Gender-specific effects of artificially induced gender beliefs in mental rotation

Men outperform women in the Mental Rotation Test (MRT) by about one standard deviation. The present study replicated a gender belief account [Moè, A., & Pazzaglia, F. (2006). Following the instructions! Effects of gender beliefs in mental rotation. Learning and Individual Differences, 16, 369–377.] for (part of) this effect. A sample of 300 adults, whose gender beliefs about mental rotation were manipulated experimentally (instructions given: men are better, women are better, or no gender differences exist) had to complete the MRT. Artificially induced gender beliefs affected performance and guessing behavior differently in relation to gender. Women's performance followed the gender belief induction but their guessing behavior remained unaffected. Men's performance, however, remained unaffected but their guessing behavior followed the gender belief induction. These findings suggest that gender beliefs affect men and women differently, and they also suggest that a gender belief account cannot (fully) explain gender differences in mental rotation performance.     

Does a formal wiki event contribute to the formation of a network of practice? A social capital perspective on the potential for informal learning

Informal learning in blended and online settings plays an increasingly important role in the continuous professional development of individuals. Yet, how do individuals engage into these types of activities? We argue that social capital theory can provide valuable insights into how people behave and decide to take part in (in)formal learning. Using social network analysis, we provide empirical evidence on an informal learning activity, where participants collaboratively created knowledge on wiki sites on a predefined set of topics. Our results show that there are three types of active participants in these types of informal learning activities, namely leaders, collaborators and lone editors. These findings provide valuable insights for other, similar activities that aim at enhancing the professional development of individuals.     

Activity during prior shock determines subsequent shock-elicited fighting in the rat

Two experiments investigated the relationship between activity during shock and the magnitude of subsequent impairment of shock-elicited fighting in the rat. Different levels of intra-shock activity were engendered in two ways. In Experiment 1, differing temporal forms of inescapable shock were employed to produce markedly different levels of activity. In Experiment 2, a passive-escape procedure was used to explicitly reinforce nonmovement during shock relative to a yoked, inescapable shock control. Results indicated that relative to the performance of subjects not previously shocked, fighting impairment was produced only by those prior treatments that promoted reduced intrashock activity. Since one of the prior shock treatments involved inescapable shock but the other did not, these findings may be viewed as strong support for the notion that behavior during shock, rather than uncontrollability, is the critical determinant of the observed impairment effects. There was some suggestion in both studies that shock treatments that resulted in sustained or increased intrashock activity tended to produce augmentation of fighting. Both inhibitory and facilitative effects of prior shock exposure are discussed in terms of an interacting response theory of shock treatment effects.     

Raising critical issues in the analysis of gender and science in children’s literature

Trevor Owens’ paper provides a critique of the role of gender and authority in selected children’s books that presented biographies of Albert Einstein and Marie Curie. In the context of discussing Trevor’s (2009) article about children’s literature, this forum explores issues related to the (a) representation and construction of gender, science, and childhood in literature for children; (b) the need to consider socio/historical/cultural contexts in analytical and theoretical frameworks; and (c) the importance of fostering critical literacy perspectives in pre- and in-service science teachers and the children whom they teach.     

The Value of Being Included: An Examination of Diversity Change Initiatives in Organizations

ABSTRACT : In recent decades, many organizations have undertaken initiatives aimed at managing a more diverse workforce. Many of these initiatives have been limited in effectiveness because they focused solely on managing or preventing human-resource-related crises, rather than reconceptualizing how the work of the business is accomplished. More effective diversity change initiatives can be implemented if change agents take an overarching perspective of the business and the workforce that considers the importance of engaging both the oppressed and priviledged members of the organization. Such a perspective necessarily requires considering the impact of oppression and privilege in the organization. Common diversity change interventions are discussed and critiqued, and suggestions for formulating optimally effective diversity change initiatives are suggested.     

Motivation and engagement in the ‘Asian Century’: a comparison of Chinese students in Australia,Hong Kong,and Mainland China

The present study investigated multidimensional motivation and engagement among Chinese middle school students in Australia (N?=?273), Hong Kong (N?=?528), and Mainland China (N?=?2106; randomly selected N?=?528). Findings showed that a multidimensional model of motivation and engagement fit very well for all three groups. Multi-group invariance tests showed that the number of factors, factor loadings, factor correlations and item uniquenesses were invariant across the three groups – as were inter-correlations with a set of cognate correlates (class participation, school enjoyment, positive intentions, academic buoyancy) – hence no differences of ‘kind’. However, differences of ‘degree’ were indicated through significant mean-level effects between groups, with self-reports favouring Australian Chinese students over Hong Kong and (to a lesser extent) Mainland Chinese students. We propose these findings shed important light on Chinese students’ academic motivation and engagement and also on socio-cultural perspectives on motivation and engagement because they assist understanding about effects attributable to context and effects attributable to ethnicity. Given this, the study is a timely contribution to current understanding of the Chinese learner in this, the ‘Asian Century’.     

Once good teaching,always good teaching? The differential stability of student perceptions of teaching quality

In many countries, students are asked about their perceptions of teaching in order to make decisions about the further development of teaching practices on the basis of this feedback. The stability of this measurement of teaching quality is a prerequisite for the ability to generalize the results to other teaching situations. The present study aims to expand the extant empirical body of knowledge on the effects of situational factors on the stability of students’ perceptions of teaching quality. Therefore, we investigate whether the degree of stability is moderated by three situational factors: time between assessments, subjects taught by teachers, and students’ grade levels. To this end, we analyzed data from a web-based student feedback system. The study involved 497 teachers, each of whom conducted two student surveys. We examined the differential stability of student perceptions of 16 teaching constructs that were operationalized as latent correlations between aggregated student perceptions of the same teacher’s teaching. Testing metric invariance indicated that student ratings provided measures of teaching constructs that were invariant across time, subjects, and grade levels. Stability was moderated to some extent by grade level but not by subjects taught nor time spacing between surveys. The results provide evidence of the extent to which situational factors may affect the stability of student perceptions of teaching constructs. The generalizability of the students’ feedback results to other teaching situations is discussed.