On pretexts for higher education development activities

This paper raises questions concerning pretexts available to educational developers in justifying their activities. Positivist epistemology is seen as a dominant characteristic of the higher education development discourse, leading to an associated valuing of the practical, empirical and instrumental. An alternative conception of development activities from the stand point of interpretive understanding is then outlined, together with some problems which may be raised with respect to this approach. Finally, critical theory is discussed as providing an epistemological position which avoids some of the problems of the other frameworks, but which carries problems of its own. For each framework, some consequences of the particular approach for higher education developers and their common tasks and activities are outlined. Generally, a shift of emphasis from the practical and instrumental to the reflective and value-orientated is espoused.Based on a paper presented to the joint PRAHE/HERDSA (NZ) conference, CIT Wellington, 1990.     

Estimating Classification Consistency and Accuracy for Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment

This article introduces procedures for the computation and asymptotic statistical inference for classification consistency and accuracy indices specifically designed for cognitive diagnostic assessments. The new classification indices can be used as important indicators of the reliability and validity of classification results produced by cognitive diagnostic assessments. For tests with known or previously calibrated item parameters, the sampling distributions of the two new indices are shown to be asymptotically normal. To illustrate the computations of the new indices, we apply them to the real diagnostic data from a fraction subtraction test (Tatsuoka). We also use simulated data to evaluate their performances and distributional properties.     

A Situationist Lesson for Character Education: Re‐conceptualising the Inculcation of Virtues by Converting Local Virtues to More Global Ones

Inspired by the debate about character between situationism and virtue ethics, I argue that John Doris's idea, ‘local trait’, offers a fresh insight into contemporary character education. Its positive variant, ‘local virtue’, signals an inescapable relay station of the gradual development of virtue, and serves as a promising point of departure for advanced growth. The idea of converting local virtues to more global ones is accordingly proposed to represent an empirically more realistic way of conceiving how to approach the ethical ideal of global virtues. It helps to direct our gaze to the great intermediate developmental stages of virtue, which mark out a whole spectrum of virtues of varying degrees that fall short of full virtue. This new notion works together with the traditional Aristotelian account to provide a full account of how to effectively undertake the age‐old educational business of the inculcation of virtues.     

Natural pedagogical conversations in high school students' internship

Many science educators encourage student experiences of “authentic” science by means of student participation in science‐related workplaces. Little research has been done, however, to investigate how “teaching” naturally occurs in such settings, where scientists or technicians normally do not have pedagogical training and generally do not have time (or value) receiving such training. This study examines how laboratory members without a pedagogical background or experience in teaching engage high school students during their internship activities. Drawing on conversation analysis, we analyze the minute‐by‐minute transactions that occurred while high school students participated in a leading environmental science laboratory. We find that the participation trajectory was based on demonstration‐practice‐connect (D‐P‐C) phases that continually recurred in the process of “doing” science. Concerning the transactional structures, we identify two basic conversation patterns—Initiate‐Clarify‐Reply (I‐C‐R) and Initiate‐Reply‐Clarify‐Reply (I‐R‐C‐R)—that do not only differ from the well‐known Initiate‐Reply‐Evaluate (I‐R‐E) patterns previously observed in science classrooms, but also could be combined to constitute more complex patterns. With respect to the organization of natural pedagogical conversations, we find that there were not only of preferred and dispreferred modes of responding but also ambiguous dispreferred modes; and the formulating organization not only includes self‐formulating but also other‐formulating. These natural pedagogical conversations helped, on the one hand, students to clarify their understanding and, on the other hand, technicians (or teachers) to teach toward different needs for different students in different contexts. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 481–505, 2009     

为肯尼亚青年谋求STEM教育的平等机会

肯尼亚人口中18岁以下的青少年占50％,他们是肯尼亚社会中一股重要而活跃的力量,大力发展青少年教育是促进发展的有效方式。肯尼亚科学中心是一所筹建中的STEM教育机构,旨在为所有青少年提供平等的教育机会,并接受STEM教育方面的启迪。本文介绍了建设和发展肯尼亚科学中心的各种工作方式,期望能够借鉴国际上其他科学中心的经验,以达成独具特色的发展目标。     

Exploring inclusive pedagogy

This paper reports on a study designed to examine teachers' craft knowledge of their practice of ‘inclusion’ in terms of what they do, why and how. The research approach offers an important alternative to studies of students with ‘additional needs’ and the search to articulate the specialist knowledge and skill required to teach them. Through classroom observations and interviews with 11 teachers of students across the full age range in two Scottish primary schools, we investigated how teachers make meaning of the concept of inclusion in their practice by exploring theoretical assumptions drawn from the literature about inclusive pedagogy. The analysis enabled us to identify practical examples of inclusive pedagogy that met the standard of extending what is generally available to everybody, as opposed to providing for all by differentiating for some. Examples of the inclusive pedagogical approach are provided.     

