The “Autodidact”, the Pursuit of Subversive Knowledge and the Politics of Change

This paper contrasts two types of “autodidact” located in the UK in different historical periods, which utilised different learning/research technologies to different ends. From the 1920s to the 1960s some working-class activists committed to the Communist Party of Great Britain became “educated” in Marxism (and more) through the processes intrinsic to their politics. This radical acculturation was undertaken outside the universities in consequence of both an absence of access to higher education and because of the relatively enclosed social world of British Communism. The widening of educational opportunities and the decline of political Marxism effectively extinguished this kind of autodidact. New technologies have meant that the 21st century is witnessing individuals and cyber-communities that are creating knowledge-based challenges to professional and institutional power in the face of personal/family “medical” crises. The paper outlines the characteristics of these two categories of autodidact and a new terrain of counter-hegemonic learning.     

The retention and success of under-represented groups in a Bachelor of Education program in New Zealand

For several decades researchers have raised questions regarding factors that enable undergraduate students, particularly those from ethnic minority groups living in low socio-economic areas, to persist with their studies to degree completion. Seeking answers to these questions becomes more urgent as universities around the world enrol increasingly diverse cohorts of students. This article reviews the patterns of participation and success for students enrolled in a Bachelor of Education program at one university, distributed across three different locations and attracting different cohorts of students. This provided the university with a unique opportunity to learn about the retention and success of diverse cohorts, particularly those traditionally under-represented at undergraduate-level study. At least 75% of students in the under-represented groups passed their courses. Surprisingly the pass rates of students at the three campuses were similar, despite dissimilarities in ethnicity, socio-economic status and previous academic success.     

THE UTILITY OF MAZE ACCURATE RESPONSE RATE IN ASSESSING READING COMPREHENSION IN UPPER ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

This study examined the predictive utility of five formative reading measures: words correct per minute, number of comprehension questions correct, reading comprehension rate, number of maze correct responses, and maze accurate response rate (MARR). Broad Reading cluster scores obtained via the Woodcock–Johnson III (WJ III) Tests of Achievement served as the criterion variable. Examiners administered all reading measures to 98 students enrolled in upper elementary (UES) and middle school (MS) grades (grades 4 through 8). Results indicated significant intercorrelations within all predictor variables for the combined and UES samples; fewer intercorrelations existed at the MS level. MARR exhibited the highest correlation with WJ III Broad Reading across all correlational analyses. Additional regression analyses indicated that the MARR technique best predicted WJ III Broad Reading cluster scores across all groups analyzed. Limitations of the current study and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN WRITTEN EXPRESSION CURRICULUM‐BASED MEASUREMENT IN THIRD‐ THROUGH EIGHTH‐GRADE STUDENTS

Many studies have found gender differences in certain areas of academic achievement, such as reading and math. Fewer studies have examined gender disparities in writing skills. The current study explored gender differences in written expression performance. Participants were 1,240 male and female students in third through eighth grade, representing five schools in a rural southeastern school district. Each student was administered an AIMSweb curriculum‐based measurement writing probe during the district's regularly scheduled fall, winter, and spring benchmarks. All measures were scored for total words written and correct writing sequences. Two‐way repeated measures analyses of variance were used to determine whether differences existed in the sample. A significant female advantage was found on both scoring indices at each grade level. These findings have strong instructional and theoretical implications for practicing school psychologists and other educators.     

Children's responses to questions about transformations and their relationship to strategies used in problem solving

This paper describes some preliminary results comparing two groups of children's performance on a set of Piagetian conservation tasks. The findings point to the need to sensitise parents and teachers to current views on appropriate learning environments for young children, in particular, the strategies that they might use to make sense of their experiences. In addition, the findings are used to support the argument that it is important to emphasise adults’ roles in giving structure and direction to children's early learning experiences. It is anticipated that if parents and some teachers understand the basis for this approach to tutoring, their support and encouragement will relieve the potentially damaging pressure to ‘ succeed at all costs ‘, a current dilemma for parents of children in Singapore. Given the emphasis on structure and attainment in the Singaporean Pre‐Schools in this paper, experiences involving aspects of problem solving are selected for investigation, given their reported relationship with school attainment. (Bruner, 1972).     

