Innovative learning spaces: class management and universal design for learning

Learning Environments Research - Recent and important changes in pedagogy design include flexible learning methods that address student diversity (universal design for learning–UDL) and...     

The negative impact of goal-oriented instructions

The phrasing of task instructions can facilitate or hinder the learning process. In this study, three groups of participants (N = 526) performed a foreign vocabulary memorization task, with modified instructions for each group. The instructions were either learning oriented, encouraging participants to improve their abilities; outcome oriented, prompting participants to achieve a positive evaluation of their performance; or neutral, with no goal orientation, for the control group. Participants’ performance in the task was measured along with several factors pertinent to the learning process. Results showed that learning-oriented instructions led to lower performance levels, while outcome-oriented instructions reduced participants’ language risk-taking, both of which negatively impact learning. The control group had the best overall results, indicating that it is better to refrain from using goal-oriented instructions in learning tasks.     

The curse of knowledge when teaching statistics

When teaching statistics, educators sometimes overestimate their students' knowledge and abilities. This is due to the curse of knowledge, a cognitive bias that causes people—especially experts—to overestimate how likely others are to know and understand the same things as them. This can lead to various issues, including struggling to communicate with students, and making students feel less comfortable in the classroom. To address this, educators should first identify situations where this bias can affect their teaching. In doing so, they should consider relevant risk factors, and potentially also solicit feedback from relevant individuals. Then, educators can reduce this bias and its impact on their teaching by using techniques such as keeping the curse of knowledge and their audience in mind, assessing students' knowledge, assuming lack of knowledge unless there is strong evidence to the contrary, and avoiding saying that things are obvious.     

Preschoolers' Ability to Distinguish Living Kinds as a Function of Regrowth

In order to acquire a theory of biology, children must acquire knowledge about living kinds. Although many studies have shown that preschool children do not accurately classify living kinds and do not use appropriate properties when asked to decide whether something is a living kind, recent work has shown that 3- and 4-year-olds do know something about biological growth. The ability of kinds to heal through regrowth was used in this paper as a measure of children's implicit understanding that plants and animals can be grouped together. In 3 experiments, children were told that animals, plants, and artifacts had been damaged and were asked whether the objects could heal through regorwth and whether a person could mend them. In all studies, children were sensitive to ontological kind, 4-year-olds realized that both plants and animals can regrow but that artifacts must be fixed by human intervention. 3-year-olds were less knowledgeable but did realize that artifacts cannot regrow. Overall, children showed some biological knowledge, implicity grouping plants and animals together and differentiating them from artifacts.     

Heuristics of Reasoning and Analogy in Children''s Visual Perspective Taking

We propose that children's reasoning about others' visual perspectives is guided by simple heuristics based on a perceiver's line of sight and salient features of the object met by that line. In 3 experiments employing a 2-perceiver analogy task, children aged 3-6 were generally better able to reproduce a perceiver's perspective if a visual cue in the perceiver's line of sight sufficed to distinguish it from alternatives. Children had greater difficulty when the task hinged on attending to configural cues. Availability of distinctive cues affixed on the objects' sides facilitated solution of the symmetrical orientations. These and several other related findings reported in the literature are traced to children's reliance on heuristics of reasoning.     

Indigenous ways—fruits of our ancestors

In this paper the human-nature relationship is recognized as a major field of interest and a platform of ideas linked with it is explored. A ‘new’ source to inform an alternative paradigm for outdoor education is proposed; it is millennia old, has roots all over the globe and is a living, breathing, and evolving tradition—indigenous ways. While recognizing the diversity of indigenous people, the paper explores common characteristics of thought and practice within indigenous traditions. Indigenous ways are defined and their connection with outdoor education is explored. The author concludes that indigenous ways have the potential to inspire a fundamental change in outdoor education, while providing working models for theory and practice.     

Urgent medical assessment after child sexual abuse

BACKGROUND: Immediate medical assessment has been recommended for children after sexual abuse to identify physical injuries, secure forensic evidence, and provide for the safety of the child. However, it is unclear whether young children seen urgently within 72 hours of reported sexual contact would have higher frequencies of interview or examination findings as compared to those seen non-urgently or whether forensic findings would be affected by child characteristics, type of reported contact, or later events. DESIGN/SETTING: We evaluated 190 consecutive cases of children under 13 years of age urgently referred during a 5-year period in 1998-2003 to a community child advocacy center and compared them to those non-urgently referred with regard to their physical examination findings, any sexually transmitted infections or forensic evidence, gender, pubertal development, type of contact, reported ejaculation, later bathing or changing clothes, time to examination, and gender, age and relationship of alleged perpetrator. RESULTS: Children seen urgently were younger and had less frequent CPS involvement, more disclosures, and more positive physical examinations, and had more contact with older perpetrators than those seen non-urgently. Overall, most children were female and had normal or non-specific physical examinations. Certain case characteristics were predictive of evidence isolation in the 9% who had positive forensic evidence identified. Semen or sperm was identified from body swabs only from non-bathed, female children older than 10 years of age or on clothing or objects. CONCLUSIONS: Female children over 10 years old who report ejaculation or genital contact without bathing have the highest likelihood of positive examinations or forensic evidence. While there are other potential benefits of early examination, physicians seeking to identify forensic evidence should consider the needs of the child and other factors when determining the timing of medical assessment after sexual abuse.     

The Mandela Soccer Academy: Historical and Contemporary Intersections between Ghana,Lebanon, and the West

Abstract

Since their arrival in the late nineteenth century, Lebanese immigrants have come to play an important role in Ghanaian society, especially in commerce. In community development, however, their influence is considered to be less salient, and therefore it is less researched. The present paper tries to fill this lacuna by focusing on the Mandela Soccer Academy, which was established in 2012 in Ghana by Mohammed Issa, a Lebanese-Ghanaian entrepreneur. The paper argues that Issa’s hybrid identity is reflected in his vision for the Mandela Soccer Academy, and is central to understanding children’s experiences there. The functioning and vision of the academy reflect an attempt by Issa to expose the academy’s children to cosmopolitan messages that he believes will broaden their horizons and improve their prospects. At the same time, the academy provides him with an opportunity to bolster the social collateral of the Lebanese in Ghana. The paper explores the ways in which the academy has become a juncture of translocal cultural production that transcends national boundaries, and assesses the extent to which the children have embraced Issa’s worldview.     

The contribution of differential feature-cost analysis to the evaluation of computer-assisted career guidance systems

This paper benefitted from discussions with Pazit Mei-Raz and Micha Wartski.