Abstract/Notes: The present longitudinal study measured student adjustment to higher education, comparing 50 participants from alternative schools (Steiner, Montessori, New Schools) with 80 students from the traditional school system. We hypothesized that students from alternative schools adapt better, because of greater perceived social support, academic self-efficacy, and task-oriented coping styles. Measures were taken during the last school year (baseline characteristics), and at the beginning of the first and last terms of the first year in higher education. The quality of adjustment was assessed through academic results, and physical and psychological well-being. The following instruments were used: the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory by Spielberger (1983), the 13-items Depression Inventory by Beck et al. (1961), the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations by Endler and Parker (1990), and semi-directed interviews. Results show that students from alternative schools adjust better to higher education: they report less anxiety and depression symptoms, and show greater life satisfaction and academic achievement.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1007/s10734-009-9252-7

ISSN: 1573-174X

Language: English

Language: English

Abstract/Notes: Educational institutions in higher education both in Europe and in the United States are increasingly integrating lifelong learning in a context of sustained augmentation of age diversity among their students. Therefore, multiage and multigenerational classrooms are becoming more frequent teaching and learning settings. This article argues that multigenerational classrooms in formal higher education may constitute windows of opportunity to rethink the practice of teaching as far as they epitomize venues for triggering processes of intergenerational learning. This type of learning stems from an awareness of differences accrued through individual and group affiliation to diverse generational positions. Furthermore, the article provides conceptual delineation and insight regarding the practice of teaching and learning in multigenerational classrooms. Primarily concerned with how higher education instructors may see and understand multigenerational classrooms as distinctive settings for their teaching to lifelong learners, the authors explore how age differences among students and instructors can be framed in ways that contribute to content- and interaction-rich intergenerational teaching-learning processes. A multigenerational classroom is deemed to be one in which some of its members from various generations have a certain degree of generational awareness of belonging to different/same generations. Against attaching a specific set of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to people according to their generational affiliation, this article suggests that it is the dynamic relation between inter- and intragenerational differences and commonalities that needs to be taken into account when considering multigenerational classrooms.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1080/03601277.2013.844039

ISSN: 0360-1277

Abstract/Notes: Today professionals have to deal with more uncertainties in their field than before. We live in complex and rapidly changing environments. The British philosopher Ronald Barnett adds the term ‘supercomplexity’ to highlight the fact that ‘we can no longer be sure how even to describe the world that faces us’ (Barnett, 2004). Uncertainty is, nevertheless, not a highly appreciated notion. An obvious response to uncertainty is to reduce it—or even better, to wipe it away. The assumption of this approach is that uncertainty has no advantages. This assumption is, however, not correct as several contemporary authors have argued. Rather than problematising uncertainty, I will investigate the pros and cons of embedding uncertainty in educational practice of professional higher education. In order to thoroughly explore the probabilities and challenges that uncertainty poses in education, I will dwell on the radical ideas on uncertainty of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. In The Birth of Tragedy (1872) he recognises two forces: the Apollinian, that is the pursuit of order and coherence, and the Dionysian, that is the human tendency to nullify all systematisation and idealisation. Uncertainty is part of the Dionysian. I will argue that when educators take Nietzsche's plea to make room for the Dionysian to heart, they can better prepare students for an uncertain world. If, and only if, students are encouraged to deploy both tendencies—the Apollinian and the Dionysian—they can become professionals who are able to stand their ground in an uncertain and changing (professional) world.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1111/1467-9752.12038

ISSN: 1467-9752

Abstract/Notes: This article examines the role played by the conferences of the New Education Fellowship (NEF) in the emerging disciplinary field of the sciences of education between the two world wars. As Fuchs points out in an article in the present issue, the field of education at this time was being internationalized, and, being an international movement, the field impacted on by the NEF was international in scope.1 As will be seen, the ideas and practices of the new education were mediated by national cultural differences and thus their impact on the disciplinary field varied from nation to nation.2 In addition, the development of the field in terms of journals, conferences and its institutionalization within nations was uneven, which presents further difficulties when trying to evaluate the impact of the NEF's conferences. Much of the following discussion focuses on their impact on the disciplinary field in England though, as will be seen, not exclusively so. One of the distinguishing features of the NEF other than its international scope was that it was a movement that connected lay enthusiasts for the educational reforms associated with the new education with major figures in the developing disciplines of psychology and education, such as Carl Gustav Jung, Jean Piaget and John Dewey. The relation between these lay and professional constituencies is examined and conclusions drawn regarding the professionalizing process in the field and the impact of the conferences on educational research and its institutionalization.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1080/0030923042000293742

ISSN: 0030-9230, 1477-674X

Abstract/Notes: This study analyzed intuitive mathematics abilities of preschool children and to ascertain whether there was a difference between children who were educated according to the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) preschool education program and the Montessori approach. It was also examined whether the intuitive mathematics abilities of the children who were educated according to the MoNE program and Montessori approach showed a significant difference according to variables of gender, duration of pre-school education, and educational levels of parents. The study sample of the study consisted of 121 children (56 girls, 65 boys) aged between 60-72 months. The data was collected via “Personal Information Form” and “Intuitive Mathematics Ability Scale” developed by Güven (2001). Intuitive mathematical abilities of children who were educated according to the Montessori program were more developed compared to those of children educated according to MoNE program. There was no significant difference in intuitive mathematical abilities according to duration of preschool education, education levels of parents. As a result of the study, a significant difference was observed in the intuitive math abilities of the children trained according to the MoNE program in favor of the girls, whereas no significant difference was observed trained according to the Montessori approach. The results are discussed in light of the relevant literature.

Language: Turkish

DOI: 10.7176/JSTR/6-06-12

ISSN: 2422-8702

Language: Korean

ISSN: 2005-0860, 2671-5821

Abstract/Notes: Renouant avec les pratiques d’échanges intellectuels d’avant 1914, des spécialistes de l’éducation d’une quinzaine de pays, appartenant à l’enseignement public comme au secteur privé, tiennent un congrès original, durant deux semaines, à Calais. Au-delà du thème qui les rassemble, « l’expression créatrice de l’enfant », éducateurs théosophes, pédologues et psychologues de l’enfant, praticiens des écoles nouvelles et représentants de l’institution scolaire débattent d’une conception de l’éducation pertinente pour l’ère nouvelle de l’humanité qu’ils appellent de leurs vœux. Conscients d’ouvrir un chantier immense, les personnalités majeures du rassemblement calaisien (B. Ensor, O. Decroly, A. Ferrière) mettent à profit le congrès pour fonder une organisation durable qui poursuivra la réflexion : la Ligue internationale pour l’éducation nouvelle. [Reviving the practices of intellectual exchange that began before 1914, education specialists from some fifteen countries, belonging to public and private school organizations, gathered for an original congress held over two weeks in Calais. Beyond the matter that brought them together, dedicated to “the creative expression of children,” educators, theosophists, pedologists and child psychologists, practitioners of New Education and school officials, discussed what could be the significant educational concepts for the new age of humanity they expected. Conscious of launching a huge project, the prominent personalities of the Calais gathering (Béatrice Ensor, Ovide Decroly, and Adolphe Ferrière) built on that project to create a sustainable organization that could carry on discussions: The New Education Fellowship.]

Language: French

DOI: 10.3917/etsoc.163.0043

ISSN: 0014-2204

Abstract/Notes: This is an article from Montessori Education, a Japanese language periodical published by the Japan Association Montessori.

Language: Japanese

ISSN: 0913-4220