How Scientific is Education Research? ; Gender and Cognition

How scientific is education research? Not very, according to some critics. In this article E. Hyslop-Margison, an education philosopher claims that "logically invalid hypotheses...insulated from academic criticism" weaken much education research. One of his arguments is derived from the principle of "falsifiability" made famous by Karl Popper the 20th century's foremost philosopher of science. Popper severely damaged the "positivist" approach which underlies much social science research by showing that empirical verification is not logically based.

An example of the contentious nature of research underlying some educational thought can be illustrated by this article, actually a debate between two social scientists. Steven Pinker and Elizabeth Spelke, both eminent Harvard cognitive psychologists, have diametrically opposed viewpoints on gender studies that underlie some of the current thinking about gender-based educational instruments. Pinker supports the contention that there are innate gender differences in basic human cognition and Spelke is adamant that there are not. You pay your money, you take your choice.

Autism's First Child

This article from the Atlantic magazine describes the life story of Donald Triplett who, in 1943 was the first person to be diagnosed with autism. In fact the cluster of symptoms making up the disorder were largely derived from observations of him by a psychiatrist and Donald's father. Against expectations he has lived a happy and relatively normal live; self reliant and engaging in pursuits like golf and world travel.

Can Good Teaching be Learned?

Educational researcher Doug Lemov has attempted to isolate the characteristics of teachers across the U.S. whose students consistently excel when all non-teaching variables are held constant. He claims to have found a commonality in classroom management which he has codified into "Lemov's taxonomy". Read the account in the NY Times Magazine.

Dangers of the Social Web

Schools and educators are confronting issues about  the "blurred line between public and private space" on the internet. Read about some of these issues and their possible resolution in this article from the NY Times.

Media Use Statistics Increase Rise for Teens

The Kaiser Family Foundation, a U.S. based research centre has released the latest survey of media use by young people. Highlights include a large increase in mobile media, and continued decline of older media, particularly newspapers and magazines.

Why Twitter Will Endure

Twitter seems to have passed the fad stage and is taking its place as a legitimate and useful Web 2 application. Read this NY Times article for an overview of its function and value. Twitter's posts, called Tweets, are also searchable at search.twitter.com.