Neurocognitive function and joint attention ability in young children with autism spectrum disorder versus developmental delay

Studies have shown that young children with autism are not impaired on prefrontal tasks relative to what would be expected for their mental age, raising questions about the executive dysfunction hypothesis of autism. These studies did not include ventromedial prefrontal tasks, however. The present study examined whether young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are impaired on ventromedial prefrontal tasks, and whether performance on such tasks is correlated with a core autism symptom, joint attention ability. Seventy-two 3- to 4-year-old children with ASD, 34 3- to 4-year-old developmentally delayed children, and 39 12- to 46-month-old typically developing children, matched on mental age, were administered ventromedial and dorsolateral prefrontal tasks and joint attention tasks. Children with ASD performed similarly to comparison groups on all executive function tasks, indicating that at this early age, there is no autism-specific pattern of executive dysfunction. Ventromedial, but not dorsolateral, prefrontal task performance was strongly correlated with joint attention ability, however. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is hypothesized to play a role in the development of joint attention and possibly some aspects of the autistic syndrome.     

Cultural diversity and the imagined community of the global academy

Transnational academic mobility and the ongoing push towards “internationalization” together raise challenges for the cultural climate of today's universities. This paper explores these issues from the perspective of supervisors of research degrees in an Australian university in which “internationalization” and “academic mobility” apply to supervisors as much as to students. The concepts of the imagined community and cosmopolitanism are employed to interpret a series of one-on-one and group interviews conducted with international academic staff, conversations which reported surprisingly untroubled negotiation of cultural difference. Using the insights provided by the concepts of “imagined community” and “cosmopolitanism”, we investigate the mechanisms mobilized by these supervisors in apparently backgrounding cultural diversity in the workplace, and consider the implications of the academic subjectivities they perform.     

Education for the elderly: New directions in a changing Europe

It will be of paramount importance for a united Europe to integrate older men and women and to establish their position in society. European countries are insufficiently prepared for the individual and collective resources of the elderly. Unfortunately the countries lack institutions capable of supporting a lifelong process of education, including the elderly. Today's elderly people become increasingly aware that because of technological and economic demands and changes in society it is necessary to learn and retrain through the whole of one's life. The strengthening of the community of solidarity in Europe requires not only the promotion of older and younger people learning about each other, but especially the transfer of experience and knowledge among the older people of different countries. The reason for this strident demand for education for the elderly has to be seen in the context of a demographic and structural process of change, which affects almost all European societies. Education for the elderly contributes to connecting experiences and the capacity of elderly people to cope with their situation with up-to-date knowledge and with new strategies for possible solutions. At the same time the educational situation is suited to encouraging and promoting a transfer of knowledge between elderly and younger people and among members (elderly or younger) of different countries.

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Zusammenfassung Das Europa der Zukunft verfügt über ein Potential von alternden und letztlich dann alten Frauen und Männern, das zu integrieren und gesellschaftlich zur Geltung zu bringen von zentraler Bedeutung für ein vereintes Europa sein wird. Gleichwohl sind die europäischen Länder auf die individuellen und kollektiven Ressourcen Älterer noch unzureichend eingestellt. Bedauerlicherweise fehlt es an Institutionen, die in der Lage sind, Lern- und Bildungsprozesse lebenslang, vor allem aber im Alter, zu fördern. Alternden Menschen wird heute im zunehmendem Maße bewußt, daß aufgrund technischer und ökonomischer Anforderungen sowie gesellschaftlicher Wandlungsprozesse fortwährende Neu- und Umlernprozesse im Lebensverlauf von Nöten sind. Angesichts der europäischen Integration ist zur Stärkung der Solidargemeinschaft nicht nur ein wechselseitiges Lernen von älteren und jüngeren Menschen zu fördern, sondern vor allem auch der Erfahrungs- und Wissenstransfer zwischen den älteren Menschen verschiedener Nationen. Die Grundlage für die vehemente Forderung nach Bildung im Alter ist in demographischen und strukturellen Wandlungsprozessen zu sehen, von denen nahezu alle europäischen Gesellschaften betroffen sind. Bildung und Lernen im Alter trägt dazu bei, das Erfahrungswissen und die darin eingeschlossenen Auseinandersetzungskompetenzen Älterer in Zusammenhang zu bringen mit aktuellem Wissen sowie mit neuen Lösungsstrategien. Gleichzeitig sind Lern- und Bildungssituationen geeignet, einen Wissenstransfer zwischen verschiedenen Gruppen Älterer, zwischen Älteren und Jüngeren sowie zwischen Mitgliedern (Ältere oder Jüngere) verschiedener Nationen anzuregen und auszubauen.

