Realization, completers, and ceteris paribus laws in psychology

I defend Jerry Fodor's ([1991]) account of the semantics ofceteris paribus laws against an objection raised by Peter Mott([1992]). In doing so, I clarify certain issues regarding thenature of realization. I argue that not all things that realizea state or property are realizers of that state or property:the relation x realizes y tolerates the inclusion of gratuitouselements in x— elements that play no particular role inthe realization of y— whereas the relation x is a realizerof y does not. I then criticize a rejoinder that, in effect,builds such gratuitous elements into the antecedents of thelaws of a science of the realized properties.

1. Fodor's Proposal
2. Mott's Objection
3. Conjunctive States, Realization, and MinimalRealization
4. Mixed Antecedents

     

Inconsistency of decision-making,the Achilles heel of referees

This study assessed whether decisions made by six qualified referees were consistent when watching the live 2016 televised Champions League Final. Referees were paired off into three separate rooms. Two referees watched the game with no supporters present. Two watched the game surrounded by Real Madrid supporters, and the remaining two watched the game surrounded by Athletic Madrid supporters. Referees were asked to decide whether each decision made by the on-field referee was either correct or incorrect. Results identified two types of refereeing inconsistency. The first type was a systematic tendency of the supporting crowds (both rooms) to influence the adjudicating referees to make fewer incorrect (disagree with the on-field referee) decisions (8 and 5) than referees in the “no supporters” room (19) (χ² = 11.22 [df = 2], P = 0.004). The second type of inconsistency was the home advantage “bias”, where the surrounding crowd influenced the adjudicating referees to favour their team, by disagreeing with the decision made by the on-field referee (χ² = 6.0 [df = 2], P = 0.0498). One explanation for these inconsistencies is that referees adopt a coping strategy of “avoidance”, i.e., when faced with difficult decisions, referees simply avoid making unpopular decisions by waving “play on”.     

Teacher Education for Sustainability. II. Two Teacher Education Projects from Asia and the Pacific

Our schools and educators face a compelling responsibility to serve society by fostering the transformations needed to set us on a path to sustainable development in the 21st century. Education for sustainability is a new paradigm for a life long learning process that leads to an informed and involved citizenry having the creative problem solving skills, scientific, technological, and social literacy, and commitment to engage in responsible actions that will help ensure an environmentally sound, socially just, and economically prosperous future for all. This paper and the preceding paper, from a soon to be published book, Education for a Sustainable Future: A Paradigm of Hope, edited by Keith A. Wheeler, focus on the need to have science imbedded at the core of the education for sustainability paradigm and the need to increase and enhance teacher education to better be able to develop the necessary interdisciplinary thinking and transformative learning for the new millenium.     

Echoes of the Bandung movement in the Caribbean and China's presence in the region today

The ideas of Bandung had echoes in the anti-colonial and decolonization movement in the Anglophone Caribbean from the 1950s to the 1970s. These echoes were signals of international solidarity that emerged among the political leadership and radicalized publics in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. That sense of solidarity has been replaced by pragmatic business relations in the era of global neo-liberalism and the growing role of China and other ex-colonies as economic powers. There is an urgent need for renewal of mutually beneficial political association among ex-colonial countries. The spectres of racism and racial stereotypes need to be confronted in the building of stronger economic relations. These racial stereotypes arise from the growth of anti-black racism over the past 500 years. Similarly, racial stereotypes of Chinese and other peoples of Asia are rooted in colonial histories. New political relations cannot be based exclusively on trade and economic relations but on an explicit elaboration of ideas that can encourage discussion, debate and the development of institutions. These new political ideas can build on shared principles in an anti-racist direction, which helps to restore human dignity to international relations.     

Investigating Elementary Students' Scientific and Historical Argumentation

This article examines the relationship between epistemic cognition and classroom argumentation practices in elementary science and history. Literature highlights argumentation as a critical epistemic practice for science and history learning (Duschl & J. Osborne, 2002; National Research Council, 2007, 2012). Although there is ample support for argumentation in the teaching of history and science, the specific epistemic issues that students address through this practice are not always empirically documented. We draw on the work of Chinn, Buckland, and Samarapungavan (2011 Chinn, C. A., Buckland, L. A. and Samarapungavan, A. 2011. Expanding the dimensions of epistemic cognition: Arguments from philosophy and psychology. Educational Psychologist, 46(3): 141–167. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) to examine argumentation practices in science and history in 2 fifth-grade and 2 sixth-grade urban classrooms. Students' and teachers' emergent argumentation practices were coded and analyzed and epistemic reasoning was examined using the 5 components of the Chinn et al. model. Findings highlight that students engaged in complex argumentation practices that were consistent across classrooms. The classroom case examples demonstrate that students addressed all 5 epistemic components in the Chinn et al. model through their argumentation practice. Further research to better understand the relationship between teacher epistemic commitments, pedagogical practices, and student epistemic commitments and learning is suggested.     

Postgraduate student teachers’ developing conceptions of the place of theory in learning to teach: ‘more important to me now than when I started’

Integrating theoretical knowledge within teacher education has often been portrayed as difficult, with previous studies reporting student teachers’ ambivalence, or even scepticism, about the value of research findings and theory to classroom practice. Moreover, the nature of teachers’ professional knowledge is itself uncertain and highly complex. This paper reports on the developing conceptions held by a group of postgraduate student teachers about the relationship of theory to classroom practice in learning to teach. The data are drawn from a small-scale longitudinal case study. They capture participants’ preconceptions about theory before beginning training and subsequent developments through the course and into the first teaching post. The research finds these students to be far from naïve at the outset, entering training open to a range of forms of learning, with a positive view of the potential contribution of theory to practice. Alongside a growing appreciation of the complex, situated and contested nature of theory, the data suggest that theory comes to be increasingly valued over time. As newly qualified teachers, the participants not only see theory as integral to their practice, but recognise the important, largely unanticipated, role of the university in this process. As a result of these insights, potential considerations for course design are offered, at a time when teacher education in many countries is becoming more school-based and new forms of partnership are being developed.