Teachers' embodied presence in online teaching practices

This study aims to examine teachers' embodiments online. The analysis is based on online ethnographic data from two online courses in higher education settings using different information and communication technologies. The perspective of practice theory and the concepts of being a body, having a body and the instrumental body were used to analyse how teachers step into an embodied presence. The embodied presence depends on both teacher judgements and what the technology offers. The finding adds to the understanding of the concept of teacher presence online, in showing that teacher embodiment occurs online and furthermore that the body could be understood as multiple. The result also shows how online and offline bodies hang together, actualising the offline body in the online setting, which in turn raises questions on the dualism of online and offline. Teachers also deliberately used their embodiments and bodily traces online in order to sustain presence and to bring about certain teaching practices. Their bodily positioning signalled what kind of teaching that would take place. A deliberate positioning of the online body in a virtual world also helped to reduce the complexity of the arrangements for the students.     

Gender differences in reading performance on documents across countries

Females are known to excel over males in most reading tasks, but notconsistently so in tasks that require processing information from maps,tables, charts and diagrams, so called `Documents'. The IEA ReadingLiteracy data provides possibilities to investigate gender differencesacross countries in such tasks in two age groups, 9-year-olds and14-year-olds. The general question about cultural influences vs. aninvariant pattern of gender differences is of great interest for genderresearch, and central in this study. The aim of the paper is to describeand analyze gender differences on Document tasks, and investigate if andhow the pattern of differences varies over countries. Another aim is todemonstrate the power of using a multivariate analysis technique bycontrasting it against traditional univariate approaches. The univariateanalysis indicates female advantage as the most common in the youngergroup and a mixed pattern in the older. The multivariate analysisindicate that Document tasks are not unidimensional, because bothgeneral and specific dimensions can be extracted from the raw scores.The traditional univariate analysis often disguised true patterns ofdifferences in the data, both in terms of country differences and interms of the direction of the gender differences. Raw score differencesbetween the genders proved to be due to differences in both general andpassage specific dimensions. Ten of the countries showed genderdifferences in both directions in the general dimension among9-year-olds, while an almost consistent pattern of female advantage wasfound among 14-years-olds. Many of the specific passage dimensionsturned out to favor either males or females. This complex pattern variedover both age groups and across countries, although commonalities in thepattern among subgroups of countries were common.     

Tradition and modernization: Educational consequences of changes in Hungarian society

Summary The problem of preserving tradition and initiating modernization has caused headaches for educational policy makers and theorists in Hungary for centuries. The perennial problem has been joined by several new problems as the country tries to find its way from Stalinist totalitarianism to pluralist democracy. In education this change is marked by the shift from crude political indoctrination and from an officially-imposed value system to critical thinking and the plurality of values. The paper follows the major changes in educational philosophy and policy in the past forty years with a special focus on recent developments. A short summary is provided of the educational programs of different political forces and an outline of the basis of a possible new educational philosophy is given.

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Zusammenfassung Jahrhundertelang haben sich Entscheidungsträger und Theoretiker im Erziehungsbereich in Ungarn über das Problem der Erhaltung der Tradition bei gleichzeitiger Einführung von Modernisierungen den Kopf zerbrochen. Mehrere neue Probleme kamen zu diesem Dauerproblem hinzu, da das Land versucht, seinen Weg von stalinistischer totalitärer Staatsform zu pluralistischer Demokratie zu finden. Im Bereich der Erziehung macht sich diese Veränderung in einer Verlagerung von nackter politischer Indoktrination und offiziell auferzwungenem Wertesystem zu kritischem Denken und vielfältigen Wertvorstellungen bemerkbar. Der Artikel verfolgt die wichtigsten Veränderungen in Erziehungsphilosophie und-politik der letzten vierzig Jahre, besonders im Hinblick auf die jüngsten Entwicklungen. Eine kurze Zusammenfassung beinhaltet die Erziehungsprogramme verschiedener politischer Kräfte und gibt einen Überblick über die Grundsätze einer möglichen neuen Philosophie über die Erziehung.

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Résumé Pendant des siècles le problème de la préservation de la tradition et de l'introduction de la modernisation fut un casse-tête pour les responsables et les théoriciens de l'éducation en Hongrie. Plusieurs nouveaux problèmes sont venus se greffer à cette question pérenne depuis que la Hongrie s'efforce de passer du totalitarisme stalinien à une démocratie pluraliste. Dans le domaine de l'éducation, ce changement est marqué par le passage d'un rude endoctrinement politique et d'un système de valeurs, imposé officiellement à une penséc critique et à une pluralité de valeurs. Le présent article examine successivement les changements majeurs qui sont intervenus dans la philosophie et la politique éducatives au cours des quarante dernières années en mettant un accent particulier sur les événements récents. On donne un bref résumé des programmes éducatifs des diverses forces politiques ainsi qu'une esquisse de la base d'une nouvelle philosophie éducative envisageable.

