“Listen Then,or, Rather,Answer”: Contemporary Challenges to Socratic Education

The popularity of Jacques Rancière in recent work in educational philosophy has rejuvenated discussion of the merits and weaknesses of Socratic education, both in Plato's dialogues and in invocations of Socrates in contemporary educational practice. In this essay Jordan Fullam explores the implications of this trend through comparing Rancière's educational thought to an analysis of the relationship between dialectic and stultification in Plato's Republic. This task clarifies what is useful in the recent wave of scholarship that brings Rancière's work to bear upon Socratic education, and what we might redeem in the practice of teaching that Plato assigns to the character of Socrates in the Republic. Fullam also draws on the educational literature on Socratic education to provide further context to explore the usefulness of both Rancière and Socrates for contemporary teaching.     

Fun moments or consequential experiences? A model for conceptualising and researching equitable youth outcomes from informal STEM learning

Cultural Studies of Science Education - While there are many different frameworks seeking to identify what benefits young people might derive from participation in informal STEM (Science,...     

Evidence of efficacy of the Integrated Literacy Study Group professional learning program to enhance reading instruction for students with emotional and behavioral disorders

This article reports on a pilot study of the Integrated Literacy Study Group, a digitally delivered professional learning intervention to prepare elementary school teachers to provide evidence-based reading instruction and behavioral strategies to students with or are at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders. Using broadcast methods, we recruited 72 teachers across five states in the western United States to participate in the randomized controlled trial. Intervention teachers, relative to controls, made significant gains in self-efficacy and use of the reading and behavioral strategies learned in the professional learning program. Students with or at risk of emotional and behavioral disorders served by participating teachers made significant improvements in academic competence and engagement. Teacher professional learning can improve teacher knowledge of evidence-based reading and behavioral strategies for students with (or at risk for) emotional and behavioral disorders, teacher self-efficacy, and teacher practice, with positive impacts on student early literacy and academic competence.     

Transported to Van Diemen's Land: the boys of the Frances Charlotte (1832) and Lord Goderich (1841)

From the logs of ships transporting convicts from Great Britain to Australia in the early nineteenth century, records of 2 ships carrying juveniles have been transcribed. Data on the backgrounds of the boys and height data are presented and analyzed. Comparisons are made with nineteenth- and twentieth-century data sets. Caution is expressed about limitations of the data, which constitute a sample stratified by age whose differences in means are sometimes anomalous.     

Immune response to n-terminal and c-terminal deletion mutants of Aspergillus fumigatus major allergen ASP F 3

The ubiquitous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus causes allergic rhinitis, asthma, sinusitis and allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis. A number of major allergens from A. fumigatus are purified, but their structure-function role in the pathogenesis of disease is not known. Such information is essential for devising alternative therapy of fungal allergic diseases. In the present study, N-terminal and C-terminal deletion mutants ofAsp f 3 were constructed and their immunopathological responses studied in a mice model of allergy. Three mutants viz,Asp f 3 (aa 33–168), (aa 1–142), and (aa 23–142) were made by deleting certain amino acids from epitopic regions of full lengthAsp f 3, a major allergen of A. furnigatus. TheAsp f 3 and three mutated proteins were expressed in pET vector. The C-terminal deletion mutantAsp f 3 (aa 1–142) induced elevated IFN-γ but low levels of IL-4 by spleen cells. This mutant also showed significant downregulation of peripheral blood eosinophils and lung inflammation in immunized mice. The N-terminal deletion mutantAsp f 3 (aa 33–168) also exhibited an immuno-suppressive effect in terms of IgE production and induction of Th2 cytokine. The results indicate thatrAsp f 3 and its deletion mutants induced distinct immune-inflammatory responses in mice on challenge with these proteins. The non-IgE binding deletion mutants ofAsp f 3 (aa 1–142 and aa 33–168) could deviate Th2 immune response with a concomitant reduction in airway inflammation and infiltration of inflammatory cells.     

Developmental change in the ERP responses to familiar faces in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders versus typical development

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show differences in face processing abilities from early in development. To examine whether these differences reflect an atypical versus delayed developmental trajectory, neural responses to familiar and unfamiliar faces in twenty-four 18- to 47-month-old children with ASD were compared with responses of thirty-two 12- to 30-month-old typically developing children. Results of 2 experiments revealed that neural responses to faces in children with ASD resembled those observed in younger typically developing children, suggesting delayed development. Electrophysiological responses to faces were also related to parent report of adaptive social behaviors for both children with ASD and typical development. Slower development of the face processing system in ASD may be related to reduced self-directed "expected" experience with faces in early development.     

Peer assessment accounting for student agreement

Peer assessment has been gaining significant ground as a means of fostering an environment of accountability and responsibility for group projects in higher education. A popular peer assessment method assigns individual grades via a linear relationship to peer assessment scores. Using this method, a group member who receives his or her group’s average peer assessment score is assigned the instructor‐given group grade; the group member who receives a total peer assessment score of zero is assigned an individual grade of zero. Unfortunately, applying this method often requires time‐consuming exploratory data analysis because of the potential for the method to yield a high spread of grades, including grades over 100%. The present study proposes a modification, which accounts for the degree of student agreement. When the modified procedure results in a change from the group grade, the direction of change is always the same, but with smaller magnitude, requiring less subsequent data analysis and instructor time demands. Easy‐to‐modify SAS code for applying the method is presented in the Appendix.