Showing papers in "Educational Philosophy and Theory in 2013"
TL;DR: In this article, it is argued that a models-based approach along with a reconstructed notion of educational value may offer a possible future for physical education that is well grounded in various philosophical arguments and the means to facilitate a wide range of diverse individual and social educational 'goods'.
Abstract: A models-based approach has been advocated as a means of overcoming the serious limitations of the traditional approach to physical education. One of the difficulties with this approach is that physical educators have sought to use it to achieve diverse and sometimes competing educational benefits, and these wide-ranging aspirations are rarely if ever achieved. Models-based practice offers a possible resolution to these problems by limiting the range of learning outcomes, subject matter and teaching strategies appropriate to each pedagogical model and thus the arguments that can be used for educational value. In this article, two examples are provided to support a case for educational value. This case is built on an examination of one established pedagogical model, Sport Education, which is informed by a perspective on ethics. Next, I consider Physical Literacy which, I suggest, is an existentialist philosophical perspective that could form the basis of a new pedagogical model. It is argued, in conclusion, that a models-based approach along with a reconstructed notion of educational value may offer a possible future for physical education that is well grounded in various philosophical arguments and the means to facilitate a wide range of diverse individual and social educational ‘goods’.
245 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a review of the development of a competency-based approach to professional education and assessment and how this might be theorized in health education, and how to apply it to health education.
Abstract: Paul Hager and I worked on a large number of research projects and publications throughout the 1990s. The focus of this work was on developing a competency-based approach to professional education and assessment. I review this work and its impact over the years. Notwithstanding the fact that most professional associations today have a competency framework and that most university courses use them in their courses for initial professional education, they still have a relatively naive view of the relationship between theory and practice. The second part of the article outlines how this might be theorized in health education.
61 citations
TL;DR: The authors identifies two aporias in the discourse of intercultural communication (IC): first, that it contains an unstated movement towards a universal consciousness; second, that its claims to truth are grounded in an implicit appeal to a transcendental moral signified.
Abstract: For some time, the role of culture in language education within schools, universities and professional communication has received increasing attention. This article identifies two aporias in the discourse of intercultural communication (IC): first, that it contains an unstated movement towards a universal consciousness; second, that its claims to truth are grounded in an implicit appeal to a transcendental moral signified.These features constitute IC discourse as ‘totality’, or as ‘metaphysics of presence’.The article draws on the work of Levinas (1969/2007, 1998/2009); and Derrida (1976, 1978, 1981, 1993) to propose more considered ethical grounds for intercultural praxis. Contra a Hegelian impetus towards universal consciousness,we posit an irreducible distance and separation between the self and other. In so doing, not only are we able to supersede the field’s implicit appeal to the transcendental as a source of truth but also to counter perceptibly ‘exorbitant’ claims and actions of the interc...
58 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that physical education has lost meaning for some students because our embodied relationship with the world is not an external or contemplative one, and that the cognitive aspects of our perceptual experience in isolation from the personal meaning gained when looked at from the "inside" or participatory perspective of the moving agent.
Abstract: Physical education is often justified within the curriculum as academic study, as a worthwhile activity on a par with other academic subjects on offer and easy to assess. Part of the problem has been that movement studies in physical education are looked upon as disembodied and disconnected from its central concerns which are associated with employing physical means to develop the whole person. But this, Merleau-Ponty would say, is to ignore the nature of experience and to consider the cognitive aspects of our perceptual experience in isolation from the personal meaning gained when looked at from the ‘inside’ or participatory perspective of the moving agent. In this sense, physical education has lost meaning for some students because our embodied relationship with the world is not an external or contemplative one. Phenomenology, according to Merleau-Ponty, is significant for physical education because it highlights what it is like to be embodied and recognises the role corporeal movement and embo...
48 citations
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TL;DR: Deleuze's work on children can be used to rethink popular, teleological notions of childhood and growing up as mentioned in this paper, arguing that there are many different children in Delemans writings.
