Towards a Transformative Epistemology of Technology Education

Technology Education offers an authentic and invaluable range of skills, knowledge, capabilities, contexts and ways of thinking for learners in the 21^st century. However, it is recognised that it occupies a comparatively less defined and more fragile curricular position than associated, but longer established, subjects such as Mathematics and Science. While recognising that no single factor lies behind such a condition, this paper draws upon thinking in the philosophy of technology, technology education and the ontology of artefacts to argue that transformation may be considered as an epistemic source for technology in a similar way to ‘proof’ within Mathematics and ‘interpretation’ within Science. Encapsulating technology's intimate relationship with materials, it is ultimately argued that the transformation of a technical artefact from an ill‐defined into a well‐defined ontological state constitutes a prime source of technological knowledge for pupils. Moreover, it provides an alternative route into further consideration about the nature of the domain, epistemology and curricular identity of the subject.     

Environmental Education as a Lived‐Body Practice? A Contemplative Pedagogy Perspective

Environmental education usually appeals to the students’ knowledge and rational understanding. Even though this is needed, there is a neglected aspect of learning ecologically fruitful action; that of the lived‐body. This paper introduces the lived‐body as an important site for learning ecological action. An argument is made for the need of a biophilia revolution, in which refined experience of the body and enhanced capabilities for sensing are seen as important ways of complementing the more common, knowledge‐based environmental education. Alienation from the physical environment is seen as one key element in producing environmental devastation. Consequently, human alienation from nature is seen as closely related to alienation from one's body. It is claimed that through overcoming the (Cartesian) dualist alienation of human consciousness from its lived body, we can decrease the alienation of human beings from their environment. Methods of contemplative pedagogy are introduced for addressing alienation. By getting in touch with the tangible lived‐body in yoga or mindfulness meditation we reconnect to the material world of nature. Contemplative pedagogy cultivates the body and its senses for learning intrinsic valuation and caring for the environment. Lived‐body experience is challenging to conceptualise; we use Maurice Merleau‐Ponty's concept of the flesh in our attempt to do so. Finally, this paper suggests some contemplative practices of the lived‐body for environmental education. Experiencing the flesh of oneself and the world as one and the same is an environmentally conducive experience that gives value and meaning to the flourishing of all life, human and non‐human.     

Applying Tablet‐Based Performance Support Application for Technicians’ Training at the Israeli Air Force: A Case Study

Performance support systems are mechanisms enabling users) productivity while reducing training expenses as support is being delivered in real time, often eliminating the need for costly pre‐performance training. Mobile technologies have created new opportunities for improved performance support systems, especially for tasks performed outside the offi ce. This article describes the fi rst mobile learning and performance support initiative taken by the Israeli Air Force. The project included the development and eff ectiveness pilot study of a learning and performance support application delivered via tablet to helicopter engine technicians. The application provided support videos and illustrations of maintenance routines, thereby enabling learning and practicing at the same time. Pilot study results show high performance levels of application users compared to those applying traditional methods. Results also show that self‐effi cacy levels were not aff ected by the successful performance achieved when using the mobile performance support application. Plans to expand mobile support use are also described.     

Associations Between Child Disabilities and Caregiver Discipline and Violence in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries

Using nationally representative samples of 45,964 two‐ to nine‐year‐old children and their primary caregivers in 17 developing countries, this study examined the relations between children's cognitive, language, sensory, and motor disabilities and caregivers' use of discipline and violence. Primary caregivers reported on their child's disabilities and whether they or anyone in their household had used nonviolent discipline, psychological aggression, and physical violence toward the target child and believed that using corporal punishment is necessary. Logistic regression analyses supported the hypothesis that children with disabilities are treated more harshly than children without disabilities. The findings suggest that policies and interventions are needed to work toward the United Nations' goals of ensuring that children with disabilities are protected from abuse and violence.     

Scientific communication – on the brink of the next evolution?

Key points

• Publishing is fixated on the format of the scholarly article, and this is stifling innovation.
• Content should be presented in a way that adapts dynamically to the reader's needs.
• A lot of interdisciplinary research is needed to transform reading, writing, and publishing processes.

     

培养高素质生源选拔优秀设计人才

工业设计在经济建设中发挥着重要作用.设计师应具有较高的文化素质和艺术修养,应是全面发展的高素质人才.而我国的设计教育在招生方式和招生标准方面还存在许多问题,致使生源素质不高,不能选拔出高素质人才.所以必须对传统的招生方式进行改革,发展工业设计要从培养生源和选拔人才抓起.     

Sensitivity to rime unit frequency and children's early word‐reading strategies

The current work examines children's sensitivity to rime unit spelling–sound correspondences within the context of early word reading as a way of assessing word‐specific influences on early word‐reading strategies. Sixty 6–7‐year‐olds participated in an experimental reading task that comprised word items that shared either frequent or infrequent rime unit correspondences. Retrospective self‐reports were taken as measures of strategy choice. The results showed that the children were more accurate in identifying word items that shared a common rime unit (consistent items) when compared with those containing infrequent rime units (unique and exception items). Moreover, while nonlexical (phonological) attempts were most frequently applied across all word types, these resulted in lower levels of accuracy, especially for the exception word items. The current data support the argument that children are increasingly sensitive to rime unit sound–spelling correspondences during the early stages of their word reading and the nature of these word‐specific orthographic representations shape their reliance on using particular lexical or non‐lexical‐based word‐reading strategies.     

Partial reinforcement effects on discrimination learning

Rats were trained on a series of reversals of a successive discrimination in which the percentage of S+ trials ending in food was varied. Changes in the discrimination index occurred more slowly with 50% reinforcement than with 100% reinforcement when the number of training trials was equated across conditions, but were approximately invariant when the conditions were equated with respect to the number of obtained reinforcements. Presentation of free reinforcement during the intertrial intervals reduced the overall rate of discrimination acquisition, but left this invariance unaffected. Invariance in reinforcements necessary to attain acquisition also occurred when different discriminations correlated with different percentages of reinforcement were intermixed within experimental sessions. The failure of the invariance effect to be disrupted by either manipulation suggests that previous accounts of the invariance effect in terms of “comparator” models of conditioning (e.g., Gibbon & Balsam, 1981) are inadequate.     

II. DEVELOPMENT OF ADOPTED CHILDREN WITH HISTORIES OF EARLY ADVERSITY

This chapter first presents a review of research on the development of adopted children, focusing on meta‐analytic evidence and highlighting comparisons between adopted children with and without histories of early adversity. Some methodological issues arising from this literature are considered as well. Second, 7 longitudinal studies of adopted children's development are described, and the convergence of findings across the longitudinal studies and with the cross‐sectionally based meta‐analytic evidence is discussed. Third, the role of the adoptive family in supporting adopted children's development is explored.