Academic success expectancy: The interplay of gender,situation, and meaning

The importance of success expectancy is discussed, followed by a review of the extensive but fragmented literature demonstrating that females frequently have a lower success expectancy than males in achievement contexts, despite having a similar performance. These varied findings are synthesized and cast into a framework asserting that success expectancy emerges from three major factors: (1) the meaning given to self and the achievement situation; (2) the familiarity that one has with the task; and (3) sex-stereotypic personality disposition. This framework is then tested for 342 college students. The results show that both meaning and familiarity significantly explain success expectancy, and that familiarity also significantly explains test performance. There is no evidence, however, for a sex-related personality disposition for lower success expectancy. The discussion focuses on the need to move beyond sex differences and focus on how meaning and familiarity can impact the success expectancy of all college students.     

Applying Kember's Linear‐Process Model to distance education at Charles Sturt University‐Riverina

Kember's linear‐process model of drop‐out from distance education (described in detail in Distance Education 10, 2, 196‐211) has been adapted and used as the basis for a series of interviews with students studying externally at Charles Sturt University‐Riverina. Although the sample is small, many issues are raised that arc relevant for distance educators. It is concluded Kember's model provides a useful theoretical underpinning for examining not only reasons for student withdrawal but also why they continue their studies.     

Who's the Boss? Concepts of Social Power Across Development

Power differences are observed in children's early relationships, yet little is known about how children conceptualize social power. Study 1 recruited adults (n = 35) to assess the validity of a series of vignettes to measure five dimensions of social power. Using these vignettes, Study 2 (149 three‐ to nine‐year‐olds, 42 adults) and Study 3 (86 three‐ to nine‐year‐olds, 22 adults) showed that children visiting a science museum at a middle class university town are sensitive to several dimensions of social power from a young age; however, an adult‐like breadth of power concepts does not develop until 7–9 years. Children understand social power whether the powerful character is malevolent or benevolent, though malevolent power is easier to detect for children and adults.     

Piketty,capital and education: a solution to,or problem in,rising social inequalities?

Abstract

When Piketty’s book Capital in the Twenty-first Century was released in 2014, it became an overnight success. Piketty focused on the concentration of wealth in a tiny social elite, and showed that their wealth had increased following the financial crisis in 2008. Yet the value of Piketty’s book offers something more than this for social scientists concerned with social inequalities. His work on a large data-set of long-run income and wealth statistics illustrates that the assumptions and models which have guided the work of neoclassical economists are flawed, but that societal arrangements matter. Yet despite this insight, Piketty’s solution to the problem of inequality is to argue that ‘… the best way to reduce inequalities with respect to labor … is to invest in education’. In this article I argue that there are major problems with this proposed solution and outline three lacunae that need to be addressed.     

Families Created by the New Reproductive Technologies: Quality of Parenting and Social and Emotional Development of the Children

The creation of families by means of the new reproductive technologies has raised important questions about the psychological consequences for children, particularly where gamete donation has been used in the child's conception. Findings are presented of a study of family relationships and the social and emotional development of children in families created as a result of the 2 most widely used reproductive technologies, in vitro fertilization (IVF) and donor insemination (DI), in comparison with control groups of families with a naturally conceived child and adoptive families. The quality of parenting was assessed using a standardized interview with the mother, and mothers and fathers completed questionnaire measures of stress associated with parenting, marital satisfaction, and emotional state. Data on children's psychiatric state were also obtained by standardized interview with the mother, and by questionnaires completed by the mothers and the children's teachers. The children were administered the Separation Anxiety Test, the Family Relations Test, and the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance. The results showed that the quality of parenting in families with a child conceived by assisted conception is superior to that shown by families with a naturally conceived child. No group differences were found for any of the measures of children's emotions, behavior, or relationships with parents. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding the role of genetic ties in family functioning and child development.     

Extrinsic and intrinsic factors in graduation and academic failure among LD college students

A group of 110 LD college students were compared to a random stratified sample (RSS) of 153 peers attending the same moderately selective college between 1980 and 1988. The LD students received comprehensive, highly coordinated support services for at least one semester. The groups were matched on gender, college experience, semester, and year of entry to the college. The LD and RSS groups were compared on high school preparation and performance, ACT and college performance, and graduation and academic failure rate. Although the LD students’ high school records, ACT scores, and college performance were inferior to that of the RSS group, they graduated at the same rate and within the same time frame. Neither was there any significant difference in the academic failure rate. Closer examination of the LD graduates and academic failures’ performance showed that in spite of the similarities in intellectual abilities, academic achievement, and aptitude-achievement discrepancy, two factors differentiated between the LD graduates and non-graduates: oral language abilities and motivation and attitude toward the teaching-learning process. These two factors accounted for 60 percent of the variance in graduation status. This research was supported in part by grants from the Butz and Thorn River Foundations.     

Seeing Beyond Sameness: Using The Giver to Challenge Colorblind Ideology

The secondary worlds created in fantasy encourage the reader to compare and contrast the real world with the imaginary. In this way, fantasy as a genre can be transformative. In this article, the dystopia created in The Giver (1993) by Lois Lowry is examined as a metaphor for racism. After exploring the young adult novel as mystical fantasy in the context of reader response theory, the author evaluates the monochromatic world of The Giver as a portrayal of the consequences of a colorblind stance. Pedagogical considerations and implications for practice are also discussed. Susan G. Lea received her M.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania, where she is currently a doctoral candidate. She also serves as Chair, Board of Trustees, The Agnes Irwin School, an independent girls day school in Rosemont, PA. Her areas of research include how aesthetic response and co-constructed meaning are enhanced through well-known visual art presented in intertextual sets of picturebook art parody, local public mural art parody, and original artwork. Zelnick, “The battle for color-blind public policy.” Lowry, The Giver.     

Families with children conceived by donor insemination: a follow-up at age twelve

Growing public awareness of the use of donor insemination (DI) to enable infertile couples to become parents has been accompanied by increasing concern regarding the potentially negative consequences for family relationships and child development. Findings are presented from a prospective study of the quality of parenting and psychological adjustment of DI children at age 12. Thirty-seven DI families, 49 adoptive families, and 91 families with a naturally conceived child were compared on standardized interview and questionnaire measures administered to mothers, fathers, children, and teachers. The differences between DI families and the other family types reflected greater expressive warmth of DI mothers toward their children and less involvement in the discipline of their children by DI fathers. The DI children were well adjusted in terms of their social and emotional development. The findings are discussed with respect to the secrecy surrounding DI and the imbalance in genetic relatedness between the parents and the child.     

Children's Narrative Representations of Mothers: Their Development and Associations with Child and Mother Adaptation

We investigated associations between children's representations of mothers in their play narratives and measures of children's and mother socioemotional adaptation, and explored the development of these representations between the ages of 4 and 5 years. Fifty-one children were interviewed using the MacArthur Story-Stem Battery to obtain their narrative representations of mothers. Positive, Negative, and Disciplinary representation composites were generated. Children who had more Positive and Disciplinary representations and fewer Negative representations had fewer behavior problems and their mothers reported less psychological distress. In addition, 5-year-olds had more Positive and Disciplinary representations and fewer Negative representations did 4-year-olds, and there was moderate stability in individual differences in children's representations of mothers across the 2 ages. The results add an important dimension to research on parent-child relationships—that of children's perspectives on these relationships.