A qualitative study of the interdisciplinary approaches to adolescent spirituality in Australian government schools

Abstract

The growing body of evidence in education reveals that ‘spirituality’ as an aspect of learning is largely overlooked in government schools in Australia and consequently, there is a paucity of research investigating whether young people consider spirituality to be an important and worthwhile component of their educational experience. This paper will report on some findings of a PhD study which investigates the spiritual lived experiences of secondary school students. As an interdisciplinary approach to spirituality for adolescents, this paper represents the different ways spirituality is understood across the disciplines and whether young people view themselves to be ‘spiritual’. In sharing some of the student narratives, this paper will explore what spirituality means in the context of young peoples’ everyday lives. It will also address how schools can play a central role in students’ quest for a sense of meaning; and the important role of teachers in this process will also be explored.     

The effects of cooperative learning on trait emotional intelligence and academic achievement of Spanish primary school students

Increasing the students' academic achievement in the international evaluation arena is a challenge for our country, and cooperative learning and emotional intelligence may be a solution for this problem. The link between cooperative learning, emotional intelligence, and academic achievement has been poorly studied so far. The objective of the present investigation was to examine the influence of cooperative learning on trait emotional intelligence and academic achievement. The methodology used was a quasi-experimental design with pre/post-measurements and experimental/control groups. The participants were primary education students (n = 692) and teachers (n = 24) from eight public schools in Madrid, Spain. The instruments used were the Emotional Quotient-Youth Version questionnaire and internal and external assessment tests. Our results indicated that cooperative learning improved scores of one dimension of trait emotional intelligence, change adaptability, and students' academic achievement (Mathematics and Spanish Language). We discussed the possible implications of these outcomes for educational practice.     

Psychoanalysis,violence and rage-type murder

Abstract

This paper presents and explores some ideas about the ways that children referred to a London borough learning support service, their teachers and school managers can be helped by a specialist teacher making use of her training as a psychodynamic counsellor and child psychotherapist. This paper is based on the premise that conditions necessary for feeling secure and establishing the capacity to think and learn by experience are based upon the infant's experience of a facilitating maternal environment coupled with the infant's ability to engage in this relationship. By extension, children need to feel safe enough in order to take advantage of the learning and social opportunities offered in the context of the school environment. The author draws upon psychoanalytic theories and developmental psychology as useful frameworks for understanding the continuing impact of infantile experience upon the learning process. The author also draws attention to the context of her work as an area support teacher, concluding that prevailing political demands for rapid change hinder the capacity of educational support services, schools and individual staff from mediating effectively the emotional demands of children trying to engage in the difficult task of learning.

One starts somewhere -where the learner is. And one starts whenever the student arrives to begin his career as a learner.     

Agency,Identity and Ecumenicalism in the American Missionary Schools of Tripoli,Lebanon

ABSTRACT

When the American Protestant Mission in Syria entered the educational arena of nineteenth-century Tripoli, its administrators founded long-lasting educational institutions primarily for the purpose of converting souls to Protestant Christianity. Secondarily, missionaries sought to impose ideas of gender and class on their students. Through previously unexamined memoirs, school records, and missionary writings, this article offers a microhistorical analysis of the Tripoli Girls' School (est. 1873) and the Tripoli Boys' Boarding School (est. 1904). This study begins by situating the schools within the broader context of an increasingly peripheralized and predominantly Sunni Muslim city, showing that the geographical, social, and educational environment of Tripoli shaped and was shaped by the boarding schools. It explores two trends within the Tripoli schools, namely, the ‘professionalization’ of female students, and the reification of class divisions, as Tripoli was integrated into a system of global capitalism. Finally, it moves beyond narratives of ‘secularization’ and argues that students played a significant role in shifting the emphasis of missionary education away from religious conversion to an educational model of interreligious cooperation that saw Muslims and Christians as partners in a syncretic endeavour.     

The Challenges of the Schooling from Cultural Psychology of Education

Education is in the core of societal change in all its different forms—from kindergartens to vocational schools and lifelong learning. Education—understood as goal-oriented personal movement—re-structures personal lives both inside school and outside the school. This special issue stems from the Cultural Psychology of Education (Marsico Culture & Psychology, 21(4), 445–454, 2015a, b, Journal for the Study of Education and Development, 40(4), 754–781, 2017)—a new approach to the field of education that examines how educational experience is culturally organized. This special issue is focused on the work of schooling as a crucial scientific arena to investigate. It is the follow up of an international workshop host by the Centre for Cultural Psychology (at Aalborg University, Demark) that was very thought provoking and from where several outcomes came out. Some of them are the papers here presented that tried to illuminate the different dimensions of the educational context in the East and West society with specific attention to the Chinese and Scandinavian educational practices. The dialogue between Chinese, European and North American scholars offered a complex view of the current educational challenges in the age of globalization. In this paper I try to focus on some of the most debated and challenging aspects in educational psychology worldwide: diversity, values and practical usability of psychology at school. I re-read these “hot topics” with the help of the themes developed by the authors of this special issue and in light of Cultural Psychology of Education. Then, I conclude by proposing a new agenda for the education of the future.     

