Personal autonomy and the flexible school

The paper starts by emphasizing the importance of the ideal of personal autonomy as a central educational aim within liberal-democratic thought. Although this ideal has been accorded different meanings in the past 200 years, this paper focuses on J. S. Mill's view of autonomy - a very influential view within the liberal tradition and one still relevant for us today. The basic educational recommendation stemming from Mill's view of this ideal is the need to encourage experimentation in living by young people to enable them to discover their authentic wishes, capabilities and interests and to exercise themselves in the formation of life-plans. The paper points to the sharp contradiction between democratic educational thought and practice: between the ideal of autonomy and the prevailing rigid and closed school structure which usually prevents true experimentation in living. It explains this contradiction as stemming from didactic and social considerations that were valid in industrial democratic societies. The paper's main claim is that due to the electronic revolution and its social consequences, the validity of these considerations is drastically and rapidly eroding in post-industrial democratic societies, and that, therefore, a much more flexible and open school structure is today not only desirable but also didactically and socially possible. The paper ends by presenting the School as a Communications Center model of a flexible school that reflects the above rationale. This model is now in the first stage of its implementation at a comprehensive high-school in Beer-Sheva, Israel.

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Zusammenfassung Zu Beginn dieses Artikels wird die Bedeutung des Ideals einer persönlichen Autonomie als zentrales Bildungsziel innerhalb liberal-demokratischer Vorstellungen hervorgehoben. Obwohl diesem Ideal in den letzten 200 Jahren verschiedene Bedeutungen gegeben wurden, konzentriert sich der Artikel auf J. S. Mills Auslegung - eine sehr einflußreiche Auslegung innerhalb liberaler Tradition, die auch heute noch bedeutsam für uns ist. Die grundlegende von Mills Sichtweise hergeleitete Empfehlung besagt, junge Menschen anzuregen, im Leben zu experimentieren, damit sie ihre ureigensten Wünsche, Fähigkeiten und Interessen entdecken lernen und sich in der Aufstellung von Lebensplänen üben. Der Artikel weist auf den scharfen Widerspruch zwischen demokratischen Vorstellungen über Bildung und der Praxis hin: zwischen dem Ideal einer Autonomie und der vorherrschenden starren und geschlossenen Schulstruktur, die im Normalfall wahre Lebensexperimente verhindert. Dieser Widerspruch wird mit didaktischen und sozialen Erwägungen erklärt, die in industriellen demokratischen Gesellschaften Gültigkeit besaßen. Die Hauptaussage des Artikels besteht darin, daß durch die elektronische Revolution und ihre sozialen Konsequenzen die Gültigkeit dieser Aussagen in den post-industriellen demokratischen Gesellschaften drastisch und rapide verfällt und aus diesem Grund eine viel flexiblere und offenere Schulstruktur nicht nur wünschenswert sondern in didaktischer und sozialer Hinsicht auch möglich wäre. Der Artikel endet mit der Vorstellung des Modells einer flexibleren Schule, der Schule als Kommunikationscenter, das das oben ausgeführte Grundprinzip verdeutlicht. Dieses Modell befindet sich derzeit in der Einführungsphase an einer Gesamtschule in Beer-Sheva, Israel.

