Communication and relational culture: Bases for the study of human relationships

This article elaborates two concepts centrally important in the study of human relationships: communication and relational culture. Communication is represented as a formative process which constitutes, defines and disassembles relationships. Arising out of communication is relational culture, a privately transacted system of discourse and definition that coordinates attitudes, actions, and identities of partners in a relationship. These two concepts are used to define states of relationship which represent both stages and types of human relationships. For each state, communicative processes and functions are identified and attention is devoted to the impact of communication in moving partners toward or away from a binding relational culture.     

Idiosyncratic cases and hopes for general validity: what education research might learn from ecology / Casos idiosincrásicos y expectativas de validez general: lo que la investigación en educación puede aprender de la ecología

Abstract

We reflect on our ongoing struggles with rigour and validity in a project based on case study analyses: How can particular instances of learning, with all their idiosyncratic details and dynamics, contribute findings of lasting value to education? For this essay, we look to the field of ecology, which has faced similar challenges, for insights into the goals and methods of research.     

Constructing Narratives of Continuity and Change: A transdisciplinary approach to researching lives

In outlining the framework offered at the UNESCO Regional Conference in support of Global Literacy (New Delhi, November 2007), it was pointed out that concepts of poverty, sustainable development and particularly of literacy and innovation have themselves been in continuous re‐construction. An analysis of the context and condition for literacy policies and initiatives in Bangladesh—a country with one of the highest rates of both poverty and illiteracy—was undertaken, as an exemplar for other countries of the Asian region, and for Third World countries around the globe. It is suggested that to meet the challenge ahead, social‐structural strategies must be joined with instructional strategies and second socializations of all involved; and both the planners and providers of adult literacy, and the intended beneficiaries of adult literacy dispensation must be mobilized. Commitments must last for a decade—and more if necessary.     

Effective Classroom Organisation in Primary Schools: Mathematics

One of the greatest problems in teaching mathematics arises from the diversity of pupils' attainments. For decades, this has been managed by primary class teachers in England by adopting an approach of within-class grouping or differentiation according to attainment-level. During the last two years, however, government initiatives have increased the focus on a whole-class approach to teaching mathematics. This has led to an increase in the number of schools adopting a policy of grouping between parallel classes, or 'setting' by attainment within classes in order to contain the range of attainment in each teaching group and to make whole-class teaching a realistic possibility. Earlier research studies have outlined the benefits of grouping by attainment for subsequent learning in mathematics, especially for higher-attaining pupils; the results this article uses challenge the findings of earlier studies. Newly available data from a large-scale primary mathematics project are examined which indicate that the attainments of pupils taught in mixed-ability classes are at least equal to those of pupils in schools set by attainment.     

Family child care in four Midwestern states: Multiple measures of quality and relations to outcomes by licensed status and subsidy program participation

Quality of family child care in four Midwestern states was examined using four measures designed to assess structural and/or process quality to determine if dimensions converge or vary across types of family child care (licensed and license-exempt/registered) and subsidy receipt (programs serving children whose care is paid by subsidies and programs not serving subsidized children). Two instruments designed specifically for use with family child care that measure both structural and process quality were used (Family Day Care Rating Scale and Quality Instrument for Informal Child Care), as well as one instrument measuring process quality (Caregiver Interaction Scale) and one instrument measuring structural quality (Midwest Child Care Assets Index). The two instruments designed to measure both structural and process quality in family child care were highly correlated with each other, while both of these were moderately correlated with the measure of process quality. The measure of structural quality was not significantly correlated with the measure of process quality. Licensed family child care homes scored higher than license-exempt/registered family child care homes on three of the four measures (all but the Caregiver Interaction Scale), and family child care homes receiving child care subsidies scored lower than those not receiving subsidies on three of the four measures (all but the Assets Index).     

