Science at Harvard University, 1846-47: a case study of the character and functions of written documents

This paper explores surviving documentation and what it reveals about the underlying social structure and relations in a historic time and place. The mid-nineteenth century is chosen as a period prior to modern bureaucracies so that documents are not found in defining filing systems. Some six hundred documents are studied individually and characterized collectively. They are examined not to tell a story, however, but for evidence of their creation and maintenance and of their physical types, functional characteristics, and relations between authors and recipients. The study reveals the fruitfulness of such an orientation to documents, which complements traditional historical uses that emphasize document content.     

Inclusive Learning: the Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the postschool education of those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities,in England, 1996

ABSTRACT

The Report, Inclusive Learning (1996), is the result of a three‐year enquiry into the educational needs of and provision for adults with disabilities and/or learning difficulties in England. It arose from the requirement of an Act of Parliament, in 1992, that the new national funding council for further education should ‘have regard’ for such students in all its work of funding, development and evaluation. The Committee commissioned some fundamental research into the nature and extent of provision, the actual and potential demand for further education and the current requirements of law, and also reviewed existing academic research (chiefly in English‐speaking countries). It took extensive evidence in many modes and, in particular, created a series of workshops in which the students and their advocates could speak for themselves. The outcome was the main Report and summary, together with six supplementary publications. The core of the Report is the notion of ‘inclusive learning’, which places the responsibility for providing appropriate education with the teachers, the managers and the system (ultimately, with society), rather than problematizing the student as one with a deficit. A good education system is not merely about offering access to what is available, but also the making of what needs to be available accessible: the moulding of opportunity. Thus the Report concentrates on a theory of learning and its educational consequences. It represents another step towards embracing students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities unequivocally within the general approach to learning appropriate for all students. This article summarizes the main lines of analysis and argument in the Report and its framework of recommendations to the Further Education Funding Council, teachers, managers, voluntary organizations and to the government.     

Gandhian education in Bali: globalisations and cultural diversity in a time of fundamentalisms

The paper presents findings from a research project undertaken at the Taman Rama Gandhi School in Bali during the first anniversary week of the Bali Bombings in 2003. It explores the school's response to four key components of Gandhi's model of Basic Education (Nai Talim) and shows that the claimed curriculum is framed by two contradictory discourses: a globalisation from above discourse and a Gandhian discourse of tolerance and peace, more consistent with a globalisation from below discourse. The argument is made that the curriculum's commitment to the neo‐liberal capitalist values of the globalisation form above discourse may ultimately thwart the emphasis upon peace and tolerance in the discourse from below.     

Individual differences in word recognition acquisition: A path from an interactive model of reading to an interactive instructional setting

The present research attempts to demonstrate that it is possible and instructive to combine classroom observational procedures with theoretically guided reading concepts. It explores the application of an interactive processing model to classroom word recognition acquisition, in a longitudinal case-study design. Five first graders were observed four times in an instructional setting where they had to search for words in a reference text. From the various behaviors observed, it was possible to infer five differents types of searching strategies: Context-oriented; Code-oriented; Unmediated; Copying; Passive. The results show a great inter- and intra-individual variability in the use of the different types of strategies. In particuliar, there are different patterns of occurrence of the code-oriented and context-oriented strategies (simultaneous versus alternate). The results also show that word by word planning of the search was difficult for very beginning readers.     

Emerging Attributes of Pedagogy and Curriculum for the “New World Order”

This article is a conceptual one designed to start dialogue on educational issues that are unfolding amidst the changes in other sectors of our society such as production, services, and recreation. We first present an overview of the fundamental but profound changes evidenced in our society and then discuss the nature of these changes and their impact on human ability to function effectively within such an environment. In light of the complexities such as uncertainties and dualistic/multiple perspectives and incongruities, we propose that a model for pedagogy and curriculum development should adopt critical thinking as the key attribute—because it has the potential to deliver an education system for the new world order.     

A large-scale test of the relationship between procrastination and performance using learning analytics

Abstract

Many studies have found a relationship between students’ self-reported procrastination and their grades. Few studies have used learning analytic data as a behavioural measure of procrastination in order to predict performance, and there is no systematic research on how this relationship may differ across assessments or disciplines. In this study we analyse nine years’ worth of institutional electronic submission records, a total of 73,608 assignment submissions, to examine the relationship between submission time and grades across assignments, students, courses, and disciplines in higher education. A significant negative relationship was found overall, with students who submitted closer to the deadline obtaining lower grades, however the size of the relationship was negligible, accounting for less than 1% of the variance in grades. The relationship varied significantly depending on student, assignment, course and discipline.     

Curious sex ratios and cytoplasmic genes

Evolutionary theory predicts that most populations should consist of roughly as many males as females. Recently, a variety of populations have been described which show very different proportions of the two sexes, especially in invertebrate species that contain individuals whose offspring are almost all female. Some of these instances can now be explained by the diverse actions of various ‘selfish’ elements residing in the cytoplasm of the individuals, which are transmitted exclusively through the female line. These instances of curious sex ratios exemplify an important principle: the fitness of genes, rather than of individuals, is the primary currency of evolution.