Fifth-graders’ ideas on bank functions and interest before and after a lesson on banking

Forty-three 5th graders participated in all phases of the study:

1. a pre-test to ascertain children’s concepts of deposits, loans, interest, etc.;
2. a classroom lesson;
3. a post-test two weeks after the lesson.

At pre-test almost none of the children realized how banks profit through the difference between loan and deposit interest. Approximately half the children did not connect deposits and loans, believing that deposit money is locked in a safe util it is returned to its owner. By post-test most children had progressed to speaking correctly about both kinds of interest and their relative amounts. The proportion of children showing progress was significantly higher in the subgroup who at pre-test had already connected deposit and loan. Incorrect ideas at pre-test on how the bank gets the money to pay its employees (e.g. revenue received from the local council, or obtained by “the boss” doing a second job) did not prevent the children from correctly answering at post-test. Such success following short training supports the hypothesis that, at 10 or 11 years of age, while children lack factual knowledge on banking there are no major cognitive obstacles to the understanding of its functioning once banking has been explicitly explained.     

RETHINKING THE HISTORY OF INCLUSION OF IKS IN SCHOOL CURRICULA: ENDEAVORING TO LEGITIMATE THE SUBJECT

Much has been said and written about indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) or, as it is also termed, traditional ecological knowledge. My paper does not intend to discuss how it should be termed, although this is also an important issue as the way we name it frames the possibilities we open for this kind of knowledge. The paper rather looks historically at indigenous knowledge inclusion in school curricula, taking as an example the practice in Mozambique. So far, many strategies in so-called culturally inclusive science curricula tend to take students along the pathway of cultural assimilation by integrating IKS into World Modern Science topics. IKS is therefore taken as an instrument for serving the goals of World Modern Science. I argue that we need to find legitimated theories to integrate IKS in order to counteract the practice of teaching IKS in science classrooms detached from its own sociocultural context.     

The relationship between biology teachers’ understanding of the nature of science and the understanding and acceptance of the theory of evolution

ABSTRACT

Despite the importance of the theory of evolution (TE) to scientific knowledge, a number of misconceptions continue to be found among biology teachers. In this context, the first objective of this study was to identify the impact of professional development programme (PDP) on teachers’ understanding of nature of science (NOS) and evolution and on the acceptance of this theory. Its second objective was to study the relationship among these variables. Three instruments were used to quantify these variables: the Views of the Nature of Science Version D (VNOS D+), the Assessing Contextual Reasoning about Natural Selection (ACORN), and the Measure of Acceptance of Theory of Evolution (MATE). The results indicate that the PDP had a positive impact on teachers, significantly improving their understanding of the NOS and natural selection, as well as their acceptance of the TE. Furthermore, a positive correlation between the understanding of the NOS obtained by teachers in the first part of the PDP and the understanding and acceptance of evolution that these teachers showed at the end of the programme was determined. However, no relationship between an understanding of the NOS and gains in the understanding and acceptance of evolution was found.     

¿Qué está escrito en una oración escrita? Una respuesta evolutiva

RESUMEN

El proceso de adquisición de la lectoescritura es algo que supone para el niño una forma de reconstruir el lenguaje. El objetivo del presente estudio es investigar el significado que asignan los niños a la segmentación de una oración escrita. Los sujetos son niños de 4 a 6 años que no han comenzado el aprendizaje de la lectoescritura y la tarea consiste en asociar las distintas partes de una oración escrita a cada segmento de la emisión verbal correspondiente. Se observa que en un principio el niño tiene dificultades para considerar el texto como una representación escrita de la lengua hablada. Posteriormente, considera que sólo se representan gráficamente las emisiones de contenido referencial (nombres). A este nivel, el niño puede tomar la emisión verbal como un todo, sin encontrar un criterio de segmentación que encaje con el texto escrito. Más tarde el niño asume que el verbo puede también estar reflejado en la escritura y en un último nivel se integraría el artículo.     

