Conservation without Conversation Revisited: a replication and elaboration of the Wheldall‐Poborca findings on the nonverbal assessment of conservation of liquid quantity 1

A series of experiments by Wheldall and Poborca (1980) have demonstrated that more young children can conserve liquid volume when tested using a novel, nonverbal paradigm than when tested by conventional verbal assessment procedures. The present experiment attempted to replicate their findings and simultaneously assess the effects of two modifications to their original procedure. The results showed that the two modifications to the Wheldall and Poborca procedure—(i) inviting subjects to transform the liquid quantities themselves, instead of merely observing the experimenter do so and (ii) using an extended elaborated form of response training—did not significantly increase the number of children able to conserve liquid volume. However, the original Wheldall and Poborca findings were replicated, showing that some children are likely to be falsely classified as non‐conservers if assessed using traditional verbal assessment methods.

     

An Alternative Understanding of Education and Empowerment: Local-Level Perspectives of Refugee Social Integration in the United Kingdom

This article draws on research with a group of refugee women who attend English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) classes at a community center in London. It considers the role education can play in their social integration processes, employing an approach that has been developed from feminist notions of empowerment and social practice theories of literacy and language use. It suggests that an exploration of factors that regulate their opportunities to access resources, expand agency, and experience opportunities they value from a gendered perspective is crucial for understanding how to provide more suitable avenues for refugee women’s social integration in the United Kingdom.     

Correlations between the stanford-binet: Fourth edition and the WISC-R with a learning disabled population

The Fourth Edition of the Stanford-Binet and the WISC-R were compared as instruments for assessing the intellectual strengths and weaknesses of students classified as learning disabled in the primary and secondary grades. Results found only a 3.28-point difference (p≥.0001) between the S-B Composite score and the WISC-R Full Scale score. Correlations between the four broad areas of the S-B and the three scales of the WISC-R ranged from .494 (S-B Abstract/Visual Reasoning with WISC-R Verbal) to .920 (S-B Composite with WISC-R Full Scale). All correlations were found to be significant. Implications of the research findings were discussed.     

Congruence between educational attitudes and academic philosophies

Kerlinger's theory of social attitudes asserts that attitudes toward educational practices can be represented by the independent dimensions of progres-sivism and traditionalism. This study focused on the relationship between these attitudes and the philosophies of realism and pragmatism. A sample of 152 graduate students in education completed three instruments measuring educational attitudes and the basic and applied philosophies. Factor analytic results supported a dualistic theory rather than a bipolar theory for attitudes and philosophies. Pragmatists supported the progressive referents of children's interests and social development as educational goals, while realistsy supported traditional concepts emphasizing structure and the learning of content. The results are discussed in terms of the consistency between educational attitudes and a teacher's philosophy.