Abstract: Children, the image of the child, and the gendered figures of the girl and the boy are thematics that run through the work of Deleuze and feature prominently in his joint writing with Guattari. However, there are many different children in Deleuze’s writings. Various child figures do distinct things in Deleuze’s work. In this article, I argue that his work on children can be utilized to rethink popular, teleological notions of childhood and ‘growing up’.
46 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that Freire's liberatory conception of education is interesting, challenging, and transforming because central to it are important aspects of education which other philosophers marginalise.
Abstract: In this article, I argue that Paulo Freire’s liberatory conception of education is interesting, challenging, even transforming because central to it are important aspects of education which other philosophers marginalise. I also argue that Freire’s critics are right when they claim that he paid insufficient attention to another important aspect of education. Finally, I argue for a conception of education which takes account of the strengths and at the same time overcomes the limitations of Freire’s liberatory conception.
46 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose a notion of empowering educational dialogue within the framework of humanistic education, which is based on the notions of Humanistic Education and Empowerment, and draws on a large and diverse repertoire of dialogues.
Abstract: In this article I propose a conception of empowering educational dialogue within the framework of humanistic education. It is based on the notions of Humanistic Education and Empowerment, and draws on a large and diverse repertoire of dialogues—from the classical Socratic, Confucian and Talmudic dialogues, to the modern ones associated with the works of Nietzsche, Buber, Korczak, Rogers, Gadamer, Habermas, Freire, Noddings and Levinas. These forms of dialogue—differing in their treatment of and emphasis on the cognitive, affective, moral and existentialist elements—have become more dominant in recent educational discourse and practice—an intellectual phenomenon that calls for a more analytic and reflective elaboration of the essential elements that constitute educational dialogues. Hence it is the purpose of this article to elucidate the distinguishing marks of true dialogues, to set them within the normative discourse of humanistic education and empowerment, and to offer a normative and stipulati...
34 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a sociomaterial perspective is proposed to put the world and the learner back together, making each available to the other. But the focus falls on how this gap can be closed; how learning can be transferred.
Abstract: In this article I reconsider the issue of ‘transfer’ in education. Received views of learning transfer tend to rely upon a version of representation in which the world and the learner are held apart. The focus falls on how this gap can be closed; how learning can be transferred. A sociomaterial perspective, by contrast, puts learner and world back together, making each available to the other. Bringing the materialist sensibility of actor-network theory to bear and drawing on empirical data collected as part of a small-scale qualitative study of the experience of graduate teachers when moving from education into work, it is argued that transfer, and by implication, learning, primarily concerns the practical and takes multiple forms: contingently composed of social, textual and material practices of knowledge production, learning transfer is a relational effect of the intersection of these practices. Empirical analyses point to the practice of two broad patterns of learning transfer, termed here the...
32 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the attempted reform of education within an emerging audit culture in Australia that has led to the implementation of a high-stakes testing regime known as NAPLAN.
Abstract: This article examines the attempted reform of education within an emerging audit culture in Australia that has led to the implementation of a high-stakes testing regime known as NAPLAN. NAPLAN represents a machine of auditing, which creates and accounts for data that are used to measure, amongst other things, good teaching. In particular, we address the logics of a policy intervention that aims to improve the quality of education through returning ‘good teaching’. Using Deleuze’s concepts of series, events, copies and simulacra, we suggest that an attempt to return past commonsense logics of ‘good teaching’ as a result of NAPLAN is not possible. In an audit culture as exemplified by NAPLAN, ‘good teaching’ is being reconceptualized through those practices and becomes unrecognizable. Whilst policy claims to improved equity and quality are admirable, this article suggests that the simulacral change to logics of good teaching may actualize something very different.
29 citations
TL;DR: Hirst, P. H., and White as mentioned in this paper showed that there were serious problems with Peters' approach to language, meaning theory and what seemed an odd interpretation of a transcendental argument.