La distinción de palabra/nombre en niños de 4 y 5 años

Resumen

Niños mexicanos de 4 y 5 años fueron entrevistados individualmente para explorar su comprensión de los términos metalingüísticos «nombre» y «palabra» así como de la expresión «se llama». Se utilizaron dos técnicas de entrevista que arrojaron similares resultados. De acuerdo a las respuestas los niños fueron clasificados en tres grupos: aquellos que eran capaces de hacer una clara distinción entre los tres términos, aquellos para los cuales dos términos eran equivalentes pero distintos del tercero y unos pocos que no diferenciaban entre los tres términos.

Los resultados muestran que «nombre» y «se llama» son términos de uso espontáneo y de fácil comprensión en tanto que el término «palabra» es ajeno a la terminología infantil y por lo tanto difícil de usar y definir. La significación de estos resultados se discutirá a la luz de otras investigaciones evolutivas que se ocuparon de la comprensión de términos metalingüísticos.     

Paradigm wars, dialogue or dance: is rapprochement possible and/or desirable?

In focusing on the Kincheloe and Tobin paper, ‘The Much Exaggerated Death of Positivism,’ this forum explores the hegemony of positivism in the professional practices of a group of educators whose research expertise lies in the fields of science education, mathematics education and leadership education. Responding to the first question, ‘What is your personal/professional experience of the hegemony of positivism?’, four key issues arise: is positivism part of the external world or is it within us (and thus what is our agency)?, the role of positivism as a driver of Western cultural imperialism, dualism as the chief logic of positivism, and the difficulty of responding to positivism from a pluralist perspective. The second question, ‘Is rapprochement between positivism and other paradigms possible and/or desirable without being re-colonised?’, raises a number of key issues that, although relatively new to science education, are of increasing interest to cultural studies researchers keen to embrace alternative research paradigms with which to create culturally inclusive science curricula. The discussants reveal their personal experiences of being marginalised by the hegemony of positivism and give voice to a range of opinions about how best to respond. The integral perspective of spiral dynamics is proposed as a model of paradigm evolution, our fundamental assumptions about modern progress are questioned, and the non-dualist logic of dialectics is explored as a more inclusive rationality for researchers. In the spirit of counter-hegemonic cultural studies, the discussants draw on their personal Buddhist and Hindu perspectives to open new doorways into complex ontological systems lying beyond the simplistic materialism of crypto-positivism. We are given a glimpse of powerful means of generating new insights into the emergent universe (within and without) that an evolving science endeavours to explain.     

Automatic attention cueing through eye movement in 2-year-old children with autism

Automatic attention cueing by perceived changes in gaze direction was studied in 2-year-old children with autism and typically developing (TD) controls using a visual attention cueing paradigm. In Experiments 1 and 2 the cue consisted of an eye movement (Eyes) and a nonbiological movement (SimEyes), respectively. The results suggest that visual attention in children with autism and their TD counterparts is cued by perceived eye movement. Thus, although in naturalistic situations toddlers with autism do not follow the gaze of others, they are sensitive to directional cues inherent in eye movement. Cue-specific differences in performance related to the level of engagement and cue-processing time may suggest reliance on different underlying strategies for gaze processing in autism.     

Selection,Frequency, and Functions of Literary Texts in Finnish General Upper-Secondary EFL Education

Although the number of studies on literature in language education has increased in the past two decades, the subject is still in need of empirical research. This case study examines literary texts, their selection, frequency, and functions in Finnish general upper-secondary English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education. The data was collected from 21 Finnish EFL teachers using a survey, and the content was thematically analyzed. In these contexts, literary texts had a marginal role. The texts were mostly twentieth-century poetry and novels. Selections by teachers were primarily based on the texts. Often students chose texts independently. Literature was mainly used to teach language, particularly reading skills, and secondarily as content. In light of EFL teaching, the results suggest a need for a conceptual expansion of literature, the wider use of literary texts with visual components, and the use of literary texts for developing students’ intercultural competence.