What’s your goal? The importance of shaping the goals of engineering tasks to focus learners on the underlying science

Instructional Science - Engaging in engineering tasks can help students learn science concepts. However, many engineering tasks lead students to focus more on the success of their construction than...     

Education,Welfare Reform and Psychological Well-Being: A Critical Psychology Perspective

There are established links between education and well-being, and between poverty and education. This article draws on interviews with parents of school-aged children impacted by a policy in the UK commonly referred to as the ‘bedroom tax’. A critical psychology perspective to education is put forward, acknowledging the complex interrelationships between psychological well-being, sociopolitical factors and education.     

Establishing a Center to Support Faculty Research

This article describes the establishment in fall 2002 of a School of Education Research Center designed to support faculty in increasing productivity and quality in research. Details are provided about center goals, services, staffing, space, resources, and logistics during the first year of operation. In addition, data are shared about faculty usage of the Center, the level of faculty satisfaction with center services in the first year, and initial increases in faculty productivity. The article concludes with plans for continued data collection to monitor the impact of the Center, a discussion of lessons learned at this point in the Center's development, and possibilities for the evolution of the Center. All authors are at the University of Colorado, Denver. Laura Goodwin, Ph.D., University of Colorado at Boulder, is Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Affairs and continues to serve as a Faculty Research Associate. Elizabeth Kozleski, Ed.D., University of Northern Colorado, is the Associate Dean for Research in the School of Education. Lynn Rhodes, Ed.D., Indiana University, is the Dean of the School of Education. Rodney Muth, Ph.D., Claremont Graduate School, is a professor of Administrative Leadership and Policy Studies in the school and chaired the Research Center Advisory Board. Kim Kennedy White, M.A., University of Oregon, was the original School of Education Research Center Coordinator and was responsible for collecting most of the data included in this study.     

The Nature–Nurture Question: Teachers’ perceptions of how genes and the environment influence educationally relevant behaviour

Despite a substantial body of research suggesting genetic influence on educationally relevant behavioural traits, it is not clear how the nature–nurture question is perceived by teachers. In order to answer this question, we surveyed 667 UK primary school teachers, and for comparison also surveyed 1,340 parents about their perceptions of genetic and environmental influence on personality, intelligence, behaviour problems, learning difficulties, and mental illness. For these five domains of behaviour, the percentages of teachers who reported that genetics were at least as important as environment were .87, .94, .43, .94, and .91, respectively. Results for parents were similar (.92, .93, .54, .86, and .89). We also found that 80% of teachers reported no coverage of genetics during teacher training.     

Participatory creativities: developing a research design for children’s pastoral encounters with the natural world

ABSTRACT

In this paper, the author discusses the interrelationship between creativity, children’s experiences of the natural world and pastoral education. Based on a research design developed whilst undertaking a professional doctorate in education (EdD), and grounded in a theoretical framework of children’s rights, the author explores the creative uncertainties of collaboratively researching children’s educational experiences with nature. The paper considers the ways in which the research design supports a pastoral care agenda, whilst encouraging the emergence of ‘creative artefacts’, alongside the extent to which the focus of the research, encounters with the natural world, might be deemed pastorally minded in its own right. The children who have participated in the research then draw the paper to a close, sharing what their involvement in the project has meant to them. Images and excerpts of children’s own creative reflections are offered as illustration of the powerful confluence of the Creative and the Pastoral.     

Background issues relating to the proposed Mass Literacy Campaign in Nigeria

Literacy education in Nigerian history finds its roots in the efforts of missionary endeavour. Subsequent work in the field has always been piecemeal and unco-ordinated, even though a degree of success has been achieved and valuable experience gained. The Federal Government's decision to launch a Mass Literacy Campaign in 1982 is primarily a political response to the needs and exigencies of a developing country rich both in natural and manpower resources. The campaign is seen not only as a necessary means of creating a permanently literate society within ten years but also as an assertion of the nation's unity. The problems of undertaking such a project are immensely complicated by the plethora of local languages and cultures, the preservation of which is seen to be imperative. But the campaign can succeed if the crucial issues identified in the article — functionality, personnel, training and materials, motivation, and above all the language to be used as the medium of literacy education — are resolved; if assistance from national development organisations and international bodies is matched by the determination of the government to create an environment capable of sustaining and reinforcing literacy and conducive to the use of the skills acquired; and if the illiterate respond with initiative and perseverence to the opportunity offered them.

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Zusammenfassung Die Alphabetisierung in Nigeria hat ihre historischen Wurzeln in missionarischen Bemühungen. Alle spätere Arbeit auf diesem Gebiet war stückenhaft und unkoordiniert, wenn ihr auch ein gewisses Maß von Erfolg beschieden war und wertvolle Erfahrungen gemacht wurden. Der Beschluß der nigerianischen Regierung, im Jahre 1982 eine Massen-Alphabetisierungskampagne durchzuführen, ist vor allem eine politische Antwort auf die Bedürfnisse und Erfordernisse eines an natürlichen und menschlichen Ressource reichen Entwicklungslandes. Die Kampagne wird nicht nur als notwendiges Mittel angesehen, innerhalb von zehn Jahren eine bleibend alphabetisierte Gesellschaft zu schaffen, sondern auch als eine Bestätigung der Einheit der Nation. Die einem solchen Projekt anhaftenden Probleme werden durch die Vielfalt einheimischer Sprachen und Kulturen, deren Erhaltung als unerläßlich betrachtet wird, außerordentlich kompliziert. Dennoch kann das Unternehmen zum Erfolg führen, wenn die wichtigsten, in diesem Artikel herausgearbeiteten Fragen — Funktionalität, Personal, Ausbildung und Materialien, Motivation und besonders die für die Alphabetisierung benutzte Sprache — gelöst werden; wenn der Unterstützung durch nationale Entwicklungsstellen und internationale Organisationen eine entsprechende Entschlossenheit der Regierung gegenübersteht, eine Umgebung herzustellen, die die Alphabetisierung aufrechterhalten und konsolidieren kann und zum Gebrauch der erworbenen Fähigkeiten herausfordert; und wenn die Analphabeten die ihnen gebotene Gelegenheit mit Initiative und Ausdauer nutzen.

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Résumé L'alphabétisation dans l'histoire nigériane prend sa source dans les efforts des missions religieuses. Le travail postérieur dans ce domaine a toujours été fragmentaire et sans coordination, bien qu'on ait atteint un certain degré de succès et qu'on ait acquis une expérience précieuse. La décision du Gouvernement Fédéral de lancer une Campagne d'Alphabétisation Massive en 1982 est avant tout une réponse politique aux besoins et aux exigences d'un pays en développement riche en ressources tant naturelles qu'humaines. Cette campagne est considérée non seulement comme un moyen nécessaire de créer une société définitivement alphabète en dix ans mais aussi comme une assertion de l'unité de la nation. Les problèmes soulevés par l'entreprise d'un tel projet sont énormément compliqués par la pléthore des langues et des cultures indigènes, dont la préservation est regardée comme impérative. Néanmoins, cette campagne a des chances de réussir si les points critiques identifiés dans cet article — fonctionnalité, personnel, formation et matériel, motivation, et par dessus tout la langue à employer comme véhicule de l'alphabétisation — sont résolus; si l'assistance accordée par les organisations pour le développement national et par les organismes internationaux rencontre sur le même niveau la détermination du gouvernment de créer un environment capable de maintenir et de renforcer l'alphabétisation qui soit aussi favorable à l'utilisation des connaissances et de l'expérience acquises; et si les illettrés répondent par la persévérance et par l'initiative aux occasions qui leur sont offertes.