What Education do you Miss by Going to School? Children's 'Coming-to-Knowing' About Science and Their Environment

Starting from Whitehead's notions of education as "the art of the utilisation of knowledge" and his rationale for eradicating "the fatal disconnection of subjects which kills the vitality of the modern curriculum," the article explores how these ideas relate to the current political realities of primary education in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. This is exemplified through a focus on learning about one's environment and the consequent tension between direct perception through non-school activities and the teaching of ideas via the formal school curriculum. A resolution is proposed which involves considering the learner's perspective, and the implications for teachers in terms of 'letting pupils in' to the teachers' own learning and their awareness of a plurality of ways of knowing.     

Nurturing faculty vitality by matching institutional interventions with career-stage needs

A questionnaire study, modeled after Baldwin's 1979 research on faculty at a liberal arts college, was conducted with 42 Lilly Teaching Fellows and Lilly Mentors at a large, public, research-oriented university in the Southeast U.S.A. Results from the study support the notion that one of the keys to a successful instructional and faculty development program is to target activities to the academic career stage of the faculty member.Patricia Kalivoda works in the Office of Instructional Development at The University of Georgia. She holds an MBA and an Ed.D. from The University of Georgia. Her research focuses on faculty career development and faculty vitality. Geraldine Rogers Sorrell is Special Populations Coordinator at Middle Georgia Technical Institute. She holds an M.Ed.and an Ed.D. from The University of Georgia. She specializes in faculty and staff development, and career counseling. Ronald D. Simpson is Director of the Office of Instructional Development at The University of Georgia, where he also is professor of Higher Education and Science Education. He holds degrees from The University of Tennessee and The University of Georgia.     

Structured study questions as a social work teaching method: A controlled experimental study

Two prior studies have described and provided initial empirical support for the effectiveness of structured study questions as a method of instruction within didactic social work education. The present report describes the design, conduct and results of a more methodologically rigorous experimental study, comparing the effectiveness of study questions versus a method of teaching called learning through discussion in promoting M.S.W. students learning of sophisticated research skills. Using a pretest-posttest alternative treatment group design, with blind evaluations of student performance, the study question method was found to be superior to learning through discussion. These results support the more extensive use of the study question method of instruction within social work education.Bruce A. Thyer is a professor of social work at the University of Georgia, where he obtained his M.S.W. degree in 1978. Dr. Thyer earned his Ph.D. in social work and psychology from the University of Michigan in 1982. His research interests involve promoting applied behavior analysis within social work. Geraldine Jackson-White is an instructor of social work at the University of Georgia, where she obtained her M.S.W. in 1977. Ms. Jackson-White is a doctoral candidate in public administration at the University of Georgia. Richard Sutphen has an M.A. in sociology from Memphis State University and an M.S.W. from the University of Georgia where he is currently a doctoral student in social work. Dorothy F. Carrillo received her M.S.W. from Atlanta University and is currently a doctoral student in social work at the University of Georgia where she is also an instructor of social work.Tim Stocks of the University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work provided valuable statistical consultation.     

The Lifecycle of a South African Non-governmental Organisation: Primary Science Programme 1983-1999

The case study traces the lifecycle of the Primary Science Programme (PSP) in South Africa, from its initiation in 1983 to its demise in 1999. The case is considered to be representative of the experiences of many South African non-governmental organisations (NGOs), insofar as PSP developed co-terminously with numerous other NGOs within the same political policy environment, serving the same clientele of disadvantaged teachers and depending on the same corporate, voluntary and external funding sources. It illustrates how the social and economic environment shaped PSP's development and demise. The conclusions highlight tensions between quality and quantity, subject versus holistic focus, participatory versus authoritarian management structures, and between styles of relationships with departmental structures. Lessons are drawn concerning the nature of effective InSET and the challenges inherent in taking education programmes to scale. An analogy with the ecological study of a plant's lifecycle is used to illuminate the account.     

Frontal Lobe Activity and Affective Behavior of Infants of Mothers with Depressive Symptoms

Studies of adults and infants indicate that the left frontal brain region is specialized for approach emotions, such as joy, whereas the right frontal region is specialized for withdrawal emotions, such as distress. Furthermore, depressed adults have been found to show reduced brain activity in the left frontal region. In this study, frontal and parietal electroencephalographic (EEG) activity was recorded from 27 infants aged 11-17 months (13 of whose mothers reported elevated depressive symptoms) during baseline and emotion-eliciting conditions. Compared with infants of nonsymptomatic mothers, infants of symptomatic mothers exhibited reduced left frontal brain activity during playful interactions with their mothers and failed to exhibit the typical pattern of greater right frontal activity during a condition designed to elicit distress (maternal separation). Infants of symptomatic mothers also showed less distress during maternal separation; however, no group differences in behavior were found during the playful condition. Group differences were evident in the frontal region, but not in parietal brain activity.     

Crisis response in the public schools: A survey of school psychologists' experiences and perceptions

In this study, 228 school psychologists completed a survey regarding crisis intervention teams and plans. The majority of respondents indicated their schools had crisis plans (95.1%) and teams (83.6%). The most common team activities endorsed by participants involved providing direct assistance and services to students, staff, and the media. The majority of participants (93%) reported that their schools had experienced and responded to serious crises. Respondents indicated that psychological debriefing was frequently used (generic 49.1% and standardized 17.9%). Less than half of the participants (44.3%) reported that meetings were conducted with parents and community members following a crisis. Nearly all of the participants (98.2%) reported that they had some type of crisis intervention training. However, many participants suggested that additional training and practice with crisis intervention would improve schools' crisis responses. Results are discussed with implications for school psychologists to improve their schools' crisis intervention plans and teams' responses. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 749–764, 2007.     

Children's Learning from Science Texts: A Critique of ‘EXIT into Understanding’

This article is a reply to an earlier article published in Reading Volume 29 (1) in which David Wray and Maureen Lewis outlined their EXIT model for describing the process of children learning from text. Here Alan Peacock, a science specialist with a particular interest in the use of texts in developing countries, questions the applicability of the EXIT model to children's reading of science texts in other contexts. He rightly makes the point that not enough research has been carried out into the use of texts in various curriculum areas and in various contexts and his article is a challenge to begin such extended research.