     

The Impact of Teacher-Directed and Child-Directed Pretend Play on Cognitive Competence in Kindergarten Children

The goal of our research was to study different forms of organization of pretend play on children's cognitive performance in a mixed-age environment. We studied two forms of management of the playing process: (a) teacher-directed play with simultaneous involvement of all children in the classroom, where the teacher plays the dominant role in the education process directing children's activity, and (b) child-directed play in various small groups. Twenty-six observations were performed on 51 children in two mixed-age classrooms. The mean age of the children was 4.6 years, with age span from 3 to 6 years. Data were collected regarding children's affective and cognitive behavior according to generally accepted taxonomies: Bloom for the cognitive domain, and Krathwohl for affective domain. We found a significant increase in cognitive manifestations during direction of the playing process in groups compared with frontal management of the lesson (113.1 ± 12.1 vs. 45.7 ± 10.3, mean ± SEM, p < 0.0001), which is related with better employment of the powerful education engine of the free-play children.     

Opening dimensions of variation: An empirical study of learning in a Web-based discussion

The discussions held in specifying an automaticvehicle as a project in a distance work-relatedcourse are in focus for an analysis of learningin networked discussions. Learning ischaracterised as coming to experience things indistinctly new ways, in keeping with theunderlying phenomenographic research approachfor the study. Group discussions are seen asone feature in the experience of, and theformation of, the context for learning, in anexperiential interpretation of activitysystems. The analysis has led to theidentification of pivotal contributions todiscussions that can be said to afford learningwithin the group, in the sense of openingdimensions of variation around criticalfeatures of the task. This is developed toproduce a taxonomy of contributions, withparticipatory, factual, reflective and learningcontributions, suggested to be necessary,though not sufficient, conditions for learning.The taxonomy is illustrated and discussed, asare its implications for tutoring in networkedcourses of this type.     

The new student loan system in Chile’s higher education

Chile’s higher education system stands out as being one of the most privatized and open to the market in the world. Recently, the Chilean Congress passed Law # 20.027 of 2005, which provides the legal framework for the creation of a student loan system guaranteed both by the State and by higher education institutions (HEIs), financed by the private capital market through the securitization of the loans. The system operated for the first time in 2006, where approximately 21,000 students were able to access financing of their higher education for the remainder of their careers. It is expected that as the system matures, more and better information will be available, which will benefit the students and the HEIs; and it is highly likely that the current number of financed students could grow significantly in the next few years. The purpose of this article is to describe the outstanding characteristics of this system, explain its conceptual basis and analyze the public policy choices available in its design.

The influence of flow on learning outcomes: An empirical study on the use of clickers

Flow is a state of total absorption and concentration in an activity that is desirable for students, as it enhances the learning experience. Due to the importance of flow for learning, this research investigates the influence of three flow preconditions—namely balance of skill and challenge, feedback and goal clarity—on students' flow, operationalized as heightened concentration, sense of control and autotelic experience, while using clickers—a type of polling device. The study also explores the impact of concentration, sense of control and autotelic experience on students' perceived learning and satisfaction. Based on a survey of 204 undergraduate students who use clickers in the classroom, the findings show that balance of skill and challenge has a positive influence on students' concentration, sense of control and autotelic experience. Both feedback provided by clickers and goal clarity have a positive influence on concentration and sense of control, but do not influence the autotelic experience. Findings also corroborate the positive impact of concentration and sense of control experienced by students on perceived learning. Finally, autotelic experience predicts both perceived learning and satisfaction.     

A Family Focused Intervention Influences Hippocampal-Prefrontal Connectivity Through Gains in Self-Regulation

The stressors associated with poverty increase the risks for externalizing psychopathology; however, specific patterns of neurobiology and higher self-regulation may buffer against these effects. This study leveraged a randomized control trial, aimed at increasing self-regulation at ~11 years of age. As adults, these same individuals completed functional MRI scanning (M_age = 24.88 years; intervention n = 44; control n = 49). Functional connectivity between the hippocampus and ventromedial prefrontal cortex was examined in relation to the intervention, gains in self-regulation, and present-day externalizing symptoms. Increased connectivity between these brain areas was noted in the intervention group compared to controls. Furthermore, individual gains in self-regulation, instilled by the intervention, statistically explained this brain difference. These results begin to connect neurobiological and psychosocial markers of risk and resiliency.