Weaponizing speech

As the notion of “information warfare” has gained public currency, some forms of communication have been redefined as acts of violence, war, and terrorism. This essay tracks the metaphor of the “information bomb” in theoretical understandings as well as public discourses of terrorism, journalism, and information leaks. The essay then analyzes the 2010 Supreme Court case of Holder vs. Humanitarian Law Project, which redefined speech as having the ability to constitute “material support” for terrorism. The essay argues that trends in the “weaponization of speech” pose important challenges to the status of the First Amendment.     

Cultural literacy: A positive view

E. D. Hirsch, Jr.'sCultural Literacy attracted much negative criticism by, among others, H. J. Graff, B. Hendley, and H. R. Woodhouse writing inInterchange. In their articles they expressed their disapproval of Hirsch's social views and his list of cultural items which every American should know. According to these critics, Hirsch failed to take account of some very important issues in education, such as the place of form as well as content, or the attention given to actual components of youth and ethnic culture as opposed to the more static and perhaps anachronistic elements of elite culture. These criticisms are examined in the light of the actual situation in the schools rather than from an ideological point of view. Contrary to the opinion held by the critics, it is reasoned that the idea of cultural literacy as well as the list of specific items embodying it may be useful in curriculum planning in general and in setting minimum goals for the education of the disadvantaged in particular.     

Using values clarification to develop the creative potential of students: A practical approach for classroom teachers

Much progress has taken place to identify and provide services for the gifted and talented. Yet, the problems that existed ten years ago still prevail and require continuing efforts to find viable solutions.     

Pedagogical content beliefs about reading instruction and their relation to gains in student achievement

Teachers’ pedagogical content beliefs about reading instruction are likely to predict progress in student achievement. Thus, in this study, 15 pre-service teachers gave reading promotion to low-performing sixth- and seventh-graders over a time period of 6 months. The pre-service teachers’ pedagogical content beliefs were then related to their students’ reading achievement gains. In contradiction to previous findings, the results demonstrate direct-transmissive beliefs to be positively related with student achievement. Finally, whether there is an influence of practical teaching experiences on the development of pre-service teachers’ pedagogical content beliefs was examined. For that reason, the belief development during the 6-month period was compared between pre-service teachers with and without teaching experience. Results show teaching pre-service teachers’ beliefs to have developed away from constructivistic positions and toward a direct-transmissive direction. The beliefs of student teachers without teaching experience, on the contrary, tended to slightly develop in diametrically opposed directions. Implications of the results are discussed.     

Infants Segment Continuous Events Using Transitional Probabilities

Throughout their 1st year, infants adeptly detect statistical structure in their environment. However, little is known about whether statistical learning is a primary mechanism for event segmentation. This study directly tests whether statistical learning alone is sufficient to segment continuous events. Twenty‐eight 7‐ to 9‐month‐old infants viewed a sequence of continuous actions performed by a novel agent in which there were no transitional movements that could have constrained the possible upcoming actions. At test, infants distinguished statistically intact units from less predictable ones. The ability to segment events using statistical structure may help infants discover other cues to event boundaries, such as intentions, and carve up the world of continuous motion in meaningful ways.