An essay on error

In recent years, researchers have started to take an increasing interest in errors that can frustrate teaching and training and learning. These enquiries have, however, tended to be of a special-purpose kind in the sense that they have focused on particular learning domains such as language learning, mathematics learning, and the acquisition of perceptual-motor skills. What is lacking is a more global approach to the problem of error or even, for that matter, a recognition that a global approach might be both possible and informative. This article tries to rectify this gap in the theoretical literature by indicating, in a comparatively discursive and non-rigorous way, the form that such an overall theory of error might take.     

The relationship between neonatal characteristics and three-month mother-infant interaction in high-risk infants

The behavior of 4 groups of infants--healthy term, healthy preterm, sick preterm, and sick full-term--was assessed in the neonatal period using the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS). At 3 months postterm, infants and their mothers were observed and videotaped in a free-play session. Both the NBAS and mother-infant interaction data were analyzed to assess the effects of maturity (term vs. preterm), illness (sick vs. healthy), and their interaction. Results revealed that illness of the infant affected both NBAS performance and maternal behavior during the interaction at 3 moths. Infants who were ill performed poorly on the NBAS orientation dimension; this dimension was found to be significantly associated with maternal and infant behaviors at 3 months. These data demonstrate an association between early infant characteristics and subsequent mother and child interactive behaviors. They also identify postnatal illness as an important influence on the development of the mother-infant dyad.     

The State of the Literature on Student Evaluations of Teaching and an Exploratory Analysis of Written Comments: Who Benefits Most?

The purpose of this exploratory analysis is to review the state of the literature on student evaluations (SEs) of teaching and examine to what extent an instructor's race/ethnicity influences student's qualitative comments. Also, does the intersection of race and gender influence student's qualitative comments on SEs? Utilizing an online survey distributed among various organizational listserv in the discipline of Political Science, this study highlights written comments received on SEs by faculty generally. Additionally, we hope to contribute findings that support how negative comments may affect faculty of color and women.     

Development of self-recognition, personal pronoun use, and pretend play during the 2nd year

This study examined the relation of visual self-recognition to personal pronoun use and pretend play. For a longitudinal sample (N=66) at the ages when self-recognition was emerging (15, 18, and 21 months), self-recognition was related to personal pronoun use and pretend play such that children showing self-recognition used more personal pronouns and demonstrated more advanced pretend play than did children not showing self-recognition. The finding of a relation among these measures provides additional evidence that in the middle of the 2nd year of life a metarepresentation of self emerges in the human child.     

The Persistent Life of Oppression: The Unconscious,Power, and Subjectivity

The rise of standardization signals that Paulo Freire's critique of the banking concept of education continues to be relevant today. But Freire's theory of critical pedagogy has not gone without its critiques. On the one hand, the fact that these criticisms exist should not blind us to the fact that Freire's intention was to formulate an emancipatory pedagogy because of oppressive systems of education. On the other hand, we cannot continue Freire's project without heeding the warnings issued by these criticisms. In this paper, we address pressing issues concerning Freire's libratory pedagogy and the way it has been taken up by recent Marxist theorizing in education while at the same time maintaining the importance for thinking through an emancipatory pedagogy. We are clear: the real culprit in this situation is the persistent life of oppression itself. We utilize psychoanalysis and the theories of Michel Foucault in order to pinpoint and work through a specific problematic concerning Freire's theories – namely: oppression has an existence in the unconscious such that those who are oppressed form passionate attachments to the forms of power that oppress them. Indeed, such a problematic is not flattering for all who are concerned with forms of social oppression, but, we contend, that unless this problem is recognized and worked through, no real liberation is possible     

‘Becoming European’? Respatialising the European Schools System through PISA for Schools

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) PISA for Schools, a local variant of the more-renowned ‘main PISA’ test that measures and compares individual school performance on reading, mathematics and science against international schooling systems. Here, I address the governance implications of how PISA for Schools data has been taken up by the transnational European Schools System (ESS). Drawing suggestively across new ‘relational’ thinking around data-driven modes of governance, as well as interviews with key policy actors within the ESS, I show how PISA for Schools reflects contradictory logics within the ESS, in which the inherently context-based goal of ‘becoming European’ is juxtaposed with the desire to employ decontextualised international evidence. I conclude by exploring how the perceived need for such data, associated with the global authority of the OECD, can produce a problematic focus on data-driven practices.     

Changing patterns in community attitudes to child abuse

Tasmania is the island state of Australia with a population of 416,000 people. A statewide programme on child abuse was commenced with the passing of a Child Protection Act in 1974. The results of the introduction of education programmes for professional groups and of providing information for the community have been analysed. Since 1972 notifications of suspected cases of child abuse have risen sixfold, but even now there are fewer cases reported in areas away from the main professional centre in the state. In the types of abuse being reported, there has been a sharp rise in self referrals and children deemed to be at risk. Sexual abuse may have been dealt with by other agencies before, but is now being notified. There has been a change in the age groups of children coming under notice with an increase in those between 2 and 12 years and a fall in those 0–2 years. The proportions of notifications from the various agencies have changed with considerably more coming from self referrals, from community referrals and from the education services. These trends would seem to indicate that both the professionals and the community are more aware of child abuse than formerly.