Critical Mass and Pedagogic Continuity: studies in academic habitus

The paper is based on ethnographic work with doctoral students, their supervisors and postdoctoral researchers in three contrasting disciplines: biochemistry, artificial intelligence and physical geography. It explores how stability and continuity in scientific disciplines are sustained through socialisation processes of doctoral research. It identifies the inter‐generational transmission of knowledge, skills and assumptions within the institutional setting of laboratory or the research group. Working on ‘standardised packages’ in such social contexts, doctoral students are enculturated into scientific work. Despite setbacks and uncertainties in getting their research to ‘work’ doctoral students express faith that their problems are ‘doable’. Drawing on these empirical findings we suggest that these forms of pedagogic continuity are of more significance in the enculturation of doctoral students and the reproduction of scientific knowledge than the presence or absence of a ‘critical mass’ of active researchers (as has been suggested by the recent Harris review of postgraduate education in the UK). We therefore suggest that recent UK policy formation that has emphasized the notion of critical mass deserves critical scrutiny, and that there is need for perspectives more sensitive to disciplinary cultures and departmental organization.     

Exploring the social connections in preschool settings between children labelled with special educational needs and their peers

This paper reports on a small-scale study of the social interactions between six children labelled with special educational needs and their peers in their respective early years settings. Data from play observations, photographs and staff interviews is used to examine the dynamics of the connections that they make with other children. The position of these six children as active agents in making decisions about their peer interactions is highlighted and the ways that this agency is expressed is analysed. By focusing on the personal strategies that the children use to make social connections the findings contribute to the developing understanding of children's relationships within inclusive early years settings. In particular compatible play interests and personalities are identified as significant factors that attract children to one another in this case study. It also emerged that recurrent playmates did not feature consistently in the social exchanges involving this group of children. This factor is considered in the context of it being indicative of the social connections that children labelled with special educational needs pursue. Suggestions for further investigation are proposed and key practice messages offered around developing awareness and facilitation of social connections between children.     

Constructive and Reconstructive Political Education

It is a recurrent feature of the history of political thought that thinkers have turned their attention to education. Some have been concerned with the reproduction of a political culture through education. Others have sought to redress the failings of present generations by re-educating future citizens. A broad distinction is drawn between 'constructive' political education which takes human nature as given and aims to redirect pupils to new priorities and 'reconstructive' education which tries to effect a transformation of the mind-set and produce new persons. Constructive theories include early utilitarians, conservatives such as Oakeshott and modern democratic realists. Examples of reconstructive theories are communitarians, such as Rousseau and participatory democrats, including J. S. Mill and Dewey. The article concludes with a discussion of attempts, such as that by Rawls, to educate for political neutrality.     

Roller skiing biomechanical information analysis using GPS,IMU, and atmospheric pressure sensors: a case study

The purpose of this research was to propose a method to acquire the three-dimensional movement of a roller skiing athlete utilizing a global positioning system (GPS), an atmospheric pressure sensor (APS), and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) to distinguish between diagonal skiing and double poling techniques. In this study, we developed a lightweight wearable sensor that was composed of a GPS, APS, and IMU. For the data collection, two national level athletes roller skied a 1700 m long course where the maximum difference in elevation was 5.3 m. The planar positions of the athletes were based on the longitudinal and latitudinal data provided by the GPS, and the altitude was calculated by the International barometric formula and Laplace transform from the APS. The longitudinal and latitudinal data acquired through GPS had errors within 2 m range at each point. The altitude of Laplace transform from the APS showed errors of less than 1 m at each point. The range of motion of pelvis from the IMU was 34.0?±?3.8° for diagonal skiing, which is wider than the 21.2?±?6.9° for double poling.     

The social construction of reading strategies: new directions for research

In recent decades reading research has moved from predominantly quantitative work to more qualitative studies in which individual readers are observed in interaction with texts. Considerable differences have been found in the strategies employed by these readers, especially by those of different social and cultural backgrounds. These diverse strategies can be partly attributed to the different processes by which people learn to read and through the different ways in which they see written texts used in their own social environments; the contrasting situations and strategies of Japanese and Nigerian readers are used to illustrate the point. If teachers are to deal effectively with readers of various cultural backgrounds—as they must do in ESL and EFL classes—they need to know more about such contrasts; more work is therefore needed on the relationship between the literacy practices of cultural communities and the reading strategies of particular individuals.     

History of Mathematics in Korean Mathematics Textbooks: Implication for Using Ethnomathematics in Culturally Diverse School

From a multicultural perspective, this research investigated to what extent Korean mathematics textbooks use history of mathematics. The results show even though educational use of history presented in Korean mathematics textbooks may provide a rich outlook, it does not encourage a fundamental change in the educational practice of school mathematics that has traditionally been entrenched in the Eurocentric narrative of mathematics. This suggests that the mathematics textbooks were not organized effectively to promote students’ understanding of diversity. Based on the results, we discuss the implications for the development of mathematics textbook from multicultural perspectives.     

Season of birth is related to child retention rates, achievement, and rate of diagnosis of specific LD

A sizable literature has demonstrated that the achievement of children in early elementary school is related to their season of birth: Those born in summer typically perform less well than those born in the fall. A small literature indicates that more children diagnosed with specific learning disabilities (SLD) are born in the summer. We have begun to explore the possibility that the same processes may account for both outcomes. In order to better understand these processes, the standardized achievement levels and rates of diagnosis of SLD for children born during each season were studied in one geographical area of the State of Georgia served by 28 school districts. Standardized achievement scores in reading, mathematics, and science were reliably lower for those born in the summer. Furthermore, there was a strong relationship between season of birth and the rate at which children received a diagnosis of SLD. Summer-born children were diagnosed with SLD at a higher rate than their peers. Four hypotheses for both the lower performance in the general school population and the greater rate of SLD diagnosis among these children are discussed.