The relationship between science process skill and formal thinking abilities

The purpose of this study is to examine integrated process skill and formal thinking abilities of middle and high school students and determine the relationship, if any, between the two. A relationship was thought to exist since both sets of skills strongly emphasize conducting fair experiments as well as other abilities. Pencil and paper measures of formal operational and integrated process skill achievement were given to almost 500 grade 7–12 students. Resulting correlations showed a strong relationship between achievement on the two meansures (r = 0.73) and all subtests of both measures. Factor analysis data corroborate the correlational evidence. One potential inference to be drawn from these results is that process skill teaching might influence formal thinking ability. A follow-up experimental study will determine this.     

It Takes Two to Replicate: A Mediational Model for the Impact of Parents' Stress on Adolescent Adjustment

In this study of parental stress and adolescent adjustment, experiences of negative life events during the recent past were used to generate a measure of acute stress. In addition, multiple indicators based on reports from various informants were used to estimate latent constructs for parental depression, discipline practices, and adolescent adjustment. Employing 2 independent samples of families from 2 different regions of the country (rural Iowa and a medium-sized city in Oregon), structural equation models were used to test the hypothesis that in intact families acute stress experienced by parents is linked to boys' adjustment (average age equaled 11.8 years in the Oregon sample, 12.7 years in the Iowa sample) through 2 different causal mechanisms. The findings showed that parental stress was related to adjustment through stress-related parental depression that is, in turn, correlated with disrupted discipline practices. Poor discipline appears to provide the direct link with developmental outcomes. The structural equation model (SEM) used to test the proposed mediational process was consistent with the data for mothers and boys from both the Oregon and the Iowa samples. The similarity in results was less clear for fathers and boys. Implications of these results for future replication studies are discussed.     

The translucent cadaver: An evaluation of the use of full body digital x-ray images and drawings in surface anatomy education

It has been noted by staff at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University that medical students neglect the study of surface anatomy during dissection. This study reports on the novel use of Lodox® Statscan® images in anatomical education, particularly the teaching of surface anatomy. Full body digital X‐ray images (Lodox Statscan) of each cadaver (n = 40) were provided to second year medical students. During dissection students were asked to visualize landmarks, organs, and structures on the digital X‐ray and their cadaver, as well as palpate these landmarks and structures on themselves, their colleagues, and the cadaver. To stimulate student engagement with surface anatomy, dissection groups were required to draw both the normal and actual position of organs on a laminated image provided. The accuracy of the drawings was subsequently assessed and students were further assessed by means of practical identification tests. In addition, students were asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire. A response rate of 79% was obtained for the student questionnaire. From the questionnaire it was gathered that students found the digital X‐ray images beneficial for viewing most systems' organs, except for the pelvic organs. Although it appears that students still struggle with the study of surface anatomy, most students believed that the digital X‐rays were beneficial to their studies and supported their continued use in the future. Anat Sci Educ. © 2012 American Association of Anatomists.     

Talking about death: Implementing peer discussion as a coping mechanism to overcome fears about dissection,death, and dying

Many studies have reported on the perceptions of medical students toward dissection. It is important to understand the feelings and symptoms experienced during dissection so that they can be adequately handled. Prior to dissection, first year students are given lectures on aspects of dissection, death and dying, and death rituals in various cultures. Two separate questionnaires, one given during the first week of dissection and another given one month into the program were then completed anonymously by dissection groups. The questions were designed to be open‐ended, thereby encouraging group discussion amongst students. The questionnaires were used to determine the perception of students to dissection and to discover if these perceptions change during the dissection program. The first questionnaire revealed that students do experience fears and anxiety prior to and at the beginning of dissection; however, most of these fears dissipated by the time of the second questionnaire. One month into dissection students cited talking to peers as their main coping mechanism and fewer students mentioned emotional detachment from their cadaver as a coping mechanism, as was the case in the first questionnaire. Dissection was perceived as a positive experience by our student cohort and most students cited the main advantage of dissection as the ability to visualize organs in three dimensions. The comprehensive answers received from the students indicated that thorough discussion of feelings amongst peers occurred, introducing students to an important coping mechanism at an early stage of their learning. Anat Sci Educ. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

The Most Integrated Hour in America: Reframing the Organizational Discourses of Church Purpose

Religious organizations have increasingly drawn the attention of communication scholars. This interest is due in part to the significant role these organizations have in building social capital – particularly in regard to improving racial/ethnic relations. This potential has remained largely unrealized, however, since the Civil Rights Movement over 50 years ago. Consequently, this study seeks to understand how church pastors frame the ambiguous discourse of organizational purpose. Building on an earlier research phase that included 42 pastoral interviews, this study adds to our understanding of framing practices via three dialectical tensions: integration-segregation, belief-practice, and vertical-horizontal. The analysis also reveals how these dialectics were framed through improbability, double bind, alternation, selection, connection, and transcendence, as well as their impact upon ethnic relationships. Theoretic and practical implications are provided.     

Film Theory and Criticism

William T. Pilkington and Don Graham, eds., Western Movies (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1979–$13.95/$6.95)

William R. Meyer, The Making of the Great Westerns (New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House, 1979 – $20.00)

Michael Pitts, Famous Movie Detectives (Metuchen, New Jerseys Scarecrow Press, 1979 – $11.95)

Gerald Mast's The Comic Mind (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1979– $7.95 paper)     

Popular Music

Brian Rust The American Record Label Book (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1978— $20.00)

Bill Harry Mersey Beat: The Beginnings of the the Beatles (London: Omnibus Press/New York: Quick Fox, 1978—E2.50/$4.95, paper)

Mary Laverne Dimmick The Rolling Stones: An Annotated Bibliography (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1978—$7.95)

Judith Glassman The Year in Music: 1978 (New York: Crown Publishers, 1978—$15.95)

Lionel Salter The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Classical Music: A Guide to Composers and Recommended Recordings (New York: Crown Books (Harmony Books)/London: Salamander Books, 1978—$17.95/8.95)

Gerald Bordman American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978—$35.00)     

Methodological Reconsiderations: The Shifting Paradigms

In the struggle to gain an understanding of ourselves, we have developed a variety of explanatory theories, models, and paradigms with methods of questing answers that have been considered appropriate to the theory, model, or paradigm. Behaviorists have sought to determine the nature of relationships by means of a basic cause-effect design. They assume that laws governing behavior exist and are discernible, that cause is fundamentally external in nature, and that empirical methodologies represent the best approach to the explanation of behavior within societies. Advocates of an alternative world view (antipositivism or interpretivism) adhere to the naturalistic conception of a human being as a rule-following agent. They assume that people are conscious social actors capable of controlling their behavior, and that human behavior originates in the individual's interpretation of reality. Their research methods are aimed at exploring the situations of the actor in order to work out how individuals arrived at the interpretations and created the actions they did. Both schools of researchers seem to be tackling the same issues, but those steeped in the behavioral sciences are questing for empirical generalizations while the interpretivists are analyzing conceptual properties and the meaning of each. Yet, it is not a blind allegiance to one specific world view and its concomitant methodologies that is important but an ability to think creatively and to have a sound conceptual base on which to build a world view. Methods are the tools of scholarship and should be adapted according to the nature of the questions, not unquestioningly applied.