Must Evolution Education that Aims at Belief Be Indoctrinating?

Science & Education - Can a teacher aim for students to believe evolution without indoctrinating them? Recent discussions of indoctrination in evolution education suggest that such teaching...     

Contents

Volume Contents

Contents     

University academics’ experiences of learning through mentoring

The use of mentoring for staff development is well established within schools and the business sector, yet it has received limited consideration in the higher education literature as an approach to supporting learning for academics. In this study located at one metropolitan university in Australia, an online questionnaire and one-on-one semi-structured interviews were used to explore academics’ experiences of mentoring, with a view to understanding the broader benefits mentoring might offer to the academic community. Findings from the study highlight that in an era where change is pervasive tertiary education providers should consider implementing mentoring as a valuable approach for supporting the work of academics. The academics in this research explained that through mentoring, they learnt how to build professional relationships and friendships; it helped them develop a sense of personal satisfaction; acted as a catalyst for career and leadership enhancement; expanded understandings of teaching and research and as a consequence of engaging in self-reflection it opened up new ways of thinking about their work.     

The importance of adjusting for pupil background in school value-added models: A study of Progress 8 and school accountability in England

In the UK, USA and elsewhere, school accountability systems increasingly compare schools using value-added measures of school performance derived from pupil scores in high-stakes standardised tests. Rather than naïvely comparing school average scores, which largely reflect school intake differences in prior attainment, these measures attempt to compare the average progress or improvement pupils make during a year or phase of schooling. Schools, however, also differ in terms of their pupil demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and these factors also predict why some schools subsequently score higher than others. Many therefore argue that value-added measures unadjusted for pupil background are biased in favour of schools with more ‘educationally advantaged’ intakes. But others worry that adjusting for pupil background entrenches socioeconomic inequities and excuses low-performing schools. In this article we explore these theoretical arguments and their practical importance in the context of the ‘Progress 8’ secondary school accountability system in England, which has chosen to ignore pupil background. We reveal how the reported low or high performance of many schools changes dramatically once adjustments are made for pupil background, and these changes also affect the reported differential performances of regions and of different school types. We conclude that accountability systems which choose to ignore pupil background are likely to reward and punish the wrong schools and this will likely have detrimental effects on pupil learning. These findings, especially when coupled with more general concerns surrounding high-stakes testing and school value-added models, raise serious doubts about their use in school accountability systems.     

Psychopathology and Parenting Practices of Parents of Preschool Children with Behavior Problems

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated associations among different types of parental psychopathology and several specific parenting practices. DESIGN: Mothers (n = 182) and fathers (n = 126) of preschool-aged children with behavior problems completed questionnaires assessing parental psychopathology and parenting practices, and participated in observed parent-child interactions. RESULTS: Maternal depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and several different personality disorder traits were related to maternal negativity, laxness, and lack of warmth. Paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal, and borderline personality disorder symptoms predicted mothers' parenting practices, even when statistically controlling for other types of psychopathology. For fathers, those same symptoms, dependent and avoidant symptoms, and substance abuse symptoms were associated with self-reported lax parenting. Evidence emerged that psychopathology in one parent was associated with less overreactivity in the other parent. CONCLUSIONS: Many aspects of parents' psychological functioning play a role in determining specific parenting practices, including personality disorder symptoms.     

Sport Education as a pedagogical application for ethical development in physical education and youth sport

The purpose of this paper is to consider four pedagogical applications within the Sport Education model to examine the ways in which a young person can become a literate sports person and develop ethical behaviour through engagement in physical education and youth sport. Through a systematic review of the Sport Education research literature we present evidence to suggest that although notions such as inclusion, responsibility and ownership, personal and social development and social justice are part of the architecture of this pedagogical model, our findings show that rather than simply being caught, ethical conduct must be taught. Consequently, in the final part of the paper, we present four pedagogical applications within Sport Education that physical education teachers as well as youth sport practitioners and administrators may find useful to promote ethical development: (1) ethical contracts; (2) sports panels; (3) modified games; and (4) awards and rewards.     

Beliefs About Thought Probability: Evidence for Persistent Errors in Mindreading and Links to Executive Control

Four‐ to 10‐year‐olds' and adults' (N = 263) ability to inhibit privileged knowledge and simulate a naïve perspective were examined. Participants viewed pictures that were then occluded aside from a small ambiguous part. They offered suggestions for how a naïve person might interpret the hidden pictures, as well as rated the probability that a naïve person would think of several different pictures (with one picture being the actual item). Results indicated a significant increase between ages 4 and 7 years in attributing novel interpretations; however, all age groups overestimated the probability that a naïve person could guess the actual pictures. Individual differences in working memory and inhibitory control predicted participants' thought suggestions as well as aspects of their probability judgments.     

The Differing Effect of Language Factors on Science and Mathematics Achievement Using TIMSS 2015 Data: South Africa

Research in Science Education - Choice of instructional language is influenced by both previous and current perceptions of the value of a given language. For many South African learners, this has...