Social cohesion and integration: learning active citizenship

This article starts from a conceptual clarification of the notions social integration and social cohesion as a prerequisite for the reorientation of citizenship education. Turning away from uncritically reproduced assumptions represented in mainstream ‘deficiency discourse’, the article first focuses on sociological conditions for the rise of active citizenship and its role in the revitalization of the public sphere. Next a number of educational objectives are deduced from competencies needed and learning processes taking place in practices of active citizenship. Finally, the article argues for the adoption of a lifelong learning perspective, relating formal citizenship education to informal and non‐formal experiences of active citizenship.     

The transition from fingerspelling to English print: facilitating English decoding

Fingerspelling is an integral part of American Sign Language (ASL) and it is also an important aspect of becoming bilingual in English and ASL. Even though fingerspelling is based on English orthography, the development of fingerspelling does not parallel the development of reading in hearing children. Research reveals that deaf children may initially treat fingerspelled words as lexical items rather than a series of letters that represent English orthography and only later begin to learn to link handshapes to English graphemes. The purpose of this study is to determine whether a training method that uses fingerspelling and phonological patterns that resemble those found in lexicalized fingerspelling to teach deaf students unknown English vocabulary would increase their ability to learn the fingerspelled and orthographic version of a word. There were 21 deaf students (aged 4-14 years) who participated. Results show that students were better able to recognize and write the printed English word as well as fingerspell the word, when training incorporated fingerspelling that is more lexicalized. The discussion focuses on the degree to which fingerspelling can serve as a visual phonological bridge as an aid to decode English print.     

Language and theory of mind: a study of deaf children

Theory-of-mind (ToM) abilities were studied in 176 deaf children aged 3 years 11 months to 8 years 3 months who use either American Sign Language (ASL) or oral English, with hearing parents or deaf parents. A battery of tasks tapping understanding of false belief and knowledge state and language skills, ASL or English, was given to each child. There was a significant delay on ToM tasks in deaf children of hearing parents, who typically demonstrate language delays, regardless of whether they used spoken English or ASL. In contrast, deaf children from deaf families performed identically to same-aged hearing controls (N=42). Both vocabulary and understanding syntactic complements were significant independent predictors of success on verbal and low-verbal ToM tasks.     

Defying the dominant discourse: why contesting neoliberalism needs critical pedagogy in economics education

Both the dominant narrative in the economics discipline and the predominant mode of delivery of an economics education in colleges and universities mutually reinforce the authority of neoliberalism. This paper argues that a counterhegemonic pedagogy in addition to a pluralist curriculum equips students with the knowledge they need to exercise their own judgment as future economists, business leaders and policy makers. Beyond opening discussions of alternative theoretical and methodological approaches or separately, diversifying modes of delivery to promote critical thinking, an economics education engaging critical pedagogy can create the space students need to discuss not only the different assumptions about material relations and individual behavior intrinsic to various economic models, but also the assumed social relations in both the models studied and the construction of which knowledge defines economics as a field of study.     

An investigation of the Iowa tests of basic skills for sex bias: A developmental look

Results of the Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension, and Mathematics Concepts subtests for third-, sixth-, and eighth-grade students who took Form 5 of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills in the 1976 school year were analyzed for sex bias. Statistical significance was found for each subtest for all of the grade levels. Follow-up analyses considered skill classification, sex-stereotypicalness, and item location of the items contributing to the statistical significance. No trends for these factors were found within each grade level for the four subtests considered. For all subtests, fewer items are identified at the third-grade level than for sixth or eighth grade, and these items, in general, favored boys. For the older students, when items are found to function differently for boys and girls, nearly half favor each sex. On the whole, little evidence for sex bias was found for the four subtests and three grade levels examined.     

The Impact of Receivers’ Nationality and Cultural Orientation on the Effects of Fear Appeals in Health Communication

Participants from the Netherlands (n = 52), China (n = 50), and South Africa (n = 166) either read a self-targeted or a family-targeted fear appeal message about chlamydia. Seven aspects of individual cultural orientation were measured, and six effects of the different messages. Interactions between nationality and target of threat were found on perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, and danger control. Only for perceived susceptibility, a difference in cultural orientation partly explained this interaction. The outcomes add to the doubts about claims in earlier literature about the relevance of receivers’ nationality and cultural orientation for developing a fear appeal message.     

Gender typing of sports: an investigation of Metheny's classification

The purpose of this study was to investigate if children perceived certain sports to be masculine, feminine, or neutral. Students attending a University Laboratory school (grades K-12) were asked to fill out a survey about sports during a class period, Children in grades K-6 were given a sport (such as baseball) and asked if a boy named David would play it, if a girl named Jane would play it, or if both David and Jane would play the sport. Students in grades 7-12 were asked to name their favorite athlete or team and sport and indicate what sports they felt was best for a girl and a boy. Then they were given a list of sports and asked to indicate, using a 5-point Likert-type scale, whether they believed the sport was masculine, neutral, or feminine. Results from loglinear analyses indicated that students sex-typed certain sports, such as aerobics and football. Additionally, although some responses from students in grades 7-12 indicated that individuals should be able to play any sport they wanted, there were many gendered rsponses in terms of what sport(s) girls and boys should participate in. The results are discussed with reference to Metheny's categories of permissible sports for girls and in the framework of the gender typing of sport.