Inside Out: Head-Based Ontologies,Vision, and Temporality in the First Neuroturn

Since the early 1800s, mainstream Western discourses that entwined racializing and ableizing discourses have involved, among other things, particular notions of temporality and ways of privileging scopic regimes that presume surface-depth relations mediated by a theory of time and materiality. In this essay, Bernadette Baker analyzes the link between the production of visual surface-depth relations, the theorization of time, and the conception of matter in a high profile movement that today has been discredited. She takes as her case an instance of the first neuroturn (nineteenth century), specifically the physiognomy and phrenology in a textbook-style volume written by F. J. Gall. Translated and published in 1835, Gall's treatise discusses morality and the brain in relation to the shape of the head. The reconstitution of entitlement emerges through Gall's treatise via unexpected epistemological alliances that mark a shift in the architecture of medical perception and that build a bridge from the spirit to the flesh. While relatively humble in tone, Gall's content draws upon empirical and metaphysical reference points that have, in turn, become major legacies for the second neuroturn, education, and other social sciences to deal with. This essay thus examines pivotal horizons in the Gallian approach that, while discredited now as a pseudoscientific fad, raise many difficult questions that expose the link between seemingly oppositional political and intellectual commitments.     

Screening for school readiness: The influence of birthdate and sex

School readiness has been measured in many ways; chronological age, sex, and developmental age all have been used, with varying success, to predict young children's readiness for school. One hundred and fifty-two children were classified by birthdate and sex, and compared on their performances on the Gesell Screening Test, the Gesell School Readiness Test (GSRT), and the Stanford Achievement Test. The Gesell measures were sensitive to the different birthdate groups; however, these differences diminished as the children aged. There were no significant differences between birthdate groups on the Stanford Achievement Test. Females scored higher than males on the GSRT at the end of kindergarten, but no interactions between birthdate and sex were found. Implications of the varying ways to determine school readiness are discussed.     

A media course commitment study in a Canadian university: empirical validation of an exchange model

This paper presents a study on the attraction of students to an open‐university‐type, media course programme, and their commitment to remain in the programme over time. The findings from this study include 1. When considering the impact on media (i.e. distance education) course commitment of course satisfaction, investments, and alternatives to media courses, perceived investment alone was able to account for 5% of the variance in the dependent measure.

2. Following multiple discriminant analysis, the profile outlining the highly committed media course student defined one who was regarded, satisfied, highly invested, low‐perceived cost accrued, with a significant number of years out of school (here, 10) prior to commencement in the media course programme.

3. Following multiple discriminant analysis, the profile defining the student who has completed a considerable number of course credits (versus the neophyte) was described as being highly invested, highly cost aware, and relatively lowly satisfied.

Implications of such findings for distance education marketing are discussed.     

Growth and change in the world’s biological literature as reflected in BIOSIS publications

BIOSIS has abstracted and indexed the worldwide biological literature since 1926, publishing firstBiological Abstracts, later alsoBiological Abstracts/Reports, Reviews, Meetings, and more recently theZoological Record. The increases and changes in the contents of these publications, when taken in broad perspective, provide insights into the growth and patterns of life-sciences research worldwide in the past seventy years     

Longitudinal Relations Among Positivity,Perceived Positive School Climate,and Prosocial Behavior in Colombian Adolescents

Bidirectional relations among adolescents’ positivity, perceived positive school climate, and prosocial behavior were examined in Colombian youth. Also, the role of a positive school climate in mediating the relation of positivity to prosocial behaviors was tested. Adolescents (N = 151; M_age of child in Wave 1 = 12.68, SD = 1.06; 58.9% male) and their parents (N = 127) provided data in two waves (9 months apart). A model of bidirectional relations between positivity and perceived positive school climate emerged. In addition, adolescents with higher levels of perceived positive school climate at age 12 showed higher levels of prosocial behaviors in the following year. Positive school climate related positivity to adolescents’ prosocial behavior over time.