Educational Psychology Early Career Award Winners: How Did They Do It?

Educational Psychology Review -     

Pupils' perceptions of setting and beyond—a response to Hallam and Ireson

This article examines the important data on pupils' perceptions of setting and mixed‐ability classes in 45 comprehensive schools in England collected by Hallam and Ireson. It is argued that the finding that most pupils prefer setting to mixed‐ability classes requires closer scrutiny and more careful interpretation. The conclusion that such preferences are because setting matches pupils' needs to their abilities is not compelling. Pupils' perceptions may be a product of transmitted ideology and wider cultural and organisational factors inside and outside school. Moreover, it is not clear what the implications of Hallam and Ireson's data on mixed‐ability classes are for mixed‐ability teaching. While, Hallam and Ireson propose more differentiated teaching and learning in mixed‐ability classes, this article contends that their data could be interpreted to imply just the opposite. Finally, the implications of their data for the debate about the nature of comprehensive education in Britain are considered.     

Art Education in Zimbabwe

Art education in Zimbabwe has a rather negative image which dates back to the colonial era. Art was usually confined to wealthy urban schools and taught mostly to white students. The subject was often used as a dumping ground for nonachievers and girls (who had few career options available to them outside of marriage). As a result art was considered an expensive and non‐academic subject in former Rhodesia. The situation did not improve after independence. Art still retains a poor image and has not expanded into mainstream education. However, the country has a rich artistic heritage and informal art education has developed to provide sculptures and crafts for the tourist industry. The government made art compulsory in primary education but have been unable to provide the necessary financial backing to implement the scheme. Only about 80 of the 1548 (5%) schools who have students sitting ‘O’ level examinations offer art as a subject. Third level education has been hindered by the lack of a degree course in art and design, and financial difficulties are again a concern.     

Positivism,Prejudice and Progress in the Sociology of Education: who's afraid of values?

This article is a response to Hammersley's allegations that my discussion of positivism and differentiation‐polarisation theory (d‐p), previously published in this journal, was misguided, incoherent and prejudiced against positivism. I refute those allegations by demonstrating that Hammersley has either misunderstood or misrepresented my position. Furthermore, by revealing inconsistencies in Hammersley's arguments about positivism and d‐p I expose his incoherencies and prejudices regarding the role of political values in social research. Finally and constructively, I suggest that the ‘enlightenment’ aspect of the ‘political arithmetic’ tradition has much to recommend it as a framework for progress in sociology of education.     

Relationships between formal-operational thought and conceptual difficulties in genetics problem solving

Seventy-one college general biology students were taught a unit in Mendelian genetics by the traditional lecture method. Emphasis was placed on meiotic formation of gametes, the Law of Segregation, and the Law of Independent Assortment. The Punnett-square model was used for all practice problems. Eight weeks later, a content-validated retention test was given to evaluate the students' retention of problem-solving skills. The test required students to use proportional reasoning (identifying ratios from the Punnett squares), combinatorial reasoning (identifying combinations of gametes from parental genotypes), and probabilistic reasoning (estimating gamete or offspring probabilities). Each of the 71 students was also given three Piagetian interview tasks to evaluate intellectual development in the areas of reasoning under question. The balance-beam task, the electronic switch-box task, and colored squares and diamonds were used to test for proportional reasoning, combinatorial reasoning, and probabilistic reasoning, respectively. Pearson correlations and factor analysis failed to show direct relationships among Piagetian tasks for the three kinds of reasoning and their corresponding occurrence in genetics problems. Some correlations were higher between different reasoning types than between similar types. Analysis of variance showed significant differences for all three reasoning types among concrete-operational, transitional, and formal-operational students with the retention test. Post-hoc analysis of ANOVAs indicated that formal-operational students had significantly more success in the three reasoning areas than transitional students, and transitional students had significantly more success than concrete-operational students.     

Professional Development of Multi-experienced Educators through a Book Study: Fostering Mentoring Relationships

A mentorship professional development model was provided to a group of educators at various stages in their career paths, ranging from pre-service teachers to in-service teachers to teacher leaders. We were interested in exploring how participants’ interactions during a book study influenced their perceptions of practice, with a specific aim at understanding what they noticed from these interactions and how they conceptualized their thoughts from the mentorship experience. Findings indicated that participants situated themselves with a receiver, neutral, or giver perspective, which influenced how they interacted with others. In the process, participants valued the security fostered from the relationships, generated new relationships with others with varying experiences, engaged in reflective practice, and considered exposure to other perspectives to be beneficial.