The role of traditional folklore in facilitating adult learning in Nigeria

Adults, unlike children, have a wide variety of prior experiences and knowledge which they bring to the processes of learning they engage in at later stages of life. This difference between teaching children (pedagogy) and teaching adults was identified by Malcolm Knowles in the 1980s. He coined the term andragogy to describe the art and science of helping adults learn. Andragogy is premised on five key tenets: self-concept; experience; readiness to learn; orientation to learn; and motivation. These are often absent from the conventional facilitation methods used for adult learning and education (ALE) in Nigeria. The author of this article notes that many ALE programmes fail to meet the needs and expectations which motivate learners to engage in a course. She argues that for learning outcomes to be more successful, teaching methods need to be more creative and take learners’ prior experience and knowledge into consideration. After reviewing literature on the topic of adult learning, this article examines conventional methods of facilitating ALE in South West Nigeria. The author points out some of these methods’ shortcomings and suggests that one viable approach to addressing these might be to introduce the use of traditional folklore for andragogical purposes. The author posits that integrating oral tradition would also enable a more playful approach to adult learning. In a practice-oriented vein, she discusses the innovative and andragogical elements inherent in folktales, lullabies, folksongs, poetry, proverbs and riddles, illustrating her discussion with Yoruba examples. She concludes that folklore is useful as an independent or integral ALE facilitation method, with promising potential to make ALE more effective.

     

“I Just Love Black People!”: Love,Pleasure, and Critical Pedagogy in Urban Teacher Education

With concern to critical pedagogy, the concept of love is fairly frequently (ab)used, yet under-theorized. In this exploratory study, I ask: How does a critical pedagogy of love—or critical pedagogical love—look, sound, and feel? Regarding feeling, how does a critical pedagogue engage the sensations of pleasure attendant to love? Lastly, how does the pedagogue invite love and pleasure into the pain-filled field of urban teacher education? Using Black feminist theorizing of love as an analytic filter, I investigate a university-based urban teacher educator’s navigation of the nexus of love, pleasure, and critical (specifically, antiracist) pedagogy. Extrapolating from the resultant narrative portrait, I consider the affordances of a critical pedagogy of love that accesses embodied pleasure, emphasizing how such a pedagogy might present racially marginalized persons—particularly urban teacher educators of Color—with opportunities for reprieve from the suffering that characterizes many of our experiences with/in teacher education.

     

The Magic of Harry Potter: Symbols and Heroes of Fantasy

This article suggests that the worldwide, multiage appeal of Harry Potter may lie in the way these stories of magic meet the needs of readers to find meaning in today's unmagical contexts. The imaginative appeal and symbolic efficacy of the books for children are examined in terms of Bruno Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantment. The development of Harry Potter as a hero in the mythic/fantasy tradition, which allows young adults to grasp a sense of hope for meaning and triumph, are explored in terms of Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces. Case studies are included to illustrate.     

Children’s stereotypes of older adults: Evaluating contributions of cognitive development and social learning

Past research has investigated the development of stereotypes surrounding race and gender in children; however, there is a lack of literature examining the development of children’s stereotypes of older adults. In this study, 163 children from four grades: first (n = 44), fourth (n = 49), fifth (n = 35), and eighth (n = 35) completed a new trait-rating questionnaire assessing their stereotypes of older adults. Children’s stereotypes of older adults were largely positive. Younger children described older adults in more positive, but more stereotyped, ways than older children. Older children’s views shared a stronger relationship with those of their parents and peers compared to younger children. Together, these results support both cognitive development and social influences as contributing factors to the formation of children’s stereotypes of older adults.     

Probability Learning: Changes in Behavior Across Time and Development

Individuals track probabilities, such as associations between events in their environments, but less is known about the degree to which experience—within a learning session and over development—influences people's use of incoming probabilistic information to guide behavior in real time. In two experiments, children (4–11 years) and adults searched for rewards hidden in locations with predetermined probabilities. In Experiment 1, children (n = 42) and adults (n = 32) changed strategies to maximize reward receipt over time. However, adults demonstrated greater strategy change efficiency. Making the predetermined probabilities more difficult to learn (Experiment 2) delayed effective strategy change for children (n = 39) and adults (n = 33). Taken together, these data characterize how children and adults alike react flexibly and change behavior according to incoming information.     

