Search

Copyright of Italian Journal of Health Education, Sport & Inclusive Didactics is the property of Edizioni Universitarie Romane and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

When embarking on our journey of learning in mathematics, we may envision a linear path of modules for acquiring mathematical knowledge and understanding to reach a predetermined outcome. However, this is a partial representation since the outcome and path are developing and adapting and our learning is continuously emerging. In this paper, our journey of learning in mathematics is re-envisioned as a complex adaptive system with agents, internal diversity, internal redundancy, decentralised control, sources of disruption and sources of coherence. As will be illustrated through the adaptive cycle of a complex adaptive system, learning may emerge between phases of destabilisation and development. For this emergence there needs to be openness to embrace a disruption, reflection to interpret the disruption, connection to respond to the disruption and inspiration to grow and adapt in response to the disruption. There also needs to be a balance between individual and collective learning. Through navigating these cycles along our journey of learning there may be emergence of learning experiences within and beyond mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Verb bias-the co-occurrence frequencies between a verb and the syntactic structures it may appear with-is a critical and reliable linguistic cue for online sentence processing. In particular, listeners use this information to disambiguate sentences with multiple potential syntactic parses (e.g., Feel the frog with the feather.). Further, listeners dynamically update their representations of specific verbs in the face of new evidence about verb-structure co-occurrence. Yet, little is known about the biological memory systems that support the use and dynamic updating of verb bias. We propose that hippocampal-dependent declarative (relational) memory represents a likely candidate system because it has been implicated in the flexible binding of relational co-occurrences and in statistical learning. We explore this question by testing patients with severe and selective deficits in declarative memory (anterograde amnesia), and demographically matched healthy participants, in their on-line interpretation of ambiguous sentences and the ability to update their verb bias with experience. We find that (1) patients and their healthy counterparts use existing verb bias to successfully interpret on-line ambiguity, however (2) unlike healthy young adults, neither group updated these biases in response to recent exposure. These findings demonstrate that using existing representations of verb bias does not necessitate involvement of the declarative memory system, but leave open the question of whether the ability to update representations of verb-specific biases requires hippocampal engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children can selectively attend to various attributes of a model, such as past accuracy or physical strength, to guide their social learning. There is a debate regarding whether a relation exists between theory‐of‐mind skills and selective learning. We hypothesized that high performance on theory‐of‐mind tasks would predict preference for learning new words from accurate informants (an epistemic attribute), but not from physically strong informants (a non‐epistemic attribute). Three‐ and 4‐year‐olds (N = 65) completed two selective learning tasks, and their theory‐of‐mind abilities were assessed. As expected, performance on a theory‐of‐mind battery predicted children's preference to learn from more accurate informants but not from physically stronger informants. Results thus suggest that preschoolers with more advanced theory of mind have a better understanding of knowledge and apply that understanding to guide their selection of informants. This work has important implications for research on children's developing social cognition and early learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new developmental model of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and its treatment is advanced based on evolutionary considerations concerning the role of attachment, mentalizing, and epistemic trust in the development of psychopathology. We propose that vulnerability to psychopathology in general is related to impairments in epistemic trust, leading to disruptions in the process of salutogenesis, the positive effects associated with the capacity to benefit from the social environment. BPD is perhaps the disorder par excellence that illustrates this view. We argue that this conceptualization makes sense of the presence of both marked rigidity and instability in BPD, and has far-reaching implications for intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors reflect on how socio-material perspectives on learning and knowledge can be used to overcome dated philosophical assumptions and educated students in more engaging ways. It cites the study "Socio-Material Theory: An Alternate View of Interprofessional Team Learning" by M. Oates. The authors suggest that subjects and disciplines are evolving cultural tools and argue against the assumption that objective and settled truths are being taught.

The article discusses the relationship between intellectual awareness and learning. He argues that while knowledge requires interpretation, there will always be the emergence of imagination and creativity. He concludes the meaning of education is a constant struggle between studying and incognizance.

The article focuses on the portrayal of understanding the nature of intelligence in the science of mental abilities and their treatment of the measurement of intelligence constructs. The two major components of intelligence are discussed which includes, the ability to learn new things and solve novel problems, and the outcomes of learning, namely the achievement of acquired knowledge and skills, which are dependent on prior experience within a specific cultural context.

