Exploring students' intuitive ideas of randomness using an iPod shuffle activity

This article presents an activity that engages students in considering characteristics of a random sequence, in this case, a randomly generated playlist of songs using the iPod shuffle feature. Students examine simulated sequences of randomly generated songs from a small music library in order to identify characteristics that are used to develop rules that they then apply to judge whether three suspicious lists are likely to be nonrandom.     

Fashion in the classroom III: Effects of instructor attire and immediacy in natural classroom interactions

This is the third of three studies using complementary designs to investigate the effects of teacher attire on student perceptions of instructors and instruction in contemporary college classrooms. In line with Studies One and Two, modest effects of attire on perceptions of extroversion and competence were found; however, previous conclusions that instructor attire has little meaningful, predictable effect on ratings of attributes related to either approachability or credibility were reinforced. Student judgements of such attributes were influenced far more by teacher use of immediacy behaviors than by attire. In particular, positive effects resulting from teachers’ choice of formal professional attire were not supported.

This is the final study in a three‐part series designed to investigate the implications of instructor attire in the contemporary college classroom. Interest in this topic was sparked by collegial conversations regarding advice for new teaching assistants: What can they do to enhance credibility, approachability, and teacher evaluations? Does what they wear make a difference?     

Commonsense reasoning about the physical world

This paper reports on a programme of research carried out over a period of twenty years by Joan Bliss, Jon Ogborn and others, and aimed at understanding how pupils and students reason about the everyday physical world. Our starting point was the science alternative conceptions literature, particularly force and motion, where the results puzzled and motivated us to make sense of the diversity of the findings. In a second step a Commonsense Theory of Motion was developed, which served as a framework for four other studies in the area of force and motion. These revealed that children were indeed using their everyday knowledge to explain these physical notions. The next step was to ask whether children also reasoned in a commonsense way about the physical world more generally, which led to the development of both a new theoretical framework and a further study to investigate these ideas. The findings showed that the physical reasoning schemes shown to exist were: movement, action/force/effort, container, carrier, support, fall, barrier, resistance, space, flow, break/not break, rigidity, stretch/squash and balance. The last section describes some ideas for future research in this area.     

Historical mathematics in the French eighteenth century

At least since the seventeenth century, the strange combination of epistemological certainty and ontological power that characterizes mathematics has made it a major focus of philosophical, social, and cultural negotiation. In the eighteenth century, all of these factors were at play as mathematical thinkers struggled to assimilate and extend the analysis they had inherited from the seventeenth century. A combination of educational convictions and historical assumptions supported a humanistic mathematics essentially defined by its flexibility and breadth. This mathematics was an expression of l'esprit humain, which was unfolding in a progressive historical narrative. The French Revolution dramatically altered the historical and educational landscapes that had supported this eighteenth-century approach, and within thirty years Augustin Louis Cauchy had radically reconceptualized and restructured mathematics to be rigorous rather than narrative.     

Teacher Education Reforms in Albania

Albania is a society undergoing many changes as it moves from the former communist system of strong centralised control towards a more democratic system with more autonomy for institutions. Drawing on insights gained from teacher educators and government representatives in Albania, the paper examines the process of change and the types of reform-modernisation, structural and systemic. The paper also discusses the initial implementation in Albania of one of the reforms, that directed at the balance and role of school experience and analyses differences in its implementation for primary and secondary teacher training. L'Albanie est une société qui subit de nombreux changements à mesure qu'elle se transforme d'un ancien système communiste avec un puissant contrôle centralisé vers un système plus démocratique avec davantage d'autonomie pour ses institutions. A partir des observations des formateurs d'enseignants et des représentants du gouvernement en Albanie, cet article examine le processus d'évolution et des types de réforme-la modernisation structurelle et systémique. Cet article considère la mise en place initiale en Albanie de l'une des réformes, celle qui concerne l'équilibre et le rôle des stages pratiques dans les écoles. Enfin il analyse aussi les différences concernant sa mise en place dans le primaire et le secondaire. Albania es una sociedad que está sufriendo muchos cambios, al pasar de un sistema comunista caracterizado por un fuerte control centralizado, hacia un sistema democra ´tico con más autonomía institucional. Basándose en observaciones de educadores y funcionarios en Albania, este artículo examina el proceso de cambio y los tipos de reforma como la modernización tanto de las estructuras como del sistema. Este artículo trata igualmente de la ejecución de una de las reformas aquella que busca poner en práctica un equilibrio entre el papel y la experiencia de la escuela, y analiza los distintos impactos de la implementación de la reforma para la formación del docente tanto de primaria como de secundaria. Aufgrund der Umwandlung von einem stark zentralisierten, kommunistischen System in ein demokratischeres System, in dem Institutionen mehr Autonomie besitzen, finden in der albanischen Gesellschaft viele Veränderungen statt. Der Artikel stützt sich auf die Erfahrungen sowohl von Lehrausbildern als auch von Vertretern der albanischen Regierung und untersucht den Umwandlungsprozeß und die verschiedenen Reformversuche, das heißt strukturelle und systemische Modernisierung. Der Artikel befaßt sich mit dem Anfangsstadium einer der Reformen in Albanien, durch die die Länge und Bedeutung des Lehrpraktikums bestimmt werden soll. In der Analyse werden unter anderem Unterschiede in der Durchführung der Ausbildung für Grundschullehrer und Oberschullehrer aufgezeigt.