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In this chapter, I will outline the labels of giftedness and underachievement and present the theoretical debates surrounding these labels. A historicist examination of these labels follows, highlighting how the gifted underachievement (GUA) label emerges through the negation of “giftedness.” Subsequently, I explore the concept of GUA and its negative connotations, stemming from the positive valuation inherent in the term “giftedness” and its implications for what is considered “normal.” This chapter also reviews perspectives on shifting the focus away from the individual within the current paradigm of labeling giftedness and explores insights from systemic thinking and symbolic interactionism (SI). The conclusion underscores the necessity of a symbolic interactionist perspective to address the gaps in research on the labeling of giftedness and underachievement. Finally, I propose a generic definition that can be used in GUA research in the light of SI.

Comparative analyses in education science have traditionally focused on the category of geographic location as the comparative unit. However, comparison may involve many other units of analysis, such as culture, politics, curricula, education systems, social phenomena, and other categories of the lives of societies. Still, categories are inseparably linked to one or several geographic locations. Comparative approaches are often also dictated by the availability heuristic. Studying geographic units as the foci of comparative research is a necessary step for comparative presentation of the topic. According to Bray and Thomas, a researcher must always seek preliminary insight in the geographic unit to be analyzed before making the comparison. In social science research, a unit of analysis relates to the main object of the research, as it answers the question of “who” or “what” is going to be analyzed. The most common units of analysis are people, groups, organizations, artifacts or phenomena, and social interactions. Ragin and Amoroso have noted that comparative methods can be used to explain the commonness or diversity of results. This paper shows how comparative research can be approached in ways that have not been discussed, grounded in the historically variable understanding of the very term “comparison.” They are, for example, The Ogden-Richards triangle, The Porphyrian Tree, Classification strategies – Mill’s Canons, The chaos of the world – the order of science, Weber’s ideal types, Raymond Boudon’s formula, and the Möbius strip in comparativism.

Perverse instantiation is one of many hypothetical failure modes of AI, specifically one in which the AI fulfils the command given to it by its principal in a way which is both unforeseen and harmful. A lot is already said about perverse instantiation itself, especially when such a failure mode presents an existential risk, as would be the case with a superintelligent AI. However novel these disaster scenarios may be, similar fictional cautionary tales already exist in many cultures: tragic stories about misinterpreted prophecies and grand wishes gone awry, from Croesus to Macbeth. Analysis of both old and new tales of perverse instantiation reveals that the core of the issue is an ancient philosophical and logical problem that even Socrates faced: the problem of defining terms. Unlike the Socratic problem, which focused on finding a good intensional definition, perverse instantiation encompasses problems that arise from both badly defined intension of terms (their internal content) and badly defined extension of terms (their range of applicability). However, models of machine learning that use vast amounts of training data hold the promise of resolving the issue of badly defined extension of terms. The issue of defining intension of terms remains. Further parallels can be found between scenarios of perverse instantiation and Socrates' dialogues with obstinate sophists, such as importance of philosophical reflection and discussion. This indicates that our future challenges in working with AI may still have a lot to do with retracing Socrates' steps.

The purpose of this study was to introduce teacher epistemic curiosity for student learning into the leadership literature and to determine if school principals can support it. The inquiry was organized by the following research question: In what ways can principal–teacher conversations support teacher epistemic curiosity for student learning? The research question guided the review of literature on epistemic curiosity, eventually leading to the leadership practice of transformative leadership conversation (TLC). A hypothesized model on the relationship between TLC and epistemic curiosity for student learning was advanced from research on student and employee curiosity and self-determination theory.

The hypothesized model was tested with a correlational research design. Teacher survey data were collected in December 2023 from a random sample of certified public school teachers from a metropolitan area in a southwestern state of the USA. Usable survey responses were received from 2,022 teachers, resulting in a 55% response rate. The hypothesized model was tested with structural equation modeling in AMOS 28 using robust maximum likelihood estimation. The latent models include measurement and structural components.

Results confirm the hypothesized relationships among TLC, need-satisfaction and teacher epistemic curiosity. TLC and need-satisfaction both had strong, direct relationships with teacher epistemic curiosity for student learning. TLC explained approximately 20% of the variance in teacher curiosity and need-satisfaction explained approximately 18%. The combined model accounted for approximately 55% of the variance in teacher epistemic curiosity.

The study emerged from robust evidence on the essential function of curiosity for knowing, learning, performance and life well-being, as well as limited research on social processes that leaders can leverage to stimulate teachers’ motivation to understand how their students learn. Curiosity is an inner energy behind learning; it fuels an innate drive to explore, know, create, design and adapt to our surroundings. Schools and classrooms come to life when teachers and students engage in learning from a place of curiosity, making this motivational resource worthy of leadership attention.

This study presents an overview of research literature on health promotion in schools, utilizing metadata extracted from 4,328 publications indexed in the Scopus database over the past 35 years.

A bibliometric approach was used to analyze the development and current state of using publication and citation data. A structured keyword search was conducted in the Scopus database to retrieve relevant publications in the field. Frequency counts, rank-ordered tables and time series charts were used to illustrate the dynamic growth of publication and citation data, the core journals, the leading countries and the most frequently used keywords in research on health promotion in school contexts. A series of social network analyses was conducted to explore and visualize the social, intellectual and conceptual structure of the field.

Findings demonstrate that health promotion in the school context is a growing research field that has gained significant momentum in recent years. The research in this field is widely distributed internationally, but the research output is dominated by the US and other English-speaking countries. The study reveals a trend toward increased collaboration among research groups. The level of international collaboration varies. The research field is highly interdisciplinary, and the main research themes addressed in the literature include mental health, well-being and quality of life; health behaviors; oral health education; sexual and reproductive education and general health promotion and health education in schools.