The paper highlights that the secular and modernistic paradigm of development that lacks spiritual and ethical moorings is partly responsible for the 2009 global economic and financial crisis. Muslim policy-makers, intellectuals and scholars are duty-bound to promote the Tawḥīdic paradigm of holistic development and holistic knowledge. Closely related to the paradigm of development is the issue of the epistemology of autonomous human reason which denies the importance and validity of Divine revelation as a higher source of knowledge and wisdom. The Qur'ān projects the model of the Ulū al-Albāb, "people of sound reason" as intellectuals and scholars par excellence who combine the understanding of the Book of Nature with the Book of Revelation, and integrate human reason with Divine revelation. The paper ends by suggesting that Muslim countries develop institutions of learning or systems of education which integrates worldly knowledge with religious knowledge in a harmonious and symbiotic manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to identify sources of individual differences in knowledge acquired under natural conditions. Through its direct influence on background knowledge, crystallized intelligence (Gc) had a major impact on political knowledge, acquired over a period of more than 2months, but there were independent influences of personality and interest factors, via exposure to political information through activities like reading the newspaper. We also found sex differences in political knowledge, favoring males, and these differences could not be explained in terms of any of the predictor variables we modeled. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of the results. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article presents the author's views and opinion regarding the rapid growth of science and the natural limit of science. It gives a definition of science as a store of knowledge of natural phenomena. He notes that a store of knowledge can be called science if there are people who want to learn and use his knowledge. He remarks that the limitations of science are in human intellect, the capacity for interest and learning and memory and facilities for communication.

I begin by introducing the distinction between intelligence and the g factor and by assessing the recent change in the epistemological status of theories critical of g. After explaining the usefulness of defining intelligence as both the ability to learn quickly and thoroughly, and the capacity to deal with environmental complexity, I offer five key observations about why g matters for everybody everywhere, followed by five key observations about why g matters for geography and environmental studies. In the conclusion, I will argue it is wise to embed the study of intelligence within the critical project in geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper continues to explore the relationship between the imagination and learning. It has been claimed by Maxine Greene, amongst others, that imagination is the most important of the cognitive capacities for learning; the reason being that ‘it permits us to give credence to alternative realities’. However little work has been done on what constitutes this capacity for the imagination. This paper draws on Husserl and Wittgenstein to frame a model of imagination that derives from the perspective of the ‘transcendental phenomenology’ of Husserl. The claim is made that by learning to be in the world in certain ways we must be able to construct imagined worlds with their own logics and presentations. This claim is supported by a discussion of the parameters required for owning and accepting to the self sensory and cognitive perceptions and beliefs. Imagination is also a necessary condition for the understanding of empathy; of grasping what it is like be another person. In this sense imagination can be better grasped through the category of ontology rather than epistemology. It can also, on the basis of ontology, be argued that understanding and acknowledging other cultures is a matter of being, imaginatively, in the other world. Some implications for approaches to teaching and learning are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People are able to explicitly resist using knowledge about one person to evaluate another person from the same group. After learning about positive and negative behaviors performed by one individual from each of two different groups, participants were introduced briefly to new individuals from the groups. Implicit evaluations of the original individuals readily generalized to the new individuals; explicitly, participants resisted such generalization. Days later, both implicit and explicit evaluations of the original individuals generalized to the new individuals. The results suggest that associative links (e.g., shared group membership) are sufficient for implicit attitude generalization, but deliberative logic (e.g., individual group members are not necessarily the same) can reduce explicit generalization by association. When knowledge distinguishing who did what is unavailable, such as after forgetting, associative knowledge provides the basis of explicit evaluation. We conclude that a simple association linking one individual to another can produce implicit attitude generalization immediately and explicit attitude generalization eventually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the shared reading for older emergent readers in bilingual classrooms. Accordingly, children in the primary grades receive the lion's share of attention and resources in learning to read, making young and early readers to have a head start in achieving well in literacy skill and at school in general. However, it is stated that as inner-city, middle-grade teachers will readily attest emergent readers make up a part of their intermediate classrooms as well. The author stresses that there are many studies of bilingual students in special education, which have noted the fact that students improve their language and literacy performance when lessons tap into and build on their experiences and background knowledge.