Abstract: This article was first published in 1982 in Educational Analysis (4, 75–91) and republished in 1998 (Hirst, P. H., & White, P. (Eds.), Philosophy of education: Major themes in the analytic tradition, Vol. 1, Philosophy and education, Part 1, pp. 61–78. London: Routledge). I was then a lecturer in philosophy of education at Sheffield University teaching the subject to Master’s students on both full- and part-time programmes. My first degree was in philosophy, read under D. W. Hamlyn and David Cooper and, given their interests, inevitably emphasized the philosophy of language, in particular the work of Wittgenstein in this field. When I subsequently turned my attention to the philosophy of education it seemed obvious to me that there were serious problems with Professor Peters’ approach to language, and I had particular difficulties with his approach to criteria, meaning theory and what seemed an odd interpretation of a transcendental argument. This article thus set out to show that the then domina...
27 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined Foucault's discourse-oriented theory, his explanation of the power-knowledge relation, his notions of technologies of domination and technologies of the self, and the Foucauldian critique of the assumed neutrality of education and school counseling.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine Foucault’s discourse-oriented theory, his explanation of the power–knowledge relation, his notions of technologies of domination and technologies of the self, and the Foucauldian critique of the assumed neutrality of education and school counseling. The theory that we shall seek to elaborate here puts considerable emphasis on Foucault’s theory of power, his notion of discourse, his understanding of subjectivity, and his analysis of how power relations and discourses shape processes of ethical self-constitution. The results of the current study converge with Besley’s prior research on Foucault’s analysis of education, his theory of language and social power, his non-essentialist conception of identity, and his emphasis on the centrality of truth in relation to the self.
TL;DR: Motivation in education has tended to be viewed in dichotomous terms, for example, as intrinsic or extrinsic in character as discussed by the authors, and such psychology-derived theories of educational motivation operate within a dichotomyous ontology, traceable to structuralist notions of agency versus structure.
Abstract: Motivation is a concept more frequently found in venues concerned with educational psychology than in ones concerned with educational philosophy. Under the influence of psychology, and its typically dualistic way of making sense of the world, motivation in education has tended to be viewed in dichotomous terms, for example, as intrinsic or extrinsic in character. Such psychology-derived theories of educational motivation operate within a dichotomous ontology, traceable to structuralist notions of agency versus (rather than within) structure, while exemplifying the tendency in psychology that philosopher R. S. Peters identified over half a century ago, of seeking to provide totalizing, comprehensive theories of human behaviour in emulation of the achievements of the natural sciences. This article offers an alternative reading of motivation in terms of Foucauldian ethical self-formation that attempts to recognize motivation as arising from the individuals’ socially situated and constrained agency, ...
TL;DR: Peters as mentioned in this paper argued that education enables a person to have a different perspective on things, "to travel with a different view" and that education is of the whole person and that, whatever else it might be about, it involves the development of knowledge and understanding.
Abstract: R. S. Peters never explicitly talks about wisdom as being an aim of education. He does, however, in numerous places, emphasize that education is of the whole person and that, whatever else it might be about, it involves the development of knowledge and understanding. Being educated, he claims, is incompatible with being narrowly specialized. Moreover, he argues, education enables a person to have a different perspective on things, ‘to travel with a different view’ [Peters, R. S. (1967). What is an educational process? In R. S. Peters (Ed.), The concept of education (pp. 1–23). Routledge and Kegan Paul]. In asserting this about education, Peters has more in common with another great English educator, John Henry, Cardinal Newman, than one might expect, given they are separated by about a century and start from different philosophical perspectives, namely Kant to a significant degree in the former and Aristotle in the latter. Both nevertheless acknowledge the importance of reason and its development...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors bring Peirce's notion of semiosis, the sign's action, to the forefront of knowledge and learning, and reveal how this turn not only opens up towards a richer conception of the dynamics of knowledge, but also invites a shift of perspective from the psychological processes of learning to the semeiotic processes that characterizes the very dynamics in knowledge production.
