‘They still use some of their past’: historical salience in elementary children's chronological thinking

Fifty‐eight students at seven grade levels (kindergarten through sixth) from three population groups (urban, suburban and rural) were presented with the task of chronologically ordering a set of nine historical pictures and ‘thinking aloud’ about the task. The results of this study provide increased evidence regarding the kind and sources of children's historical knowledge, and how they deploy that knowledge. The most accessible historical knowledge for early and middle grade children apparently relates to changes in material culture and the patterns of everyday life. It appears, too, that the intertexts that inform children's historical understanding, especially prior to fourth grade, provide better information about material culture than about other aspects of change over time. In addition, some children at all grade levels linked history to such sociocultural issues as race and gender. Finally, by fifth grade, children were learning a new reference system that consisted of specific eras (Colonial, Revolution), events (Boston Massacre, War of 1812) and relationships (British taxes, lack of colonial representation creates pre‐Revolutionary tensions) that allowed them to make more interpretations reflective of the academic discipline of history (British and colonists had legitimate but differing points of view). Children's willingness to engage in this new genre and the facility with which some students managed the transition have important implications for instruction.     

Why the Student Marries

Agent of Death. The Memoirs of an Executioner by Robert G. Elliott and Albert R. Beatty. Illustrated. E. P. Dutton and Co. 315 pp. $3.00.

A Goodly Fellowship by Mary Ellen Chase. The Macmillan Company. 305 pp. $2.50.

Democracy's Challenge to Education edited by Beulah Amidon. Illustrated. Farrar and Rinehart. 263 pp. $1.50.

Democracy Readers by Lois G. Nemec, Maybell G. Bush, Helen M. Brindl, Ruth M. Robinson, Edna Morgan, Allen Y. King, Ida Dennis. Edited by Prudence Cutright and W. W. Charters. The Macmillan Co.

Education for Democracy in Our Time by Jesse H. Newlon. McGraw-Hill. 242 pp. $3.00.

Educational Psychology by Charles H. Judd. Houghton Mifflin Co. 566 pp. $2.25.

In-Service Growth of Social Science Teachers. Tenth Yearbook, National Council for the Social Studies. 187 pp. $2.00 (paper). $2.30 (cloth). 1939.

Living with Others by John A. Kinneman and Robert S. Ellwood. Houghton Mifflin and Company. 531 pp. $1.72.

Poems of Today by Alice Cecilia Cooper. Ginn and Company. New England Edition. 412 pp.

Post-Primary Education in the Primary Schools of Scotland, 1872-1936 by Newman A. Wade. University of London Press, Ltd. 265 pp. 8 shillings 6 pence.

The College Charts Its Course by R. Freeman Butts. McGraw-Hill. 464 pp. $3.00.

The Development of Education in the Twentieth Century by Adolph E. Meyer. Prentice-Hall. 406 pp. $2.75.

The Future of the Social Studies: Proposals for an Experimental Social-Studies Curriculum, James A. Michener, Editor. The National Council for the Social Studies. 178 pp. $1.50 (paper). 1939.

Understanding American Business by Humphrey B. Neill and Howard M. Cool. The Macmillan Co. 448 pp. List price $1.92.

Visualizing the Curriculum by Charles F. Hoban, Charles F. Hoban, Jr., and Professor S. B. Zisman. The Cordon Company. 300 pp. $3.50.

Appointment with Death by Pamela Frankau. E. P. Dutton and Co. 334 pp. $2.50.

Dalesacres by Florence Ward. E. P. Dutton and Company. 308 pp. $2.50.

Family Album by Humphrey Pakington. W. W. Norton and Company. 340 pp. $2.50.

Encyclopedia of Knots and Fancy Rope Work by Raoul M. Graumont and John J. Hensel. Illustrated. The Cornell Maritime Press. 615 pp. $10.00.

Introduction to the Dance by John Martin. Illustrated. W. W. Norton Co. 363 pp. $3.50.

Once Over Lightly by Charles De Zemler. Illustrated. Published by the author. Rockefeller Center, New York City. 270 pp. $3.75.

