Tocqueville on democracy and inclusive education: a more ardent and enduring love of equality than of liberty

Drawing from some of the insights on the democratic condition made by Alexis de Tocqueville, this article examines critically the reasons given for inclusive education and the motives behind its growing popularity in western industrialised countries. In particular, we consider the supposed benefits of democratisation and equality that proponents of inclusive schooling usually claim. After summarising the benefits that advocates of inclusive education have articulated, we give a brief sketch of Tocqueville’s analysis of democratic societies. His observations have demonstrated that democratisation and equality are not necessarily healthy impulses in a democratic society because they have the propensity to smother individual freedom and dissent from commonly held opinions. Accordingly, we argue that the very claims of democratisation and equality are inherently problematic and are potentially inimical to individuals’ ability to judge independently. In other words, we argue that democratisation and equality are not necessarily compatible with liberty. We conclude, then, that an educational system that does not prioritise and protect intellectual development for sake of inclusion can only exacerbate these deleterious democratic tendencies. We also assert that inclusive policies reflect the relentless pursuit of equality that democratic peoples exhibit to their own disadvantage.     

Effects of a classroom management intervention on student selective attention: results from a randomized controlled trial

ABSTRACT

A main objective of classroom management (CM) is to raise students’ attention to their daily academic work by creating a classroom environment that supports academic and socioemotional learning. While studies have addressed CM effects on classroom-level behaviour or students’ academic outcomes, students’ attention skills been largely overlooked. This randomized controlled trial evaluates the effectiveness of a teacher-targeted CM intervention on students’ selective attention. Twenty-four primary schools were randomized into receiving the Inclusive And Appreciative Classroom Management (IACM) intervention (treatment) or a general information technology (IT) didactics course (control condition). All participating 1st-grade teachers and their students (N = 1,160) were followed for 1 year. Using repeated measurements of the d2 Test of Attention, we find that the IACM intervention improves students’ selective attention with .26 standard deviations. The effect is robust to the inclusion of student- and classroom-level characteristics. All analyses account for the variation across students, classrooms, and schools.     

Coping Styles,Learning Environment and Emotional and Behavioural Problems

This article analyses and compares the learning environment in smaller and bigger rural schools by focusing on the arenas of both formal and informal learning; the lessons and the recesses between. Relational patterns are both analysed using complete network data from 19 schools in four different municipalities in four Norwegian counties and by comparisons based on data from 80 pupil interviews. The analyses are replicated and followed up by comparison of schools in two additional municipalities. The smaller and bigger rural schools offer radically different learning environments. The aspects of individual and collective agency in learning, self‐centrism, intimization, social exclusion, independence and control as part of everyday life in schools are analysed and discussed. Mechanisms shaping the differences in the learning environments are identified. Needs for further research are formulated.     

Explaining Individual Differences in Reading: on the orthographic component of word recognition

This article first presents a conception of word recognition involving both phonological and orthographic processes. Three different explanations about the origin of orthographic processes in word recognition are then discussed. These explanations are: (1) differences in orthographic memory, (2) differences in phonological processes and (3) differences in leisure time reading. In accord with the third explanation, it is argued that automatic orthographic word recognition is directly dependent on children's amount of reading practice in an out‐of‐school setting. Educational implications of this emphasis on leisure time reading effects are also discussed.     

A Neurotic Extrovert Who is Open to New Experiences? Understanding How Personality Traits May Impact the Commenting Behaviors of Online News Readers

This article develops a theoretical context for the influence of personality traits on commenting behaviors on online news Web sites. Drawing on the literature of personality, and online behaviors, we examine how personality traits may influence which individuals make contributions on news Web sites. Additionally the article focuses on how the commenting “landscape,” in particular moderation policies and user interfaces, may impact those who contribute.     

Examining the prediction of reading comprehension on different multiple‐choice tests

In this study, 180 Norwegian fifth‐grade students with a mean age of 10.5 years were administered measures of word recognition skills, strategic text processing, reading motivation and working memory. Six months later, the same students were given three different multiple‐choice reading comprehension measures. Based on three forced‐order hierarchical multiple regression analyses, results indicated that the unique contribution of measured skills and processes to performance varied across comprehension tests. In particular, when the test consisted of a longer passage, contained a larger proportion of inferential questions and was answered without access to relevant text passages, the relative importance of word recognition skills seemed to be reduced while working memory emerged as a relatively strong, unique positive predictor of comprehension performance. These findings have important practical implications for the assessment of reading comprehension.