Children's Perception of Proportion in Graphs

Children ranging in age from 9 to 13 years made judgments of proportion with a variety of graphical elements in 2 experiments. Younger children can be misled by irrelevant dimensions of objects used to portray magnitudes and proportions, but older children make their judgments like adults, ignoring or accommodating the extra dimensions. Although the psychophysical function for older children and adults is approximately linear, closer inspection reveals a complex pattern of bias that is not captured by traditional psychophysical models. A characteristic pattern of over- and underestimation was observed and also turns out to be present, but previously unnoticed, in judgments made by adults. The pattern of bias is consistent with the view that the visual system extracts real or virtual axes of symmetry and that subjects use these, in addition to the object boundaries, as points of reference when making their judgments. A model that assumes repulsion of judgments away from these reference points is described and fitted to the children's data. The model is motivated by both neurophysiological and cognitive considerations.     

Picturing global educational inclusion? Looking and thinking across students’ photographs from the UK,Zambia and Indonesia

Over the last few years we have engaged children and young people in participatory photography projects in a diverse range of international contexts. The projects, diverse as they are, have been school-based and primarily focused on students' experiences of educational inclusion/exclusion. Photographs taken by students can stimulate conversations in which different perspectives are shared and considered. Whilst this process is meaningful within a local context, it is also compelling to reflect more widely on what children and young people's photographs and commentary (and through these their interpretations of their educational experiences) have to tell and, indeed, show us about educational inclusion globally. In this paper, we begin by explaining what we mean by the term 'educational inclusion', and consider what methodological relevance the participatory photography has for engaging in research with children and young people about their educational experiences. We then briefly describe the contexts of the projects this paper draws on, which took place in the UK, Zambia and Indonesia. In the main body of the paper, we will look across these international projects and consider a selection of students' photographs and interpretations in relation to several broad themes about educational inclusion which they suggest.     

Alternatives to the behavioural technicist conception of study skills

The what and how of study skills programmes are critiqued and alternatives suggested. Due to the absence of information about higher level learning, study skills courses have traditionally focused on study behaviours, rather than upon the cognitive processes involved in mastering complex material. By providing knowledge about the cognitive skills and strategies involved in the acquisition and organization of high level learning, information-processing could form the basis of future learning-skills programmes. Infusing learning skills into the curriculum from a phenomenological-critical theory perspective, means that the study skills counsellor becomes a social change agent aiming for the enlightenment and emancipation of students and lecturers. This is a radical departure from the behavioural-technician remedying a deficit group in a special programme or study laboratory.     

College credits for previous learning experiences: Reaching nontraditional students

This paper describes how an undergraduate department in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee grants college credits for previous learning experiences to attract and retain nontraditional students from an urban environment. At first students earned these credits by writing a loose biography, but the process by which these credits are earned has become more structured. These Prior Professional Educational Experience credits (as they are named) are now granted on a course-specific basis, where students respond in writing to questions designed to test their knowledge of competency areas offered by the department. Earning these credits has helped older students get through the university and has given them a sense of accomplishment about learnings acquired in nonuniversity settings.     

‘Their churches are at home’: the communication and definition of values in four aided Church of England secondary schools

The role of head teachers in the formation and transmission of values within schools has long been viewed as pivotal. At a time when the place of faith schools, as part of state funded educational provision, is openly questioned, this paper reports on a small-scale study of the views that four head teachers have of their place in their school's values framework. Special reference is made to the formation of values and to their communication. The expression of these values is then examined with special reference to their application in the context of school admissions policies. It is then suggested that some critiques of church schools adopt an oversimplistic approach and that there is no one overarching understanding of what it means to be a Church of England school.     

Programmed cell death features in apple suspension cells under low oxygen culture

INTRODUCTION A number of abiotic stresses have been shown to induce programmed cell death (PCD) responses in plant cells. High temperatures (e.g. 55 篊) induce nuclear condensation and DNA fragmentation in cultured carrot, cucumber and Arabidopsis cells (McCabe et al., 1997; McCabe and Leaver, 2000), and also mitochondrial cytochrome c release in cucumber cotyledons (Balk et al., 1999). The PCD pathway also appears to be activated by ozone. Ozone induces an oxidative burst with acc…