Accommodating religion to modern neuroscience

Science and religion commonly reside in either an awkward peaceful co-existence or in bitter conflict. That conflict emerges especially in college students as they acquire knowledge about physical, biological, and social sciences. Most college students bring their shallow childhood religious instruction to their college classes. Neuroscience can help students realise how their religious views are affected by their biology, conditioning, experiences, culture, education, emotions, and cognitive processes. In turn, religion can provide world views that challenge neuroscience and remind us of how much remains unknown and may even be unknowable. This report summarises the author’s three semesters’ experience of teaching an upper-division undergraduate essay and discussion course in which students discover how neuroscience and religion inform each other.     

Design and use of a U.S. census data computer laboratory for teaching undergraduate research methods

This paper discusses the design and development of an interdisciplinary social science computer laboratory for teaching undergraduate research methods courses and research components of applied and theoretical courses. The U.S. Census of the Population, a database commonly used in all of the social sciences, is used in order to give students research experience and to avoid ethical problems involved in working with animal and human subjects in an undergraduate course. Some issues in laboratory design and required changes in teaching methods are discussed.     

A course treating ethical issues in physics

A course focusing on ethical issues in physics has been taught to undergraduate students at Eastern Michigan University since 1988. The course covers both responsible conduct of research and ethical issues associated with how physicists interact with the rest of society. Since most undergraduate physics majors will not have a career in academia, it is important that a course such as this address issues that will be relevant to physicists in a wide range of job situations. There is a wealth of published work that can be drawn on for reading assignments.     

Study strategies and beliefs about learning as a function of academic achievement and achievement goals

Prior research by Hartwig and Dunlosky [(2012). Study strategies of college students: Are self-testing and scheduling related to achievement? Psychonomic Bulletin &; Review, 19(1), 126–134] has demonstrated that beliefs about learning and study strategies endorsed by students are related to academic achievement: higher performing students tend to choose more effective study strategies and are more aware of the benefits of self-testing. We examined whether students’ achievement goals, independent of academic achievement, predicted beliefs about learning and endorsement of study strategies. We administered Hartwig and Dunlosky’s survey, along with the Achievement Goals Questionnaire [Elliot, A. J., &; McGregor, H. A. (2001). A 2 × 2 achievement goal framework. Journal of Personality &; Social Psychology, 80, 501–519] to a large undergraduate biology course. Similar to results by Hartwig and Dunlosky, we found that high-performing students (relative to low-performing students) were more likely to endorse self-testing, less likely to cram, and more likely to plan a study schedule ahead of time. Independent of achievement, however, achievement goals were stronger predictors of certain study behaviours. In particular, avoidance goals (e.g., fear of failure) coincided with increased use of cramming and the tendency to be driven by impending deadlines. Results suggest that individual differences in student achievement, as well as the underlying reasons for achievement, are important predictors of students’ approaches to studying.     

A Non‐Muslim Teaching Islam: Pedagogical and Ethical Challenges

Abstract. This paper is a reflection on the two most significant challenges that I have faced teaching the introductory course in Islam. The first is the challenge of teaching Islam after September 11, 2001, the events of which gave rise to such pedagogical questions as how much and in what ways the course syllabus should change, and in particular how we should address issues such as extremism and terrorism. The second is the challenge of being a non‐Muslim teaching Islam, which raises issues of authority (particularly when there are Muslim students in the classroom). The limitations and advantages of teaching a tradition as an outsider are explored, and strategies for compensating for the limitations are suggested. The final section of the essay explores the following question: When, if ever, can (or should) we as teachers move from explaining and analyzing the positions taken by members of a tradition to criticizing them?     

