Situated Learning: What Ever Happened To Educational Psychology?

This paper attempts to explore the diminishing contributions of psychology in teacher preparation programs. Using situated learning as a basis for discussion, I have argued that a student may take a course in educational psychology and then subsequently discover that subsequent preparation may ignore those psychological caveats regarding the efficacy of proposed instructional methodology such as situated learning. These include cognition, group processes, and transfer of training. However, the presence of such concerns is not confined to situated learning specifically. It may be time for educators to reconsider psychological findings as necessary contributions to the efficacy of their proposals.     

La formación de conceptos y símbolos en niños pequeños

Resumen

En este articulo el autor analiza el desarrollo conceptual y simbólico y sus relaciones evolutivas a los dieciocho meses De acuerdo con los datos que aporta el autor sobre el desarrollo conceptual temprano, existe un desfase entre el desarrollo simbólico y el conceptual siendo la formación del simbolo un fenómeno evolutivo de aparición posterior. Los datos apoyan la hipotesis de que la formación de conceptos y de símbolos constituyen sistemas estructurales independientes aunque ambos desarrollos tienen implicaciones mutuas. Por una parte, la cognición proporciona lina organización conceptual relativamente sofisticada que será utilizada, aunque sólo en parte, por la temprana simbolización. Por otro lado, la simbolización amplía el espacio sobre el que se aplica la conceptualización extendiéndolo basta el no-aquí y no-ahora.     

Media Consumption and Public Connection: Toward a Typology of the Dispersed Citizen

This paper explores the nature and extent of citizens’ connection to public space through media consumption. It reports on a study of data from two qualitative sources: panel responses and individual in-depth interviews. The authors’ findings are, first, that people's media consumption and forms of public connection may be significantly constrained by limitations on their time—not just objectively, but also subjectively (their sense of lacking time to use media or pursue information). Second, such is the complexity of how people think about their public connection that research methodologies must be sensitive to the details of people's reflexivity, while enabling effective typologies of the positions people take up in thought and practice. Third, such research may reveal not a consensus, but instead a range of incompatible framings of whether public connection matters and how it can be achieved. Research should aim, therefore, not at a redefinition of something as unified as “civic culture,” but rather at tracking the hetereogeneity of the “dispersed citizen.”     

Teacher Classroom Management Skills and Pupil Behavior

An experimental group of 20 in service elementary teachers was trained using the Utah State University Classroom Management Protocol Modules, and compared before and after training with a control group of 9 teachers. Although the experimental teachers received more favorable post-training scores on all 13 classroom management behaviors covered in the modules, the differences were generally small and nonsignificant. The level of work involvement and deviant behavior of pupils of the experimental group teachers was also compared before and after the teachers had been trained. In recitation situations, pupil work involvement increased and deviant behavior decreased significantly. In seat work situations, pupil work involvement increased significantly, but no significant changes occurred in deviant behavior.     

Comparative Effectiveness or Evidence-Based Medical Practice: “A Rose by Any Other Name…”

The goal of education and research in all disciplines is to develop critical thinking skills as a method for improving clinical decisionmaking. The emphasis on critical thinking is nothing new and can be traced back to ancient times when Socrates challenged his students to think about their knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors by interrogating them. It is widely known that Socrates would press his students until they could provide reasons and evidence to support their arguments and would dismiss those beliefs and decisions that could not be supported with evidence. Today, scientific critical analysis in medicine is termed evidence-based medical practice (EBMP), or comparative effective research.     

Aunts,Uncles—Nieces,Nephews: Kinship Relations Over the Lifespan

Aunts and uncles play special roles in the lives and education of nieces and nephews. They are among the first adults children meet other than parents and grandparents. They are often willing and able to fulfill roles that strengthen the relationship with a niece or nephew, especially if they have never married. The roots of the relationship, coupled with a shared history and comparable values may, as a result, provide the basis for generalized reciprocity of support as the aunt (uncle) ages.