Women in Academic Science: Experimental Findings From Hiring Studies

Although women are underrepresented in the most mathematically intensive fields, the gender gap in these fields has narrowed over the past 2 decades. In my E. L. Thorndike address I summarized the temporal trends in sex differences for 8 fields and considered factors that drive both the underrepresentation of women and its recent narrowing. I reviewed evidence concerning sex differences in mathematical and spatial aptitude, biases in hiring, funding, publishing, remuneration, and promotion, and gendered preferences. I conclude that the most important causes of underrepresentation appear to occur before women matriculate in college and are concerned with ability-related beliefs, stereotypes, and preferences starting in early elementary school, which by the end of high school have reduced the size of the potential pool. By the time women reach graduate school, there is evidence that they are as successful as their male counterparts in being interviewed and hired for tenure-track positions, funded, and published.     

The language of written language: an introduction to the special issue

This special issue includes five articles dealing with selected aspects of writing disorders, crafted by key contributors to the literature on written language. Articles addressing definitional issues and diagnostic questions, assessment strategies, selected neurodevelopmental components of written expression, the manifestation of writing problems in children and young adults, direct intervention, training for elementary teachers in the early grades in the area of literacy, and brain-behavior linkages are presented. This introduction provides an overview of these articles tied to specific issues confronting the field of written language. Some thoughts and directions for the future are articulated.     

远程教育战略：智力模型和战略选择

远程教育领导们思考着：影响远程教育未来发展的问题究竟是什么?院校的远程教育战略又究竟是什么?本文著作者采用定性研究的方式对比了三所社区学院对远程教育的战略思考与战略选择,比较的命题是：每所学院的远程教育领导们采用的通用战略智力模型(即环境问题和关系的思考方法)和三所学院的远程教育领导们通常所采纳的产业化水平的战略智力模型。比较研究发现：战略信心比期望的有更多的差异；远程教育的战略选择几乎是匹配于当地状况精心考虑的；领导们的信心和学院的战略选择紧密相连。     

At the Crossroads: How Physical Education Can Succeed in a Public Health Paradigm

Physical education (PE) can make meaningful contributions to public health by directly providing moderate to vigorous physical activity (PA) opportunities for school-aged youth. Quality PE aims to contribute indirectly to PA beyond the school day. Unfortunately, insufficient evidence exists regarding the impact of PE on lifelong PA. This has led PE to a crossroads. Moving straight through the crossroads adds comprehensive school physical activity program responsibilities to the PE teacher’s load. Turning left results in PE teachers being replaced by PA leaders. The right turn reaffirms that the aim of PE is to teach youth the skills, knowledge, and dispositions to become physically literate and active for life. The right turn is the most difficult because it requires systemically changing school PE that has remained stagnant for decades. Recommendations are presented that include embracing the comprehensive school physical activity program model, conducting research clearly defining the role of PE and directing the contributions of PE to broader public health aims.     

Application of a new resampling method to SEM: a comparison of S-SMART with the bootstrap

Among the commonly used resampling methods of dealing with small-sample problems, the bootstrap enjoys the widest applications because it often outperforms its counterparts. However, the bootstrap still has limitations when its operations are contemplated. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine an alternative, new resampling method (called S-SMART) and compare the statistical performance of it with that of the bootstrap through an application of them to the most advanced modelling technique, SEM, as an example. The evaluation of the statistical performances of S-SMART and the bootstrap with respect to the standard errors of the parameter estimates was conducted through a Monte Carlo simulation study. This work, while potentially benefiting educational and behavioural research, conceivably would also provide methodological support for other research areas, such as bioinformatics, biology, geosciences, astronomy, and ecology, where large samples are hard to obtain.     

Towards a Categorisation of Cognitive Styles and Learning Styles

This paper considers the construct, ‘style’, in the study of individual differences and learning. The origin and elaboration of learning style as a concept is discussed, tracing the influence of a cognition and a learning‐centred approach to the psychology of individual difference. The authors argue that a contemporary overview of style can contribute to a rationalisation of the theory and facilitate a greater application of learning style in educational practice. A case is made for the need to integrate more fully various models of style into a single construct of learning style.     

Conceptualising the more knowledgeable other within a multi-directional <Emphasis>ZPD</Emphasis>

From a Marxian/Vygotskian perspective, learning is social in origin and it happens in the presence of others that are more knowledgeable. Extending this view to the learning of mathematics, such learning also becomes inseparable from the presence of others (people and artefacts). Researchers over decades have studied different interactions to see how such learning with others occurs, what is the role of the (more knowledgeable) other, and if at all this role alternates between the participants. In this paper, we looked at a 5-year-old’s (Lila) interaction with her mother (Mellony) and a television remote control as Lila attempted to count in threes using the three by three physical layout of the numbered buttons 1–9 on the remote control. We specifically looked at the emergence of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) as Lila’s attention was caught by the properties of the remote control and by her mother’s questions. We also pay attention to how the role of the more knowledgeable other alternates among the participants. Our findings suggest that Lila, at times, used resources provided by the physical properties of the remote control and sometimes, used resources provided by Mellony to think about the task of counting in threes. In Lila’s interaction, we interpreted a multi-directional ZPD as the role of the more knowledgeable other alternated between Mellony, Lila and the remote control.     

Influences of student and family factors on academic outcomes of mainstream secondary school deaf students

This article considers some of the student and family factors influencing the educational achievements of deaf children. It is based on a study of 16-year-old deaf students in mainstream schools in England. Findings indicate the complexity of interpreting statistical results, especially on the effect of degree of hearing loss. The discussion addresses the specific question of why this factor is often reported as not significant in academic achievement. It also considers the surprisingly low effect of family socioeconomic status, speculates on the size of the "school effect" in deaf education, and considers the coding of data.