On the Shoulders of Giants by Robert K. Merton. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,vicennial edition, 1985, 300 pp., hardcover.

Abstract

This article describes possibilities afforded by using social media, specifically Twitter, as a way to encourage students to join political conversations across the United States and around the world. In this study, we describe a project in which students used Twitter to share commentary about the state of the 2012 presidential election. The experiences of these students illustrate both the potential strengths and limitations of using social media as a tool for political engagement.     

Relationships between emotional climate and the fluency of classroom interactions

This study examined emotional climate in relation to the teaching and learning of grade 7 science. A multi-method and multi-theoretic approach used sociocultural frameworks as a foundation for interpretive research, conversation analysis, prosody analysis, and studies of nonverbal conduct. Emotional climate varied continuously throughout a lesson. Dialogues occurred and afforded learning when interactions between the teacher and students were fluent and included humour and collective effervescence. Emotional climate was negatively valenced when the teacher and/or students endeavoured to establish and maintain power by restricting others’ participation to spectator roles. The teacher’s endeavours to maintain and establish control over students were potentially detrimental to teaching and learning, teachers and learners. This type of teaching gradually evolved into a form we referred to as cranky teaching, whereby the teacher and her students showed signs of frustration and the enacted teaching and learning roles lacked fluency. The methods we pioneered in the present study might be helpful for other teachers who wish to participate in research on their classes to ascertain what works and should be strengthened, and identify practices and rituals that are deleterious and in need of change.     

Links between preschool children's prosocial skills and aggressive conduct problems: The contribution of ADHD symptoms

The aim was to examine the relationship between prosocial behavior and conduct problems, especially aggression, in early childhood. In Phase 1 of the study, teachers reported on 93 3–5-year-old children's prosocial behavior and psychological problems, using a screening instrument, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). In Phase 2, 65 parents completed the SDQ and were interviewed in depth, using a clinical interview, the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment (PAPA). Children with clinically significant symptoms of conduct disorder and ADHD were significantly less prosocial than other children. However, aggressive conduct symptoms were unrelated to prosocial behavior, once symptoms of ADHD were taken into account. The findings suggest that problems in regulating activity and attention interfere with prosocial development.     

Holding complexity and searching for meaning: Teaching as reflective practice

This paper explores differences between traditions in relation to teaching and learning. As a relative newcomer from the Anglo/American curriculum tradition, I seek to highlight the ways in which Central and Northern European tradition of Didaktik has offered a new dimension and fresh insights to the notion of reflective practice. In particular, the paper seeks to emphasize the significance of Klafki's notion of Didaktik analysis, with its focus on meaning and its aim to re-enact the rationale for subject matters. Against this background, teaching is seen as a moral and reflecting activity that is primarily concerned with a search for meaning.     

“Go Away”: Participant Objections to Being Studied and the Ethics of Chatroom Research

In this article we present an empirical study aimed at better understanding the potential for harm when conducting research in chatrooms. For this study, we entered IRC chatrooms on the ICQ network and posted one of three messages to tell participants that we were recording them: a recording message, an opt-in message, or an opt-out message. In the fourth condition, we entered the chatroom but did not post a message. We recorded and analyzed how subjects responded to being studied. Results of a regression analysis indicate significantly more hostility in the three conditions where we said something than in the control condition. We were kicked out of 63.3% of the chatrooms we entered in the three message conditions compared with 29% of the chatrooms in the control condition. There were no significant differences between any of these three conditions. Notably, when given a chance to opt in, only 4 of 766 potential subjects chose to do so. Results also indicate significant effects for both size and the number of moderators. For every 13 additional people in a chatroom, the likelihood getting kicked out was cut in half. While legal and ethical concerns are distinct, we conclude by arguing that studying chatrooms constitutes human subjects research under U.S. law, but that a waiver of consent is appropriate in most cases as obtaining consent is impracticable.