Beyond the Bounds of Thought: Speculative Philosophy and the Last Proposition of the Tractatus

Wittgenstein's Tractatus attempts to characterize, via an account of the meaning and truth of propositional expressions, the limits to human thought. It turns out that not only, according to him, are the limits to human thought something which lie outside the capacity for humans to express, but such a notion is strictly speaking without sense. He concludes the book with the sentence "What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence." Whitehead, on the contrary, is concerned to suggest that human sentential expressions are always inadequate to the thoughts which we wish to express. Nonetheless he suggests that a happy speculation a la Plato might just be right, even though we may never know that it is. This paper argues that there are no convincing arguments that either Wittgenstein or Whitehead is right here. So it is best that we maintain an agnostic position with respect to the view that human thought is strictly limited or that no adequate expressions of our thoughts can be found. Both educationally and practically, failing of any convincing arguments to the contrary, it is better that we presuppose, along with the mediaeval Christian thinkers, that our reason and insight are sufficient to the task of ultimately penetrating into the mysteries of the world, however difficult that task might be. Thus a happy speculation with no grounding is a perfectly good thing to engage in. It just might be true.     

Are children in need of liberation?

Conclusion In spite of my reservations on the key points of Professor McMurtry's article, I think that he has written the most interesting and sustained case for the liberation of children which I have seen. If he is wrong that children are not identical in status to slaves, he is surely right that some children are treated as badly as slaves were often treated and that our laws at the present time make it very difficult to intervene. If he is wrong in his presupposition that children are persons by the very fact of their being human beings, then he is erring on the side of angels. Because if we thought them so, then we would be much less likely to abuse them. And if our laws treated them so, we would have grounds for preventing the treatment of children as less than human by parents or other adults.     

Young Students’Informal Statistical Knowledge

This article reports some results of an informal study of very young children's reactions to some visual displays of data.     

Citizenship and enterprise: issues from an investigation of teachers' perceptions in England and Hungary

We explore the perceptions of teachers concerning citizenship and enterprise in Hungary and England. Contextual matters are described and research methods outlined prior to a discussion of emerging issues. We argue that citizenship in both countries is understood broadly in terms of what it means to be human. The English teachers emphasized community issues and being socially active more often than those in Hungary. Hungarian teachers were less positive about state and civil society and more patriotic about their country. In both countries those in provincial towns (rather than those in capital cities) suggested a belief in the need for a greater adherence to rules. There was greater enthusiasm for citizenship education in primary rather than secondary schools in both countries. All teachers seemed wary about a form of enterprise education that relates directly to the economy and this was especially true for the Hungarian sample. Teachers in both countries, while recognizing the current emphasis on competition between and within schools, tended to characterize citizenship education as a constructive social enterprise (rather than an economic enterprise), in which young people are encouraged to explore problems and develop their initiative and capacity for action. All teachers favoured a collaborative and broad‐based pedagogical approach in which young people are allowed to explore social and political issues through dilemmas.     

Is There a Role for Microteaching in the 1990s?

Microteaching, once considered a major advance in teacher education, has largely fallen from favour. The reasons why this has occurred are considered here. The approaches adopted in recent research to establish successful skill development, durability, generalization and transfer are examined, and the importance of self‐instruction strategy and problem‐solving components is highlighted. Problems associated with teaching‐skill development in the natural classroom are explored. Advances in microteaching research and technology and the problems encountered in teaching‐skill development in the natural classroom together provide good reasons for the serious re‐deployment of microteaching processes in teaching‐skill development. A case study is used to illustrate the ways in which microteaching processes may be employed with modem video technology. It is concluded that the two empirically validated microteaching models possess elements which reflect a number of current research concerns and that they have the potential to produce more thoughtful, critical and skilled teachers.     

Licencing and training reform in the Australian aircraft maintenance industry

The training and licencing of aircraft maintenance engineers fulfils a crucial protective function since it is they who perform and supervise aircraft maintenance and certify that planes are safe afterwards. In Australia, prior to training reform, a trades-based system of aircraft maintenance engineer training existed in an orderly relation with the system of licencing, regulated by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). Training reform through the 1990s gave rise to concerns that the training system could not be relied upon to deliver adequate numbers of trainees with valid qualifications. From 2007, CASA introduced new regulations, designed to align Australia’s qualifications and licencing with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). This process saw the aviation regulator effectively cede much quality control of training to an increasingly dysfunctional training system, giving rise to doubts about whether Australia’s international obligations for quality aircraft maintenance training can be fulfilled.