A Framework for Teaching Epistemic Insight in Schools

This paper gives the rationale and a draft outline for a framework for education to teach epistemic insight into schools in England. The motivation to research and propose a strategy to teach and assess epistemic insight followed research that investigated how students and teachers in primary and secondary schools respond to big questions about the nature of reality and human personhood. The research revealed that there are pressures in schools that dampen students’ expressed curiosity in these types of questions and limit their developing epistemic insight into how science, religion and the wider humanities relate. These findings prompted the construction of a framework for education for students aged 5–16 designed to encourage students’ expressed interest in big questions and develop their understanding of the ways that science interacts with other ways of knowing. The centrepiece of the framework is a sequence of learning objectives for epistemic insight, organised into three categories. The categories are, firstly, the nature of science in real world contexts and multidisciplinary arenas; secondly, ways of knowing and how they interact; and thirdly, the relationships between science and religion. Our current version of the Framework is constructed to respond to the way that teaching is organised in England. The key principles and many of the activities could be adopted and tailored to work in many other countries.     

Consequences of Retaliatory Aggression against Siblings and Peers: Urban Minority Children's Expectations

Expectations about the outcomes of retaliation against siblings were compared to those about peers in a group of 10–14-year-old, mostly African-American or Hispanic youth. Boys believed that parents would disapprove more of retaliation against siblings than friends, while girls believed parents would equally disapprove of retaliation against either target. Participants of both genders expected that retaliation would deter additional aggressive actions of friends more than of siblings. Participants expected younger siblings, especially brothers, to feel worse than older siblings following retaliation, and girls expected to feel worse retaliating against younger siblings. Siblings close in age expect fewer negative consequences of retaliation. Children's expectations seem to promote more aggression toward friends than siblings and to promote aggression toward siblings closer in age. No ethnic differences emerged in expectations about conflict. The findings are discussed in relation to research on expectations as a mediator of behavior.     

Mathematics teaching during the early years in Hong Kong: a reflection of constructivism with Chinese characteristics?

This paper characterizes early mathematics instruction in Hong Kong. The teaching of addition in three pre‐primary and three lower primary schools was observed and nine teachers were interviewed about their beliefs about early mathematics teaching. A child‐centered, play‐based approach was evident but teachers emphasized discipline, diligence and academic success. Observations also revealed practices reflective of both constructivist and instructivist pedagogies. Results from interviews suggest that teachers' traditional cultural beliefs about instruction were challenged by western ideologies introduced in continuing professional development courses and by notions promulgated by the educational reforms. Both consistencies and inconsistencies between teachers' beliefs and practices were identified. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Differing to agree: a reply to Hammersley and Abraham

In this paper Gewirtz and Cribb offer a response to Hammersley and Abraham's criticisms of their arguments about the place of values in social research published in this issue of BJSE. In doing so, they make clear that most of the positions that Hammersley and Abraham attribute to them are ones that they do not identify with and that, like Hammersley and Abraham, they would reject. In order to further clarify and specify their own position, Gewirtz and Cribb argue that: their advocacy of ethical reflexivity rests on the assumption that there are many incompatible sets of values in play within even a single vantage point; researchers should sometimes take an interest in knowledge use although they should not always be required to do so; and, whilst at the level of propositions it is always possible to abstract out and distinguish between factual claims and value claims, at the level of practice there can be significant resonances and linkages between the two, so it is important to be ethically reflexive about these entanglements. Finally, the authors agree that values should not be seen purely as a source of contamination but that attention to values can help to underpin ‘objectivity’.     

Women,leadership, and power revisiting the Wicked Witch of the West

By examining the cultural images present in the popular musical Wicked, cultural norms and biases toward women in leadership and women’s leadership practices are explored. The discussion rests on conceptions of male and female leadership ‘styles’, how power is obtained and utilised within organisational settings and how resistance and reproduction play key roles in how women as leaders are accepted.     

Reconstructing science teacher education within communities of learners

This article is based on a paper which received the “Innovation in Teaching Science Teachers” Award at the 1993 annual meeting of the Association for the Education of Teachers in Science.     

Broadband Redux: 2013

As the first major federal intervention in improving high speed access to a resource increasingly identified as necessary to contemporary life, the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) funds devoted to broadband represented a new chapter in building infrastructure in the country and in moving toward a next generation of network connectivity. Though intended to understand what the stimulus funding accomplished as part of this special issue, we realized that it would take several more years to complete the funded projects and to assess their impacts. This special issue explores aspects of the ARRA investments in broadband, and offers some comparisons with earlier assessments collected in special issues in Government Information Quarterly (GIQ, 2003; 2006).     

Promotion of research articles to the lay press: a summary of a three‐year project

The promotion of scholarly journal articles to journalists and bloggers via the dissemination of press releases generates a positive impact on the number of citations that publicized journal articles receive. Research by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. shows that article‐level publicity efforts and media coverage boosts downloads by an average of 1.8 times and were found to increase citations by as much as 2.0–2.2 times in the articles analyzed in this study. We evaluated scholarly journal articles published in nearly 100 Wiley journals, which were also covered in 296 press releases. The results in this case study suggest a need for greater investment in media support for scholarly journals publishing research that sparks interest to a broad news audience, as it could increase citations.