Stereotypes of the Japanese manager in Singapore

Semantic profiles of the Japanese manager were obtained from a questionnaire study of Japanese and Singaporean managers in the Singapore subsidiaries of Japanese companies, to establish an autostereotype and a high-contact heterostereotype. Questionnaires were also administered to Singaporean, British and American managers in the Singapore subsidiaries of British and American companies, to establish low-contact heterostereotypes of the Japanese manager. Discriminant analysis was used to map the stereotypes in perceptual space. No significant differences were found between the low-contact heterostereotypes of the Japanese manager held by the British, American and Singaporeans, but very significant (α < 0.1%) and interpretable differences were found between the low-contact and high-contact heterostereotypes, and between each of these and the autostereotype. The differences between the stereotypes are discussed, and the implications for multinational organizations are considered.     

An investigation into the prevalence of ecological misconceptions in upper secondary students and implications for pre-service teacher education

Students’ and teachers’ misconceptions are an international concern among researchers in science education; they influence how students learn and teachers’ teach knowledge and are a hindrance in the acquisition of accurate knowledge. This paper reports on a literature synthesis of existing research about ecological misconceptions. One means of improving the application of misconceptions involves using diagnostic tests. These form an important component of a broader conceptual toolkit needed to teach science in conceptually accurate ways. Analysis of the results of a diagnostic test, completed by biology students and pre-service teachers in Ireland, revealed the presence of an unacceptably high level of misconceptions and uncovered flaws in students and teachers’ understanding of ecological concepts. A clear link was observed between the misconceptions present in pre-service teachers’ knowledge base and those dominant in students. In this regard, we discuss implications of these findings for teacher education, from pre-service to continuing education.     

Newton and the age of reason

During the spring semester of 1987 a mathematician and a physicist from Oberlin College went with twenty-one undergraduates to London to use the resources of England as the basis for a course with the above title. This unusual interdisciplinary course is described, with emphasis on its experimental, experiential nature and the challenges and satisfactions which it provided.Joseph L. Snider is Professor of Physics at Oberlin College. He received his undergraduate degree in physics from Amherst College in 1956 and his Ph.D. in experimental physics from Princeton University in 1961. He has taught and done research at Harvard University and at Oberlin College. His areas of interest are solar physics, astrophysics, relativity, and the history and philosophy of science. Recently he has become interested in working to improve the teaching of physics and astronomy to pre-college students.Bruce Pollack-Johnson is Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Oberlin College, where he is responsible for the operations research program. He received a B.A. in sociology with a minor in education from Brandeis University in 1975, an M.A. in mathematics from Temple University in 1979, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in operations research from the University of Pennsylvania in 1980 and 1983, respectively. He has published in the areas of human resource modeling, forecasting, educational planning, simulation, and project management, and his current research includes project scheduling and conflict resolution. He has helped develop new courses for liberal arts students on introductory computer science and educational philosophy, as well as the course described in this article, and is also Co-Director of the Lorain County Peace Education Project.     

Enhanced neophobia induced by incentive contrast

In two experiments, a successive negative contrast effect in licking was produced by shifting rats from 32% to 4% sucrose solution. Subsequent to the downshift in reward, the rats were tested for licking either a plain 12% sucrose solution or 12% plus a neutral flavor. Licking for the 12% solution was depressed in downshifted rats when a flavor was present, regardless of whether this flavor was novel or had been present in the shift solution. The results were interpreted in terms of an enhancement of neophobia by reward reduction.