School-enrollment rates and trends,gender, and fertility: a cross-national analysis

The analysis of the association between educational status and fertility decline is performed 1) by examining the rates of enrollment in primary and secondary schools by gender and 2) by assessing the effects of the change/spread in rates of enrollment between 1965 and 1986. 59 countries were involved in the cross-sectional analysis. Variables included the logged crude birth rate, total enrollment rates, enrollment rates by gender, male-female ratios, the growth rate for each educational measure by world system status (core, peripheral, and semiperipheral countries), control variables (economic growth, family planning, multinational corporate penetration, women's labor force participation, child mortality rate, social insurance programs), and enrollment changes. The evidence reflects a strong association between levels of enrollment of girls in primary and secondary school and gender inequality and fertility declines. Caldwell's theory of the flows of wealth and the spread of education effect was found to have little support. High levels of female enrollment and low levels of gender inequality in access to schooling are associated with fertility declines. Caldwell's theory is that this indicates a decline in patriarchy, change in women's familial roles and a shift to a more egalitarian family structure. Increases in female education mean higher status and more power for women.     

The chimera of the competency-based approach to teaching mathematics: a study of carpentry purchases for home projects

Educational Studies in Mathematics - The competency-based approach conceives mathematics as a necessary tool for dealing with daily-life tasks. Many studies have focused on examining the low math...     

How to Assess and Categorize Teachers’ Views of Science? Two Methodological Issues

Research in Science Education - This paper addresses two methodological issues related to the assessment of teachers’ views of science. The first concerns the distinction between the...     

Mental attention in gifted and nongifted children

The relationship between the construct of mental attention and “giftedness” is not well established. Gifted individuals could make effective use of their executive functions and this could be related to their mental attentional capacity. The dialectic constructivist model developed by Pascual-Leone introduced the concept of mental attention or “effort”, relating it to mental capacity. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the measurement of mental capacity (M-measurement) is differential for a group of children with high IQs. 110 students between 4 and 18 years old participated in this study. Some were Gifted (n=70) and others Non-Gifted (n=40). Wechsler-R Scale and the Figural Intersection Test were administered to all participants. An interesting pattern was found in the younger groups. The gifted scored higher than the non-gifted in the Figural Intersection Test and much higher than their theoretical M. The non-gifted scored quite close to their theoretical M (based on age). In the oldest group, the gifted again achieved higher scores, but now they scored at the theoretical level, and the non-gifted underperformed.     

Learning contexts for young children in Chile: process quality assessment in preschool centres

ITERS (Infant and Toddler Environment Rating Scale), ECERS (Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale) and SACERS (School Age Care Environment Rating Scale) are used to measure process quality. The psychometric characteristics of the three scales are established, and high reliability and adequate validity are observed. The global quality process for the classrooms under study is less than good; process quality based on the direct interaction of adults with children in the classroom is better when compared with quality related to the experiences that children have with learning materials, equipment and space. The associations between child development outcomes and childcare quality are examined. Vocabulary, social development and adaptive behaviour show a strong and positive association with ECERS. Hierarchical regression analyses show that preschool quality has a significant and persistent effect in the variation of child outcomes (5%). These effects are maintained three years later, when children are in primary school (8%).     

Referential perspective and instruction: A study on teacher-student interaction and text remembering

The aim of this paper is to study the role ofteacher-student interaction, in the acquisitionof text comprehension and memory skills from asocio-cultural approach. In our view, one ofthe most important areas of neglect in cognitive research in this field is the interactional nature of that development. We intend to establish the way in which teacher-student interaction and, specially, the use of some specific semiotic means mayfacilitate the acquisition and internalizationof general strategies for understanding andremembering expository texts. The role ofreferential perspective (Wertsch, 1989) in theinternalization of complex text study actionsis analysed.The task was to study three expository textsthat were similar in their structure. Thecontent of the texts was analysed in terms ofidea-units (Meyer, 1984). Each text was formedby idea-units from three different levels: mainideas, secondary ideas and details. A categorysystem for the analysis of study and recall ofthe text is developed. In the study phase theanalysis proceeded in two steps: study actionsand text ideas. In the recall phase, two types ofindexes (number of ideas and degree ofclustering) were considered. For the analysisof instructional actions, both the nature ofinstruction and referential perspective wasrecorded.     

In the bunkers of Binghamton

In addition to being editor ofAcademic Questions and chairman of the National Association of Scholars