(Re)imagining Literacy and Teacher Preparation Through Collaboration

This article reports the outcomes of the first 3 years of an ongoing participatory action research (PAR) project that brought together literacy and content-area teacher educators. The purpose of our collaboration was two-fold: (a) to develop shared understandings or theories related to literacy and the place of literacy instruction in content-area classrooms, and (b) to make changes to our work with preservice teachers in order to prepare them to support adolescents’ content learning and discipline-specific literacy development. The findings reveal that the collaborative activities allowed participants to embrace broad notions of text and literacy that are useful in making sense of disciplinary aims and pedagogy. Furthermore, as teacher educators came to shift their thinking about literacy and disciplinary learning and teaching, their work with preservice teachers changed. Implications for future collaborative activities to promote content-area literacy are discussed.     

Effects of Solution Elicitation Aids and Need for Cognition on the Generation of Solutions to Ill-Structured Problems

Numerous techniques have been proposed to assist problem solvers in the solution generation process. We empirically examined the effectiveness of a solution elicitation technique based on the presentation of problem objectives and also examined whether the technique was effective across individual differences in need for cognition (NC). We found that when two conflicting objectives were presented successively, more solutions, more categories of solutions, and more effective solutions were generated than when the same two objectives were presented simultaneously or not at all. However, the results indicated that effective solutions may be more efficiently generated by considering objectives simultaneously. Need for cognition was positively related to measures of divergent thinking, and the presentation of objectives was particularly effective as a solution elicitation aid for individuals with low NC. Implications for creative problem-solving research and practice are discussed.     

Bilateralism,Trilateralism, Multilateralism and Poly-Sequents

The paper introduces the formula structure of poly-sequents, allowing the expression of poly-positions: positions with any number of stances, of which bilateralism and trilateralism are special cases. The paper also puts forward the view that s-coherence (strong coherence) of such poly-positions can be defined inferentially, without appealing to their validity under interpretations of the object language.

     

Game Semantics for the Lambek-Calculus: Capturing Directionality and the Absence of Structural Rules

In this paper, we propose a game semantics for the (associative) Lambek calculus. Compared to the implicational fragment of intuitionistic propositional calculus, the semantics deals with two features of the logic: absence of structural rules, as well as directionality of implication. We investigate the impact of these variations of the logic on its game semantics. Presented by Wojciech Buszkowski     

Perceived parenting style, self-esteem and psychological distress in adolescents with heart disease

The aim of the study was to assess the relationships between perceived parenting style, depressed mood, anxiety and self-esteem in adolescents with heart disease compared with healthy adolescents. Forty-five adolescents, aged 12-18 with congenital or acquired heart disease and 50 healthy age-matched adolescents answered perceived parental behaviour, self-esteem, depressed mood and anxiety questionnaires. The study group reported higher perceived acceptance and lower perceived parental control than healthy adolescents, but similar levels of depressed mood, anxiety and self-esteem. Fischer's r-to-z transformation and regression analyses showed different associations between perceived parenting style and depressed mood, anxiety and self esteem. In the study group, higher perceived parental acceptance was associated with lower depressed mood and higher self-esteem, whereas these associations were not significant in the control group. In the control, but not the study group, higher perceived parental control was associated with lower depressed mood and lower anxiety. Parenting style proved to exert a differential effect on adolescents with and without heart disease. For the former, perceived parental acceptance had a more substantial effect on psychological well-being than perceived parental control. Professionals caring for these adolescents should be aware of the special importance of parenting style on the well-being of adolescents with heart disease, and address this issue in the clinical setting with the patients and their parents.     

Self-reported leadership experiences in relation to inventoried social and emotional intelligence

Leadership has both social and emotional components. Social intelligence appears to tap the social component found in leadership. Recently, emotional intelligence has surfaced as a stable individual difference variable and appears to tap the emotional component of leadership. Mayer and Salovey (1993) suggested that the emotional intelligence and social intelligence constructs overlap. This study examined the power of both emotional and social intelligence to account for variance in self-reported leadership experiences. One hundred ninety-two university students completed measures of social and emotional intelligence and a measure of leadership experiences. Regression analyses showed that both social intelligence and emotional intelligence accounted for variance in leadership experiences. Although emotional intelligence was found to account for variance in leadership, it did not add unique variance beyond social intelligence. Social intelligence appears to play a principal role in leadership.     

Communalism sans violence: A Keralan exceptionalism?

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I undertake a broad survey of communalism in the southern Indian state of Kerala. I argue that Kerala displays as a dominant trend, a non-antagonistic form of communalism or peaceful competition among religious communities, which is a rarity for the Indian subcontinent. The reasons for this can be attributed to the severity of caste oppression and the consequent salience of caste divisions, deep inter-religious civic engagement, governmental participation by communal parties, and the presence of a communist movement and the strength of class politics. However, the emergence of Hindu nationalism as a powerful force in India and its capture of state power, and the rise of Islamist extremism, largely as a response to it, have led to a new conjuncture of antagonistic assertion of religious identities. Kerala is not immune to these trends. The transformation in political economy and the de-radicalization of the communist movement have provided a conducive atmosphere to them. Yet, non-antagonistic communalism prevails, but less emphatically.