Matthew Moore

Recent Activity

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  Matthew commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  On Being "Mean"

  I bet the researchers drew no distinction between "sympathy" and "pity" in their data recording. I think the researchers are trying to get at something important, as can be seen in the quote about the importance of viewing "the children's difficulties as less stable and therefore more amenable to change." But their illconsidered terminology could have negative implications.
  
  As you make clear, Kristina, sympathy can certainly accompany challenging a student. As someone trained in educational research (M.A.), I bet the researchers observed the classroom and coded each instance of "sympathetic" behaviors. I would want to have clearly specified exactly what they mean by being "overly sympathetic," and exactly what were the problematic behaviors displayed by the teacher? My hunch is that it would look more like pity and "feeling sorry for" rather than what I consider sympathy.
  
  And what are we supposed to do with this information: "The report also found that attitudes of teachers towards children with learning difficulties were not improved by training programmes."  Should we decide that teacher attitudes are completely inflexible and they can't learn to educate children better? Are all training progams equally effective? 
  
  Silly.
  
  By silly, I mean the article and possibly the research design not the post.  ; )
  

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  Matthew signed the petition | almost 3 years ago

  Oppose the use of alarmist rhetoric about autism
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  Matthew signed the petition | almost 3 years ago

  Support Awareness & Understanding of Uneven Skills In Autistics