Radicals reflect: The first twenty years of the caucus for a new political science

B. Nelson Ong is Assistant Professor Political Science at the College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, NY 10805. He is also the Secretary of the National Association of Scholars.     

Impact of sustained professional development in STEM on outcome measures in a diverse urban district

Sustained professional development can support STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) reform. The authors describe a 3-year study of sustained professional development for 3 diverse urban schools across the salient factors of fidelity of implementation of project-based learning, development of professional learning communities, and student achievement. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected. The students who experienced the greatest fidelity of implementation exhibited the greatest gains (d = 1.41–2.03) on standardized test scores, while those with the lowest fidelity of implementation exhibited negative gains (d = –0.16 to –0.08). Qualitative data indicated teachers perceived there were multiple benefits from the implementation of project-based learning.     

The origins and aims of Epistemics

This is the first of two articles describing the nature and historical development of the author's work on Epistemics. The author originally conceived Epistemics as the science of the structure and transmission of human knowledge, but this conception was later elaborated to enable separate emphasis to be given to the human and instrumental aspects of knowledge transmission. Part I of the paper relates the concerns of Epistemics to Instructional Science. Part II of the paper relates Epistemics to insight deriving from the Brain Sciences.     

Including spirituality in counsellor education: Issues for consideration,with illustrative reference to a New Zealand example

The appropriate inclusion of spirituality in professional counsellor education programmes requires a careful definition of spirituality, and clarification of how it affects the programme's content. It also involves determination of how a programme may be structured to address various aspects of spirituality. This article highlights some of the issues involved in these tasks.     

Early Relationship Quality From Home to School: A Longitudinal Study

The aim of this investigation was to examine the role of social relationships in the home as predictors of social functioning in the first years of school. Longitudinal data gathered on 156 children from urban, low-income families were used to examine the unique contributions of mother-child attachment classification at ages 1 and 2 years, the child's relationship with another adult caregiver, the child's closeness to a sibling, and the child's status in the family relative to siblings between ages 3 and 4 years, to teacher reports of their own relationship to the child and the child's social skills in the classroom and peer relations. The role of family-based relationships as possible protective factors for children at social or demographic risk for problems in school was also tested. Results indicate that quality of different family relationships provides relatively independent and complementary information about early social functioning in school, with more limited evidence for compensatory or protective processes at work.     

Behavior of Infants with Iron-Deficiency Anemia

This study tested the hypothesis that infants with iron-deficiency anemia show behaviors, such as increased proximity to caregivers, increased wariness or hesitance, and decreased activity, that could contribute to “functional isolation.” The behavior of 52 Costa Rican 12- to 23-month-old infants with iron-deficiency anemia was contrasted with that of 139 comparison group infants with better iron status during free play and mental and motor testing and in the home. Infants with iron-deficiency anemia maintained closer contact with caregivers; showed less pleasure and delight; were more wary, hesitant, and easily tired; made fewer attempts at test items; were less attentive to instructions and demonstrations; and were less playful. Adult behavior also differed. The results indicate that iron-deficiency anemia in infancy is associated with alterations in affect and activity, suggesting that functional isolation is a useful framework for understanding poorer developmental outcome in iron-deficiency anemia, the world's most common single nutrient deficiency.     

Instructional Efficiency of Performance Analysis Training for Learners at Different Levels of Competency in Using a Web‐Based EPSS

ABSTRACT The measure of performance improvement potential (Gilbert, 1978) in human performance technology uses an exemplary performance as a criterion against which to measure the potential improvement in the performance of a workforce. The measure is calculated based on the performance efficiency which compares expended resources to productivity. The same notion is used to measure the efficiency of instructional conditions, based on learners' mental effort invested in a learning task compared to their performance. This article compares the efficiency of an instructional condition for three groups of students differentiated by their use of an electronic performance support system (EPSS) to conduct a performance analysis project. The results indicated that the instruction was most efficient for those learners who showed greater competency in using the EPSS. Implications for using this technique as a means of formative evaluation of a course are discussed.     

Children's Conceptions of Ownership for Self and Other: Categorical Ownership Versus Strength of Claim

Children are capable of viewing object ownership as categorical and exclusive, but ownership claims can also vary by degree. This study investigated how children use these different conceptions of ownership in a giving and a taking task. In two studies, 4- to 7-year olds (N = 105) could give and take craft objects that they or another child had found (weaker claim) and made (stronger claim). In Study 1, no additional ownership information was given, and in Study 2 categorical ownership was stated (“these belong to you”). The results showed that children used categorical ownership for their own objects but used ownership strength for the other child's objects, taking more of the found items.