Distinction through visual art

Visual art is one of the fields where, according to Bourdieu, culture is used to reproduce the class structure. Like other items in the cultural repertoire, paintings, as major examples of visual art, imply social divisions in how they are engaged with by artists, critics and audiences. Within the Bourdieusian framework, cultural engagements with paintings are interpreted as indicators of social position, since appreciation depends on a trained capacity in the family and the educational system, which is often inaccessible to less powerful sections of the population. This would imply that the sorts of paintings favoured by working-class people differ from those preferred by the middle or upper classes. More recent studies have contested the view that a gulf exists between the art tastes of different classes in ways that reproduce the class structure. The argument of the omnivore thesis that distinctions between more popular and legitimate tastes have become blurred has predominantly been based on empirical references in the field of music. This article explores this thesis on the basis of data about visual arts in the Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion project. While some differences continue to be connected to social divisions of income, education and occupational groups, important similarities are found across the board, and certain significant differences appear to relate to factors other than social class, such as ethnicity, age and gender. It is also significant that some people appear disconnected from and disinterested in paintings.     

Personal construct psychology as a constructivist approach to learning

This paper proposes that Kelly's Personal Construct Psychology deserves examination as a constructivist basis for science teaching and learning. It argues that because of the explicit nature of the psychology, the clear definition of learning and meaning and the integration of affective, psychomotor and cognitive dimensions of learning, the psychology has much to offer science education.     

Off-Campus Term: A setting for therapeutic intervention

Experiential education has served as a setting for therapeutic intervention in treatment of a communications handicapped young adult. This paper reports how newly learned communications skills were successfully applied in an off-campus setting and were subsequently carried over to campus and home.     

A note on phi-coefficient comparison

One of the major difficulties in applying the phi coefficients for comparing two 2×2 tables is that two identical marginals of these two tables are required. The purpose of this paper is directed to the standardization of the marginals of any 2×2 table so that the phi coefficient may be applied for comparison. This standardization technique can also be extended to anyR×C table.     

Assessing quality in programs of university without walls graduates

The University Without Walls (UWW) program at the University of Minnesota completed a study of correlates of quality, those parts of students' programs that were thought to influence the quality of students' work. Graduation dossiers were rated according to graduates' fulfillment of seven graduation criteria. Quality ratings were correlated with barriers possessed by graduates at admission, major area of study, length of time in UWW, and narrative evaluations of graduates' work. Narrative evaluations from university faculty had the greatest effect on dossier quality ratings.