Cross-Modal Transfer of Shape is Difficult to Demonstrate in One-Month-Olds

We tested 1-month-olds for cross-modal transfer of shape between touch and vision using a procedure described by Meltzoff and Borton, but including controls for side bias and stimulus preference. In Experiment 1 (N = 48), infants' looking times to smooth and nubby visual stimuli were not influenced by previous oral exposure to one of the shapes during the preceding 90 s, except for an effect on the first test trial in one group; this effect could have been due to limited cross-modal transfer, to Type 1 error, or to side bias, possibly interacting with a small stimulus preference. The failure of that effect to replicate in a group (N = 16) with less side bias (Experiment 2) suggests that it was not due to cross-modal transfer. Experiment 3 (N = 32), an exact replication of Meltzoff and Borton's experiment, also failed to yield evidence of cross-modal transfer. Overall, there is not good evidence that 1-month-olds can transfer information about these shapes from touch to vision. Future studies exploring the ability to transfer information about other shapes will be easier to interpret if they include controls for side bias and stimulus preference.     

Market Mechanisms in Education: School choice in The Netherlands,England and Scotland in a comparative perspective

This article analyses differences in the availability of school choice in The Netherlands, England and Scotland. A 10 variable model is used to determine that the increased availability of choice leads generally to an increased presence of the market mechanism in the three countries. However, the functioning of the market is most obvious in The Netherlands, to a lesser extent in England and even less in Scotland.     

Women in Action: a community development project in Amazonas

This article is a report of a Community Development Project currently being run by the Centre for Studies and Development in Environmental Education (CEDEA), at the National Institute for Amazon Research (INPA) in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. The Centre was inaugurated 3 years ago as part of an attempt to change the Institute's direction, from that of carrying out research for the scientific community to one that integrates research with sustainable development and social needs. CEDEA's team members embarked on a participatory community project, INPA and Society, that was developed with a community near the Institute. This is an urban community with economic, social, cultural and environmental problems that the project aims to approach. INPA and Society is divided into several projects, one of which is Women in Action. This is a report about the challenges that Women in Action has produced for both the Institute and the Centre. It also discusses the results that are being achieved, while commenting on the difficulties that have been confronted and how these could possibly be avoided by other groups.     

Orson Scott Card’s Ender and Bean: The Exceptional Child as Hero

Orson Scott Cards school stories in outer space, Enders Game and Enders Shadow, purportedly occur at the same time and tell the same story, but from the perspectives of two different child protagonists. Scenes in Enders Shadow even reproduce text from Enders Game. Nevertheless, 14 years elapsed between the publications of the two books. This essay brings child studies and exceptionality research to bear on the two novels, analyzing the development of Cards ideology regarding his view of the exceptional child and his view of the nature of heroism in a post-modern world.     

Pedagogy to empower Chinese Learners to adapt to western learning circumstances: a longitudinal case-study

Deficit theorisations of Chinese Learners studying in western countries are criticised for dichotomising learning attributes into Surface- or Deep-learning approaches. Subsequent context-dependent, small culture studies of students transiting between cultures theorise learning as a dynamic journey of adapting to a range/continuum of learning attributes. Here we employ the transformative learning theory to examine whether pedagogical interventions could facilitate adaptation to deeper learning strategies by couching discipline-specific detail/facts within the discipline’s theoretical structure. Our longitudinal case-study of Chinese Learners in an Australian tertiary institution revealed that (1) Achievement-motivated CLs were more likely to harness the benefits of this discipline-specific pedagogical intervention and move towards independent, student-centred learning than Surface-motivated CLs; (2) Achievement-motivated CLs were less likely to normalise teacher-centredness than Surface-motivated CLs despite being exposed to examination tips early in their enrolment; and (3) fluency in the host language is instrumental to adapting successfully to deeper learning.     

Managing the paradox of control: the case of ground-up implementation of active learning in Singapore’s primary schools

The Singaporean education system has recently shifted emphasis from being highly centralised and standardised towards one that aims to promote innovation and autonomy at the school level. Yet, the concomitant move towards a more decentralised and flexible curriculum enacted and controlled at the local level has not been straightforward. Consequently, Hargreaves, Shirley, and Ng have described five paradoxes of educational and social change that characterise Singapore’s continued performance in academic achievement. One of these paradoxes is the paradox of control: How could the Ministry of Education (MOE) release classroom decision making and curriculum development to teachers and schools, while maintaining overall control across the system? They respond that the MOE maintains a fine balance characterised as bottom-up innovation with top-down support that requires further investigation. In this paper, we illustrate the implementation of an active learning curriculum in four primary schools to illustrate this approach of ‘top-down support for bottom-up’ curricular innovation in schools. In Singapore, the ‘Teach Less, Learn More’ movement has ignited school-based development of innovative curricula to bring about active learning, with the intention of developing pupil attributes such as creativity, collaboration, and self-confidence. Our case study explores how practitioners implement a curriculum that is meant to nurture a more emancipatory spirit in students that builds up their confidence and collaboration through active learning. A key premise is that such a curriculum requires practitioners’ autonomy to interpret the goals and desired outcomes and to plan their pupils’ learning experiences.