Educating for (whose) success? Schooling in an age of neo‐liberalism

In western nations, the social and economic changes of the past 30 years have facilitated a reorientation of the focus of educational institutions. Global capitalism has placed education at the forefront of national competitiveness, and governments have responded with education policies primarily designed to serve the needs of the market. Such neo‐liberal economic imperatives have been supported by a variety of neoconservative social forces calling for schools to become sites of cultural and moral restoration. This paper draws upon current theoretical debates about the consequences of such changes and employs ethnographic data from a small qualitative study of Australian youth to argue the case for a more democratic and student‐centred approach to educational reform. It contends that in the interests of all young people, it is time for schools to resist systemic impulses to make them producers of human capital and claim their role as transformative institutions of human possibility.     

Situating the student: factors contributing to success in an Information Technology course

The modern world is becoming increasingly digitalised and this is affecting the way in which humans not only live but also learn. In South Africa, the majority of students entering universities are from disadvantaged backgrounds and come from schools and communities in which they were not exposed to the same technologically rich environments as perhaps that of their fellow students. The digital literacy level at which all students enter university is thus different; yet on entering their first year of study, students from disadvantaged backgrounds are required to perform at the same level as those from advantaged backgrounds. This paper examines the role that pre‐existing levels of digital literacy, critical thinking skills, socio‐economic status and English proficiency play on the academic performance of first‐year students studying an Information Technology course.     

Exploring synchronous,remote collaborative interaction between learners using multi-touch tables and video conferencing in UK primary schools

This study explores remote, non-collocated collaboration via multi-touch table (SynergyNet) and video conferencing software (Skype). Twenty-four participants (aged 10-11 years) in two locations—primary school classrooms located 300 miles apart in the UK—engaged in simultaneous collaborative activity to solve a History mystery task. Audio-video data recorded in the first minute of the activity were analysed to explore the emergence of collaborative working practices both within groups in the same location (resizing for shared reading) and between the groups communicating via video conferencing software and through the “flick” multi-touch gesture (sharing clues between groups). The results indicated that most groups focused first on the establishment of intra-group collaboration before reaching out to their remotely located partners. However, when the second data set was analysed, audio data from delayed interviews conducted after the original study, participants reported that the discussion between groups supported by the “flick” gesture was the most important and memorable feature of the activity. The study relates these findings to the existing literature on collaborative learning using multi-touch tables and considers how teachers are best able to help support the emergence of collaborative practices.     

Heidegger’s Reinscription of Paideia in the Context of Online Learning

Abstract

One of the questions that Heidegger presents in his paper, ‘Plato’s Doctrine on Truth’, is the distortion as he sees it of paideia—that is the loss of the essential elements in education. This loss is characterised according to Heidegger, by a misconception of Plato’s concept of teaching and learning. By undertaking an historical examination, Heidegger provides a means to rectify this loss. With reference to past, present and future philosophical perspectives of teaching and learning as particular spaces, an attempt is made in this paper to examine Heidegger’s reading of paideia within the context of online learning. This, for many contemporary writers on education, is an encounter with new literacies, new knowledge and the adoption of an online environment that challenges the hegemonic order of the institution as the purveyors of knowledge. Teachers within this new environment are, however still constituted as experts and their knowledge is seen as ultimately inviolate. Heidegger in his re-interpretation of Plato sees the teacher as leading the students to where they might make themselves intelligible within the space of their being. This alignment forms an acceptance and a challenge to the metaphysical concepts of uniformity of being and place that limits the potential of knowledge as something that is fixed and complete. The experience of the social web or Web 2.0 has seen a shift in learning premised upon dialogue, exchange and constantly shifting horizons. Within this context, the teacher is recast as a craftsman, creating learning opportunity within dialogic exchange. The heightened sense of involvement that is revealed in this context lays the ground for a future visioning of education where emergence is seen as essential, unlike a re-working of authorisation to learn that inhibits student and teacher alike in new attempts at revitalising education.     

