Reexamining spatial ability within a Piagetian framework

The goal of this study was to identify and examine results of Piagetian spatial research studies. For inclusion in this review, the studies had to (a) entail individual clinical interviews, (b) involve the manipulation of objects and explanation of answers by subjects, (c) offer written protocols and scoring criteria, and (d) provide documentation of male and female results. Involving over 7,600 individualized clinical interviews, the primary problem focused on whether gender differences existed in Piagetian spatial assessments and, if so, discussion of the significance and implications of the differences. Twenty-three studies assessing for 22 topologic, Euclidean, and projective spatial structures were reviewed and total male and female results compiled. A chi-square test for two independent samples showed that the majority of performance assessments did not demonstrate a significant difference between males and females. Males significantly outperformed females on 8 of the 22 spatial structure tasks. However, as with other gender studies, similarities between male and female performances far outweighed any differences. The clinical interview results provide evidence to support the overall poor spatial ability of both males and females. Educational practices designated to improve spatial abilities should not be a female-only endeavor. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

How Adults’ Actions,Outcomes, and Testimony Affect Preschoolers’ Persistence

Across four experiments, we looked at how 4- and 5-year-olds' (n = 520) task persistence was affected by observations of adult actions (high or low effort), outcomes (success or failure), and testimony (setting expectations—“This will be hard,” pep talks—“You can do this,” value statements—“Trying hard is important,” and baseline). Across experiments, outcomes had the biggest impact: preschoolers consistently tried harder after seeing the adult succeed than fail. Additionally, adult effort affected children’s persistence, but only when the adult succeeded. Finally, children’s persistence was highest when the adult both succeeded and practiced what she preached: exerting effort while testifying to its value.     

Children and Place: Stories We Have, Stories We Need

Given existing curricula, instructional and assessment practices, teacher preparation programs, and multicultural education approaches, schools can be unhelpful places for students who are not at least middle class and politically white. Critical theory offers a range of conceptual frameworks for understanding and addressing these injustices but teachers find the ideas difficult to learn or to practice in classrooms. Increased attention to the use of stories is suggested to support individual and collective transformation and growth for teachers, students, and communities.     

Urban White Working-Class Males and the Possibilities of Collective Anger: Patrolling Riley Road

The study, which was conducted in white working-class bars, investigates how a group of white working-class mates aged 25–30 struggle to construct a sense of masculine identity in the context of a postindustrial economy. Previously, Willis (1977) argued that secondary-school lads, in part, shaped their masculine identity around the male Saber jobs they hoped to hold in the future. In a deindustrialized economy, Weis (1990) found that white working-class high school boys retained a sense of masculinity by envisioning a future male-dominant domestic framework. This research investigates how a group of white working-class men turn to their community for a sense of identity, and how these men channel their anger at their devalued economic status into policing their neighborhood from an African American male presence. It will be argued that possibly through policing, or forcibly defining the borders of their community, these men are trying to act out versions of their embattled masculinity.     

Inside the College Writing Gap: Exploring the Mixed Messages of Remediation Support

This case study offers a qualitative perspective on a relationship between institutional structures and student outcomes. The data describe the conditions in 10 English remediation classrooms at one urban community college district. The study uses new literacies as a theoretical framework with which to understand how these conditions supported classroom-level teaching and learning. Findings suggest that classroom conditions undermined new literacies’ assumptions that college writing is a social practice. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for research to improve writing remediation policies.