Parents’/carers’ perceptions and experiences of growing,preparing and eating their own fruit and vegetables as part of the ‘Field to Fork’ project

This paper reports research into a project to encourage KS1 and KS2 pupils to eat more healthily by supporting their families to grow their own fruit and vegetables at home. Participants were recruited through a Primary School Trust comprising four primary schools in the North West of England. They were given practical support to enable them to grow fruit and vegetables. The findings of pre-programme focus groups with parents/carers suggested families tended not to eat the daily government-recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables; cost, time and knowledge being the main inhibitors. With resources, knowledge and support most participants were enabled to grow their own fruit and vegetables leading to increased consumption. Availability to and familiarity with fresh fruit and vegetables by tending and growing them first-hand was shown to increase their consumption.     

Defining Family-centered Early Education: Beliefs of Public School, Child Care, and Head Start Teachers

Reform efforts in early childhood education include recommendations to adopt more family-centered approaches to practice, including greater family support functions. In this study the beliefs of 280 early childhood teachers regarding aspects of family-centered programming were assessed using the written Family Involvement Survey (FIS). Teacher beliefs were compared across public school, child care, and Head Start settings. Results revealed that public school early childhood teachers reported significantly less positive beliefs about parents' childrearing interests and abilities, along with lower self-perceived competence in relating to families, than either child care or Head Start teachers. As compared to Head Start teachers, both public school and child care teachers reported significantly more conflict about providing support services to families through their early education programs. These results were interpreted, in part, as evidence of the need for more in-depth knowledge about the separate professional cultures that characterize various sectors of the early education field.     

Exploring children's perceptions of forgiveness at the interpersonal and political levels: emerging evidence in Cyprus

This small-scale study reports the findings from an investigation into non-verbal communication. It primarily seeks to analyse whether 9 and 13 year-olds can encode and decode non-verbal communication in the context of classroom behaviour management. This research showed that, in contrast to previous published research, there were no distinct differences between the ages, genders, or task types. One key finding was the frequency with which pupils misinterpreted the facial expression of anger, irrespective of the familiarity of the face, although accuracy of emotional interpretation improved with time. From observations, female staff consistently used more complementary non-verbal communication than conflicting, compared with the male staff.     

Hypothetico-deductive reasoning skill and concept acquisition: Testing a constructivist hypothesis

This study tested the constructivist hypothesis that the acquisition of domain-specific conceptual knowledge (declarative knowledge) requires use of general procedural knowledge. More specifically, it was hypothesized that use of a general pattern of hypothetico-deductive reasoning is necessary for the acquisition of novel domain-specific concepts. To test this hypothesis 314 high school biology and chemistry students were first tested to determine whether or not they were skilled in the use of hypothetico-deductive reasoning. Based on this test, students were classified as reflective, transitional, or intuitive thinkers. All students were then presented with a series of four concept-acquisition tasks. It was predicted that reflective (hypothetico-deductive) thinkers would acquire the concepts while intuitive (empirico-inductive) thinkers would not. Transitional thinkers were expected to be partially successful. These predictions were confirmed as skill in hypothetico-deductive reasoning (developmental level), but not age, was highly correlated with performance on the concept acquisition tasks (X² = 71.14, p < 0.00001). This result was interpreted to be supportive of the constructivist hypothesis.     

The role of facilitators in Virginia's electronic classroom project

Abstract

Although distance education is experiencing rapid growth in the United States, there is little research that measures the beliefs of certified public accountants (CPAs) toward the use of distance education in obtaining continuing professional education (CPE). This study examined the beliefs of CPAs in the state of Georgia concerning the effectiveness of distance education in providing CPE. The basic findings indicate that CPAs in the state of Georgia believe distance education to be an effective mode of learning. In addition, they indicate that the technological capabilities necessary to participate in distance education are available to them. However, with the exception of print‐based distance education, the percent of professional learning received via distance education is minimal. The results of this study may provide information beneficial to program planners of CPE.     

The evolution of Education Studies in higher education in England

In this article we examine the recent development of Education Studies as an undergraduate subject of study in England. The evolution of Education Studies is inextricably linked to the political context which it exists to critique. Changes within teacher education have spawned education studies in a number of guises. It is only latterly that policy changes have created the conditions for Education Studies to thrive as a subject in its own right. The genesis of the subject is traced through a brief historical analysis and its current various manifestations are outlined. The nature of Education Studies is discussed. Fundamentally, the authors contend that Education Studies provides a set of analytical discourses that facilitate critique of shifting knowledge bases, policy contexts and socio-economic developments as they impact upon education.