In search of inclusive non-dualistic pedagogies through collaborative and affective learning events

Despite growing consensus that dualistic thinking and hierarchically organised binary categorisations must be challenged if inclusion is to be achieved, advice on the design and implementation of non-dualistic pedagogies is less readily available. The role of teacher educators should therefore include: the modelling of possible actions that provoke thought, support for experimental learning events, and the fostering of vocabularies that defy sanctioned narratives about the nature of teaching, learning and achievement. Illustrational material is provided from an audio project which evolved as an exercise in open-ended collaborative experimentation between members of two faculties. An unanticipated outcome of the production process was the use of parody and frivolity to assert inclusive pedagogic values. The authors draw on relational aesthetics inspired by feminist poststructuralist theory and Deleuzean philosophising to describe the paradoxically singular and relational nature of learning. A version of achievement is proposed which avoids the cognitivism that permeates educational discourse. Behaviourist assumptions are similarly rejected as another manifestation of an enduring philosophical mind–body dualism.     

Journalism

Irving E. Fang Television News (New York: Hastings House, 1972—$12.95/7.50)

Ivan and Carol Doig's News: A Consumer's Guide (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972—available in hard and soft cover with a teacher's guide, cost not known)

David J. LeRoy and Christopher H. Sterling (eds.) Mass News: Practices, Controversies and Alternatives (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1973—about $6.95/3.95, with advance copies available this month)

William L. Rivers, William B. Blankenburg, Kenneth Starck, and Earl Reeves' Backtalk: Press Councils in America (San Francisco: Canfield Press, with distribution by Harper & Row of New York, 1972—price not known, paper)

Laurence Leamer's The Paper Revolutionaries: The Rise of the Underground Press (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972—$8.95/2.95)

John Whale's Journalism and Government: A British View (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1972—$4.95)

Al Morgan's The Whole World is Watching (New York: Stein & Day, 1972—$6.95)

J.H. Schacht's A Bibliography for the Study of Magazines (Urbana, Ill.: Institute of Communications Research, 1207 West Orange St., 1972—single copies free on request),     

Double Visions: Educational Technology in Standards and Assessments for Science and Mathematics

For educational technology integration in content disciplines to succeed, teachers and teacher educators need clear standards delineating why, how, where, and how much educational technology they should include in their teaching. This paper examines the visions offered by current science, mathematics, and educational technology standards for educational technology integration in K-12 schools. Since national assessments exert a profound influence on what teachers and students choose to teach and learn, the vision of educational technology use supported by national assessments is also examined. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Standards (NCTM, 2000. Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. Retrieved April 6, 2002 from http://standards.nctm.org), the National Science Education Standards (National Research Council (NRC) 1996. National Science Education Standards. Available at http://books.nap.edu/catalog/4962.html), and the National Educational Technology Standards (International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) 2000. National Educational Technology Standards for Students: Connecting Curriculum and Technology, ISTE, Eugene, Oregon) provide different visions of educational technology use in the classroom. In addition, the current technology use policies for national assessments in science and mathematics, in particular the college admission tests (ACT, SAT I and SAT II subject area tests), Advanced Placement (AP) course assessments, and the Praxis Series assessments indicate that while mathematics assessments often recommend or require the use of educational technology, few science assessments permit the use of educational technology by students. Recommendations are offered for science educators regarding teacher preparation for the technology-rich classrooms of the future.     

Discrimination of geons by pigeons: The effects of variations in surface depiction

We explored how changes in the depiction of the surface features of a simple volume (a geon) affected the pigeon’s recognition performance. Pigeons were trained to make a different keypeck response to each of four computer-rendered single-geon objects. In Experiment 1, the pigeons were tested with images of the original stimuli in which the light source was shifted from its original position, as well as with silhouettes and line drawings of these objects. All three types of stimulus variations resulted in marked drops in performance: above chance for silhouettes and light-change stimuli, but at chance for line drawings. In Experiment 2, the pigeons were tested with images of the original stimuli in which the contrast levels were either increased or decreased. These transformations resulted in very small drops in performance (except for the complete absence of contrast-a silhouette). These results indicated that the pigeons attended to the shape of the outside contour of an object and to the relative brightness of an object’s surface contours.     

Validation of the diagnostic tool for assessing Tertiary students’ readiness for online learning

Increasing numbers of educational institutions are adopting an online approach to teaching and learning; however, little regard has been given to the prerequisite personal and technical qualities required for academic achievement and satisfaction within this environment. In recognition of this, researchers have been exploring the design, development and testing of diagnostic tools to assess student readiness for online learning. This study builds on previous work by the authors to further validate their diagnostic tool for assessing Tertiary students’ readiness for online learning (TSROL) which has four subscales: ‘Technical skills’, ‘Computer self‐efficacy’, ‘Learner preferences’ and ‘Attitudes towards computers’. Factor and reliability analyses revealed that Technical skills and Computer self‐efficacy possessed good reliability and validity, and ‘Attitudes towards computers’ fair reliability and validity. However, ‘Learner preferences’ required revision as it possessed poor reliability and validity. Analysing the demographic data revealed that older students had lower Technical Skills and computer self‐efficacy than younger students. The TSROL can be improved by adopting a more multidimensional interpretation of the Learning preferences and Attitudes towards computers subscales.