Abstract: The later works of Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1913) offer an extended metaphor of mind and a rich conception of the dynamics of knowledge and learning. After a ‘rhetorical turn’ Peirce develops his early ‘semiotics’ into a more general theory of sign and sign use,while integrating his pragmatism, phenomenology, and semiotics. Therefore, in this article I bring Peirce’s notion of semiosis—the sign’s action—to the forefront. In doing so, I hope to disclose how Peirce’s rhetorical turn not only opens up towards a richer conception of the dynamics of knowledge and learning, but also invites a shift of perspective from the psychological processes of learning to the semeiotic processes that characterizes the very dynamics of knowledge production.
TL;DR: The authors argue that inquiry teachers should take the particular stance of an expedition-educator (rather than the stance of either a tour-leader or an expedition leader) to guide students to make progress during co-inquiry, rather than leading them to follow the teacher's agenda.
Abstract: This article explains how teachers might navigate inquiry learning despite the experience of a constant tension between abandoning their students and controlling them. They do this by conceiving of themselves as guides who decide the path with students, not for them. I build on a conception of teaching as guiding from Burbules, and argue that inquiry teachers should take the particular stance of an expedition-educator (rather than the stance of either a tour-leader or an expedition-leader). They should guide students to make progress during co-inquiry, rather than leading them to follow the teacher’s agenda. This stance gives a heuristic they can use to balance control and abandonment in their pedagogical practice—they judge which pedagogical actions to take, and when, according to which actions are likely to help their students to engage in autonomous inquiry and hence learn to guide themselves. Students thus can learn to inquire by participating in an inquiry which is guided, but not controlled...
TL;DR: The authors presents a discussion on the need for teachers to adopt a critical approach in eliminating what is inadequate and preserving what is adequate by modifying or abandoning whatever traditions or practices that are inadequate to improve their teaching practice.
Abstract: Popper’s theory of learning is sometimes met with incredulity because Popper claims that there is no transference of knowledge or knowledge elements from outside the individual, neither from the physical environment nor from others. Instead, he claims that we can improve our present theories by discovering their inadequacies.The intent of this article is not to persuade educators to adopt Popper’s approach uncritically to build their professional knowledge. Rather, it presents a discussion on the need for teachers to adopt a critical approach in eliminating what is inadequate and preserve what is adequate by modifying or abandoning whatever traditions or practices that are inadequate to improve their teaching practice. Popper claims that knowledge advances by searching for and eliminating error contained in our theory. In other words, we can improve our present theories by finding out their inadequacies.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors bring the work of Deleuze and Guattari to bear on the question of communication in the classroom, and argue that these remain overly logo-centric and language-centric in their conception of thinking.
Abstract: The primary aim of this article is to bring the work of Deleuze and Guattari to bear on the question ofcommunication in the classroom. I focus on the mathematics classroom, where agency and subjectivity are highly regulated by the rituals of the discipline, and where neoliberal psychological frameworks continue to dominate theories of teaching and learning. Moreover, the nature ofcommunication in mathematics classrooms remains highlyelusive and problematic, due in part to the distinct relationship the discipline has with verbal language and thought. I first discuss current attempts to better address the embodied nature ofcommunication in mathematics classrooms, and argue that these remain overly logo-centric and language-centric in their conception of thinking. I then show how the work of Deleuze and Guattari on thought as a radical disruptive event can be used effectively to critique current pedagogical practices that privilege a narrow conception of communication in the classroom. I examine a s...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that current understandings of this genre are limited and limiting, and offer an alternative perspective on the genre, built from Stanley Cavell's philosophy of education, in particular, his understanding of the role that representation plays in teaching and learning.