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Résumé Le présent article souligne l'importance de l'idéal d'autonomie personnelle comme but éducatif central de la pensée démocratique libérale. Bien que l'on ait conféré différentes significations à cet idéal au cours des deux derniers siècles, cet article est focalisé sur la vue de l'autonomie de J. S. Mill, vue très influente dans la tradition libérale et toujours pertinente pour nous de nos jours. La recommandation fondamentale en matière d'éducation qui émane de la vision de Mill de cet idéal se rapporte à la nécessité d'encourager l'expérimentation par le vécu chez les jeunes pour leur permettre de découvrir leurs véritables désirs, capacités et intérêts et de s'exercer à l'établissement de projets de vie. On met en évidence, dans cet article, la contradiction marquée entre la pensée éducative démocratique et sa pratique, entre l'idéal d'autonomie et la structure scolaire rigide et fermée qui prévaut et empêche habituellement une véritable expérimentation par le vécu. On explique cette contradiction comme procédant de considérations industrielles et sociales qui avaient cours dans les sociétés industrielles démocratiques. L'assertion majeure faite dans cet article est qu'en raison de la révolution électronique et de ses conséquences sociales, la validité dé ces considérations se dégrade d'une manière rigoureuse et rapide dans les sociétés démocratiques postindustrielles, et que, par conséquent, une structure scolaire plus flexible et plus ouverte paraît aujourd'hui non seulement souhaitable mais aussi possible d'un point de vue didactique et social. L'auteur conclut en présentant un modèle d'école flexible dit l'Ecole comme centre de communications qui traduit la réflexion ci-dessus. La première phase de ce modèle est actuellement mise en oeuvre au lycée de Beer-Sheva, en Israël.

     

Group treatments for women sexually abused as children: a review of the literature and recommendations for future outcome research

OBJECTIVE: Adults with a history of sexual abuse often suffer many long-term consequences. It is important that therapists be able to provide effective treatment to address the host of issues that are presented in therapy by adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). In order to provide the best possible treatment, therapists should know which treatments are most effective. METHOD: This paper provides a critique of the outcome research of 13 studies (six uncontrolled and seven controlled) on the treatment of adults who suffered childhood sexual abuse and discusses specific methodological strategies that can enhance the quality of such research in the future. RESULTS: Although many of the studies contain methodological limitations, the results generally indicate that group treatment helps reduce symptomatology in the short-term and at follow-up. CONCLUSION: Although outcome research has not been published on specific individual or conjoint treatment approaches for adult survivors of CSA, several outcome studies have found group treatment to be effective in the recovery of female CSA survivors.     

Linking the shapes of alphabet letters to their sounds: the case of Hebrew

Learning the sounds of letters is an important part of learning a writing system. Most previous studies of this process have examined English, focusing on variations in the phonetic iconicity of letter names as a reason why some letter sounds (such as that of b, where the sound is at the beginning of the letter’s name) are easier to learn than others (such as that of w, where the sound is not in the name). The present study examined Hebrew, where variations in the phonetic iconicity of letter names are minimal. In a study of 391 Israeli children with a mean age of 5 years, 10 months, we used multilevel models to examine the factors that are associated with knowledge of letter sounds. One set of factors involved letter names: Children sometimes attributed to a letter a consonant–vowel sound consisting of the first phonemes of the letter’s name. A second set of factors involved contrast: Children had difficulty when there was relatively little contrast in shape between one letter and others. Frequency was also important, encompassing both child-specific effects, such as a benefit for the first letter of a child’s forename, and effects that held true across children, such as a benefit for the first letters of the alphabet. These factors reflect general properties of human learning.     

Relationship between Physical Fitness and Susceptibility to Cardiovascular Disease

Abstract

This study was conducted (a) to determine through factor analysis techniques the basic factors underlying selected blood variables, metabolic variables, and previously determined physical and athletic fitness variables at four fixed stages of metabolic stress and (b) to determine with the t-test and through discriminant function techniques those blood variables which can discriminate between high and low levels of physical fitness. The objective of the analyses was the interpretation of the revealed information in light of previously found knowledge on the relationship of physical activity and susceptibility to heart disease. Four factors were extracted and interpreted: the effect of weight on motor fitness, the detrimental effect of aging on physical fitness, metabolic readiness, and fitness and NEFA mobility. The t-test showed statistical significance for the difference between the physically fit and unfit group means in resting serum cholesterol, submaximal exercise serum cholesterol, maximal exercise blood pH, and recovery period blood pH. The discriminant function of the combined resting and submaximal exercise serum cholesterol has a statistically determined discriminating power for the physically fit and unfit groups.     

