Ethnic Identity Development and Acculturation Preferences Among Minority and Majority Youth: Norms and Contact

This article tests a longitudinal model of the antecedents and consequences of changes in identification with indigenous (Mapuche) among indigenous and nonindigenous youth in Chilean school contexts over a 6‐month period (633 nonindigenous and 270 Mapuche students, M_ages = 12.47 and 12.80 years, respectively). Results revealed that in‐group norms supporting contact and quality of intergroup contact at Time 1 predicted student's changes in Mapuche identification at Time 2, which in turn predicted changes in support for adoption of Chilean culture and maintenance of Mapuche culture at Time 2; some of the relationships between these variables were found to be moderated by age and ethnicity. Conceptual and policy implications are addressed in the Discussion .     

State-formation,teaching techniques,and globalisation as aporia

This paper conjoins Derrida's analysis of aporia and boderlines with Foucault's genealogical sensibilities to rethink the attribution of recent events in education to globalisation. Three analytical domains are linked to historicise student-teacher interaction: studies of pedagogical techniques, sociological analyses of the state, and philosophical conceptions of Being and desire. This confluence of domains makes apparent multiple efforts to transgress noncrossable borders in educational work, suggesting new conceptualisations of justice and ethical responsibility in the analysis of classroom life.     

The role of sweeteners in the diet of young children

The health and nutrition implications of high sugar intake for young children are discussed. Infants and young children prefer foods that taste sweet. Sugar substitutes used in moderation can provide a compromise for child care providers who want to offer nutritious food which young children will eat. This study examined sweetener preferences of young children, including a new sweetener (Sweet One^®). Participants (3–8 years of age) sampled a beverage and plain cottage cheese sweetened with either sugar or Sweet One^® as part of a sensory difference test. They also ranked four vanilla puddings sweetened with sugar and three FDA approved sweeteners. In the difference test, the subjects were able to tell the difference between sugar and Sweet One^® in the beverage, but not in the cottage cheese. There was no consensus among the panelists for a sweetener preference in the rank-order test.     

Personal and Contextual Influences on Township School Learners’ Motivation and Self-Regulated Learning

Learners’ self-regulation, which includes motivational variables, is influenced by personal variables within learners themselves, as well as by contextual factors. A great deal of research has focused on personal variables in learners that influence their self-regulated behaviours; yet contextual influences that operate outside of formal schooling of township school learners, although generally acknowledged, remain under-researched. The research presented in this paper explored 14 secondary township school teachers’ perceptions of the factors that influence learners’ motivation to achieve academic success. A better understanding of contextual motivational factors could influence teaching and learning, as well as provide the needed support that ultimately will enhance the academic achievement of South African township school learners. Participants perceived autonomy-supportive, extrinsic motivation, schools as positive learning environments, study and job opportunities, community projects, friends and peers, poverty, and encouragement from the local community as strong sources of motivation.     

Rating scale instruments and measurement

The article examines theoretical issues associated with measurement in the human sciences and ensuring data from rating scale instruments are measures. An argument is made that using raw scores from rating scale instruments for subsequent arithmetic operations and applying linear statistics is less preferable than using measures. These theoretical matters are then illustrated by a report on the application of the Rasch Rating Scale Model in an investigation into elementary school classroom learning culture.     

Students' expectations about the processing demandsof teacher-made tests

History teachers (N=22) and their 11th-grade students (N=451) rated the importanceof four types of questions (verbatim, paraphrase, inference and skill items) by indicating the degree to which these questions were to be expected in an upcoming teacher-made test about a particular textbook chapter. In addition, teachers classified their actual tests according to these four question types. Importance ratings of individual students showed a low correspondence with those of their teacher and no correspondence with the actual test questions (as classified by their teacher). However, teachers' importance ratings also showed a considerable number of discrepancies with the actual test questions. These findings suggest that in study-test situations, more clarity is needed about processing demands.     

Public Demonstrations of Chemistry in Eighteenth Century France

The purpose of the paper is twofold: (1) To contrast the longstanding tradition of private and public courses of chemistry with the public demonstrations of physics. Whether taught in public institutions such as the Jardin du Roi or by apothecaries in their officines chemistry demonstrations were not for the entertainment of their audiences. Rather, they were intended to train people in pharmacy and natural philosophy. (2) By the end of the eighteenth-century, however, pneumatic chemistry prompted a new style of presentation and experimentation more similar to experimental physics, as shown by the famous experiment of water decomposition and recomposition performed by Lavoisier in 1785.