Oldham’s Moot (1938–1947), the universities and the adult citizen

The influential policy work in education of the intellectual grouping formed by J.H. Oldham during the Second World War known as ‘Oldham’s Moot’ (1938–1947) has been discussed in recent publications. These have noted its general educational and university policy, its intellectual strengths, and the role of Sir Walter Moberly in relation to his chairmanship of the UGC and his The Crisis in the University (1949). Others have placed its thinking in a tradition of Christian medievalism and British intellectual movements. This article focuses on the social theories debated in the group, especially their European roots, their contribution to their discussions on the university and especially the role of adult citizenship in the era of ‘Planning of Freedom’. In particular the authors follow the arguments concerning the integration of adult education in the university reform they envisage.     

Fostering Transit between Real World and Mathematical World: Some Phases on the Modelling Cycle

This study shows how, in the initial training of mathematics teachers, it is possible to promote processes of abstraction and mathematisation through modelling a real situation with the support of auxiliary material to mediate understanding. By adapting elements of the theoretical and methodological framework called Abstraction in Context (AiC), participants’ discussions while building a mathematical model—in a nested epistemic actions—are analysed. Two specific points are discussed in this paper. The first aims to identify how different types of knowledge emerge when an individual is faced with a modelling task. The second is regarding the use of auxiliary material as a means of metaphorising a situation. It was evidenced how the material favours the construction of a mathematical model through the simplification and idealisation that it brings. The meaning constructed for the model is supported in recognising a decreasing behaviour as a part of a whole.     

Asymptomatic players with a patellar tendon abnormality do not adapt their landing mechanics when fatigued

This study aimed to explore how asymptomatic athletes with a patellar tendon abnormality (PTA), who are at high risk of developing patellar tendinopathy, alter their landing technique and net patellar tendon loads generated in response to fatigue. Seven asymptomatic players with a PTA performed five successful vertical stop-jump trials before and after a fatigue protocol. Fatigue protocol involved participants repeatedly performing sets of 30 submaximal jump exercises on a sledge apparatus followed by 30 s rest until the task failure criteria were reached. Three-dimensional ground reaction forces, lower limb kinematics and net peak patellar tendon force were recorded during the stop-jump task. No significant between-fatigue condition differences in net patellar tendon loading, or most secondary outcome variables were observed. Only some fatigue changes were seen during the vertical landing phase. Asymptomatic PTA participants did not modify their landing technique or net patellar tendon loading during a stop-jump task in response to fatigue. The lack of between-fatigue condition differences displayed by the asymptomatic PTA participants during both landing phases suggest that these individuals may not be capable of sufficient movement variability in their landing strategies to adapt to fatigue.     

Phonological specificity relates to phonological awareness and reading ability in English–French bilingual children

Reading and Writing - The 1-year longitudinal study presented here examined the extent to which the ability to build phonologically specific lexical entries as a result of increasing vocabulary...     

Writing in the content areas: a Norwegian case study

Since 2006, literacy skills have been mandated as an integral part of all subject areas at all levels (grades 1–13) in Norwegian schools. With the exception of reading, evaluation reports show that teaching in general seems to be little affected by this reform. During the last few years, however, there has been a noticeable growth in interest in writing in the content areas. The article presents quantitative and qualitative data from a network of secondary schools that have established cross-curricular school-based writing projects. Teachers in these schools meet regularly, sharing experiences about students’ writing and ways of organizing writing sessions. While they had to deal with differences in subject-specific text norms, they discovered similarities across subject areas they could work collectively on. A major effect for the participants was the development of a broader instruction repertoire and more goal-related use of scaffolding strategies in the classroom, most of which was in accordance with a process approach to writing. We discuss these data in the light of similar studies in Norway and abroad, and we highlight some reflections about implications for practice.     

Meeting the challenges of teaching in a different cultural environment – evidence from graduate management schools in Thailand

In this paper we describe the efforts of foreign university teachers in graduate schools in Thailand as they incorporate cultural knowledge into their classroom teaching styles and methodology. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews we have gathered qualitative data on the teachers’ concerns, mindsets and their proposed solutions. We build up our discussion in several stages. We set the scene by discussing the importance of cultural sensitivity in settings where teacher and learners have different cultural backgrounds. We then introduce the concept of cultural intelligence and use this to help us examine the literature on cultural sensitivity in teaching from a new perspective. We then describe the cultural context of teaching in Thailand and offer empirical data from our respondents’ experiences. From our research data we identified five main aspects of Thai culture where teachers felt the need to expand/adapt their existing teaching repertoires. These aspects are: fun/sanuk; hierarchy/kreng jai; authority with a kind heart/jai dee; collectivist group activities; and localized class content. We discuss our findings in relation to cultural adjustments that the teachers sought to make and, in conclusion, link this discussion to our earlier examination of cultural intelligence.     

A test of imagined contact as a means to improve cross-partisan feelings and reduce attribution of malevolence and acceptance of political violence

In this study, we test the depolarizing potential of intrapersonal communication through imagined intergroup political contact. A randomized experiment was embedded into a quota-stratified online survey distributed to 583 U.S. adults drawn from an online panel proportioned to match the U.S. population. Structural equation modeling was used to test the direct, indirect, and conditional effects of imagined contact. We found that imagined contact with a political outgroup directly reduced negative affect toward the political outgroup regardless of the primed valence of the imagined interaction. Furthermore, we found that imagined contact indirectly reduced attribution of malevolence to the political outgroup as well as the acceptance of political violence. Implications for intergroup theory and political polarization are discussed.     

Self‐selection of Simple Computer Activities by Infant School Pupils

Abstract Many activities from the infant class curriculum may be enhanced by realising them in the interactive context of a computer environment. This raises the question of whether young children can make choices among such activities that would reflect an awareness of their difficulty and a motivation to master them. In this research, infant class pupils were provided with software that offered unconstrained opportunities to select a range of related activities and the level of difficulty at which they would be tackled. Choices and response times were automatically recorded over a period of three weeks. These choices remained stable throughout that time and were biased towards the easiest options. There was some improvement in performance although little evidence of choice strategies that could be effective in driving such improvement. There was no evidence of sex differences in frequency of using the computer.     

RESCUR Surfing the Waves: an evaluation of a resilience programme in the early years

ABSTRACT

RESCUR Surfing the Waves is a recently developed resilience curriculum for early years and primary schools in Europe. It seeks to develop in marginalized young learners the requisite competences needed to overcome the various challenges in their lives to achieve academic success and social and emotional wellbeing. The competences include developing a growth mindset, making use of one’s strengths, self-determination, effective communication skills and healthy relationships, and overcoming challenges and obstacles. This paper presents the findings of a study on the implementation of the programme in five kindergarten centres in Malta over a 1-year period. A pre- and post-intervention study in 20 classrooms (97 children) showed an improvement in resilience skills, prosocial behavior and learning engagement, but not in internalized and externalized problem behaviors. A small scale study in two nurture classes at two of the schools found similar findings. The findings suggest that there are indications that the programme as a proportionate universal intervention for early years leads to an improvement in social and academic behaviours, but more rigorous research is needed to substantiate these findings.