The Minnesota Adoption Studies: genetic differences and malleability

In 1974 we launched 2 large adoption studies for 2 quite different purposes. The Transracial Adoption Study was designed to test the hypothesis that black and interracial children reared by white families perform on IQ and school achievement tests as well as other adoptees because they are reared in the culture of the tests and the schools. In addition, transracial families provided a sample with large numbers of adopted and natural children in the same families. Sources of individual differences among siblings could be studied without fear of possible differences between adoptive families and those with their own children. The Adolescent Adoption Study was designed to assess the cumulative impact of differences among family environments at the end of the child-rearing period. All of the children were adopted in the first year of life and averaged 18.5 years at the time of the study. A comparison sample of families with their own adolescents was also studied. Black and interracial children scored as well on IQ tests as adoptees in other studies. Individual differences among them, however, were more related to differences among their biological than adoptive parents, whether they lived together or not. Young siblings were found to be intellectually quite similar, whether genetically related or not. Adolescents' IQ test scores were similar to those of their parents and siblings only if they were biologically related. Our interpretation of these results is that younger children are more influenced by differences among their family environments than older adolescents, who are freer to seek their own niches.     

Professional Growth and Identity Development of STEM Teacher Educators in a Community of Practice

Quality STEM teacher education is predicated on teacher educators who are well-equipped to design learning experiences, provide feedback, guide the development of teachers across their career span, and conduct rigorous research to advance education theory and praxis. While numerous models and approaches to professional development for teachers exist, few parallels can be drawn between the professional development of teachers and teacher educators (Loughran, 2014). To support the multi-faceted identity (trans)formation of STEM teacher educators, self-directed learning opportunities can help bridge knowledge and practice, enhance productive collaboration, and support efforts to negotiate multiple and conflicting agendas (Goodwin &; Kosnik, 2013). The purpose of this empirical study was to explore the identity (trans)formation of teacher educators participating in a long-term interdisciplinary STEM-based Community of Practice (CoP; Wenger, 1998), which began in 2012. An analysis of our experiences through the figured worlds lens informs how a CoP can impact curricular approaches and teacher PD, imploring members to move through their comfort zones into innovative spaces. We conclude with suggestions for our STEM teacher educator colleagues who seek opportunities to challenge their own positions and best support preservice and in-service STEM teachers in a way that allows them to model for their students the value of community.

     

Solutions of some partial differential equations (with tables)

A simple method has been demonstrated for obtaining some solutions of the principal equations of mathematical physics. Tables of solutions have been included in the Appendix so that problems in field theory can be solved with a minimum of labor.     

Intellectual development in family constellations with adopted and natural children: a test of the Zajonc and Markus model

A confluence model was developed by Zajonc and Markus to account for the effects of birth order, child spacing, and family size on intellectual development. the fit of the model was tested on a sample of families with biological and adopted children. Although the model fits population data very well, it fails to account for intellectual patterns within families for whom both parent and child IQ data are available. The discrepancy is discussed in terms of sources of variance within and between families that are undetected in average values for a population.     

Science, government, and information: 1988 perspective

Twenty-five years have passed since the appearance of Science, Government, and Information (SGI), the 1963 report by the President's Science Advisory Committee (PSAC). The Information Analysis Center, which was prominently recommended in SGI, has not become a central element of the information system. Instead automation, which was only beginning in 1963, has become dominant. Though extreme automation may be appropriate for those activities that are time constrained, it may lead to clogged information channels for those scientific activities for which time is less important than depth of understanding.