Development of historical understanding among 9- to 14-year old children

The study attempted an understanding of the cognitive process involved in appreciation of history and the developmental pattern of the same. A test of Historical Understanding (HU) was constructed consisting of items which were similar to historical situations, but real historical episodes were not included in order to avoid any effect of prior knowledge and memory of historical facts. The test items were pilot tested and refined. A random sample of 15 children, 9–14 years of age (Grades 4, 6 and 8), was administered the test with clinical probing followed by an interview to assess children’s idea of past and history. The findings revealed that appreciation of the difference between past and history, chronology, and historical imagination emerged early by 9 years of age developing further with age/Grade. Development of some dimensions such as empathy and critical analysis appeared late by 13–14 years.     

The Unnatural Nature of Nature and Nurture: Questioning the Romantic Heritage

From a cultural-historical perspective, nature and nurture (and thus education) are contested concepts. The paper focuses on the nature/nurture debate in the work of William Shakespeare (influenced by Montaigne) and in the Romantic tradition (evidenced by Rousseau and Wordsworth), and argues that while our Romantic inheritance (still highly influential in education) problematises nurture, it tends to mystify nature. Given that conceptions of nature are culturally driven, there is an urgent educational challenge to problematise nature as well as nurture.

The impact of socially conveyed norms on the reporting of sexual behavior and attitudes by men and women

This study explored the impact of verbally-conveyed social norms on college students’ reports of sexual behavior and attitudes. Some participants overheard a staged conversation that enforced conservative or permissive social norms. Men and women in the permissive condition were more likely to report extradyadic involvement than those in the conservative condition. Men in the conservative condition reported an older age at first intercourse and fewer lifetime and one-time only sexual partners than did men who did not overhear a conversation. Men’s and women’s reports of sexual attitudes were unaffected by the manipulation. That a transient social norm had an impact on reports of sexual behavior lends support to the notion that some apparent sex differences in sexual behavior are at least partially reporting differences due to the influence of differential social norms. Sexual attitudes were less influenced by the social context, suggesting that attitudinal sex differences may be more robust.     

Time to get a new mountain? The role of function in children's conceptions of natural kinds

Prior research indicates that young children are promiscuously teleological, attributing purpose not only to artifacts, but also to living and non-living natural entities. This study further examines the role of function in children's reasoning about different object kinds by indirectly probing children's intuitions about what types of entities can be rendered functionless. Specifically, children were asked to decide whether entities that could no longer perform certain activities should be fixed/replaced (e.g. "Do you need to get a new one?"). Results reveal that young children broadly view both artificial and natural kinds that can no longer perform certain activities as needing to be fixed or replaced. These findings suggest that the teleo-functional bias not only influences children's explanatory preferences but also their category judgments.