Theme-Park Psychology: A Case Study Regarding Human Intelligence and Its Implications for Education

We introduce in this article the construct of theme-park psychology which we define as psychological theory and research drawn only from limited and unrepresentative samples of participants, tasks and situational contexts within the context of worldwide populations. Results obtained from limited populations, tasks, and situational contexts often are inappropriately generalized and then used as a basis for educational policy. In theme-park psychology, easy-to-study populations, tasks, and situational contexts repeatedly may show the same patterns in data, leading to tantalizing generalizations that are nevertheless wrong. We describe studies by ourselves and by others with respect to human intelligence that illustrate our views and that cast doubt on traditional notions.     

Assessment of gifted students for identification purposes: New techniques for a new millennium

The augmented theory of successful intelligence [Sternberg, R. J. (2003b). Wisdom, intelligence, and creativity synthesized. New York: Cambridge University Press] postulates that intelligence comprises creative skills in generating novel ideas; analytical skills in discerning whether they are good ideas; practical skills in implementing the ideas and persuading others of their worth; and wisdom-based skills in employing one's creative, analytical, and practical skills for a common good. The article summarizes three projects designed to identify gifts. In the Rainbow Project, my colleagues and I found that it was possible substantially to increase prediction of first-year university academic performance and simultaneously reduce ethnic-group differences on the predictive test, relative to a standardized test used for admissions in the United States. In the Kaleidoscope Project, my colleagues and I found that students admitted for expanded skills performed as well as did other students, without the ethnic-group differences typically obtained in such measures. In the Aurora Project, Elena Grigorenko, Mei Tan, and their colleagues are seeking to identify giftedness in students at the upper elementary grades. All three projects show that it is possible to apply the augmented theory of successful intelligence in ways that enhance gifted identification.     

Aboriginal Football in Australia: Race Relations and the Socio-Historical Meanings of the 2014 Borroloola Tour to the Brazil World Cup

Abstract

This paper tells the history of the Borroloola Tour to the 2014 Brazil World Cup, when eight Aboriginal adolescent footballers from the remote town of Borroloola in Australia’s Northern Territory were selected to be part of a tour to Brazil. In Brazil they followed the Australian team from the stands, socialized with football idols such as Tim Cahill, and visited a Brazilian Indigenous tribe. John Moriarty, the first Aboriginal Australian to be selected to Australia’s national football team executed this excursion. Considering that race relations within the Australian sporting arena have historically, been tense and contested, this paper brings to light an under-explored aspect of football in Australia. It is timely too, given the insertion of Australian football within the Asian Football Confederation. The paper examines the historical meanings of the Borroloola Tour through the lens of its key participants; as well as by unveiling John Moriarty’s history as the first Aboriginal person to be selected to play for the Socceroos. In conclusion, it reveals that both the past and contemporary history of Aboriginal people’s involvement in Australian football has an emerging face that will shape football in Australia and in Asia in the coming years.     

How does the World Trade Organization know? The mobilization and staging of scientific expertise in the GMO trade dispute

The World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement procedure is a key arena for establishing global legal norms for what counts as relevant knowledge. As a high-profile case, the WTO trade dispute on GMOs mobilized scientific expertise in somewhat novel ways. Early on, the Panel put the dispute under the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement through a new legal ontology; it classified transgenes as potential pests and limited all environmental issues to the 'plant and animal health' category. The selection of scientific experts sought a multi-party consensus through a fast adversarial process, reflecting a specific legal epistemology. For the SPS framing, focusing on the defendant's regulatory procedures, the Panel staged scientific expertise in specific ways that set up how experts were questioned, the answers they would give, their specific role in the legal arena, and the way their statements would complement the Panel's findings. In these ways, the dispute settlement procedure co-produced legal and scientific expertise within the Panel's SPS framework. Moreover, the Panel operated a procedural turn in WTO jurisprudence by representing its findings as a purely legal-administrative judgement on whether the EC's regulatory procedures violated the SPS Agreement, while keeping implicit its own judgements on substantive risk issues. As this case illustrates, the WTO settlement procedure mobilizes scientific expertise for sophisticated, multiple aims: it recruits a source of credibility from the scientific arena, thus reinforcing the standard narrative of 'science-based trade discipline', while also constructing new scientific expertise for the main task--namely, challenging trade restrictions for being unduly cautious.     