Children’s and Adults’ Views of Punishment as a Path to Redemption

The current work investigated the extent to which children (N=171 6- to 8-year-olds) and adults (N = 94) view punishment as redemptive. In Study 1, children—but not adults—reported that “mean” individuals became “nicer” after one severe form of punishment (incarceration). Moreover, adults expected “nice” individuals’ moral character to worsen following punishment; however, we did not find that children expected such a change. Study 2 extended these findings by showing that children view “mean” individuals as becoming “nicer” following both severe (incarceration) and relatively minor (time-out) punishments, suggesting that the pattern of results from Study 1 generalizes across punishment types. Together, these studies indicate that children—but not adults—may view punishment as a vehicle for redemption.     

The Relevance of Hans‐Georg Gadamer's Concept of Tradition to the Philosophy of Education

In this article, Anniina Leiviskä argues that the educational relevance of Hans‐Georg Gadamer's concept of tradition has remained unacknowledged because of the conservatism that has been associated with Gadamer's hermeneutics, particularly his notion of tradition. Therefore, Leiviskä seeks to reveal the reflective, nonconservative nature of Gadamer's concept of tradition in order to illuminate its significance with respect to the philosophy of education. Utilizing Gadamer's reinterpretation of the Aristotelian notion of phronesis, she outlines a concept of situated rationality that rests upon the idea of the historicity of human existence, and she suggests that this concept may be used to define a central aim of education. Leiviskä argues that instead of disengaged objectivity, rationality as phronesis stands for the reflective reappropriation of one's tradition, which is enabled by one's situatedness in history and requires encountering other horizons — including the horizons of the past — through which one may be addressed and challenged.     

Attention and curiosity in museums

Two hundred and thirty-four museum visitors of all ages were observed as they entered the Object Gallery area of the Florida State Museum. Visitors were observed under conditions where objects were available for close inspection but could not be manipulated (baseline data) and later when the same objects were placed on tables and were available for visitors to touch, move, and use a variety of senses to inspect them (intervention data). Data were recorded on the sex, age, and number of subjects in these areas under each of the above conditions. The results obtained show a significant increase in the number of visitors entering this section of the museum when manipulatable objects were available. Baseline data showed that 58.5% of the people who entered the Object Gallery went into the drawer section. However, when manipulatable objects were made available this increased to 82.3%. Chi-square analysis was used to determine whether the presence of manipulatable objects in the area increased the number of people who entered the area. It did (p < 0.05). Chi-square analysis was also used to determine whether entering the drawer section depended on age or sex. It was found that more children entered the drawer section than adults (p < 0.05) and significantly more female children and female adults entered as a result of intervention (p < 0.05). At the same time, more male children than adults entered after intervention (p < 0.05) than before. These data are supported by considerable curiosity research indicating that both children and adults are attracted to novel as well as complex stimuli which can be manipulated in both formal and free-choice environments. The data also support the growing movement to hands-on exhibits in natural history museums and science centers around the country, as well as hands-on classroom activities from the perspective of their attention attracting and holding power and their curiosity evoking characteristics. Whether these positive factors also lead to increased knowledge or skill development is a question yet to be explored.     

Ted Hughes: The Development of a Children’s Poet

This article looks at how Ted Hughes’ poetry for children developed over more than 30 years of publication. It traces the movement from his earlier, more conventional rhyming poems, such as Meet My Folks! (1961) and Nessie the Mannerless Monster (1964), to the mature, free verse “animal poems” for older readers of Season Songs (1976c), Under the North Star (1981) and the “farmyard fable” What is the Truth? (1984). The article argues that the later lyrical poems for younger readers where Hughes returned to rhyme, The Cat and the Cuckoo (1987) and The Mermaid’s Purse (1993), represent an undervalued final phase of Hughes’ work for children which is rarely discussed by critics. The discussion considers Hughes’ changing attitude to the concept of the “children’s poet” at different periods of his career. Reference is made throughout to Hughes’ own writing about children and poetry, such as Poetry in the Making (1967), and to parallel developments in his poetry for adults.     

“I don't know if she likes reading”: Are teachers perceived to be keen readers,and how is this determined?

