The role of scientific positivism in European popular educational movements: the case of France

Scientific positivism was one of the most influential ideologies of progress in the early modern period and had a powerful impact on the formation of popular educational movements in the 19th century in Europe. This paper considers the form it took in France, probably the most sophisticated example, which itself influenced other European movements. It traces, briefly, the rise of positivism from Bacon through the Scottish Enlightenment philosophers to Auguste Comte and then considers how this movement found an educational vehicle in, firstly, the French Grand-Orient organization of freemasonry and then through the universités populaires. It is argued that the strength of the movement was in its resistance to authoritarian epistemologies, in particular clericalism, and in its commitment to learning based on individual experience and experimentation. In France, it becomes adopted by the Radical Party, led by Jules Ferry, as an official ideology for reforming education having first been widely diffused through Masonic educational organizations. It informs a ‘third way’ politics opposed both to laissez faire capitalism and revolutionary Marxism offering an apparently ‘scientific’ neutrality. The study demonstrates the importance of freemasonry as a vehicle for popular educational movements in the 19th century and the notions of class harmony it promoted, which underpinned the foundations of the newly emerging welfare state.     

Oldham’s Moot (1938–1947), the universities and the adult citizen

The influential policy work in education of the intellectual grouping formed by J.H. Oldham during the Second World War known as ‘Oldham’s Moot’ (1938–1947) has been discussed in recent publications. These have noted its general educational and university policy, its intellectual strengths, and the role of Sir Walter Moberly in relation to his chairmanship of the UGC and his The Crisis in the University (1949). Others have placed its thinking in a tradition of Christian medievalism and British intellectual movements. This article focuses on the social theories debated in the group, especially their European roots, their contribution to their discussions on the university and especially the role of adult citizenship in the era of ‘Planning of Freedom’. In particular the authors follow the arguments concerning the integration of adult education in the university reform they envisage.     

Asymptomatic players with a patellar tendon abnormality do not adapt their landing mechanics when fatigued

This study aimed to explore how asymptomatic athletes with a patellar tendon abnormality (PTA), who are at high risk of developing patellar tendinopathy, alter their landing technique and net patellar tendon loads generated in response to fatigue. Seven asymptomatic players with a PTA performed five successful vertical stop-jump trials before and after a fatigue protocol. Fatigue protocol involved participants repeatedly performing sets of 30 submaximal jump exercises on a sledge apparatus followed by 30 s rest until the task failure criteria were reached. Three-dimensional ground reaction forces, lower limb kinematics and net peak patellar tendon force were recorded during the stop-jump task. No significant between-fatigue condition differences in net patellar tendon loading, or most secondary outcome variables were observed. Only some fatigue changes were seen during the vertical landing phase. Asymptomatic PTA participants did not modify their landing technique or net patellar tendon loading during a stop-jump task in response to fatigue. The lack of between-fatigue condition differences displayed by the asymptomatic PTA participants during both landing phases suggest that these individuals may not be capable of sufficient movement variability in their landing strategies to adapt to fatigue.     

Phonological specificity relates to phonological awareness and reading ability in English–French bilingual children

Reading and Writing - The 1-year longitudinal study presented here examined the extent to which the ability to build phonologically specific lexical entries as a result of increasing vocabulary...     

Self‐selection of Simple Computer Activities by Infant School Pupils

Abstract Many activities from the infant class curriculum may be enhanced by realising them in the interactive context of a computer environment. This raises the question of whether young children can make choices among such activities that would reflect an awareness of their difficulty and a motivation to master them. In this research, infant class pupils were provided with software that offered unconstrained opportunities to select a range of related activities and the level of difficulty at which they would be tackled. Choices and response times were automatically recorded over a period of three weeks. These choices remained stable throughout that time and were biased towards the easiest options. There was some improvement in performance although little evidence of choice strategies that could be effective in driving such improvement. There was no evidence of sex differences in frequency of using the computer.     

A General 3-Step Maximum Likelihood Approach to Estimate the Effects of Multiple Latent Categorical Variables on a Distal Outcome

The 3-step approach has been recently advocated over the simultaneous 1-step approach to model a distal outcome predicted by a latent categorical variable. We generalize the 3-step approach to situations where the distal outcome is predicted by multiple and possibly associated latent categorical variables. Although the simultaneous 1-step approach has been criticized, simulation studies have found that the performance of the two approaches is similar in most situations (Bakk & Vermunt, 2016). This is consistent with our findings for a 2-LV extension when all model assumptions are satisfied. Results also indicate that under various degrees of violation of the normality and conditional independence assumption for the distal outcome and indicators, both approaches are subject to bias but the 3-step approach is less sensitive. The differences in estimates using the two approaches are illustrated in an analysis of the effects of various childhood socioeconomic circumstances on body mass index at age 50.     

Becoming creative practitioners: elementary teachers tackle artful approaches to writing instruction

The “creativity gap” is a distressing discrepancy between the ostensible value educators place on creativity and its absence in schools. How do teachers take on the attributes and skills of a creative practitioner? What struggles do they face in doing so? This case study examines the practices of six early elementary teachers who embarked on a professional development experience through which they learned arts-based strategies for prewriting activities. They purposefully practiced cultivating an environment in which student imagination would feed the generation of ideas and details in prewriting exercises. Findings indicate some teachers embraced this departure from the norm, recognizing how loosening their reigns emboldened “voice and choice” in student writing. Others experienced difficulty taking risks and developing spontaneity for accepting and responding to student ideas. Finally, teachers grappled with converging creative practice with everyday practices in the classroom.     

Changing the Subject: Retraining Teachers to Teach Science

This paper reports the experiences of teachers involved in a novel retraining scheme designed to meet a short-term crisis in numbers of teachers of physics. Teachers trained in other subject areas underwent an intensive six-month training in physics and were then placed in schools. During the first year of teaching some support for ongoing learning in science was provided. A study of these teachers' experiences found they lacked content knowledge in areas of the curriculum other than physics and were unprepared for the reality of the science classroom. Their existing classroom management skills were of only limited value in the new context. For those graduates who were supported by experienced staff in schools, the transition to science teaching was hard but ultimately worthwhile. For some, whose qualifications to teach science were never accepted by their peers, retraining was a bitter experience.