Peer collaboration: the relation of regulatory behaviors to learning with hypermedia

Peer collaboration is a pedagogical method currently used to facilitate learning in classrooms. Similarly, computer-learning environments (CLEs) are often used to promote student learning in science classrooms, in particular. However, students often have difficulty utilizing these environments effectively. Does peer collaboration help students learn with these environments? Little research looking closely at face-to-face peer collaboration with computer learning environments exists. Utilizing a social-cognitive theoretical framework, this study investigated the relation between the conceptual-knowledge learning and the collaborative regulatory behaviors of students working with a peer as they studied about the human circulatory system using a hypermedia CLE. Fifty-four high-school students from the East Coast of the United States were audiotaped to identify the collaborative regulatory behaviors they evidenced as they studied. Results revealed significant correlations among students’ proportion of categories of regulatory behaviors and their learning gains (from pretest to posttest). Moreover, qualitative analyses revealed particular behaviors that larger-gain collaborative pairs engaged in to a greater extent than smaller-gain pairs as they learned with the hypermedia environment.     

“That Box Doesn’t Belong to You”: Racial Ethos and Community-based Ethnic Education

By expanding Bourdieusian concepts of class ethos and habitus in the field of racial analysis, the article closely examines the shaping of a racial/ethnic ethos among a particular group of Chinese Americans. The findings suggest that the community ethos is affected both by a self-consciousness about the positioning of Chinese Americans in the racial hierarchy in the U.S., and by high educational and economic aspirations associated with the class status of the community. Such a distinct community ethos is materialized in the daily practices in the community, among which the active participation and promotion of a systematic community-based ethnic education is the most conspicuous.     

Cultural Vibrancy: Exploring the Preferences of African American Children Toward Culturally Relevant and Non-Culturally Relevant Lessons

Despite the laudable intent of various educational initiatives in raising the achievement level of all children, limited progress has been made. In an effort to diminish the achievement gap of students of color, some researchers have examined the cultural relevancy of the curriculum in promoting student achievement. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore the preferences of African American children toward culturally relevant and non-culturally relevant lessons, through a six-week series of lessons in an American History classroom. Critical Race Theory and Racial Identity Development provided the theoretical underpinnings of this study. This study takes place in an ethnically diverse high school in Colorado. Culturally relevant lessons were rich in oral traditions, music, historical connections, and a structured culturally relevant field trip. Non-culturally relevant lessons were administered devoid of cultural referents, and utilized the existing curriculum guide. Study results revealed statistically significant findings for African American children’s preferences for culturally relevant lessons. These lessons were found relevant to their culture when administered by a culturally responsive and caring teacher. Recommendations are made for educators and administrators in promoting achievement through culturally relevant lessons and curriculum.     

Metamorphosis in Two Novels by Melvin Burgess: Denying and Disguising ‘Deviant’ Desire

Melvin Burgess has gained a reputation as an enfant terrible, whose writing tackles topics and presents attitudes which are controversial in literature for adolescents. Kimberley Reynolds cites him as an author whose work demonstrates that “writing about sex, sexuality and relationships between the sexes [is] one of the most radically changed areas in contemporary children’s literature.” Reynolds argues that novels depicting teenage sexuality no longer focus on socialising teenagers into adult-approved behaviours. Yet changes in literature are never fully “radical”; they always build on established traditions. This article examines the ways in which Burgess uses the motif of animal transformation in Tiger Tiger and Lady: My Life as a Bitch to maintain the prevailing view of adolescent carnality as a deviant variation of “proper,” adult sexuality, whilst celebrating early sexual experiences.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Clockwork</Emphasis>: Philip Pullman’s Posthuman Fairy Tale

This article examines the connections between posthumanism and narrative form in Philip Pullman’s Clockwork. Beginning with an account of Pullman’s materialism, it argues that the novel represents consciousness and agency as emergent properties of matter, a position that manifests itself first in the tale’s figurative language and later in the cybernetic inventions of Dr. Kalmenius. As Pullman effaces the boundaries between animate and inanimate, human and non-human, he generates uncanny effects that are best understood in terms of the posthuman condition and narrative modes that reject liberal humanist models of subjectivity. Clockwork’s uncanny elements, metafictive qualities, and distribution of narrative voice across multiple perspectives thus represent narrative accommodations demanded by the tale’s rejection of the Cartesian mind/body dualism that grounds the liberal humanist subject. Clockwork’s acceptance of the posthuman condition is, however, incomplete and anxiety-laden, and the fairy-tale transformation of Prince Florian at the end of the novel represents a partial recuperation of liberal humanist morality.     

The moral dimension of class and gender identity-making: poverty and aggression in a secondary school in the city of Buenos Aires

This paper presents some results of a qualitative study carried out in a secondary school in the city of Buenos Aires (Argentina). It examines how two students from poor families responded to, and viewed, aggression by peers at their school. This paper argues that the examination of students’ narratives about aggression (based on classism and sexism) illustrates the analytical usefulness of the moral dimension of social life to unpack crucial aspects of the micro politics of class and gender and processes of identity-making. Following Sayer, this article maps students’ responses to immoral sentiments and misrecognition: the search for respect and respectability, and moral boundary drawing. It demonstrates that these reactions are entangled in students’ class and gender identity-making. It also shows how ‘victims’ are able to regain respect. However, the individualized nature of these processes and the spirals of aggression they instigate demonstrate the fragile and temporary nature of this achievement.     

Using Health Literacy in School to Overcome Inequalities

Health literacy has firmly established the links between literacy skills and health outcomes and is subsequently considered a key strategy for improving the health of disadvantaged populations and addressing social inequality. However, current research findings for improving health literacy have primarily focused on adults and actions within health and health care settings. Implementation studies outside the health sector are scarce. This study, a subset of the INCLUD-ED community- based project on social inclusion, reports on successful community-based approaches to health literacy. This article focuses on two schools that take advantage of the cultural intelligence of their students' family members, allowing them to make health literacy programmes more effective and useful for the participants. In addition, family involvement in educational activities addressed to children, including health programmes, has been found to improve the health literacy of the participating adults and their use of healthcare services. Findings indicate that schools in Europe can play a key role in breaking the cycle of health inequalities by promoting health literacy through education.     

Zafar,so good: middle‐class students,school habitus and secondary schooling in the city of Buenos Aires (Argentina)

This article examines how students from the ‘loser’ sections of the middle class dealt with the game of secondary schooling in a ‘good’ state school in the city of Buenos Aires (Argentina). It engages with Bourdieu’s theory of social practice and, in particular, with its concepts of game, habitus and cultural capital. It argues that middle‐class students embody a school habitus, which I call zafar. Zafar (a Spanish slang word) refers to students’ dispositions, practices and strategies towards social and educational demands of teachers and their school. Zafar propels middle‐class students to be just ‘good enough’ students, and promote an instrumental approach to schooling and learning. Although this paper offers an account within which the reproduction of relative educational advantage of a group of middle‐class students takes place, it also poses questions about their future educational and occupational opportunities.