Misconceptions of culture and perversions of multiculturalism

Current practices of multicultural education are based on some unsound conceptions of the nature of culture. Especially unsound is the notion of cultural relativism which claims that it is inappropriate for a given culture to be judged by the standards of other cultures. But all cultures can and should be judged by the standard of how well they allow their members to adapt to the circumstances in which they exist. These circumstances include nature and, increasingly, other cultures. The core error is the belief that cultures are integrated systems, which is based on an organic metaphor which discourages piece-meal criticism and leads to a romantic embrace of the totality of a culture. Rather than fostering an identity with, and celebration of, dysfunctional cultures, multiculturalism should encourage maximum interaction of all elements of a society and the forging of an emergent pluralism.     

Children and Youth with Intellectual Disabilities: Targets for Sexual Abuse

A disproportionate number of children and youth with an intellectual disability are victims of sexual abuse. This paper examines the characteristics and behaviours which may exacerbate the vulnerability of persons with an intellectual disability toward abusive relationships. Recognition is given to the important roles educators can play in die identification, referral, intervention, and prevention of sexual abuse.     

The Public's Bounded Understanding of Science

This introduction to the special issue Understanding the Public Understanding of Science: Psychological Approaches discusses some of the challenges people face in understanding science. We focus on people's inevitably bounded understanding of science topics; research must address how people make decisions in science domains such as health and medicine without having the deep and extensive understanding that is characteristic of domain experts. The articles reflect two broad streams of research on the public understanding of science—the learning orientation that seeks to improve understanding through better instruction and the communications orientation that focuses on attitudes about science and trust in scientists. Challenges to understanding science include determining the relevance of information, the tentativeness of scientific truth, distinguishing between scientific and nonscientific issues, and determining what is true and what is false. Studying the public understanding of science can potentially contribute to psychological theories of thinking and reasoning in modern societies.     

A Conditional Process Analysis of the Teacher Confirmation–Student Learning Relationship

Students enter college with varying degrees of academic self-efficacy, which influences how they respond to effective teaching behaviors. Teacher confirmation is one behavior that has received increased attention because it is thought to indirectly enhance students’ learning by reducing their receiver apprehension in the classroom. Findings from 208 college students supported the hypothesized indirect effects between teacher confirmation and students’ perceived learning through reduced receiver apprehension, but conditional process analyses revealed these indirect effects were moderated by students’ academic self-efficacy. These findings suggest the effectiveness of teacher confirmation behaviors varies among students, with those who lack academic self-efficacy deriving fewer of the intended educational benefits.     

Sociocultural anchors for incorporating sustainability in youth movements: Comparison among secular,religious, and ultraorthodox movements

Abstract

In Israel, youth movements (YMs) comprise a main agent for nonformal education of youth and a youth-engagement framework in which civic engagement can be expanded to address environmental challenges. A major source of sociocultural diversity among YMs is their religious identity, based on the categorizations of secular, religious, and ultraorthodox. We compared, among these groups, the environmental literacy (EL) characteristics of “young-guides” and YM-leaders’ perspectives of sustainability in relation to their YM. Differences among groups were found in the young-guides’ EL: members of secular YMs demonstrated greater EL and openness to including pro-environmental activities within their YM. “Judaism as a platform for addressing sustainability” emerged as a major theme from leaders’ interviews. Implications for meaningful incorporation of sustainability and EE within the groups are discussed.     

Influence of a Non-formal Environmental Education Programme on Junior High-School Students’ Environmental Literacy

One of the solutions implemented by schools for conducting value-based environmental education (EE) is outsourcing: allocating external environmental organizations that develop and conduct EE programmes. This study addressed such a programme—the Green Council Programme (GCP)—developed and implemented in schools by the Israeli Society for Protection of Nature. A pre-test/post-test design was used to investigate the influence of participation in the GCP on components of junior high-school students' environmental literacy. Conceptualizations of ‘environment’, environmental attitudes and sense of ability to act on environmental issues were studied employing quantitative and qualitative tools. Contribution of the programme to the cognitive domain, in developing a systemic understanding of the environment, was limited. On the other hand, participating in this programme heightened students' sensitivity to human–environment interrelationships and developed a more ecological worldview. After the programme, students demonstrated greater perception of humans as part of the environment, an increased sensitivity to human impact on the environment and their value for non-human nature moved from an anthropocentric to a more ecocentric orientation. While students' internal locus-of-control increased, when environmental protection entailed personal economic trade-offs, their support was limited and remained unchanged. The article concludes with recommendations, based on the findings, regarding supplementing the school (science) curriculum with external EE enrichment programmes.     

Australian undergraduate primary school student‐teachers’ responses to child sexual abuse and its mandatory reporting

This study aims to understand how primary school teachers, as mandatory reporters of child sexual abuse, are responding to child sexual abuse and its mandatory reporting, even though many teachers do not receive a compulsory course in Child Protection and its legal requirements in their pre‐service university training. A cohort of 81 Australian final fourth‐year Bachelor of Education (Primary) student‐teachers was asked about four aspects of it. Qualitative data gathered from these student‐teachers’ questionnaires provide important insights into their knowledge of child sexual abuse; their knowledge of Department of Education policy on it; their professional competence in mandatory reporting of it; and their recommended educational and professional training in it. The results show that all of these student‐teachers feel inadequately prepared to address child sexual abuse and mandatory reporting in schools, being unaware of both knowledge of it and the Department’s policy, even though many recognise the gravity of sexual abuse for the child survivor and the need, and seriousness, of child protection. Finally, these student‐teachers all want better training about these issues during their four‐year degree. In conclusion, these results, and some recommendations, may provide a guide for curriculum planners to design compulsory and appropriate pre‐service university courses to enhance student‐teachers’ knowledge, skills and competencies about child sexual abuse and its mandatory reporting.     

Creating Realistic Data Sets with Specified Properties via Simulation

We explain how to simulate both univariate and bivariate raw data sets having specified values for common summary statistics. The first example illustrates how to ‘construct’ a data set having prescribed values for the mean and the standard deviation – for a one‐sample t test with a specified outcome. The second shows how to create a bivariate data set with a specified correlation coefficient.