(2012). Multiple Semantic Processes at Different Levels of Syntactic Hierarchy: Does the Higher-Level Process Proceed in Face of a Lower-Level Failure?. Neuropsychologia, v50 n8 p1918-1928 Jul. Humans have special abilities in processing hierarchical, recursive structures. Here we investigated how an upcoming word embedded in a hierarchical structure is semantically integrated into the prior representation during sentence comprehension. Participants read Chinese sentences with a complex verb argument structure \subject noun+verb+numeral+classifier+object noun\, in which the object noun was constrained by the classifier in a local structure and by the verb in a higher-level structure. The semantic congruence between the classifier and the noun, between the verb and the noun, and between the verb and the classifier was manipulated individually or simultaneously to create a local mismatch (i.e., with classifier-noun mismatch), a sequential mismatch (with verb-classifier and classifier-noun mismatches) or a triple mismatch (with verb-classifier, classifier-noun, and verb-classifier mismatches) condition. Event-related potentials locked to the object noun showed increased N400… [Direct]
(2011). Perception and Action Selection Dissociate Human Ventral and Dorsal Cortex. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, v23 n6 p1494-1506 Jun. We test theories about the functional organization of the human cortex by correlating brain activity with demands on perception versus action selection. Subjects covertly searched for a target among an array of 4, 8, or 12 items (perceptual manipulation) and then, depending on the color of the array, made a saccade toward, away from, or at a right angle from the target (action manipulation). First, choice response times increased linearly as the demands increased for each factor, and brain activity in several cortical areas increased with increasing choice response times. Second, we found a double dissociation in posterior cortex: Activity in ventral regions (occipito-temporal cortex) increased linearly with perceptual, but not action, selection demands; conversely, activity in dorsal regions (parietal cortex) increased linearly with action, but not perceptual, selection demands. This result provides the clearest support of the theory that posterior cortex is segregated into two… [Direct]
(2009). The Preschool Child of Today–The World-Citizen of Tomorrow?. International Journal of Early Childhood, v41 n2 p79-95 Sep. Ideas of sustainable development, globalization and global citizenship raise questions about justice, rights, responsibility and caring for human beings and the world. Interest in the role of education for sustainable development has increased during the last decades, however little attention has been directed to early education. Even if the moral dimension in learning for sustainable development is evident it is seldom discussed or analysed. The aim of this paper is to discuss issues in everyday interaction as aspects of learning for sustainable development in preschool. The examples used as the basis for discussion are drawn from research on morality among young children (aged 1-6 years) in various daycare contexts in Sweden. From the analyses certain core values and competences are identified as tentative dimensions in early learning for global citizenship…. [Direct]
(2009). Toddlers View Artifact Function Normatively. Cognitive Development, v24 n3 p240-247 Jul-Sep. When children use objects like adults, are they simply tracking regularities in others' object use, or are they demonstrating a normatively defined awareness that there are right and wrong ways to act? This study provides the first evidence for the latter possibility. Young 2- and 3-year-olds (n = 32) learned functions of 6 artifacts, both familiar and novel. A puppet subsequently used the artifacts, sometimes in atypical ways, and children's spontaneous reactions were coded. Children responded normatively to non-designed uses (e.g., protesting, tattling), although the effect was stronger among older children. Reactions were identical for novel and familiar items, underscoring how rapidly tool-function mappings are formed. Results depict toddlers as already sensitive to the uniquely human, normative nature of tool use. (Contains 2 tables.)… [Direct]
(2013). A Quantitative Investigation of the Relationship between Adult Attachment and the Leadership Styles of Florida's Public Service Leaders. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Capella University. Many organizations find selecting a leader to be highly challenging. Investigators have found and admit that the study of leadership is a very complex phenomenon that cannot be easily captured and explained in a manner that could lead to a final description about leadership or offer clear steps on how to choose the right leader. Among the many things considered during the selection process are personality, behaviors, and other characteristics of prospective leaders. Great emphasis placed on prospective leader qualities presents yet another challenge that many organizations face–not knowing which assessments to choose to guide the leader selection process. This investigation sought to identify whether attachment styles developed during infancy could be used as an indicator of the types of leadership behaviors and qualities that are witnessed in adulthood. Two-hundred and twenty-six public service leaders throughout the state of Florida participated in this study that sought to… [Direct]
