Sighting horizons of teaching in higher education

This conceptual paper tackles the matter of teaching in higher education and proposes a concept of ‘horizons of teaching’. It firstly offers an overview of the considerable empirical literature around teaching—especially conceptions of teaching, approaches to teaching and teaching practices—and goes on to pose some philosophical and social theoretical considerations that open further the territory around teaching in university. Against this background, we propose the concept of ‘horizons of teaching’. Horizons of teaching provide a context in which it makes sense for teachers to give themselves to the teaching enterprise and to go on giving themselves to teaching. Horizons include diverse and intricate layers at both micro- and macro-levels that interact in a permanent and dynamic way; they involve persons and collectivities; and they concern structures and agency. The paper concludes by proposing that horizons of teaching configure and delineate curricula and the pedagogical relationship in a way that might contain a revolutionary potentiality in recasting teaching in higher education.     

Retention of conditioned autonomic and behavioral responses in preweanling rats: Forgetting and reinstatement

Preweanling rats, 16 days of age, responded to an olfactory conditioned stimulus (CS) paired with a shock unconditioned stimulus (US) with increases in heart rate and behavioral activation. In two experiments this finding was replicated and, in addition, it was found that the form of these conditioned responses (CRs) changed after a retention interval. When tested 24 h after CS-US pairings, the subjects displayed a decrease in heart rate accompanied by CS-elicited freezing. Giving two unsignaled shocks prior to the delayed test effectively reinstated the tachycardia and behavioral arousal CRs. The results are discussed in terms of contextual influences on the form of the CR and how changes in the magnitude of context fear may alter responding to an olfactory CS.     

The CTY Talent Search: International Applicability and Practice in Ireland

The Talent Search model of above level standardized testing is a core practice of the Center for Talented Youth (CTY) at The Johns Hopkins University in the USA, where it was introduced in 1971. The Hopkins Model was adapted for use at the Irish Centre for Talented Youth (CTYI) at Dublin City University in 1993, and this adaptation marks the first major international replication, incorporating both the mathematics and verbal portions of the SAT. The SAT proved to be a valuable assessment instrument for these students, whose scores resembled those of American students.     

Interaction of sample dimension and sample-comparison mapping on pigeons’ performance of delayed conditional discriminations

Coding strategies developed in the acquisition of delayed conditional discriminations can be assessed by independently manipulating sample and comparison memory load. Two stimulus dimensions that can affect memory load were examined: Number of stimuli in the sample and comparison sets (two vs. four) was manipulated between groups in a 2×2 design, and discriminability of sample and comparison stimuli (hues vs. lines) was manipulated between counterbalancing subgroups and within subjects. The results indicated large effects of sample discriminability but not of comparison discriminability, evidence for retrospective coding. There was also a significant effect of number of stimuli in the comparison set (although only with hard-to-discriminate samples) but not of number of stimuli in the sample set, evidence for prospective coding. These findings suggest evidence for retrospective coding with easy-to-discriminate samples, independently of number of stimuli in the comparison set, and evidence for prospective coding with hard-to-discriminate samples.     

The Impact of Science Fiction Film on Student Understanding of Science

Researchers who have investigated the public understanding of science have argued that fictional cinema and television has proven to be particularly effective at blurring the distinction between fact and fiction. The rationale for this study lies in the notion that to teach science effectively, educators need to understand how popular culture influences their students’ perception and understanding of science. Using naturalistic research methods in a diverse middle school we found that students who watched a popular science fiction film, The Core, had a number of misunderstandings of earth science concepts when compared to students who did not watch the movie. We found that a single viewing of a science fiction film can negatively impact student ideas regarding scientific phenomena. Specifically, we found that the film leveraged the scientific authority of the main character, coupled with scientifically correct explanations of some basic earth science, to create a series of plausible, albeit unscientific, ideas that made sense to students.     

The effects of a time-limited welfare program on children: the moderating role of parents' risk of welfare dependency

This study examined the effect of a time-limited welfare program on school-age children using data on almost 3,000 children (ages 5-17 at the four year follow up-point) from the random assignment evaluation of Florida's Family Transition Program (FTP). FTP was one of the first welfare reform initiatives to impose a time limit on the receipt of cash assistance, and it combined the time limit with a rich array of mandatory services. The effects of FTP on children were moderated by families' risk of long-term welfare dependency. Contrary to predictions laid out at the outset, there were few effects of FTP on middle childhood and adolescent children for children of parents most likely to be long-term welfare dependent (those most likely to hit the time limit). However, consistent negative effects on this same age group of children were found for children of parents least likely to be long-term welfare dependent--parents who had the largest employment gains--and effects of FTP were most strongly negative for the oldest adolescent children. The findings suggest a different theoretical model for movements into employment than the one suggested in the previous literature for job loss. The findings are discussed in terms of their contribution to research and policy.     

Pedagogy and possibility thinking in the early years

Connecting to current work in the area of creative pedagogies, this paper reports findings of an exploratory study that sought to identify what characterises possibility thinking in young children's learning experiences and how teachers’ pedagogical practice fosters this critical aspect of creativity. It focuses in particular on pedagogy, seeking to demonstrate how approaches adopted facilitated children's possibility thinking. Possibility thinking has been conceptualised as being central to creative learning although its role, as manifest in the learning engagement of children and the pedagogical strategies of practitioners has not been fully illuminated. The co-participative research team involved in this study comprised staff in an early childhood centre, in an infant and a primary school, working collaboratively with three university-based researchers. The 12-month long segment of a longer study employed various data collection methods including video-stimulated review (VSR) to facilitate reflection, critical conversations, classroom observation, interviews and examination of planning documents. The paper illuminates the perspectives and embedded values that the teachers expressed whilst reflecting upon their practice, and highlights common pedagogical themes, including the practice of ‘standing back’, profiling learner agency and creating time and space. Particular strategies were employed by each of the teachers. These approaches appeared to foster possibility thinking in young learners. In addition, the paper considers the development of the teachers’ thinking through the phases of the research process and presents a model for conceptualising a pedagogy of possibility thinking.     

Green Statistics

Environmental statistics is an exciting and rapidly growing area of statistical application. It requires complex new approaches and methods to be developed, to enable study of the crucial environmental problems we face: whether climate change, passive smoking, industrial pollution or forest fires. For the classroom, environmental statistics can bring some reality and immediacy to our teaching.