Teacher careers and school improvement

A recent national curriculum guide for upper secondary schools in my home country, Iceland, requires secondary schools to work towards equality and five other overarching aims. This requirement raises questions about to what extent secondary schools have to change their curricula in order to approach these aims or work towards them in an adequate way. Textbooks on curriculum theory commonly invite their readers to choose between different perspectives that are presented as mutually exclusive. From one perspective, they tend to emphasize academic subjects, to the exclusion of perspectives that focus on improvement of society or individual development. There are, however, reasons to doubt that organizing a curriculum emphasizing general aims such as equality excludes using academic subjects as its principal building blocks. In this paper, I argue that if we take equality seriously as an aim of education, we should indeed emphasize academic school subjects, just as advocates of liberal education have done for a long time. Focusing on subjects and focusing on aims, such as equality, are therefore not mutually exclusive perspectives but two aspects that must coexist in any reasonable and sound pedagogy.     

Audit cultures,labour, and conservative movements in the global university

I want to use this essay – basically a commentary – as a context for some political reflections on what is happening to the governance and the labour processes at universities internationally. In the process, in addition to my critical reflections on the neoliberal impulses affecting universities, I want to do two other things. First, I shall expand the range of work and workers that need to be considered if our analyses are to be true to the range and depth of these transformations. And second, I also want to complicate the usual critical analyses of what is happening in higher education by broadening the discussion to include movements that include but go beyond the class-based models that are often employed. Thus, in a later part of this essay, I urge us to pay closer attention to conservative religious movements and institutions that are having an increasing impact on the politics of knowledge at universities in a number of countries.     

Using Multidimensional Scaling and Unfolding to Explore Teacher Perceptual Biases for Selected Special Education Referral Categories

Multidimensional scaling (POLYCON) and unfolding (PREFMAP) algorithms developed by Young (24) and Carroll (3), respectively, were used to explore teacher perceptions of special education labels (e.g., emotional disturbance) in terms of a reference set of 28 student behaviors (e.g., withdrawn, short attention span) across two context variables: student gender and student ethnicity. The resulting two-dimensional scaling solution revealed teacher perceptual distinctions between student acting-out and passive behaviors, and between student intellectual impairment and specific behavior problems. In addition, scaling analyses also suggested teacher perceptual biases that required both males and minority (i.e., black) students to behave more extremely before being seen by teachers as having either learning or emotional problems.     

Emotional arousal of beginning physics teachers during extended experimental investigations

Teachers often have difficulty implementing inquiry‐based activities, leading to the arousal of negative emotions. In this multicase study of beginning physics teachers in Australia, we were interested in the extent to which their expectations were realized and how their classroom experiences while implementing extended experimental investigations (EEIs) produced emotional states that mediated their teaching practices. Against rhetoric of fear expressed by their senior colleagues, three of the four teachers were surprised by the positive outcomes from their supervision of EEIs for the first time. Two of these teachers experienced high intensity positive emotions in response to their students' success. When student actions/outcomes did not meet their teachers' expectations, frustration, anger, and disappointment were experienced by the teachers, as predicted by a sociological theory of human emotions (Turner, J. H. (2007). Human emotions: A sociological theory. London, England: Routledge). Over the course of the EEI projects, the teachers' practices changed along with their emotional states and their students' achievements. We account for similarities and differences in the teachers' emotional experiences in terms of context, prior experience, and expectations. The findings from this study provide insights into effective supervision practices that can be used to inform new and experienced teachers alike. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 50:137–161, 2013     

The Populist Chameleon: The People's Party,Huey Long,George Wallace,and the Populist Argumentative Frame

This essay argues that a sustained form can be located in the complicated history of populist rhetoric. Despite its chameleonic qualities, the advancement of populism is constituted by alterations in the focus and content, not the structure, of populist activism. This structure, or what I term its argumentative frame, positions a virtuous people against a powerful enemy and expresses disdain toward traditional forms of democratic deliberation and republican representation. I trace these themes through the rhetoric of the People's Party, Huey Long, and George Wallace. I conclude by analyzing the link between populism's persistence in U.S. history and the nation's Founding.     

A Twins study of communicative adaptability: Heritability of individual differences

Recently, a model of communication theory and research has appeared in the literature within which stable individual differences in communication behavior represent individual differences in activation thresholds of neurobiological systems. The neurobiological systems thought to underly communication traits and behavior are assumed to be primarily due to genetic inheritance. As such, the model assigns a limited role to adaptability in social situations, instead positing communication adaptability as an inherited trait. In the present study, heritability estimates for the dimensions of communicative adaptability were derived from correlations based on identical and fraternal twins’ responses to a multidimensional communicative adaptability measure. Results indicated that social composure was 88% heritable, wit was 90% heritable, social confirmation was 37% heritable, articulation ability, and appropriate disclosure were 0% heritable. Theoretical implications are discussed.     

SPIRITUAL FORMATION AS SOCIAL: TOWARD A VYGOTSKYAN DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVE

Spiritual formation is a critical concern for any Christian religious educator. While Scripture provides a depiction of spiritual growth, we have often turned to the developmental theorists to better understand the ecology of spiritual formation. One neglected voice in this instance is the late Russian developmentalist Lev S. Vygotsky. His unique perspective on human cognitive development provides an alternative to traditional developmentalism, and additional insight into the ecology of spiritual formation. This article will endeavor to explain the role of developmental theories in understanding spiritual formation, the developmental theory of Vygotsky, and its implications for our understanding of spiritual formation and Christian religious education as a means of advancing it.     

Moral Education at Religious Research Universities: Exploring Faculty Attitudes

This article presents the results and an analysis of 1,728 survey responses from faculty at four top tier religious research universities regarding their support for moral and civic education. The results demonstrate that a majority of faculty members at these schools supported both the general goals of moral and civic education and specific suggestions for integrating moral and civic education into the curriculum. Nonetheless, three major concerns emerged about its actual implementation into the curriculum.     

A Framework for Designing Scaffolds That Improve Motivation and Cognition

A problematic, yet common, assumption among educational researchers is that when teachers provide authentic, problem-based experiences, students will automatically be engaged. Evidence indicates that this is often not the case. In this article, we discuss (a) problems with ignoring motivation in the design of learning environments, (b) problem-based learning and scaffolding as one way to help, (c) how scaffolding has strayed from what was originally equal parts motivational and cognitive support, and (d) a conceptual framework for the design of scaffolds that can enhance motivation as well as cognitive outcomes. We propose guidelines for the design of computer-based scaffolds to promote motivation and engagement while students are solving authentic problems. Remaining questions and suggestions for future research are then discussed.