(2015). The Evolution of My Rapport: One Professor's Journey to Building Successful Instructor/Student Relationships. College Teaching, v63 n2 p35-36. Instructors often struggle to find the right balance of sternness and leniency with their students, especially in the beginning stages of their careers. An instructor who is too casual risks being overrun by students who do not take him or her seriously. The professor who is too strict might inadvertently thwart students' creativity and stifle their potential success. The following commentary reflects my own journey to a balanced rapport with students in a university classroom setting. Over several years, my interactions with students have gone from overly formal to embarrassingly casual before finally settling somewhere in between. My experiences serve to help both novice as well as experienced educators hone their rapport with students to create an enriching classroom environment. Various studies have shown gains in student learning due to quality instructor/student relationships and the present commentary aims to aid instructors in finding a balanced and meaningful rapport with… [Direct]
(2018). Georgia Leads Truce in "Language Wars": A Parent Perspective. Odyssey: New Directions in Deaf Education, v19 p70-72. For every parent, at least every hearing parent, having a child who is deaf or hard of hearing presents a challenge, especially since in most cases (as was the case with the author) the deaf child is the first deaf human being that the parent has ever known. The parents turn to experts–the doctors, audiologists, therapists, teachers, counselors–who have studied the issues of hearing loss from multiple angles and worked with deaf and hard of hearing people in a variety of capacities, only to discover that they often disagree. Parents can become a house divided. Deshonda Washington's daughter received her cochlear implant at two years old, and she writes in this article that today things have changed. Children are identified earlier, often at birth, and services kick in quickly. Perhaps just as important, everyone crowds in and gets a seat at the table as educational plans are developed. Speech therapists, audiologists, sign language interpreters, and representatives of the Deaf… [PDF]
(2018). Determination of Bioethical Perceptions of Gifted Students. Journal of Education and Training Studies, v6 n5 p160-169 May. This research was carried out to reveal the bioethical values that special, talented students have about the socioscientific issues that they may encounter in everyday life. Scanning model was used in the research from quantitative research methods. The study's working group is composed of special talented fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth-grade students (N = 100) who have already been diagnosed with a special talent individual in the 2017-2018 academic year and who continue to science and art centers. The Bioethics Value Inventory developed by Kurt (2011) was used as a data collection tool. The inventory consists of five scenarios and contains frequently encountered dilemmas. Scenario issues include active and passive euthanasia, organ donation, GMO products, embryology technologies. In the analysis of the data, descriptive statistics were used for the answers given by the students to the script. Besides, Chi-square test was applied by SPSS package program to determine… [PDF]
(2018). The Starfish Experience: A Case Study of Professional Learning for Burnout Prevention. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Wingate University. Educators "burning out" at alarming rates by years five and ten has become a persistent social problem in the United States. "The Starfish Experience" case study identified a sample from North Carolina and surveyed twelve educators between year five and twelve in the field in order to investigate the effects of burnout prevention professional learning on participating educators' sense of self-efficacy. Participants were surveyed over four months' time. The 20-item survey containing two demographic questions, six Likert-scale questions, and 12 open-ended questions revealed trends in which the supports educators found most valuable in preventing feelings of burnout and building their disposition toward the profession. The focus group sessions contained 10 open-ended questions. The top four strategies to curb burnout were enacting social cognitive theory via team inquiry, capacity building via relationships with mentors, drilling down pedagogy, and personal creative… [Direct]
(1987). Human Rights in Education: Promise and Reality in Italian Education. This study evaluates the opportunities available to women to advance educationally and professionally in Italy. Data from official Italian publications are used to compare the enrollment of males and females in secondary, higher secondary, and university education, and to assess the availability for women of positions at the university level. The first part describes Italy's government-directed educational system, which begins with a private or state nursery school (scuole materne); a five-year, two-phase elementary school; and a three-year lower secondary school, entered by examination and leading to a lower secondary certificate at age 14. Students who choose to go on after obtaining this certificate are tracked into either training institutes or classical, scientific, or artistic Lycees that prepare students for higher education. Recent trends show that a growing percentage of Italian females are deciding to pursue higher education, technical training, or teacher training….
