Young Students’Informal Statistical Knowledge

This article reports some results of an informal study of very young children's reactions to some visual displays of data.     

Citizenship and enterprise: issues from an investigation of teachers' perceptions in England and Hungary

We explore the perceptions of teachers concerning citizenship and enterprise in Hungary and England. Contextual matters are described and research methods outlined prior to a discussion of emerging issues. We argue that citizenship in both countries is understood broadly in terms of what it means to be human. The English teachers emphasized community issues and being socially active more often than those in Hungary. Hungarian teachers were less positive about state and civil society and more patriotic about their country. In both countries those in provincial towns (rather than those in capital cities) suggested a belief in the need for a greater adherence to rules. There was greater enthusiasm for citizenship education in primary rather than secondary schools in both countries. All teachers seemed wary about a form of enterprise education that relates directly to the economy and this was especially true for the Hungarian sample. Teachers in both countries, while recognizing the current emphasis on competition between and within schools, tended to characterize citizenship education as a constructive social enterprise (rather than an economic enterprise), in which young people are encouraged to explore problems and develop their initiative and capacity for action. All teachers favoured a collaborative and broad‐based pedagogical approach in which young people are allowed to explore social and political issues through dilemmas.     

Analysis and treatment of child abuse: A set of behavioral propositions

Five propositions are presented to suggest the potential of a behavioral approach to the understanding and treatment of child abuse. Each proposition deals with an important source of child abuse: (a) ineffective child management techniques; (b) deliberately punitive child rearing practices; (c) impulsive acts by the parent triggered by the child; (d) high levels of stress; and (e) negative attitude toward the child. For each proposition we discuss supportive findings from both child abuse and general psychological research as well as the additional information that would be needed in order to obtain a better functional analysis of clinical cases. Based on this discussion, behavioral therapy strategies are proposed with special attention being given to the various measures needed to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment programs.     

Psychology's Contribution to Understanding and Managing Bullying within Schools

This paper investigates the extent to which psychological theory and research has contributed to how bullying is managed within schools. Teachers' awareness of the behaviours that constitute bullying, gender differences leading to identification difficulties, and low levels of reporting are discussed as plausible reasons for teachers' low intervention rates. Pupils' attitudes towards and responses to bullying are examined within the contexts of self‐efficacy, self‐acceptance and level of problem‐solving skill. Subsequent anti‐bullying interventions focusing on these aspects are explored and the importance of a whole‐school approach emphasised.     

Reflections on citizenship education in Australia,Canada and England

In this article we describe the background to the recent development of citizenship education in Australia, Canada and England and then, following an account of our methods, discuss issues arising from an analysis of a sample of textbooks from these countries. We suggest that the current policies to introduce versions of citizenship education have emerged in these countries in the context of diverse challenges to the legitimacy of the nation state. We argue, generally, that all three countries tend, in the textbooks we have examined, to emphasize forms of citizenship education that may submerge citizen empowerment under essentially orthodox agendas. We see differences in textbooks between and within the three countries but argue that, despite many exceptions, we are able to characterize textbooks in Ontario, Canada as education in civics (provision of information about formal public institutions), those in England as education for citizenship (a broad‐based promotion of socially useful qualities) and those in Australia as social studies (societal understanding that emerges from the development of critical thinking skills related to existing academic subjects such as history and English).     

Exploring Designerly Thinking of Students as Novice Designers

Few studies have attempted a detailed analysis of designerly thinking and actions of students as they solve design technology problems. This paper reports on a study that describes in detail, the design processes used by small groups of preservice teacher education students engaged in ill-defined, open-ended, self-selected design technology projects. A notation of symbols and connectors was devised and used to map the decisions, and the material and embodied actions of two groups of students throughout the course of their projects. The detail provided by the maps gives insights into these adult novice designers' design processes and provides information to assist teacher educators in planning courses to support future teachers of design and technology.     

How the University of Minnesota was subverted by litigation

This essay was originally presented as part of the panel, “The University of Minnesota: Issues and Prospects,” at “On the State of Academic Discourse,” the third national conference of the National Association of Scholars, held in Minneapolis, October 18 to 20, 1991.