(1968). Report on Three Demonstration Projects in the City Schools from the New York City Commission on Human Rights. Reported are the findings of hearings on the operation of three demonstration projects, IS 201, Two-Bridges, and Ocean Hill-Brownsville, in decentralized school districts in New York City. The hearings were concerned with the impact of the projects on the schools and community in these districts and with any evidence of improved education as a result of decentralization. In addition to discussing the projects in each district, the report describes the roles of the parents, teachers, supervisors, and central Board participating in the projects, and discusses the increased community participation and problems of staffing and fair political participation which accompany decentralization. Also, it stresses the need for safeguards against possible abuses on the part of local governing boards in a decentralized school system. (EF)… [PDF]
(2013). Toward a Definition of Intrinsic Axes: The Effect of Orthogonality and Symmetry on the Preferred Direction of Spatial Memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, v39 n6 p1914-1929 Nov. Mou, Zhao, and McNamara (2007) proposed the "intrinsic model of human spatial memory," which posits that a viewer's memory of an array of objects will exhibit a preferred direction that is aligned with an intrinsic axis of the array. They defined intrinsic axes as salient axes created in part by the physical (geometric) properties of the array. To date, these geometric characteristics have received little research attention. We begin such an endeavor by evaluating the role of symmetry and orthogonality (i.e., number of right angles in an array of objects) in spatial memory. Participants viewed a layout of objects from a single (Experiment 1) viewpoint or 2 (Experiment 2) viewpoints and then judged relative directions within the layout from memory. Orthogonality and symmetry were associated with decreased reliance on egocentric reference systems but were qualified by a generally greater reliance on egocentric reference frames than is common in the literature. Indeed, for… [Direct]
(2013). Building a Community that Includes All Learners. Social Studies and the Young Learner, v25 n3 p5-8 Jan-Feb. One way to engage all students and ensure that they feel valued within a classroom is to provide opportunities for learning that tap into varied intelligences. According to Howard Gardner, "It is of the utmost importance that we recognize and nurture all of the varied human intelligences, and all of the combinations of intelligences." Because this reflects their thinking, the authors plan lessons that embrace more than one way of knowing. As a result, they have worked to "expand their repertoire of techniques, tools, and strategies beyond the typical linguistic and logical ones predominantly used in U.S. classrooms." They incorporate activities that honor multiple intelligences right from the start of their school year. When they offer possibilities within their lessons in this way, they enable students to experience success, which, in turn, encourages them to reach beyond their comfort level at subsequent points during the year. In this article, the authors share… [Direct]
(2011). Education about HIV/AIDS–Theoretical Underpinnings for a Practical Response. Health Education Research, v26 n3 p516-525 Jun. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)- and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-related education is seen by many as central to increasing young people's awareness of, as well as decreasing their vulnerability to, HIV. There is less agreement, however, on the central goals of HIV- and AIDS-related education and the form it might best take. This paper offers a conceptual framework for understanding some of the main approaches to HIV- and AIDS-related education being implemented today, drawing a distinction between approaches which are \scientifically\ informed; those that draw upon notions of \rights\ and those which are overtly \moralistic\ in the sense that they promote conservative moral positions concerning sexuality and sexual acts. In outlining these three approaches, we examine different ways in which the terms \science\, \rights\ and \moral values\ are conceptualized and some of the key assumptions underpinning different forms of HIV- and AIDS-related education. Findings… [Direct]
(2011). Exploring Multiple Views of History: Investigating the Civil Rights Movement through an Oral History Project. Multicultural Education, v19 n1 p14-19 Fall. According to the National Council for Social Studies (NCSS) (2008), social studies programs should provide meaningful opportunities for students to view human experience from past, present, and future perspectives. NCSS calls for schools to provide children with a sense of history in order to develop an appreciation of the diverse heritage of the United States. For teachers, this involves actively seeking knowledge from the past and using it to help children retain their own traditions while understanding the way those traditions change, today even more rapidly than ever (Levstik & Barton, 2001). The study reported in this article serves as a model for undergraduate students in elementary education to learn how a historical topic can be investigated by their students. As an effort to create multiple views of the past and as a context for teaching history to children, this study examined preservice elementary teachers' interpretations of interview information that was obtained from… [PDF] [Direct]
