “out there”, as probability theory predicts- if we take the trouble to look.     

PISA truth effects: the construction of low performance

This article seeks to unpack the taken-for-granted notion of low performance, arguing that performance and competency are not a given categories; rather they are “objects-for-thought” that receive their discursive and material contours through a chain of translations. As suggested previously by Gorur, PISA is analyzed through the lens of Latourian Science and Technology Studies. The arguments in this article are based on an analysis of situations constructed to observe how performance is enacted in socio-material practice, as 15-year-old students collaboratively solve PISA scientific-literacy items. As background a text analysis, concerning how scientific literacy and performance are discursively constructed in various PISA materials, is reported. We suggest the notion of ‘competency’ be linked to the historical event of trying to start to detect it and argue that PISA results are products of the situated adjustments that are enacted by students and items created in the very moments of scientific measurement.     

Telling the truth about stories

This paper opens with two stories—about the “joking relationship” discovered by anthropologist Radcliffe-Brown Structure and function in primitive society. New York: The Free Press (1965), and an incident in the life of Rousseau—which illustrate that sometimes a story needs to be true, and that the opinion of an outsider can be preferable to that of the insider whose story it is. Recent papers by Carter and Polkinghorne Educational Researcher, 22(1), 5–12 (1993) and International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 8(1), 5–23 (1995) are analysed; it is argued that a clear and enticing plot is no indicator of a story's truth, furthermore the need to be true can hold both of “analysis of narratives” and “narrative analysis”.     

Living in the basement of the ivory tower: a graduate student's perspective of participatory action research within academic institutions

As academic interest grows around participatory action research there is a need to reflect on the ways in which universities are adapting to the presence of alternative research methodologies. This article examines the rapidly expanding field of participatory action research (PAR) as it relates to academic involvement in community research and dialogue. The article concentrates on the advantages and disadvantages of the PAR approach as a research practice in academic institutions. Untimately, this article raises a number of questions for academics to consider including the possible outcomes and implications for implementing PAR within graduate school curriculum.     

Conceptions of the Curriculum: teachers and ‘truth‘

This article draws its inspiration from the three socio‐epistemological theories of phenomenology, contextualism and traditional epistemology and their abrasive interrelation. From these foundations, a theoretical framework is devised as a basis for an exposition and interpretation of empirical work undertaken in four contrasting school contexts. The aim of the research was firstly to look for similarities between teachers’ conceptions of the curriculum and secondly to provide evidence which could be used as a basis for judging to what extent these similarities were constrained by teachers’ conceptions of ‘truth’.

The paper discusses teachers’ responses to three questions from an open‐ended questionnaire; these requested views on how far curriculum content was considered to be related: (a) to individual pupils, (b) to social requirements and (c) to ‘truth’. The discussion of each question resolves itself into a number of issues connected with these three themes.

The article is predominantly interpretative but a short appendix displays a more rigorous analysis of the distribution of the responses across the four schools. Finally, although the paper is concerned with opinions about curricula rather than with actual curricula transactions, my hope is that awareness of teachers’ ideas may provide indicators for curricular realities.     

Meta-analysis of theory-of-mind development: the truth about false belief

Research on theory of mind increasingly encompasses apparently contradictory findings. In particular, in initial studies, older preschoolers consistently passed false-belief tasks-a so-called "definitive" test of mental-state understanding-whereas younger children systematically erred. More recent studies, however, have found evidence of false-belief understanding in 3-year-olds or have demonstrated conditions that improve children's performance. A meta-analysis was conducted (N = 178 separate studies) to address the empirical inconsistencies and theoretical controversies. When organized into a systematic set of factors that vary across studies, false-belief results cluster systematically with the exception of only a few outliers. A combined model that included age, country of origin, and four task factors (e.g., whether the task objects were transformed in order to deceive the protagonist or not) yielded a multiple R of .74 and an R2 of .55; thus, the model accounts for 55% of the variance in false-belief performance. Moreover, false-belief performance showed a consistent developmental pattern, even across various countries and various task manipulations: preschoolers went from below-chance performance to above-chance performance. The findings are inconsistent with early competence proposals that claim that developmental changes are due to tasks artifacts, and thus disappear in simpler, revised false-belief tasks; and are, instead, consistent with theoretical accounts that propose that understanding of belief, and, relatedly, understanding of mind, exhibit genuine conceptual change in the preschool years.     

论真理的本质特性

现行马克思主义哲学教科书及有关论著和论文把客观性、主观性等看作是真理的本质特性的观点是不能成立的.真理的本质特性是建立在实践基础之上的主观和客观的相符性.肯定这一点,对于马克思主义真理观的研究和教育具有重要的意义.     

追求真理 开拓创新－－学习江泽民总书记“七一”讲话

““三个代表”是中国共产党新时期宣言，它围绕着“建设一个什么样的党，怎样建设党”第一重大现实问题，向中国和世界宣告，中国共产党永远是中国工人阶级的先锋队，新时期中国工人阶级先锋队性质就是“三个代表”。江泽民的“七一”讲话及时“三个代表”重要思想的阐发，从新的高度、新的视角回答了“什么是共产党，怎样建设共产党”的世界性的历史课题，从而实现了党建理论的创新，为新时期党的建设提供了行动指南。     

This is my truth,tell me yours: some aspects of action research quality in the light of truth theories

In this article the authors introduce some aspects of various truth theories in the context of action research. The traditional ways of determining quality are based on the correspondence theory of truth, which, in their view, conflicts with the basic assumptions of action research. The pragmatic theory of truth seems to be clearly represented in the world of action research. In their opinion, other theories of truth can be productively applied as well. In addition to the classical theories of truth – the correspondence theory, the coherence theory and the pragmatistic view on truth – they discuss the truth as ‘aletheia’ (a Heideggerian view on truth), as Habermasian consensus and as Foucaultian power/knowledge.     

Problematizing religious truth: Implications for public education

The question motivating this paper is whether or not there can be standards governing the evaluation of truth claims in religion. In other areas of study — such as physics, math, history, and even value‐laden realms like morality — there is some widespread agreement as to what constitutes good thinking. If such a standard existed in religion, then our approach to teaching religion would need to change. This paper, however, is a prelude to examining such a question. In it, we briefly explore whether or not religion should even be included in public education. After concluding that it should be, we then look at whether we should pursue questions of truth in discussing religion or whether truth should be bracketed. If matters of truth are bracketed, what is lost? If questions of truth are pursued in our public school classrooms, what standards of evaluation should be applied to them?     

邓小平实事求是思想的理论指向与现实意义

邓小平实事求是思想强调在实践的基础上把“求是”与“求实”有机统一起来，把真理标准与生产力标准、人民利益标准有机统一起来，从而高度体现了真理观和价值观的有机统     

太平天国天京事变真相及反思(之一)

150年前,在天京(南京),太平天国领导集团发生了一场内讧。内讧真相是太平天国的天王洪秀全密令北王韦昌辉搞突然袭击,惨杀了东王杨秀清及其部下二万余众,导致太平天国人心离散,中外反动派联合镇压,卒至失败。现就发生内讧的深层次历史原因作一探讨。