Effects of craniofacial deformity in infancy on the quality of mother-infant interactions

Self-report and behavioral observation procedures were used to assess the quality of mothers' interactions with facially deformed infants. This assessment strategy also provided an opportunity to evaluate the hypothesis that parents of facially deformed infants may deny or be unaware of deficits in their relationships with these children. 10 mothers, 5 with unattractive/craniofacially deformed infants and 5 with normal infants, completed self-report measures of stress, social support, satisfaction with parenting, and general life satisfaction. Mother-infant interactions were videotaped and rated on discrete and global behavioral measures. Results revealed that mothers of deformed infants rated their parental satisfaction and current life satisfaction more positively than did mothers of normal infants. However, these same mothers were observed to behave in a consistently less nurturant manner than mothers of normal children. These results suggest that infant facial deformity/unattractiveness may affect the quality of infant-caregiver interactions without parental awareness.     

Knowledge,Action and Pro-environmental Behaviour

This article begins by clarifying and discussing the concept of 'pro-environmental behaviour', which (implicitly) constitutes the central concept--or aim--of environmental education in the article. This is followed by a discussion of the concept of knowledge per se and its position in working with environmental problems. These two concepts require further refinement if research efforts are to make a contribution to the development of environmental education. A few examples and conceptual models will be proposed to clarify the discussion. Finally, comments and suggestions are offered for an elaboration of the model proposed by Kollmuss and Agyeman. This present article primarily draws on research and insights into environmental education in schools. Furthermore, the article primarily explores work with environmental problems in Danish schools and focuses on the general pedagogical dimensions of work done in schools in order to relate these directly to issues discussed by Kollmuss and Agyeman.     

Peter rabbit hops into the twenty-first century

Summary Adults have tried to identify and to seek complex explanations for Potter's success. She explained it simply: “It is much more satisfactory to address a real live child. I often think that was the secret of the success of Peter Rabbit; it was written to a child—not made to order” (Lane, 1976, p. 183). She felt the more spontaneous the pleasure, the better the result. You are encouraged to heed Potter's advice. Address the real live child as you enjoy the pleasure of this adventure into the life and times of Beatrix Potter and all her animal friends.     

Citizen science in digital worlds: the seduction of a temporary escape or a lifelong pursuit?

There is a vast terrain of emerging research that explores recent innovations in digital games, particularly as they relate to questions of teaching and learning science. One such game, Citizen Science, was developed to teach players about the practice of citizen science as well as lake ecology. Citizen science is a pedagogy that has a long history within the scientific community, engaging the public in ongoing community and environmental surveys to collect data for existing small-scale studies. More recently, citizen science has gained traction as an educational context for teaching and learning science in ways that connect to students?? lives and interests. By placing citizen science within the realm of digital worlds, Matthew Gaydos and Kurt Squire invite new possibilities for knowledge to become more kinetic, moving in multiple directions. In this article we discuss some of the tensions we experienced as we explored the digital game, Citizen Science. We highlight questions about narrative and complexity, emergent game play and transfer to encourage thinking about the development and implementation of games such as Citizen Science.     

Investigating self-regulated study strategies among postsecondary students with and without dyslexia: a diary method study

We investigated the use of self-regulated study strategies among undergraduates with dyslexia by means of extensive web-based diary data, comparing their strategy use to that of matched students without dyslexia who completed the diary in the same period. Additionally, we examined the perceived benefits of using the recorded strategies in both groups, as well as relationships between the recorded strategies and perceived self-efficacy and academic performance. Results indicated that across lecture, individual study, and social study contexts, students with and without dyslexia recorded a comparable, broad range of strategies, yet students with dyslexia seemed to use particular visual and social strategies more consistently than did students without dyslexia. Across the three study contexts, both students with and without dyslexia also perceived the strategies they recorded in the diaries to be quite beneficial, but with particular visual and social strategies seemingly perceived as more helpful by students with dyslexia. Finally, self-regulated study strategies were positively related to perceived self-efficacy and academic performance among the students with dyslexia but not among the students without dyslexia. We discuss the possibility that the diary method used to assess strategy use among students with dyslexia in different study contexts over time was more appropriate for revealing the breadth and value of their strategy repertoire than the decontextualized, one-time questionnaire and interview approaches used in prior work.     

Exploring the Use of Conceptual Metaphors in Solving Problems on Entropy

A growing body of research has examined the experiential grounding of scientific thought and the role of experiential intuitive knowledge in science learning. Meanwhile, research in cognitive linguistics has identified many conceptual metaphors (CMs), metaphorical mappings between abstract concepts and experiential source domains, implicit in everyday and scientific language. However, the contributions of CMs to scientific understanding and reasoning are still not clear. This study explores the roles that CMs play in scientific problem-solving through a detailed analysis of two physical chemistry PhD students solving problems on entropy. We report evidence in support of three claims: a range of CMs are used in problem-solving enabling flexible, experiential construals of abstract scientific concepts; CMs are coordinated with one another and other resources supporting the alignment of qualitative and quantitative reasoning; use of CMs grounds abstract reasoning in a “narrative” discourse incorporating conceptions of paths, agents, and movement. We conclude that CMs should be added to the set of intuitive resources others have suggested contribute to expertise in science. This proposal is consistent with two assumptions: that cognition is embodied and that internal cognitive structures and processes interact with semiotic systems. The implications of the findings for learning and instruction are discussed.     

September 11 and the failures of American intellectuals

This essay critiques the main responses to 9/11 by US intellectuals and analyzes how these reactions reinforced a determined ignorance of the consequences of US economic, foreign, and military policy and a further depoliticization of the culture in general. As a class, faculty have the resources—material and intellectual—to make a serious contribution to progressive political and social change in the world. They need to start putting those resources to work.