A review of ‘psychology and the study of education: critical perspectives on developing theories’

This review examines Psychology and the Study of Education: Critical Perspectives on Developing Theories, a collection of academic articles edited by Cathal Ó Siochrú. The collection comprehensively considers wide-ranging topics pertinent to the psychology of education, with a target audience of educators and students wishing to learn more about psychology. The review evaluates the collection as an integrated work of entries and analyses each component chapter; recognising the success of the collection with respect to its aim of challenging readers to critically reflect upon and consider the value of psychology in both understanding and influencing education. The book transcends the common formula of academic article collections in this area by being presented in a somewhat conversational manner, making it both interesting and accessible. The book is recommended for anyone interested in the psychology of education and for anyone who values the advancement of learning and teaching.     

Mnemonic-strategy reduction of prose-learning interference

One hundred and sixty college students read three fictitious biographical passages according to either imagery-mnemonic or no-strategy control instructions. In one mnemonic condition, subjects formed separate images involving each biographical name and its associated facts: in another mnemonic condition, the biographical name and its associated facts were integrated within a single composite image. Relative to an interference-control condition, integrated mnemonic subjects recalled more factual information, whereas separate mnemonic subjects did not. In addition, the recall of integrated mnemonic subjects was statistically no different from that of a noninterference control condition, whereas the recall of separate mnemonic subjects was lower. Both theoretical and educational implications of the results are discussed. The first author’s contribution to this work was supported by an Organized Research Grant from the Graduate School of Illinois State University. The second author’s contribution was supported by the National Institute of Education under Grant No. NIE-G-81-0009 to the Wisconsin Center for Education Research and was facilitated by a Romnes Faculty Fellowship from the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.     

Identity policies of education: struggles for inclusion and exclusion in Peru and Colombia

ABSTRACT

Policy initiatives that seek to account for ethno-cultural differences in education and schooling have become increasingly popular over the past few decades. These include affirmative action measures and bilingual education models. The rationale for the implementation of these policies focuses on their potential to rectify historical discrimination by both levelling horizontal inequalities and granting equal value to different cultures and languages in the schooling process. In this framework, however, ethnic communities are often treated as discrete and static social aggregates, and social heterogeneity and spillover effects between groups are disregarded. This paper draws on empirical case studies from Colombia and Peru to show how identity policies of education can increase inter-ethnic competition, leading to protracted social conflicts. These outcomes, beyond negatively impacting local communities, raise important dilemmas surrounding the theoretical and operational foundations of these popular policy measures.     

Classifications of college students’ protean and boundaryless orientation to work

Increasingly, individuals navigate their own careers in self-directed (protean) and boundaryless contexts. These concepts have been applied to adult employees but have seen limited application with young adults. Therefore, 205 college students were assessed on the Protean and Boundaryless Career Attitudes scales (Briscoe, Hall, and DeMuth, 2006); i.e., self-directed career management, values-driven, boundaryless mindset, and organizational mobility preferences. Scale items were reworded to focus on college experience. Cluster analysis organized respondents into five distinct protean-boundaryless career types. Three types were similar to those hypothesized for adults, while two types were unique to our sample.     

Optimal Design for Two-Level Random Assignment and Regression Discontinuity Studies

An important concern when planning research studies is to obtain maximum precision of an estimate of a treatment effect given a budget constraint. When research designs have a multilevel or hierarchical structure changes in sample size at different levels of the design will impact precision differently. Furthermore, there will typically be differential costs of enrolling additional units at different levels of the hierarchy. The optimal design problem in multilevel research studies involves determining the optimal sample size at each level of the design given specified design parameters and a specified marginal cost of recruitment at each level. The current work extends existing results by considering optimal design for (a) unbalanced random assignment designs and (b) regression discontinuity designs.