SPECIAL ISSUE COMMENTARY: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Consultation in Gifted Education: Focusing on Practice Issues

This article provides a response from the perspectives of a teacher of the gifted and a trainer of teachers of the gifted. Following a brief summary of the authors' collective experience, the article highlights major issues represented by the four articles and identifies common themes across the various disciplines with respect to consultation and gifted education. A call for needed research and more collaborative work among gifted educators and school support personnel is made.     

Constraints on conceptual development: a case study of the acquisition of folkbiological and folksociological knowledge in Madagascar

How different are the concepts held by children who grow up in a North American middle class neighborhood and by children who grow up in a rural Malagasy fishing village? By probing Malagasy children's and adults' conceptual representations of human and animal kind, biological inheritance, innate potential and family relations, the studies presented in this Monograph address current debates about the acquisition and the nature of concepts in the domains of folkbiology and folksociology. Cross-cultural and developmental studies of this kind bear on the hypothesis that conceptual development in these domains is supported and constrained by innate conceptual content. If so, one would expect cross-cultural universality in the relevant adult concepts and their early emergence in childhood regardless of widely different input conditions. We chose to conduct these studies among the Vezo of Madagascar because the ethnographic literature has attributed to them folkbiological and folksociological theories that are radically different, even in commensurable, with those of North American adults. Vezo therefore provide a challenging test for the innate conceptual constraints hypothesis.Four studies probed aspects of biological and sociological reasoning of Vezo children, adolescents and adults through a number of adoption scenarios. Despite ethnographic reports to the contrary, we found cross-cultural convergence in adult concepts of biological inheritance, but the pattern of development of this concept differed greatly from that seen in North America. Moreover, in agreement with the ethnographic literature, we found that Vezo adults have constructed a distinctive theory of social group identity. However, we found that children's reasoning in this domain is under the influence of endogenous constraints that are overturned in the course of development. Finally, we found cross-cultural convergence in adults' concept of species kind, as well as evidence for the early emergence of this concept. In light of these findings, we discuss the nature of the constraints on children's conceptual representations, the developmental process through which the adults' concepts are constructed, and relations between Vezotheories of folkbiology and folksociology.     

Anorexia and bulimia—the maladjusting coping strategies of the 80s

The purpose of this article is to highlight the complexities of treating eating disorders. It provides a theoretical framework for identification, diagnosis, and treatment of anorexia and bulimia.     

Aspects of Fiscal Federalism in Higher Education Cost Sharing in Latvia

This case study explores devolution of low-income student subsidies, via the national student loans program, from the central to local governments in Latvia by means of decentralizing political and financial responsibility to provide public assistance to low-income students in obtaining funds for higher education. It describes municipal engagement in providing primary loan guarantees and in assuming full risk for low-income student loans. This article argues that although there are venues for local governments to support low-income students' access to higher education, the central government should sponsor this policy politically as well as financially.     

A Review and Meta-Analysis Examining the Relationship of Music Content with Sex,Race, Priming,and Attitudes

This meta-analysis (k = 35, N = 11,629) examines the effect that listening to music, particularly popular music, has on consumers. Results demonstrate that listening to music generates an effect on listeners consistent with the content of the music (average r = .210, k = 35, N = 11,629). This effect was similar when considering survey research (r = .227) or experimental research (r = .265). The tenets of excitation transfer theory received some support, particularly when considering the effects of music as a priming material (r = .399), demonstrating the impact of music as a means of establishing mood, and ultimately the subsequent reactions of individuals. One conclusion is that efforts toward media literacy or education may prove far more productive than media content restrictions when attempting to curb potential undesirable media effects. Additional implications for policy and theory are discussed.     

A Little Autonomy Support Goes a Long Way: Daily Autonomy-Supportive Parenting,Child Well-Being,Parental Need Fulfillment,and Change in Child,Family, and Parent Adjustment Across the Adaptation to the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study examined the effects of daily parental autonomy support on changes in child behavior, family environment, and parental well-being across 3 weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. Day-to-day associations among autonomy-supportive parenting, parental need fulfillment, and child well-being were also assessed. Parents (longitudinal N = 469; M_age = 42.93, SD_age = 6.40) of school children (6–19 years) reported on adjustment measures at two measurement occasions and completed up to 21 daily online questionnaires in the weeks between these assessments. Results from dynamic structural equation models suggested reciprocal positive relations among autonomy-supportive parenting and parental need fulfillment. Daily parental autonomy support, parental need fulfillment, and child well-being partially predicted change in adjustment measures highlighting the central role of daily parenting for children’s adjustment during the pandemic.     

What the West could learn from the East: a reflective analysis

Drawing on Lugones’ ideas of world traveling, Dewey’s notion of education as experience, and Greene’s vision of seeing small/seeing big, this article inquires into lives lived in an Eastern educational milieu with attention reflectively paid to what educators in the West could learn from those in the East. Rather than focusing on mega narratives largely created by policy-makers and derived from accumulations of theory and/or political decision-making, this practical research in the reflective vein takes a ‘big’ look at three ‘small stories’ that emerged in a narrative inquiry we conducted in a Chinese elementary school and imagines their portability to Western educational contexts. Reflective attention is specifically paid to: (1) teaching without words, (2) principal images, and (3) shared responsibility for failure. What these small stories from our narrative inquiry research might disrupt, if introduced to Western educational settings, is especially taken up.     

Childhood aerobic fitness predicts cognitive performance one year later

Abstract

Aerobically fit children outperform less fit peers on cognitive control challenges that involve inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and working memory. The aim of this study was to determine whether, compared with less fit children, more fit 9- and 10-year-old pre-adolescents exhibit superior performance on a modified compatible and incompatible flanker task of cognitive control at the initial time of fitness testing and approximately one year later. We found that more fit children demonstrated increased flanker accuracy at both test sessions, coupled with a superior ability to flexibly allocate strategies during task conditions that required different amounts of cognitive control, relative to less fit children. More fit children also gained a speed benefit at follow-up testing. Structural MRI data were also collected to investigate the relationship between basal ganglia volume and task performance. Bilateral putamen volumes of the dorsal striatum and globus pallidus volumes predicted flanker performance at initial and follow-up testing one year later. The present findings suggest that childhood aerobic fitness and basal ganglia volumes relate to cognitive control at the time of fitness testing and may play a role in cognitive performance in the future. We hope that this research will encourage public health and educational changes that will promote a physically active lifestyle in children.     

Teaching thinking: the case for principles

Abstract

This paper reviews the situation with regard to the teaching of thinking skills as part of the taught curriculum. The case is made for direct teaching of cognitive skills both to meet the particular learning difficulties of children with special educational needs and also to enhance the learning and thinking of all children. The dangers of ‘recipe’ approaches to teaching this aspect of the curriculum are discussed and a ‘principles’ approach is advocated. Some principles are then described which may be used to underpin the designing of problem‐solving activities, through which thinking skills can be taught across the curriculum.