Why Harry Brighouse is Nearly Right about the Privatisation of Education

Professor Harry Brighouse has written extensively against 'educational choice' reforms in England and Wales and in the USA, and has challenged the status quo of private school provision in England and Wales. This paper explores the extent to which his arguments are applicable to the more radical, but prima facie linked, concept of the 'privatisation of education', that is, where funding, provision or regulation of education are progressively moved away from the state to the private sector. The arguments address in particular the issues of autonomy-facilitating education and educational equality, suggesting that Brighouse's arguments that use these concepts are not powerful objections to the case for choice or privatisation. Indeed, it is suggested that there are several arguments in Brighouse's writings, concerning the virtues of efficiency, diversity and innovation, and the power of the 'mimicking effect' of parents who are not skilled choosers, that contain the kernel for an argument advanced elsewhere that defends, rather than opposes, the privatisation of education.     

Working memory capacity and reading skill moderate the effectiveness of strategy training in learning from hypertext

Cognitive and metacognitive strategies are particularly important for learning with hypertext. The effectiveness of strategy training, however, depends on available working memory resources. Thus, especially learners high on working memory capacity can profit from strategy training, while learners low on working memory capacity might easily be overtaxed. In addition, efficient basic reading comprehension processes are important for strategy training to be successful: When both the newly acquired strategies and poorly routinized basic reading comprehension processes compete for working memory resources, navigation within the hypertext and learning might deteriorate rather than improve. In an experiment, 64 undergraduates learned with a comprehensive expository hypertext after receiving either a cognitive or a metacognitive or no strategy training. In line with the predictions, learners high on working memory capacity or reading skill could profit from learning strategy training in terms of learning outcomes and the quality of their navigational behavior. Learners low on working memory capacity or reading skill, in contrast, performed worse in both training conditions compared to the control condition. The improvement in learning outcomes for skilled learners as well as the impairment in learning outcomes for unskilled learners could be shown to be indirect effects mediated by the quality of navigational behavior.     

Intercultural sensitization with synthetic cultures: Evaluation of a computer-based multimedia learning tool

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate a new computer-based multimedia learning tool for intercultural sensitization that is based on synthetic cultures. The learning tool named “Culture Awareness Training” (CAT) is targeted at learners with few intercultural experiences, and its aim is to sensitize participants to cultural influences on behavior and to intercultural differences, and to enhance perspective taking. Two studies were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the CAT. Study 1 (N = 107) showed that participation in the CAT led to higher intercultural awareness and higher intercultural interest compared to a control group. In Study 2 (N = 46), the CAT was compared to a simulation game for intercultural sensitization. Participants were students shortly before their stay abroad. Results showed that both the CAT and the classical simulation game enhanced participants’ cultural awareness.     

Michael Young and the curriculum field in South Africa

The paper addresses the question of what we should make of Michael Young’s recent work with respect to curriculum theory by considering the particular case of South African curriculum reform. The paper thus traces two trajectories: the evolution of Michael Young’s ideas over time and South African curriculum reform in the post-apartheid period. The paper shows how the two trajectories have run in parallel, not least because of Young’s ongoing involvement and interest in South Africa. Three broad periods in Young’s career are identified: the new sociology of education period; a middle period where he engaged in substantial policy work, focusing predominantly on the relation between schooling and the economy; and his social realist phase, where much of his work has focused on an educational notion of specialized knowledge: ‘powerful knowledge’. The possibilities and limitations of this notion as it has been taken up in the research literature, and in relation to the South African case, are explored.     

Embarrassment: The effects of embarrassor and target perceptions

This study investigated the role perception plays in embarrassing situations between same‐sex friends. We argued that when two same‐sex friends share a common experience where one was embarrassed due to something the friend did or said, the embarrassors and targets would differ in (a) their perceptions relating to the degree of embarrassment falt, (b) their attribution of intentionality, and (c) the degree to which the embarrassment affected their relationship. One hundred and sixty‐three same‐sex friend dyads were asked to report their perceptions about a commonly shared embarrassing incident. Results showed that only 52.5% (n = 84) of the embarrassors recognized that the target experienced embarrassment. Further analyses were then conducted on these 84 dyads. We found that embarrassors and targets tend to agree on the intent of the embarrassor. However, no associations were found between perspective and degree of embarrassment felt nor degree of relationship consequences. Implications of the findings and limitations are discussed.     

Increased plasma zonulin in patients with sepsis

Introduction:

Zonulin is a eukaryotic protein structurally similar to Vibrio cholerae’s zonula occludens toxin. It plays an important role in the opening of small intestine tight junctions. The loss of gut wall integrity during sepsis might be pivotal and has been described in various experimental as well as human studies. Increased levels of zonulin could be demonstrated in diseases associated with increased intestinal inflammation, such as celiac disease and type 1 diabetes. We therefore investigated the role of plasma levels of zonulin in patients with sepsis as a non-invasive marker of gut wall integrity.

