(1998). Postmodernity, Cultural Pluralism and the Nation-State: Problems of Language Rights, Human Rights, Identity and Power. Language Sciences, v20 n1 p89-99 Jan. Argues that language provides not only a central identity variable but also constitutes a key means by which people can either gain access to power or be excluded from the right to exercise control over their lives. Argues that, if language is materially and culturally rooted, issues of language rights cannot be addressed outside of social policy. (22 references) (Author/CK)…
(1976). The Commitment of Urban Schools to Human Development Goals. This paper is concerned with the commitment of urban schools to human development goals. The urban school systems examined here are represented by localities with populations above 100,000 in each of the states on the eastern seaboard from Virginia to Florida. The vehicle for examining the relationship of school systems to human development goals is the current school budgets of 1975-76 and the evidence of curricular offerings and services. Human development goals in the Western World generally embrace the following structures, organizations, etc. that serve to evaluate in the making of a society. A society can be defined as a convivial social group. It is the opposite of industrial productivity. Its goals involve those things which assist the human being to fully enjoy basic rights. In relation to the school, human development goals are obvious when they afford a climate for human dignity, evince concern for individual welfare, provide appropriate stimulation, give opportunity to…
(2011). The Role of the Human Extrastriate Visual Cortex in Mirror Symmetry Discrimination: A TMS-Adaptation Study. Brain and Cognition, v77 n1 p120-127 Oct. The human visual system is able to efficiently extract symmetry information from the visual environment. Prior neuroimaging evidence has revealed symmetry-preferring neuronal representations in the dorsolateral extrastriate visual cortex; the objective of the present study was to investigate the necessity of these representations in symmetry discrimination. This was accomplished by the use of state-dependent transcranial magnetic stimulation, which combines the fine resolution of adaptation paradigms with the assessment of causality. Subjects were presented with adapters and targets consisting of dot configurations that could be symmetric along either the vertical or horizontal axis (or they could be non-symmetric), and they were asked to perform a symmetry discrimination task on the targets while fixating the center of the screen. TMS was applied during the delay between the adapter and the test stimulus over one of four different sites: Left or Right V1/V2, or left or right… [Direct]
(2015). Educational Exceptionalism in Small (and Micro) States: Cooperative Educational Transfer and TVET. Research in Comparative and International Education, v10 n2 p202-222 Jun. Since 2002, the 15 member states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) have shifted human resource development reforms from focusing on providing basic, mass primary and secondary education and limited tertiary education toward diverting resources to "Technical and Vocational Education and Training" (TVET) to accommodate labor mobility. This shift fixated on facilitating the creation of the Caribbean Single Market (CSM) in 2006, which was premised upon the free movement of service, capital, goods, people, and the right to establishment (ability of any CARICOM national to establish a business). The motivation was to create an optimal frontier at the regional level to aid in the development of the "ideal Caribbean person." This article will examine how CARICOM members relied upon the non-economic policy process of functional cooperation and the policy tool of what I call "cooperative educational transfer" at the regional level to move ideas and practices… [Direct]
(1973). Developing a Plan for Affirmative Action–Human Rights Bibliography. Working Paper No. 3. As background for assessing the feasibility and desirability of program development in the area of human relations, a wide ranging literature search was conducted to locate materials which would be of use in designing, producing, and evaluating a human relations training program for the Medical Library Association. Information was uncovered in three different categories: (1) discussions of the possible forms the training could take, (2) discussions of actual programs used by other agencies, and (3) background materials which would be of use as a basis for the course designing process. Bibliographies were produced on the following topics: (1) Articles and books describing methods of laboratory education which are used to reduce racial prejudice; (2) literature on the case method of training personnel managers; (3) materials describing the specific problems of supervising minority group employees and the general problems of minority employment; (4) ERIC Research Reports selected from… [PDF]
