What Have We Learned About Homeschooling?

This article discusses quantitative research on homeschooling, including the available data, pitfalls of using the data, estimates of the number of homeschooled children, part-time homeschooling, and why families homeschool. I compare research on homeschooling to research on charter schools, voucher programs, and private schools.     

A study of the association of attitudes to the philosophy of science with classroom contexts,academic qualification and professional training,amongst A level biology teachers in Harare,Zimbabwe

The responses from 33 A level biology teachers to a questionnaire were analysed to test for association between attitude to the philosophy of science and academic qualification professional training. The teachers in Harare, Zimbabwe, also self-reported on their school contexts. From the school context data the teachers were clustered to give two different clusters - richer and poorer schools. Teachers in the poorer school context cluster showed statistically significant differences from those in the richer school context cluster in their attitudes to the philosophy of science. Teachers in the richer schools had more relativist and deductivist attitudes while teachers in the poorer context clusters were more positivist and inductivist. Richer schools are able to employ teachers who are academically and professionally better qualified. This evidence suggests the differential distribution of facilities and resources across school contexts reinforces the differential distribution of attitudes to the philosophy of science.     

Gender wage gaps by college major in Taiwan: Empirical evidence from the 1997–2003 Manpower Utilization Survey

In this article, we examine the effect of incorporating the fields of study on the explained and unexplained components of the standard Oaxaca decomposition for the gender wage gaps in Taiwan using 1997–2003 Manpower Utilization Survey data. Using several existing and lately developed measures, we inspect the gender wage gap by college major to investigate whether gender wage discrimination exists in a specific field of study in Taiwan. We find that controlling for the major dummies does enhance the proportion of the characteristic effects in the Oaxaca-type decomposition. This finding is similar to those results found in western countries. However, using decomposition methods designed to assess within sector wage gaps, we find gender wage differences are statistically negligible in all majors except medicine. Our results can provide useful information on the economic returns to different disciplines to current and future college students, institutions, and government policy-makers.     

Pre-service teachers’ greater power to act in the classroom: analysis of the circumstances for professional development

This case study analysed the circumstances during a one-year work placement in which a pre-service teacher showed professional development, with a focus on the impact of her interactions with various interlocutors. The study was conducted within the framework of the cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) and of activity theory with its methods for the clinical study of activity. The results showed intra-psychic conflicts. produced by interactions with trainers, peers, experienced colleagues, and students. These conflicts prompted the development of the pre-service teacher’s professional activity through the construction of new goals and new motives for action (development through sense), and the construction of new operations to reach these goals (development through efficiency). This study thus opens the way for creating training programmes that favour the development of teachers’ power to act. It provides a source for transforming traditional mentoring methods in teacher training.     

Attentional Demands on Motor-Respiratory Coordination

Athletic performance requires the pacing of breathing with exercise, known as motor-respiratory coordination (MRC). In this study, we added cognitive and physical constraints while participants intentionally controlled their breathing locations during rhythmic arm movement. This is the first study to examine a cognitive constraint on MRC. Cognitive constraints included either instruction (Experiments 1 and 2) or signal detection (Experiment 1). Physical constraints were nonoptimal movement frequencies (Experiment 2). Instruction shifted breathing locations and both shifted and increased variability in the number of movements produced per breath (frequency ratio). Signal detection had no effect on MRC. Fast movement frequency resulted in higher, more variable frequency ratios. Cognitive and physical constraints can generate unnatural and variable breathing during athletic performance.