Parental Involvement Moderates Etiological Influences on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Behaviors in Child Twins

Although few would now contest the presence of Gene × Environment (G × E) effects in the development of child psychopathology, it remains unclear how these effects manifest themselves. Alternative G × E models have been proposed (i.e., diathesis–stress, differential susceptibility, bioecological), each of which has notably different implications for etiology. Child twin studies present a powerful tool for discriminating between these models. The current study examined whether and how parental involvement moderated etiological influences on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) within 500 twin pairs aged 6–11 years. Results indicated moderation of genetic and nonshared environmental contributions to ADHD by parental involvement, and moreover, suggested both differential susceptibility and bioecological models of G × E. Results highlight the utility of child twin samples in testing different manifestations of G × E effects.     

Globalisation and education: a review of conflicting perspectives and their effect on policy and professional practice in the UK

Many disparate groups have written about the effects of globalisation on education. Some have promoted its benefits; others have warned against its ill‐effects. This paper is an attempt at coalescing and juxtaposing the respective arguments as they relate to schooling policy and practice in the UK. The growing international pressures of globalisation affect practitioners in unpredictable and different ways, so the development of national policy is tied to the process of translating global trends to local contexts. The current political environment has enabled policy‐makers to drive education in large measure using economic imperatives and to devolve liability for ineffective schooling outcomes to a supplicant teaching profession. Whether or not these approaches are justified, there has been precious little debate around the core issues: what is the purpose of education, what is the role of schooling in safeguarding democracy and what obligation does the state have to the individual beyond encouraging economic well‐being? This paper seeks to illuminate the background to such a debate in a non‐judgmental way; to examine why the skirmishes between opposing factions have instead been had on the periphery – in areas like value‐added measurement and performance‐related pay – and why the teaching profession has so often been a spectator incapable of challenging or mediating the emerging hegemony.     

Feynman Diagrams,Problem Spaces,and the Kuhnian Revolution to Come in Teacher Education

A blue‐ribbon panel convened by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) concluded in 2010 that teacher education in the United States must be “turned upside down,” with practical experience at its center and academic content woven around the practical. It might seem that the new clinical model based on medical education, which has been adopted by eight states, would be well‐aligned with a Deweyan inquiry‐based pedagogy. Dewey himself recognized a paradox, however: preparation for the combination of rigor and flexibility needed for inquiry‐based pedagogical skills absolutely requires immersion in clinical settings, even as immersion in the teaching environment that prevails in U.S. public schools systematically socializes new teachers to a very different set of skills than those needed for this model of effective pedagogy. Recent scholarship by Kuhnian scholars provides practical guidance for an alternative understanding of how changes in practice occur and may be transmitted to future generations.