(2011). Trudge toward Freedom: Moral Commitment and Ethical Action in Education. Philosophical Studies in Education, v42 p17-24. In this article, William Ayers constructs his Phil Smith Lecture as a call to action. Grounded in democratic principles of equality and social justice, the author invokes a liberal conception of human worth and the universal right to educational opportunity. The author critiques the passivity of the American polity in the face of Barack Obama's election and subsequent educational policies. The speech begins by quoting from Bertolt Brecht's poem \Motto,\ which asks, \In [the] dark times will there also be singing\ and answers, \Yes, there will be singing. /About the dark times.\ Ayers lists examples of the contemporary dark times: climate changes, Tea Party triumphalism, the privatization of the public space, Smithsonian's bowing to anti-intellectualism and art phobia. But, says Ayers, there is much singing in these dark times too, such as those of the mothers at Whittier School in Chicago seizing a field house and demanding a library for their children; the Cochabamba and Cancun… [PDF]
(2016). Small on the Left, Large on the Right: Numbers Orient Visual Attention onto Space in Preverbal Infants. Developmental Science, v19 n3 p394-401 May. Numbers are represented as ordered magnitudes along a spatially oriented number line. While culture and formal education modulate the direction of this number-space mapping, it is a matter of debate whether its emergence is entirely driven by cultural experience. By registering 8-9-month-old infants' eye movements, this study shows that numerical cues are critical in orienting infants' visual attention towards a peripheral region of space that is congruent with the number's relative position on a left-to-right oriented representational continuum. This finding provides the first direct evidence that, in humans, the association between numbers and oriented spatial codes occurs before the acquisition of symbols or exposure to formal education, suggesting that the number line is not merely a product of human invention…. [Direct]
(2016). Freedom of Speech under Assault on Campus. Policy Analysis No. 796. Cato Institute John Stuart Mill thought higher education should not tell us what it is our duty to believe, but should "help us to form our own belief in a manner worthy of intelligent beings." He added that "there ought to exist the fullest liberty of professing and discussing, as a matter of ethical conviction, any doctrine," regardless of its falsity, immorality, or even harmfulness. The classical liberal argument for free speech has historically been championed in two distinct ways. First, the Founding documents of the United States recognize freedom of speech as a natural right. Second, alternatively, that right might be grounded in utility, meaning its acceptance best promotes human flourishing. In this article, the author examines Mill's philosophy on freedom of speech and how it has been challenged at American universities…. [PDF]
(2017). When a Dog Has a Pen for a Tail: The Time Course of Creative Object Processing. Creativity Research Journal, v29 n1 p37-42. Creative objects differ from ordinary objects in that they are created by human beings to contain novel, creative information. Previous research has demonstrated that ordinary object processing involves both a perceptual process for analyzing different features of the visual input and a higher-order process for evaluating the relevance of this visual information. However, it is unclear how and when these processes are influenced by the creative information of the object. This study utilized event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the time course of creative object processing. Behavioral results revealed that participants spent more time processing creative objects than they did ordinary objects. Analysis of scalp ERPs further revealed that creative objects elicited a more negative ERP deflection between 190 and 340 ms (N190-340) with an anterior scalp distribution. Additionally, creative objects elicited more positive ERP deflection than did ordinary objects between 400 and… [Direct]
(2021). China's Experiences in Developing Lifelong Education, 1978-2017. ECNU Review of Education, v4 n4 p857-872 Dec. Purpose: This study systematically reviews the China's progress in lifelong education (LLE) policies, theories, and practices in the 40 years since its reform and opening-up and provides several guidelines for developing LLE going forward. Design/Approach/Methods: This study analyzes the characteristics of LLE in China through a review of its developmental process and prospects at the policy, theoretical, and practical levels. Findings: While following the goals of LLE set by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, China has developed and implemented LLE with distinctly Chinese characteristics. The development of LLE in China has focused on protecting citizens' learning rights, improving civic literacy, and enhancing human resources. This study reveals four aspects of China's experiences of LLE development. First, as the primary actor in promoting LLE, the government took responsibility for providing guidance and leadership in the development and… [PDF] [Direct]
