Confronting relativism

Conclusion After dealing with student relativism for decades, I have come to the conclusion that it is a view students can fairly easily be talked out of. It is not at all difficult to reveal to students the extent to which they are closet absolutists. It is also not difficult to reveal to them that their fondness for relativism is in large part due to their misunderstanding the nature of absolutism. A number of misconceptions surround absolutism, and students fall victim to these misconceptions. It doesn’t help matters that many of their college professors have fallen victim to these same misconceptions and as a result encourage student relativism. In their minds, by encouraging relativism, they are encouraging tolerance in the classroom. As we have seen, though, absolutism is not synonymous with intolerance. Morality allows us to be tolerant in some cases, but requires us to be intolerant in others. By confronting relativism in the classroom—by correcting students' mistaken beliefs about absolutism—college professors are taking an important step in fostering their students' development as moral beings. Editor’s Note: This essay by William B. Irvine and the subsequent article by Charles Landesman are loosely tied by subject matter. They both address academic dimensions of morality. The former charts from its author’s experience in the classroom a landscape of the relativism that prevails among today's undergraduates. The latter explores the realm of the academic moralists, where we find scholars and philosophers projecting their political longings as unconditional imperatives for a just society. The two territories trade on each other's needs. The dreams of the moralists for diversity or multiculturalism provide alternatives to genuine ethical deliberation in a packaged philosophy that affords students the luxury of never having to formulate their own moral framework. William B. Irvine is an associate professor in the Department of Philosophy at Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio. Paragon House is to release his Doing Right by Children: Reflections on the Nature of Childhood and the Obligations of Parenthood in 2001.     

Hope,Material Resources,and Subjective Well-Being of 8- to 12-Year-Old Children in Israel

Few studies have examined the links among hope, material resources, and subjective well-being (SWB) of children from their own perspectives. The article examines lack of material resources as a risk factor, hope as a human strength, and a possible moderator regarding children's SWB. The study employed a nationally representative sample of 2,977 Jewish and Arab Israeli children (ages 8–12). As predicted, there was a significant positive relation between hope and SWB, and a negative relation between lack of material resources and SWB. Hope was found to moderate the relation between lack of material resources and SWB. Furthermore, for 10- and 12-year olds, differences were found regarding the strength of the relations of the variables, suggesting a possible developmental trend.     

A Librarian-Centered Study of Perceptions of Subject Terms and Controlled Vocabulary

Controlled vocabulary and subject headings in OPAC records have proven to be useful in improving search results. The authors used a survey to gather information about librarian opinions and professional use of controlled vocabulary. Data from a range of backgrounds and expertise were examined, including academic and public libraries, and technical services as well as public services professionals. Responses overall demonstrated positive opinions of the value of controlled vocabulary, including in reference interactions as well as during bibliographic instruction sessions. Results are also examined based upon factors such as age and type of librarian.     

Exploring a transformative orientation to sustainability in universities: a question of loose and tight framings

This review essay examines three new books on higher education and sustainability. It explores a number of the issues raised in the books, in particular, the meaning of a transformative orientation towards sustainability. The idea of loose and tight conceptual framings of sustainability is employed. A tight framing is where an institution embodies a vision, values and values-informed practices that have been shifted to fit a particular conceptualisation of sustainability which gives meaning, not just to what that institution does, but also to what it is trying to become. A loose framing is where an institution takes sustainability seriously in what it does, without having in place values, dispositions and orientations, and an appropriate conceptually grounded vision. It is argued (i) that the essential distinction here is between that of doing sustainability, and a shift to being sustainable as a whole institution; (ii) that any developmental journey to a tight framing would need to be a deliberate one; (iii) that changes to curriculum, management, leadership and governance would need to be in place before this can start; and (iv) that an important step on the journey will involve institution-wide deliberations on the conceptual framing(s) to adopt.     

Assessing Scientific Practices Using Machine-Learning Methods: How Closely Do They Match Clinical Interview Performance?

The landscape of science education is being transformed by the new Framework for Science Education (National Research Council, A framework for K-12 science education: practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. The National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 2012), which emphasizes the centrality of scientific practices—such as explanation, argumentation, and communication—in science teaching, learning, and assessment. A major challenge facing the field of science education is developing assessment tools that are capable of validly and efficiently evaluating these practices. Our study examined the efficacy of a free, open-source machine-learning tool for evaluating the quality of students’ written explanations of the causes of evolutionary change relative to three other approaches: (1) human-scored written explanations, (2) a multiple-choice test, and (3) clinical oral interviews. A large sample of undergraduates (n = 104) exposed to varying amounts of evolution content completed all three assessments: a clinical oral interview, a written open-response assessment, and a multiple-choice test. Rasch analysis was used to compute linear person measures and linear item measures on a single logit scale. We found that the multiple-choice test displayed poor person and item fit (mean square outfit >1.3), while both oral interview measures and computer-generated written response measures exhibited acceptable fit (average mean square outfit for interview: person 0.97, item 0.97; computer: person 1.03, item 1.06). Multiple-choice test measures were more weakly associated with interview measures (r = 0.35) than the computer-scored explanation measures (r = 0.63). Overall, Rasch analysis indicated that computer-scored written explanation measures (1) have the strongest correspondence to oral interview measures; (2) are capable of capturing students’ normative scientific and naive ideas as accurately as human-scored explanations, and (3) more validly detect understanding than the multiple-choice assessment. These findings demonstrate the great potential of machine-learning tools for assessing key scientific practices highlighted in the new Framework for Science Education.     

Evaluation and Reward Systems: The Key Shapers of Organization Culture

Evaluation and reward processes, more so than communication, access to information, problem solving, work design, and training shape an organization's culture and employee's attitudes. The three most popular evaluation systems—MBO, BARS, and the 360 degree—encourage competition and even conflict by emphasizing individual performance. This emphasis is made stronger when the bell‐shaped density curve is used to categorize employees so that the weakest can be terminated. The evaluation and reward process should, instead, encourage cooperation.