This paper is a commentary on the theoretical formulations of the five empirical papers in this special issue. All five papers use aspects of the theory of commognition as presented by Anna Sfard; however, even when the same notions (e.g., rituals or explorations) are incorporated into theoretical frameworks undergirding the research, these…

We explore the relationship between the "theory of mind" (ToM) and "central coherence" difficulties of autism. We introduce covariation between hierarchically-embedded categories and social information--at the local level, the global level, or at both levels simultaneously--within a category confusion task. We then ask…

Educational theorists ranging from Plato, to Freire, to bell hooks, to Peter McLaren have theorized love as an essential factor in education. Whereas, typically, a particular kind of love (erotic love, caring love, etc.) is argued to be especially relevant for educational practice, what we do in this paper is to look at kinds of love that are…

This special issue of "Assessment in Education" contains the type of debate needed about what Cizek (2015) calls a "… lingering flaw in the concept of validity…." Some practitioners might not agree that the current theory of validation is flawed. Specifically, the debate Jon Twing is referencing concerns the role of the…

What? How can you keep me safe?" Those words tore through this author as he sat with eight black boys from the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades in March 2015. They were planning to discuss a novel, Scott Mebus' "Gods of Manhattan," when he reassured the boys that he could keep them safe. Seared in their hearts are the tragic…

Outstanding education is a high-level policy narrative in England rehearsed by school leaders, politicians, policy-makers and inspectors alike. The "legitimacy" of knowledge, performativity and discourse-based analysis are mobilised to examine outstanding. The paper explores how informants in the English state secondary education sector…

Examinees' thinking processes have become an increasingly important concern in testing. The responses processes aspect is a major component of validity, and contemporary tests increasingly involve specifications about the cognitive complexity of examinees' response processes. Yet, empirical research findings on examinees' cognitive processes are…

This article is a Jamesonian study of Auster's "The New York Trilogy" in which one of Fredric Jameson's notions of postmodernism, pastiche, has been applied on three stories of the novel. This novel is one of Auster's outstanding postmodern works to which Jameson's theories of postmodernism, in particular, pastiche can be applicable.…

In this philosophical paper, I propose a theory of music education inspired by ancient Chinese philosophy. In particular, I draw on five classical Chinese philosophical texts: the Analects (lunyu [Chinese characters omitted]), the Mencius (Mengzi [Chinese characters omitted]), the Zhuangzi ([Chinese characters omitted]), the Xunzi ([Chinese…

Being a linguistic phenomenon, poetry is marked by the defamilarization of language in a poetic discourse there is an "aesthetic distortion" of the normal codes, in which the aesthetic value is the most prominent function of the poetic texture . This study is a new adventure in correlating linguistics to aesthetics by and through the…

The aim of this paper is to focus on the relations between theory and research methods in educational research by mapping out our own research journeys. The paper arises out of a plenary talk at a "Theory Workshop" (May 13-15, 2016) that the Australian Association for Educational Research facilitated with Griffith University in Brisbane.…

Since Cronbach's (1951) elaboration of a from its introduction by Guttman (1945), this coefficient has become ubiquitous in characterizing assessment instruments in education, psychology, and other social sciences. Also ubiquitous are caveats on the calculation and interpretation of this coefficient. This article summarizes a recent contribution…

Although the policy and methodological legacy of "Equality of Educational Opportunity," the so-called Coleman Report published by the US Department of Education in 1966, is widely recognized, the way in which it played a role in shaping theorizing about equality of educational opportunity has been less well-explored. This article…

In spite of decades of research into high-performance work systems, very few studies have examined the relationship between executive learning and development and organisational performance. In an attempt to close this gap, this study explores the effects of a validated four-dimensional executive learning and development measure on a composite…

Scientific studies never replace or supplant subjective theories, but in the best case, enter a productive symbiosis; they can contribute to reflecting on and understanding one's own assumptions and thereby make them available to change. It is pedagogically sensible to address this tension between scientific and subjective theory, and thereby make…