The benefits of regular recreational reading for literacy development have been widely acknowledged, and as such, encouraging children to be life‐long readers is an educational imperative. Teachers who are models of keen recreational reading can play an important role in fostering a keen love of reading in children, so that they regularly engage in the practice. However, it is not known if all teachers have the time, inclination and awareness to actively model a love of reading in their classrooms. This article explores data from the 2016 Western Australian Study in Children's Book Reading to ascertain which teacher behaviours and attitudes children deem indicative of a love of reading. While many children did not know if their teachers liked reading or not, teachers who were perceived to be readers talked about books in the context of pleasure, were seen to read independently at school, and read aloud to the class with expression and emotional connection.     

Differential Effects of Salient Visual Events on Memory-Guided Attention in Adults and Children

Both salient visual events and scene-based memories can influence attention, but it is unclear how they interact in children and adults. In Experiment 1, children (N = 27; ages 7–12) were faster to discriminate targets when they appeared at the same versus different location as they had previously learned or as a salient visual event. In contrast, adults (N = 30; ages 18–31) responded faster only when cued by visual events. While Experiment 2 confirmed that adults (N = 27) can use memories to orient attention, Experiment 3 showed that, even in the absence of visual events, the effects of memories on attention were larger in children (N = 27) versus adults (N = 28). These findings suggest that memories may be a robust source of influence on children's attention.     

Mentalization in Chilean Educational Staff With 12-Month-Old Children: Does It Make a Difference in Relation to What Children Receive at Home?

Parental mentalizing, which is the capacity to understand behavior in terms of mental states and to reflect this back to a child through speech, is a key construct in child development. Adults with high mentalization promote children’s secure attachment, mentalization and self-regulation. This study describes this competency in a sample of teachers from Chilean nurseries in interaction with 12-month-old children during a storytelling scenario and compares it with the children’s mothers. The sample comprised 208 adults (104 teachers and 104 mothers). The adults were asked to tell 2 stories to the children, and these situations were recorded, transcribed, and codified using guidelines that identified 4 references to mental states (desires, cognitions, emotions, and attributes) and 4 references to nonmental states (causal and factual talk, physical states, and connections with the child’s life). Research Findings: The results showed significant differences between the educational staff and the mothers, and the teachers performed better than the mothers in terms of both greater mentalization and a greater number of references to desires, causal talk, emotions, and physical states. Practice or Policy: The results provide evidence regarding the supportive role played by educational staff in children’s development, especially in underprivileged sectors.     

The problems of ‘competence’ and alternatives from the Scandinavian perspective of Bildung

The paper aims to show how competence as an educational concept for the 21^st century is struggling with theoretical problems for which the concept of Bildung in the European tradition can offer alternatives, and to discuss the possibility of developing a sustainable educational concept from the perspectives of competence and Bildung. The method of the study is conceptual analysis of ‘competence’ and Bildung. The paper concludes that (1) competence must be abandoned as an educational concept, as its problems cannot be solved due to the lack of a theory of educational content. With competence, the content aspect of education is obscured and hidden from public debate, and human autonomy is threatened. (2) Bildung can be revised as an educational concept by reinventing educational content as subject to interpretation and open debate by autonomous individuals on all levels from the transnational to the classroom. (3) A revised ‘mimetic’ concept of Bildung can prepare students for the knowledge society, as imagining is a type of higher order thinking essential for innovation and creativity. Instructional content in school is meaningful to students if they are able to imagine the representational object ‘as if’ it is both subject matter and real to them.     

Young Children Give Priority to Ownership When Judging Who Should Use an Object

This study provides evidence that children give priority to ownership when judging who should use an object. Children (N = 269) and adults (N = 154) considered disputes over objects. In disputes between a character using an object and the owner of the object, children, as young as 3 years and as old as 7 years, sided with the owner, and did so more than adults. However, children aged 4 and older disregarded owners' rights in dilemmas where these were pitted against the need to prevent harm. These findings suggest that ownership is central in children's judgments about object use and constrain developmental accounts of how children acquire an appreciation of ownership.     