Students with differing profiles of epistemological beliefs - their beliefs about personal epistemology, intelligence, and learning - vary in thinking, reasoning, motivation, and use of strategies while working on academic tasks, each of which affect learning. This study examined students' epistemological beliefs according to gender, school orientation, overall academic achievement, and performance on two differently structured academic tasks. Epistemological beliefs in fixed and quick ability to learn, simple knowledge, and certain knowledge differed significantly as a function of gender, school orientation, and levels of academic achievement. These beliefs, particularly the belief in simple knowledge, significantly predicted overall performance and reflective judgment scores on the ill-structured task but not on the well-structured task. Implications concerning the relations among epistemological beliefs, reflective judgment, gender, school orientation, task structure, and achievement are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Over the years, research on students’ epistemological beliefs has resulted in a growing common understanding but there are still some major points of discussion. Especially, the lack of consensus on the context-general and/or context-specific nature of epistemological beliefs deserves our attention. We argue that research in the field today is mainly characterized by a top-down approach that investigates students’ domain-specific beliefs from a general epistemological perspective. Alternatively, we report on one of our studies as well as some other research that takes a bottom-up approach starting from students’ domain-specific belief systems and analyzing their epistemic dimensions. Results of these studies point to the highly domain-specific nature of students’ beliefs about knowledge and knowing. Therefore, a conceptual distinction between students’ general epistemological beliefs and the epistemic dimensions of domain-related belief systems is recommended as a more appropriate way to address the context-general–context-specific discussion on epistemological beliefs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Research on epistemological beliefs has clearly increased in the last decade. Even though the construct is clearer and relevant data are being collected, there are important theoretical and methodological issues that need further clarification. One of them is the debate about the domain generality–specificity of epistemological beliefs. I argue that there are both theoretical and methodological difficulties that hinder a more fruitful approach of the domain generality–specificity debate. Differences in goals and scope of the diverse conceptualizations about epistemological beliefs and how they devise the role of content-domain and context are a major source of difficulties. Methodological problems such as whether such epistemological beliefs can be measured “in isolation”—free of content and context influence—or the impossibility of collecting direct measures of epistemological beliefs may influence how the domain generality–specificity question is approached. Some suggestions about how these difficulties may be overcome are developed. The relevance of exploring epistemological beliefs across domains and across contexts is emphasized. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Argues that the intellectual technologies of lifelong learning can be positioned as part of the ordering practices associated with governing at a distance and technologies of the self through which different forms of subjectivity are fashioned. Examination on the discourses of lifelong learning as a strategy of both governmentality and a technology of the self; Discussion on the concept of governmentality; Analysis of the use of space and time by the students; Explanation on research as intellectual technologies.

From a sociological theoretical perspective the crisis of knowledge appears to be characteristic of a knowledge society in which the importance of knowledge has increased but the importance of the traditional university system has decreased. In contrast to Husserl, I do not start with the "last" questions, but with the first question: namely, how is knowledge possible? To answer this, I define learning as a communicative practice that produces knowledge. This emphasizes the distinction between knowledge and intelligence. "Intelligence" denotes problem-solving mechanisms which can be embedded in various ways: organically in genomes; technologically in instruments; and socially in the rule systems of institutions (II-III). On this basis, the form of knowledge for the knowledge society contrasts knowledge/non-knowledge and is set against competing forms which contrast knowledge/belief or knowledge/power. The knowledge society thus stands in great need of knowledge about how to deal with ignorance or non-knowledge, particularly in order to cope with systemic risks. The use of risk models by banks serves as one example of how organizations in the knowledge society turn their dependence on knowledge and ignorance into strategies for coping with uncertainty (IV-V). Ignorance is always the corollary of knowledge. Thus, in conclusion irony and power are introduced as exemplary ways of dealing with this form of knowledge (VI-VII). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis reported in this article is grounded in the practice of classroom-based developmental or transformational research and focuses on the distributed views of intelligence developed by Pea (1993) and by Hutchins (1995). The general areas of agreement with this theoretical perspective include both the nondualist orientation and the critical role attributed to tool use. Against this background, I focus on two aspects of the distributed view that I and my colleagues have found necessary to modify for out purposes. The first concerns the legitimacy of taking the individual as the unit of analysis, and here 1 argue that the distributed view implicitly accepts key tenets of mainstream American psychology's characterization of the individual even as it explicitly rejects it. The second modification concerns distributed intelligence's characterization of tool use. Drawing on a distinction made by Dewey, I argue that it is more useful for the purposes of instructional design to focus on activity that involves using the tool as an instrument, rather than focusing on the tool itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research into the very long-term retention of knowledge originally acquired during the processes of formal education at school and university has demonstrated that such knowledge may be retained at high levels over very long retention intervals. The pattern of retention typically takes the form of a comparatively short period marked by forgetting (lasting between 1 and 6 years) followed by a long period of stable retention (usually longer than 30 years). For courses taken at school the level attained over a series of courses (e.g. in learning a foreign language or studying mathematics) is an important determinant of long-term retention. Students who attain moderate or advanced levels of learning show high levels of retention with very little forgetting, whereas students taking single courses in science and literature subjects, and students with higher grades retain more knowledge although the reliable relationship here, between grade obtained and amount remembered, is weak and accounts for only small portions of the variance in retention. Taken together these findings suggest that the retention of knowledge acquired through formal education persists over longer periods of time than popularly believed. Recent theory proposes that these long-lasting effects of education are partly related to the types of learning schedules followed during acquisition and partly related to the nature of the to-be-acquired knowledge, and to whether or not knowledge can be represented schematically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a commentary pertaining to the acquisition of the propositional logic and formal operational schemata during the secondary school years. It was pointed out that formal schemata and the propositional logic are not part of the same structural unity of the mental operations as proposed by Piaget, based on the results of the study conducted by Lawson, Karplus, and Adi. The author pointed out that they have misunderstood Piaget in believing that the students ability to handle problems of propositional logic is equivalent to the level of that subject's thinking.

