Recognising the needs of gender-variant children and their parents

Gender variance confronts widely held assumptions that children born as males will act like ‘boys’ and children born as females will act like ‘girls’. This imposed binary has the effect of perpetuating negativity towards people who express themselves with gendered variations in attire, behaviour or preferences. Despite the existence of gender-variant individuals in every culture and throughout time, many people are unaware that diversity in gender expression and sexual formation is a naturally occurring phenomenon. This qualitative study aimed to establish the needs of gender-variant children and their parents in order to inform education programmes, policies and clinical approaches to gender variance. Three Internet surveys were conducted to explore the experiences of parents raising gender-variant children, the childhood experiences of transgender adults and the views of professionals who work with the transgender community. The needs of gender-variant children emerged in terms of the need for information, peer contact, personal gender expression, safety, and to be heard and accepted by their parents. The most common needs for parents were for information (stories from other parents, research and guidelines; peer support) and educational resources for schools, professionals and local communities. The paper provides comparisons between the three participant groups and recommendations for future research.     

The Implementation and Evaluation of a Computer Simulation Game in a University Course

The purpose of this study was to implement a computer simulation game in a university course and to assess its value as an educational technique. College students (N = 200) were randomly assigned to a treatment or delayed treatment group. Lecture plus a computer simulation game was compared to lecture alone on a broad range of measures (attitudinal, attendance, achievement, information-seeking behavior). Students who participated in the game earlier in the semester responded more favorably than those who participated later in the semester, p = .02. Furthermore, students attended more during the earlier part of the course than in the later, p < .01. Students performed better on the final exam than on the second exam, p < .01. No students displayed information-seeking behavior. An implication of the results is that early implementation provides a more positive response to computer simulations.     

A critical review of national physical activity policies relating to children and young people in England

BackgroundThere has been an increasing focus on the importance of national policy to address population levels of physical inactivity. It has been suggested that the 4 cornerstones of policy comprise (1) national guidelines on physical activity (PA), (2) setting population goals and targets, (3) surveillance or health-monitoring systems, and (4) public education. The current study aimed to review the policy actions that have addressed each of these elements for children and youth in England and to identify areas of progress and remaining challenges.MethodsA literature search was undertaken to identify past and present documents relevant to PA policy for children and youth in England. Each document was analyzed to identify content relevant to the 4 cornerstones of policy.ResultsPhysical activity guidelines (Cornerstone 1) for children and youth have been in place since 1998 and reviewed periodically. Physical activity targets (Cornerstone 2) have focussed on the provision of opportunities for PA, mainly through physical education in schools rather than in relation to the proportion of children meeting recommended PA levels. There has been much surveillance (Cornerstone 3) of children''s PA, but this has been undertaken infrequently over time and with varying inclusions of differing domains of activity. There has been only 1 campaign (Cornerstone 4) that targeted children and their intermediaries, Change4Life, which was an obesity campaign focussing on dietary behavior in combination with PA. Most recently, a government infographic supporting the PA guidelines for children and young people was developed, but details of its dissemination and usage are unknown.ConclusionThere have been many developments in national PA policy in England targeted to children and young people. The area of most significant progress is national PA guidelines. Establishing prevalence targets, streamlining surveillance systems, and investing in public education with supportive policies, environments, and opportunities would strengthen national policy efforts to increase PA and reduce sedentary behavior.     

African policy linking education and development: Standard criticisms and a new departure

Two generations of effort (from the 1920s to the 1960s) by pioneer African nationalists to use schools as the chief catalyst for national development strategy was followed by a generation of scholarship (from the 1960s to the 1980s) that was massively sceptical of their assumptions linking education, causally and positively, to development. The pioneers' writings and experiments, especially in southern Nigeria, are recounted in this paper's first section. The second section surveys the critical literature which experience, on the whole, justifies. The third and concluding section identifies a tangent of analysis which, it is argued, shifts the ground of the debate and supports more hopeful prospects for the current African generation's effort to link education and development productively. Evidence and comment are drawn principally from Anglophone West Africa, but there are inferences clearly to be drawn for general circumstances south of the Sahara.

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Zusammenfassung Auf die Bemühungen zweier Generationen wegweisender afrikanischer Nationalisten (von 1920 bis 1960), die die Schulen als hauptsächliche Katalysatoren für eine Strategie der nationalen Entwicklung ansahen, folgte eine Generation von Forschern (von 1960 bis 1980), die sich überaus skeptisch deren Ansatz gegenüber verhielt, daß Erziehung und Entwicklung ursächlich und positiv verknüpft sind. Die Schriften und Experimente der Pioniere, die hauptsächlich aus dem Süden Nigerias stammen, werden im ersten Abschnitt dieses Berichtes vorgestellt. Der zweite Abschnitt vermittelt einen Überblick über die kritische Literatur, die im großen und ganzen durch empirische Daten gerechtfertigt ist. Im abschließenden dritten Teil wird ein analytischer Ansatz vorgestellt, der, so wird argumentiert, die Grundlage, auf der die Debatte aufbaut, verschiebt und somit hoffnungsvollere Aussichten für die Bemühungen der derzeitigen afrikanischen Generation unterstützt, das Erziehungswesen und die Entwicklung produktiv zu verknüpfen. Belege und Kommentare beziehen sich hauptsächlich auf anglophone westafrikanische Länder, gleichwohl lassen sich Schlüsse für die allgemeine Lage südlich der Sahara ziehen.

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Résumé Les deux générations d'efforts déployés (des années 1920 aux années 1960) par les pionniers nationalistes africains en vue de faire des écoles le principal catalyseur de la stratégie de développement national ont été suivis par une génération de scientifiques (des années 1960 aux années 1980) qui a massivement exprimé ses doutes au sujet de leurs hypothèses faisant articuler l'éducation, de manière causale et positive, autour du développement. Les textes et les expériences de ces pionniers, en particulier du sud du Nigéria, sont présentés dans la première partie de cet article. La seconde partie examine la littérature critique que l'expérience justifie dans l'ensemble. Pour conclure, la troisième partie identifie une analyse tangentielle qui, affirme-t-on, déplace le débat et appuie des perspectives plus prometteuses pour les efforts fournis par la génération africaine actuelle afin d'établir des liens plus productifs entre l'éducation et le développement. Les faits et les commentaires présentés concernent principalement l'Afrique occidentale anglophone, mais des conclusions très claires peuvent être tirées pour les circonstances générales qui dominent au sud du Sahara.

     

The role of mathematics learning centres in engineering education

Mathematics departments in many universities, in many countries, are under pressure. The demand for mathematics undergraduate programmes is diminish- ing and service mathematics is under threat. In particular, engineering schools are either reducing the number of mathematics courses in degree programmes or engineering staff are teaching mathematics as part of engineering analysis courses. There is also a strong trend in engineering education to make greater use of computer courseware like Mathcad, Matlab and other software systems for the mathematical and statistical components of engineering programmes. Engineer- ing education is undergoing substantial change. The mathematics of engineering programmes will need to change accordingly. Mathematics learning centres have been established in many universities world-wide. Initially their main role was to provide assistance for those who had insufficient levels of competency in pre- requisite mathematics. However, these centres can also make a very useful contribution to the latest trends in the mathematics education of engineering undergraduates. This paper will describe that contribution.     

Teaching the concepts of physical and chemical change to elementary school children

Replication of this study on instructional sequence and grade placement is in order. Do all children behave similarly in acquiring a concept of physical and chemical change?