The Study of Socioethical Issues in Systems Biology

Systems biology is the rapidly growing and heavily funded successor science to genomics. Its mission is to integrate extensive bodies of molecular data into a detailed mathematical understanding of all life processes, with an ultimate view to their prediction and control. Despite its high profile and widespread practice, there has so far been almost no bioethical attention paid to systems biology and its potential social consequences. We outline some of systems biology's most important socioethical issues by contrasting the concept of systems as dynamic processes against the common static interpretation of genomes. New issues arise around systems biology's capacities for in silico testing, changing cultural understandings of life, synthetic biology, and commercialization. We advocate an interdisciplinary and interactive approach that integrates social and philosophical analysis and engages closely with the science. Overall, we argue that systems biology socioethics could stimulate new ways of thinking about socioethical studies of life sciences.     

The proper role of history in evolutionary explanations

Evolutionary explanations are not only common in the biological sciences, but also widespread outside biology. But an account of how evolutionary explanations perform their explanatory work is still lacking. This paper develops such an account. I argue that available accounts of explanations in evolutionary science miss important parts of the role of history in evolutionary explanations. I argue that the historical part of evolutionary science should be taken as having genuine explanatory force, and that it provides how-possibly explanations sensu Dray. I propose an account of evolutionary explanations as comparative-composite explanations consisting of two distinct kinds of explanations, one processual and one historical, that are connected via the explanandum's evolvability to show how the explanandum is the product of its evolutionary past. The account is both a reconstruction of how evolutionary explanations in biology work and a guideline specifying what kind of explanations evolutionary research programs should develop.     

Experiencing the Other as the Self: Cultural Diversity Courses as Liberating Praxis

Abstract. In response to our increasingly global and multicultural world, undergraduate degree plans have come to include courses, which meet the Diversity requirement. While diversity may have a variety of definitions, clearly the educational institution believes that all students earning a degree should complete course work that exposes them to cultures not their own. Courses that fulfill Diversity requirements often include “Introduction to World Religions,” among others. Even a traditional‐style teaching of such a course will accomplish a certain degree of broadening of students’ perspectives. The risk, however, is that at the end of the course the students are simply better informed about sets of people whom they would still objectify as the other. This article describes an experiential method of teaching which enables students to begin to change their consciousness, as well as their body of information, by learning to experience the other as self. The author calls this the identification/participation method.     

Concept Mapping of Issues of Students’ Life in University

The undergraduate student body forms around 85.9 % of the total number of students enrolled in India, which is a significant population. It has become imperative to understand the issues that these students face during their undergraduate years as a precursor to developing mechanisms and strategies to enable student progress, both academically and developmentally. This study aimed at developing a concept map to outline the various aspects and issues of the undergraduate students’ life in India utilizing the concept mapping method. Data from participants (n?=?141) at different phases was analysed resulting in 49 unique life issues and aspects and 8 clusters. The emerging issues have relevance and implications for teachers, parents, administrators and other stakeholders in structuring and developing services targeted towards undergraduate students in India.     

Grounding and anchoring: on the structure of Epstein’s social ontology

Brian Epstein’s The Ant Trap is a praiseworthy addition to literature on social ontology and the philosophy of social sciences. Its central aim is to challenge received views about the social world – views with which social scientists and philosophers have aimed to answer questions about the nature of social science and about those things that social sciences aim to model and explain, like social facts, objects and phenomena. The received views that Epstein critiques deal with these issues in an overly people-centered manner. After all, even though social facts and phenomena clearly involve individual people arranged in certain ways, we must still spell out how people are involved in social facts and phenomena. There are many metaphysical questions about social properties, relations, dependence, constitution, causation, and facts that cannot be answered (for instance) just be looking at individual people alone. In order to answer questions about (e.g.) how one social entity depends for its existence on another, we need different metaphysical tools. Epstein thus holds that social ontological explanations would greatly benefit from making use of the theoretical toolkit that contemporary analytical metaphysics has to offer. He focuses specifically on two metaphysical instruments: grounding and anchoring. This paper examines Epstein’s understanding and use of these tools. I contend that Epstein is exactly right to say that contemporary metaphysics contains many theoretical instruments that can be fruitfully applied to social ontological analyses. However, I am unconvinced that Epstein’s tools achieve what they set out to do. In particular, I will address two issues: (1) How is grounding for Epstein meant to work? (2) Is anchoring distinct from grounding, and a relation that we need in social ontology?     