Farmers’ Visions on Soils: A Case Study among Agroecological and Conventional Smallholders in Minas Gerais,Brazil

Abstract

Purpose: Why do farmers not take better care of their soils? This article aims to give insight into how farmers look at soil quality management.

Design/methodology/approach: It analyses diverse land management practices and visions on soils and soil quality of ten agroecological and 14 conventional smallholder farmers in Araponga, Minas Gerais, Brazil. As agroecological farming (that is, managing soils with minimum use of external inputs) requires more complex knowledge, it is assumed that agroecological farmers would be more knowledgeable on soils compared to conventional farmers. This case study tests the hypothesis that differences in land management practices between agroecological and conventional farmers can be explained by differences in their knowledge on soils.

Findings: The hypothesis turned out to be faulty: agroecological and conventional farmers do not differ in what they know about soils, but how they use their knowledge in their farming strategy. Both groups of farmers have different but rational farming strategies.

Practical implications: Designing policies and measures to make farming more environmentally friendly and more sustainable as two-way knowledge exchange between farmers and science (and not as one-way knowledge transfer from science to farmers), to benefit from vital and context-based farmers’ knowledge and to ensure successful implementation of more sustainable land management practices.

Originality/value: By analysing farmers’ visions on soil quality management and farming strategies, this study shows that farmers’ knowledge is valuable for farmers, for scientific knowledge on soil quality management and for policies which are to be effective and adapted to the local environment.     

Spelling of Deaf Children Who Use Cochlear Implants

The spellings of 39 profoundly deaf users of cochlear implants, aged 6 to 12 years, were compared with those of 39 hearing peers. When controlled for age and reading ability, the error rates of the 2 groups were not significantly different. Both groups evinced phonological spelling strategies, performing better on words with more typical sound–spelling correspondences and often making misspellings that were phonologically plausible. However, the magnitude of these phonological effects was smaller for the deaf children than for hearing children of comparable reading and spelling ability. Deaf children with cochlear implants made the same low proportion of transposition errors as hearing children. The findings indicate that deaf children do not rely primarily on visual memorization strategies, as suggested by previous studies. However, deaf children with cochlear implants use phonological spelling strategies to a lesser degree than hearing peers.     

Student conscientiousness,self‐regulated learning,and science achievement: An explorative field study

This explorative field study examined the mediating role of self‐regulated learning (SRL) in the relationship between the personality trait of conscientiousness, SRL, and science achievement in a sample of junior high school students. Over the course of an entire academic year, data on enacted SRL were collected each week for 52 eighth‐grade students in the context of an inquiry‐based ecology project. Data were also collected on personality traits, self‐reported study strategies, science project achievement, and grade point average. Findings show significant relationships between conscientiousness, SRL, and achievement. As hypothesized, conscientiousness was shown to significantly impact academic achievement in the inquiry‐based course, mediated by enacted SRL. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Young children's knowledge about printed names

Four experiments examined young children's knowledge about the visual characteristics of writing, specifically personal names. Children younger than 4 years of age, even those who could read no simple words, showed some knowledge about the horizontal orientation of English names, the Latin letters that make them up, and their left-to-right directionality. Preschoolers also had some familiarity with the shapes of the letters in their own first name, especially the leftmost letter. Knowledge of the conventional capitalization pattern for English names emerged later, after a period during which children preferred names in all uppercase letters. When tested with personal names, the kind of word they know best, young children are surprisingly knowledgeable about the visual characteristics of writing.     

The CAST Initiative in Guam： A Model of Effective Teachers Teaching Teachers

The CAST （content area specialized training） model of professional development enables sustainable teacher leadership and is responsive to the need for culturally relevant educational practices. The purpose of this paper is to share the background, methods, findings and recommendations of a case study on the CAST initiative in Guam. The case study is worth a look given that 100% of the participants in the CAST initiative indicated that they were satisfied with the CAST model of professional development.