(2010). Translating Education Reform into Action. New England Journal of Higher Education, Jun. A lot of national attention was paid over the past few months to a situation in Central Falls, Rhode Island, where the superintendent took the action of firing all the high school's teachers. What started off as a small story about a labor dispute between the administration and the teachers' union at the high school catapulted into the national education reform debate and had everyone talking from local and state leaders to pundits to the president of the United States. Some suggested it was indicative of the approach needed to reform schools. Other suggested it was a hostile attack on teachers. The author believes that a wholesale, undifferentiated firing of an entire faculty is unlikely to lead to the desired reform outcome of improved education for students. And recent updates to the story, with teachers regaining employment after making concessions on school time and in other areas, only help to illustrate why Massachusetts' approach is more beneficial. Massachusetts is deeply… [Direct]
(2007). Children's Rights and Global Civil Society. Comparative Education, v43 n3 p393-412 Aug. Although the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) was a significant international achievement, its adoption requires analysis and interpretation in terms of the possibilities and limitations of multilateral cooperation. The international movement for children's rights can only be conceived as the result of a system of multilateral education, which from its beginning in the late nineteenth century was shaped by interrelationships among governments and international and transnational non-governmental organizations. The development of international commitments is traced, from tightly-bounded prescriptions concerning children's rights to international community insistence that the survival, protection and development of children are universal development imperatives integral to human progress…. [Direct]
(2011). Early Development of Object Unity: Evidence for Perceptual Completion in Newborns. Developmental Science, v14 n4 p799-808 Jul. The present study aimed to investigate whether perceptual completion is available at birth, in the absence of any visual experience. An extremely underspecified kinetic visual display composed of four spatially separated fragments arranged to give rise to an illusory rectangle that occluded a vertical rod (illusory condition) or rotated so as not to elicit perceptual grouping (control condition) was constructed. After newborns' ability to detect the particular kind of rod-and-box display used in the present study had been probed (Experiment 1), they were habituated to the illusory rod-and-box display (Experiment 2), to the control display that did not contain illusory contours (Experiment 3), and to a standard real rod-and-box display akin to those used in previous infants' studies (Experiment 4). Newborns perceived the rod as a connected unit either in the illusory condition (Experiment 2) or in the real condition (Experiment 4), as documented by a preference for a broken rod over a… [Direct]
(2008). John Dewey's Contributions to an Educational Philosophy of Intellectual Disability. Educational Theory, v58 n1 p45-62 Feb. Leading researchers describe the field of special education as sharply divided between two different theories of disability. In this article Scot Danforth takes as his project addressing that division from the perspective of a Deweyan philosophy of the education of students with intellectual disabilities. In 1922, John Dewey authored two articles in New Republic that criticized the use of intelligence tests as both undemocratic and impractical in meeting the needs of teachers. Drawing from these two articles and a variety of Dewey's other works, Danforth puts forward a Deweyan educational theory of intellectual disability. This theory is perhaps encapsulated in Dewey's observation that \The democratic faith in human equality is belief that every human being, independent of the quantity or range of his personal endowment, has the right to equal opportunity with every other person for development of whatever gifts he has.\… [Direct]
(2011). Forward or Backward? (1920). Schools: Studies in Education, v8 n1 p72-73 Spr. Is it better to aim at a high ideal, with only moderate success in attainment, or is it better to be satisfied with a lower goal, one involving less effort and little responsibility? This is the question which pupils in upper grades and high school face every year. There are always some members of every class who seek the best things. They desire both freedom and responsibility. They want to understand the necessary laws and regulations–even to share in making them. They desire to obey and cooperate in any plan involving the rights of all. They have already caught the spirit which underlies good citizenship. They are the people who are apt to move forward to positions of leadership. They can command because they know how to obey. But there are others–also a goodly number in each class–who desire to be told just what to do and to be \made\ to do the right thing. They want the school authorities to take all the responsibility for discipline. Then there is usually a small group,… [Direct]
