Transforming British higher education: A view from across the Atlantic

This article analyzes the major changes in British Higher Education during the past five years: increasing student numbers, mandated government assessment, linking funding to the assessment exercises, the modularized curriculum and the competency movement, and draws comparisons to the United States. The author then studies the impact of these policy changes on a single campus, the University of Leicester, with attention to the consequences of growth, the impact on decision-making, and challenges for staff development.     

Child Learning and Development in Context: strategies for analysing behaviour‐environment interactions and a proposal for research into everyday experiences

Abstract Applied behaviour analysis research has helped focus attention on environmental events as determinants of behaviour. This research, however, has mostly been concerned with one or two proximal events at a time and these related to only one or two human responses. The present paper suggests the need for a more detailed study of behaviour‐environment interactions and of interdependencies within behavioural repertoires. Ethological and ecological concepts and research provide examples of complex models of behaviour‐environment interaction. Some implications of these approaches are suggested. Systems theory is examined as a paradigm for interpreting dynamic interrelationships and as a model for the complexities of learning and adaptation. Limitations of experimental research for understanding child learning and development are suggested and a case made for non‐interventive studies of individual child experiences in natural, everyday settings of home, school and community.     

The cognitive impact of multimedia simulations on 14 year old students

The study investigated the cognitive impact of three different types of multimedia simulation (physical, procedural and process) for teaching the concept of energy to 14 year old students. A six cell design was used to control for gender and for three levels of prior achievement within a random sample of 36 students for each simulation. Pre and post-tests were administered. The results showed a significant, consistent cognitive gain for the physical simulation - a surrogate exploration of how electricity is made in a power station. Results for the procedural and process simulations revealed a more complex and varied pattern of interaction between type of simulation and student characteristics which can be linked to specific design features.     

Educational policies and experiments among indigenous populations in Peru

Specialist in linguistics applied to education, sociolinguistics and bilingual education, she is currently on the research staff of the Centro de Investigación de Linguística Aplicada, teaches at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (Peru) and is director of the Ayacucho bilingual education programme. Author of numerous books and articles on bilingual education and applied linguistics.     

The Franco-American book trade in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries

The Franco-American book trade played a vital role in the struggle for mutual understanding during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. That trade is exemplified by the work of three colorful individuals: Joseph Nancrede (1761–1841), who left his native France and became a publisher in Boston; John Hurford Stone (1763–1818), English supporter of the French Revolution who set up his English Press in Paris, issuing works of American interest; and Nicholas Gouin Dufief (1776–1834), who fled the French Revolution and set up as bookseller in Philadelphia. Thanks to the efforts of Nancrede and Dufief, the writings of French thinkers were made available to American readers, and thanks to the presswork of John Hurford Stone, the writings of Barlow, Paine, Jefferson and others were circulated in France. As publisher, printer, and bookseller, these three bookpeople reflected the ups and downs of Franco-American relations and became instruments of international understanding. Madeleine B. Stern, partner in the rare book firm of Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern, has written numerous books on publishing and bookselling history, includingImprints on History: Book Publishers and American Frontiers. She is the editor ofPublishers for Mass Entertainment in 19th-Century America and is currently completingStudies in the Franco-American Book Trade in the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries     

Theorising simulation in higher education: difficulty for learners as an emergent phenomenon†

Despite the widespread interest in using and researching simulation in higher education, little discussion has yet to address a key pedagogical concern: difficulty. A ‘sociomaterial’ view of learning, explained in this paper, goes beyond cognitive considerations to highlight dimensions of material, situational, representational and relational difficulty confronted by students in experiential learning activities such as simulation. In this paper we explore these dimensions of difficulty through three contrasting scenarios of simulation education. The scenarios are drawn from studies conducted in three international contexts: Australia, Sweden and the UK, which illustrate diverse approaches to simulation and associated differences in the forms of difficulty being produced. For educators using simulation, the key implications are the importance of noting and understanding (1) the effects on students of interaction among multiple forms of difficulty; (2) the emergent and unpredictable nature of difficulty; and (3) the need to teach students strategies for managing emergent difficulty.     

Peerbeziehungen im Klassenzimmer

Peer relations in the classroom have long been subject to scientific investigation. Extensive evidence confirms their influences, either facilitating or impeding learning. In this contribution, we systematize these influences by (1) differentiating between affective and cognitive-instrumental peer relations. Further, we outline central mechanisms by which (2) these influences unfold and (3) students self-select into (mal-)adaptive peer-relations. Next, we (4) discern the role of teachers as managers of peer-relations and (5) determine arrangements by which affective and cognitive-instrumental relationship structures can be positively influenced. Finally, we infer the meaning of the systematic study of peer-relations for the development of interventions for handling current challenges in the educational system (fan effect, inclusion, social integration of refugee children and adolescents).