(1989). Human Rights through Holocaust and Genocide Studies: Achievement and Challenges. (Daniel Roselle Lecture). Journal of the Middle States Council for the Social Studies, v11 p24-27 Fall. Discusses a curriculum on the Holocaust and genocide. Expresses the belief that Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream of human equality can be a world dream. Argues that the curriculum is not a "Jewish" one, because it addresses examples of genocide from many cultures, and its authors are educators of various faiths. (SG)…
(2003). Linguistic Human Rights in Africa: Challenges and Prospects for Indigenous Languages in Kenya. Language, Culture and Curriculum, v16 n2 p155-164. With reference to Kenya, the paper shows that although linguistic rights have been eloquently articulated in various charters and declarations, their implementation has been problematic. In Africa this has led to an imbalance of status between the former colonial languages and the indigenous ones. This imbalance is evident in the educational systems and in media practice. This state of affairs is attributed to lack of clear-cut democratic language policies, lack of programmes of policy implementation, negative attitudes towards indigenous languages and the complex language situation that obtains in many African countries. It is recommended that a guiding vision and a plan of action for implementing linguistic rights are necessary if linguistic justice is to prevail in Africa…. [Direct]
(2013). Conceptualising Arts-Based Learning in the Early Years. Research Papers in Education, v28 n2 p239-263. This paper argues that, because young children's response to the world is primarily sensory and aesthetic, early years curriculum should give due attention to the arts. There is an urgent need to better conceptualise ways of working with young children in relation to the arts. The paper is based on three key and permeating ideas: first, that human beings need the arts for holistic development; second, that there have been many attempts to integrate the arts with other areas of learning in the early years; and third, a more robust and clearly articulated conceptualisation of arts-based learning in the early years is needed. The paper critically reviews the international literature relating to these three key areas and concludes that: early childhood education must pay due regard to the innate human need for aesthetics in the design of curricula; on the whole, young children's experience in the arts has not been nurtured in ways which support their artistically-attuned development; and… [Direct]
(2014). Assessment as Evidential Reasoning. Teachers College Record, v116 n11. Background/Context: Principles of evidential reasoning have often been discussed in the context of educational and psychological measurement with respect to construct validity and validity arguments. More recently, Mislevy proposed the metaphor of assessment as an evidentiary argument about students' learning and abilities given their behavior in particular circumstances. An assessment argument consists of a claim one wants to make, typically about student learning, and evidence that supports that claim. From this perspective, the quality of our assessments are a function of both whether we have built our arguments about the right types of claims and whether we have collected sufficient persuasive evidence to support our claims. Purpose: This paper examines limitations of the dominant practice in educational assessment of the 20th century, which focuses on relatively simple claims and often rely on a single piece of evidence. This paper considers future educational assessment in… [Direct]
(1996). Reframing Educational Policy: Democracy, Community, and the Individual. Advances in Contemporary Educational Thought, Volume 16. Rather than defining and debating particular goals, educational policymakers tend to focus on the technical issues surrounding educational practice. This book considers the social and ethical orientations that structure mainstream policy dialogues and the way in which adoption of some alternative social and ethical principles would change the form and focus of political debates. Chapters 2 through 4 describe four political and ethical approaches toward policymaking, policy analysis, and policy implementation: the utilitarian, the rights-based, the communitarian, and the humanist. These perspectives are used to examine the connections between educational and societal goals. The fifth and sixth chapters examine two contemporary policy issues, tracking and school choice, through the lens of each framework. A conclusion is that mainstream dialogue is shaped primarily by a utilitarian and rights focus on human capital development. Chapter 7 discusses the longitudinal research conducted…
