Effects of race of examiner and type of reinforcement on the intelligence test performance of lower-class black children

This study examined the effects of race of examiner and type of reinforcement upon the WISC-R performance of lower-class black children. A total of 120 black males were selected and assigned to either a white or black examiner to form two groups. Within each group, children were given no reinforcement, tangible reinforcement, traditional social reinforcement, or culturally relevant social reinforcement after each correct response. Children given tangible rewards, regardless of race of examiner, obtained significantly higher scores than did children given no reinforcement or children given traditional social reinforcement. Also, children given culturally relevant social reinforcement by a black examiner obtained significantly higher scores than did children given culturally relevant reinforcement by the white examiner.     

A Geohistorical Study of ‘The Rise of Modern Science’: Mapping Scientific Practice Through Urban Networks, 1500–1900

Using data on the ‘career’ paths of one thousand ‘leading scientists’ from 1450 to 1900, what is conventionally called the ‘rise of modern science’ is mapped as a changing geography of scientific practice in urban networks. Four distinctive networks of scientific practice are identified. A primate network centred on Padua and central and northern Italy in the sixteenth century expands across the Alps to become a polycentric network in the seventeenth century, which in turn dissipates into a weak polycentric network in the eighteenth century. The nineteenth century marks a huge change of scale as a primate network centred on Berlin and dominated by German-speaking universities. These geographies are interpreted as core-producing processes in Wallerstein’s modern world-system; the rise of modern scientific practice is central to the development of structures of knowledge that relate to, but do not mirror, material changes in the system.

Gender,text, and discussion: Examining intellectual safety in the science classroom

It is clear from the extant literature that gender inequities exist in a myriad of ways in science classrooms. Past research, however, has been conducted solely from researchers' observations and has neglected to investigate students' awareness of and reactions to their own experiences. Hence, this study focused on students' perceptions of gender differences in instructional activity and talk about that activity in physics and honors physics classes. Data analysis showed that although teachers may be unaware of gender inequities, students of both sexes are not unaware of such inequities. Females explained their fears of offering their opinions and participating in activities like labs and small-group or whole-class discussions. Differential language patterns were found for males and females, particularly when discussion was structured and rewarded for refutation. Explanations are offered for these disparities and suggestions are given for addressing gender bias in science classrooms. It has been well documented that science classrooms are not gender fair (Bazler & Simonis, 1991; Bianchini, 1993; Tobin, 1988). Teachers, texts, and the forms of instruction they perpetuate contribute to gender inequities in science instruction. For example, research tracing changes in science textbooks over time has shown that current texts have failed to eliminate barriers to women in science (Bianchini, 1993). Science textbooks are criticized for their unequal treatment of genders, with illustrations, photos, and texts of males far outnumbering those of females, despite the approximate 50/50 male/female ratio of our population (Bazler & Simonis, 1991). In addition to the proclivity of science textbooks to favor males, researchers speculate that the tendency for boys to achieve higher than girls in science may be a result of more opportunity to engage in academic tasks (Tobin & Garnett, 1987). Their behavior shows that teachers have differential expectations for students' responses in activities like teacher-led discussion. In teacher-led, whole-class discussion, boys are spoken to more frequently and are asked more higher-order questions (Becker, 1991; Hall & Sadler, 1982). Teachers in science classrooms elaborate more on males' responses than females' responses in large-group discussion of scientific concepts (Jones & Wheatley, 1990). © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Accessions: researching,designing higher education

This brief viewpoint piece depicts educational (dis)engagements apparent in researching and (re)designing higher education in and through Accessions. Accessions, a collaborative research-design project, probed at how cultures, climates and conditions of higher education may be reproducing or reshaping social inequalities and divisions. Here, questions are asked about how these might be challenged within and potentially beyond the specific locale of one university campus. This research-design project hopes to enable a critical perspective on issues of ‘participation’, ‘impact’, ‘engagement’ and ‘internationalisation’, where regulations and measures may be resisted and disrupted.     

Subjective well-being in cultural advocacy: a politics of research between the market and the academy

This paper responds to a trend of contracting out subjective well-being econometrics to demonstrate social return on investment (SROI) for evidence-based policy-making. We discuss an evolving ecology of ‘external’ research taking place ‘between’ the academy and commercial consultancy. We then contextualise this as waves of research methodologies and consultancy for the cultural sector. The new model of ‘external between’ consultancy research for policy is not only placed between the University and the market, but also facilitates discourse between policy sectors, government, the media and the academy. Specifically, it enables seductive but selective arguments for advocacy that claim authority through academic affiliation, yet are not evaluated for robustness. To critically engage with an emergent form of what Stone calls ‘causal stories’, we replicate a publicly funded externally commissioned SROI model that argues for the value of cultural activities to well-being. We find that the author’s operationalisation of participation and well-being are crucial, yet their representation of the relationship problematic, and their estimates questionable. This case study ‘re-performs’ econometric modelling national-level survey data for the cultural sector to reveal practices that create norms of expertise for policy-making that are not rigorous. We conclude that fluid claims to authority allow experimental econometric models and measures to perform across the cultural economy as if ratified. This new model of advocacy research requires closer academic consideration given the changing research funding structures and recent attention to expertise and the contracting out of public services.