Dialectic of eros and myth of the soul in Plato's Phaedrus

In this paper, I question a widespread reading of a passage in the last part of the Phaedrus dealing with the science of dialectic. According to this reading, the passage announces a new method peculiar to the later Plato aiming at defining natural kinds. I show that the Phaedrus itself does not support such a reading. As an alternative reading, I suggest that the science of dialectic, as discussed in the passage, must be seen as dealing primarily with philosophical rhetoric and knowledge of human souls

What Does the NAEP Tell Us About Student Achievement in Arkansas?

This brief discusses the most recent and historical NAEP data in math, science, reading, and writing. Arkansas’ NAEP results are compared to national and border state averages. Based on the most recent NAEP exams, Arkansas is performing slightly below the national average in reading, math, science, and writing. There is also data to support that Arkansas students perform less well in Grade 8 than in Grade 4 when compared to the national and border state averages. Arkansas, however, is among the highest performing states with regard to change over the last decade. Since 1992, Arkansas has gained on the national and border state averages. In addition, Arkansas’ black-white and Hispanic-white achievement gaps in reading and math are lower than over half of participating states

THE IMPLICATION ON TEACHING EFL (ENGLISH FOREIGN LANGUAGE) READING FUN TO VARIOUS LEVELS OF INDONESIAN STUDENTS

For some students, EFL (English Foreign Language) reading is one of the most uninteresting subjects because it can make them bored easily. Kweldju (1996) found that students were not interested in reading although they thought some texts books were useful for their study. Meanwhile, English is a compulsory subject that must be studied by Indonesian students. If they get bad to comprehend EFL reading, it means that their English is still bad so that they cannot get the information from the reading text. The goal of the teaching EFL reading in Indonesia is to comprehend the reading texts on which Indonesian students must be able to read science-related texts written in English. This paper analyzes some strategies such as metacognitive and extensive reading to make students enjoyable when learning English reading

Analysis of science textbook pictures about energy and pupils' readings of them

This article outlines the findings of the part of the "Science Teacher Training in an Information Society" (STTIS) project concerned with describing the possible difficulties the pupils have when "reading" science textbook pictures about "energy". Six documents were selected on the basis that they had some of the textual/graphical features previously identified by the project as potentially presenting difficulties to pupils. The pupils' readings of these were investigated using a questionnaire and a follow-up interview. The analysis of three of the documents and of twelve pupils' readings of them is reported in this paper. The results confirm the hypothesis that the "reading" of science textbook pictures is not at all trivial for pupils and conclude that teachers need to spend time and effort talking through the meaning of the images with them. They also suggest that the list of textual/graphical features used in this research is a good starting point for this kind of critical examination

The effect of school starting age on academic performance in Hungary

The study estimates the effect of school starting age on academic performance for Hungarian grade four students using the "Progress in International Reading Literacy Study" (PIRLS) and the "Trends in Mathematics and Science Study" (TIMMS). The study uses the control function approach, exploiting the exogenous variation in school starting age driven by the children's month of birth and the cut-off date regulation for enrolment. The results indicate a positive age effect on Reading, Mathematics and Science performance.Education, student test scores, enrolment age, identification

A Comparison Between Visual Imagery Strategy and Conventional Strategy in The Teaching of English For Science

The main purpose of the study was to investigate and compare the effectiveness between visual imagery strategy and conventional strategy in the teaching of English for Science and Technology. A total of 89 students (n=89) were assigned to two groups, where each group underwent three phases of the experiment - 1) Pre-test Phase, 2) Treatment Phase, and 3) Post-test Phase. In this study, visual imagery strategy was a teaching procedure that incorporated the use of visuals and the forming of images that suggested the kind of representations students need to conjure within the context of the topic being taught. Conventional strategy was the teaching method prescribed by the English teacher in which students' attention were directed to important facts and concepts pertaining to the topic. Evaluation to ascertain students' le'ariing achievement was based on their pre-test and post-test scores obtained as participants performed the Language Achievement test, which included evaluation on reading comprehension and writing skills. Analysis was also done on their language functions, vocabulary tasks, reading comprehension, and essay writing skills from the science- and technical-based lessons taught to the students. The results of the study was reported in accordance with the hypotheses developed which compared the effectiveness between visual imagery strategy and conventional strategy on dependent variables such as reading comprehension achievement, writing skills and vocabulary achievement, as well comparing the effectiveness between the two strategies used among low English proficiency and high English proficiency students. Data analysis indicated that visual imagery strategy produced significant main effect on students' total reading comprehension and writing achievement, as compared to conventional strategy (F(1,84) = 17.55, p < .000), but there was no significant interaction effect between proficiency level and type of treatment applied (F(1,84) = .895, p > .347, with a very small effect size (eta squared = .011). Based on reading comprehension scores alone, it was found that visual imagery strategy produced significant main effect on students' reading comprehension achievement, as compared to conventional strategy (F(1,84) = 14.03, p < .000; eta squared = .143), but again, there was no significant interaction effect between proficiency level and type of treatment applied (F(1,84) = .002, p > .620; eta squared = .010). Based on writing scores alone, it was found that visual imagery did not produce significant main effect on students' writing achievement as compared to conventional strategy(F(l,84) = 1.27, p = .261). However, there was significant interaction effect between proficiency level and the treatments applied in determining students' writing achievement (F(1,84) = 1.06, p < .041, with a small effect size (eta squared = .012). Data analysis also indicated that visual imagery strategy (M=9.93, SD=2.98) did not produce significant differential effect on students' vocabulary skills performance during the treatment phase, as compared to the conventional strategy: (M=9.37, SD=3.51; t(87)=.802, p=.425). Students' responses regarding their knowledge and perception of visual imagery strategy and its application on teaching reading comprehension and writing skills in English for Science and Technology also favored the use of visuals and imagery instructions. Lastly, it was found that students agree that visual imagery strategy should be incorporated in English for Science and Technical lessons as it helped students understand scientific and technical passages better during reading-instruction. The implication of the study suggests that visual imagery strategy can be beneficial for students learning English for Science and Technology as the strategy promoted the recall of previous knowledge and provided interaction with the content. Visual imagery strategy as a teaching method should be utilized to its full potential, as it can be beneficial in facilitating the teaching and learning of English for science and technical reading comprehension and other language skills

A view from the industrial age

Like the constructivist approach to the history of science, the new history of reading has shifted attention from disembodied ideas to the underlying material culture and the localized practices by which it is apprehended. By focusing on the complex embodied processes by which readers make sense of printed objects, historians of reading have provided new insights into the manner in which meaning is both made and contested. In this brief account I argue that these insights are particularly relevant to historians of science, first, because practices of reading, like those of experiment and fieldwork, are constitutive of scientific knowledge, and, second, because attention to the history of reading provides important evidence of the multifaceted and uneven contest for meaning that occurs when science is mobilized in popular culture. The essay concludes by considering some of the surprisingly abundant sources of available evidence from which a history of scientific reading might be constructed for the modern era