Constructivisms and Relativisms: A Shopper‘s Guide

Diverse forms of constructivism can be found in the literature today. They exhibit a commonality regarding certain classical positions that they oppose - a unity in their negative identities - but a sometimes wild multiplicity and incompatibility regarding the positive proposals that they put forward. In particular, some constructivisms propose an epistemological idealism, with a concomitant relativism, while others are explicitly opposed to such positions, and move in multifarious different directions. This is a potentially confusing situation, and has resulted in some critics branding all constructivisms with the charge of relativism, and throwing out the baby with the bath water. In addition, since the epistemological foundations of even non-relativist constructivisms are not as familiar as the classical positions, there is a risk of mis-interpretation of constructivisms and their consequences, even by some who endorse them, not to mention those who criticize. Because I urge that some version of constructivism is an epistemological necessity, this situation strikes me as seriously unfortunate for philosophy, and potentially dangerous for the practice of education.     

The somatic marker as a “short cut” to verbal immediacy

This study examined the relationships between the somatic‐marker hypothesis, developed by Damasio (1994) as it relates to homophily and verbal immediacy in the classroom. Damasio has hypothesized that when particular events occur in one's life, there is a “memory” of that event in the brain. As a result, when a similar event occurs, the somatic marker recreates that first event. Students were provided three different scenarios about the first day of a communication class. In the scenarios, the instructor presented information about himself. One instructor provided only autobiographical, demographic data (the control). Another provided information hozu he had had difficulty with public speaking (the selfish marker). The third provided information about how the instructor had helped someone else who had difficulty in public speaking (the altruistic marker). The results indicated that while homophily differences were not significant, there was a significant difference between the control group and the altruistic marker.     

Teaching imaginary children: University students’ narratives about their Latino practicum children

This study investigates the dialogic processes involved in how teachers talk about their students and what consequences their ways of talking (i.e., “narratives”) may have for their guidance. We take a sociocultural perspective on learning as transformation of students’ subjectivity. Teaching, as a process of guiding and facilitating learning, cannot be effective if the teacher does not actively seek how the student perceives and understands reality. We borrow and adapt from Bakhtin (1999) four narrative ways of talking about others: objectivizing, subjectivizing, problematizing and finalizing. The presence of these narratives in web discussion postings of our pre-service teachers about the Latino children they worked with in a community center are analyzed. We then compare their ways of talking about children with print- and web-based discussions about children made by in-service teachers, model teachers and our pre-service teachers in a school-based practicum. Using mixed quantitative and qualitative methodologies, we found an overwhelming predominance of objectivizing and finalizing in our pre-service teachers’ narratives about the children with whom they work that seems to define a certain pedagogical regime that we call here “teaching imaginary children/students.” This “way of talking” about children seems to be characterized by unchecked speculations guiding instruction that are not tested by finding out from the children themselves how they understand the instruction and the world. These speculations, in turn, can lead to a dogmatic approach towards children.     

NBA不再需要『飞人』

迈克尔·乔丹曾经为NBA缔造了一个不可超越的神话,至今人们仍能回忆起“飞人”漂亮的腾空、转身、换手投篮和他吐出的舌头。但今天的NBA无疑已不再是“飞人”的天下,人们总在呼唤新的传奇出现,但NBA真的这么需要英雄独侠搭建精彩的“舞台”吗?     

Measuring patients' communication apprehension about interacting with physicians: Instrument development

The purpose of these studies was to develop an instrument to measure patients' perceived communication apprehension in patient/physician interactions. In the first stydy, a five item Patients' Report of Communication Apprehension with Physicians (PRCAP) was developed. The scale appears to be a reliable, unidimensional scale which shows a moderate positive correlation with the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA), a moderate negative correlation with willingness to communicate (WTC), and a moderate negative correlation with self‐perceived communication competence (SPCC). In the second study, designed to assess the predictive validity of the PRCAP, those who scored one standard deviation above the mean on the PRCAP reported being less satisfied with their interactions with physicians than those who scored one standard deviation below the mean on the PRCAP. It appears the PRCAP is a reliable and valid instrument that can be employed to pursue issues involving the role of CA in patient/physician interactions.     

Differential effects of norm-referenced and self-referenced feedback on performance expectancies,attributions, and motivation

When feedback is provided to students in a norm-referenced manner that compares the individual's performance to that of others, people who perform poorly tend to attribute their failures to lack of ability, expect to perform poorly in the future, and demonstrate decreased motivation on subsequent tasks. The present study examined the hypothesis that the deleterious effects of failure might be attenuated when failure is expressed in self-referenced terms—relative to the individual's known level of ability as assessed by other measures. In this study, subjects received feedback indicating that they did well or poorly on an anagram test, and this feedback was described as either norm-referenced (comparing the individual's performance to that of others) or as self-referenced (comparing performance to other measures of the individual's ability). As predicted, compared to norm-referenced failure, self referenced feedback resulted in higher expectancies regarding future performance and increased attributions to effort. Contrary to expectations, attributions to ability were not affected. The implications of the results for the structure of academic feedback are discussed.     

Attributions in a mastery instructional system: Is an emphasis on effort harmful?

Self-worth theorists have claimed that students of lower ability may reduce effort in likely failure situations to avoid the attribution of poor performance to their own incompetence. The likely success of mastery learning, an instructional technique stressing student persistence, has been questioned because of this phenomenon. Several studies which examined the hypothesized relationship between achievement, effort, and perceived ability within a mastery context were conducted. In none of the studies did it appear that students reduced effort because of the threat of failure or that expending effort led to lower estimates of ability. In fact, students expending effort rated their ability as having a more positive influence on performance than less persistent students. It is argued that mastery learning, like some achievement change programs, encourages students to attribute their performance to their level of effort.