A Similarity Heuristic in Children’s Possibility Judgments

Children often judge that strange and improbable events are impossible, but the mechanisms behind their reasoning remain unclear. This article (N = 250) provides evidence that young children use a similarity heuristic that compares potential events to similar known events to determine whether events are possible. Experiment 1 shows that 5- to 6-year-olds who hear about improbable events go on to judge that similar improbable events can happen. Experiment 2 shows that 5- to 6-year-olds more often affirm that improbable events can happen if told about related improbable events than if told about unrelated ones. Finally, Experiment 3 shows that 5- to 6-year-olds affirm the possibility of improbable events related to known events, but deny that related impossible events can happen.     

Understanding curriculum as geo/biospheric text

PROSPECTS - The world is experiencing crises related to the cascading effects of anthropization. These crises result from imperialist and capitalist practices that categorize and exploit the other...     

The Development of Chemical Language Usage by “Non-traditional” Students: the Interlanguage Analogy

Research in Science Education - Students commonly find specialist scientific language problematic. This study investigated developments in chemical language usage by six non-traditional students...     

The evolution of an effective pedagogy for teachers using the interactive whiteboard in mathematics and modern languages: an empirical analysis from the secondary sector

There has been considerable investment in the use of interactive whiteboard technology in schools in the UK. There is evidence that whilst teachers understand such technology, many do not understand the nature and implications of interactive learning. Observation and analysis of 50 video‐recorded lessons taught by ‘successful’ teachers drawn from mathematics and modern foreign language departments in secondary schools led to the classification of three types of practice representing a spectrum of increasing interactivity. The nature of this good practice was analysed together with criteria for assessing the changes being wrought by technology in approaches to learning and teaching. The investigation concluded that the use of new technology alone cannot lead to enhanced learning. Teachers also need training to develop awareness of the relationship between approaches to interactive learning and conceptual and cognitive development in subject areas.     

Task of the teaching life: Self through bakhtinian dialogue and ideological engagement

This article describes Mikhail Bakhtin’s 20^th century work on dialogue as it may serve one engaged in the teaching as a vocation and existential pursuit rather than as a job or profession. Dialogue, as theorized by Bakhtin, within the pedagogical real, potentially becomes a mod of being through which the individual engages in the project of selfhood, a task basic to the human enterprise. For Bakhtin, dialogue was in part a structure within and through which we come to consciousness and give flesh and meaning to our existence. According to Bakhtin, the structure of self is dialogical and unfinalizable, meaning that each individual comes to consciousness through dialogue with some other. From a Bakhtinian perspective, the, selfhood as a dialogical formation constitutes a fundamental relation by which we much participate without end, making dialogue an unavoidable social activity immersed in language.     

Reward pretraining and discrimination learning set

Pigtailed monkeys were trained on discrimination problems involving objects that had been previously paired with reward, previously paired with nonreward, or objects not associated with any pretraining. In two separate studies, no differences on these various problem formats were observed, but performance improved considerably with practice. These results are contrary to the theories for learning set formation of Spence and Medin.     

Food sharing in albino rat pups: Does familiarity breed contempt?

The present experiment investigated the effects of kinship and familiarity upon food sharing in pairs of albino rat pups. Five pairs of rats from each of the following groups were tested: (1) familiar siblings, (2) nonfamiliar siblings, (3) familiar nonsiblings, and (4) nonfamiliar non-siblings. A small food portion was used, necessitating not only close physical contact, but also cooperation in the sense that both pups were required to remain relatively immobile in order for both to feed simultaneously. Results indicated more frequent sharing among unfamiliar pups, whether related or not. Results also indicated that food sharing increased in frequency among all four groups over the 5-day testing period, suggesting that cooperation in the form of food sharing can develop, or increase in frequency, over time in albino rat pups.