In this qualitative study, the author explores how young readers build literary understanding through performative responses in picturebook read-alouds. Performative responses allow children to create and express meaning in ways that go beyond talk and that engage their creativity and imagination. They include a variety of modalities, such as…

Instructors in academic settings may be naturally inclined to view their students from the outside, their style of communication, their level of competence and engagement, or their punctuality with attendance and assignments. Consequently, they risk missing the rewards afforded by the view from the inside. Autobiography can be an important means…

Is "development" a concept that properly belongs to mind and morality and, if it does, what account can we give of moral development now that Piagetian and Kohlbergian models are increasingly being abandoned in developmental psychology? In addressing this central issue, it is hoped that the paper will contribute to the quest for a new integrated…

The model of moral functioning scaffolded in the 2008 "JME" Special Issue is here revisited in response to three papers criticising that volume. As guest editor of that Special Issue I have formulated the main body of this response, concerning the dynamic systems approach to moral development, the problem of moral relativism and the role of…

The authors respond to both the general and specific concerns raised in Fischer, Stein, and Heikkinen's commentary on their article (Steinberg, Cauffman, Woolard, Graham, & Banich), in which they drew on studies of adolescent development to justify the American Psychological Association's positions in two Supreme Court cases involving the…

As a teacher with more than 30 years experience at the middle school, secondary, and college level, primarily in English studies, Patterson (the first author) decided a few years ago to reexamine his practices and instructional methods. He wondered what would be the effects on him and his students when he would begin to utilize ideas emanating…

In this article I synthesise and apply elements of political and reading theory to demonstrate how central themes in learners' lives (such as freedom, faith, autonomy, equality, rationality and rights) can be read and interpreted differently. I suggest that policy and pedagogy for citizenship and democratic education informed by research into…

In "Elementary School Mathematics Priorities," Wilson (2009 [this issue]) presents a list of five core concepts that students should master in elementary school so that they can succeed in algebra. As researchers in mathematics education, the authors enthusiastically endorse Wilson's recommendations. Learning algebra is key to further study of…

We are pleased that our article prompted this series of four commentaries and that we have this opportunity to respond. We address each in turn. Duckworth and Kaufman and Agars discussed, respectively, two broad issues concerning the validity of selection systems, namely, the expansion of the predictor domain to include noncognitive predictors of…

In this commentary on Brayboy and Castagno's paper, published in this volume, we discuss, on the one hand, many points of agreement between their proposal of culturally responsive schooling for indigenous youth and El-Hani and Mortimer's proposal of culturally-sensitive science education. On the other hand, we focus on a key disagreement, not only…

A dominant conjecture underlying the literature about leadership for social justice brought up in Jean-Marie, Normore, and Brooks' (2009) paper suggests that leadership preparation programs (LPPs) need to prepare school leaders to promote a broader and deeper understanding of social justice, democracy, and equity, as well as to struggle with forms…

This commentary presents the author's response to an article published in the last version of "Kairaranga" entitled "Schooling for Happiness: Rethinking the aims of education," written by Dr. Tom Cavanagh. He found it refreshing to read Cavanagh's article that focuses educators' energies onto re-visiting the wider…

Like a printed text, an architectural blueprint, a mathematical equation, or a musical score, a visual image is its own language. Visual literacy has three components: (1) learning; (2) thinking; and (3) communicating. A "literate" person is able to decipher the basic code and syntax, interpret the signs and symbols, correctly apply terms from an…

Scholars agree that reading pictures is a multifaceted act. Interestingly, children often look at illustrations more closely and "see" details in picture that are missed by "skipping and scanning" adults. Although the illustrations in picture books are a "source of aesthetic delight," "everything" about the illustrations conveys "information about…

In their rejoinder to our article about their work on evidence-based science education, Millar "et al." (2008) claim that we misrepresented their position, and that our argument was false or unclear in key respects. In this brief reply we argue that their criticisms are misdirected, and that they fail to engage in the sort of dialogue…