Differences between accounts provided by witnesses and alleged victims of child sexual abuse

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether child witnesses of sexual abuse were more or less informative about the alleged incidents than alleged victims when interviewed similarly. METHOD: Twenty-six alleged victims of child sexual abuse (aged 5 to 14 years; M=9.8 years) and 26 children who had witnessed but not experienced similar events were interviewed by experienced youth investigators about the alleged abuse. Children in the two groups were matched with respect to their age, relationships with the alleged perpetrator, and seriousness of the alleged offenses. All children were interviewed using the NICHD investigative interview protocol. RESULTS: Witnesses and victims provided similar amounts of information about the incidents of abuse. Interviewers used more open-ended invitations and elicited more information using open-ended prompts from witnesses than from victims, whereas they used more risky (including suggestive) prompts when interviewing victims. DISCUSSION: These results confirm that young children can be informative witnesses about events that they have either experienced or witnessed.     

STYLES OF THINKING IN THE SCHOOL

Educators know that variables beyond abilities affect students’ performance in school and their interactions with their teachers. Thinking styles are such a variable. Thinking styles are preferred ways of thinking. They are not abilities but rather preferred ways of expressing these abilities. Both students and teachers vary in thinking styles, and in systematic ways. For example, teachers tend to match the stylistic pattern of the school, and students to match the stylistic pattern of their teachers. Teachers tend to overestimate the extent to which their students match their own styles, and also evaluate more favorably students whose styles match their own. Thus, teachers are more likely to identify as “gifted” not only high ability students, but those who match them stylistically.

     

Individualized Course‐Specific Strategy Instruction for College Students with Learning Disabilities and ADHD: Lessons Learned From a Model Demonstration Project

Abstract. This 3‐year Model Demonstration Project involved the development and field testing of an individualized course‐specific strategy instruction model with college students with learning disabilities and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The 46 participants received individualized semester‐long strategy instruction by graduate students in special education. A variety of data sources were used to evaluate the implementation of the model as well as the academic success of students who received individualized strategy instruction. Quantitative analyses indicated that the group as a whole as well as the subset of students on probation and suspension significantly improved their grades and sustained this improvement over time. Qualitative analysis identified two factors related to improvement: independent use of strategies and the supportive nature of the strategy instructor–student relationship. Qualitative analysis also identified two factors related to nonimprovement: academic/cognitive skill deficits and emotional/medication‐related issues. Implications of the model for postsecondary education and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

What Science Offers Teachers of Reading

Although educators may teach well without knowledge of scientific research, students obtain greater benefits from knowledgeable teachers who ensure that scientific research is incorporated into their instruction. In this paper, scientific findings and practical implications are compared and some suggestions to close the gap between science and practice are provided. In this article we examine what science offers general and special educators who teach reading. We review some well‐established scientific findings about reading and their practical implications, not only for children with reading disabilities, but for other children as well. In addition, we consider some broader ways that science may be useful to educators. We conclude with some suggestions for individual teachers interested in becoming more familiar with scientific research on reading.     

General Media

David Manning White, ed. The Great Contemporary Issues: Popular Culture (New York: Arno Press, 1975—$35.00)

Stan Lee's Son of Origins of Marvel Comics (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975—$10.95/6.95)

Les Daniels' Living in Fear: A History of Horror in the Mass Media (New York: Scribners', 1975—$12.95)     

Changing the Subject: Retraining Teachers to Teach Science

This paper reports the experiences of teachers involved in a novel retraining scheme designed to meet a short-term crisis in numbers of teachers of physics. Teachers trained in other subject areas underwent an intensive six-month training in physics and were then placed in schools. During the first year of teaching some support for ongoing learning in science was provided. A study of these teachers' experiences found they lacked content knowledge in areas of the curriculum other than physics and were unprepared for the reality of the science classroom. Their existing classroom management skills were of only limited value in the new context. For those graduates who were supported by experienced staff in schools, the transition to science teaching was hard but ultimately worthwhile. For some, whose qualifications to teach science were never accepted by their peers, retraining was a bitter experience.