(2010). Why Incorporate Disability Studies into Teaching Discrimination Law?. Journal of Legal Studies Education, v27 n1 p61-80 Win-Spr. Those who teach employment discrimination law, particularly as a separate course or part of a course on employment law, are used to covering a broad range of legal models and issues pertaining to the protected classes under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The disparate treatment, disparate impact, and hostile environment models of discrimination apply broadly and are often discussed within a framework of feminist, critical race, or other perspectives. The author stresses that it is important to view American discrimination law through a lens of critical race and feminist theory. However, the importance of race, ethnic, and gender studies as multidisciplinary enterprises that have influenced law cannot be overemphasized. In this article the author attempts to make a strong case that another theoretical perspective be brought into one's discourse of employment discrimination law–that of disability studies. Disability studies is a relatively new field that seeks to examine the… [Direct]
(2011). Competence Profile School Management (CPSM)–An Inventory for the Self-Assessment of School Leadership. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, v23 n1 p65-88 Feb. The professional demands on school leaders have changed drastically and have become highly complex in the last few years. The professionalization of school leaders is high on the agenda. Human resource management includes different aspects of professionalization. One major domain is the preparation, induction and continuous professional development of individual leaders and leadership teams. Another is personnel marketing and selection, which includes the question of attracting capable future leaders and of appointing the right candidates. However in Europe there is a need for standardised tools which provide systematic feedback to professionals interested in assessing their strengths and individual development needs. Suitable instruments are still scarce. The Competence Profile School Management CPSM (German: KompetenzProfil SchulManagement; KPSM) is the first online-based self-assessment in the German language which has been designed to fit the school context and is based on… [Direct]
(2011). Patient Activation: Public Libraries and Health Literacy. Computers in Libraries, v31 n10 p5-9 Dec. Patient activation is a new term for a perennial problem. People know what they need to do for their health: exercise, eat right, and get enough rest–but how are they motivated to actually do these things? This is what patient activation is. From this author's vantage point as a medical librarian, public libraries are well-placed to be part of nationwide health initiatives to expand patient activation. Healthy People 2020 (www.healthy people.gov) is an initiative from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) to improve public health. Healthy People 2020 has identified the lack of broadband access as a risk for health disparities. Patient activation is about people taking an active interest in their health, and the internet is where they can find the most current health information. HHS draws a correlation between internet-based information seeking and the status of people experiencing disease. Comparing statistics from the Pew Internet & American Life Project and the… [Direct]
(2018). Religion and Education: Comparative and International Perspectives. Oxford Studies in Comparative Education. Oxford Studies in Comparative Education Series. Symposium Books Despite the increased trend towards secularization in state schooling, issues of religion and spirituality have remained important. Increased pluralism within societies through expanding migration patterns is changing the religious and cultural contours of many countries in Europe and North America, and is creating a need for a deeper understanding of religious diversity. However, the lack of religious or spiritual education within the educational curriculum leaves a moral vacuum that can become a space to be exploited by religious extremism. More recently, religiously motivated incidences of terrorism in several parts of the world have heightened prejudicial attitudes and distrust of certain religions, in particular. These are profound concerns and there is an urgency to examine how religion, religious education and interfaith initiatives can address such misconceptions. This book is thus timely, focusing on an area that is often neglected, particularly on the role of religion in… [Direct]
(2018). Religion and Education: Comparative and International Perspectives. Oxford Studies in Comparative Education. Symposium Books Despite the increased trend towards secularisation in state schooling, issues of religion and spirituality have remained important. Increased pluralism within societies through expanding migration patterns is changing the religious and cultural contours of many countries in Europe and North America, and is creating a need for a deeper understanding of religious diversity. However, the lack of religious or spiritual education within the educational curriculum leaves a moral vacuum that can become a space to be exploited by religious extremism. More recently, religiously motivated incidences of terrorism in several parts of the world have heightened prejudicial attitudes and distrust of certain religions, in particular. These are profound concerns and there is an urgency to examine how religion, religious education and interfaith initiatives can address such misconceptions. This book is thus timely, focusing on an area that is often neglected, particularly on the role of religion in… [Direct]