Dialectics, dialogics and other ways of reading us

In this response to Reis’s and Zuss’s responses to our meditation on the grotesque, we attempt to draw distinctions between positivist, empiricist, and realist (including grotesque realist) projects. We also, drawing on Bakhtin, consider the difference between dialogic and dialectic commentary.     

Resuscitating the critical in the biological grotesque: blood, guts, biomachismo in science/education and human guinea pig discourse

In this response to Reis’s and Zuss’s responses to our meditation on the grotesque, we attempt to draw distinctions between positivist, empiricist, and realist (including grotesque realist) projects. We also, drawing on Bakhtin, consider the difference between dialogic and dialectic commentary.     

Training students to use elaboration learning strategies

The feasibility of creating a training program to facilitate the development of a generalized ability to use elaboration as an individual learning strategy was investigated. Seventy-five ninth graders were randomly assigned to a training/ experimental, control, or posttest-only group. Data analyses for the immediate posttest revealed significant mean differences favoring the experimental group on the free recall and Trial 2 of the paired-associate learning tasks. On the delayed posttest, significant differences favoring the experimental group were obtained for the reading comprehension task and Trial 1 of the serial learning task. These results provide evidence that students can be trained to use elaboration to enhance learning.     

Science curriculum effects in high school: A quantitative synthesis

To assess the impact of the innovative precollege science curricula of the past twenty years on learning, a search was conducted using the computer-assisted Bibliographic Retrieval System (BRS), the ERIC Annual Summaries of Research in Science Education, and Dissertation Abstracts International. A total of 151 effect sizes were obtained from 33 studies representing 19,149 junior and senior high school students in the United States, Great Britain, and Israel. Study-weighted analysis yielded an overall mean effect size of 0.31 significantly favorable to the innovative curricula [t(25) = 2.183, p < 0.05] on all outcomes. Student performance in innovative curricula averaged in the 62nd percentile relative to the control norm. Tabulation of signed comparisons indicated that sixty-four out of eighty-one unweighted outcomes were favorable to the innovative curricula. Separate analyses for test content bias, methodological rigor, type of learning, and student characteristics showed no significant differences across these categories.     

College Counselor Attitudes Toward Spiritual and Religious Issues and Practices in Counseling

In this study, 86 mental health professionals employed in university counseling centers in the United States were surveyed on their attitudes toward discussing religious and spiritual topics and toward using religious and spiritual practices in counseling. These participants viewed the use and discussion of spiritual topics/practices more favorably than the use and discussion of religious topics/practices. Differences in attitudes toward specific topics and practices are reported, as are implications for practice.     

Relationships among properties of college students’ self-set academic goals and academic achievement

The major purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among properties of college students’ self-set academic goals and academic achievement, using multiple theoretical perspectives. Using a personal goal-based research methodology, college students enrolled in a learning-to-learn course (N?=?130) were asked to list 20 of their goals (academic and/or non-academic). For each of their goals, goal specificity, value, expectation of success and autonomous and controlled motivation were measured and then ratings on each goal property were averaged across students’ academic goals (24.75% of all goals) to predict students’ grade point average (GPA) for the semester. Regression results suggested a positive affect on students’ semester GPA for goal specificity and a negative effect for controlled motivation; the model explained 19% of the variation in GPA. This research may help to inform motivation researchers and educational practitioners who assist college students with goal setting.     

The power,and dilemma,of honesty: action learning for social entrepreneurs

This is an account of one particular set meeting during a year long programme for social entrepreneurs. It triggered a number of questions and insights for me about the amazing value of honesty, and its power. It released a great deal of energy, ownership and ‘control’. I realized how important it was to highlight, discuss and reflect on this, one of the fundamental values of action learning, with set members. However, it also posed dilemmas for them when returning to the ‘real’ world.     

Photographic History

Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt and Philip B. Kunhardt Jr.'s Mathew Brady and His World (Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1977—S19.95)

Robert A. Weinstein and Larry Booth's Collection, Yse, and Care of Historical Photographs (Nashville, Tenn.: American Association for State and Local History, 1977—$16.00)

Thomas L. Davis , A Guide to Your Family's Photographic Heritage (Addison House, Shots: Morgan's Run, Danbury, N.H. 03230—S3.95, paper)

William Inns Homer's Alfred Stieglitz and the American Avant-Garde (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1977— $17.50)

19th and 20th Century Photographs (Lunn Gallery and Graphics International Ltd., 3243 P St. NW, Washington D.C. 20007—$10.00, paper)