Improving urban and disadvantaged schools: Dissemination and utilization perspectives

There has been increasing concern in a number of countries about the perceived deterioration of schools that serve immigrant, minority or poor children. Field reports suggest that such schools tend to be bureaucratic, politicized, and isolated from the most up-to-date information about educational innovations that may improve the educational opportunities for disadvantaged children. Even in countries with relatively well-established dissemination systems, these schools may be “out of the knowledge utilization loop.” In this paper, the organizational properties of U.S. urban schools that may lead to their isolation from knowledge will be discussed, and a variety of strategies to improve dissemination and utilization will be outlined, including political/community organizing, linking dissemination to organization development, increasing the salience of ties between universities and schools, the development of teacher networks, and action research. The paper will conclude with some principles for designing a dissemination system that will effectively promote knowledge utilization in urban centers. p]The conditions in some of our schools are so bad, and the physical and social environments in which these schools are located are so frightful, that we may have to cross off some...as expendable. (Halpin, 1966, as quoted in Englert, 1993: 3.) Her research and teaching interests include innovation processes in education, knowledge use in schools, and schools as workplaces. Recent publications include articles on social values and the quality of teacher work life,Reforming the Urban High School: What Works and Why with Matthew B. Miles, andReshaping the Principalship, with Joe Murphy. The preparation of this paper was supported, in part, by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Center for Effective Secondary Schools, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement (Grant No. G-008690007). Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of either of the supporting agencies. An earlier version was presented at a conference on dissemination and school improvement held at Haifa University, June 1993.     

Strengthening concept learning by repeated testing

The aim of this study was to examine whether repeated testing with feedback benefits learning compared to rereading of introductory psychology key‐concepts in an educational context. The testing effect was examined immediately after practice, after 18 days, and at a five‐week delay in a sample of undergraduate students (n = 83). The results revealed that repeated testing with feedback significantly enhanced learning compared to rereading at all delays, demonstrating that repeated retrieval enhances retention compared to repeated encoding in the short‐ and the long‐term. In addition, the effect of repeated testing was beneficial for students irrespectively of working memory capacity. It is argued that teaching methods involving repeated retrieval are important to consider by the educational system.     

Future avenues for education and neuroenhancement

Education, in epistemological terms, presents an arena in which the development of knowledge and its transmission frame fundamentally distinct assignments: in social contexts knowledge exchange is prioritised to equip individuals as knowers; in theoretical contexts, an understanding of knowing as a state of mind is the primary objective. Distinguishing between education and its institutionalised product –the school–, this paper reviews the notion that today's modern classroom settings limit the applicability of neuroscience research by focusing on equipping individuals as knowers. In contrast, educational research has become increasingly grounded in brain sciences, with future premises examining artificial intelligence technologies (AI) targeted at enhancing learning and memory based on an understanding of the nature of knowing. Taking into account this bifurcation between education and school, this paper examines how the paths of educational, neuroscience, and AI research cross beyond school-enabled learning. This is contemplated across three sections. The first section examines the historical basis of the bifurcation between education and schooling. The second reviews the potential impacts of current neuroscience knowledge on educational implementations. The third discusses how and why neuroscience and AI technologies could be pertinent to educational discourse in the future.     

Psychological Teaching-Learning Contracts: Academic Integrity and Moral Psychology

The psychological teaching–learning contract model of academic integrity, presented herein, features a social contract-based mechanism for moral judgment that is hypothesized to underlie the “belief–behavior incongruity,” that is, the noted frequency with which students who believe cheating is immoral still cheat. High school students (N = 493) from 11 international schools in 9 countries participated in the study. Results suggest that students often regard the cheating they do within a given context to be justifiable, that is, not immoral, implying that such behavior is not incongruous with their moral beliefs.     