(2015). Citizenship for a Changing Global Climate: Learning from New Zealand and Norway. Citizenship, Social and Economics Education, v14 n1 p19-27 Apr. Young citizens under the age of 25?years make up just under half of the world's population. Globally, they face new, interrelated problems of dangerous environmental change, including increasing incidence of severe storms associated with a changing climate, and related new threats to human security. Addressing the complex challenge of climate change will require new understandings of citizen rights and responsibilities. In this context, we were interested in comparing and contrasting how young citizens currently conceive their rights and responsibilities in two high-consumption societies with sharply contrasting democratic contexts: New Zealand's market liberal democracy and the social democratic state of Norway. Discussion reflects on youthful expectations of citizen rights and responsibilities and the implications of their assumptions in a changing climate…. [Direct]
(2019). Celebrating Stonewall at 50: A Culturally Geographic Approach to Introducing LGBT Themes. Social Studies, v110 n1 p33-42. July 28, 2019, marks the 50th anniversary of a police raid on the Stonewall Inn. During this raid, police verbally, and in some cases, physically accosted patrons of the Stonewall Inn. Events from this encounter eventually set off a series of protests by members and allies of the LGBT community. These protests came to be known as the Stonewall Riots. On June 24, 2016, the Stonewall Inn became the first U.S. National Monument dedicated to LGBT history. While this event served as a pivotal role in the gay rights movement, this article begins with an investigation into the geographical and spatial conditions surrounding the Stonewall Inn and its neighborhood. In asking, "Why New York City, why Stonewall?" we attempt to establish a cultural version of geography that uses a National Monument as a way for students to engage in the world around them through an examination of human/environment relationships. To explore this further and to celebrate Stonewall at 50, we present a… [Direct]
(2018). Being Good Pharisees: The Joy of Inauthentic Community. Part II. Christian Higher Education, v17 n5 p290-295. What does it mean to be a community in right relation with each other? That question, as well as a partial answer found in Taylor University's Life Together Covenant, still bear the marks of Wesleyan evangelical convictions. Exploring those convictions shines light for us on why this question and Taylor's covenant matter for Taylor University and, in their own unique ways, all Christian institutions of higher education. Addressing that question then comes through three points. First, we must never forget that Christianity is a social religion. Second, Christianity is social because its mission is to be a people, a nation called out of every nation, who are not like the other nations, for the sake of the nations. Finally, integral to Christian mission is to become what we have been made through baptism. In the end, righteousness cannot stem from mere human efforts as we endeavor to live out this mission. In contrast, we must depend upon the Holy Spirit to empower us to be the… [Direct]
(2016). How to Rapidly Construct a Spatial-Numerical Representation in Preliterate Children (At Least Temporarily). Developmental Science, v19 n1 p126-144 Jan. Spatial processing of numbers has emerged as one of the basic properties of humans' mathematical thinking. However, how and when number-space relations develop is a highly contested issue. One dominant view has been that a link between numbers and left/right spatial directions is constructed based on directional experience associated with reading and writing. However, some early forms of a number-space link have been observed in preschool children who cannot yet read and write. As literacy experience is evidently not necessary for number-space effects, we are searching for other potential sources of this association. Here we propose and test a hypothesis that the number-space link can be quickly constructed in preschool children's cognition on the basis of spatially oriented visuo-motor activities. We trained 3- and 4-year-old children with a non-numerical spatial movement task (left-to-right or right-to-left), where via touch screen children had to move a frog across a pond. After… [Direct]
(1993). Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (76th, Kansas City, Missouri, August 11-14, l993). Part XII: Foreign and International Media. The Foreign and International Media section of this collection of conference presentations contains the following 27 papers: "Cultural Orientation in Turkey: Are The Theorists Right about the Effects of Imported Cultural Products?" (Christine Ogan); "The Role of Mass Media in a Newly Emerging Democracy: The Latvian Case Study" (Bruce J. Evensen); "Global TV News in Developing Countries: CNN's Expansion to Egypt" (Joe S. Foote and Hussein Amin); "West German and U.S. Journalists: Similarities and Differences in the l990s" (David Weaver and others); "The Price Was Right–Or Was It? The l991 British Commercial Broadcasting Franchise Auction and the New ITV" (Susan Q. Johnson and Joe S. Foote); "Goodbye to the Global Village: Entertainment TV Patterns in 50 Countries" (Anne Cooper-Chen); "U.S. Communication Policies Regarding Foreign Ownership of Media Outlets and Producers" (Xuejun Yu); "Historic Images of… [PDF]
