Hanna Arendt: a political theorist on the theme of renewal in education

The article is about the writing of a political theorist, Hannah Arendt, on the subject of education. The two major themes of her work (the concept of public and private worlds and the idea of renewal) are described and related to educational questions. Two forces which help the educator to avoid conservatism or utopianism are the variety of mankind and the artist's and scientist's vision. The influence of these thoughts on the teacher's task is then studied with particular attention to Arendt's notion of responsibility. Other implications for educators are the understanding of the school as a social institution, implications for curriculum planning and the relationship between education and society. The essay ends by setting out Arendt's resolution of the paradox of preparing children with assurance for an unpredictable future.     

The impact of tracking by attainment on pupil self-confidence over time: demonstrating the accumulative impact of self-fulfilling prophecy

Abstract

The impact of self-fulfilling prophecy in education, and of attainment grouping on pupil self-perception, remain topics of longstanding debate, with important consequences for social in/justice. Focusing on self-confidence, this article draws on survey responses from 9,059 12-13 year olds who were tracked by subject (‘setting’). They provided survey responses when placed in ‘ability’ sets at the start of their secondary schooling, and again late the following year; enabling analysis of impact over time. After controlling for prior attainment, the gap in general self-confidence between students in the top and bottom sets for mathematics is shown to widen over time, and high set students’ self-confidence in English had also grown significantly; although there was not further widening in the cases of self-confidence in mathematics or in general self-confidence between students in the top and bottom sets for English. Implications of these findings for interventions directed at addressing educational disadvantage are discussed.     

A virtual internship to prepare high school students for civic and political action

Educational technology research and development - We explored the impact of participating in a Virtual Internship (VI) computer-supported collaborative learning simulation, on high school...     

Twenty five years of cognitive care education research: Time for a revolutionary change

This is the third study of Cognitive Care Education in New York State nursing homes using cross-sectional methods over a 25 year period. The data indicate that the Cognitive Care Education increased at statistically significant levels, albeit by evolutionary means. It is now time for “A Revolutionary Change,” for Cognitive Care Education, whereby the ideal level of 20 to 32 hours of education is provided to cognitive care providers.

Cognitive care encompasses a range of behavioral problems that require appropriate education. These might include communication difficulties, perseveration (repetition of an idea or activity), aggressive behaviors, paranoia, memory problems, and wandering (Savundranayagam & Orange, 2014). This study assessed Cognitive Care Education as the “Amount and type of education provided to cognitive care providers on how to care for the cognitively impaired including knowledge and skills to understand cognitive impairments and requisite standards to improve quality of care and life.”

It is apparent that nursing home employees are cognizant of cognitively impaired residents’ needs. However, the Cognitive Care Education providers receive on the job, is still inadequate to understand the overall needs of cognitively impaired, as indicated by our most recent research in 2016 (i.e., 3.81 hours). We recommend that at least 20 hours of Cognitive Care Education be provided to care providers, with a second recommendation that 32 hours would be ideal that follows the Alzheimer’s Association recommendation. The primary focus of the research studies here is to ensure care-providers are adequately trained to take care of the cognitively impaired.     

Comparison of most‐to‐least to error correction for teaching receptive labelling for two children diagnosed with autism

Prompting systems are guidelines of when to provide learners with prompts and when to fade prompts. Today, there are several prompting systems implemented to teach receptive labeling to individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders and other disabilities. This study compared most‐to‐least prompting to an error correction procedure involving feedback and remedial trials for teaching two children with autism a variety of receptive labels. All teaching was implemented in a one‐to‐one instructional setting. Researchers taught each participant how to receptively identify 18 pictures; nine were taught using error correction and nine were taught using most‐to‐least. The researchers utilized an adapted alternating treatment design nested into a multiple probe design to evaluate the two procedures. Results indicated that participants were able to reach mastery criterion on 100% of skills taught using the error correction and were able to reach mastery criterion on 88.9% of skills taught using most‐to‐least. Additionally, error correction tended to require fewer trials for participants to reach mastery criterion.     

English language teachers becoming more efficacious through research engagement at their Turkish university

While it is generally recognized that teacher research can be a very beneficial form of continuing professional development (CPD), there is still relatively limited research available on the impact this activity has on teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs, which are of interest to educational psychologists because, while being open to constant change, these beliefs influence the way in which knowledge is transformed into action. There is also a relative lack of available research into how teachers develop as researchers; the processes whereby they gain practical knowledge and more positive self-efficacy beliefs in planning, conducting, analysing, presenting and writing up research require further exploration. This qualitative multi-case study addresses these issues, exploring the development of three in-service teachers of English on a foundation programme at a Turkish university. Findings reveal that engaging in CPD which directly benefited their learners helped all three teachers develop positive teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and deeper practical knowledge in relation to the specific tasks that concerned them. Furthermore, from a starting point of having low self-efficacy beliefs in conducting practical research, which reflected their lack of prior knowledge in this area, they all became more efficacious as they gained research experience and developed practical knowledge of research. This study highlights the benefits, then, of helping teachers become more efficacious through CPD that engages them as knowledge-generators. Enthusiastic mentoring, autonomy support and the opportunity to present their research more widely all helped the teachers in this Turkish context to develop.     

On the Distinction between False Belief Understanding and Subscribing to an Interpretive Theory of Mind

2 groups of 5–8-year-olds were examined in an effort to explore the developing relations between false belief understanding and an awareness of the individualized nature of personal taste, on the one hand, and, on the other, a maturing grasp of the interpretive character of the knowing process. In Study 1, 20 children between 5 and 8 all behaved in accordance with hypotheses by proving to be indistinguishable in their already good grasp of the possibility of false beliefs and in their common assumption that differences of opinion concerning matters of taste are legitimate expressions of personal preferences. By contrast, only the 7- and 8-year-old children gave evidence of recognizing that ambiguous stimuli especially allow for warrantable differences of interpretation. Study 2 replicated and extended these findings with a group of 48 5-8-year-old subjects, again showing that while 5-year-olds easily pass a standard test of false belief understanding, only children of 7 or 8 ordinarily evidence an appreciation of the interpretive character of the knowing process.     

Ice Cream Seminars for Graduate Students: Imparting Chemical Information Literacy

SUMMARY

This article provides information on a chemical information literacy program designed primarily for new graduate students. The full implementation of this program is discussed, including defining its purpose, topics covered, content presented, methods of marketing, and evaluation. The result is a series of voluntary seminars given biweekly throughout the academic year. Seminars are based either around a particular resource or database or are centered on a topical problem that may be addressed using multiple resources. Evaluations show that graduate students are pleased with the seminars, including content covered and the format. Areas for future development and experimentation are also suggested.