Listening to the Logos: Speech and the Coming of Wisdom in Ancient Greece

This essay examines accounts of visits to Civil War prison sites, cemeteries, and battlefields that were generated by the popular speaker Anna E. Dickinson during an 1875 lecture tour of Southern states. An ardent Unionist, Dickinson visited places that she believed to exemplify Union sacrifice and Confederate wrongdoing. We analyze her accounts—captured in letters to her mother—in order to understand how this rhetorically skilled public figure used these visits as opportunities for invention and interpretation, generating textual responses oriented toward public memory-making. We argue that her letters enact what we call a pilgrim-critic persona, which both demonstrates an affective connection to places and undertakes a critical investigation of what happened there. Employing the concept of the pilgrim-critic enables this analysis to contribute to rhetorical studies of public memory by highlighting the inventional resources used when visitors interpret their experiences of memory places.     

Development of Gender Typicality and Felt Pressure in European French and North African French Adolescents

Trajectories of gender identity were examined from Grade 6 (M_age = 11.9 years) to Grade 9 in European French (n = 570) and North African French (n = 534) adolescents, and gender and ethnic group differences were assessed in these trajectories. In Grade 6, boys of both ethnic groups reported higher levels of gender typicality and felt pressure for gender conformity than girls. European French girls and boys and North African French girls reported decreasing gender typicality from Grade 6 to Grade 9, whereas North African French boys did not change. Felt pressure decreased among girls, did not change in European French boys, and increased in North African French boys. Ethnic and gender differences in gender identity development are discussed.     

Transformational Leadership in the Planning of a Doctoral Program

Growing criticism of existing educational leadership preparation programs seems to focus on a lack of contextual relevancy and instructional leadership. Universities and school districts need to develop more formal, collaborative, long-term relationships focused on the nature of principal preparation, moving beyond acculturation to district norms and irrelevancy to building future leaders' capacity for continuous educational improvement. Educational administration as an applied field demands that we answer key questions regarding the development of effective practitioners.     

The socially skilled teacher and the development of tacit knowledge

Skilled interpersonal relations are crucial for effective teaching and learning but much professional knowledge here is tacit and thus not easily communicated. This article presents the results of a study that examined the tacit knowledge of trainee and experienced teachers in relation to various problematic interpersonal aspects of school life. Trainee (n = 501) and experienced (n = 163) teachers in secondary schools were presented with a series of hypothetical vignettes and asked to rate each of 128 potential response options. Trainees completed the survey at the beginning and end of their professional training year. It was found that experience appeared to be related to the capacity to identify ‘bad’ responses, but there was little difference in relation to the identification of ‘good’ responses. Further differences between novice and experienced teachers in relation to preferred strategies are reported. Implications for teacher education and for future research are identified and discussed.     

“I think I can,but I'm afraid to try”: The role of self-efficacy beliefs and mathematics anxiety in mathematics problem-solving efficiency

This study investigated the role of self-efficacy beliefs, mathematics anxiety, and working memory capacity in problem-solving accuracy, response time, and efficiency (the ratio of problem-solving accuracy to response time). Pre-service teachers completed a mathematics anxiety inventory measuring cognitive and affective dispositions for mathematics, before completing an operation span task to measure working memory capacity, rating self-efficacy for mental multiplication, and then solved computer-based multiplication problems at two complexity levels. A simultaneous regression design was used to assess the unique variance associated with each variable. There were two new findings; the differential role of self-efficacy on response time and efficiency, and the potential compensatory relationship between self-efficacy and mathematics anxiety related to efficiency outcomes. Educational implications and suggestions for future research were proposed.     

The incidence and wage effects of overeducation

Data gathered from a recent national sample of workers on educational requirements and attainments are used to examine the extent and economic effects of overeducation. Nearly 40 percent of the U.S. work force-and about 50 percent of black males-have more education than their jobs require. But we also find that “surplus” education does have economic value. The individual return to an additional year of surplus education was positive and significant for all major demographic groups. The estimated return is, however, only about half the size of the return to an additional year of required education.     

Gastrointestinal distress is common during a 161-km ultramarathon

This study examined the incidence, severity, and timing of gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms in finishers and non-finishers of the 161-km Western States Endurance Run. A total of 272 runners (71.0% of starters) completed a post-race questionnaire that assessed the incidence and severity (none = 0, mild = 1, moderate = 2, severe = 3, very severe = 4) of 12 upper (reflux/heartburn, belching, stomach bloating, stomach cramps/pain, nausea, vomiting) and lower (intestinal cramps/pain, flatulence, side ache/stitch, urge to defecate, loose stool/diarrhoea, intestinal bleeding/bloody faeces) GI symptoms experienced during each of four race segments. GI symptoms were experienced by most runners (96.0%). Flatulence (65.9% frequency, mean value 1.0, s = 0.6 severity), belching (61.3% frequency, mean value 1.0, s = 0.6 severity), and nausea (60.3% frequency, mean value 1.0, s = 0.7 severity) were the most common symptoms. Among race finishers, 43.9% reported that GI symptoms affected their race performance, with nausea being the most common symptom (86.0%). Among race non-finishers, 35.6% reported that GI symptoms were a reason for dropping out of the race, with nausea being the most common symptom (90.5%). For both finishers and non-finishers, nausea was greatest during the most challenging and hottest part of the race. GI symptoms are very common during ultramarathon running, and in particular, nausea is the most common complaint for finishers and non-finishers.