Examining genetic and environmental effects on social aggression: a study of 6-year-old twins

Using a genetic design of 234 six-year-old twins, this study examined (a) the contribution of genes and environment to social versus physical aggression, and (b) whether the correlation between social and physical aggression can be explained by similar genetic or environmental factors or by a directional link between the phenotypes. For social aggression, substantial (shared and unique) environmental effects but only weak genetic effects were found. For physical aggression, significant effects of genes and unique environment were found. Bivariate modeling suggests that social and physical aggression share most of their underlying genes but only very few overlapping environmental factors. The correlation between the two phenotypes can also be explained by a directional effect from physical to social aggression.     

"WE ARE ONE BIG, HAPPY FAMILY": BEYOND NEGOTIATION AND COMPULSORY HAPPINESS

A bstract .  Much recent scholarship on changing educational practices in Western families focuses on the idea that negotiation has become the dominant approach to family household management. In this essay, Bruno Vanobbergen, Michel Vandenbroeck, Rudi Roose, and Maria Bouverne-De Bie examine the idea of the negotiation model functioning as a directive. To illustrate this process, they demonstrate how the contemporary vocabulary about parental education affects the construction of parental beliefs and the concepts that define research. The authors first present a genealogy of negotiation by looking at constructions of childhood and parenthood, as well as the educational practices that shape, and are in turn shaped by, these constructions. They then turn their attention to the concept of the autonomous self and its implications for family relations and family household practices.     

The (in)convenience of care in preschool education: examining staff views on educare

It is generally accepted that Early Childhood Education and Care should adopt a holistic view on education, in which education and care are inseparable concepts. Perspectives of staff members themselves are, however, often absent in these educare debates. We conducted six video-elicited focus groups with various preschool staff members (n = 69) in Flanders (Belgium), which is well known for its split system in which children between two and a half and four years old are confronted with the pivotal transition from an informal or formal caring environment (home or childcare service) to a formal learning environment (preschool). With Maurice Hamington’s theory of embodied and performative care as a theoretical lens for this empirical study, we propose a new direction for pre- and in-service training, in which the use of emotions, embodied exchange and social responsibility has a central place.     

From declarative and procedural knowledge to the management of declarative and procedural knowledge

Research on domain-specific knowledge and general knowledge such as strategies has shown that information can indeed be available to a subject and still not be used. Several hypothesis have been set forth to explain this phenomenon; they as briefly exposed. An alternative, complementary hypothesis is then presented. It is assumed that most activities have several components organized in the form of a complex hierarchy. These interdependent components require monitoring because, at certain times, they are competing with one another for resources. Competition for resources and problems in component coordination may lead to a drop in performance. Several studies dealing with diverse knowledge domains are reviewed, which provide evidence for such resource problems. The same theoretical framework is then applied to explain several facts concerning teaching and learning: the impact of advance organizers; the instability of performance across repeated executions; some effects of social variables; the efficiency of tutoring and of taking into account the ‘proximal zone of development’. The limited cognitive capacity construct proves extremely useful in interpreting a large number of phenomena in a wide variety of domains.     

Phonological and visual processing deficits can dissociate in developmental dyslexia: Evidence from two case studies

The present study describes two Frenchteenagers with developmental reading andwriting impairments whose performance wascompared to that of chronological age andreading age matched non-dyslexic participants.Laurent conforms to the pattern of phonologicaldyslexia: he exhibits a poor performance inpseudo-word reading and spelling, producesphonologically inaccurate misspellings butreads most exception words accurately. Nicolas,in contrast, is poor in reading and spelling ofexception words but is quite good atpseudo-word spelling, suggesting that hesuffers from surface dyslexia and dysgraphia.The two participants were submitted to anextensive battery of metaphonological tasks andto two visual attentional tasks. Laurentdemonstrated poor phonemic awareness skills butgood visual processing abilities, while Nicolasshowed the reverse pattern with severedifficulties in the visual attentional tasksbut good phonemic awareness. The presentresults suggest that a visual attentionaldisorder might be found to be associated withthe pattern of developmental surface dyslexia.The present findings further show thatphonological and visual processing deficits candissociate in developmental dyslexia.     

Linkages between children's and their friends' social and physical aggression: evidence for a gene-environment interaction?

Based on a sample of 406 seven-year-old twins, this study examined whether exposure to friends' social or physical aggression, respectively, moderates the effect of heritability on children's own social and physical aggression. Univariate analyses showed that children's own social and physical aggression were significantly explained by genetic factors, whereas friends' social and physical aggression represented "true" environmental factors that were unrelated to children's genetic dispositions. Multivariate analyses further suggested a possible gene-environment interaction in the link between friends' and children's physical aggression but not in the link between friends' and children's social aggression. Instead, friends' social aggression was directly related to children's social aggression, in addition to genetic effects on this behavior. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.     

The international dimension of the debate on the nature of the educational sciences: A comparative approach

Co-founder and Honorary President of the Francophone Association for Comparative Education. Former Director of the International Institute for Educational Planning and former President of the World Council of Comparative Education Associations. Author of numerous books and articles.     

A “Grand Challenge”: Measuring Information Societies

Even though there has been a proliferation of e-society measures in recent years, analyses of the metrics of the “information society” are still far from responsive to the needs of many stakeholders and continue to suffer from a number of serious limitations. Issues in eight critical areas are briefly presented. They include: definition of the universe to be measured; definition of the objects and phenomena to include in the universe; need to establish measurements based upon solid theories; units of measurements; data sources and collection; methods of analysis and construction of indicators; target audiences; and purpose and utilization of measurements. An organized collective effort, which could provide the impetus for the development of a coherent academic field of study, is called for to address this “grand challenge.”