Children’s Ability to Learn Evolutionary Explanations for Biological Adaptation

Research Findings: Evolution by natural selection is often relegated to the high school curriculum on the assumption that younger students cannot grasp its complexity. We sought to test that assumption by teaching children ages 4–12 (n = 96) a selection-based explanation for biological adaptation and comparing their success to that of adults (n = 30). Participants provided explanations before and after a 10-min, analogy-based tutorial illustrating the principles of variation, differential survival, differential reproduction, inheritance, and population change. Although younger children (ages 4–6) showed minimal evidence of learning these principles, older children (ages 7–12) showed robust evidence of doing so, learning them at rates equivalent to adults. Participants of all ages, however, provided nonevolutionary explanations for biological adaptations (i.e., explanations referencing need, growth, and creation) nearly as often at posttest as they did at pretest. Practice or Policy: These results suggest that older elementary school-age children can be taught evolutionary concepts but that learning such concepts does not lead to the automatic replacement of nonevolutionary views of biological adaptation, which must be addressed separately.     

Learning Motivation and Activity Contexts

Learning motivation has a special explanatory status in educational psychology and educational practice. Motivation and learning often are studied separately. In the achievement motivation tradition, achievement situation is the connecting link between learning process and achievement need. The explanatory power of this link has limitations. The activity concept is proposed as a unit which is able to offer a broader basis for a unified concept of learning motivation.     

Use of the concept of Bildung in the international science education literature,its potential,and implications for teaching and learning

Bildung is a complex educational concept that emerged in Germany in the mid eighteenth century. Especially in Germany and Scandinavia conceptions of Bildung became the general philosophical framework to guide both formal and informal education. Bildung concerns the whole range of education from setting educational objectives in general towards its particular operation in different school subjects, among them science education. In more recent years, the concept of Bildung has slowly begun to be used in the international science and environmental education literature. This paper presents a systematic analysis of the international literature concerning the use of the concept of Bildung, with a view on its meaning in and for science education. At least five versions based on or closely connected to the tradition of Bildung can be identified: (a) Von Humboldt’s classical Bildung, (b) Anglo-American liberal education, (c) Scandinavian folk-Bildung, (d) democratic education, and (e) critical-hermeneutic Bildung. These different understandings of Bildung are discussed in relation to their historical roots, educational theory, critique, and their relation to philosophies of science education, such as different visions of scientific literacy. Based on critical-hermeneutic Bildung, the paper theoretically develops views of critical-reflexive Bildung as an educational metatheory. It is connected to ideas of transformative learning, sustainability education and a Vision III of scientific literacy. Finally, some implications of critical-reflexive Bildung for teaching and learning are discussed.     

Los Sentimientos,Luchas, y Esperanzas de Cinco Familias Mexicana: The Sentiments,Struggles, and Hopes of Five Mexican Families

Within the everyday space of their modest trailer homes, I observed compelling environments in the households of 5 Mexican families. In their homes, there existed los padres con sus hijos (parents with their children) who intuitively expressed cariño, or love, for one another, conversed in multiple languages, practiced cultural traditions, and inculcated hope in their children’s minds and hearts. As I listened to their steadfast voices and felt their innermost emotions, a clearer understanding came to mind about ways in which educators and families might construct new alliances for the benefit of children’s future in America.     

Who's the Boss? Concepts of Social Power Across Development

Power differences are observed in children's early relationships, yet little is known about how children conceptualize social power. Study 1 recruited adults (n = 35) to assess the validity of a series of vignettes to measure five dimensions of social power. Using these vignettes, Study 2 (149 three‐ to nine‐year‐olds, 42 adults) and Study 3 (86 three‐ to nine‐year‐olds, 22 adults) showed that children visiting a science museum at a middle class university town are sensitive to several dimensions of social power from a young age; however, an adult‐like breadth of power concepts does not develop until 7–9 years. Children understand social power whether the powerful character is malevolent or benevolent, though malevolent power is easier to detect for children and adults.     

Judgments and Reasoning About Parental Discipline Involving Induction and Psychological Control in China and Canada

This study examined judgments and reasoning about four parental discipline practices (induction or reasoning and three practices involving “psychological control”; Barber, 1996; two forms of shaming and love withdrawal) among children (7–14 years of age) from urban and rural China and Canada (N = 288) in response to a moral transgression. Children from all settings critically evaluated love withdrawal and preferred induction. Despite being perceived as more common in China than in Canada, with age, parental discipline based on shaming or love withdrawal was increasingly negatively evaluated and believed to have detrimental effects on children's feelings of self‐worth and psychological well‐being. Some cultural variations were found in evaluations of practices, perceptions of psychological harm, and attribution of parental goals.