Psychosocial development in girls of high ability

Gender differences in young highly able children's psychosocial development were investigated using child and teacher ratings of prosocial behavior and peer acceptance. Developmental patterns were addressed by studying two groups – children in the primary grades (1 and 2) and children in grades 3 to 7. No gender differences were found on teacher or child ratings in the younger group. In the older group, gender differences favoring girls were found on teacher ratings of prosocial behavior and peer acceptance. Comparisons of child and teacher ratings by gender showed that the older boys viewed themselves as demonstrating more social skills and as being more accepted by peers than their teachers did. Implications for education and counselling are discussed.     

A journal is a club: a new economic model for scholarly publishing

A new economic model for the analysis of scholarly publishing – journal publishing in particular – is proposed that draws on club theory. The standard approach builds on market failure in the private production (by research scholars) of a public good (new scholarly knowledge). In this model, publishing is communication, as the dissemination of information. But a club model views publishing differently: namely as group formation, where members form groups in order to confer externalities on each other, subject to congestion. A journal is a self-constituted group, endeavouring to create new knowledge. In this sense, a journal is a club. The knowledge club model of a journal seeks to balance the positive externalities of a shared resource (readers, citations, referees) against the negative externalities of crowding (decreased prospect of publishing in that journal). A new economic model of a journal as a knowledge club is elaborated. We suggest some consequences for the management of journals and financial models that might be developed to support them.     

Cognitive ability and the instructional efficacy of collaborative concept mapping

Data were gathered from 248 secondary students (14 years old, 56% female) who learned about the circulatory system in 77 self-selected collaborative groups. The learning outcomes of biology students who summarised by collaborative concept mapping were compared with those of students who summarised by collaborative writing. Learning groups randomly assigned to construct concept maps instead of conventional summaries generated more relations in the summary task and their members obtained higher individual scores on a post-test. The concept mapping strategy was found to be advantageous only for students whose cognitive ability was below the median for the sample and who were placed in groups with other students having low cognitive ability.     

Mentoring the gifted: a conceptual analysis

Mentoring is considered among the most effective pedagogical measures, yet it is rarely used in gifted education. One of the main reasons for this neglect seems to be the lack of a thorough analysis of its conceptual foundations from the point of view of giftedness research. This contribution starts with a discussion of conceptual and definitional issues pertinent to mentoring gifted individuals. An ideal definition is proposed, followed by a review of the effectiveness of mentoring programs. Existing mentoring programs rarely take full advantage of the educational potential inherent in mentoring. Next, the conditions and characteristics of effective mentoring are analyzed. From a general pedagogical point of view, mentoring should allow full use of the “Learning Triad” of modeling, instruction, and provision of learning opportunities and satisfy the “Big Four” effective learning processes (improvement‐oriented learning, individualization, feedback, practice). Mentoring can promote excellent development of the whole actiotope of a gifted individual.     

TOLERANCE,EMPATHY, OR INCLUSION? INSIGHTS FROM MARTIN BUBER

Given the reality of diversity, particularly religious diversity, in the contemporary world, Marion Larson and Sara Shady explore how educators can help students (and ourselves) consider the following question: How do I balance my own belief commitments with my responsibility to be genuinely open to and challenged by the other's perspective? Larson and Shady describe and evaluate three possible models: (1) tolerance, a neutral openness to the other's position; (2) empathy, a complete absorption of the other's position; and (3) inclusion, genuine dialogue about one's own position and the other's. Using the writings of Martin Buber as a basis, Larson and Shady advocate inclusion and apply this model to classroom teaching, arguing that this model of education promotes a shared reality where all partners in the dialogue come to understand each other's position, even if they do not entirely agree with it.     

Children's understanding of their research rights before and after debriefing: informed assent, confidentiality, and stopping participation

This study explored children's understanding of their research rights in the context of an investigation of how children cope with peer provocation. Participants were 178 children (97 girls and 81 boys) who had finished the second, fourth, and sixth grades (average ages: 8, 10, and 12, respectively). After children agreed to take part in research on "how kids get along together," as well as after debriefing, their perceptions of free assent, their understanding of what they would be doing and why, their belief in voluntary participation and freedom to withdraw, and their comprehension of confidentiality were assessed. The vast majority of participants gave assent freely and reported no undue pressure from their families or the experimenters to participate. Older children knew before participating in the research what their participation would involve, comprehended confidentiality, and understood the study's purpose after their participation, but second graders were less likely to understand these issues than fourth and sixth graders were. Following debriefing, children's understanding of their research rights was largely unchanged; most children still had difficulty describing the research goals.     

Using LOGO with Infant School Children

Abstract The recent introduction of micro‐computers into schools is opening up many new avenues for developmental psychologists interested in studying how children learn. Of particular interest at present are approaches in which children program computers themselves, using languages such as LOGO and PROLOG. This paper describes a study in which a simplified version of LOGO was introduced to a group of six‐year‐olds in a severely deprived area of Edinburgh. The children used a special touch‐sensitive keyboard (Concept Keyboard) to control the movements of a floor‐crawling robot called a Turtle. The sessions with the Turtle were marked by high levels of concentration, collaborative problem‐solving and the use of mathematical language. Pre‐ and post‐tests on the British Ability Scales revealed statistically significant gains on the sub‐scales concerned with number and shape: these gains, however, were found only in the boys.     

The Web and information literacy: scaffolding the use of web sources in a project-based curriculum

In this article we describe and discuss a three‐year case study of a course in web literacy, part of the academic literacy curriculum for first‐year engineering students at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Because they are seen as ‘practical’ knowledge, not theoretical, information skills tend to be devalued at university and rendered invisible to the students. In particular, web‐searching skills are problematic, given the challenges that the Web poses to academic values and traditional research practices. Consequently, the technical skills of web searching are often taught separately from academic curricula or left entirely unaddressed. We illustrate an alternative, integrated approach to the development of this aspect of information literacy. We apply a critical action research methodology to document, evaluate and reflect on students’ use of evaluative frameworks. Focusing on the facilitation of critical and evaluative use of the Web for exploratory learning, we interrogate the role of ‘cultural capital’ and evaluate the effectiveness of the scaffolding provided by the course design. We find important connections between developing knowledge of academic discourse and successful academic use of the Web, and note that, for students to transfer their skills to a range of contexts, these skills will require sustained attention throughout the undergraduate curriculum. We present evidence that the most effective strategies integrate everyday practical knowledge of research techniques with teaching about academic discourse and building students’ knowledge in a specific domain.