Nitpicking: An Exploration of the Marginalization of Gender Equity in Urban School Research and Reform

The Urban Review - Why has gender been marginalized as a consideration in decisions about how conditions in urban schools should be improved? To answer this question I examine research about home...     

Infant Affective Reactions to the Resumption of Maternal Interaction after the Still-Face

To investigate infants' reactions to the Face-to-Face Still-Face Paradigm and in particular the reunion episode, 50 6-month-olds' affective, behavioral, and physiologic reactions were recorded and analyzed. Infants reacted to the still-face with negative affect, a drop in vagal tone, and an increase in heart rate. By contrast, they reacted to the reunion episode with a mixed pattern of positive and negative affect. There was a carryover of negative affect from the still-face, an increase in fussiness and crying, and a rebound of positive affect. During this episode, the infants' heart rate and vagal tone returned to initial levels. The data indicate that infant affective displays are specifically related to different interactive events, but that their physiologic reactions do not show the same level of specificity. The findings also highlight the complexity of the affective and reparatory processes that take place in mother-infant interactions.     

The methods of science … and those by which we live

The essays in this symposium were originally presented as the opening panel at the fifth national conference of the National Association of Scholars titled “Objectivity and Truth in the Natural Sciences, the Social Sciences, and the Humanities.” The conference took place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 11 to 13 November 1994.     

Conditions affecting the usefulness of pre- and post-tests for assessment purposes

Interest in measuring and evaluating student learning in higher education is growing. There are many tools available to assess student learning. However, the use of such tools may be more or less appropriate under various conditions. This study provides some evidence related to the appropriate use of pre/post‐tests. The question of whether graded tests elicit a higher level of performance (better representation of actual learning gains) than ungraded post‐tests is examined. We examine whether the difficulty level of the questions asked (knowledge/comprehension vs. analysis/application) affects this difference. We test whether the student’s level in the degree programme affects this difference. Results indicate that post‐tests may not demonstrate the full level of student mastery of learning objectives and that both the difficulty level of the questions asked and the level of students in their degree programme affect the difference between graded and ungraded assessments. Some of these differences may be due to causes other than grades on the assessments. Students may have benefited from the post‐test, as a review of the material, or from additional studying between the post‐test and the final examination. Results also indicate that pre‐tests can be useful in identifying appropriate changes in course materials over time.     

“工厂的阴影”——兼论质性研究的实践与应用

全球化条件下急剧变化的经济结构给不同的社会群体带来冲击,一项关于一群生活在美国后工业化城镇中的中学生的前后跨度为15年的民族志追踪研究,揭示了如何从日常生活实践的角度理解阶级变迁过程,以及在去工业化时期,失去原有工作的白人工人群体如何在特定的社会结构与历史条件下,将自身重塑为一个独特的阶层。全球化时代的阶级重构过程与性别关系以及族群身份认同等因素之间存在极其错综复杂的关联。只有将社会群体置于具体的历史条件以及相邻群体关系中考察,才能深刻理解这些过程,这就是构图式分析法(compo-sitional study)。这一研究思路应当适用于不同国家与背景下的社会人群研究,而在全球化过程中受益的新兴国家如印度和中国开展类似研究,尤为重要。     

Paulo and the Birds: Towards a Magical Realist Approach to Ethnography

This article explores how magical realism can be used as an analytic to study culture. I propose a magical realist epistemology that seeks to dismantle binaristic impulses by allowing for competing notions of reality to co-exist. This displacement of Western notions of “truth” compels Western ethnographers and their readers to imagine an alternative world where the magical and the mundane are mutually sustaining.     

The influence of clothing on perceptions of infant sex roles

This paper reports an evaluation of presentation skills training for participants from manufacturing, service, production, and research organizations using a repeated‐measures quasi‐experimental comparison‐group design. In addition to posttest assessments of participants’ reactions and learning, participants’ self reports of sixteen behavioral skills were assessed across three time periods. Similar analyses were employed to test for co‐workers’ ratings of program participants’ long‐term improvement. Statistical analyses of participants’ responses (controlling for the number of comparisons) revealed positive reactions to the training, improvement in learning, as well as short‐term behavioral change in eight of the sixteen skills taught. Long‐term change was found in seven of the dependent measures. On‐the‐job change was found in three skills. Taken together, improvement was found in all but two of the skills areas in the training. Analyses of co‐workers’ ratings of participants’ skills also revealed that trainees had improved on twelve of the sixteen presentation skills after the program.     

No Light at the End of Tunnel Vision: Steps for Improving Lesson Plans

The authors of this article believe that the current structure of lesson plans impede differentiation, individualization, and innovation and offer little in assessing the quality of teaching and learning. Concrete steps will be offered for planning to better respond to student diversity in meeting lesson objectives.