S(he) loves me,s(he) loves me not: Predictors of relational information‐seeking in courtship and beyond

This study extends Baxter and Wilmot's (1984) work on the secret tests couples use to acquire information about the state of their relationships. No gender differences were found in levels of testing or in the use of specific tests in our sample of 226 romantically‐involved individuals, who reported on 1025 instances of testing. The effects of commitment, perceptions of partner's commitment, courtship progress, and jealousy on testing were also examined. Overall amount of testing was inversely correlated with courtship progress, suggesting that such tests characterize the earliest stages of courtship, and positively correlated with jealousy. In addition, females who perceived that their partners were less committed to their relationships were slightly more likely to engage in relational information‐seeking. Reliance upon specific tests was associated with several of the relationship measures. For instance, Endurance tests were best predicted by perceptions of high partner commitment; Separation tests were used when commitment by self and partner was low, when the relationship had not advanced much, and when the information‐seeker was jealous; and use of Triangle tests was associated with jealousy. Several significant contingencies were found among dimensions of the testing situation. The type of test used was associated with what respondents learned about their partners' commitment, with the probability of engaging in state‐of‐the relationship talks, and with the deliberate versus accidental nature of the testing episode. It was also found that deliberate tests were more likely than accidental ones to lead to feelings that the future course of the relationship was predictable and to open communication about the relationship. Finally, tentative support was found for a confirmatory bias in testing in which testers set themselves up to learn that their partners value the relationship.     

Impact and educational outcomes of a small group self‐directed teaching strategy in a clinical neuroscience curriculum

The complexity of the material being taught in clinical neuroscience within the medical school curriculum requires creative pedagogies to teach medical students effectively. Many clinical teaching strategies have been developed and are well described to address these challenges. However, only a few have been evaluated to determine their impact on the performance of students studying clinical neuroscience. Interactive, 2‐hour, self‐directed small‐group interactive clinical case‐based learning sessions were conducted weekly for 4 weeks to integrate concepts learned in the corresponding didactic lectures. Students in the small groups analyzed cases of patients suffering from neurological disease that were based on eight learning objectives that allowed them to evaluate neuroanatomical data and clinical findings before presenting their case analysis to the larger group. Students’ performances on the formative quizzes and summative tests were compared to those of first‐year medical students in the previous year for whom the self‐directed, small‐group interactive clinical sessions were not available. There was a significant improvement in the summative performance of first‐year medical students with self‐directed clinical case learning in the second year (Y2) of teaching clinical neuroscience (P < 0.05) when compared with first‐year students in the first year (Y1) for whom the self‐directed learning approach was not available. Student performance in the formative assessments between Y1 and Y2 was not significantly different (P = 0.803). A target of ≥70% student scoring above 80% in the final summative examination was met. The current study revealed evidence for the impact and educational outcomes of a self‐directed, clinical teaching strategy in a clinical neuroscience curriculum for first‐year medical students. Anat Sci Educ 11: 478–487. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

RECONSTRUCTING DEWEYAN DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION FOR A GLOBALIZING WORLD

As democratic citizenship education gains importance worldwide, one wonders whether common civic education practices in the United States, such as mock elections, are adequate models for other countries, or whether they fall short of realizing the goal of promoting democracy in different regions and cultures. Despite various controversies, one fundamental question remains: How should we teach democracy? Should we teach it as a system of government or as a way of life? Jessica Ching‐Sze Wang finds inspiration in Dewey's life and works. She draws on Dewey's experience during the First World War and his insights into the connection between democracy and education to reconstruct a culturally and morally robust form of democratic education, as opposed to the politically dominated one currently being practiced. Wang concludes that Deweyan democratic education thus reconstructed can help us better realize democracy as a way of life for our globalizing world.     

Defining curriculum policy through slogans

This article explores the upper secondary (or post‐16) school market. The study on which it is based, funded by the Swedish Research Council, was entitled ‘Upper‐secondary education as a market’. Empirical data include official statistics, policy documents, school publications, company reports and school visits. Printed and other news media were also scrutinised to identify how the marketisation of education is represented in public discourse. A number of themes emerged from the study which included mapping the expansion of the school market, chains of ownership and influence, marketing strategies, choice and the school market and issues raised in the media. These imply that there is a new market discourse which represents a clear break with previous social democratic education policies primarily aimed at enhancing citizenship and wider democratic values within an inclusive public school. However, critiques have also emerged including a call for strengthened regulations of and control over independent schools and concern about an education market equated more with shares and profits rather than pedagogy and student citizenship.