Counselor Education on Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual Issues: Comparing Information and Attitude Exploration

The authors compared the effects of information‐based and attitude‐based interventions on counselor trainees' knowledge about and attitudes toward lesbian, gay, and bisexual clients. Analyses of variance indicated that providing information yielded higher knowledge levels than did not providing information and that the exploration of attitudes led to reporting more negative attitudes than did not exploring attitudes. The implications of the findings for counselor education and future research are discussed.     

Dialectic dialogue: reflections on adopting a dialectic stance

ABSTRACT

A multiplicity of perspectives and methods are necessary to investigate the complexities of human development and educational institutions. However, many would-be MM researchers still have questions about how to conceptualize and conduct MM research. Taking a dialectic stance, or mixing research approaches to suit the demands of a research problem, is one way to integrate multiple perspectives from conception to conclusions in a MM research study. In this spirit, we engage in a meta-dialogue focused on our use of the dialectic stance in our dissertations. Using an autoethnographic approach we now call ‘dialectic dialogue’, we analytically and reflectively reexamine our respective research processes to investigate, individually and collaboratively, how taking a dialectic stance influenced the paradigms, methodologies, and methods of our MM dissertations. Three verbal and artistic metaphors for our experience emerged from our discussion: feeling boxed in, getting lucky, and radical commitment. Each metaphor is discussed from our individual and shared perspectives. Our goal is to open our dialogue to a field-wide conversation about the dialectic stance; thus, we conclude with questions for the MM field to consider. This article will be of particular interest to newcomers to the field of MM and their mentors.     

Children's Causal Explanations of Animate and Inanimate Motion

Adults frequently refer to nonobvious, internal, or immanent causal mechanisms when explaining certain kinds of movement— such as the movement of animals (e.g., a rabbit hops because of its brain and muscles) and the self-sustained movement of artifacts (e.g., a toy moves on its own because of batteries or gears). This series of studies examined whether and when preschool children are willing to attribute internal and immanent causes to motion. In 3 studies, preschool children and adults viewed animals and artifacts (wind-up toys and transparent objects) either moving independently or being transported by a person. Children explained animal and artifact events differently, even with the kind of movement controlled: They were more likely to attribute immanent cause to animals than to artifacts and more likely to attribute human cause to artifacts than animals. Internal causes were less frequently endorsed overall; however, when asked to describe the insides of artifacts, children who saw them moving alone more often described internal mechanisms (e.g., batteries, electricity) than children who did not see them moving alone. Altogether, the studies suggest that children as young as 3 or 4 years of age honor two principles: For animals more than for artifacts, movement is caused by an immanent source, and across domains, movements without an observable agent have an internal or immanent source.     

Learners' perceptions of the role of peers in a research experience: Implications for the apprenticeship process,scientific inquiry,and collaborative work

This study investigates the interaction between four pairs of high school students in a 7‐week national research apprenticeship program. Each student was interviewed about perceptions of experiences working with a peer in the same setting, and the resulting stories were analyzed. Through discourse analysis of the interviews and interrelated analyses of data from journals and responses on pre‐ and postprogram questionnaires, three types of support were identified that students experienced to varying degrees: social–emotional, social–technical, and social–cognitive. It is concluded that social–cognitive support is best engendered if there is sufficient similarity of problems and processes, and ample room for different results and debate about interpretation. Additionally, the culture and reward system students work within (i.e., classrooms) must encourage discussion of ideas and value an outsider's perspective, in recognition of the roles creativity, uncertainty, and ambiguity play in science. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 251–271, 2008.     

Correct Interpretation of Chemical Diagrams Requires Transforming from One Level of Representation to Another

Volunteer non-major chemistry students taking an introductory university chemistry course (n = 17) were interviewed about their understanding of a variety of chemical diagrams. All the students’ interviewed appreciated that diagrams of laboratory equipment were useful to show how to set up laboratory equipment. However students’ ability to explain specific diagrams at either the macroscopic or sub-microscopic level varied greatly. The results highlighted the poor level of understanding that some students had even after completing both exercises and experiments using the diagrams. The connection between the diagrams of the macroscopic level (equipment, chemicals), the sub-microscopic level (molecular) and the symbolic level (equations) was not always considered explicitly by students. The results indicate a need for chemical diagrams to be used carefully and more explicitly to ensure learner understanding. Correspondingly, students need to interpret visual chemical diagrams using meta-visualization skills linking the various levels of representation, and appreciating the role of the diagrams in explanations need to be developed.     

Deconstructing the skills training debate in doctoral education

The pressure being placed on universities to deliver skills training for the workplace has generated considerable debate. This paper deconstructs the broader employability discourse in which the debate is embedded in order to draw out its formative implications for skills training during candidature. The paper argues against erection of a deficiency model in the context of skills training of higher degree research (HDR) students, and that the employability discourse is essentially reductive. It obscures whole areas of HDR knowledge production, thus skewing skills training towards the perceived needs of science students; the significant contribution made by research education developers to skills training of HDR students; and employer responsibility for workplace skills training. Notions of skills transferability, best practice and embedding are all shown to be problematic in that they lack discriminative power. Finally, the paper demonstrates that HDR students do value skills training at the institutional level despite prevailing uncertainty.     

Children can represent complex social status hierarchies: Evidence from Indonesia

Children's ethnicity-status associations are often studied in societies where one ethnic group possesses status across multiple dimensions, such as political influence and wealth. This study examined children's (6–12 years) and adults' representations of more complex hierarchies in Indonesia (N = 341; 38% Native Indonesian, 33% Chinese Indonesian, and 27% other ethnicities; 55% female, 36% male; 2021–2022), a society where ethnic groups hold distinct forms of status (on average, Native Indonesians have political influence; Chinese Indonesians have wealth). By 6.5 years, children associated Native Indonesians with political influence and Chinese Indonesians with wealth. Intersectional analyses indicated that ethnicity-status associations were stronger for male than female targets. Children of all ethnicities preferred Chinese Indonesians and preferences were predicted by wealth judgments.