The Use of Trait Labels in Making Psychological Inferences

Three studies investigated children's capacity to use trait labels as tools for making inferences about mental states. For example, knowledge that a story character is "nice" as opposed to "mean" could lead to predictions that the character would respond with greater negative affect upon discovering that his or her action had made someone upset. Study 1 (N = 48) examined whether participants (kindergartners, second graders, fifth graders, and adults) would make different psychological inferences based on whether a character was labeled as "nice" versus "mean." Study 2 (N = 30) examined the same issue with 4-year-olds using a simpler methodology. Study 3 (N = 30) extended the results of Study 2, by examining whether describing characters as "shy" versus "not shy" would lead 4-year-olds to make different mental state inferences. Taken together, these findings suggest that even for young children, trait labels can serve as a basis for making nonobvious inferences. Developmental differences are discussed.     

Professors’ Expectations of Students’ Ability to Think

Recent evaluations of the state of higher education have suggested that students must not only learn subject matter content but must be able to think with it. Professors in tertiary education expect that their students will come equipped to handle certain kinds of information and certain kinds of learning tasks. To describe their expectations, faculty use phrases such as the ability to think logically, or to do independent work, or to use abstract terms. But to what extent do they suppose that their students will be able to think? In a study of some learning tasks in the university, professors from three universities and six different disciplines, representatives of the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities, pure and applied, were interviewed. Faculty expectations of students’ ability to think logically, independently, and abstractly were analysed to show consistencies and differences across disciplines.     

Race and sex differences and similarities in the process of college entry

This study evaluates the process of college entry for race and sex groups as predicted by an elaboration of the Blau and Duncan (1967) status attainment model. Four important observations were derived from the study. First, sex differences among blacks, which have not been previously examined, were less pronounced than sex differences among, whites. Secondly, race effects were more influential than sex in affecting the process of college entry. Thirdly, for all groups the effects of race, sex, family status origin (SES) and standardized test performance on college attendance were substantially mediated by school process variables (e.g., high school rank and curriculum), by significant others influences, and by student educational expectations. Fourthly, the net effects of structural background variables (e.g., SES and standardized test performance) on college attendance were much stronger for blacks (particularly for black males) than for whites.This research was supported by the Russell Sage Foundation and the National Institute of Education. The author wishes to thank the reviewers and the following persons for their invaluable advice contributed to this document: James McPartland, Karl Alexander, Bruce Eckland, Walter Allen, Edward McDill, and Richard Cramer.     

Conceptual change research and science education practice: a response from educators

We discuss the eight papers in this issue of Cultural Studies of Science Education focusing on the debate over conceptual change in science education and explore the issues that have emerged for us as we consider how conceptual change research relates to our practice as science educators. In presenting our interpretations of this research, we consider the role of participants in the research process and contextual factors in conducting research on science conceptions, and draw implications for the teaching of science.

Individual and Collective Leadership in School Science Departments

Given that the subject department is recognised by subject specialist teachers as the central and immediate unit of organization in secondary schools it is surprising that so little attention has been paid by researchers to the leadership dynamics within science departments. The leadership dynamics within the science departments of two contrasting school contexts were explored dialectically in this study. The structure ∣ agency and individual∣collective dialectics guided our interpretation of data from lesson observations, interviews and questionnaire responses, especially as they related to teachers' preparation of units of work (i.e., planned curriculum). As well as recognising thin coherence in teachers' responses we identify contradictions in teachers' perceived and enacted leadership roles, and perceptions of influences on curriculum planning and teaming within the two science departments. Throughout the article we disrupt traditional individualistic leadership discourses and suggest possibilities for more widespread application of an individual | collective leadership dialectic in school science departments.     

Relationship between ability-paired interactions and the development of fifth graders' concepts of balance

This study describes the effects of ability-paired student interactions on achievement as fifth graders (10-year-olds) worked on laboratory activities relating to balance. Achievement gains were assessed (n = 83) by analysis of pretest–posttest differences on the lever concept test. Audio recordings and field notes (n = 30) were analyzed for the following laboratory behaviors: number of words spoken, tinkering, block moving, turns speaking, incidence of helping and distracting behavior. Results revealed that: (1) low-ability student achievement is greater when students are paired with high-ability partners; (2) low-ability students speak more words, exhibit less distracting behavior, and move blocks on the lever less when they are paired with a partner of high ability; (3) high-ability students speak more words, take more turns speaking, and exhibit more helping behaviors when they are paired with low-ability students rather than with other high ability students; and (4) there are no achievement differences for high-ability students regardless of the ability level of their partner. These findings suggest that heterogeneous grouping of students in science can be beneficial to low-ability students partnered with high-ability students, without being detrimental to the high-ability partners.     

Beyond the Rainbow: Retrieval Practice Leads to Better Spelling than does Rainbow Writing

In three experiments, we compared the effectiveness of rainbow writing and retrieval practice, two common methods of spelling instruction. In experiment 1 (n?=?14), second graders completed 2 days of spelling practice, followed by spelling tests 1 day and 5 weeks later. A repeated measures analysis of variance demonstrated that spelling accuracy for words trained with retrieval practice was higher than for words trained with rainbow writing on both tests (η _p ² ?=?.49). In experiments 2 (second graders, n?=?16) and 3 (first graders, n?=?12), students completed 2 days of spelling practice followed by a spelling test 1 day later. Results replicated experiment 1; spelling accuracy was higher for words trained with retrieval practice compared with rainbow writing (η _p ² ?=?.42 and .64, respectively). Furthermore, students endorsed both liking and learning from retrieval practice at least as much as (and sometimes more than) rainbow writing. Results demonstrate that retrieval practice is a more useful (and as engaging) training method than is rainbow writing and extend the well-established testing effect to beginning spellers.     

Moving Technical Communication into the Post-Industrial Age: Advice from 1910

This article examines advice from a century ago that anticipates current calls to relocate the value of technical communication. Chemist Ellen Swallow Richards coined euthenics, the science of controllable environment, and then discussed communication technologies to teach scientific principles to the public. She emphasized women's pivotal role as audience and communicator, helping us understand how to enact the practices of symbolic analysis that give value to our work.     

Behaviour State Analysis in Rett Syndrome: Continuous data reliability measurement

Awareness of optimal behaviour states of children with profound intellectual disability has been reported in the literature as a potentially useful tool for planning intervention within this population. Some arguments have been raised, however, which question the reliability and validity of previously published work on behaviour state analysis. This article sheds light on the debate by presenting two stages of a study of behaviour state analysis for eight girls with Rett syndrome. The results support Mudford, Hogg, and Roberts' (1997 Mudford, OC, Hogg, J and Roberts, J. 1997. Interobserver agreement and disagreement in continuous recording exemplified by measurement of behavior state, American Journal on Mental Retardation, 102: 54–66.  [Google Scholar], 1999 Mudford, OC, Hogg, J and Roberts, J. 1999. Behavior states: Now you see them, now you don't, American Journal of Mental Retardation, 104: 385–391.  [Google Scholar]) concerns with the pooling of participant data. The results of Stage 2 also suggest, however, that most categories of behaviour state can be reliably distinguished once definitions of behaviours for each state are clearly defined.