Cognitive training for children: Effects on inductive reasoning,deductive reasoning,and mathematics achievement in an Australian school setting

Inductive reasoning is a core cognitive process of fluid intelligence, predicting a variety of educational outcomes. The Cognitive Training for Children (CTC) program is an educational intervention designed to develop children's inductive reasoning skills, with previous investigations finding substantial effects of the program on both inductive reasoning ability and classroom learning. The present study assessed both individual and small‐group CTC training against a no‐treatment control condition to investigate the effects on inductive and deductive reasoning and mathematics achievement in a primary school‐aged Australian cohort. Students who received individual training outperformed those in the control condition on measures of inductive and deductive reasoning, and those in the small‐group condition also outperformed the control condition on a measure of inductive reasoning 3 months following training. However, hypotheses regarding transfer effects to mathematics achievement were not supported. Directions for future research, focusing on extended longitudinal studies and motivational variables, are discussed.     

Laptops meet schools,one‐one draw: m‐learning for secondary students with literacy difficulties

Mobile technology‐enhanced literacy initiatives have become a focus of efforts to support learning for students with literacy difficulties. The Laptops Initiative for Post‐Primary Students with Dyslexia or other Reading/Writing Difficulties offers insights into and addresses questions about ICT policy making regarding m‐learning technologies for students with literacy difficulties. Thirty‐one schools participated in this initiative. Adopting an intepretive perspective, research and data analysis centred on four school case studies and involved classroom observations, teacher, student and principal interviews as well as a survey of teachers in other participating schools. Findings are presented under three headings: laptop deployment models (fixed, floating and fostered), constraints and supports for teacher and student agency, and technology‐enhanced literacy pedagogy. We conclude by noting the increasing appeal of m‐learning to support literacy and how schools mediate access to laptops and associated literacy learning.     

Boys and Literacy: Lessons from Australia

ABSTRACT This paper examines the complexity of the issues associated with boys and literacy. It initially reviews Australian research documenting gender differences in literacy performance, highlighting the interplay between gender, class and ethnicity within this research. It then develops a framework for considering the interconnectedness between literacy, various masculinities, and schooling. The paper argues that literacy, as it is constructed in the school, becomes a domain of knowledge and a set of technologies that run counter to various dominant constructions of masculinity. As a result, school literacy is often in contrast to other electronic and visually-based 'literacy skills' that boys have access to. The paper suggests an approach which works with social constructions of masculinity, and discourses on 'critical literacy', to provide strategies for boys' literacy education that will not be in conflict with the education of girls reform agenda of the past 20 years.     

Positing Alterity,Positing Metaphysics: A Short Note on Alistair Miller on Levinas

In ‘Levinas: Ethics or Mystification?’ (Miller, 2017), Alistair Miller presents a searing indictment of the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas and a dismissal of claims for its importance for education. He provides a summary account of Levinas's philosophy and, in relation to this, refers briefly to a number of authors who have related Levinas's work to education. This account is at fault, however, in fundamental ways, and this leads to errors in the conclusions that he draws. The present short paper does not attempt to address these problems in the round but rather focuses on a particular aspect of his phrasing in constructing the account, taking this as a significant pointer to the nature of the misinterpretation as a whole.     

Group Project Work with Undergraduate Veterinary Science Students

This paper evaluates the experience of second year undergraduate veterinary science students performing group project work. The goals of the study were to encourage deep learning and to develop specific 'life skills', such as decision making, teamwork and communication skills. The results were compared with two similar studies by using a similar survey form to collect student responses. Overall, the students appeared to enjoy the group project and developed new learning skills, although the issue of passengers (poor contributors) was not fully eliminated.     

The Hong Kong School Curriculum and the Political Transition: Politicisation,contextualisation and symbolic action

This paper uses a historical perspective to analyse the impact on the school curriculum of the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty. Whilst the transition has relaxed the criteria used by the state to select school knowledge, it has occurred at a time when the selective and allocative role of schooling has become paramount. Consequently, the transition has had a significant impact on the intended curriculum as a result of attempts by the departing colonial government to reform the curriculum. However, these reforms have had a limited impact on the implemented curriculum, which has been more strongly influenced by the emergence of a market in which schools compete for academically more able pupils.