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Résumé L'intégration des personnes âgées et la promotion de leur position dans la société aura une importance considérable dans l'Europe unifiée. Les pays européens sont mal préparés aux ressources individuelles et collectives de ces personnes. Malheureusement, ces pays manquent d'institutions capables de soutenir un processus d'éducation permanente prenant en considération les personnes âgées. Les personnes d'un âge avancé sont aujourd'hui de plus en plus conscientes, à cause des exigences technologiques et économiques et des changements intervenant dans la société, qu'il apparaît nécessaire d'apprendre et de mettre à jour leurs connaissances tout au long de la vie. Le renforcement de la communauté de solidarité en Europe requiert non seulement la promotion des jeunes et des personnes âgées engagés dans un processus d'apprentissage mutuel, mais surtout le transfert d'expériences et de connaissances entre les personnes âgées de pays différents. La raison de cette demande pressante d'éducation pur les personnes âgées doit être vue dans le contexte d'un processus démographique et structural de changement, qui touche presque tous les pays européens. L'éducation relative aux personnes âgées contribue à établir un rapport entre les expériences et la capacité des personnes âgées à venir à bout de leur situation, et un savoir actuel et de nouvelles stratégies pour des solutions possibles. En même temps, la situation éducative est apte à encourager et à promouvoir un transfert de connaissances entre les jeunes et les personnes âgées et entre les membres (jeunes ou âgés) des différents pays.

     

Social education for teachers in Ceylon

Conclusion The problems of teacher education have not only been subjects of study for a long period, but have been so in the recent past, in reviews sponsored by Unesco, the International Bureau of Education and other bodies, official or voluntary and national or international. There has been, in these reports and reviews, an increasing attention to the social aspects of education, but there have also been two other features. Firstly, most of the studies have related to the non-graduate teacher, and secondly they have been discussions of principles, with suggestions for content, but with little if any attention to procedures.In this article the concern has been with graduate teachers, whose training is of such importance, not merely because they are responsible for secondary education, but because they are the cadre from which principals, inspectors and adminstrators come. Moreover, in addition to discussing some of the theoretical aspects of the situation, the practical procedures involved have been described and there has been some attempt to evaluate the work done.It is not claimed that this programme of social education for teachers is free from shortcomings, nor that it cannot be improved, nor that it is relevant, without modification, to places other than Ceylon. Nor is it suggested that the many and desirable changes, which are so marked a feature of educational progress in Ceylon, result only from this single factor.It can however be presented as an attempt to develop a rationale and apply a procedure in the social education of graduate teachers which has aroused the interests of its students and has flowed over into action and study which have contributed to educational improvement. It certainly has acted as an integrating factor in the work of the Department and has stimulated no little activity. Such success as it has achieved is due to the co-operative efforts of all engaged in it, both as students and staff — and their contributions are very gratefully acknowledged by the writer.

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Soziologie im Rahmen der Lehrerausbildung auf Ceylon

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Formation sociale des maitres à Ceylan

     

Education in and for the Belt and Road Initiative:

Abstract

This paper is an experiment in collective writing conducted in Autumn 2019 at the Faculty of Education at Beijing Normal University. The experiment involves 12 international masters' students reading the course based on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), their professor Michael Peters, visiting professor Petar Jandri?, and a mix of senior Chinese and Western scholars. To successfully complete the course, the students were required to produce a 3000-word paper of publishable quality. As part of this writing process we decided to engage in the experiment of collective writing where we aimed to produce a single paper consisting of the abstracts. This collective paper was developed in 7 steps. (1) Students submitted their 250-word abstracts. (2) Students were introduced into the methodology of collective writing, and 2 student-editors – Ogunniran Moses Oladele and Benjamin Green – volunteered to work on the paper. (3) Michael Peters wrote the introduction. (4) Abstracts were expanded to 500 words and integrated into a single document. (5) Petar Jandri? began to edit the paper and write a conclusion. (6) Students presented their abstracts in the class, where Michael Peters and Petar Jandri? provided direct feedback. (6) Revised abstracts were again integrated into a single document by student editors, and proofread / copy-edited in several exchanges with the instructors (7) The paper was subject to the process of open review, and the reviewer's comments were included in the paper. Resulting from months of collective work, the final paper provides a wide range of views ad perspectives to the question of education as a part of the BRI initiative.     

Marital Adjustment, Parental Disagreements about Child Rearing, and Behavior Problems in Boys: Increasing the Specificity of the Marital Assessment

2 studies were conducted to illustrate how measuring a specific aspect of marriage, namely, child-rearing disagreements, provides a better understanding of the link between marriage and boys' behavior. In Study 1, 200 mothers of 3-year-old boys completed unstandardized measures of marital functioning and child behavior. An index of child-rearing disagreements: (1) correlated with a greater variety of behavior problems than nonchild disagreements, and (2) improved upon the prediction of behavior problems after accounting for nonchild disagreements as well as after accounting for boys' exposure to marital conflict. In Study 2, 87 mothers with 4-6-year-old sons completed the index of child-rearing disagreements used in Study 1 as well as standard measures of marital functioning and child behavior. Child-rearing disagreements: (1) predicted a greater variety of behavior problems than global marital adjustment, and (2) improved upon the prediction of internalizing problems after controlling for global marital adjustment as well as after controlling for boys' exposure to marital conflict.