The rejection of nonscientific beliefs about life: Effects of instruction and reasoning skills

Nine hundred fifty-four students in a large university nonmajors biology course were pretested to determine the extent to which they held nonscientific beliefs in creationism, orthogenesis, the soul, nonreductionism, vitalism, teleology, and nonemergentism. To test the hypothesis that hypothetico-deductive reasoning skills facilitate movement away from nonscientific beliefs, the degree to which those nonscientific beliefs were initially held and the degree to which they were modified during instruction were compared to student reasoning level (intuitive, transitional, reflective). As predicted, the results showed that the less skilled reasoners were more likely to initially hold the nonscientific beliefs and were less likely to change those beliefs during instruction. It was also discovered that less skilled reasoners were less likely to be strongly committed to the scientific beliefs.     

Social Determinants of the Physical Education System

ABSTRACT

The physical education (PE) system is a consequential social determinant of pediatric health and well-being. Granting selective achievements, sub-optimal PE outcomes for school-aged children as well as teachers necessitate improvement models and redesign initiatives. This agenda depends on knowledge about the malleable social determinants of the PE system, particularly social-institutional reproduction dynamics, occupational socialization, and public policy. Theoretical propositions and their corollaries lend structure to discipline-specific and interdisciplinary research and development agendas. Pediatric researchers from Kinesiology and Public Health are essential contributors, particularly as social-ecological models gain traction, physical activity discourses replace PE’s, and interest resides in whether and how children’s participation extends beyond schools and stretches into adulthood.     

A Framework for Teaching Epistemic Insight in Schools

This paper gives the rationale and a draft outline for a framework for education to teach epistemic insight into schools in England. The motivation to research and propose a strategy to teach and assess epistemic insight followed research that investigated how students and teachers in primary and secondary schools respond to big questions about the nature of reality and human personhood. The research revealed that there are pressures in schools that dampen students’ expressed curiosity in these types of questions and limit their developing epistemic insight into how science, religion and the wider humanities relate. These findings prompted the construction of a framework for education for students aged 5–16 designed to encourage students’ expressed interest in big questions and develop their understanding of the ways that science interacts with other ways of knowing. The centrepiece of the framework is a sequence of learning objectives for epistemic insight, organised into three categories. The categories are, firstly, the nature of science in real world contexts and multidisciplinary arenas; secondly, ways of knowing and how they interact; and thirdly, the relationships between science and religion. Our current version of the Framework is constructed to respond to the way that teaching is organised in England. The key principles and many of the activities could be adopted and tailored to work in many other countries.     

Senior management perspectives of mathematics and statistics support in higher education: moving to an ‘ecological’ approach

This article explores the perspectives of three senior managers in higher education institutions in England regarding their mathematics and statistics support provision. It does so by means of a qualitative case study that draws upon the writing of Ronald Barnett about the identity of an ‘ecological’ university, along with metaphors associated with the notion of organisations as living ‘organisms’, suggested by Gareth Morgan. Using these ideas as a heuristic sheds light upon the view that whilst outwardly universities appear to represent a uniform landscape, mathematics and statistics support alternatively, can be seen as different ‘species’ within the higher education system. The study illustrates how three universities occupying contrasting ecological ‘niches’ are responding to the challenges they face by providing and planning different forms of learning support for mathematics and statistics. In conclusion, it is recommended that senior managers reflect upon the possibilities offered by the idea of ‘ecological’ identities in order to explore how they might respond strategically to a rapidly changing environment. This includes adapting various solutions and the further development of innovative ways of supporting students’ transitions throughout the academic lifecycle. In addition, an ecological approach could also aid the formation of the co-creational relationships and networks required for the future success of those developments.     

Triadic Supervision and its Impact on the Role of the Supervisor: A Qualitative Examination of Supervisors' Perspectives

Although triadic supervision has been the subject of little empirical research, perspectives of supervisors in this form of supervision have received even less attention. This qualitative study examined 6 doctoral student supervisors' experiences of triadic supervision and the demands it placed on them in their role as supervisors. Data collection involved use of in‐depth, open‐ended interviews, and a whole‐text analysis resulted in 2 major categories. These categories address various ways in which triadic supervision increases or decreases the demands placed on the supervisor. Implications of the findings for supervisory practices and future research are also addressed.     

Theorizing Communication Orientations of Privilege: How White Discourses (De) Construct Australian Aboriginals

We conducted a discourse analysis of Australians' conversations about race, exploring communication that (re)produces and decenters whiteness. We identified 23 communication practices, organized into four orientations (unity, separation, monologue, and dialogue), describing how those with power talk about those without power and (fail to) balance tensions between similarity and difference. Orientations of unity, monologue, and separation serve antidialogic functions by obstructing transformative thinking, de-legitimizing Aboriginal experiences, and reifying whiteness. Findings suggest it is possible, but rare, for individuals to engage in intercultural dialogue about race. Understanding communication orientations of privilege is a step towards facilitating talk that disrupts whiteness.     

Conceptualisations of literacy and literacy practices for children with severe learning difficulties

Literacy is traditionally narrowly conceptualised as a set of skills related to accessing and generating written or printed text. For children designated as having severe learning difficulties (SLD), who are unlikely to develop these ‘conventional’ literacy skills, such a conception implies their semi‐literacy or nonliteracy. Although conceptions of multimodal literacy and multiliteracies have rarely been applied to this group, broader understandings of literacy that include a range of activities, modes and media provide greater opportunities for including these learners in literacy practices. Drawing upon our research with teachers of this group of children and young people, we illustrate these literacy practices. We note, however, that such practices are often haphazard, not coherently thought through, and that there is much confusion regarding any distinction between communication and literacy. We argue for literacy as a specific form of communication, but conclude that broader models of literacies should be utilised to guide and support practitioners in developing interactive practice and in making reasoned and principled approaches and decisions about literacy practices, routes and progression for children with SLD.