Cooperative learning in the classroom: Contingencies,group interactions,and students with special needs

Cooperative learning activities play a significant role in the schools. As such, these activities should be of interest to applied behavior analysts concerned with educational interventions. A number of factors appear to contribute to the impact of cooperative group activities, including the level of individual accountability, group contingencies, and the types of interactive behaviors in which students engage during group activities. This paper reviews current research on cooperative learning, focusing on the relationships between student behaviors, contingencies of reinforcement and group outcomes. The social and academic skills with which students enter cooperative learning activities, and the impact of these skills on students' behavior within groups and on the social and academic outcomes of groups is considered. Problems associated with the failure of cooperative groups are also addressed. The research potentials for applied behavior analysts are discussed.     

Plato on the role of contradiction in education

In this paper, I will look at two passages from the discussion of education in Book VII of Plato’s Republic: 523b-524d and 537e-539d. These passages, when taken together, present a puzzle for the coherency of the educational programme Socrates describes. Both discuss contradiction. One says that contradiction is educationally edifying, the other, that it is corrupting. This sounds like a contradiction about contradiction. As far as I know, no one has noticed this puzzle before. By the end of this paper, I hope to have not only provided a solution to the apparent contradiction about contradiction that is compelling, but also one that shows that this puzzle, which might at first have seemed restricted to a textual issue about the educational programme in the Republic, is in fact one that has far reaching implications for a range of Plato’s theories across several dialogues. Along with education, corruption, and contradiction, I will discuss Plato’s theory of psychology, and his theory of forms.     

Critical Places Beyond the Psychology of Well-Being and Competitiveness

The purpose of the present contribution is to look beyond the limits evident in dualistic discourses in educational practices. Torn between the promises of well-being or the hard facts of competitiveness, educational institutions at all levels of instruction might miss the point of a more holistic approach to learning and creativity. Looking beyond dichotomous discourses in educational practices is harder than ever, in a world where globalisation demands high standards of competitiveness and neoliberalism denies all but economic growth targets. Approaches that envision different solutions are necessarily imaginative, critical and alternative to rigid discourses. In order to find foundational evidence for alternative ways of thinking and talking about learning, I will look at how Dewian and Vygotskyan conceptualisations walk the same paths and go towards holistic suggestions. Concluding remarks will address the disruptive potential of critical thinking in schools for the future.     

Social Representations of Gender in Peer Interaction and Cognitive Development

The paper discusses how social representations of gender and their development in childhood relate to the structuring of communication on collaborative problem solving in the educational context and the consequences of such communication dynamics for learning and cognitive development. In the theoretical framework and the empirical work outlined an emphasis is given on the articulation of different levels of analysis (intra‐personal, inter‐personal, inter‐group/positional and ideological/social representations) (Doise, W. 1986. Levels of Explanation in Social Psychology: European Monographs in Social Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) in a way that explanatory power is increased for understanding the often contradictory findings in the literature around gender talk in mixed‐sex dyads in the educational context.     

Cognitive correlates of mathematical achievement in children with cerebral palsy and typically developing children

Background . Remarkably few studies have investigated the nature and origin of learning difficulties in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Aims . To investigate math achievement in terms of word‐problem solving ability in children with CP and controls. Because of the potential importance of reading for word‐problem solving, we investigated reading as well. Sample . Children with CP attending either special (n= 41) or mainstream schools (n= 16) and a control group of typically developing children in mainstream schools (n= 16). Method . Group differences in third grade math and reading, controlled for IQ, were tested with analyses of co‐variance (ANCOVAs). Hierarchical regression was used to investigate cognitive correlates of third grade math and reading. Predictors included verbal and non‐verbal IQ measured in first grade, components of working memory (WM) and executive function (EF) measured in second grade, and arithmetic fact fluency and reading measured in third grade. Results . Children with CP in special schools performed significantly worse than their peers on word‐problem solving and reading. There was a trend towards worse performance in children with CP in mainstream schools compared to typically developing children. Conclusions . Impairments of non‐verbal IQ and WM updating predicted future difficulties in both word‐problem solving and reading. Impairments of visuospatial sketchpad and inhibition predicted future word‐problem, but not reading difficulty. Conversely, deficits of phonological loop predicted reading but not word‐problem difficulty. Concurrent arithmetic fact fluency and reading ability were both important for word‐problem solving ability. These results could potentially help to predict which children are likely to develop specific learning difficulties, facilitating early intervention.     

Testing the Adult Development Tower of Babel Hypothesis: Homogeneous by Perry Position Collaborative Learning Groups and Graduate Student Satisfaction

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to investigate what appears to be a grounding assumption in some adult developmental and educational research: persons of differing epistemologies who are grouped together will understand one another less well than persons who are grouped homogeneously. A robust effect is discussed within the context of adult development theory, research on collaborative learning groups, and Bruffee's social constructionist challenge (K. A. Bruffee, 1993) to Perry and to cognitive development theory. Collateral research questions relating to covariates of developmental position (according to the Perry scheme) are entertained; confirmatory qualitative data are presented.     