(2014). Utilization of Cloud Computing in Education and Research to the Attainment of Millennium Development Goals and Vision 2030 in Kenya. Universal Journal of Educational Research, v2 n2 p193-199. Kenya Educational and Research fraternity has highly qualified human resource capacity with globally gained experiences. However each research entity works in disparity due to the absence of a common digital platform while educational units don't even have the basic infrastructure. For sustainability of Education and research progression, collaboration amongst students, Teachers, Lecturers and International researchers on a common central repository of digital content is a requirement. The absence of a centralized digital content repository containing e-learning resources, research applications and tools with a collaborative on-line modern digital library accessible with a controlled right based accessibility has denied students in remote areas access to education, researchers from collaborating with their peers and industry from innovation benefits. This study proposes a framework of cloud computing (CC) owned and maintained by the government. The developed repository may need to be… [PDF]
(2011). International Rules for Pre-College Science Research: Guidelines for Science and Engineering Fairs, 2010-2011. Society for Science & the Public This paper presents the rules and guidelines of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2011 to be held in Los Angeles, California in May 8-13, 2011. In addition to providing the rules of competition, these rules and guidelines for conducting research were developed to facilitate the following: (1) protect the rights and welfare of the student researcher and human subjects; (2) protect the health and well-being of vertebrate animal subjects; (3) follow federal regulations governing research; (4) offer guidance to affiliated fairs; (5) use safe laboratory practices; and (6) address environmental concerns. [This guide was created by the Society for Science & the Public.]… [PDF] [Direct]
(2011). Stuck in the Groove: A Critique of Compulsory Schooling. Education Canada, v51 n3 Sum. Learning in formal schools violates several simple principles: that no one can learn on an empty spirit; that true learning requires an absence of fear or authority; that learning is the most natural of human instincts. By making schooling compulsory, we have abandoned trust in our individual and collective experience in favour of experts and institutions. Compulsory schooling assumes that assimilation into society via academic achievement is a right and a necessity for all citizens, predicated on the notion that matters of the mind are superior to matters of the body and spirit. Recent research, however, suggests the \academic-diet-for-everyone\ assumption is flawed. (Contains 11 endnotes.)… [Direct]
(1976). The Reading Problem: A Time for Dual Accountability – The School Board and the Community [And Protecting Human Rights in Educational Research.]. This paper discusses public education and the individual's rights to a quality education in relation to legal and civil responsibility. The proposed policy entitled "Protection of Human Subjects," issued by the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW), is discussed in terms of educational research. The policy guidelines suggest that no projects involving risk for human subjects will be funded by DHEW unless the applicant (investigator) has established a peer review team, the results of which must be received by DHEW for further evaluation by the Secretary. It is argued that educational researchers, as part of the larger body of behavioral scientists, must take immediate steps to confront the issues involving the use of human subjects. There must be a concerted effort to establish free-flowing lines of communication, not only within the educational research community, but throughout the public sector as well. The educational research community must… [PDF]
(2010). \Where Is the Sun\ for Hemi-Neglect Patients?. Brain and Cognition, v72 n2 p264-270 Mar. Human observers use prior constraints to disambiguate a scene; in particular, light is preferentially seen as coming from above but also slightly from the left. One explanation of this lateral bias could be a cerebral hemispheric difference. The aim of the present study was to determine the preferred light source position for neglect patients. For this purpose, we used the ambiguous shaded \Polo Mint\ stimulus, a ring divided into eight equal sectors. All sectors but one were the same shape, convex or concave, as determined by the light source position. Participants had to report the side (left or right) of the odd sector or, in a separate experiment, to report its shape (convex or concave). Eight patients with spatial neglect (left neglect N = 7, right neglect N = 1) after a right or left temporo-parietal or thalamic lesion and 14 control participants ran the experiment. Left neglect patients showed a significantly different light bias from the bias observed for controls and for the… [Direct]
