Plato, Pascal, and the dynamics of personal knowledge

Abstract educational practices are to be based on proven scientific knowledge, not least because the function science has to perform in human culture consists of unifying practical skills and general beliefs, the episteme and the techne (Amsterdamski, 1975, pp. 43–44). Now, modern societies first of all presuppose regular and standardized ways of organizing both our concepts and our institutions. The explanatory schemata resulting from this standardization tend to destroy individualism and enchantment. But mathematics education is in fact the only place in which to treat the human subject’s relationship with mathematics. And that is what mathematics education is all about: make the human subject grow intellectually and as a person by means of mathematics. At first sight, mathematics, in its formal guise, seems the opposite of philosophy, because philosophy constructs concepts (meanings), whereas mathematics deals with extensions of concepts (sets). We shall, however, turn this problem into an instrument, using the complementarity of intensions and extensions of theoretical terms as our main device for discussing the relationship between philosophy and mathematics education. The complementarity of the “how” and the “what” of our representations outlines, in fact, the terrain on which epistemology and education are to meet.     

5. BOOKS AND LIBRARIES

THE HIGHWAYMEN: WARRIORS OF THE INFORMATION SUPER‐HIGHWAY by Ken Auletta (New York: Random House, 1997—$27.50, ISBN 0–679–45378–0, 346 pp., index)

THE BARRY DILLER STORY: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF AMERICA'S GREATEST ENTERTAINMENT MOGUL by George Mair (New York: John Wiley, 1997—$24.95, ISBN 0–471–13082–6, 348 pp., notes, photos, index)

MONOPOLY TELEVISION: MTV'S QUEST TO CONTROL THE MUSIC by Jack Banks (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996—$22.00, ISBN 0–8133–1820–3, 291 pp., notes, references, index)

BE SEEING YOU ...DECODING THE PRISONER by Chris Gregory (Luton, England: John Libbey Media/University of Luton Press, 1997—$24.00, paper, ISBN 1–86020–521–6, 228 pp., bibliography and filmography, index)

GLOBAL SPOTLIGHTS ON LILLEHAMMER: HOW THE WORLD VIEWED NORWAY DURING THE 1994 WINTER OLYMPICS edited by Roel Puijk (Luton, England: John Libbey Media/ University of Luton Press, 1997— $40.00, ISBN 1–86020–520–8, 285 pp., appendix)

BROADCAST/CABLE PROGRAMMING: STRATEGIES AND PRACTICES by Susan Tyler Eastman and Douglas A. Ferguson (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 1997 [5th ed.]— $58.95, ISBN 0–534–50744–1, 471 pp., abbreviations and acronyms, glossary, annotated bibliography, bookmarks for the world wide web, index to program titles, general index)

TV DRAMA IN TRANSITION: FORMS, VALUES AND CULTURAL CHANGE by Robin Nelson (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997—$55.00, ISBN 0–312–17276–1, 277 pp., notes, references, index)

GLUED TO THE SET: THE 60 TELEVISION SHOWS AND EVENTS THAT MADE US WHO WE ARE TODAY by Steven D. Stark (New York: Free Press, 1997—$17.50, ISBN 0–684–82817–0, 340 pp., appendix, bibliography, index)

GEN X TV: THE BRADY BUNCH TO MELROSE PLACE by Rob Owen (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997—$24.95, ISBN 0–8156–0443–2, 240 pp., photos, bibliography, index)     

Quality in Teacher Education: a suppressed theme?

With the emergence of neo‐conservative and neo‐liberal ideologies since the early eighties the formula “quality” has superseded continuously the leitmotif “equality of educational opportunities” in debates on education in most member states of OECD—initially as reaction against reforms in the secondary sector of education, then in higher education by focusing on economic and administrative aspects. Although the term “quality” has remained rather vague, it has dominated debates on education since the early nineties and some observers even speak of a “quality movement”. With a certain delay, the same applies to teacher education (TE) and one may hold the impression that TE has been surprised by discussions on “quality in/of TE” which focus on economic and administrative aspects—aspects suppressed in most systems of TE in the member states of the European Union (EU) so far. This article analyses the complex background of debates on “quality in TE” by focusing on sociological perspectives and arguments of the educational sciences. Then it defines problem areas of TE which seem to be in need of improvement. Thirdly, it discusses measures to deal with perceived problems by taking into account experiences in various European countries discussed on occasion of an all‐European seminar of experts supported by the Commission of the European Union. In dynamic societies even preserving the existing “quality” of education systems and TE calls for permanent improvement. If it is intended to increase the “quality” of TE, improvements seem to be indispensable both permanently and of a substantial nature. Based on existing strength of TE and on continuous evaluation, improvements and reforms will be necessary both in its curricula (e.g. aims contents, methodologies) and in its organisational as well as administrative areas. Research in TE as well as competencies of teacher educators will have to play crucial roles. It might become possible to deal with a suppressed theme more pro‐actively.     

Replication and Pedagogy in the History of Psychology VI: Egon Brunswik on Perception and Explicit Reasoning

Egon Brunswik (1903–1955) first made an interesting distinction between perception and explicit reasoning, arguing that perception included quick estimates of an object’s size, nearly always resulting in good approximations in uncertain environments, whereas explicit reasoning, while better at achieving exact estimates, could often fail by wide margins. An experiment conducted by Brunswik to investigate these ideas was never published and the only available information is a figure of the results presented in a posthumous book in 1956. We replicated and extended his study to gain insight into the procedures Brunswik used in obtaining his results. Explicit reasoning resulted in fewer errors, yet more extreme ones than perception. Brunswik’s graphical analysis of the results led to different conclusions, however, than did a modern statistically-based analysis.

Appointment and Induction of a New Staff Member in an Institution of Initial Teacher Education (Case Study in Austria)

The following case study on the appointment and induction of a new staff member in a State College of Teacher Education (Taedagogische Akademie,) in Austria is structured in four parts. The first part will describe main conditions for an appointment in a centralised school system, in which most elements of an appointment are regulated by law. Some information will be given about the institution where the data for the case study have been collected. The following two parts will present the views of a senior academic/head of a department of an institution of teacher education and that of a newly appointed teacher educator, who will work within teacher education for 75% of the time as a teacher in a training/experimental school (Uebungsschule) and 25% as a teacher educator in subject methodology. Some conclusions will be presented within a final part.     

Discriminative stimuli that follow the absence of reinforcement are preferred by pigeons over those that follow reinforcement

Clement, Feltus, Kaiser, and Zentall (2000) found that when pigeons have to work to obtain a discriminative stimulus that is followed by reinforcement, they prefer a discriminative stimulus that requires greater effort over one that requires less effort. The authors suggested that such a preference results from the greater change in hedonic value that occurs between the more aversive event and the onset of the stimulus that signals reinforcement, a contrast effect. It was hypothesized that any stimulus that follows a relatively more aversive event would be preferred over a stimulus that follows a relatively less aversive event. In the present experiment, the authors tested the counterintuitive prediction of that theory, that pigeons should prefer a discriminative stimulus that follows the absence of reinforcement over a discriminative stimulus that follows reinforcement. Results supported the theory.     

Gruppendynamik und Lehrerverhalten

Ohne Zusammenfassung

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Group dynamics and teacher attitudes

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Dynamique de Groupe et Attitudes des Professeurs