Perceptual,thematic and taxonomic relations in children’s mental representations: Responses to triads

Recent research into children’s conceptual representation-much of it based on the so-called ‘triads’ task-has created a number of issues such as the age at which children become capable of representation at the superordinate level; the relative prominence of taxonomic, perceptual or thematic relations as the basis of representation; and the range of categories to which these different representations apply at different ages. In the study reported in this paper we presented children of three different ages with three types of triads designed to assess children’s sensitivity to these different relations separately across ten common superordinate categories. The approach which allowed us to track preferences for perceptual, thematic and taxonomic relations simultaneously across the three age groups showed an increase in sensitivity to both thematic and taxonomic relations with age. We conclude by suggesting that these relations are part of a common representation based on patterns of covariation within (static taxonomic relations) and across (event relations) time.     

An exploratory quantitative case study of critical thinking development through adult distance learning

Educational technology research and development - Critical thinking is a metacognitive process that, through purposeful, self-regulatory reflective judgment; skills of analysis, evaluation and...     

Accessing mainstream: examining the struggle for parents of children who have learning difficulties

In the past decade Ireland has witnessed substantial changes in policy and provision for children with general learning difficulties as government policies and legislation increasingly underpin the move towards more inclusive provision. Despite this series of policy initiatives parents of children who experience Down syndrome and general learning difficulties can encounter serious obstacles in gaining access to mainstream education for their children.
This research project was a study of the experiences of a small sample of parents of children who experience Down syndrome and general learning difficulties in relation to their efforts to access appropriate education and education supports for their child in the mainstream school setting. These parents had to invest extraordinary levels of time, energy, and resources in their struggle to get these children into mainstream school and to support their progress there. At local school level these parents and children had positive experiences, but life has taught them that society offers acceptance as a favour, so they cannot confidently expect acceptance by schools and teachers as a right.     

Conversations around the Large Table: Building Community in a Portuguese Public Kindergarten

This article analyzes how one teacher, Ana, builds community in the daily life of her classroom in Figueirinha, a Portuguese public kindergarten. It begins by briefly critiquing the dominant research discourse in early childhood education and arguing that community should be central both to life in early childhood classrooms and to research in those classrooms. Figueirinha, Ana, and the Large Table that is the center of Ana's classroom are introduced. Ana's understanding of community is explored by focusing on six themes: membership, awareness, negotiation, responsibility, ritual, and group memory. Ana's practice is illustrated and analyzed through the use of vignettes. The article concludes with a discussion of Ana's practice and her commitment to the community of the classroom.     

The “real value” of field trips in the early weeks of higher education: the student perspective

The benefits attributed to field trips by science educators are: social development; observation and perception skills; giving meaning to learning; providing first-hand experience and stimulating interest and motivation. Arguably, the “real value” of field work is attributed by students. In this study, 100 first-year students took part in an analysis of the value of a residential field trip. The field trip was a purposeful combination of personal development and academic activities. Pairwise comparison showed that the attributed value score for “Personal and Social Development” was significantly higher than scores for “Provide First-hand Experience” and “Observation and Perception Skills”. The attributed value for “Stimulate Interest and Motivation in the Subject” also scored more highly than “Provide First-hand Experience”, and “Observation and Perception Skills”; “Give meaning to Learning” was significantly higher than that for “Observation and Perception Skills”. In addition, the “educator” was also able to significantly improve students’ scores for “Stimulate Interest and Motivation”. This insight into students’ perceptions of field work recasts our thinking as educators; social capital is a key factor in student persistence and subsequence academic success. Field trips should be considered a valuable addition to retention strategies in a way that is tangible for students themselves.     

Practicum pairs: an alternative for first field experience in early childhood teacher education

This paper focuses on partnership between pairs of students in early childhood education during a teaching practicum in preschools and kindergartens. One hundred students enrolled in early childhood pre‐service teacher education programs at a large metropolitan Australian university were paired and placed in kindergartens and preschools with host teachers. The project aimed to explore the perceptions and experiences of host teachers and students involved in the paired practicum which was evaluated qualitatively using semi‐structured surveys of host teachers and students. This paper identifies eight practices and two principles making this paired practicum successful or not successful.     

There’s No Such Thing as a Scientific Controversy

We examine 81 rhetoric and technical communication studies of “scientific controversy.” Our praxiographic analysis reveals that “scientific controversy” is not one thing but three, each staged according to a radically different ontology; yet the literature continues to handle these ontologies the same and to privilege scientists’ demarcation claims in their analysis. We conclude the modifier scientific should be abandoned entirely in controversy studies and recommend an antilogical rather than dialectical approach to controversy.     

Where excludability matters: Material versus intellectual property in academic biomedical research

On the basis of survey responses from 507 academic biomedical researchers, we examine the impact of patents on access to the knowledge and material inputs that are used in subsequent research. We observe that access to knowledge inputs is largely unaffected by patents. Accessing other researchers’ materials and/or data, such as cell lines, reagents, or unpublished information is, however, more problematic. The main factors associated with restricted access to materials and/or data include scientific competition, the cost of providing materials, a history of commercial activity on the part of the prospective supplier, and whether the material in question is itself a drug.     

Visual attention in orienteers at different levels of experience

This study explored how differences in orienteering experience are related to differences in how visual attention is allocated to the map, the environment and to travel. Twenty more experienced and 20 less experienced individuals orienteered while wearing a head-mounted video camera with microphone. The participants verbalized what they were attending to (map, environment or travel) at any given time. Each recorded film was coded at each point in time in terms of what the participant was attending to and whether the participant was moving or stationary. More experienced orienteers attended to the map markedly more while moving and spent less time stationary than less experienced orienteers. The participants' performance was significantly related to the ability to attend to the map while moving. The strategic control of attention is proposed to explain this ability. It is proposed that attentional training might enhance performance in sports characterized by multiple and dynamically varying elements.