Spreading the word: who profits from science publishing? A symposium held at the EuroScience Open Forum

An account is given of the first EuroScience Open Forum and specifically of a symposium within it on the publication of scientific research. The scene‐setting presentations and the summary of the discussions are set out.     

Argumentation for Learning: Well-Trodden Paths and Unexplored Territories

There is increasing consensus among psycho-educational scholars about argumentation as a means to improve student knowledge and understanding of subject matter. In this article, we argue that, notwithstanding a strong theoretical rationale, causal evidence is not abundant, definitions of the objects of study (argumentation, learning) are often not well defined, and the variance in research methods is large. We argue that we systematically review the available research evidence by mapping it on the Argumentation For Learning research framework, which specifies the different antecedents, dialogue characteristics, and learning outcomes of argumentation. In doing so, we identify claims that are supported with substantive empirical evidence and demonstrate which questions are still open to further empirical examination. We also uncover several promising, relatively unexplored venues for future research.     

Learning practices and development in yeshivas: historical,social, and cultural perspectives

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Although the yeshiva is the housekeeper of the Jewish tradition of learning, it has undergone dramatic changes along history. We describe these changes...     

When is less more? Investigating gap-filling in proofs without words activities

Educational Studies in Mathematics - Visuospatial representations of numbers and their relationships are widely used in mathematics education. These include drawn images, models constructed with...     

Conceptual change within dyadic interactions: the dance of conceptual and material agency

We offer a new approach to emergent knowledge in processes of conceptual change in dyadic interaction by drawing on Pickering’s (The Mangle of Practice, The University of Chicago Press, London, 1995) Mangle of Practice theory, which theorizes the emergence of new scientific knowledge as occurring due to material resistance and human accommodations to such resistance. We use Commognition (Sfard in Thinking as communicating, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2008), which conceptualizes learning as a change in discourse, and conceptual change as change in meta-discursive rules, to examine the interaction between several dyads working on proportional reasoning tasks. These dyads were selected for close scrutiny based on a large previous experimental study designed to examine the most productive constellation for pairing students of different levels with or without a hypothesis testing device. The Mangle helps us theorize the emergent, unpredictable aspects of learning and conceptual change. We provide three criteria for examining the productivity of the interaction: Availability of an alternative discourse (proportional vs. additive), Resistance of material/disciplinary agency and Positioning of students to make meta-discursive shifts. We discuss this model as an aid for monitoring and designing learning situations that enhance conceptual change.     

Incorporating Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy Principles into Career Counseling: A Theoretical and Practical Approach

There is wide agreement among career counselors that there should not be a dichotomy between personal and career themes in career counseling. This article offers a Developmental Career Counseling (DCC) model that incorporates Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (STDP) principles, specifically, James Mann's (1973) model, into a career counseling process. Common principles of STDP and their relation to principles of DCC are discussed: developmental life-span approach, limited time, importance of working alliance, rapid and early assessment, central focus, active and directive counselor participation, therapeutic flexibility, dealing with termination and specific criteria for client suitability to work in STDP and DCC. The model is illustrated through a DCC case of 8 sessions that focused on issues of self-esteem. The implementation of insights, techniques, and processes, borrowed from STDP and incorporated into career counseling, are demonstrated and implications for the practice of DCC are discussed.     

Professional development of mathematics teachers toward the facilitation of small-group collaboration

Collaborative work in small groups is often a suitable context for yielding substantial individual learning outcomes. Indeed, small-group collaboration has recently become an educational goal rather than a means. Yet, this goal is difficult to attain, and students must be taught how to learn together. In this paper, we focus on how to prepare teachers to become facilitators of small-group collaboration. The current case study monitors a group of six prospective teachers and their instructor during a one-semester course. The instructor was a skilled mathematics teacher with strong beliefs about what is entailed in establishing a mini-culture of learning to learn together and about how to facilitate student group work in problem-solving situations. We describe the learning path followed by the instructor, including the digital environment. The findings show that by the end of the course, the students became more competent facilitators of learning to learn together.     

A Review of: “Practical Theology: On Earth as It Is in Heaven”

The nature of adult religious education has been expanding in recent years, requiring adult religious educators to be more flexible and expansive in their practice. This article describes how the traditional “expert” role of the educator can no longer be the only role or image of an adult religious educator; rather, to be a good adult educator requires that one be more of a learning consultant, operating within a matrix or kaleidoscope of roles.     

The emergent perspective in rich learning environments: Some roles of tools and activities in the construction of sociomathematical norms

The emergent perspective (Yackel and Cobb, 1996) is a powerful theory for describing cognitive development within classrooms. Yackel and Cobb have shown that the formation of social and sociomathematical norms, and opportunities for learning are intertwined. The present study is an attempt to extend the range of application of the emergent perspective to middle high school classrooms. The learning environments we consider are rich in the sense that (i) the tasks in which students are engaged are open-ended problem-situations (ii) the activities around the tasks are multiphased, consisting of small group collaboration on problem solving, reporting and reflection in a classroom forum with the teacher (iii) the tools used are multi-representational software. We identify here some practices rooted in such rich environments from which several sociomathematical norms stemmed. The present study shows that socio-mathematical norms do not rise from verbal interactions only, but also from computer manipulations as communicative non-verbal actions. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.