Open intransitivity cycles in development and education: Pathways to synthesis

Development as an open-systemic phenomenon involves feed-forward processes that guide the organism to face always uncertain future states of its relations with the environment. This creates a major conceptual problem for science — and a practical one for education — its theoretical terms need to captureboth the certain and uncertain aspects of the developing system. Psychological theory has failed to model developmental processes since it has been built on static ontology of being, rather than on the epistemology of becoming. This contrast is accentuated by the use of transitivity relations in psychological models which are axiomatically closed to the open-endedness of the future in conjunction with the uniqueness of the past-to-present trajectory. Flexibility of developing systems is guaranteed by intransitivity cycles that set up conditions for their own rupture. Development as multi-level interdependent process requires breaking of intransitivity cycles and is organized as an autocatalytic process. Novelty is the key feature in all developing systems, and our formal models in psychology need to open the process of emergence for empirical and theoretical inquiry. Implications of such theoretical reconstruction for educational practices will be discussed — demonstrating that (a) education is necessarily open-ended and constructive process, and (b) outcomes of educational efforts cannot be predicted — while setting the direction towards educational goals is the key to any outcomes.     

Sentence length for revealing the cognitive load reversal effect in text comprehension

The cognitive load theory recommendations for enhancing the success of teaching are effective up to a certain boundary. The paper is dedicated to finding this boundary line in sentence length for 17–18‐year‐old students. The students filled in the blanks in 30 cloze tests. The cloze test results were correlated with the percentage of sentences over the boundary line. When the boundary‐line was low, the coefficient of correlation increased with the rising of the line and the coefficient began to drop when the boundary line passed 140 characters. This size of the boundary line indicated the sentence length, up to which the taking of the load from the learners’ mind was effective. The sentences with 130–50 characters were the most suitable for the students.     

Explaining the difference between PISA 2009 reading scores in Finland and Estonia

The aim of the study was to explain the difference between the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 reading results for Finland and Estonia using characteristics of teaching and learning, and characteristics of the overall development of these countries. PISA data were collected via a reading test and student questionnaires from 4,729 students in Estonia and 5,810 students in Finland. Regression analysis made it possible to identify the speed of the rise in PISA scores in relation to the selected variables. The speed was multiplied by the value of the variable to calculate the effect of the variable. The effects of the joy of reading and the diversity of reading materials were greater in Finland, but the effects of metacognition and online reading activities were greater in Estonia. The countries had different values for several indices of development, and this was concordant with the difference in the PISA scores.     

Relationships Between Student Perception of Teacher-Student Relations and PISA Results in Mathematics and Science

Teacher-student relations have a significant correlation with student motivation, academic performance and discipline. For example, the meta-analysis by Hattie (2009) revealed an effect size of d = 0.72 for the effect of relations on achievement, and the meta-analysis by Finn, Schrodt, Witt, Elledge, Jernberg & Larson (Communication Education, 58(4), 516–537, 2009) showed a correlation of 0.55 between the perceived care by teachers and student achievement. These were established by comparing students, but comparisons of schools or countries with high or low levels of teacher-student relations are missing. The present paper analyses the correlation between teacher-student relations and Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 results in science and mathematics on three levels: student, school and country level. The study shows a weak positive relationship (correlations up to 0.16) at the student level, and a positive relationship (up to 0.34) at school level. The multilevel analysis revealed a negative relationship between teacher-student relations and PISA results (r = ?.51) at the country level. To understand the negative relationship, also known as an ecological fallacy, the countries were grouped into geographical regions in which the relationship was insignificant and the positive effect of teacher-student relations was found by comparing with some neighboring countries. Implications for practice and further studies are proposed on the basis of these findings.