The Golden Rule Bias Reduction Principle: A Practical Reform

In this article, the Executive Director of FairTest, an organization that has been prominent in promoting Golden Rule-type procedures, explains what he means by the "Golden Rule bias reduction principle" and why he advocates it as a practical reform to help ensure fairer tests.     

On the Teaching of Science, Technology and International Affairs

Despite the ubiquity and critical importance of science and technology in international affairs, their role receives insufficient attention in traditional international relations curricula. There is little literature on how the relations between science, technology, economics, politics, law and culture should be taught in an international context. Since it is impossible even for scientists to master all the branches of natural science and engineering that affect public policy, the learning goals of students whose primary training is in the social sciences should be to get some grounding in the natural sciences or engineering, to master basic policy skills, to understand the basic concepts that link science and technology to their broader context, and to gain a respect for the scientific and technological dimensions of the broader issues they are addressing. They also need to cultivate a fearless determination to master what they need to know in order to address policy issues, an open-minded but skeptical attitude towards the views of dueling experts, regardless of whether they agree with their politics, and (for American students) a world-view that goes beyond a strictly U.S. perspective on international events. The Georgetown University program in Science, Technology and International Affairs (STIA) is a unique, multi-disciplinary undergraduate liberal arts program that embodies this approach and could be an example that other institutions of higher learning might adapt to their own requirements.     

Right or Wrong? Toward a Theory of IRBs’ (Dis)Approval of Research

No one would disagree that scientific research has been unethical—even criminal—at times. Institutional review boards (IRBs) play a fundamental role in protecting people from unethical criminological research. At the same time, IRBs, as social entities, are subject to a wide range of influences that may affect their decisions regarding the ethicality of research. This research note draws on the paradigm of pure sociology and the logic underpinning Black’s theory of law to propose a preliminary theory of IRBs’ (dis)approval of research. Specifically, it suggests that IRBs apply less social control to criminological research involving higher status researchers and lower status research participants and, therefore, those persons are more often involved in research. The paper concludes with theoretically situated, practical advice for how (1) IRBs can reduce their discrimination, and (2) criminological researchers can reduce IRBs’ disapproval of their projects and thereby increase their research output.     

Training Transfer: A Suggested Course of Action for Local Authorities to Leverage Performance

Maximization of training influence on individual performance through changes in employee knowledge, skills, and abilities is a paramount concern of organizations. However, training without implementation in a work setting cannot achieve its goals. In this article, the author maps the primary factors that influence transfer of what is learned in training to work settings and provides some evidence‐based recommendations and implications for improved performance.     

Autoionization in atomic and molecular physics

The important role of ionized atoms and molecules in many aspects of physical and chemical phenomena is being increasingly recognized. Typical research areas are astrophysics and interstellar molecular syntheses; plasma physics and fusion research; aeronomy and effects of ultraviolet irradiation on high atmosphere constituents; ion-molecule reactions; mass spectrometry; fundamental research on structural problems; behaviour of excited species; quantum theory of molecular structure and chemical kinetics. This paper emphasises the role of the autoionization process and discusses some of its characteristics, as well as the experimental methods used for its study.     

Reflections on teaching and learning

Ditor's Note: Jacques Barzun, one of the eminent scholars of our time, examines the current state of American education in a new book appearing this spring:Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning (The University of Chicago Press). This collection of fifteen newly edited and introduced essays covers a wide range of subjects. What follows are the introductions to three essays that he felt would be of particular interest to our readers. We thank Prof. Barzun and The University of Chicago Press for their interest in having these pieces appear in our pages.     

The French University: What happened after the revolution?

This paper examines the nature and significance of the changes introduced in the French university system since the passage of the Orientation Act of Higher Education in 1968. The process of higher education change is conceptualized in terms of a slow and disjointed process in which the political limits of legitimate change have been somewhat expanded through a succession of incremental adjustments. French universities have thus followed certain trends also apparent in other Western European nations; their operation and governance have been democratized, bureaucratized and politicized; their social functions are shifting toward greater vocationalism and professionalism; curriculum issues have tended to overshadow structural problems.The modernization of the French university, however, is by no means a completed task and much remains to be done to adapt its economic and research functions to the needs of a modern, mass, industrial society. In spite of a bleak economic outlook, the university system is most likely to continue its sluggish adaptation primarily as a result of its internal contradictions.Preliminary drafts of this paper were originally presented at the Seminar on European Higher Education, Center for European Studies (CUNY, Graduate School) and the Columbia University Seminar on Higher Education on March 4, 1976 and May 5, 1976, respectively.