‘They still use some of their past’: historical salience in elementary children's chronological thinking

Fifty‐eight students at seven grade levels (kindergarten through sixth) from three population groups (urban, suburban and rural) were presented with the task of chronologically ordering a set of nine historical pictures and ‘thinking aloud’ about the task. The results of this study provide increased evidence regarding the kind and sources of children's historical knowledge, and how they deploy that knowledge. The most accessible historical knowledge for early and middle grade children apparently relates to changes in material culture and the patterns of everyday life. It appears, too, that the intertexts that inform children's historical understanding, especially prior to fourth grade, provide better information about material culture than about other aspects of change over time. In addition, some children at all grade levels linked history to such sociocultural issues as race and gender. Finally, by fifth grade, children were learning a new reference system that consisted of specific eras (Colonial, Revolution), events (Boston Massacre, War of 1812) and relationships (British taxes, lack of colonial representation creates pre‐Revolutionary tensions) that allowed them to make more interpretations reflective of the academic discipline of history (British and colonists had legitimate but differing points of view). Children's willingness to engage in this new genre and the facility with which some students managed the transition have important implications for instruction.     

The Usefulness of Time Lines in Learning Chronological Relationships in Text Materials

Methodological problems, have limited the usefulness of findings from experiments into learning by discovery. By using programmed instruction materials, a within-class design, and other controls, an attempt was made to remove confounding. Two tasks were used: concept learning and principle learning. For each task, a separate 2x2x2 factorial design containing sixteen Ss in each cell was used. Independent variables were instructional method (egrule and ruleg), school grade (9 and 5), and intelligence (high and average). A set of eight different measures, involving retention, transfer, and ease of relearning, was used for each task. It was found that the egrule and ruleg methods did not differ significantly, and that interaction between instructional method and the other variables was low.     

The role of education in the development of Black feminist thought, 1860‐1920

Very few English secondary schools now include ‘Comprehensive’ in their titles, and political enthusiasm for comprehensive schools is hard to detect. According to David Skelton of Policy Exchange, politicians, like anthropologists, have often ‘investigated them, read thoroughly about them and even visited them, but they don’t really understand them’. Drawing on a variety of source materials, this article discusses the early comprehensive schools movement, the period of intensive circulars and legislation in the 1960s and 1970s and the subsequent waning of interest in comprehensive schools as a policy topic. At the heart of the discussion is a focus on politics and politicians at both the national and local levels, with close reference to some key personalities of the post-war period. It is argued that the story of comprehensive schooling in England needs more balance and that we should look to the present generation of politicians and historians to provide this.     

Elementary Teaching as Toil: The Diary and Letters of Miss Eglantyne Jebb,a Gentlewoman Schoolmistress 1

Notwithstanding over 20 years of propaganda promoting board school teaching as an ideal career for upper‐class women, it appears that in the 1890s it was still unusual for ‘girls of good family’ to go in for it. Therefore, it was an eccentric plunge in 1898 when Eglantyne Jebb, an Oxford student from a prosperous land‐owning family, enrolled in Stockwell Teachers’ College. An understanding of recruitment and retention patterns and the hurdles faced by women teachers across the social‐class spectrum requires more studies of individual careers. Eglantyne Jebb’s short teaching career documents in detail the process of becoming a board school teacher and the deep‐rooted class boundaries that Jebb felt branded her as an ‘outsider’. Viewed from the vantage point of history, her problems were probably compounded by unsympathetic peers, a dearth of role models and enthusiastic but ill‐informed mentors. All of which may offer some insight into why so few women of her background found their way into and stayed in the profession.     

Responding to a Relevance Imperative in School Science and Mathematics: Humanising the Curriculum Through Story

There has been a recent push to reframe curriculum and pedagogy in ways that make school more meaningful and relevant to students’ lives and perceived needs. This ‘relevance imperative’ is evident in contemporary rhetoric surrounding quality education, and particularly in relation to the junior secondary years where student disengagement with schooling continues to abate. This paper explores how teachers translate this imperative into their mathematics and science teaching. Interview data and critical incidents from classroom practice are used to explore how six teachers attempted to make the subject matter meaningful for their students. Four ‘Categories of Meaning Making’ emerged, highlighting key differences in how the nature of science and mathematics content constrained or enabled linkages between content and students’ lifeworlds. While the teachers demonstrated a commitment to humanising the subject at some level, this analysis has shown that expecting teachers to make the curriculum relevant is not unproblematic because the meaning of relevance as a construct is complex, subject-specific, and embedded in understanding the human dimensions of learning, using, and identifying with, content. Through an examination of the construct of relevance and a humanistic turn in mathematics and science literature I argue for an expanded notion of relevance.     

A Competency Model for Process Dynamics and Control and Its Use for Test Construction at University Level

This study examined students’ competencies in engineering education at the university level. First, we developed a competency model in one specific field of engineering: process dynamics and control. Then, the theoretical model was used as a frame to construct test items to measure students’ competencies comprehensively. In the empirical application, the reliability of the test was examined. The results confirmed the applicability of the theory-based test. Also, associations between students’ competencies and individual characteristics were explored. Students who showed higher competencies could be identified based on their individual characteristics, such as participation in self-assessments. Finally, we demonstrated how to apply the standards of theory-based testing to everyday routines at the university and also highlighted some challenging issues to be considered when implementing theory-based testing in practice. This approach could be valuable: Tests based on theoretically sound models allow for appropriate measurement of students’ competencies in higher education.     

Goldilocks Meets Gertrude Stein: Poetry Explication for the Verse-Averse

Literature students often fear poetry explication, supposing it is beyond their intellectual reach. As with many preconceptions that surface in the classroom, this is an impression I find helpful to tackle forthrightly. Years of teaching literature have convinced me that even English majors can become timid in the face of assignments calling for poetry explication. Given this common response, I have experimented with many methods for acclimating students to poetry as a form. The activity described here has proven helpful in this regard.