The existence of dyslexia without severe literacy problems

This paper is concerned with those who display positive indicators on tests for dyslexia but seemingly do not have any severe literacy problems. A case study is presented by way of illustration. On the basis of data from the British Births Cohort Study (12,905 10-year-old children), it was found that some seemingly normal achievers who showed signs of dyslexia (N=422) obtained different results on five measures associated with dyslexia than did other normal achievers without such signs (N=4,998). The measures used were: underachievement at word recognition; and underachievement at spelling, reading comprehension, pseudoword reading, and mathematics. The proportion of boys to girls in the groups was also noted. It is suggested that these were cases of mild dyslexia, who, on the basis simply of reading and spelling tests, might escape detection. The consequences for the concept of dyslexia are discussed, and it is suggested that the needs of dyslexics with only mild literacy problems should not be overlooked.     

Privatisation,Decentralisation and Education in the United Kingdom: The Role of the State

Since the early 1950s, the axis centralisation–decentralisation, especially as thematised in the work of Isaac Kandel, has represented a major focus of comparative studies in education. Kandel argued that issues relating to the internal conduct of the classroom (interna) should, so far as possible, be decentralised, while issues relating to administration, school structure and organisation of the educational system (externa) might safely be centralised. After 1988, successive governments in the United Kingdom have undertaken reforms which have placed more central control on the curriculum and even methods of teaching (interna), while school finance and administration (externa) have been devolved to the school level. The present essay argues that a simplistic approach to centralisation and decentralisation is not likely to be fruitful. Instead, we should acknowledge the role of the State in creating a permissive framework for educational systems. Local action can then be seen as part of a policy accommodating or resisting the implications of that framework.     

The role of emotions in student teachers’ professional identity

This paper presents findings of a qualitative interview study of the role of emotions in the professional identity of student teachers. Strong positive and negative emotions (mostly related to pupils and supervisors) were expressed about personal teaching experiences. The results confirm that emotions play an important role in social learning and, therefore, influence the development of professional identity. The two most important findings were that negative emotions exercised the strongest influence and that supervisors neglected the role of positive emotions as a support for learning. The study supports the concept that it is important for teacher educators to help student teachers understand their emotional experiences (focusing foremost on positive factors in their experience) and to develop the ability to express their own emotions in addition to understanding the emotions of others.     

A description of a mother's play guidance for her child with autism in the process of playing by the rules

The purpose of this study is to describe the strategies used by a mother with a child with autism during games activities with peers to provide the child with social skills. The research method of this study is ‘a qualitative single‐subject case study’. The participants in this research are a mother and her 9‐year‐old child with autism, one brother and three typically developing peers. The research data were collected through field notes, interviews, audio and videotape recordings during natural interactions between the mother and her child. The strategies the mother used were analysed using video records during games activities in a natural park. The interactions of the mother with her child were examined in the context of a hide‐and‐seek game. Micro‐ethnographic‐analysis techniques were used in the analysis of the video records. According to the research data, it was found that the mother with a child with autism made extensive use of 13 different verbal strategies and seven different non‐verbal strategies. It was observed that the mother guided her child and the group during the hide‐and‐seek game, arranged the environment of the games, carried out routine activities both at the beginning and at the end of the games and arranged the games in accordance with the abilities and preferences of the child. These applications bear a resemblance to the model of integrated game groups. As a result, the data from the present research reveal that a mother having a child with autism acts as a guide during the games and uses verbal and non‐verbal interaction strategies in this guidance process and by doing so contributes to the process of participation in the games by the child with autism and in the child's social interaction with his peers.     

History of education in Brazil: the construction of a knowledge field

This article analyses the general characteristics of the construction of the field of history of education in Brazil. To do so, it highlights the existing historiography and aims to describe the process of institutionalisation of this knowledge field, which, in general terms, has been focused on the area of teacher training. Since the nineteenth century, however, it has also been possible to identify systematic historiographical efforts in Brazil that are not directly related to the school system, but rather to the teaching of and research into the history of education within Brazilian universities. The article addresses the organisation of the field, the ways in which it has been structured and the strategies of academic legitimisation employed to achieve this. These include the regular production of dissertations and doctoral theses, the publication of books and journals, academic events and the creation of research groups and scientific associations, through which research findings have found national and international circulation. This set of indicators creates conditions for an understanding of the expansion and reconfiguration of the field of history of education that began in the 1980s, as well as of the challenges this phenomenon presents to current historiography and teacher training in Brazil.     

