Environmental learning in online social networks: adopting environmentally responsible behaviors

Online social networks are increasingly important information and communication tools for young people and for the environmental movement. Networks may provide the motivation for young adults to increase environmental behaviors by increasing their knowledge of environmental issues and of the specific actions they can take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This study examined an application within Facebook.com – the largest online social network in the world – that allowed users to post climate change news stories from other websites and comment on those stories. A survey revealed that users of the social networking application reported above average knowledge of climate change science and that self‐reported environmental behaviors increased during young people's involvement with the Facebook application. Focus groups indicated that peer role modeling through interaction on the site motivated pro‐environmental behaviors, that is, behavior that seeks to minimize the negative impact of one's actions on the natural and built world. Participation in a community of like‐minded users spurred many participants to learn more about climate change and do more to limit its impact.     

Recignising commonalities and reconciling differences in mathematics education

Data from a study of the practices of research mathematicians are used to highlight an exploration of commonalities across and differences between learners in mathematics classrooms. Such commonalities and differences are, it is claimed, central to a teacher's understandings of how to address her role and responsibilities. Commonalities discussed are those between learners,across mathematics and between communities of practice. Differences between syllabus and practice, between school mathematics,mathematics in the world, and academic mathematics and, finally, between members of the different communities of students,teachers of mathematics, mathematics educators, and mathematicians are explored. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Lies and Truth: A Study of the Development of the Concept

This study examined the developmental questions of when children begin to use the terms lie and truth, how they understand them, and when their understanding approaches that of adults. 150 subjects in 5 groups (nursery schoolers, preschoolers, first graders, fifth graders, and adults) were presented a series of 8 short puppet plays that systematically varied the presence of absence of the 3 prototype elements: factuality of a statement, the speaker's belief in the factuality or falsity of the statement, and the speaker's intent to deceive the listeners. The interactions of age, factuality, and belief most fully accounted for the use of the terms lie and truth. Persons at different ages differentially weighed the prototypic elements. Responses of fifth graders were transitional between those of the younger children and adults. The results are interpreted as supporting the development of definitional prototypes for these moral concepts.     

Training rats to discriminate between the odors of individual conspecifics

To determine the influence of genetic and microbiological factors in producing individually unique urine odors, we used a go/no-go operant task to assess the ability of eight male Long-Evans rats to discriminate between urine odors from the following pairs of male rats: (1) two outbred Long-Evans rats, (2) individual conventionally housed rats differing genetically only at the major histocompatibility complex (PVG vs. PVG.R1), (3) individual PVG versus PVG.R1 rats born by cesarean section and raised in germfree conditions, and (4) conventionally housed, genetically identical individuals of the PVG or PVG.R1 strains. Discriminable differences were present between the urine odors used in all four tasks. Analysis of the errors to a criterion of 85% correct discrimination responses revealed different learning patterns in each task. When bacteria were not present in genetically different rats (Task 3) and when bacteria were present but there were no genetic differences between rats (Task 4), the discrimination was the most difficult. The easiest discrimination involved the presence of bacteria and a genetic difference at the major histocompatibility complex (Task 2). These results indicate that, although bacteria are not necessary for the production of discriminable odor differences, they do influence the discriminability of the urine odors of rats.     

Research and the Challenges of Contemporary School Leadership: The Contribution of Critical Scholarship

There is a widespread policy assumption that school leaders such as headteachers and governors need to have 'raining courses' which are constituted by a growing corpus of Education Management Studies (EMS) if they are to achieve successfully current schooling goals of 'effectiveness', 'quality', 'excellence' and 'value for money' Another body of work which attempts to address these issues in a wider cultural framework and which may be called Critical Leadership Studies (CLS) is regarded as interesting for those studying for higher graduate qualifications but hardly relevant for everyday school busyness. While EMS is constructed as 'practical'and therefore a necessary constituent of the National Professional Qualification for Headteachers and other training courses for school leaders, CLS is constructed as 'academic' and more suitable for the EdD seminar. It will be argued here that both cultural analysis and recent research shows this to be a simplistic and reductionist view with dangerous policy consequences. Critical scholarship in education has much to offer to those meeting the everyday challenges of school leadership. In particular, feminist critical scholarship offers oppositional models to both traditional and market forms of patriarchal school leadership.     

Striking a critical pose: andragogy ‐‐ missing links,missing values

The first part of this essay, entitled ‘The Andragogy Debate: Twenty‐five Years of Deliberation’, examines the evolution of North American andragogy. It presents the changing views of researchers in a chronological dismantling of andragogy as a theory of adult learning. It provides a brief account of Knowles's influences in order to place andragogy in perspective as a set of assumptions about adult learning made fragile by what is missing. To expose the linear nature of the andragogical model, this section addresses sociological, philosophical, and other contextual weaknesses. The second part, ’Democracy and Freedom Lost in the Malcolmian Soft Sell’, elucidates the distorted view of individual freedom associated with individualism in the Knowlesian sense. It considers the impact of organizational and societal structures in shaping individual freedom and constituting democracy. While noting Knowles's support of individual freedom, it accents the inability of the andragogical model to achieve this freedom.     

The assessment of preservice teachers' dispositions

Abstract

Teacher dispositions are a central force in shaping the environment in which schooling takes place. State and national accrediting bodies have underscored this importance by including preservice teacher dispositions as an important component within the standards. Consequently, teacher certification programs must attend to this dimension; however, dispositions are neither easily identified nor easily assessed.

This study field tested an instrument used to identify and evaluate preservice teachers' dispositions. The implementation of the instrument was grounded in a commitment to have students reflect first on their own behavior, with faculty oversight in reviewing this self‐assessment. The instrument was evaluated in terms of its reliability using Cronbach's alpha. The process of using the instrument was analyzed through student and faculty feedback. The revised instrument is provided for use by other universities.