社会认识论:知识政策的理论与实践(下)

本文的后半部分展现社会认识论的实践层面.在这里笔者认为,有组织的探究,即维基词典中广义的"科学",仅仅在一种宏观经济学的框架内才能被证明是一种富有献身精神的追求.这个论点紧跟着这样的需要,即需要福利国家或市场社会主义来确保公共产品的稳定产生.即使我们假定(这个假定是有争议的)个体非常了解自身的利益所在,也不能由此断定他们足够充分地了解他人的利益,以至于确信他们将会协力生产出合适的知识,使得他们所有人都能够达到其目的.     

Credentialism,adults and part-time higher education in the United Kingdom: an account of rising take up and some implications for policy

This paper focuses on, and helps to explain, the growing importance of higher level qualifications for adults in the UK. It highlights statistical trends in their take up of qualifications, particularly, as the result of taking part-time courses in higher education. Recent figures indicate that most part-time students at undergraduate level fund their own tuition fees: I interpret this finding as an indicator of individual demand. The article goes on to draw on a qualitative study of mature students to identify some of the issues which lie behind the statistics. I suggest that insights into the rising take up of HE can be gained from considering the backgrounds and perspectives of mature students themselves, their changing relationship to qualifying and how their return-to-study decisions relate to the contemporary socio-economic context. The paper concludes by reminding policy makers of the challenge of widening access to HE for disadvantaged groups and briefly focuses on the potential of the new foundation degree to address this issue.     

Childhood sexual abuse: Long-term effects on psychological and sexual functioning in a nonclinical and nonstudent sample of adult women

The purpose of this study was to explore how the experience of childhood sexual abuse is related to long-term psychological and sexual functioning in a nonclinical and nonstudent community sample of women. Questionnaires were distributed to 1,500 nurses and returned anonymously. Fifty-four women who had been sexually abused as children (age 15 or younger) responded. These subjects were then matched with 54 nonabused control subjects. Although there was no difference on a measure of self-esteem, the abused group reported more symptoms of distress on the Global Severity Index and on seven out of nine subscales of the Derogatis Brief Symptom Inventory. They also reported more disturbance on a scale which examined psychological symptoms that have been commonly reported in the literature to be particularly associated with sexual abuse. These differences between the abused and nonabused groups were evident even after controlling for differences in subjects' perceptions of parental emotional support. Unlike the results for psychological adjustment, however, the abused subjects did not differ from the control subjects on self-reported levels of sexual satisfaction or sexual dysfunction.     

Reading Angles in Maps

Preschool children can navigate by simple geometric maps of the environment, but the nature of the geometric relations they use in map reading remains unclear. Here, children were tested specifically on their sensitivity to angle. Forty‐eight children (age 47:15–53:30 months) were presented with fragments of geometric maps, in which angle sections appeared without any relevant length or distance information. Children were able to read these map fragments and compare two‐dimensional to three‐dimensional angles. However, this ability appeared both variable and fragile among the youngest children of the sample. These findings suggest that 4‐year‐old children begin to form an abstract concept of angle that applies both to two‐dimsional and three‐dimensional displays and that serves to interpret novel spatial symbols.     

Freshman perceptions of instructor fairness and expertise: A problem in course evaluation

This paper reports a study based on Bruner, Shapiro and Tagiuri's conception of lay personality theory. The trait implication questionnaire adapted from Bruner et. al. was used to investigate the way in which freshmen students make inferences about instructor fairness and expertise. Results are discussed in light of their implications for the use of student course evaluations.     

Looking at Literacy in the 21st Century

Literacy instruction has shifted in recent years alongside acts of legislation. Areas of literacy education like adolescent literacy and RTI are now receiving increased attention, whereas phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency receive considerably less attention than 10 years ago. Comparative discussions describe “very hot” and “cold” topics as they relate to philosophy/approach, level, content, materials, and assessment in 2001 versus 2010. Educators can utilize this content information to inform their instruction and direct attention to needed areas within their own schools.     

The accuracy of students’ predictions of their GCSE grades

The paper reports a study that investigated the relationship between students’ self-predicted and actual General Certificate of Secondary Education results in order to establish the extent of over- and under-prediction and whether this varies by subject and across genders and socio-economic groupings. It also considered the relationship between actual and predicted attainment and attitudes towards going to university. The sample consisted of 109 young people in two schools being followed up from an earlier study. Just over 50% of predictions were accurate and students were much more likely to over-predict than to under-predict. Most errors of prediction were only one grade out and may reflect examination unreliability as well as student misperceptions. Girls were slightly less likely than boys to over-predict but there were no differences associated with social background. Higher levels of attainment, both actual and predicted, were strongly associated with positive attitudes to university. Differences between predictions and results are likely to reflect examination errors as well as pupil errors. There is no evidence that students from more advantaged social backgrounds over-estimate themselves compared with other students, although boys over-estimate themselves compared with girls.