This article presents an analysis on art education in relation to the promotion of intercultural understanding. It discusses that arts are universal, ethnocentric, and culture-bound and learning about art can be conceived as one way to promote intercultural understanding. It also offers information regarding the International Baccalaureate, a program for the final two years of secondary school requiring all students to follow a course in the theory of knowledge and operating in sixty-five countries.

The article discusses the significance of learning. Several quotations such as "knowledge is power," and "Even a proverb may be true," have been mentioned. The acquisition of knowledge is a necessity due to the fact that this is used in every day living. Most of the knowledge acquired by a person is from their formal education, the rest are from their personal experiences and the knowledge that have been passed by their families. There are countless definition of education made by teachers and philosophers, yet not one explains its major aspect as to the acquisition of knowledge.

The article focuses on the use of enquiry as a method of teaching science. Enquiry may be defined as the seeking of information through asking questions. As to what enquiry really is in terms of science teaching, it was pointed out that most authors who have written on the subject, spend most of their time saying what enquiry is not what it is. The proponents of this new concept believe that this is the answer to dogmatic teaching in science. Dogmatic teaching is supposedly dangerous in that it stifles the intellectual curiosity.

The article presents a study that discusses the impact of the instructional method relative to the acquisition of the inquiry skills. It compares the Guided Discovery vs. Didactic methods of instruction. In conclusion, the Didactic group for the factual-conceptual achievement was favored while the Guided Discovery is usable for the acquisition of the inquiry skills. However, it was also found out that there was an interaction of method with levels of measured intelligence and achievement among the respondents.

A group technique was used in studying the effect of concept name knowledge on learning in sixth grade children. The task involved choosing the triangle on every trial from among four geometric figures. There were five different instances of triangles throughout the task. Children who demonstrated on a concept name test that they could consistently and correctly use the word "triangle" were found to perform better on the learning task than children who could not. The results were discussed in terms of the mediated generalization hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rindermann's paper shows that well-known ability and achievement tests all roughly measure the same thing, general ability. Three potential implications are that the distinction between ability and achievement is not clear, that we should use broader psychological theories on which to build tests, and that we should consider teaching for leadership rather than merely for academic facts and skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Ericsson's research showing several false leads of approaches to innate talents. It also discusses an example of these false leads such as the identification and educational provision on one criterion basis. It argues the research's statement about the jobs of expert are similar to the jobs of novices and recognizes excellence from timing and placement ignoring other influential factors. It suggests that expert performance may be scientifically impossible to prove but it must not invalidate the research's findings.

The article presents a commentary pertaining to the impact of the science instruction towards the cognitive growth of the students in college education. The commentator has emphasized that the cognitive growth of the respondents in the study might be the outcome of the test-retest learning, however, this was not further substantiated by strong evidence. Furthermore, the study by Lawson, Nordland, and De Vito provides a cautionary notice on the use of the test-retest gain scores. In effect, this has led in the employment of the Solomon Group design as a means of identifying the possible learning effect of an individual.