This is the first study to map the development of a research field with growing recognition. It provides a comprehensive overview of the emerging field of health promotion in the school context and its progress over time, contributing to the organization of the research domain. The study demonstrates the need for a new framework for health promotion research that supports the sustainability of health promotion research in schools.

The paper aims to address a gap in foresight study and practice relating to the lack of unifying theoretical systems frameworks capable of examining empirical data from across a wide range of different ecological, social, political and economic systems. It attempts to develop a new “collective forward intelligence” that can not only make sense of these disparate trends and processes as symptoms of a wider planetary system but also, on this basis, construct accurate and plausible future scenarios to underpin national and international decision-making.

This study conducts a transdisciplinary integration of C. S. Holling’s adaptive cycle with phase-transition phenomena across biology, physics and chemistry, applied on societal and civilisational scales. A systems methodology is then applied to integrate historical and empirical data across the energy, food, transport, materials and information sectors of civilisation’s production system.

The paper develops planetary phase shift theory as a new collective forward intelligence framework for foresight study and practice, formalising the notion that humanity has arrived at an unprecedented historic and geological turning point. It finds that multiple global crises across both earth and human systems are symptoms of the last stages of the life-cycle of global industrialisation civilisation, which is the potential precursor either for collapse, or for a new civilisational life-cycle that may represent a new stage in the biological and cultural evolution of the human species.

The research sets out a new empirically grounded theoretical framework for complex scenario analysis. This can develop more robust approaches to foresight study and practice, scenario development and forecasting. It suggests the need for a new research programme to understand the dynamics of the planetary phase shift and its diverse implications for societies, industry, technology and politics. The research is limited in that the current paper does not explore how it can be applied in this way. It identifies broad scenarios for a post-industrial civilisational life-cycle but does not identify the variety of complex subsets of these.

The paper provides powerful practical implications to develop new methodology based on planetary phase shift theory for strategic planning, risk assessment and management, as well as public policy and decision-making.

The paper suggests the urgency and necessity of bold and radical societal transformation and implies key areas for civil society to focus on in innovating new values, worldviews and operating systems with a focus on the next life-cycle.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper provides the first integrated transdisciplinary theoretical and empirical framework to understand how the interplay of earth system crises, societal change and technology disruptions is driving large-scale civilisational transformation with complex local ramifications.

This study aims to examine the effect of political conditions on the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance in two sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, Ghana and Kenya.

This study used a panel data methodology, examining data from a sample of 72 companies (Ghana: 25 and Kenya: 47) from 2018 to 2022. This study used panel quantile regression and the Huber M-estimation robust least squares regression methods.

The research reported that larger boards, diversity and ownership concentration do not affect business performance while board independence improves corporate success in both countries. The findings about chief executive officer (CEO) duality were mixed. In Ghana, CEO duality has a positive effect on firm performance, but in Kenya, the study finds that CEO duality hurts firms’ performance. The results found that higher levels of institutional ownership decreased firm performance in both countries. The research found that Ghana’s political environment had a greater impact on corporate governance and business performance nexus than Kenya’s.

The research is limited to Ghana and Kenya. This study emphasises the necessity for governments in both countries to maintain a stable political environment, implement policies that encourage economic and policy continuity and reduce political uncertainty to improve business conditions.

This study emphasises the necessity for governments in both countries to maintain a stable political environment, implement policies that encourage economic and policy continuity, and reduce political uncertainty to improve business conditions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is unique because it is the first in SSA to address a research gap by investigating a comparative analysis of the relationship between corporate governance, political environments and firm performance in two distinct countries with different political situations.

The purpose of this study is to explore the review mechanisms’ efficacy from the perspective of cold case reviewers. Live homicide review mechanisms at the 7- and 28-day stage of an inquiry seek to prevent the case becoming cold (or unsolved) by ensuring lines of inquiry have been suitably identified and progressed. There is also a requirement to ensure the investigation was not swayed by faulty decision-making or cognitive biases. However, the use of the review processes in preventing unsolved cases is unclear, and not subject to much academic discussion.

This exploratory study explores the review functions through the lens of cold case detectives, currently reviewing unsolved cases to identify progression opportunities. The study uses data from a seven-month, non-participatory observation period with a two-force collaborative cold case unit and 13 semi-structured interviews with cold case review officers. The observations and interviews were simultaneously analysed adhering to an inductive approach to Thematic Analysis.

The results show procedural guides (e.g. the Major Crime Investigation Manual) are important quality assurance mechanisms for review officers, helping ensure the appropriate and necessary lines of inquiry have been pursued. However, they were keen to emphasise the importance of intuition in progressing cases but felt continuously hindered by a lack of resources and large numbers of applicable cases. To the best of the authors’ knowledge this study is the first exploration of cold case detective’s experiences of the live review processes and how they may pose challenges in case progression for cognitive errors and biases. While the study has identified some challenges facing review officers in nine police forces across the UK, wider examination of policies, practices and mechanisms should be explored to develop the current procedural guidance (e.g. NPCC, 2021).

To the best of the authors’ knowledge this exploratory study is the first exploration of cold case detective’s experiences of the live review processes and how they may pose challenges in case progression for cognitive errors and biases. While the study has identified some challenges facing review officers in nine police forces across the UK, wider examination of policies, practices and mechanisms should be explored to develop the current procedural guidance (e.g. NPCC, 2021).