Personal construct psychology as a constructivist approach to learning

This paper proposes that Kelly's Personal Construct Psychology deserves examination as a constructivist basis for science teaching and learning. It argues that because of the explicit nature of the psychology, the clear definition of learning and meaning and the integration of affective, psychomotor and cognitive dimensions of learning, the psychology has much to offer science education.     

Establishing open and critical discourses in the science classroom: Reflecting on initial difficulties

This paper presents a reflective account of a science teacher’s endeavours to use the referent of critical constructivism to transform her pedagogical practices. The context of her action research was a Year 10 Bioethics unit taught at an independent girls’ school in Perth, Western Australia. Students were provided with opportunities to engage in open and critical discourses; many did, but a few were unwilling to participate in accordance with the teacher’s intentions. We illustrate the disruptive influence of these “dissident” students and explore the reasons for their unwillingness to suspend their disbelief in a new way of knowing (and of being) that involves a radical change in the role of language in the classroom. We conclude with recommendations for epistemological pluralism and the careful use of critical discourse for re-negotiating teaching and learning roles and creating conditions for open discourse to flourish.     

Internalizing symptoms and affect of children with emotional and behavioral disorders: A comparative study with an urban African American sample

Self‐reported internalizing symptoms of seriously emotionally disturbed (SED) and regular education students in grades 4–6 were compared using the Internalizing Symptoms Scale for Children. All participants were African American and from an urban public school district in the Southeastern United States. Each of the two study groups consisted of 50 participants (35 boys, 15 girls) who were matched by gender and socioeconomic status. The SED group reported significantly higher levels of internalizing distress than the regular education group. In contrast to previous findings, there was no significant gender difference in self‐reported internalizing symptomatology in the present study. A discriminant function analysis found that the ISSC scores were able to correctly classify 91% of the participants into their respective educational group. Results of this study provide additional evidence of the construct validity of the ISSC, a recently developed and unique self‐report measure. Results are discussed in terms of future research needs and educational/clinical practice with students who have emotional and behavioral disorders. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

There’s something about Mary: The moral value of things <Emphasis Type="Italic">qua</Emphasis> information objects

Luciano Floridi argues that every existing entity is deserving of at least minimal moral respect in virtue of having intrinsic value qua information object. In this essay, I attempt a comprehensive assessment of this important view as well as the arguments Floridi offers in support of it. I conclude both that the arguments are insufficient and that the thesis itself is substantively implausible from the standpoint of ordinary intuitions.     

The effects on teaching of changes in relative rewards for research and teaching

To the degree that faculty members take into account the relative financial rewards for teaching and research in deciding on the allocation of available time between these two areas, a modification of the reward structure may be expected to produce changes in the amount of time devoted to each. The purpose of this article is to examine with the help of some basic graphic tools of economics the possible results on the quantity of teaching and the quantity of research that may follow from a modification of the reward structure. The possible results are analyzed in terms of displacement, salary, and work effects of the modification.     

THE GENETIC ASPECTS OF HIGH INTELLIGENCE

A cohort of 71 pairs of twins was studied in a project which started within the decade 1965 to 1975. The total level of intelligence (global IQ) and the level of particular intellectual components have been examined annually since the twins were two years of age. The data were analysed by comparing monozygotic and dizygotic twins. The results revealed that high intelligence is influenced much more by hereditary than exogenous factors. Furthermore, there is an irregularity in the development of intellectual level from childhood to adulthood. Consequently, decision making about children cannot be carried out on the basis of a single IQ evaluation. A cluster analysis demonstrated the importance of hereditary factors not only on intellectual level, but also on the pattern of intellectual development.