Abstract: The documentary film is a popular curriculum tool, and the goal of this paper is to expand the educational significance of the documentary genre I argue that current understandings of this genre are limited and limiting, and offer an alternative perspective on the genre. This alternative will be built from Stanley Cavell’s philosophy of education, in particular, his understanding of the role that ‘representativeness’ plays in teaching and learning.
TL;DR: This paper analyzed the education of Asian-American children in California in the second half of the nineteenth century, using Foucaultian ideas and critical race theory, and revealed the shifting dominancy of discourses regarding Asian American children.
Abstract: This article brings to light discourses that constituted the education of Asian-American children in California in the second half of the nineteenth century. Guided by Foucaultian ideas and critical race theory, I analyze California public school laws, speeches of a governor-elect and a superintendent, and a report of the board of supervisors, from the 1860s to the 1880s. During this targeted period, the images and narratives of Asian-American children were inscribed with racism. Racializing politics rendered them to be disqualified from attending public schools. Segregated schooling for them was legally ordered and therefore unquestioned. It was a discursive practice implemented on their bodies by dint of a mechanism of a spatial division. This article reveals the shifting dominancy of discourses regarding Asian-American children. Rather than accepting the given historical facts, I intend to reread historical texts in order to rethink the education of Asian-American children through a Foucaultia...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce the concept of perspectivism as a hermeneutic philosophy of science in the context of science, and present a compelling case that scientific theories and scientific observation are perspectival by using science itself.
Abstract: Many science teachers are presented with the challenge of characterizing science as a dynamic, human endeavour Perspectivism, as a hermeneutic philosophy of science, has the potential to be a learning tool for teachers as they elucidate the complex nature of science Developed earlier by Nietzsche and others, perspectivism has recently re-emerged in the context of the philosophy of science in the work of Ronald Giere Giere presents a compelling case that scientific theories and scientific observation are perspectival by using science itself There are many tangible examples already present in science textbooks which, when approached in a certain way, offer an exciting opportunity for a realistic incorporation of philosophy of science into the classroom Furthermore, introducing perspectivism to students necessitates an engagement with notions such as truth, reality, perception and experimentation, through a familiar medium, while painting a nuanced conception of the nature of science
TL;DR: In this article, it is argued that the forms of misunderstanding evident in Camus' play mirror those exhibited in pedagogical institutions such as schools, and that what is often missing in our communicative relations is careful attention to the Other.
Abstract: Among the most neglected of Albert Camus’ literary works is his play The misunderstanding. Composed while Camus was in exile in occupied France, and first performed on stage in 1944, The misunderstanding depicts the events that unfold when a man returns, without declaring his identity, to a home he left 20 years ago. Unrecognized, he is killed by his mother and sister for financial gain. This article draws on ideas from Emmanuel Levinas in identifying and discussing some of the key ethical and educational themes in the text. It is argued that the forms of misunderstanding evident in Camus’ play mirror those exhibited in pedagogical institutions such as schools. The misunderstanding demonstrates that what is often missing in our communicative relations is careful attention to the Other. Camus does not offer us any easy way out when confronting the impossibility of fully knowing ourselves and others; instead, he shows that we must acknowledge the suffering this brings and take responsibility for it.
TL;DR: In this paper, a definition and account of the physically educated person is derived through an examination of the philosophy of Andrew Reid, Richard Peters and Aristotle, and it is argued that education involves the cultivation of both theoretical and practical human excellences.
Abstract: This article will derive a definition and account of the physically educated person, through an examination of the philosophy of Andrew Reid, Richard Peters and Aristotle. Initially, Reid’s interpretation of Peters’ views about the educational significance of practical knowledge (and physical education) will be considered. While it will be acknowledged that Peters was rather disparaging about the educational merit of some practical activities in Ethics and Education, it will be argued that he elsewhere suggests that such practical activities could be educationally worthwhile in and of themselves. In Education and the educated man he specified that practical activities should be regarded as educationally important if they are either transformed by theoretical understanding and/or pursued to the point of excellence. In suggesting that education involves the cultivation of both theoretical and practical human excellences it is argued that Peters’ philosophy of education begins to take on a more Aris...
