Dyscalculia and dyslexia

Conclusion It is our hope that more practitioners in the field of learning disabilities will include the diagnosis and treatment of dyscalculia as they work with children and older individuals. Although there is much more to be explored, we believe that our clinical experience indicates that information-processing deficits may be a contributory factor in the disability and thus warrant further investigation. Furthermore, we believe that insights gained in the treatment of specific language disability may be fruitfully applied in the treatment of dyscalculia. This paper is a condensed version of a presentation at the 29th Annual Conference of The Orton Society, November 1978, at Minneapolis, Minnesota.     

Maternal socialization of positive affect: the impact of invalidation on adolescent emotion regulation and depressive symptomatology

This study examined the relations among maternal socialization of positive affect (PA), adolescent emotion regulation (ER), and adolescent depressive symptoms. Two hundred early adolescents, 11-13 years old, provided self-reports of ER strategies and depressive symptomatology; their mothers provided self-reports of socialization responses to adolescent PA. One hundred and sixty-three mother-adolescent dyads participated in 2 interaction tasks. Adolescents whose mothers responded in an invalidating or "dampening" manner toward their PA displayed more emotionally dysregulated behaviors and reported using maladaptive ER strategies more frequently. Adolescents whose mothers dampened their PA more frequently during mother-adolescent interactions, and girls whose mothers reported invalidating their PA, reported more depressive symptoms. Adolescent use of maladaptive ER strategies mediated the association between maternal invalidation of PA and early adolescents' concurrent depressive symptoms.     

OCCUPATIONAL/CAREER INDECISION FOR ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS OF HIGH INTELLECTUAL ABILITY: A MIXED‐METHODS COGNITIVE PROCESS MODEL

A mixed‐methods design was employed to identify the cognitive processes that lead to occupational/career indecision for economically disadvantaged adolescents of high intellectual ability. In the first phase, interview data collected from 26 economically disadvantaged intellectually gifted Australian adolescents were analyzed using grounded theory to develop two alternative models of cognitive processes that lead to occupational/career indecision. In the second phase, these models were quantitatively tested and refined using structural equation modeling of survey data collected from 917 economically disadvantaged intellectually gifted Australian adolescents. The finally accepted model, identified using a competing models strategy, suggested that valuing the thoughts of family on general matters is positively predictive of a desire to live up to one's potential and the experience of amotivation about the occupational decision. In turn, occupational amotivation appears to be positively associated with occupational indecision, but negatively associated with multipotentiality and a desire to fulfill one's potential.     

Equity,justice and standards: assessment decision making in higher education

Recent concerns about ‘fairness’ in university entrance have highlighted the need to review existing practices in admissions processes. The agendas for equity and social inclusion, however, must also apply to the processes and outcomes of higher education, where considerations of ‘standards’ are additionally crucial. As principles underpinning the assessment process, ‘equity’ and ‘justice’ and ‘academic standards’ are part of taken‐for‐granted cultures and practices which impact on decisions about progression, eligibility for awards and degree classification for individual students. Changing discourses of academic standards have given rise to contrasting decision‐making processes rooted in the role and operation of assessment boards. Contrasting models of assessment board cultures are developed to highlight how practices are beset by conceptual confusions about what is being assessed and the basis for judgements about success and failure in higher education. There is a strong case, not only for critical review of assessment processes, but also for monitoring outcomes for different social groups.     

Hannah Arendt and the ‘freedom’ to think

ABSTRACT

Dissatisfied with the Western tradition of political philosophy, Arendt maintained a tension between the political, which she associates primarily with the freedom to act, and the philosophical, which she associates principally with the activity of thinking, throughout her works. Whilst Arendt's work is underpinned by a focus on political action, her work on the thinking/non-thinking dichotomy is of significant educational value. Taking a broadly phenomenological approach, and reading Arendt through an educational lens, this paper seeks to demonstrate how the thinking/non-thinking dichotomy and the perils of ‘non-thinking’ reveal the wider dangers of instrumentalism and the performative models of education that accompanies it. It is suggested here that Arendt's work exposes ‘non-thinking’ as a form of instrumental thinking, which is not only a threat to the development of the capacity for critical thought but also to the development autonomy and the capacity for moral judgement.     

Simulation in Higher Education: A sociomaterial view

This article presents a sociomaterial account of simulation in higher education. Sociomaterial approaches change the ontological and epistemological bases for understanding learning and offer valuable tools for addressing important questions about relationships between university education and professional practices. Simulation has grown in many disciplines as a means to bring the two closer together. However, the theoretical underpinnings of simulation pedagogy are limited. This paper extends the wider work of applying sociomaterial approaches to educational phenomena, taking up Schatzki’s practice theory as a distinctive basis for doing so. The question ‘What is being simulated?’ is posed, prompting discussion of multiple bodies, performances and experiences. The potential of adopting such a framework for understanding simulation as a pedagogic practice that brings the classroom and workplace together is illustrated with reference to clinical education in nursing.