Patterns of Performance

Complex human interactions involve more than just performance toward pre‐determined goals. For this reason, systems that measure and seek to improve performance must adapt to a wide range of ever‐changing patterns of individual and group behavior. Historically, HPT professionals have recognized these complexities and responded in a variety of ways. This article uses a case study of community change to explore principles from human systems dynamics (HSD), an emerging field of theory and practice that explores the intersection between nonlinear dynamics and the wide range of social sciences. Given that human performance technology (HPT) draws methods and measures from a variety of disciplines to solve problems and pursue opportunities to improve, HSD and HPT could be mutually informing. The case study and analytical model described in this article draw metaphorically from the nonlinear dynamical concept of attractor patterns. Patterns are recognized, and their influences on performance are explored. Each of the patterns captures options for action to observe, measure, evaluate, and intervene in human systems to improve performance.     

The conductance of aqueous solutions of electrolytes

Since the Debye-Hückel theory clearly indicates, from thermodynamic considerations, that strong electrolytes are substantially completely dissociated in aqueous solutions, it has been necessary to replace, in the explanation of the conductances of such electrolytes, the Arrhenius theory, which assumes partial dissociation and constant ion mobilities, with a theory which provides for changing mobilities with increasing ion concentrations. To this end Debye and Hückel, and Onsager, suggest two mechanisms: the “electrophoretic effect” and “the time of relaxation effect,” both dependent upon interionic electrostatic attractions and repulsions. Experimental tests of Onsager's relations show that his equations account accurately, at least for very dilute solutions, for the changes with concentration of the conductances of solutions of electrolytes containing ions of widely differing mobilities and valencies. For higher concentrations semi-empirical equations are available. In contrast to the Arrhenius theory, the newer ideas call for changes in the transference numbers with the concentration, which have been found experimentally. Precision transference measurements have also furnished an experimental test of Kohlrausch's law of independent mobilities of ions. The theory of interionic attractions and repulsions is, in addition, of utility in dealing with the ionic part of solutions of weak electrolytes. By computing degrees of dissociation in a manner which allows for changing ion mobilities a test is obtained of the Debye-Hückel limiting relation connecting activity coefficients with ion concentrations.     

Shared book experiences in kindergarten: Helping children come to literacy

Repetitive shared book experiences provided by public school kindergarten staff were used to improve literacy competence and preparation for formal first-grade reading instruction. The entire 1983–1984 kindergarten population (N = 228) of a rural, racially mixed, southeastern school district in South Carolina received eight shared reading experiences for each of three classic children's books. The shared book experience is defined as the situation in which a group of two or three children sit close enough to an adult to see the print as a book is read. Readings were provided by teachers, teacher aides, school volunteers, older students, and audiotapes. The children were individually administered the South Carolina State Department of Education's mandated Cognitive Skills Assessment Battery (Boehm & Slater, 1974) during the first 3 weeks of first grade. The control group, composed of the 1982–1983 kindergarten population (N = 269), had 73% of its children at or above the state cutoff for first-grade readiness, and the experimental group had 83% at or above the cutoff. (T = 22.2, p < .01). In addition, the school district staff reported a 10% increase in the number of children being placed in “top” reading groups. Repetitive, personal shared book experiences were found to enhance literacy awareness and competence, to improve preparation for formal first grade, and to broaden children's literacy interests.     

How inclusive education is understood by principals of independent schools

Inclusive education has become a practice that has been adopted by many schools across the globe and most usually in first-world countries. As a whole-school system, it occurs less frequently in developing countries including South Africa which unlike many developing countries has a sound infrastructure and many excellent schools in both the state and the independent sectors. Education White Paper 6: Special education: Building an inclusive education and training system was published in 2001 with the express intention of developing an inclusive education system in South Africa. Some South African independent schools have successfully implemented valuable forms of inclusion in their schools and this is the phenomenon that was studied. This study reveals various aspects of the inclusive process including the pivotal role that principals play in the transformation process of which inclusive education is the harbinger. It also analyses why principals choose to embrace a paradigm that on the surface is uncomfortable and not an easy option. We used narrative research as methodology for this qualitative research. The basic tenet was that inclusion leads to belonging and excellence in education. The major findings were that inclusion to most principals was about taking action, humanity and emotion. The principals also described inclusion as personal and pragmatic. The implications for action are of interest not only to principals, but to anyone who is seriously interested in innovative and more humane forms of anti-oppressive education.