Education of the deaf in Australia and Norway: a comparative study of the interpretations and applications of inclusion

Inclusion is a term and process that is culturally, politically, medically, philosophically, and historically relative in its interpretations in the education of the deaf. The present study is a comparative analysis of two substantially different education systems for deaf students, those of Norway and Australia. The study objective was to elucidate the sources of some of these differences and to examine the interpretations and applications of inclusion that are inherent in the two countries' policies and practices, and in recent research evaluations. Significant differences exist in the national contexts and in the manner in which inclusion is understood and applied in Norway and Australia; the study reports on recent research examinations of inclusion in the two countries and finds that the transitions from policy to practice seem questionable.     

Assisting teachers and students to reform the mathematics classroom

This study examines the usefulness of selected aspects of Tharp and Gallimore's (1988) theory of assistance as a theoretical framework for describing and analyzing change efforts in a middle school mathematics reform project. Drawing upon Tharp and Gallimore's redefinition of teaching as assisting performance and learning as the result of assisted performance, the social organization of a school-based mathematics reform effort in which teacher educators, mathematics teachers, and students both assist and are assisted is analyzed. In addition, one particular classroom assistance activity is presented and analyzed in terms of characteristics of assistance that, according to the theory, should lead to significant learning.     

Clock drawing in developmental dyslexia

Although developmental dyslexia is often defined as a language-based reading impairment not attributable to low intelligence or educational or socioeconomic limitations, the behavioral manifestations of dyslexia are not restricted to the realm of language. Functional brain imaging studies have shed light on physiological differences associated with poor reading both inside and outside the classical language areas of the brain. Concurrently, clinically useful tests that elicit these nonlinguistic deficits are few. Specifically, the integrity of the dorsal visual pathway, which predominantly projects to the parietal cortex, remains underinvestigated, lacking easily administered tests. Here we present the Clock Drawing Test (CDT), used to test the visuoconstructive ability of children with and without dyslexia and garden-variety poor readers. Compared to typically reading children, many children with dyslexia and some garden-variety poor readers showed significant left neglect, as measured by the distribution of figures drawn on the left clock face. In the poor readers with dyslexia, we observed spatial construction deficits like those of patients with acquired right-hemisphere lesions. The results suggest that in some children with dyslexia, right-hemisphere dysfunction may compound the phonological processing deficits attributed to the left hemisphere. The CDT provides an easy opportunity to assess skills known to be associated with right-hemisphere parietal function. This test can be easily administered to children for both clinical and research purposes.     

Examining Latina/o Students’ Experiences of Injustice: LatCrit Insights from a Texas High School

We used Latina/Latino Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) to re-analyze survey and interview data from earlier research in which we found that Latina/o students reported less positive experiences than other students in this high school. We found racial injustice in class enrollments, in students’ experiences with stereotypes and prejudice, in student-teacher relationships, and in school policies and norms. LatCrit principles illustrate interconnections among racism, interest convergence, and colorblindness that create racial injustice for Latinas/os. We argue that counterstorytelling could emerge to resist that injustice and that educators must understand how racism functions in their schools and interrogate relevant policies and norms.     

'No Number Can Describe How Good It Was': Assessment issues in the multimodal classroom

Within an outcomes based educational system built on the principles of redress, social justice, multilingualism and multiculturalism, issues of equity in teaching, learning and assessment are increasingly on South Africa's educational agenda. This article locates itself within debates concerning the politics of representation in mainstream classrooms, in which written standard English is the dominant mode and language through which students' meanings are read and assessed. The authors, consisting of English and Art educators, have been implementing forms of 'multimodal pedagogies' in different classrooms in Johannesburg in a move to challenge the existing narrow constraints of representation permitted in mainstream schooling. Through a case study discussion of a multimodal project with disaffected Soweto youth, the authors argue that new criteria for assessment need to be developed in order to address the complexity of thinking about communication as a multiple semiotic practice and students as designers of meaning. Such criteria place human agency and resourcefulness at the centre of meaning-making, and focus on the recruitment of resources, generativity across modes, linkages and connections across modes and genres, voicing of self, community and culture, the processes of making and reflectiveness, as well as taking account of the 'community of arbiters'.     

Investing in knowledge? Information asymmetry and Indonesian schooling

This paper reports from a survey of media exposure and level of knowledge among senior high school students at various locations in Indonesia. Government budgets for education have recently been dramatically reduced in Indonesia and increasing financial burdens are put on the households, like in many other poor countries. There is a tendency to increasing differences in quality of schooling among social layers and geographical areas. Main conclusions in this research are that information asymmetry exists as a problem in society and that type of school and location matter more than media exposure for students’ knowledge level. Students in public schools generally score significantly higher than those in private institutions. Also, students’ level of knowledge tends to fall with decreasing level of geographical centrality. Our policy recommendations include increased public investment in quality schooling for all.     

The anatomy of self‐defense

The following study describes a creative application of anatomical principles in the instruction of self‐defense. Undergraduates at the University of Kentucky were invited to a special lecture that featured a series of self‐defense moves introduced by a local police officer. Following a demonstration of each self‐defense tactic, the students were briefed on the anatomy of both the victim and the assailant that contributed to the overall effectiveness of each move. This approach was unique in that students learned critical knowledge of self‐defense while reinforcing anatomical principles previously introduced in class. Moreover, this integration of topics prompted students to think about their response to potentially dangerous situations on campus. Anat Sci Ed 1:130–132, 2008. © 2008 American Association of Anatomists.     

Global estimates of the implications of COVID-19-related preprimary school closures for children’s instructional access,development, learning,and economic wellbeing

Observational data collected prior to the pandemic (between 2004 and 2019) were used to simulate the potential consequences of early childhood care and education (ECCE) service closures on the estimated 167 million preprimary-age children in 196 countries who lost ECCE access between March 2020 and February 2021. COVID-19-related ECCE disruptions were estimated to result in 19.01 billion person-days of ECCE instruction lost, 10.75 million additional children falling “off track” in their early development, 14.18 million grades of learning lost by adolescence, and a present discounted value of USD 308.02 billion of earnings lost in adulthood. Further burdens associated with ongoing closures were also forecasted. Projected developmental and learning losses were concentrated in low- and lower middle-income countries, likely exacerbating long-standing global inequities.     

An investigation of Zimbabwe high school chemistry students' laboratory work–based images of the nature of science

This study investigates the proximal and distal images of the nature of science (NOS) that A‐level students develop from their participation in chemistry laboratory work. We also explored the nature of the interactions among the students' proximal and distal images of the NOS and students' participation in laboratory work. Students' views of the NOS and the nature of their chemistry laboratory work were elicited through students' responses to an open‐ended questionnaire and semistructured interviews. The results suggest that students build some understandings of the NOS from their participation in laboratory work. Students' proximal NOS understandings appear to build into and interact with their understandings of the nature and practice of professional science. This interaction appears to be mediated by the nature of instruction. It is posited that each student's conceptual ecological system is replete with interactions, which govern attenuation of proximal understandings into distal images. Methodologically, the study illustrates how students' laboratory work–based proximal and distal images of the NOS can be identified and extracted through analyzing and interpreting their responses to protocols. Implications for A‐level Chemistry instruction and curriculum development are raised. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 127–149, 2006