The Museum Visit: It’s an Experience,Not a Lesson

Abstract Museums offer visitors direct experiences—such as visual experiences—that are not available elsewhere in daily life. Learning through verbal information is part of it, yet the aesthetic experience is always outside of the “right‐answer paradigm.” Cognitive development occurs when perceptions inform thinking, thoughts are expressed in language, and expressed thoughts invite reconsideration of the material at hand. Both science and art require the development of these skills. Science and art museum educators can and should advocate the value of looking, thinking, wondering about complexity, and discussing the results.     

Predicting high school students' cognitive engagement and achievement: Contributions of classroom perceptions and motivation

Path analysis was used to test predictions of a model explaining the impact of students' perceptions of classroom structures (tasks, autonomy support and mastery and evaluation) on their self-efficacy, perceptions of the instrumentality of class work, and their achievement goals in a particular classroom setting. Additionally, the impact of self-efficacy, instrumentality, and goals on students' cognitive engagement and achievement was tested. There were 220 high school students who completed a series of questionnaires over a three-month period in their English classes. Data strongly supported the model demonstrating that student perceptions of classroom structures are important for their motivation. Also supported was the importance of perceiving the current class work as being instrumental for future success. Implications were discussed.     

A social-constructivist approach in physical education: Influence of dyadic interactions on tactical choices in an instructional team sport setting

The purpose of this study was to analyze the role of dyadic verbal peer interactions in a team sport such as handball. Participants, 20 boys and 20 girls aged between 11 and 12, were assigned to two learning condition groups. The task was an instructional setting in team handball (2 attackers against 1 defender in each half court). The experimental group with verbal exchanges was expected to obtain higher performances in the post-tests than those who had not interacted verbally between playing sequences. The secondary objective was to investigate whether dyadic gender had an effect on tactical choice and cognitive skills in playing games. The experiment demonstrated the superiority of the dyadic verbal interaction group over the non-interactive group as regards tactical choices and action projects. It also showed gender differences since males performed better females with regard to action efficiency. The results are discussed within the theoretical framework of the social psychology of acquisition and development and within that of teaching for understanding. In conclusion, the socio-constructivist approach would seem to be pertinent in team sport decision-making tasks.     

A case for rethinking inclusive education policy creation in developing countries

This article presents a critical analysis of the development and implementation of the 2014 inclusive educational policy in Samoa. While Samoan culture is traditionally founded on inclusive social practices, rather than reflecting these practices in their policy, Samoan policy developers have been under pressure to adopt or borrow policy from other countries. The findings of this intrinsic case study highlight the complexity of formulating inclusive education policies for small developing countries and why policy developers borrow from other developed countries. The theoretical framework used to analyse observation data in this study is based on the notion that national process of development is a powerful influence in educational policy. The authors argue and advocate for the existing but overlooked strengths of the local knowledge community capacity when policy is borrowed from other countries, and how the findings of the case study contribute to future attempts at policy development. We found that the draft policy needs to and does reflect Samoan culture, values and vision. However, adopting foreign practices such as the individual education plan and placement rules is not relevant to the Samoan context. The identification and development of inclusive education beliefs, skills and practices in schools is a priority.