Books and articles of academic interest

Books and articles of academic interest     

Classifying children: a historical perspective on testing and measurement*

ABSTRACT

At the end of the 19th century, children were increasingly seen as measurable and classifiable objects of study on which a scientific approach to education could be based. Two factors fed into the development of this approach: confidence in scientific methods and the expansion of national education systems. Thus, there emerged a confluence of power and science that led to the measurement and classification of children in the name of an efficiently organized social system. This merging of reason, science and efficiency in the goal of classifying children came at a time when the old unitary school system was being declared outdated and coherent teaching units through which scientific methods of learning could be applied were being developed.     

Partial reinforcement effects on learning and extinction of place preferences in the water maze

In two experiments, two groups of rats were trained in a navigation task according to either a continuous or a partial schedule of reinforcement. In Experiment 1, animals that were given continuous reinforcement extinguished the spatial response of approaching the goal location more readily than animals given partial reinforcement—a partial reinforcement extinction effect. In Experiment 2, after partially or continuously reinforced training, animals were trained in a new task that made use of the same reinforcer according to a continuous reinforcement schedule. Animals initially given partial reinforcement performed better in the novel task than did rats initially given continuous reinforcement. These results replicate, in the spatial domain, well-known partial reinforcement phenomena typically observed in the context of Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning, suggesting that similar principles govern spatial and associative learning. The results reported support the notion that salience modulation processes play a key role in determining partial reinforcement effects.     

Solidarity with the People: Organizing to Disrupt Teacher Alienation

Although research on teacher alienation and isolation has demonstrated the importance of developing collegial relationships, mentoring, and induction programs, there is limited research examining the ways to support critical educators with combatting their feelings of alienation and isolation as it relates to the larger sociopolitical dynamics they must endure. Within teacher education and teacher in-service development we must engage in research and approaches to learning that acknowledge the possibilities and potential of teachers to lead their development toward becoming critical and culturally relevant practitioners. Using an internal colonial framework where schooling is articulated as an extension of the colonial project, this article explores the reflections of ten educators, from the elementary to high school level, as they worked to create spaces for learning within a teacher-led, community based organization. Drawing from participant observations and interviews with organization members, this article explores the ways participation in a community based organization supported teachers with enduring the social and psychological consequences of the alienation they experienced in their schools. The data explore the ways in which participants worked to develop teaching practices drawing from anti-colonial perspectives and through their process developed a sense of solidarity with other teachers, which is discussed as three subthemes: shared beliefs, community, and commitment.     

Children’s education and mental health in Spain during and after the Civil War: psychiatry,psychology and “biological pedagogy” at the service of Franco’s regime

Abstract

This article analyses the child psychiatry and psychology developed during the Spanish Civil War and immediate postwar period. The aim is to demonstrate that, despite the existence of a certain degree of disciplinary continuity in relation to the pre-war period, both disciplines were placed at the service of Francoism. This meant that the association of psychology and psychiatry with pedagogy in order to educate/cure children played a key role in legitimising the child intervention policies of Franco’s regime, and this strategy was best reflected in Vallejo Nágera’s proposal regarding “biological pedagogy”. Finally, it analyses how psychiatry and psychology were used outside the school context to re-educate and control an infant population trapped between two worlds as the result of the Civil War.     

Using Drama to Promote Argumentation in Science Education

The purpose of this study was to use drama as a springboard for promoting argumentation among 91 first-semester undergraduate medical students (56 females and 35 males, 16–30 years old) in Colombia during a complete teaching–learning sequence (TLS) supervised by the same teacher. The drama used was the play Should’ve, written by Nobel laureate Roald Hoffmann. The data was derived from students’ written responses, audio and video recordings, and written field notes. This investigation provides evidence that an approach combining drama and argumentation could increase students’ awareness of the relevance of ethics in science as one of the features of science (FOS). The findings show that the play Should’ve can be useful for promoting students’ argumentation and is also appropriate for medical students. Future studies could include other science disciplines (e.g., astronomy, biology, chemistry, earth science, ecology, physics); students of other ages; and other plays and experiments in other parts of the world.     

The effect of diversified schools on employment status and earnings in Colombia

This paper reports the results of an evaluation of the effects on employment of a new type of secondary schools (INEM) in Colombia, which offer prevocational subjects alongside the traditional academic curriculum. The evaluation is based on a follow-up survey of about 1800 graduates of INEM and other schools 3 yr after leaving school. The central finding is that the new schools have not produced a further training or employment pattern different from that of the control schools. In particular, INEM graduates (relative to traditional graduates) are not more likely to enter employment immediately upon graduation and do not realize higher earnings once employed. According to this initial evaluation, there is virtually no difference in the social rate of return to the resources invested in the two types of schools.     

Teaching Chemistry and Chemical Textbooks in France. From Beguin to Lemery

In the seventeenth century the status of chemistry changed remarkably. Chemistry was no longer regarded as a manual practice subordinated to medicine but as an independent discipline that was taught both privately and in universities. In Germany, it became part of the medical teaching in several universities, while in the rest of Europe the introduction of chemistry in the university curricula was a much slower process, as it was often taught outside the universities. This was the case of France, where a strong opposition from the Medical Faculty prevented the introduction of chemistry in the university curricula. Nonetheless, thanks to the support of the King physicians and of members of the court, chemical teaching spread in Paris, both in private courses and at the Jardin du Roi. The present paper investigates chemistry teaching and the chemical textbooks published in France in the seventeenth century. The focus of the enquiry is the definition of the aims and scopes of chemistry to be found in the chemical textbooks, as well as its relationships to other disciplines, notably, medicine and natural philosophy.