TL;DR: In this article, a meta-disciplinary and institutional framework of practices used by nurses and doctors to manage the indeterminacy of knowing in emergency departments (EDs) in Australia is presented.
Abstract: This article presents a meta-disciplinary and institutional framework of practices used by nurses and doctors to manage the indeterminacy of knowing in emergency departments (EDs) in Australia. We draw on Schatzkian perspectives of how practices prevail and reflect particular site ontologies. We posit that nurses and doctors draw on a repertoire of practices to finesse their knowing at patients’ bedsides: they practise knowing. Drawing on existing practice knowledges (old learnings) they tailor them in the ED (new workplace learnings). This suggests that learning (practices) in the ED is teleological and emergent. This alerts us to new ways of thinking about attachments to practice knowledges, or ‘the teleological–affective structuring’ of practices (Schatzki, 2006, Organization Studies, 27, 1864), and its implications for organizational learning.
TL;DR: A Taoist reading of Camus' posthumously published novel, The first man, has been provided by as mentioned in this paper, where a Taoist theoretical framework is used to understand the nature of this love and its pedagogical significance.
Abstract: This article provides a Taoist reading of Camus’ posthumously published novel, The first man. With its focus on the early life of the central character, Jacques Cormery, The first man is a semi-autobiographical account of learning and transformation, but it is, like so many other stories of its kind, one sustained by complex tensions: between the comfort of the familiar and the promise of the new; between possibility and despair; between resistance and acceptance. A theme that binds some of the key educational elements of the book together is love: Jacques’s love of his mother and his elementary school teacher and their love for him; love of learning; and love of ‘home’. A Taoist theoretical framework is helpful in understanding the nature of this love and its pedagogical significance. In particular, the book exemplifies the importance of the figure of the mother—both in the person of Jacques’s mother and more symbolically in the notion of ‘the Great Mother’. The article concludes with thoughts on...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyze and prove that Kilpatrick's project method differs radically from John Dewey's problem-solving method and show that pupils learn by work or action in an environment with objects.
Abstract: The project method became a famous teaching method whenWilliam Heard Kilpatrick published his article ‘Project Method’ in 1918. The key idea in Kilpatrick’s project method is to try to explain how pupils learn things when they work in projects toward different common objects.The same idea of pupils learning by work or action in an environment with objects also belongs to John Dewey’s problem-solving method. Are Kilpatrick’s project method and Dewey’s problemsolving method the same thing? The aim of this article is to analyze and prove that Kilpatrick’s project method differs radically from Dewey’s problem-solving method.
TL;DR: The authors examines the significance of Ranciere's work on pedagogy, and argues that to make sense of Ranoiere's "lesson on the lesson" one must do more but also less than merely explicate Rancieri's texts.
Abstract: This article examines the significance of Jacques Ranciere’s work on pedagogy, and argues that to make sense of Ranciere’s ‘lesson on the lesson’ one must do more but also less than merely explicate Ranciere’s texts. It steadfastly refuses to draw out the lessons of Ranciere’s writings in the manner of a series of morals, precepts or rules. Rather, it is committed to thinking through the ‘lessons’ of Ranciere in another sense. Above all, Ranciere wants to ‘teach’ his readers something absolutely crucial about teaching. In making this claim the article emphasizes the extent to which Ranciere advocates an utterly radical pedagogy, one that completely reconceives all the central elements of ‘schooling’, including teacher, student, intelligence and knowledge. Ranciere thinks it possible to teach without knowing; he believes that the best schoolmasters can operate not on the assumption of their expertise, but on the equality of intelligence; and this means ultimately that Ranciere contends that we can...
