Solar radiation during the total eclipse of January 24, 1925

A Fery radiation pyrometer was used in relative radiation measurements during a total eclipse of the sun.The experimental curve shows that the radiation is not uniform over the sun's disc.The ratio of the energy received during full sunlight to the energy received from the corona was found to he 13,000.     

The Role of the Unconscious in Thinking and Problem Solving

Among the questions being asked during the recent flurry of activity in the experimental study of the unconscious is whether the unconscious simply carries on routine operations or performs ‘smart’ operations as well. This paper takes the position that the unconscious is very smart indeed and that it is not simply that well‐learned routines are stored there, but also that creative reorganisations that reduce the information processing load are produced there. These creative reorganisations include the instantiation of new relationships which are the basis of new insights. The performances of child prodigies and idiots savants illustrate these processes and, in addition, provide evidence for individual differences in innate propensities and skills. The implications of this view for education are briefly discussed.     

Some effects of parent involvement in schools

This study examines the interrelationships among components of parent involvement at schools and investigates their effects on school outcomes. The study used data collected during an evaluation of California's Early Childhood Education Program. Varinbles included socioeconomic status, the frequency of school-parent communications, parent awareness of school events, amount of parent involvement at the school, parent influence in school decision making, the nature of parent-teacher relationships, parent satisfaction with the school, and student achievement in reading and mathematics. The results indicated that there are positive effects associated with parent involvement at schools, and the interrelationships between the endogenous variables suggested ways in which such benefits may be maximized.     

Young children's ability to infer spatial relationships: evidence from a large, familiar environment

Young (mean age = 3-9) and old (mean age = 5-0) nursery school children were tested on their ability to infer spatial relationships in a large, familiar environment. Each child in the younger group was matched to a child of the same sex in the older group who had been attending the nursery school for the same number of months. Subjects were taken to 3 different locations in their nursery school and were asked to point to 5 targets on the school grounds. Older children were more accurate than younger children on nursery school targets, but children's spatial representations were relatively nonintegrated at both age levels. Consistent sex differences in favor of males were discussed in the context of a new framework that could potentially explain the appearance of sex differences on spatial tasks conducted in large-scale environments. It was concluded that very young children have difficulty inferring spatial relationships, even in a large, familiar environment. This difficulty seems to be due to a relative lack of symbolic capacity.     

Gender‐role identity and perceived peer group acceptance among early adolescents in Belgian mixed and single‐sex schools

Drawing on survey data, this paper explores the association between early adolescents’ gender‐role identity and sense of peer group acceptance, and how this association may vary as a function of the gender context of the school. Two indicators of gender‐role identity were included in the analysis: in one measure the items reflect features of masculine and feminine stereotypes, while the other measures assertiveness in classroom situations. Support for the context framework was provided for boys only and then solely with regard to the first indicator; that is, boys highly endorsing feminine‐typed behaviours were found to experience lower levels of acceptance from peers in single‐sex schools but not in coeducational schools. As for assertiveness, it was found that highly assertive girls as well as boys report higher levels of peer acceptance, regardless of the gender context of the school.     

Sorting or mixing? Multi-track and single-track schools and social inequalities in a differentiated educational system

In the Dutch stratified secondary educational system, schools vary in how many tracks are offered. While the tendency in the Netherlands is for schools to become smaller, a relevant policy question is whether multi-track school settings promote equality of educational opportunity. Comparing single-track schools at the pre-university and pre-vocational levels with multi-track schools offering the same exams, and using relative geographical distance as an instrument of school choice, the analyses showed that single-track pre-university schools enhance the probability of obtaining a pre-university diploma without delay, but more strongly so for students from disadvantaged backgrounds (who have a lower chance of going to such schools). The single-track pre-vocational schools were associated with a lower likelihood of achieving a diploma at a level higher than pre-vocational education. Multi-track schools within a varied system will not automatically enhance equal opportunities, as middle-class children will also benefit from the additional options that multi-track schools provide.