Exploring Opportunities for Argumentation in Modelling Classrooms

On several levels it can be said that the act of modelling in science is inherently an argumentative act. That is, in virtually all aspects of modelling, from developing a question to judging between competing models that might answer that question, an individual is engaged in persuasive acts. Those acts may be private or public. They may be mental, written or oral, but they are about judging ideas and making sense of them; convincing oneself or others that the ideas and ways of looking at and explaining a phenomenon are useful. These acts are what scientists find exciting. They are what make science intellectually interesting and challenging. Inviting students into this practice is one way to help them learn both the content and process of science. This paper introduces a framework that is attentive to the research on how people learn while simultaneously pushing for curriculum and instruction that engages students in elements of the practice of science. We explore how this framework can be used to foster argumentation by describing the theoretical underpinnings of the framework and using classroom examples to illustrate the utility of the framework for promoting argumentation.     

A Cross‐age Study of Children’s Knowledge of Apparent Celestial Motion

The US National Science Education Standards and the Benchmarks for Science Literacy recommend that students understand the apparent patterns of motion of the Sun, Moon, and stars by the end of early elementary school, yet no research has specifically examined these concepts from an Earth‐based perspective with this age group. This study examines children’s understanding of the patterns of apparent celestial motion among first‐grade, third‐grade, and eighth‐grade students, and investigates the extent to which these concepts develop from elementary to middle school in students without targeted instruction. Twenty students at each grade level (total n = 60) were interviewed using a novel interview setting: a small dome representing the sky, which allowed students to demonstrate their ideas. Analysis reveals that elementary and middle school students hold a variety of non‐scientific ideas about all aspects of apparent celestial motion. While the eighth‐grade students’ understanding of the apparent motion of the Sun shows a greater level of accuracy compared with the third‐grade students, across the majority of topics of apparent celestial motion, the overall level of accuracy shows little change from third grade to eighth grade. Just as prior research has demonstrated the need for instruction to improve children’s understanding of the nature of celestial objects and their actual motions, these results support the need for research on instructional strategies that improve students’ understanding of celestial motion as seen from their own perspective.     

Integration without assimilation? Ethno‐nationalism in Israel and universal laïcité in France

The adoption of multiculturalism and multiethnic views of society seems to be a convergent tendency among Western democracies where population flows are becoming increasingly heterogeneous. However, the established citizenship models and migrant groups' experiences have different impacts on the multicultural discourse in each country. This ‘integration without assimilation’ thesis has been examined comparing two countries – Israel and France – that differ largely in their definition of nationhood. Despite large demographic changes in both countries, the evolution of conceptions of citizenship in France and in Israel reflects a reaffirmation of existing models – the particularist Israeli ethno‐nationalism and the universalist French republicanism and laïcité – and the continuity of their assimilationist and homogenizing tendencies towards a Jewish uniform identity in the former and towards a uniform secular (or catho‐laique) identity in the latter.     

Impact of the choice of threshold on physical activity patterns in free living conditions among adolescents measured using a uniaxial accelerometer: The HELENA study

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the choice of threshold on physical activity patterns measured in adolescents under free living conditions (FLC) using a uniaxial accelerometer. The study comprised 2043 adolescents (12.5–17.5 years) participating in the HELENA Study. Participants wore a uniaxial accelerometer for 7 days. The PA patterns were assessed using thresholds determined from six different studies. For each of the thresholds used, the number of adolescents fulfilling the recommendation of 60 min of moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) per day was also calculated. A significant difference was found between thresholds regardless of the activity level: differences of 38%, 207%, 136%, and 2780% for sedentary, light, moderate, and vigorous intensity PA, respectively (P < 0.001). Time of MVPA varied between methods from 25.3 to 55.2 min · day^–1. The number of adolescents fulfilling the recommendation varied from 5.9% to 37% according to the thresholds used. The kappa coefficient for concordance in the assessment of the number of adolescents achieving the PA recommendations was generally low. The definition of the threshold for PA intensity may considerably affect the PA patterns in FLC when assessed using a uniaxial accelerometer and the number of participants fulfilling the recommendations.