An ‘infusion’ approach to critical thinking: Moore on the critical thinking debate

This paper argues that general skills and the varieties of subject‐specific discourse are both important for teaching, learning and practising critical thinking. The former is important because it outlines the principles of good reasoning simpliciter (what constitutes sound reasoning patterns, invalid inferences, and so on). The latter is important because it outlines how the general principles are used and deployed in the service of ‘academic tribes’. Because critical thinking skills are—in part, at least—general skills, they can be applied to all disciplines and subject‐matter indiscriminately. General skills can help us assess reasoning independently of the vagaries of the linguistic discourse we express arguments in. The paper looks at the debate between the ‘specifists’—those who stress the importance of critical thinking understood as a subject‐specific discourse—and the ‘generalists’—those that stress the importance of critical thinking understood independently of disciplinary context. The paper suggests that the ‘debate’ between the specifists and the generalists amounts to a fallacy of the false alternative, and presents a combinatory‐‘infusion’ approach to critical thinking.     

Using Analogy to Help Young Children Understand

Analogies offer conceptual models for supporting the development of understanding. Contrary to some expectations, there is growing evidence that young children can reason analogically. Much of this evidence comes from experiments intended to test psychological theories. This study aimed to gauge the practical potential of analogy in topics often considered by teachers difficult for young children to understand. Aspects of young children's understanding of current electricity were compared in two conditions, namely with and without an analogy (87 and 89 children, respectively; 6‐7 years of age). The results indicated that the analogy was of practical value in teaching for understanding. It is suggested that their bases be carefully prepared prior to teaching the target topic and that what is to be understood is modelled directly and is explicitly related to its equivalent in the topic. Further investigations to determine conditions for the effective use of analogies when teaching young children, who benefits particularly and in what ways seem warranted.     

Comics or Stories? Differences in the Reading Attitudes and Habits of Girls and Boys in years 2, 4 and 6

A random sample of six schools within the primary schools of one local education authority (LEA) was chosen comprising 216 Year 2 children (109 boys, 107 girls), 189 Year 4 children (99 boys, 90 girls) and 206 Year 6 children (104 boys, 102 girls). A self‐report questionnaire was administered to explore each cohort's attitudes to reading, the source and type of their reading materials and the places at home where they read. Results indicated that while there were several significant differences between the boys and girls in the younger age range, these became progressively fewer as the age group increased. The only item which showed a significant sex difference across all three year groups was the content of favourite reading material. The implications of these findings for reading policy and practice in the primary school are discussed.     

Guiding the social development of young children

It is likely that every early childhood class will include children who have difficulty making positive social adjustments. Although some children's difficulties seem to be associated with shyness or reluctance to make social contact, other children's behavior may be a problem because they bully peers or refuse to respect the space and property of others.This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the Annual Conference of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, Anaheim, CA, November 1988.     

An Orientation on the Mathematics Classroom that Emphasizes Power and Identity: Reflecting on Equity Research

In this paper, I reflect on equity research in order to describe a perspective on the mathematics classroom as a non-neutral place where issues of power and identity play out in teaching and learning processes. This view of the mathematics classroom takes seriously issues of equity in the form of power and what becomes constituted as legitimate mathematics while attending to the out-of-school practices in which students engage. This orientation and its related issues are significant in that they provide an alternative perspective on investigating equity in mathematics classrooms that is in contrast to efforts that focus specifically on comparing standardized test scores of specific groups based solely upon racial classifications.Lynn Liao Hodge is an assistant professor in mathematics education. Her research interests include issues of equity and identity in mathematics education and how classroom practices create opportunities for students to develop both an appreciation and a deep understanding of mathematics. Additionally, she is interested in investigating experiences that support the increased participation of women and minorities in mathematics, science, and engineering related professions. Address correspondence to Lynn Liao Hodge, Department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-3442, USA; e-mail: lhodge4@utk.edu     

Building a more robust conception of early career researcher experience: what might we be overlooking?

Two decades of research into early career researchers has highlighted the interaction of a constellation of influences in making sense of their experiences. Such research largely draws on either quantitative or qualitative traditions. While both traditions explore similar phenomena, research questions are often framed differently and use different methods. Interestingly, there are few studies in which design integrates quantitative and qualitative processes. In this paper, we describe such a design in which we examined post-PhD researcher agency, social support and intention to remain in or leave the academy. The quantitative analysis highlighted two profiles representing variation in intention to remain based on the interaction of community and supervisory support. The qualitative analysis, while supporting this finding, suggested other influences as well. Examining these other influences in-depth led to a more robust representation of the interplay of personal life and work in relation to intention to remain. We concluded work-related factors are insufficient to explain intention to remain. We suggest future research in this area should explore what other factors may be overlooked in understanding (a) intention to remain and (b) early career researcher experience more broadly. Finally, we propose research designs integrating both quantitative and qualitative processes may prove fruitful in future research, not just in this area but more broadly.     

Conceptions of ‘research’ and their gendered impact on research activity: a UK case study

ABSTRACT

The last twenty years have seen an increased emphasis around the world on the quality and quantity of research in response to national research assessments, international league tables, and changes in government funding. The prevailing attitude in higher education embeds research as the ‘gold standard’ in the context of academic activity. However, a key feature of this trend is significant gender differences in research activity. We argue that research productivity is related to identification as a researcher, and that identifying as ‘research-active’ or not would appear to depend upon how an individual academic subjectively defines ‘research’. This article brings together two hitherto separate bodies of work (1) the impact of gender on academic research careers, and (2) academic conceptions of research. Through a combination of interviews, focus groups and questionnaires, we investigate the extent to which interpretations of ‘research’ and ‘research activity’ differ by gender within an institution in the UK and the potential impact of these interpretations. Although the research found that there are many similarities in the interpretations of ‘research activity’ between genders, we found one important difference between male and female participants’ conceptions of research and its relationship to teaching. Significantly, our findings suggest that there is a need to expand our existing conceptualisations of ‘research’ to include ‘research as scholarship’ in order to address the obstacles that current understandings of ‘research’ have placed on some academics. Self-definition as a researcher underlies research activity. A narrow conception of ‘research’ may prevent individuals from identifying as ‘research-active’ and therefore engaging with research.     

Investigation of abnormal left temporal functioning in dyslexia through rCBF,auditory evoked potentials,and positron emisson tomography

The proposed left hemisphere dysfunction in dyslexia was investigated in a review of four studies using regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF; N=152) and combined auditory evoked responses (AERs) with positron emission tomography (PET) (N=20). In contrast to the positive relation that was found between temporal rCBF and orthographic task accuracy, an inverse correlation was found phonemic in normals between task accuracy and left temporal rCBF activation, near Heschl's gyrus. Dyslexics, by contrast, showed a positive correlation between Heschl's gyrus activation (by PET and rCBF) and phonemic processing accuracy. The AER's at C3 for an early positive component (P1) showed that these relationships were true both on hit trials and correct rejection trials, indicating that the perceptual rather than motoric or selective attention aspects of the task were being measured. Methodological issues were emphasized, including the difficulty of interpreting mean differences in brain activity at a given site without considering the separate multivariate structures that might exist in the two populations.