(2018). The Evolution of Positive Behavioral Intervention and Support. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, v20 n1 p4-5 Jan. This article focuses on an analysis of trends in the "Journal of Positive Behavorial Interventions" ("JPBI") since its inception. The primary emphasis is on the variables that contributed to the origin of the journal. Key researchers and other professionals felt that there was a need for a new field (with a new journal) in order to meet an unfullfilled demand. This new field would need to emphasize values of human dignity, nonaversive behavioral interventions, and data to support claims of effectiveness. Thus, both values and science were key elements of "JPBI" right from the very start, and have continued until the present time. These emphases have resulted in "JPBI" becoming one of the premier journals in the behavioral sciences, with an enthusiastic, competent, and ever growing number of members. The future looks bright…. [Direct]
(2021). Tomorrow Will Be Different: Children's Ability to Incorporate an Intervening Event When Thinking about the Future. Developmental Psychology, v57 n3 p376-385 Mar. Future-oriented thought is ubiquitous in humans but challenging to study in children. Adults not only think about the future but can also represent a future state of the world that differs from the present. However, behavioral tasks to assess the development of future thought have not traditionally required children to do so as most can be solved based solely on representations of the present. To overcome this limitation, we modified an existing task such that children could not simply rely on a representation of the present to succeed (i.e., the correct answer for "right now" was different than the correct answer for "tomorrow"). A sample of 117 4- to 7-year-olds (64 girls and 53 boys) from Ottawa, Canada, and surrounding area, who were predominantly European Canadian (78.6% of sample) and had a family income of over $100,000 CAN (66.1% of sample) participated. Children remembered the information required to solve our task, and there were age-related changes in… [Direct]
(2019). Optimal Safe Staffing Standard for Right Workforce Planning. Journal of Learning and Teaching in Digital Age, v4 n2 p42-44. The Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven automated decision-making support system has been heralded as a considerable workforce replacement in the near future by automating mundane repetitive tasks and eliminating time-consuming support tasks in all disciplines (Park & Glenn, 2017). Even though a number of practical hurdles in the field of the AI-integrated pathology still exist–which is mainly caused by a higher degree of complexity and specialty of the pathologic diagnosis process–such difficulties are expected to be soon overcome by rapid advances in AI technology. Accordingly, there is a growing sense of debate that medical AI could cause human doctors to lose their jobs (Lee, 2019). Since the doctoral function that can be replaced by AI is mainly limited to diagnoses at this stage, the opinion that doctors who make good use of AI would have a better chance of surviving seems to be a likely outcome (Lee, 2019). However, a considerable adjustment to the healthcare workforce… [PDF]
(2024). What Professional Associations Communicated to Teachers about Participatory Democracy in the Civil Rights Era: Communication from the American Teachers Association (ATA) and the National Education Association (NEA) 1954-68. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Iowa. This dissertation examines what professional organizations, specifically the American Teachers Association (ATA) and the National Education Association (NEA), communicated with their members about participatory democracy in the Civil Rights Era, 1954-1968. Major publications of the ATA and the NEA as well as archival records of the NEA-ATA Joint Committee revealed themes in the communication from each organization to their members. The ATA, communicated to mostly Black teachers (in the South) that Black teachers and students should be treated equally, that Black students should be prepared for citizenship in a democracy, and that integration was a worthy goal with hefty consequences for Black students and teachers. American democracy, according to the ATA, would be improved and enriched by the participation of Black students. Conversely, the NEA communicated to mostly White teachers (in the South) that students should know about the democracy with a heavy emphasis on patriotism. The… [Direct]
(2020). The Idea of Autonomy and Its Interplay with Culture in Child-Centered Education: Evidence from Practitioners in Preschools in Saudi Arabia. Early Years: An International Journal of Research and Development, v40 n2 p174-187. Using interview data, this paper explores issues which head teachers and teachers in a sample of Saudi kindergartens in Makkah face in implementing an adapted curriculum and pedagogy which appear to conflict with the local culture. The Saudi Self-Learning Curriculum for Kindergarten has been developed from Western models of child-centered education as a result of frameworks developed by the UNCRC, Education for ALL and UNESCO's 2015 Sustainable Development Goals program 2015-2030. The Saudi Government's 10th national development plan, entitled Vision 2030, aims to develop and diversify the country's human resources and reduce dependency on oil reserves by creating a knowledge economy. The curriculum reforms are a response to the demand for classroom pedagogies that are based on the principle of respecting children's rights. Consequently, the core objective of preschool learning environments is to work with children in ways that maximize "autonomy." This leads to a conundrum… [Direct]