Using the history of calculus to teach calculus

An historical approach to the teaching of calculus provides the students with a better understanding of the material than the standard approach and helps as well to introduce them to the relationship between mathematics and other aspects of our culture. In this article, I describe in some detail a course in calculus which is based on such an approach.     

Learner identity and transition: an ethnographic exploration of undergraduate trajectories

This article considers ethnographic data collected during undergraduate students’ transition to higher education. Drawing on communities of practice theory, the research focuses on the psychological process of identity as a trajectory, considering how reconciliation and negotiation of identities across and between communities influence transition. We aimed to explore the ways in which incoming identity influences participation and higher education learner identity, consider the academic practices which construct the transition experience and analyse those practices in terms of learner identity and participation. The data sources included observations, informal social interactions, one-to-one interviews and document analysis. Data collection took place over the first term of an undergraduate course. A theoretical thematic analysis was undertaken investigating the ways in which identity shaped participation, the practices that influenced participation and how participation subsequently influenced learner identity. We argue that the reconciliation of past, present and future identities is psychologically challenging for students during educational transition and this influences individual trajectories. Some practices assumed an already autonomous learner rather than enabling development of autonomy. Inability to participate in valued (and often implicit) academic practice was seen to negatively influence learner identities, delaying full participation. The focus for transition research could therefore consider enabling systems and practices which acknowledge differences and fully support successful changes in learner identity.     

Phonology constrains the internal orthographic representation

Four experiments explored the composition and stability of internalorthographic representations of printed words. In three experiments,subjects were presented on successive occasions with words that wereconsistently spelled correctly or were consistently misspelled. On thesecond presentation, subjects were more likely to judge both kinds ofwords as correctly spelled than on the first presentation, suggesting thattheir preexperimental orthographic representations had been altered tomatch what they had seen on the first presentation. However, onlymisspellings that were consistent with the correct phonology wereaccepted; spellings that altered the phonology were rarely accepted,suggesting that some parts of the orthographic representation are lessstable than others. Also, subjects' reliance on orthographic vs.phonological memory when judging a word's spelling was affected by thekinds of other misspellings in the list. Lists that contained somephonologically implausible spellings for real words (e.g., *assostance)induced subjects to rely more on phonological plausibility when judgingthe correctness of other words in the list and less on orthographic memory.An individual grapheme in an internal orthographic representation wasunstable when there were many phonologically acceptable alternatives forit. The results are contrary to the view that the strength of an internalrepresentation is uniform across all its graphemes and is a function only ofvisual experience with the printed form. Results were interpreted in thecontext of a theory that considers spelling knowledge to be a by-productof the reading process, a process that involves phonological analysis.     

Psychosocial adjustment in adolescent child molesters

This study compared adolescent child molesters (n = 31) with nonsex offending delinquents (n = 34) and normal adolescents (n = 71) on standardized measures of social competence and psychological adjustment. The measures included the Adolescent Assertiveness Scale, the Survey of Heterosocial Interactions, the Self-Consciousness Scale, the Social Anxiety and Distress Scale, the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale, the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Norwicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale, and the Jesness Inventory. Results were consistent with predictions. Molesters showed significantly more global maladjustment than normals and were more socially anxious and threatened by heterosocial interactions than nonsex offending delinquents. A discriminant function analysis suggested that molesters, more than delinquents, were likely to perceive themselves as socially inadequate and to be externally oriented in their attributional style. Results support the hypothesis that social skill deficits and social isolation are risk factors that may predispose some adolescents to commit sexual crimes against children.     

Implementation of the Mason,DeMers & Middleton consultation and program evaluation model in an Israeli school integration project

A project designed to foster integration between middle and upper-middle socioeconomic status students on the one hand and lower SES students in need of special educational attention and enrichment on the other was initiated at the Gush Etzion Regional Elementary School in Israel. Two school counsellors were invited to serve as consultants to and evaluators of the project. The counsellors decided to adopt the consultation and program evaluation model suggested by Mason, DeMers & Middleton (1984) as a basis for their work. A qualitative analysis of the consultation and program evaluation indicates that the model employed facilitated an effective and efficient contribution by the counsellors to the success of the integration project, especially regarding the advancement of the lower SES population both educationally and socially.     

Mainstreamed or Self‐Contained Classes for Students with a Mild Learning Disability: The Case of Israel

Two studies compared students with a mild learning disability who were enrolled in the Israeli version of self‐contained classes, with comparable peers who were assigned to mainstreamed classes. The first sample comprised 33 pupils in self‐contained and 34 children in mainstreamed elementary school classes. The second sample consisted of 20 high school students in self‐contained and 21 students in regular classes. The data did not support the contention that student growth was fostered more readily in the self‐contained classes. Students of these classes tended to have somewhat higher academic self‐concept, whereas their academic attainment was generally similar to the academic performance of mainstreamed students. Results were discussed in terms of learning opportunities extended to students in the self‐contained classroom.     

Phonological knowledge and naming ability in children with reading disability

Children who are poor readers have difficulty naming pictured objects. Their naming difficulty could be a result of inadequate representations of the phonology of words, inadequate processing of those representations, or both. In this study, third-grade good and poor readers were tested on object naming, and, in cases of naming failure, forced-choice recognition tasks were used to probe their knowledge of the phonology of the object names. The two reading groups showed no differences in their ability to select the initial phonemes or rhymes of object names they had not produced spontaneously. Moreover, initial phoneme prompts were helpful for both reading groups. The children differed, however, in their ability to produce words after being given rhyme information. The results indicated that, except in the ability to manipulate explicitly phonological information, the poor readers; performance was qualitatively similar to that of the good readers. It is suggested that training in phonological analysis may help poor readers overcome the deficiencies in establishing and processing phonological representations that lead to their quantitative deficit in object naming.     

Quantifying the long-term impact of zoological education: a study of learning in a zoo and an aquarium

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that zoos and aquariums do, as intended, educate their visitors. However, even though most zoos offer a wide array of educational experiences, few studies have considered if the duration of an educational experience affects learning or whether learning lasts beyond the immediate visit. The current study used matched-pairs surveys to investigate children’s knowledge, attitude and knowledge of positive behavior during both a five-day zoo camp and six months after an aquarium visit. The participants of the study included children aged 9–12?years some of whom had participated in a purposefully designed educational intervention. First, the impact of a five-day zoo camp experience on children’s learning was investigated. Second, learning retention was investigated six months after a school tour at an aquarium. Results showed that during the camp learning was positively affected by participation in the educational intervention and by previous zoo experience. Girls were more likely than boys to have an increase in learning six months after an aquarium visit. The study demonstrates that learning persists, but that education can be enhanced with longer programs. Thus, zoos can play an increasingly important role in igniting pro-environmental behavior.     

The “Job” of Jewish Education: Making Mensches at Camp and Beyond

ABSTRACT

This article argues that contemporary resources drawing from 19th-century Mussar wisdom and Positive Psychology in the context of Jewish camp are a great vehicle for communicating our virtues and teaching “21st Century Innovation and Learning Skills.” Based on practitioner research, this article draws on over a decade of working with Jewish camps across North America. Several common areas are identified: discernment of priority virtues, understanding the relationship between values and virtues, a common language, importance of developing resources, and cultivating communities of trust.