Pygmalion revisited,revisited: On a loud and careless call for caution

As a critical document Grieger's paper is seriously deficient. There are grave errors of scholarship and misunderstandings of fundamental principles of statistical analysis and experimental methods. As a review of the literature on teacher expectancy effects it omits over three-fourths of the relevant studies conducted. The present paper attempts to correct some of the shortcomings described, provisionally summarizes the results of over 200 studies of interpersonal expectation, and suggests the type of research programs now needed most in our efforts to understand the social psychology of interpersonal expectations.

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Résumé En tant que critique, l'étude de Grieger comporte des lacunes graves. On y relève en effet de grosses erreurs de documentation et une sérieuse incompréhension des principes de base de l'analyse statistique et des méthodes expérimentales. En tant que revue des publications traitant de l'effet que provoque l'espoir entretenu par un professeur à l'égard de son élève, cette analyse ignore plus de trois-quarts des études valables consacrées à ce problème. L'auteur de la présente communication tente de corriger quelquesuns des défauts décrits ci-dessus; il donne un résumé provisoire de quelque 200 études sur l'espoir réciproque entre l'élève et le maître; il propose enfin le type de programmes de recherches dont nous avons le plus besoin à l'heure actuelle dans notre effort de compréhension de la psychologie sociale des espoirs réciproques.

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This paper was written in response to the invitation of the editor and its preparation was supported by a research grant from the Division of Social Sciences of the National Science Foundation. I want to thank Dane Archer and Pierce Barker for their helpful suggestions.     

One more visitation: A louder call for caution

Rosenthal's critique of Grieger's paper embodies many of the problems that much of the literature on the teacher expectancy effect does. Positive data are selectively emphasized, negative data are explained as simply an unusual coincidence, and statistical significance is confused with practical significance. This paper clarifies several of Rosenthal's statistical and design misunderstandings.     

The behavioural approach in schools: a time for caution revisited

This paper takes as its starting point an examination of the current status of some of the concerns that were raised in the mid‐1980s about methodological problems faced by educational researchers using the behavioural approach in schools. These concerns included the measurement of agreement between observers, the interpretation of raw data extracted, the potential influences of observers and the inherent properties of research designs. Subsequently, some more wide‐ranging concerns are considered, in particular the kinds of behaviour selected for treatment, the lack of analysis of what is involved in teachers’ positive responses to pupils’ behaviour and the relatively uninvestigated effects of teachers’ negative responses. The conclusions are presented as a series of points that are listed, as far as possible, in the order in which they confront the investigator.     

Interpreting WISC-R and McCarthy scatter: A caution

In this investigation, indices of scatter on the WISC-R and McCarthy Scales were examined for 20 educable mentally retarded and 20 learning disabled children in relation to a similar control group. The scatter found in the two exceptional samples was also compared to the variability found in the standardization samples of the WISC-R and McCarthy. Results indicated that the learning-disabled sample exhibited more WISC-R subtest scatter and McCarthy Scale variability than the standardization sample but not more than the control group. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

皮革马里翁——当蛹蜕变为蝴蝶

奥斯卡经典老片My Fair Lady（《窈窕淑女》）获得极大的成功，原因众多，其中，精彩的对白是一个不容忽视的部分．本文举例说明多种修辞手段使得该部电影的对白格外生动有趣。     

《皮格马利翁》与电影《窈窕淑女》之比较

《皮格马利翁》(1914)是英国戏剧家萧伯纳(1856-1961)的作品,而根据这一戏剧改编的电影《窈窕淑女》(1964)也受到了广泛好评。对这两部作品的比较可以彰显两部作品的不同点及各自的优点和不足。叙事技巧、情景刻画和人物塑造是两个文本中最具代表性的三个方面。其中,叙事技巧包括叙事结构、叙事时空和音乐效果三部分;情景刻画选择了几个有代表性的场景：赛马场、花园舞会和结尾;人物塑造主要分析了伊莉莎、伊莉莎的父亲以及克拉拉的母亲。通过比较,一方面使读者加深对原著的理解,另一方面让观众重温这部经典电影作品,提高对电影的鉴赏能力。     

A call for sobriety: sixteenth-century educationalists and humanist conviviality

Michel Jeanneret’s A Feast of Words. Banquets and Table Talk in the Renaissance (1987; English translation published in 1991) highlighted the celebration by Renaissance humanists of food and drink as catalysts of intellectual exchange. The author convincingly argued that Renaissance banquets served as a paradigm for the humanist body of ideas, and thus became an important setting for works of literature and erudition. This article investigates whether the use of banquets in humanist culture is also reflected in the didactic writings of the age. It focuses on the school dialogues of Desiderius Erasmus (1466?–1536) and Juan Luis Vives (1492/3–1540), which proved to be enormously popular and were – according to a 1582 preface – read in “well-nigh every school” in England and continental Europe. The article illustrates how Erasmus and Vives, especially when addressing an audience of young school boys, aimed to organize a controlled satisfaction of bodily appetites, stimulating the interchange of ideas, whilst avoiding gluttony and intoxication, which are as detrimental for intellectual exchange as they are for the individual’s physical and spiritual well-being. The humanists’ condemnation of excess was thus connected with their analysis of the human condition and their preoccupation that every child should realize his or her full potential as a human being. The key element in this was considered to be education, which trained children to rise above their animal instincts and desires, and prepared them to participate in society as responsible adults.     

ServiceNation: A call to higher education

The Serve America Act was signed into law in April 2009. Here's what Barbara Jacoby thinks the higher education community needs to do next.     

Biological constraints revisited: A critique

Four types of supporting evidence for inferences of biological constraints on conditioning are evaluated: (1) unexpected failures to condition (discriminative leverpress avoidance); (2) rapid or one-trial learning (taste-aversion studies); (3) crossover learning effects (the Garcia-Koelling effect); and (4) unique predictions from biological constraint-based frameworks. According to a current logic model of scientific explanation and prediction, none of these types of evidence is adequately compelling for inferences of biological constraints. The core problem identified is that negative evidence not attributable to an identified causal factor in terms of E/C (experimental/control) design outcome has been used to both reject general-process learning laws and compel inferences of biological constraints. A design solution using a blocking E/C conditioning paradigm is presented.     

Direct instruction revisited: A key model for instructional technology

Rooted in behavioral theory, particularly the radical or selectivist behaviorism of B.F. Skinner (1953, 1954, 1966, 1968, 1974), the direct instruction (DI) approach to teaching is now well into its third decade of influencing curriculum, instruction, and research. It is also in its third decade of controversy. Our purpose is to present the DI model with the notion that the designer can and should use the model effectively based on appropriate assessment of the learners, content, context, and task at hand. To accomplish our goal, we begin with a general discussion of the basic DI framework, followed by a summary of the major DI models that have been used in live instructional contexts. We then shift to a review of how DI has been used in technology-based learning environments. Finally, we conclude with a look into the future of DI.     

Measuring school improvement: A few experientially based words of caution

This paper describes the concerns of the authors rearading the use of standardized achievement scores to measure the quality of practice-oriented school improvement activities in school districts. The authors organize their comments into four issues which are related to current educational practice. While the paper focuses on warnings against the misuse of measurement processes, the authors agree with the call for accountability in the education of students. At a time when educators are under pressure to show results, particularly in urban settings, the authors recommend caution in relying exclusively on quantitative measures in judging the complex process of school improvement.