Dialogue in a learning process: problematization of gender and gender equality in higher education

The overall aim with the study was to describe the knowledge building that was developed in a group of students who were trained nurses enrolled in a Swedish higher education programme. With a point of departure in an interactive research approach, the authors applied the dialogue seminar as method and pedagogical model. When the students in close to practice talks, shared their thoughts about how gender and gender equality could be experienced and understood, the dialogue seminar became useable. At the analysis of the stories which the students shared at the dialogue seminars, it became clear that most of the students had an ambivalent approach to gender equality. When they reflected on gender relations, they brought out the hierarchical and separate gender relations which they experienced as existing within healthcare. Furthermore, their professional lives seemed to be embedded in gender-related practices. An important conclusion is that the students’ reflections oscillated between critical reflection on conditions and critical reflection on processes within their own practice in healthcare. Another finding was that the students’ reflections in dialogue form became important in a learning process, not least in the light of that gender relations and gender equality only to a limited degree had been included in their nurse’s education at the basic level.     

Goal orientations, motivational climate, equality, and discipline of Spanish physical education students

This study analyzes how dispositional goal orientations and perception of different motivational climates are related to the students' perception of sex-related egalitarian treatment and the appearance of disciplined or undisciplined behaviors in physical education classes. Analyses showed that ego orientation is a predictor of undisciplined behavior. Task orientation was positively associated to discipline. The perception of task-involving motivational climate is related to the students' perception of equal treatment. On the contrary, the perception of ego-involving climate has been linked positively to the prediction of the perception of sex discrimination in physical education classes and negatively to the perception of equality and the appearance of disciplined behavior. This study discusses the implications of these results related to teaching instructional actions in physical education classes.     

Reflections on the Reflections

Pastoral Psychology -     

Beneath the surface of classroom interaction: Reflections on the microworld of education

This article deals with the microworld of the classroom, i.e., the imbedded, largely unconscious, close to invisible, and to an extent suppressed social processes in teaching. It includes some afterthoughts about a research project with the aim of understanding how the teacher–pupil relation is constructed in classroom interaction. Thomas Scheff’s social psychological framework constituted the theoretical basis for the project. The main data were collected by means of video documentation and consist of a number of closely analysed episodes. The result indicates that nonverbal behaviour in classrooms, to a great extent, is constituted by an informal system of rules in which emotions play a crucial part. But it also reveals the existence of two dimensions in classroom interaction – one surface dimension and one micro dimension – that in significant measure stand in opposition to each other.     

Sex equality in intrahemispheric language organization

Sex differences in inter- and intrahemispheric cerebral organization, found in previous studies, have been used to explain sex differences in cognitive abilities. This study highlights data to contradict such widely held beliefs. Intrahemispheric language organization was examined by determining the location of lesions causing aphasia by computed tomography. No sex differences in the incidence of anterior, posterior, or central lesions was found. The distribution of left-hemisphere lesions in stroke patients, with or without aphasia, was also equal among the sexes. This study does not support the postulated gender difference in intrahemispheric cerebral organization.     

Forget about equality.

Justice is widely thought to consist in equality. For many theorists, the central question has been: Equality of what? The author argues that the ideal of equality distorts practical reasoning and has deeply counterintuitive implications. Moreover, an alternative view of distributive justice can give a better account of what egalitarians should care about than can any of the competing ideals of equality.     

The equality of quantity

Do disparate dimensions of magnitude share an underlying mental representation? Two recent papers offer suggestive evidence that participants' discrimination thresholds are identical across domains. Brannon, Lutz and Cordes showed that six-month-old infants' area discriminations match their number discriminations. VanMarle and Wynn demonstrated the same pattern for six-month-olds' discrimination of temporal duration. These parallels across infants' responses to number, area and time raise questions about the fundamental nature of quantity processing.     

德沃金的资源平等论探微

德沃金根据抽象的平等权理论对自由主义的分配正义理论作了新的阐发,提出了资源平等论,这一理论构想包括拍卖模式和虚拟保险市场两个部分,分别解决初始分配和再次分配的平等问题。该理论特别强调个人的自由选择权利。这一理论的完备性还有待进一步检验。     

A note on preliminary tests of equality of variances

Preliminary tests of equality of variances used before a test of location are no longer widely recommended by statisticians, although they persist in some textbooks and software packages. The present study extends the findings of previous studies and provides further reasons for discontinuing the use of preliminary tests. The study found Type I error rates of a two‐stage procedure, consisting of a preliminary Levene test on samples of different sizes with unequal variances, followed by either a Student pooled‐variances t test or a Welch separate‐variances t test. Simulations disclosed that the twostage procedure fails to protect the significance level and usually makes the situation worse. Earlier studies have shown that preliminary tests often adversely affect the size of the test, and also that the Welch test is superior to the t test when variances are unequal. The present simulations reveal that changes in Type I error rates are greater when sample sizes are smaller, when the difference in variances is slight rather than extreme, and when the significance level is more stringent. Furthermore, the validity of the Welch test deteriorates if it is used only on those occasions where a preliminary test indicates it is needed. Optimum protection is assured by using a separate‐variances test unconditionally whenever sample sizes are unequal.