(2011). Sexual Orientation and Spatial Position Effects on Selective Forms of Object Location Memory. Brain and Cognition, v75 n3 p217-224 Apr. Prior research has demonstrated robust sex and sexual orientation-related differences in object location memory in humans. Here we show that this sexual variation may depend on the spatial position of target objects and the task-specific nature of the spatial array. We tested the recovery of object locations in three object arrays (object exchanges, object shifts, and novel objects) relative to veridical center (left compared to right side of the arrays) in a sample of 35 heterosexual men, 35 heterosexual women, and 35 homosexual men. Relative to heterosexual men, heterosexual women showed better location recovery in the right side of the array during object exchanges and homosexual men performed better in the right side during novel objects. However, the difference between heterosexual and homosexual men disappeared after controlling for IQ. Heterosexual women and homosexual men did not differ significantly from each other in location change detection with respect to task or side of… [Direct]
(2013). U.S. Students Study Abroad in the Middle East/North Africa: Factors Influencing Growing Numbers. Journal of Studies in International Education, v17 n4 p308-331 Sep. The political events of the last decade and the Arab Spring have made it more important than ever for Americans to understand the language, culture, and history of the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region. Study abroad is one important method that can significantly increase American students' understanding of the Arabic language and the culture of MENA. During the past decade, the number of U.S. undergraduate students in the MENA region has increased dramatically, but there is still a great need for growth and understanding in this area. This research analyzes data from a cross-sectional survey and focus groups of U.S. undergraduate study abroad students to investigate the motivations, attitudes, and aspects of human capital that influence study abroad destination choice. These findings provide insight for policy makers, faculty, and international educators who want to expand students' options for study abroad and for students who are considering whether this avenue is right for… [Direct]
(2011). Effect of Exercise Training on Hippocampal Volume in Humans: A Pilot Study. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, v82 n3 p585-591 Sep. The hippocampus is the primary site of memory and learning in the brain. Both normal aging and various disease pathologies (e.g., alcoholism, schizophrenia, and major depressive disorder) are associated with lower hippocampal volumes in humans and hippocampal atrophy predicts progression of Alzheimers disease. In animals, there is convincing evidence that exercise training increases hippocampal volume. A recent cross-sectional study in older humans demonstrated a positive relation between aerobic fitness and hippocampal volume. Moreover, a recent study found that a year of aerobic exercise training increases hippocampal volume by 2% in older adults. Accordingly, in this preliminary study the authors sought to confirm the direct effect of supervised exercise training on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) estimates of hippocampal volume in healthy humans. The preliminary results suggest a linear relation between changes in cardiorespiratory fitness and hippocampal volume such that large… [Direct]
(2010). Contracting for Independent Evaluation: Approaches to an Inherent Tension. Evaluation Review, v34 n4 p299-333 Aug. There has recently been discussion of whether independent contract evaluation is possible. This article acknowledges the inherent tension in contract evaluation and in response suggests a range of constructive approaches to improving the independence of contract evaluation. In particular, a clear separation between the official evaluation report and a contractor's own publication of analysis from the underlying evaluation appears to be a promising approach. In this approach, the funder would retain almost unfettered rights to the official contract report (including the right never to publish but not the right to change the contractor's text while leaving the contractor's authorship) and the contractor would retain clearly defined rights to publish any findings from the evaluation (subject only to the limitations of human subjects and proprietary data and some minimal notice)…. [Direct]
(2016). The Aim of Philosophy of Religious Education in a Pluralist Society (Nigeria as an Example). Journal of Education and Practice, v7 n19 p107-113. The major aim and leitmotif of this paper is to highlight the Nigerian society and its diverse, multi-cultural and pluralist composition–a society which has experienced in the last fifty years, and is still experiencing fantastic and tremendous signs of growth in democracy, but which is also almost unsure of the right path and the correct decision to make to attain the expected height in all facets of national development, especially education as it relates to religious awareness. Apart from the observable and undeniable general educational backwardness, there is a huge lacuna in the area of dialogical encounter between the various ethnic, cultural, and religious groups constituting the country as a nation. Even the academia and the law enforcement agencies seem not actually well-prepared for the task of enlightening and guiding the populace on how to live together in a pluralist society like Nigeria. Pluralism should not be understood to mean godlessness or irreligiosity. On the… [PDF]