TL;DR: The idea that a society or nation can be judged in terms of what it does for its weakest members is a truism that has been attributed to a variety of sources including Mahatma Ghandi, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Pope John Paul II, who turned the moral maxim toward the unborn as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The idea that a society or nation can be judged in terms of what it does for its weakest members is a truism that has been attributed to a variety of sources including Mahatma Ghandi, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Pope John Paul II, who turns the moral maxim toward the unborn. The late Hubert H. Humphrey provides the fullest statement: ‘It is often said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the handicapped.’ If a country’s net moral worth is to judged in terms of the health of its children, then for a first world country New Zealand’s standing is appalling: it has slipped dramatically since the early twentieth century when its infant mortality was among the lowest in the world. This was the era of the welfare state when there was free public health care. New Zealand’s family income was relatively high, bolstered by secure markets and record post-war prosperity. Its record began slipping in the second half of the century, yet by the 1970s it was still in the top third of all countries. Beginning in the late 1980s and especially since the 2000s, as a result of neoliberal welfare policies and low government spending on children New Zealand has slipped into the bottom third of all countries alongside India and Mexico. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report Doing better for children (2009) indicates that New Zealand ranked 29th out of 30 OECD countries. Dominic Richardson, co-author of the report, notes:
TL;DR: In this paper, the concept of school discipline was explored in relation to that of educational interest, and it was argued that both these scholars persuasively explain how school discipline may follow when learning activities are successfully married to pupil interests and experiences.
Abstract: In this article, the concept of school discipline will be explored in relation to that of educational interest. Initially, Clark’s account of two different kinds of school order (discipline and control) will be explained. The interest-based theory of school discipline advanced by Pat Wilson will thereafter be analysed. It will be argued that both these scholars persuasively explain how school discipline may follow when learning activities are successfully married to pupil interests and experiences. However, it will be maintained that the epistemic position adopted by Wilson is problematic. Although Wilson suggests that Richard Peters placed too great an educational emphasis on initiating pupils into public traditions of knowledge, it is here claimed that Wilson did not value that development enough. With reference to Whitehead, it is concluded that discipline in schools ought to be arranged so as to help pupils foster wisdom for life, as this concept integrates liberal knowledge and educational i...
TL;DR: In this paper, Nel Noddings's Happiness and Education and the problem of an increased measuring of early childhood education aims and outcomes has been discussed, and it is argued that removal of seams between early childhood and primary education may lead to unhappiness in early-childhood education characterised by increasing standardisation and regulation and decreasing engagement with the aims of education.
Abstract: Recent government attention to the coherence between early childhood and compulsory school curricula in Aotearoa/New Zealand has led to debates regarding the educational aims of different education sectors Concerns regarding a ‘push-down’ of compulsory school aims are highlighted in this article, with reference to Nel Noddings’s Happiness and Education and the problem of an increased ‘measuring’ of early childhood education aims and outcomes It is argued that removal of seams between early childhood and primary education may lead to unhappiness in early childhood education characterised by increasing standardisation and regulation and decreasing engagement with the aims of education—with, in Noddings’s words, ‘aims-talk’
TL;DR: The authors examined the integrated conception of competence as conceived by Paul Hager and David Beckett and suggested that its characterization in terms intended to distance it from behaviouristic and reductionist notions of competence is not sufficient to differentiate it from other models.
Abstract: This article examines the ‘integrated conception of competence’ as conceived by Paul Hager and David Beckett and suggests that its characterization in terms intended to distance it from behaviouristic and reductionist notions of competence is not sufficient to differentiate it from other models. Taking up Hager and Beckett’s idea that competence must be inferred from behaviour, it is suggested that this indicates how the integrated conception is more properly distinguished by virtue of the method used rather than what it is that is assessed. Drawing on the work of Wittgenstein and Donald Davidson, it is argued that it is possible to discern two logically distinct methodological approaches to competence assessment, allowing a clear distinction to be made between the integrated conception and the kind of approach which predominates in the UK’s framework of vocational qualifications. While the latter is shown to be rightly criticized for its deficiencies, in contrast the integrated conception is seen...