Jedidiah morse and the bavarian illuminati: An essay in the rhetoric of conspiracy

This study examines the role of the the jeremiad in shaping public attitudes toward political dissent during the Franco‐American Crisis of 1798‐99. Attention is focused on three widely publicized sermons in which the Reverend Jedidiah Morse disclosed details of a dark conspiracy involving both domestic critics of the Adams administration and a mysterious order of European anarchists known as the Bavarian Illuminati. By framing his suspicions in the form of a jeremiad, Morse evoked a rhetorical context which portrayed the conspiracy as a divine test of American civic piety. As a result, the conspiracy provided a rhetorical justification for the condemnation of domestic political dissent on moral grounds.     

SCHOOL RACIAL CLIMATE AND THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF SCHOOL ENGAGEMENT

This investigation utilized an integrative model of development for ethnic minority children and a process model of engagement to explore whether three dimensions of school engagement (behavioral, emotional, and cognitive) mediated relationships between school racial climate, academic performance, and educational aspirations. A total of 139 African American students were recruited from a high school in the southeastern United States. Findings revealed an indirect association between perceptions of racial fairness and academic achievement indicators through behavioral and cognitive engagement. Behavioral and cognitive engagement also mediated relationships between youths’ perceived peer discrimination and academic achievement indicators. No significant indirect associations between teacher discrimination and academic achievement through school engagement dimensions were found. Study limitations, future directions, and implications are discussed.     

Writing week-journals to improve the writing quality of fourth-graders’ compositions

Students’ writing problems are a global educational concern and is in need of particular attention. This study aims to examine the impact of providing extra writing opportunities (i.e., writing journals) on the quality of writing compositions. A longitudinal cluster-randomized controlled design using a multilevel modeling analysis with 182 fourth grade students was conducted. We examined whether students’ writing quality differed when writing journals on a weekly basis for 12 weeks, compared with a control group. Three covariates were analyzed, namely: (i) the students’ attitudes towards writing; (ii) their self-efficacy in writing; (iii) and their use of self-regulation (SRL) strategies while writing. Findings have shown that students who wrote week-journals significantly improved the writing quality of their compositions and reported a higher use of SRL strategies in writing. Nevertheless, self-efficacy and attitude towards writing were found to not be related to the quality of the compositions. Moreover, data indicated that the writing quality of compositions improved along with the writing quality of the week-journals. Findings suggest the use of week-journals in class to promote writing.     

Language use and racial redirect in the educational landscape of ‘just good teaching’

At colleges and universities across the United States, teacher preparation programs are increasingly required to prepare teachers for culturally and linguistically diverse student populations. Teacher education programs have responded by incorporating fieldwork experiences and curricular requirements that include a social justice and multicultural education focus. One key individual is uniquely positioned to reinforce and connect coursework with classroom practice during the teacher candidate’s practicum experience: the university supervisor. Our research team focused on the supervisors and their understandings of culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) in order to better support them as they worked with teacher candidates to reinforce CRP in the classroom. Through interviews, field notes, and classroom observations, we examined language (words, phrases) that the supervisors used to talk about race and culture in relation to CRP. Our findings indicate a tendency to redirect conversations about race and culture to topics that they were more versed on such as teaching to the whole child or addressing the needs of the individual student. We termed this linguistic move the racial redirect, which emerged in language that (1) simplified the meaning of CRP and (2) made CRP seem like an unexpected or chance event in teaching.     

Can Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders “Hear” a Speaking Face?

This study used eye-tracking methodology to assess audiovisual speech perception in 26 children ranging in age from 5 to 15 years, half with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and half with typical development. Given the characteristic reduction in gaze to the faces of others in children with ASD, it was hypothesized that they would show reduced influence of visual information on heard speech. Responses were compared on a set of auditory, visual, and audiovisual speech perception tasks. Even when fixated on the face of the speaker, children with ASD were less visually influenced than typical development controls. This indicates fundamental differences in the processing of audiovisual speech in children with ASD, which may contribute to their language and communication impairments.     

‘Learning Experience’ Provided by Science Teaching Practice in a Classroom and the Development of Students’ Competences

According to the literature, there is a very important corpus of knowledge that allows for the investigation of some dimensions of ‘learning experience’ provided to students, in relation to epistemic, pedagogical and meta-cognitive practices. However, in the literature, there is little investigation into the invariance (or not) of the characteristics of students’ learning experience while being taught a scientific subject by the same teacher. This paper suggests that the relationship between the learning experience provided and the competences developed is not properly highlighted. This paper analyses the learning experience provided to students in epistemic, pedagogical and meta-cognitive terms. The students were taught the proprieties and applications of light by one teacher, in three classes, over 7 weeks. We analysed the data in each referred learning experience, using a pre-defined category system. The students’ competences were evaluated by a competence test. The epistemic demand of each item and the students’ performances were also analysed. Our findings point to the non invariance of learning experiences provided to students and the influence of some dimensions of learning experiences provided in the development of certain competences. These findings and their implications are contextualized and discussed.     

‘The constant rejections hurt’: Skills and personal attributes needed to successfully complete a thesis by publication

The thesis by publication (TBP) is an increasingly popular approach to doctoral education that sees candidates publishing their research during their candidature, and including these outputs in their final thesis submission. Responsive to the realities of modern academia, a TBP provides doctoral candidates with opportunities to engage in the scholarly publication process, and to build their research portfolio. As the TBP gains further traction in many fields and countries, there is a need to better understand the skills and attributes needed to complete a TBP successfully. This paper draws on the views of 246 recent doctoral graduates of Australian universities to identify the skills and attributes they felt supported their success. Their responses have implications for the development and refinement of institutional policies and programs that are sensitive to the needs and experiences of doctoral candidates seeking to publish during candidature and create a TBP. As editors, peer‐reviewers, and publishers see a growing influx of papers sole‐ or co‐authored by doctoral candidates in response to the trend toward TBP, they may find themselves involved in supporting students to develop the skills and attributes needed to successfully publish during candidature.     

儒家环境伦理学：与自然共鸣

确实在儒家道德哲学中没有一个充分发展的环境伦理学系统,但儒家思想与当代环境伦理学争论的中心问题直接相关,而不是过去的乌托邦幻想或灵魂的残余。中国儒家传统道德在丰富我们对人与自然关系的理解上能够提供有价值的智力资源。儒家道德理想中有关人与自然和谐相处的思想,可以为我们选择一种新的解决环境问题的方法提供支持。     

The Implementation of Character Education and Children’s Literature to Teach Bullying Characteristics and Prevention Strategies to Preschool Children: An Action Research Project

Bullying behaviors among young children are taking place in preschool classrooms and child-development centers. The author makes a case, based on bullying themes in children’s literature and both qualitative and quantitative data collection with young children, for the use of children’s picture books to teach character as bullying prevention to 4–6 year old children. Through the reading of picture books and character education activities with a bullying theme preschool children develop a better understanding of bullying characteristics and strategies for dealing with bullying behaviors. Included are the results from questionnaires and interviews with preschool children and an annotated bibliography of children’s picture books and activities useful in the instruction and prevention of bullying behaviors.