The place and approach of outdoor learning within a holistic curricular agenda: development of Singaporean outdoor education practice

This paper details the potential contribution of outdoor education (OE) in Singaporean education given the recent raft of national curricular reforms aimed at fostering holistic and exploratory learning opportunities. In this context, we contend that increasing recognition of the value of OE, both internationally and locally, heralds specific challenges within unique Singaporean educational conditions that must be taken into account for this subject area to flourish. In particular, we seek to distil the ways in which local community, cultural and school conditions signal the need for a more place-based and contextualised version of OE. Our analysis further addresses the need for adequate professional development frameworks to be installed in order to enhance existing local teachers’ capacities to substantially educate pupils through the outdoors, within a Southeast Asian urban context.     

English in Hong Kong: a preliminary study of the ACERWord Knowledge Test – Form F and the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices as indicators of verbal reasoning ability and abstract reasoning ability among Hong Kong university students

The standard of English of Hong Kong students is a matter of considerable debate. Academics, business people and others bemoan the deterioration of English-speaking skills and the declining quality of students. Explanations for this situation include the introduction of mass education, the lack of trained English teachers and an exam-centred curriculum. Yet, little research has been undertaken concerning student intellectual ability and English skills. This short report examines the English skills of 146 undergraduates using the ACER Word Knowledge Test - Form F , and their abstract reasoning ability using Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices. The results show that Hong Kong students, while low in English skills are superior in intelligence. Although exploratory and subject to qualification, the research has implications for the teaching and continued use of English in Hong Kong schools and universities.     

Educating for Character in the Sexual Domain

Econometric cost functions have begun to appear in education adequacy cases with greater frequency. Cost functions are superficially attractive because they give the impression of objectivity, holding out the promise of scientifically estimating the cost of achieving specified levels of performance from actual data on spending. By contrast, the opinions of educators form the basis of the most common approach to estimating the cost of adequacy, the professional judgment method. The problem is that education cost functions do not in fact tell us the cost of achieving any specified level of performance. Instead, they provide estimates of average spending for districts of given characteristics and current performance. It is a huge and unwarranted stretch to go from this interpretation of regression results to the claim that they provide estimates of the minimum cost of achieving current performance levels, and it is even more problematic to extrapolate the cost of achieving at higher levels. In this article we review the cost-function technique and provide evidence that draws into question the usefulness of the cost-function approach for estimating the cost of an adequate education.     

Riding Instructors,Gender, Militarism,and Stable Culture in Sweden: Continuity and Change in the Twentieth Century

Equestrian sport underwent significant changes in Sweden during the twentieth century, from being connected to men and the army to being associated with women and leisure activities. Previous research has shown that a stable culture with masculine military norms still exists in spite of these changes. The purpose of this study is to explore why these norms continue to influence Swedish equestrian sport. Institutional economic theory and gender theory are used to explain continuity and change in stable culture. The source material consists of interviews and document analysis. An important finding is that military norms have been reproduced in the education of the riding instructors.     

Theory, experiment and practical application in research on visual impairment

This paper examines the relation between theories of development in conditions of visual impairment, the experimental evidence on which models are based, and methods of education and remediation. It is argued that experimental findings always need fine-tuning to be adapted to individual circumstances and needs. Equally, practical procedures are based on tacit assumptions which need to be scrutinised explicitly, so that they can be updated when the empirical evidence suggests changes in our models of the role of the sense modalities in development. Spatial skill and braille learning are used as examples. The first section discusses how theory and practice are reciprocally affected by simplistic dichotomies like the “nature-nurture” distinction, and the notion that vision is either necessary, or else irrelevant to sparial understanding. Spatial development is explained next by the CAPIN hypothesis which assumes that total absence of sight requires convergent and redundant, not just substitute, information and underlines the importance of specific task conditions. A third section focuses on the dual verbal and spatial processing demands of braille. The two final sections deal with empirical methods in asking questions about blindness in psychology and education.     

Gender and Sports within the Equine Sector – A Comparative Perspective

The aim of this article is to discuss and problematize research on gender and sports within the equine sector, and to argue for the necessity of a comparative perspective in order to understand the gender order within equestrian sports. The article will focus on two areas within the equine sector: horse racing and Olympic equestrianism. Differences over time as well as between countries and events will be highlighted and discussed. Previous research demonstrates that the equine sector has historically been connected to men and masculinity in large parts of the world, although there are many examples of women working with horses and enjoying equestrian activities during their leisure time. During the twentieth century, horses have become progressively less important for agriculture, forestry, transport, and the army. The societal context is interesting, as sport historians Jennifer Hargreaves and Gertrud Pfister have claimed that a destabilization of the gender order in society at large may open new opportunities for women in sport. It is argued in this article that an analytical framework based on insights from gender studies and a comparative perspective is crucial if the development is to be understood and explained.     

School motivation: A comparison between Kenya and Italy

The authors compare school motivation in Kenya and Italy, two countries that differ in terms of socioeconomic conditions, structure of the school system, and access to education. Free primary education is indeed a recent attainment for Kenyan students. The participants, 449 Kenyan and 480 Italian students, 9–14 years old and attending Grades 4–8, were asked to complete a questionnaire about learning motivation. A factor analysis revealed that school motivation can be described by five dimensions in both contexts: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, academic self-concept, causal attribution, and amotivation. Differences between countries and lower (Grades 4–5) and higher (Grades 6–8) grades emerged: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and academic self-concept were found to be higher in Kenyan than in Italian students, whereas amotivation was lower. Moreover, only Italian students showed less intrinsic motivation and more amotivation in higher grades than in the lower ones.     

How does innovative continuous professional development (CPD) operate in the ECEC sector? Insights from a cross-analysis of cases in Denmark,Italy and Poland

This article offers insights into what characterises innovative continuous professional development (CPD) in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC) by analysing similarities and differences from case studies of exemplary approaches to innovative CPD in Denmark, Italy and Poland. The comparative analysis focuses on four features that are particularly relevant for innovation in CPD in the field of ECEC: the social dimension of innovation as a strengthening component; the benefit of dynamic learning processes aimed at integrating theory and practice; the role of key figures in the quality of CPD; and measurements of CPD impact, outcomes and sustainability. This analysis sheds light on the effects of dynamic factors (e.g., regular team-based reflection sessions based on documentation and observation), the importance of work conditions (e.g., contractual obligations to provide time for reflection), the critical role of pedagogical leaders (coordinators, principals and head teachers, supervisors), the importance of inter-organisational networking at a local level and the facilitating role of collaboration with research institutes.     

The influence of college students' epistemological style on selected problem-solving processes

Given the paucity of data supporting college students' epistemological style as an educationally relevant construct, we examined the degree to which individual differences in this style were predictive of various cognitive processing activities adopted to several problem-solving tasks. Twenty-two college subjects from each of three different epistemological groups—dualistic, multiplistic, and relativistic—were randomly selected to complete both a syllogism and Ink Blot problem-solving task. The results showed that the three epistemological groups reliably differed in how they mentally organized the ink blot stimuli, but not the syllogism problems. The findings are discussed as supporting the notion that the epistemology construct is an educationally salient source of individual differences, especially when performance tasks are ambiguous and ill-defined.