Cinquante années de débats et de recherches sur l’école française

Two major factors have contributed to the evolution of French historiography in the history of education in the past 50 years. The first relates to the general orientation of public debate about schools, which has shifted from a paradigm concerning democratisation to one that focuses on student success rates and the efforts to eliminate inequalities of all sorts. The second factor that has affected scholarly orientations lies in changes linked to academic positioning between pedagogy, history, and the educational sciences in the context of increasing university hirings, at least until recently. These two changes in terms of scholarly paradigms and scholarly professional identities have encouraged the development of a certain number of approaches and questions: a reconsideration of the historic role of the State, an interest in a greater diversity of actors in the educational process, and a re-evaluation of the cognitive, cultural and social effects of teaching at all levels. Despite this, the history of education plays a minor role today in France, not only in teacher training but also in debates about the future of schools.     

Planning Istanbul’s Public Library System

The paper is an attempt to analyse the role of Nigerian television (TV) journalists as major participants in mass information production, transfer, and, delivery. The analysis centres on the legal, political, economic, and cultural contexts in which the TV journalists operate, and the dangers, problems, and frustrations involved in this operation. It also analyses the strategic role of the TV and its impact as a medium of mass information. The paper concludes by analyzing how TV programming orientation has been skewed in favour of more literate urban and semi-urban populations, and how Nigeria's legal, political, economic, and cultural environments are unfavourable for conscientious and conscious TV journalists. It suggests that only when the TV journalists re-orient themselves and assert their right as people's conscience can they mobilize society for positive change.     

Aggression in news comments: how context and article topic shape user-generated content

News editors listed online aggression as one of the main constraints to audience participation and debate in the media. However, previous studies offer contradictory evidence on how aggression affects the amount and civility of user participation. Furthermore, a large portion of these studies focus on the Anglo-Saxon context and follow an experimental design. This study addresses these issues through a content analysis of over 26,000 news comments from two Portuguese newspapers, testing how aggression in comments relates to the number of replies it generates and the aggressiveness of these replies. Results show that aggression generates more aggression in comment sections, but may also increase participation. The latter effect is moderated by the article topic, an important caveat that may explain different outcomes in previous works. The practical implications of these findings and paths for future research are discussed.     

Trends in Environmental Education Images of Textbooks from Western and Eastern European Countries and Non-European Countries

Textbook analysis is seen as a major element for studying environmental education addressing pupils, image analysis being rather relevant when studying textbooks written in 11 languages. We analysed 25 textbooks from 14 countries addressed to 14–16-year-old pupils, focusing on: (1) local and foreign/global images; (2) urban/rural and nature images; (3) negative impact, human management, and the beauty of nature; and (4) men and women in images with negative and positive impact. We distinguished some trends between Western (WEc) and Eastern (EEc) European countries and non-European countries (NEc). In contrast to textbooks from EEc and NEc, which tend to show the beauty of nature with little human influence, WEc textbooks tend to exhibit more images of urban/rural landscape, of human negative impact and of human management, expressing an anthropocentric view of the environment. Men are usually more present in textbook images than women. However, some images exhibiting more women than men could be found in textbooks from WEc and EEc, but never in NEc. In negative impact pictures, men are more often present than women but NEc women are never present in such images. Women are more frequent than men in positive impact images. Results suggest that textbooks from EEc and NEc should give more emphasis to human management and urban/rural images, whereas those from WEc should give more attention to the beauty of nature. A balance in the presence of men and women in images should be a matter of greater concern by all textbooks’ authors and publishers.     

Development of the Efficacy Beliefs for Conceptual Change Learning Questionnaire

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to assess college students’ efficacy beliefs for conceptual change and to examine the psychometric properties of the instrument. Participants were 692 students. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized single factor structure of Efficacy Beliefs for Conceptual Change Learning Questionnaire providing evidence for the construct validity. Evidence for concurrent validity also is provided. On the basis of the evidence provided in this study, the questionnaire appears to produce valid and reliable scores for college students. With the use of the questionnaire, conceptual change researchers might be able to better assess the relationship between students’ efficacy beliefs and the change in their conceptual understandings of various science concepts.