Political Science in American Colleges and Universities 1636-1900 by Anna Haddow. The Century Political Science Series. Appleton-Century Co. 308 pp. $2.50

Science for the World Tomorrow by Gerald Wendt. Illustrated. W. W. Norton and Co. 316 pp. $2.75.     

Autobiography in science education: Greater objectivity through local knowledge

In our paper we argue that (1) autobiography ought to be considered both the telling of one's story and the using of that story with others to understand and use difference productively, and (2) autobiography (as telling and interacting) dismantles the universalistic tug of science and replaces it with a push for science as local knowledge. To accomplish this dual task, we share selective autobiographical accounts of lives (autobiography as telling), and then use these accounts to have a conversation about urban science education (autobiography as interacting). Following these autobiographical accounts we then discuss how our different stories apart and together provide a greater objective insight into what it means to come-to-know science. When talking about their lives, people lie sometimes, forget a lot, exaggerate, become confused, and get things wrong. Yet, they are revealing truths. These truths don't reveal the past “as it actually was,” aspiring to a standard of objectivity. They give us instead the truths of our experiences. (Personal Narratives Group (PNG), 1989, p. 261)     

The Impact of Process Instructions on Judges’ Use of Examinee Performance Data in Angoff Standard Setting Exercises

Despite being widely used and frequently studied, the Angoff standard setting procedure has received little attention with respect to an integral part of the process: how judges incorporate examinee performance data in the decision‐making process. Without performance data, subject matter experts have considerable difficulty accurately making the required judgments. Providing data introduces the very real possibility that judges will turn their content‐based judgments into norm‐referenced judgments. This article reports on three Angoff standard setting panels for which some items were randomly assigned to have incorrect performance data. Judges were informed that some of the items were accompanied by inaccurate data, but were not told which items they were. The purpose of the manipulation was to assess the extent to which changing the instructions given to the judges would impact the extent to which they relied on the performance data. The modified instructions resulted in the judges making less use of the performance data than judges participating in recent parallel studies. The relative extent of the change judges made did not appear to be substantially influenced by the accuracy of the data.     

Student contribution in asynchronous online discussion: a review of the research and empirical exploration

The increasingly prevalent use of Internet in schools and homes has resulted in asynchronous online discussion becoming an increasingly common means to facilitate dialogue between instructors and students, as well as students and students beyond the boundaries of their physical classrooms. This article is organized into two main sections. In the first section, we review 50 empirical studies in order to identify the factors leading to limited student contribution. Limited student contribution is defined as students making few or no postings, or students exhibiting surface-level thinking or low-level knowledge construction in online discussions. We then identify the various empirically based guidelines to address the factors. In the second section, we discuss three potential guideline dilemmas that educators may encounter: (a) use of grades, (b) use of number of posting guideline, and (c) instructor-facilitation. These are guidelines where previous empirical research shows mixed results when they are implemented. Acknowledging the dilemmas is essential for educators and researchers to make informed decisions about the discussion guidelines they are considering implementing. Finally, we report two exploratory case studies on student-facilitation that we conducted. Using students as facilitators may be an alternative solution to educators who wish to avoid the instructor-facilitation guideline dilemma.     

Red shirt colour is associated with long-term team success in English football

The colour of sportswear has been shown to influence the outcome of bouts for several different combat sports. The generality of these effects, and whether they extend to collaborative forms of contests (team sports), is uncertain. Since 1947, English football teams wearing red shirts have been champions more often than expected on the basis of the proportion of clubs playing in red. To investigate whether this indicates an enhancement of long-term performance in red-wearing teams, we analysed the relative league positions of teams wearing different hues. Across all league divisions, red teams had the best home record, with significant differences in both percentage of maximum points achieved and mean position in the home league table. The effects were not due simply to a difference between teams playing in a colour and those playing in a predominantly white uniform, as the latter performed better than teams in yellow hues. No significant differences were found for performance in matches away from home, when teams commonly do not wear their "home" colours. A matched-pairs analysis of red and non-red wearing teams in eight English cities shows significantly better performance of red teams over a 55-year period. These effects on long-term success have consequences for colour selection in team sports, confirm that wearing red enhances performance in a variety of competitive contexts, and provide further impetus for studies of the mechanisms underlying these effects.