Thinking/acting locally/globally: Western science and environmental education in a global knowledge economy

This paper critically appraises a number of approaches to 'thinking globally' in environmental education, with particular reference to popular assumptions about the universal applicability of Western science. Although the transnational character of many environmental issues demands that we 'think globally', I argue that the contribution of Western science to understanding and resolving environmental problems might be enhanced by seeing it as one among many local knowledge traditions. The production of a 'global knowledge economy' in/for environmental education can then be understood as creating transnational 'spaces' in which local knowledge traditions can be performed together, rather than as creating a 'common market' in which representations of local knowledge must be translated into (or exchanged for) the terms of a universal discourse.     

Assessment Focus in Studio: What is Most Prominent in Architecture,Art and Design?

What can be learned about assessment from what educators in the creative practices focus their studio publications on? What should form the focus of assessment in architecture, art and design studios? In this article we draw on 118 journal articles on studio published over the last decade in three disciplines; architecture, art and design to inform the focus of studio assessment. We believe that what is published by educators themselves in these disciplines reveals what matters most to them. In addition, we argue that regardless of the primary emphasis placed in each discipline, assessment in studio should encompass a broad set of indicators. Within the wider literature including in architecture, art and design, a view of assessment is emerging that recognises the process and the person, beyond a view that positions the product or art/design arte‐fact above all else. Therefore, drawing on what educators in architecture, art and design mentioned most in the journal publications analysed, as well as the literature on good assessment, we offer a holistic model to guide and take studio assessment in the creative disciplines further.     

Can we escape the program? Inventing possible∼impossible futures in/for Australian educational research

This essay brings together two lines of inquiry. Firstly, I revisit research on futures in education conducted during the 1980s and re-examine some of the propositions and principles that this research generated about “the future” as an object of inquiry in education. Secondly, I argue that the language of complexity invites us to rethink education in terms of emergence, and potentially destabilises the instrumentalist rationality that “programs” educational systems to privilege orderly and predictable processes culminating in stable output, a potentiality that may be undermined by a pervasive politics of complexity reduction. I conclude by drawing upon these two lines of inquiry to outline some strategies that might resist complexity reduction and catalyse emergence in Australian educational research as preconditions for inventing possible～impossible futures.     

‘Confessing to wilful disobedience’: an ethnographic study of deaf people’s experience of Catholic religious schooling in the Republic of Ireland*

This ethnographic study examines deaf people’s experience of the Roman Catholic Sacrament of Confession in two Catholic schools for deaf children in the Republic of Ireland from 1950 to 1990. The article fills a gap in Catholic deaf education literature that fails to uncover the experiences of deaf children. It provides space for their storied lives based on a total of 10 loosely structured individual interviews conducted with a purposeful sample of deaf adult participants who were past pupils of Catholic schools. Using ethnographic data, the study illuminates the views of participants concerning the learning obstacles created by a school policy dominated by oralism which prohibited use of Irish Sign Language. The article uncovers children’s experiences of the Sacrament of Penance for disobeying classroom rules against signing. Participants found their schooling experiences exemplify notions of stigma and stereotyping. As children, their response was to either subvert or submit to their school’s policy and religious practice. The findings make a useful contribution to current debates on language issues pertaining to teaching, learning and communication in deaf education. This paper concludes that, although heavily stigmatised in the past, Irish Sign Language has an important role in cultivating equitable access to Religious Education.     

Development and validation of the Decision-Specific Reinvestment Scale

Abstract

Items from the Reinvestment Scale were modified to create a decision-specific version of the scale. Principal components analysis of responses from 165 participants revealed one-, two-, three-, and four-factor solutions for the Decision-Specific Reinvestment Scale. Confirmatory factor analysis of responses from a second sample of 111 participants revealed that a 13-item two-factor solution showed the best fit. The first factor comprised six items referring to conscious monitoring of the process involved in making a decision, and was termed decision reinvestment. The second factor, decision rumination, comprised seven items related to focus on negative evaluations of previous poor decisions. In an initial assessment of predictive validity, Decision-Specific Reinvestment Scale scores of 59 skilled team sport players were found to be highly correlated with coaches' ratings of players' tendency to choke under pressure (r = 0.74), with high Decision-Specific Reinvestment Scale scores indicating greater susceptibility to poor decision-making under pressure. It was concluded that the Decision-Specific Reinvestment Scale highlights a performer's predisposition to engage in behaviours detrimental to performance under pressure, namely decision reinvestment and decision rumination.     

Changing personas and evolving identities: the contestation and renegotiation of researcher roles in fieldwork

The aim of this paper is to discuss the development and evolution of particular personas adopted by researchers in the quest for rich exchanges within the social field. It analyses my role (the principal author) as a female ethnographer (and the sole female) in the world of elite male rowing. Data are drawn from personal notes, reflections and observations during a five-month-long training camp. My experiences are located within dramaturgical social theory and, in particular, Goffman's work on face and impression management. The significance of the work is twofold. Firstly, it lies in recognising the strategies we use and the identities we construct as researchers in negotiating the social field towards desired ends. Secondly, it raises awareness of the implications performances have for the nature of the data gathered and the conclusions drawn from them.     

Child, Program, and Family Ecological Variables in Early Intervention

This study is based on a conceptual framework which emphasized the importance of viewing early intervention outcomes in relation to both program and nonprogram variables. Three broad classes of independent variables were included in the framework child, program, and family ecology. The unique and combined contributions of these three sets of variables to the prediction of three indices of intervention outcome was assessed through regression techniques. As much as 68% of the variance in children's post-intervention developmental age (DA2) was explained by the combined influence of all three classes of variables. All three classes of variables again contributed uniquely to the prediction of parental satisfaction with the intervention, explaining 45% of the variance. The three classes of variables explained 36% of the variance in children's rate of development during the intervention (RDI), although the contribution of the program class was very minimal. In addition to ascertaining the contributions of sets of variables, the importance of individual variables within sets was also examined. Results from both types of analysis underscored the important role of nonprogram variables in the determination of both child and parental outcomes. The implications of these findings for the design and evaluation of early intervention are discussed.     

Anticipating the experience of higher education through computer simulation

In industry the advantages of realistic job preview have been much discussed, but lit-tle is currently done in British schools to prepare students for higher education. This article describes the development stages of a principled adventure game to simulate the experience of higher education. Playing this game is intended to provide realistic role preview for prospective students.The simulation has been developed out of an earlier board game derived, to some extent, from research findings. More recent research on student learning has provided the principles on which the new simulation game is being based. The game not only allows students to try out different study strategies, it also provides advice tailored to the specific strategies used by the individual stu-dent in interacting with the computer. This simulation can be seen as a simple expert system providing a form of intelligent tutoring.The architecture of the computer simulation is described, together with the strategies used to ensure that the game, and the advice provided, are both controlled by principles derived from the research on student learning. Illustrations are used to indicate how a student would experience the interactions with the computer, and how the rules produce tailored advice.