Narrative analysis as philosophical research: Bridging the gap between the empirical and the conceptual

There is a longstanding debate about what can be expected from philosophy of education and what its place can be in educational theory. A remarkable resemblance can be found between the debate about the usefulness of qualitative research methods and the kinds of insights they produce. The debate between proponents of empirical (quantitative) research and of qualitative research can be traced to the opposition between the need for understanding and the desire to manipulate. We argue that empirical qualitative research is of a similar nature to philosophical research, its aim being mainly to understand a human practice. We offer a framework that allows the clarification of what may be expected from an educational science and consequently from qualitative research methods: taking as one?s starting point human experience, providing comments, and thus trying to open the eyes of others to particular human realities.     

A Knowledge Base for Teaching Biology Situated in the Context of Genetic Testing

Recent developments in the field of genomics will impact the daily practice of biology teachers who teach genetics in secondary education. This study reports on the first results of a research project aimed at enhancing biology teacher knowledge for teaching genetics in the context of genetic testing. The increasing body of scientific knowledge concerning genetic testing and the related consequences for decision-making indicate the societal relevance of such a situated learning approach. What content knowledge do biology teachers need for teaching genetics in the personal health context of genetic testing? This study describes the required content knowledge by exploring the educational practice and clinical genetic practices. Nine experienced teachers and 12 respondents representing the clinical genetic practices (clients, medical professionals, and medical ethicists) were interviewed about the biological concepts and ethical, legal, and social aspects (ELSA) of testing they considered relevant to empowering students as future health care clients. The ELSA suggested by the respondents were complemented by suggestions found in the literature on genetic counselling. The findings revealed that the required teacher knowledge consists of multiple layers that are embedded in specific genetic test situations: on the one hand, the knowledge of concepts represented by the curricular framework and some additional concepts (e.g. multifactorial and polygenic disorder) and, on the other hand, more knowledge of ELSA and generic characteristics of genetic test practice (uncertainty, complexity, probability, and morality). Suggestions regarding how to translate these characteristics, concepts, and ELSA into context-based genetics education are discussed.     

Multiple influences on curriculum decisions in a supercomplex world

This article extends currently reported theory and practice in the use of learning goals or targets with students in secondary and further education. Goal-setting and action-planning constructs are employed in personal development plans (PDPs) and personal learning plans (PLPs) and are advocated as practice within the English national policy agenda with its focus on personalisation. The article argues that frameworks widely used for goal setting and action planning by UK educational practitioners, in particular SMART targets or goals, have yet to be rigorously examined in the light of relevant theory and practice. Doing so is important given contemporary emphasis on the dimensions of the learner experience regarded by ‘learning to learn’ practitioners as underpinning effective learning in the modern classroom. The article draws from social cognitive theory and achievement goal theory, including Zimmerman's criteria for appropriate goals, to suggest an alternative framework for goal or target setting – ‘well-formed outcomes’, a construct from the field of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). In comparison with SMART targets, the authors argue that well-formed outcomes offer a more rigorous and holistic approach, by taking greater account of the learner's identity, affective dimensions (feelings and emotions), social relations and values, as well as encouraging mental rehearsal.     

It's Just Your Imagination: The Effect of Imagery on Recognition of Product- Versus Non-Product-Related Information in Radio Advertisements

This experiment tested the effects of imagery on recognition of product- versus non-product-related information in radio ads. Participants listened to four high-imagery and four low-imagery, 60-second spots. After a distracter task, participants were given a four alternative, forced choice, recognition test. The recognition test consisted of three product-related and three non-product-related questions for each ad. Recognition of product-related information was significantly lower than recognition of non-product information in high-imagery ads. There was no significant difference between recognition of productversus non-product information in low-imagery spots. Theoretical and practical implications of the results for understanding information processing of radio and producing effective high-imagery radio spots are discussed.     

Towards a theory of school leadership practice: a Bourdieusian perspective

Despite the ‘practice’ turn in the broader management literature, very little work in educational administration has engaged in a theoretical discussion about what constitutes leadership practice. Theoretically informed by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, this paper contributes to the long-established critical tradition in the educational administration literature, to argue that: (i) ‘leadership’ is a label of the managerialist project of the state; (ii) leadership should be thought of as a disruptive practice; and (iii) Bourdieusian theory can enable this thinking, but not as it is frequently mobilised in the educational administration literature. The alternative put forth in this paper is not merely replacing one external narrative (managerialism) with another (Bourdieusian), but rather advancing a theoretical position on what is leadership that paves a way forward for a research programme.     

Organization of Concepts Relevant to Emotions and their Regulation During Test Taking

The purpose of this study was to assess aspects of college students' organization of concepts related to emotions and their regulation during test taking. The authors also evaluated whether students who report having problems with test anxiety hold a different conceptual organization about test taking compared with students who do not report having such problems. Concepts relevant to emotions and their regulation during test taking were sampled from the emotion and emotional regulation literature. Participants rated how similar these concepts were during test taking. These ratings were then submitted to multidimensional scaling analyses (MDS). The resulting arrangement of concepts provides insight into the underlying organizational conceptions held by low, moderate, and high test-anxious participants. Students' organizational schemes surrounded 2 dimensions: (a) task-focus and (b) pleasantness. High test-anxious participants had differing conceptual organizations about test taking than moderate and low test-anxious participants with regard to pleasantness. In addition, the high test-anxious participants saw task-focused processes such as reading directions during test taking as more highly related to unpleasant emotions like anxiety than moderate and low test-anxious participants.     

Using Multidimensional Scaling and Unfolding to Explore Teacher Perceptual Biases for Selected Special Education Referral Categories

Multidimensional scaling (POLYCON) and unfolding (PREFMAP) algorithms developed by Young (24) and Carroll (3), respectively, were used to explore teacher perceptions of special education labels (e.g., emotional disturbance) in terms of a reference set of 28 student behaviors (e.g., withdrawn, short attention span) across two context variables: student gender and student ethnicity. The resulting two-dimensional scaling solution revealed teacher perceptual distinctions between student acting-out and passive behaviors, and between student intellectual impairment and specific behavior problems. In addition, scaling analyses also suggested teacher perceptual biases that required both males and minority (i.e., black) students to behave more extremely before being seen by teachers as having either learning or emotional problems.     

Exploring the Boundary Conditions of the Redundancy Principle

This experiment investigated whether study of a scientific text and a visual display that contained redundant text segments would affect memory and transfer. The authors randomly assigned 42 students from a university in the southwestern United States in equal numbers to 1 of 2 conditions: (a) a redundant condition, in which participants studied a scientific text that described plate tectonics and a corresponding visual display that contained redundant segments from the text; or (b) a nonredundant condition, in which participants studied the scientific text and a corresponding visual display that lacked the redundant text segments. Embedding redundant text segments within the visual display enhanced performance on 3 measures of memory but not on a measure of transfer. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical implications using the cognitive theory of multimedia learning.     

Elite Female Business Students in China and Norway: Job‐Related Values and Preferences

The focus of this paper is on the work‐related values, preferences, and future expectations among female students at two elite business schools in China and Norway. The paper argues that while gender theory predicts no significant differences between these two groups, both cultural and economic development theory imply fundamental differences. The overall picture we get from this study is mixed, in that while both cultural dimensions and economic development dimensions generally have a significant impact on the variations in job‐related values between the selected Chinese and Norwegian female business students, there are also commonalities that are ascribable to gender. That is, while there clearly are differences between the two groups there are also a number of significant similarities.