Teaching through social conflict

The shift from preoperational thought to operativity entails the construction of the idea of necessity. The concrete operativity tasks, particularly conservation, are analyzed from this perspective. The Genevans always assigned a significant role to the child's interaction with others as a critical factor in the transition to operativity. The results from a broad class of conservation training studies that are based upon various kinds of social interaction are also analyzed from the perspective of their efficacy, fidelity to necessity, and implications for school instruction.     

Field experience,career and life-long learning

The affinity between Field Experience Education and Career Education is obvious, as demonstrated by the way they have been combined in many college and university settings. The implications of this merger for the workplace are perhaps more significant than for the campus, as it challenges the presupposition that education and work should be separated, and challenges the way drudge work is currently being done. Finally it poses new questions for the advocates of life-long learning. The integration of education and work into single programs may well be the next major issue in the development of education.     

The assessment of off-campus higher education

After acknowledging the general ignorance concerning the changes which occur in American undergraduates who study off-campus, either domestically or internationally, the authors describe various studies which have attempted to assess off-campus educational experiences. These research efforts may be categorized in two types: (1) those which used existing, standardized instruments; and (2) those which used locally designed instruments. Yet both kinds of studies are found wanting. A new instrument, currently being tested, “The Individual Opinion Inventory”, is designed to locate affective levels of perceptual change in those American undergraduates studying off-campus, either in the US or abroad.     

Applied physiology of speed skating

Speed skating exercise can be better understood by taking account of physiological and biomechanical considerations. Comparison with other sports shows the unique and peculiar way of skating propulsion. The relatively long lasting isometric muscle contractions during the gliding phase, alternated with high power output push-offs, place unusual demands on the (local) energy delivering systems. The short and explosive push-off needs a specific pattern of motor unit recruitment. Some mixture of slow twitch (to sustain skating posture) and fast twitch fibres (to effect push off) in the hip and knee extensors seems necessary for optimal skating performance.     

Fifteenth and sixteenth century arithmetic texts: What can we learn from them?

Fifteenth and sixteenth century European arithmetic texts set new standards and procedures for the learning and teaching of mathematics. Commercial problem solving situations both directed and reinforced the mathematical concepts presented. A new dynamic, active problem solving, now became the central feature of mathematics learning and teaching. This article surveys the format and contents of fifteenth and sixteenth century arithmetic books. It discusses the types of problems that were most popular in these early texts and briefly analyzes problem contents. The residual educational influence of fifteenth and sixteenth century arithmetical and instructional practices is noted.     

Effective learning activities in observation taks when learning to write and read argumentative texts

On repeated occasions, observational learning has proved itself to be an effective instruction method. Experimental studies have shown to be effective for complex tasks such as reading and writing for both teachers and students as models. The problem when interpreting the results of such research is that, in observation tasks, several mental activities play a simultaneous role. In this study we therefore set out to identify the effective elements of observation tasks. We focused on two elements of the observation tasks, both aimed at stimulating monitoring activities: evaluation of the model’s performance and elaboration on this evaluation. We have also distinguished between elaboration on the observed products (the models’ written answers), and elaboration on the observed processes (the models’ verbalisations of their mental activities). The data were subjected to a LISREL analysis. First of all, it was observed that subjects who performed “evaluation” and “productelaboration” better, and “process-elaboration” more often in one lesson, also performed these activities better or more often in the subsequent lesson. Next, we observed an effect of aptitude on the learning activities: pre skill scores influence “evaluation” and “product-elaboration”. The most important finding is that “evaluation” and “product-elaboration” contribute positively to argumentative writing skills. It is discussed that these findings confirm the importance of the monitoring, evaluative and reflective activities when learning complex tasks as writing.     

EDUCATING GIFTED PUPILS IN REGULAR SCHOOLS: INTRACLASS DIFFERENTIATION

After introducing a differentiation model for the benefit of gifted pupils in regular schools, this article discusses some important findings of the research project “High giftedness in education”, carried out at the ISOR, the Educational Research Department at the University of Utrecht. Data from survey research indicate what special provision has been made for gifted pupils in secondary schools in the Netherlands. Further data summarize experiences with the differentiation model at two different types of secondary school. Finally, some adaptations of the differentiation model are outlined.     

Social-emotional characteristics and special educational needs

The aim of the research described in this article was the development of an instrument to measure social emotional characteristics and special educational and pedagogical needs of students in the last grade of primary education. Questionnaires were developed for teachers as well as for students. Exploratory factor analyses showed that the factors underlying the structure of the teacher questionnaire corresponded for the larger part with the negative poles of four factors of the Big Five, i.e., conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion, and emotional stability. A stepwise regression analysis was conducted to examine which factors contribute to the prediction of type of secondary education. Intelligence was the most important predictor; lack of conscientiousness accounted for another nine percent of the variance in level of secondary education.