Striking a critical pose: andragogy ‐‐ missing links,missing values

The first part of this essay, entitled ‘The Andragogy Debate: Twenty‐five Years of Deliberation’, examines the evolution of North American andragogy. It presents the changing views of researchers in a chronological dismantling of andragogy as a theory of adult learning. It provides a brief account of Knowles's influences in order to place andragogy in perspective as a set of assumptions about adult learning made fragile by what is missing. To expose the linear nature of the andragogical model, this section addresses sociological, philosophical, and other contextual weaknesses. The second part, ’Democracy and Freedom Lost in the Malcolmian Soft Sell’, elucidates the distorted view of individual freedom associated with individualism in the Knowlesian sense. It considers the impact of organizational and societal structures in shaping individual freedom and constituting democracy. While noting Knowles's support of individual freedom, it accents the inability of the andragogical model to achieve this freedom.     

Lo que no se debe hacer con mi test

RESUMEN

El artículo expone una serie de recomendaciones respecto a la Batería Predictiva de aprendizaje de la lectura. Concebida para evitar que el niño sea prematuramente introducido en el proceso de la lectura, su objetivo es evaluar la aptitud para aprender a leer. Algunos errores importantes que se cometen en su aplicación son: considerar que la batería vaya a revelar aptitudes ocultas en el niño, o predecir lo que va a ocurrir durante el aprendizaje. En este sentido, la validez de la batería dependerá de la acción pedagógica. La batería debe aplicarse íntegramente-si no no tendrá valor predictivo- en las condiciones adecuadas. A continuación se rebaten algunas de las críticas dirigidas a esta prueba y a la utilización de medidas de diagnóstico en general como, por ejemplo, no tener claro el objeto de medida, la falta de validez, y la provocación de medidas segregacionistas que perpetuarían las jerarquías sociales.     

Motivación y aprendizaje escolar: una aproximación desde la teoría de la autoeficacia

Resumen

En el presente trabajo se reinterpreta el problema de la motivación para el rendimiento académico desde una perspectiva cognitiva, fundamentada en la teoría de la autoeftcacia. Se hace hincapié en el papel de las expectativas de eficacia como mediadoras entre las habilidades y el rendimiento de los sujetos y se acentúa el papel que juega la motivación cognitivamente basada en el proceso de aprendizaje. Postulamos, asimismo, la necesidad de fomentar la autoevaluación frente a la evaluación externa y los sistemas que permitan el desarrollo de la motivación intrínseca para el aprendizaje.     

Comparison of Dynamic Visual Acuity Between Water Polo Players and Sedentary Students

In this study, we examined differences in dynamic visual acuity between elite and subelite water polo players and sedentary students. To measure dynamic visual acuity binocularly, we asked participants to indicate the orientation of a broken ring, similar to the Landolt C, which increased in size as it moved across a computer screen. Two different speeds, three possible trajectories, and two different levels of contrast were evaluated. There were statistically significant differences between elite players and sedentary students for each combination of speed, contrast, and trajectory. Elite players achieved better dynamic visual acuity scores, and results also improved for some combinations of speed, contrast, and trajectory. Comparison between elite and subelite groups failed to reveal any     

Understanding the investigation-stage overrepresentation of First Nations children in the child welfare system: An analysis of the First Nations component of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect 2008

Objectives

The overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in child welfare systems in the U.S., Canada, and Australia is well documented, but limited attention has been paid to investigation-stage disproportionality. This paper examines the overrepresentation of First Nations (the largest of three federally recognized Aboriginal groups in Canada) children, focusing on three questions: (1) What is the level/nature of First Nations overrepresentation at the investigation stage? (2) What is known about the source of referrals in child welfare investigations involving First Nations children? (3) What risk factors and child functioning concerns are identified for investigated First Nations children and families?

Methods

The First Nations Component of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (FNCIS-2008) was designed to address limitations in existing Aboriginal child welfare data: it sampled one quarter of the Aboriginally governed child welfare agencies that conduct investigations in Canada, gathered data on over 3,000 investigations involving First Nations children, and incorporated weights designed for analysis of First Nations data. Bivariate analyses are used to compare investigations involving First Nations and non-Aboriginal children.

Results

The rate of investigations for First Nations children living in the areas served by sampled agencies was 4.2 times that for non-Aboriginal children; investigation-stage overrepresentation was compounded by each short term case disposition examined. A higher proportion of First Nations than non-Aboriginal investigations involved non-professional referrals, a pattern consistent with disparities in access to alternative services. Workers expressed concerns about multiple caregiver risk factor concerns for more than ½ of investigated First Nations families and, with the exception of “health issues”, identified every caregiver/household risk factor examined in a greater percentage of First Nations than non-Aboriginal households.

Conclusions

It would be extremely difficult to reduce First Nations overrepresentation at later decision points without addressing overrepresentation at the investigation-stage. Despite the serious needs of investigated First Nations families, alternatives to traditional child protection responses may be appropriate in many cases. If First Nations overrepresentation is to be reduced, child welfare agencies must be equipped to provide supports needed to help families address factors such as poverty, substance abuse, domestic violence, and lack of social supports.     

Canadian and US adult learning (1945–1970) and the cultural politics and place of lifelong learning

This essay examines adult learning in Canada and the USA (1945–1970). It explores this emergence in relation to moves to establish academic adult education as a cultural force that could help citizen learners to negotiate a way forward amid the collision of instrumental, social, and cultural change forces altering life, learning, and work in the emerging postindustrial society. In this regard, it focuses centrally on lifelong learning as an idea designed to have broad appeal in rapid-change postindustrial culture. In particular, it attempts to explicate a cultural politics of lifelong learning, which academic adult educators hoped would give the field a higher profile within what they perceived to be an emerging change culture of crisis and challenge. Two key factors are considered in these deliberations. First, this essay explores the relationship between public education (understood as schooling for children) and adult education. It takes up how this problematic relationship interfered with a post-war turn to lifelong learning. Second, it examines the shift in the meaning of the social in understanding adult education as social education in postindustrial society. It argues that the post-war discourse of democracy delimited this meaning, locating the social predominantly within a concern with preserving the dominant culture and society.     

The Cuban Model for Higher Education of Older Adults: Generativity,Social Commitment,and Collaborative Work

The present work is an approach to study the Cuban model for educating the elderly, and its aim is to describe the main features of the experience developed by this country. The University of the Third Age is more than three decades old in Latin America, but none of the countries in the region can show a state educational policy regulating and orienting its development. Cuba is the only country that has designed an educational program for older adults at a national level. The model is the most outstanding one among the rest of the countries in the American continent. This research is based on documentary analysis and interviews held with leaders and managers of the Chair for Older Adults, who were located in different towns of Cuba. Results led to a reconstruction of a set of dimensions of the Cuban model, such as the process of institutionalization, syllabus organization, the process of expansion and universalization, and educators' training strategies for elders. Finally, bearing in mind the features of Cuban political organization and gerontological positions, it was possible to draw the future evolution and challenges faced by the Cuban model for educating older adults.