(2002). Social and Educational Justice: The Human Rights Framework for Inclusion. This report calls for the phased closure of separate, special schools in the United Kingdom as a main task in developing inclusive education. It argues that the central problem in the development of inclusive education in the United Kingdom is the continuing philosophical, financial and legislative support of segregated schooling. The report discusses how segregation in separate special schools is internationally recognized as discriminatory and damaging to individuals and society, and how segregated schooling breaches all 4 principles underpinning the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The report challenges assumptions sustaining segregation, including false beliefs about the impossibility of ever including all children in the mainstream, the "huge expense" of full inclusion, and the sanctity of parental choice. Further barriers to inclusion are then examined, including legislative barriers, inattention to acceptability and adaptability, and the contradictory…
(1972). Procedures for Analyzing and Clarifying Values Related to Human Rights. Social Studies Journal, 1, 2, 7-12, F 72. …
(1996). Presenting "the Other Side." Focus on Human Rights. Canadian Social Studies, v30 n4 p159-60 Sum. Criticizes the recent practice of inviting white supremacists and Holocaust revisionists to speak at local classrooms. Maintains that, rather than expose racial hatred and fanaticism, the visits may create credibility and converts. Suggests alternate activities for teaching about the destructive nexus of racism, violence, and ideology. (MJP)…
(1999). The Evolution of Human Rights in the Age of Biotechnology. Social Education, v63 n5 p303-308 Sep. Examines some of the main issues and developments within biotechnology that legislators must address. Suggests how these can be utilized in the social studies classroom. Includes three articles by Hilary Glazer and Hannah Letterman, Elizabeth M. Yang, and Ami S. Jaeger. (CMK)…
(2001). Ninos Desaparecidos: A Case Study about Genetics and Human Rights. Journal of College Science Teaching, v31 n1 p61-65 Sep. Provides information on the experiences of 50 children displaced during Argentina's "dirty war" of the 1970s who underwent DNA and protein analysis and subsequently were reunited with their biological families. Considers not only genetic evidence but the moral, political, and emotional dimensions of these children's stories as well. (Contains 19 references.) (Author/ASK)…
(1978). Viewers' Perception of TV Images: Empirical Research and Television Aesthetics. To relate scientific evidence with subjective interpretations relevant to the construction and appreciation of visual images, this paper reviews the literature pertinent to the processes involving the perception of visual images, the distinct functions of the left and right hemispheres of the human brain in recording and interpreting visual data, the physiological properties of television images, and the compositional factors that determine the effective structure of television images. The paper concludes that the construction of significant theories on television aesthetics, insofar as viewers' perception, interpretation, and response are concerned, should be based on empirical research that relates scientific findings (studies on visual perception, neurology, and physiology) with subjective interpretations (studies on visual communication and art composition). Such research, it contends, will bridge the gap between factual information and intuitive choices and will enhance the… [PDF]
(2016). "Here, without English, You Are Dead": Ideologies of Language and Discourses of Neoliberalism in Adult English Language Learning. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, v37 n5 p495-508. Ideologies of language (and language learning)–in concert with discourses of individualism and meritocracy that characterize neoliberalism–shape pedagogical policies and practices in ways that are consequential for multilingual students all over the developing and developed world. To investigate how such intersections and influences work in adult language teaching/learning settings, this paper critically examines written documents produced by an adult ESL programme, comments made by some of the teachers, and the everyday talk of advanced students in the programme. Understanding neoliberalism as "a theory of political economic practices that proposes that human well-being can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong private property rights, free markets, and free trade" [Harvey, D. 2005. "A Brief History of Neoliberalism." Oxford: Oxford University Press, 3], I examine… [Direct]
(2014). Mine, Yours, No One's: Children's Understanding of How Ownership Affects Object Use. Developmental Psychology, v50 n7 p1845-1853 Jul. Two experiments examined children's understanding of how ownership affects object use. In Experiment 1, 84 children age 4-6 were asked what a person was allowed to do with a human-made object that either belonged to the person or belonged to someone else. In Experiment 2, 44 children age 4-5 were asked what a person was allowed to do with a natural object that belonged to the person, belonged to someone else, or belonged to no one. Children were permitted to provide as many responses as they wished. Children's responses reflected an appreciation that ownership affects a wide range of object uses, including harmless object use. Children's responses also reflected an appreciation that owner's rights should be upheld regardless of whether the owner's identity is known, or whether the owner is nearby. Moreover, children's responses suggest that they view ownership as restricting nonowners from using property, rather than affecting use by entitling owners…. [Direct]
(2013). Who Decides What Giftedness Is?. International Journal for Talent Development and Creativity, v1 n2 p27-40 Dec. Who, rather than what, decides what giftedness is? The academic world traditionally focuses on theoretical descriptors whereas society as a whole is more interested in practical function. This partly divided focus is becoming increasingly critical and problematic as economies are becoming global and the political objective is to create a knowledge economy. High-achieving and creative individuals are becoming key individuals in making the emerging global economy possible. In the wake of this development follows a shift from theoretical understandings of giftedness to a focus on what the gifted and talented can actually do. There are therefore a number of deciding factors in defining what giftedness is: academic concerns and practical concerns as defined by society. Within each social group with various vested interests in high ability are individuals promoting and defending their own agenda for a number of reasons, prompted unaware by human nature. Whoever has dominance in any social… [PDF]
(2011). Selective Effects of Motor Expertise in Mental Body Rotation Tasks: Comparing Object-Based and Perspective Transformations. Brain and Cognition, v76 n1 p97-105 Jun. Brain imaging studies provide strong evidence for the involvement of the human mirror system during the observation of complex movements, depending on the individual's motor expertise. Here, we ask the question whether motor expertise not only affects perception while observing movements, but also benefits perception while solving mental rotation tasks. Specifically, motor expertise should only influence the performance in mental body rotation tasks (MBRT) with left-right judgment, evoking a perspective transformation, whereas motor expertise should not affect the MBRT with same-different judgment, evoking an object-related transformation. Participants with and without motor expertise for rotational movements were tested in these two conditions in the MBRT. Results showed that motor experience selectively affected performance in the MBRT with the left-right judgment, but not with same-different judgment. More precisely, motor expertise only benefited performance when human figures… [Direct]