Emotion Displays in Two-Year-Olds during Mishaps

Although it has been shown that toddlers express distress when personal or physical events violate their expectations, there has been little detailed examination of their emotional reactions to such events. In this study, 45 2-year-olds were observed during 2 mishaps: a doll breaking and juice spilling. Their emotional reactions and their attempts to fix the mishap were coded. 2 components to their reactions to mishaps were found: one of tension and frustration, and another of concerned reparation. Mishaps elicited more negative emotions in toddlers than free play, and most toddlers attempted to correct the mishap. Children's styles of emotional response to mishaps may be related to maternal mental health. Symptoms of depression and anxiety in mothers were related to a suppression of tension and frustration in their offspring. Maternal acting out symptoms were not related to toddlers' reactions to mishaps. The findings are discussed in terms of the role of emotion in the formation of individual differences in sociomoral functioning and factors contributing to early differences.     

Fifth graders' science inquiry abilities: A comparative study of students in hands‐on and textbook curricula

A large number of American elementary school students are now studying science using the hands‐on inquiry curricula developed in the 1990s: Insights; Full Option Science System (FOSS); and Science and Technology for Children (STC). A goal of these programs, echoed in the National Science Education Standards, is that children should gain “abilities to do scientific inquiry” and “understanding about scientific inquiry.” We have studied the degree to which students can do inquiries by using four hands‐on performance assessments, which required one or three class periods. To be fair, the assessments avoided content that is studied in depth in the hands‐on programs. For a sample of about 1000 fifth grade students, we compared the performance of students in hands‐on curricula with an equal number of students with textbook curricula. The students were from 41 classrooms in nine school districts. The results show little or no curricular effect. There was a strong dependence on students' cognitive ability, as measured with a standard multiple‐choice instrument. There was no significant difference between boys and girls. Also, there was no difference on a multiple‐choice test, which used items released from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). It is not completely clear whether the lack of difference on the performance assessments was a consequence of the assessments, the curricula, and/or the teaching. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 467–484, 2006     

Teachers’ acquisition of knowledge about English word structure

Previous research suggests that teachers’ knowledge about English word structure (e.g., the phonological structure of words and common orthographic patterns in English) may be limited, although this knowledge is important for effective teaching of word decoding. This study examined teacher education students’ knowledge about word structure, and improvements in their knowledge as a result of instruction, using three tasks: graphophonemic segmentation, classification of pseudowords by syllable type, and classification of real words as phonetically regular or irregular. Participants came from a special education certification program and included both preservice and inservice teachers. Results indicated that prior preparation to teach reading influenced participants’ initial performance on two of the three word-structure tasks (all but graphophonemic segmentation); however, prior experience in teaching reading did not influence word-structure knowledge. A subset of participants who received specific instruction about word structure improved their knowledge relative to a comparison group of teacher education students who did not receive word-structure instruction. Prior preparation did not influence participants’ responsiveness to instruction. Conclusions support the viewpoint that teacher education must include information about English word structure for educators who will teach reading and suggest that sufficiently intensive instruction may be important in developing word-structure knowledge.     

Ideologies,Policies and Practices in East Berlin before and after the fall of the wall

The reunification of Germany, and the transformation of early childhood services in East Germany offers a unique opportunity to explore how abrupt policy changes affect service providers and service users. East Germany had extensive coverage for children under three and near universal coverage for children 3‐6. After reunification these services were drastically reduced, and the ideological justification for them was systematically rejected. This process is illustrated by a discussion of the changes in practice which took place in two nurseries in East Berlin, and the reactions of staff to the changes they were required to make.