The effects of student financial aid on access to higher education: An analysis of progress with special consideration of minority enrollment

An objective of the federal student financial aid programs is to promote access to higher education, especially for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. During the past few years, concern has been expressed by diverse segments of the higher education community that this objective is not being met for black and Hispanic students. This article analyzes the effects of aid offers on enrollment decisions by college applicants from the classes of 1972, 1980, and 1982, and analyzes the effects the type of aid offered had on enrollment by minority students in the classes of 1980 and 1982. The principal findings from this analysis are that (1) all types of aid packages had a positive impact on enroliment decisions by college applicants in all three classes, and (2) all types of aid had a positive influence on enrollment by minority students.     

Trouble in the Second Year: Three Questions about Family Interaction

3 questions regarding family interaction in the second year of life are addressed in this report on 69 families rearing firstborn sons. Question 1 concerns the identification, via cluster analysis, of families having difficulty managing their child, using codings of narrative records of family interaction when children were 15 and 21 months of age. Parents in families identified as "troubled" at each age tried to control their toddlers most often, were least likely to rely upon control-plus-guidance management strategies, had children who defied them most frequently, and experienced the greatest escalation of negative affect in these control encounters. Families identified as "troubled" at both 15 and 21 months had children who received the highest "externalizing" problem scores at 18 months and mothers who experienced the most daily hassles during the second year. Question 2 concerns the antecedents of "trouble in the second year." Discriminant function analyses indicated that membership in the groups of families that appeared troubled at both ages of measurement ( n = 15 ), at only one age (n = 28), or never ( n = 26) could be reliably predicted (hit rate = 71%) using a set of 9 measurements of parent personality, child emotionality/temperament, marital quality, work-family relations, and social support, suggested by Belsky's model of the determinants of parenting, and social class. Question 3 concerns the proposition that extensive nonmaternal care in the first year is a risk factor for troubled family functioning in the second year. As hypothesized, prediction analysis showed that families at moderate and high contextual risk (based on 10 antecedent variables pertaining to Question 2) were significantly more likely to experience trouble in the second year when children experienced 20 or more hours per week of nonmaternal care in their first year, and these results could not be attributed to "selection effects."     

Professional Development on the Science of Learning and teachers' Performative Thinking—A Pilot Study

This pilot study investigated how a brief professional development session on the science of learning impacted teachers' attributions of usefulness to both scientific and performative concepts about teaching. Ratings were collected from teachers attending five events across the United Kingdom (N = 585) before and after receiving a 90‐min training session. Initial ratings of scientific concepts were positively correlated with age, while initial ratings of performative concepts were negatively correlated with years of experience. Immediately following professional development, the value teachers attributed to scientific concepts for understanding their practice increased, while their valuing of performative concepts decreased. A follow‐up study with a subsample (N = 153) revealed the impact was reduced but persisted 6–12 weeks later. Results are discussed in terms of the potential for a scientific understanding of learning to empower educators as expert professionals.     

Intergenerational transmission of warm-sensitive-stimulating parenting: a prospective study of mothers and fathers of 3-year-olds

More than 200 New Zealand men and women studied repeatedly since age 3 were videotaped interacting with their own 3-year-old children to determine (a) whether childrearing and family climate experienced in 3 distinct developmental periods while growing up (i.e., early childhood, middle childhood, early adolescence) predicted parenting and (b) whether romantic relationship quality moderated the effect of childrearing history on observed parenting. Support for the first hypothesis emerged across all 3 developmental periods for mothers (only), with no evidence of moderating effects of romantic relationship quality for mothers or fathers. Results are discussed in terms of supportive versus harsh parenting, mother-father differences, and the characteristics of the sample.     

The secret identity of science education: masculine and politically conservative?

This response to Jesse Bazzul and Heather Sykes’ paper, The secret identity of a biology textbook: straight and naturally sexed, explores their critiques of textbooks and curricula that authoritatively present scientific accounts of the natural world without engaging students in critical thinking. It proposes that we need to go beyond such useful critiques to develop alternatives to the unsatisfactory heteronormative status quo in biology textbooks and in science education more generally.     

MOTIVATIONAL BELIEFS AND LEARNING STRATEGIES IN ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

Students enter college chemistry courses with different sources of motivation, appropriate or inappropriate assumptions about their probability of success and how to study. This study is theoretically aligned with self-regulated learning research. Clearly, academic performance is closely related to student motivational beliefs and learning strategies. This study investigated the motivational beliefs and learning strategies of 2 years of college students in the second semester of organic chemistry. Responses to the Motivational Beliefs and Learning Strategies Questionnaire indicated that student self-efficacy was highly correlated with academic performance (semester grades). Gender differences were quite pronounced. Male academic performance was associated with intrinsic motivation as well as the importance placed on the learning task. Test anxiety was negatively associated with male grades. Extrinsic motivation was negatively correlated with female grades. Responses to students’ sense of control over learning, the value of the learning task, and self-efficacy were significantly higher for males compared to females. Faculty who attend to these different patterns may influence beliefs as well as learning strategies. Correcting erroneous assumptions about how to learn chemistry may help students shift both their attitudes and their learning practices. The notable gender difference suggests that female chemistry students may especially profit from focused faculty intervention.     

The Museum and Its Relationships as a Loosely Coupled System

Abstract Currently dominant ideas about the social accountability of museums demand that museums produce “intended outcomes”: positive changes to visitors. Proponents commonly depict this process as a “logic model,” a tightly controlled sequence of events that moves from goal to intended outcome. A tightly coupled system obliges all elements to work toward a common goal. But studies in a variety of fields have shown that tightly coupled systems are achievable only under specific environmental conditions, which are not met within the network of relationships in which museums work. Instead, this article views the museum and its relationships as a loosely coupled system. Each element has its own purposes, and strives to maintain its own autonomy. Interests overlap, but are not identical. In the loosely coupled system, encounters generate a wide and unpredictable range of events. This approach offers advantages for the long‐term sustainability of museums.     

Interactional Synchrony and the Origins of Infant-Mother Attachment: A Replication Study

This study sought to replicate previous work in testing the hypothesis that interactions of dyads developing secure attachment relationships would be characterized by disproportionately synchronous and those of dyads developing insecure relationships by disproportionately asynchronous exchanges. Additionally, a priori hypotheses were tested regarding expected differences in the interactional histories of dyads developing insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attachments. Results supported the study's predictions in all cases. Dyads developing secure attachments were observed at 3 and 9 months to interact in a disproportionately well-timed, reciprocal, and mutually rewarding manner; dyads developing insecure relationships were disproportionately characterized by interactions in which mothers were minimally involved, unresponsive to infant signals, or intrusive. Within the insecure group, as predicted, 3- and 9-month interactions of avoidant dyads were characterized by maternal intrusiveness and overstimulation; resistant dyads were characterized at both ages by poorly coordinated interactions in which mothers were underinvolved and inconsistent. These findings are discussed as they lend to a growing body of evidence concerning associations between differential interactional histories and attachment quality.