(2001). Promoting Human Rights in the Conservative Heartland of Canada: A Practical/Theoretical Approach to School-based Activism. Journal of Intergroup Relations, v28 n2 p63-72 Sum. Describes a Canadian group formed by high school students, Students and Teachers Opposing Prejudice (STOP), focusing on how it counters: the lack of attention to student activism, teacher conservatism, hate in the community, Canadian denial of a racist past and present, and extremism. Discusses the benefits of engaging students and teachers in collaborative educational research. (SM)…
(2012). The Future of the National Association of Scholars. Academic Questions, v25 n4 p453-459 Dec. The National Association of Scholars (NAS) today is focused more than ever on public controversies and on public tools of communication. Where once NAS members were primarily concerned with debates within the academy, now they are equally concerned with debates about the academy. If the topics they address have changed, so too have the means by which they proceed. The author believes that the future of NAS is to be a voice of rationality in an era in which the university has a fraught relationship with the concept of \truth\ and the human capacity to gain ground on the truth through disciplined gathering and rational examination of evidence. NAS is that thorn in the side of contemporary higher education that reminds people of that larger truth. He stresses that NAS's role is to keep troubling people with accounts of what is going wrong, proposals for setting those things right, and demonstrations of what liberal learning is good for. (Contains 4 footnotes.)… [Direct]
(2013). Education's Effects on Individual Life Chances and on Development: An Overview. British Journal of Educational Studies, v61 n1 p79-107. This paper estimates the effects of human capital skills largely created through education on life's chances over the life cycle. Qualifications as a measure of these skills affect earnings, and schooling affects private and social non-market benefits beyond earnings. Private non-market benefits include better own-health, child health, spousal health, infant mortality, longevity, fertility, household efficiency, asset management and happiness. Social benefits include increased democratisation, civil rights, political stability, reduced crime, lower prison, health and welfare costs, and new ideas. Individual benefits enhance community-wide development. New "narrow" social rates of return using UK Labour Force earnings correct for institutional costs, longitudinal trends and ability. The paper's objective, however, is to estimate these earnings plus non-market outcomes comprehensively without overlaps and also relative to costs. Non-market outcomes are measured by averaging… [Direct]
(2011). Putting a Little Mystery in Teaching. Principal Leadership, v11 n8 p24-27 Apr. Posing mysteries is not just a gimmicky way to increase the entertainment value of a lesson; it taps into students' innate human desire to explore and learn about their environments. Instead of coming right out and providing students with the answers, teachers can build suspense, piquing students' natural curiosity. Teachers can guide students, revealing one interesting plot twist after another, to the key knowledge or insight they want their students to learn. This article presents a few brief examples drawn from classroom materials and lesson plans that McREL, a nonprofit education research and development organization, has developed for NASA to help bring the science of unmanned space missions into schools and classrooms…. [Direct]
(2014). Mortal Imperfection: The Revenge of the Social Animal in "Heart of Darkness" and "Moby Dick". Journal on English Language Teaching, v4 n3 p8-20 Jul-Sep. This paper seeks to explore and peek into the psychological hell of the so-called superior beings who, in their megalomaniacal intentions make the world a difficult place to live for some groups based on ethnicity, culture, race, religion, and other differences. It looks into the duplicity and double standards of people and the way they exploit a privileged birthright to target and demean other groups exalting themselves as the preferred "self" over the marginalized "others". The sham of superficial, social lifestyles is exposed as the web of morality and a politicized sense of right and wrong is questioned. Power structures that uphold society are based on flimsy differentiations that utilize the principle of "might is right" as a power hierarchy is established to subjugate and exploit the less-privileged and weaker groups on Earth. This research challenges the subject-object duality and the veneer of civilization that is rampant in the modern world and… [PDF] [Direct]