Materials and methods:

Plasma level of zonulin was measured in 25 patients with sepsis, severe sepsis or septic shock according to ACCP/SCCM criteria at the first day of diagnosed sepsis. 18 non-septic post-surgical ICU-patients and 20 healthy volunteers served as control. Plasma levels were determined by using commercially available ELISA kit. Data are given as median and interquartile range (IQR).

Results:

Significantly higher plasma concentration of zonulin were found in the sepsis group: 6.61 ng/mL (IQR 3.51–9.46), as compared to the to the post-surgical control group: 3.40 ng/mL (IQR 2.14–5.70) (P = 0.025), as well as to the healthy group: 3.55 ng/mL (IQR 3.14–4.14) (P = 0.008).

Conclusion:

We were able demonstrate elevated levels of plasma zonulin, a potential marker of intestinal permeability in septic patients. Increased zonulin may serve as an additional mechanism for the observed increased intestinal permeability during sepsis and SIRS.     

When do people accept cultural diversity?: Affect as determinant

Two experiments examined the influence of affect on the acceptance of cultural diversity. In Experiment 1, the salience of affective reactions towards Turkish immigrants was manipulated by asking German participants to think about their negative feelings towards Turks in general or towards a subgroup of Turks. It was found that the salience of negative affective reactions led to a decreased acceptance when affective reactions were generalized to the whole group, but not when they were attributed to a subgroup. Experiment 2 investigated the moderating role of perceived homogeneity with regards to the impact of affective reactions attributed to a subgroup of Muslim immigrants in Germany. As predicted, the salience of a negative aspect of a subgroup strengthened self-reported and implicitly measured negative attitudes when the perceived homogeneity of the immigrant group was high, but not when it was low.     

Testing moral foundation theory: Are specific moral emotions elicited by specific moral transgressions?

Moral foundation theory posits that specific moral transgressions elicit specific moral emotions. To test this claim, participants (N = 195) were asked to rate their emotions in response to moral violation vignettes. We found that compassion and disgust were associated with care and purity respectively as predicted by moral foundation theory. However, anger, rage, contempt, resentment and fear were not associated to any single moral transgression. Thus, even though the type of moral violation matters for the type of emotion that is elicited, the link between moral foundations and moral emotions seems more complex than moral foundation theory suggests. Rather, the findings suggest that there are both emotion-specific foundations (i.e. care and purity) and emotion-unspecific foundations (i.e. fairness, authority and loyalty).     

Does Religious Education as an examination subject work to promote community cohesion? An empirical enquiry among 14- to 15-year-old adolescents in England and Wales

This study begins by examining the way in which, in both England and Wales, Religious Education has become implicated in political discussion regarding the role of education in promoting community cohesion. The relationship between taking Religious Education as an examination subject and attitude towards religious diversity (as an affective indicator of community cohesion) is then explored among 3052 14- to 15-year-old students. After controlling for contextual factors (school type and geographical location), personal factors (sex and age), psychological factors (psychoticism, neuroticism and extraversion) and religious factors (Christian affiliation, worship attendance, personal prayer and belief in God), a small but significant positive association was found between taking Religious Education as an examination subject and attitude towards religious diversity. This finding may be interpreted as supporting the view that Religious Education works to promote community cohesion, although the wider debate that the community cohesion agenda has generated among religious educators needs further exploration.     

‘Science disproves the biblical account of creation’: exploring the predictors of perceived conflict between science and religion among 13- to 15-year-old students in the UK

This study drew on data provided by 11,809 13- to 15-year-old students drawn from the four nations of the UK to explore the level of agreement with the view that science disproves the biblical account odf creation, and to explore the power of five sets of variables to predict individual differences in responses to that opinion. The five sets of variables were personal factors, psychological factors, religious factors, attitudinal factors (including ‘scientific fundamentalism’, understood as an exaggerated, uncritical, and unqualified belief in the inerrancy of science), and theological factors (distinguishing between differing implied theologies of religion). Blockwise multiple regression demonstrated that personal, psychological, religious, and theological factors all held significant power, but that the greatest variance was explained by the attitudinal variables. When the five sets of variables were assessed within the model, 25% of the variance was accounted for. Greater incompatibility between science and religion was associated with scientific fundamentalism (β = .37, p < .001), with anti-religious attitude (β = .16, p < .001), and with atheism (β = .07, p < .001). These findings suggest that young people who believe in science in an unqualified way are more distrustful of religion.