Should the State Fund Religious Schools?

abstract   In this article, I make a philosophical case for the state to fund religious schools. Ultimately, I shall argue that the state has an obligation to fund and provide oversight of all schools irrespective of their religious or non-religious character. The education of children is in the public interest and therefore the state must assume its responsibility to its future citizens to ensure that they receive a quality education. Still, while both religious schools and the polity have much to be gained from direct funding, I will show that parents and administrators of these schools may have reasons to be diffident toward the state and its hypothetical interference. While the focus of the paper is primarily on the American educational context, the philosophical questions related to state funding and oversight of religious schools transcend any one national context.     

Exploring organizational citizenship behaviour from an organizational perspective: The relationship between organizational learning and organizational citizenship behaviour

The present study explored the issue of organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) as a context‐related phenomenon, from a multidimensional perspective. More specifically, it was hypothesized that organizational learning (structures and learning values) would be positively related to (a) OCB that benefited the organization as a whole (OCBO) and (b) OCB that immediately benefited particular individuals (OCBI). The hypotheses identified the school as the unit of analysis; so all variables were aggregates of individual responses to the organizational level of analysis. Justification for aggregation was provided by a within‐group similarity index (r_wg) and a within‐ and between‐entities analysis (WABA). Results from a sample of 31 schools confirmed the main hypotheses, and generally supported the notion that OCB could be treated as a context‐related phenomenon. These results should encourage researchers and practitioners to focus more attention on the organizational context and its characteristics as related to OCB.     

Reading and reflecting sacred texts in the presence of the other. An empirical study on the use of ‘scriptural reasoning’ in teacher education

In this article the method of Scriptural Reasoning (SR), a text-based approach to interreligious dialogue between participants of the three Abrahamic religions, was implemented for a teacher education setting at a German university. Not only students with an outspoken religious conviction but also agnostic and atheist students, preparing themselves to become teachers in public schools, were invited into the conversation. The article documents and discusses the qualitative-empirical research in which the SR meetings were embedded. The aim of the article is not to create a hermeneutical theory for SR but rather to explore how SR as a method, with its specific learning tool of text-work, can be turned into a broader didactical model which can be transferred to other learning environments and which can in the long run provide empirical evidence on successful teacher education in multi-religious and multi-worldview societies and schools.     

Mixed‐methods Evaluation of the Good Behaviour Game in English Primary Schools

Inclusivity of all children in education and within educational settings is an important value and goal. Yet, where settings and practices are not oriented for inclusivity and engagement, some children can struggle with academic tasks and are often marginalised and exhibit disruptive behaviours. The study reported here addresses the social nature of school as a community for learning through a mixed‐methods concurrent triangulation evaluation of the implementation of the Good Behaviour Game (GBG) in six primary (elementary) schools with 10 classes and 222 children in Oxfordshire, England. The Teacher Observation of Classroom Adaptations ‐ Revised (TOCA‐R) was administered in individual interviews with class teachers. Additionally, individual semi‐structured interviews were conducted with teachers, coaches and head teachers (n = 22). In a pre–post design, improvements in child adaptation were observed on all TOCA‐R subscales. In an integrative analysis that brought together quantitative and qualitative findings, pupil improvement was identified in three major areas: inclusion and social participation, behaviour, and concentration. Interview results also highlighted the substantial practical challenges associated with implementing and using the GBG in schools in the UK. Overall, the results of this study support the idea that social relationships within the school community, between pupils and between pupils and teachers, provide an important context for learning and social development. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spacing Simultaneously Promotes Multiple Forms of Learning in Children's Science Curriculum

The spacing effect refers to the robust finding that long‐term memory is promoted when learning events are distributed in time rather than massed in immediate succession. The current study extended research on the spacing effect by examining whether spaced learning schedules can simultaneously promote multiple forms of learning, such as memory and generalization, in the context of an educational intervention. Thirty‐six early elementary school‐aged children were presented with science lessons on one of three schedules: massed, clumped, and spaced. At a 1‐week delayed test, children in the spaced condition demonstrated improvements in both memory and generalization, significantly outperforming children in the other conditions. However, there was no observed relationship between children's memory performance and generalization performance. The current study highlights directions for future research and contributes to a growing body of work demonstrating the benefits of spaced learning for educational curriculum. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.