Technology and Copyright in 1735: The Engraver's Act

Without printing technology there would be no need for copyright. Anglo-American copyright has its roots in early booksellers' practices that in 1710 were incorporated into the Statute of Anne. Several decades later in 1735 the provisions of this statute were copied in a new piece of legislation for the protection of engravings. However, “Hogarth's Act” protected only those engravings that involved original designs and thus, implicitly, made a distinction between artists and mere craftsmen. Soon, however, Parliament was persuaded to extend protection to all engravings. The history of Hogarth's Act foreshadowed the logic whereby a century later protection was extended first to special and then to ordinary photographs. Together these instances of copyright extension raise the question of to what degree similar patterns are at work in the continuing expansion of copyright today.     

Four methods of identifying change in the context of a multiple component reading intervention for struggling middle school readers

The results from controlled intervention research have indicated that effective reading interventions exist for children with reading difficulties. Effect sizes for older struggling readers, however, typically have not matched the large effects demonstrated with younger children. Standardized effect sizes for intervention/control comparisons obscure important individual differences within intervention and control groups—differences potentially relevant to the who and why of intervention success. The present study reports the outcomes of PHAST Reading, a research-based multiple component reading intervention. Participants were 270 Grade 6, 7, and 8 students reading significantly below age-level expectations, who participated in a year-long intensive small-group intervention. Four methods were applied to characterize individual change: (a) normalization relative to age-appropriate standards; (b) statistically-reliable pre–post change using the Jacobson–Truax index; (c) individually-estimated growth rates using hierarchical linear modeling; and (d) change to a fixed criterion across multiple measures. Each method was evaluated for its ability to identify intervention outcomes, replicate traditional group-based effect size metrics, and characterize individual differences across participants depending on whether change was demonstrated. Each method replicated traditional group-based effect sizes, with advantages in consistency and predictive power for the reliable change index and growth curve approaches.     

Integrating Reading into Middle School Science: What we did,found and learned

Recent calls for border crossing between reading and science have heightened the need to support science teachers in integrating reading into science and to verify the robustness of this approach in the context of inquiry‐based science. In this paper, we share what we did, found, and learned in a collaborative project in which a team of university‐based reading educators and school‐based science teachers worked together to infuse reading strategy instruction and quality science trade books into inquiry‐based sixth‐grade science classrooms. We suggest that infusing reading into middle school science enhances science teaching and learning, but is a complex, multifaceted undertaking.     

The experiences of parents of gifted African American children: A phenomenological study

This study documents the experiences of parents raising African American children who have been identified as gifted. There is a small but growing body of research exploring the experiences and issues of gifted African American children. Parents play the most significant role in a child's development; however, parents of gifted African American children are not currently represented in the literature. This study utilized semi‐structured interviews with the parent or parents from 12 families to explore their experiences of rearing their gifted African American children. Particular attention was addressed to issues surrounding their children's academic and social experiences, including interactions with school, family, and community. Implications are elucidated for individuals working with this population, and suggestions for future research are provided.     

The Origins of Social Competence in a Pluralist Society∗

This paper explores the changing relationships between the UK government, its research councils and universities, focusing on the governing, funding and organisation of doctoral training. We use the Doctoral Training Centres (DTCs) funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as a prism through which to study the shifting nature of university governance more broadly. Taking up ministerial policy ‘steers’ around research selectivity, knowledge exchange and collaboration, the national research councils position themselves as active partners to universities, working closely with their selected institutional ‘investments’.

Drawing on interviews with directors of these DTCs, we document the range of ways in which universities are responding to these dynamic and sometimes unpredictable governance practices. This paper also highlights the growing number of collaborations between universities that are emerging. We use recent work in science governance to argue that, through the Doctoral Training Centres, these ‘lively’ Research Council bureaucracies are reshaping the social sciences and universities more broadly.     

Active engagement,emotional impact and changes in practice arising from a residential field trip

This study focused on the learning experiences of 50 undergraduate students undertaking a residential field trip (RFT) to Sweden as part of their Early Childhood Studies degree. Three dimensions were examined: the physical and emotional value afforded to the students from the active learning context; how this was interpreted and reflected in their knowledge, understanding and personal practice once they had left university; and the influence of factors such as age, and professional status on students' practice. The methodology was interpretive, and both deductive and inductive approaches were employed to analyse qualitative, narrative data sets derived from semi-structured questionnaires, interviews and written essays. The findings suggested that the physiological effects of hands on engagement influenced both the students' perceptions of the learning experience and their confidence to become agents of change. Subsequent changes directly attributed to the RFT experience, involved the re-evaluation of both the stereotypical pedagogic role and the way in which they related to children; students re-conceptualised their practices to reflect a more child-centred approach and increased their use of outdoor play and sustainable resources. The RFT was a catalyst that promoted empowerment, and informed both personal and professional transformations.     

Which Penguin Is This? Attributing False Beliefs About Object Identity at 18 Months

Recent research has shown that infants as young as 13 months can attribute false beliefs to agents, suggesting that the psychological-reasoning subsystem necessary for attributing reality-incongruent informational states (Subsystem-2, SS2) is operational in infancy. The present research asked whether 18-month-olds' false-belief reasoning extends to false beliefs about object identity. Infants watched events involving an agent and 2 toy penguins; 1 penguin could be disassembled (2-piece penguin) and 1 could not (1-piece penguin). Infants realized that outdated contextual information could lead the agent to falsely believe she was facing the 1-piece rather than the 2-piece penguin, suggesting that 18-month-olds can attribute false beliefs about the identity of objects and providing new evidence for SS2 reasoning in the 2nd year of life.     

A Cognitive Approach to the Development of Early Language

A controversial issue in the field of language development is whether language emergence and growth is dependent solely on processes specifically tied to language or could also depend on basic cognitive processes that affect all aspects of cognitive competence (domain-general processes). The present article examines this issue using a large battery of infant information-processing measures of memory, representational competence, processing speed, and attention, many of which have been shown to predict general cognition in a cohort of full-terms and preterms. Results showed that various aspects of infant memory and representational competence (a) related to language at both 12 and 36 months, (b) predicted similarly for the two groups, and (c) predicted 36-month language, independently of birth status, 12-month language, and the 12-month Bayley Mental Development Index. Additionally, the results established predictive validity for the MacArthur 12-month language measure. These findings support a domain-general view of language.     

Gender differences in adult numeracy skills: what is the role of education?

Previous research suggests that as societies empower women educationally, gender differences in numeracy skills will decline. Using direct measures of 56,142 adults’ numeracy skills from the Programme for International Assessment for Adult Competencies (PIAAC), this article studies whether this claim is evidenced across 20 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Results show that in many countries, as education has equalised over generations, gender differences in adult numeracy skills have indeed declined. However, women’s advances in education have not always been matched by a reduction in the gender difference in adult numeracy. Contrary to expectations, gender differences in fields of study in further and higher education cannot systematically explain gender differences in adult numeracy. This suggests that to achieve gender equality in numeracy skills, societies must do more than empower women educationally. More research is needed on the educational policies, contextual, and life course factors contributing to gender differences in adult numeracy in post-industrial societies.