Why Social Science is Biological Science

The social sciences need to take seriously their status as divisions of biology. As such they need to recognize the central role of Darwinian processes in all the phenomena they seek to explain. An argument for this claim is formulated in terms of a small number of relatively precise premises that focus on the nature of the kinds and taxonomies of all the social sciences. The analytical taxonomies of all the social sciences are shown to require a Darwinian approach to human affairs, though not a nativist or genetically driven theory by any means. Non-genetic Darwinian processes have the fundamental role on all human affairs. I expound a general account of how Darwinian processes operate in human affairs by selecting for strategies and sets of strategies individuals and groups employ. I conclude by showing how a great deal of social science can be organized in accordance with Tinbergen’s approach to biological inquiry, an approach required by the fact that the social sciences are all divisions of biology, and in particular the studies of one particular biological species.     

“I definitely feel like a scientist”: Exploring science identity trajectories among Latinx students in a critical race theory-informed undergraduate research experience

The current study investigated science identity development among Latinx university students selected for a critical race theory (CRT)-informed undergraduate research experience. Twenty students (12 female, 8 male; M_age = 22.00; SD = 2.77) enrolled in biomedical-related majors at a 4-year university responded to open-ended questions regarding their identity as scientists at 2 weeks, 6 months, and 18 months after they began the program. Results illustrated a steady increase in the number of students identifying as scientists over 18 months. At 2 weeks into the program, only 35% of Latinx students felt like a scientist. At 6 months, 45% of Latinx students identified as a scientist. At 18 months, 70% of Latinx students reported feeling like a scientist. Results also revealed variation in science identity trajectories, with four trajectories viewed in the data: (1) consistent or fast achievement, (2) gradual achievement, (3) achievement adjustment, and (4) never reach achievement. The majority of students demonstrated a trajectory in which they reached science identity achievement (the feeling that they are “a scientist”). Our results provide evidence of the positive, longitudinal impact that a CRT-informed curriculum has on the science identity development of Latinx students. Implications surrounding future research and strategies to facilitate long-term Latinx student participation in the biomedical sciences are discussed.     

Theology as a human science: Reflections on Gadamer’s Truth and Method

Abstract

Gadamer’s attempt to ’rehabilitate tradition in general clarifies that which theology and the human sciences have in common since he claims that the rehabilitation of tradition is crucial for all human science enquiry. His systematic unfolding of the hermeneutical process described in Truth and Method is discussed under three headings: The meaning of tradition and how the idea of tradition may be rehabilitated; how do we know in the human sciences? and, the nature of theological reflection as part of the human sciences. Gadamer’s hermeneutics helps to transcend the antithesis between reason and tradition. It offers a more appropriate way to understand cultural and historical texts and broadens the purview of the human sciences. It is within this broader understanding of the human sciences that theological reflection comes to itself.     

Amplifying and Attenuating Inequity in Collaborative Learning: Toward an Analytical Framework

Abstract

Research on collaborative learning has focused on its potential to foster successful problem solving. Less attention, though, has been given to issues of equity. In this article, we investigate how inequity can become amplified and attenuated within collaborative learning through small interactional moves that accumulate to produce broader patterns of equity or inequity. Our theoretical perspective utilizes Boaler’s notion of relational equity and introduces what we term participatory equity. Research was conducted in a computer science course co-taught by the authors and taken by upper-elementary students. Data sources include audio recordings of students’ collaborative interactions, ethnographic field notes, student work, and student surveys. This article focuses on a single student, Jason, and his dyadic interactions, and builds upon our previous analyses of his interactions with four higher-performing partners. Findings reveal how the interplay between classroom structures and student enactments shaped two types of inequity during collaborative learning. We conclude by discussing implications for theorizing and analyzing equity and inequity, as well as pedagogical considerations for structuring collaborative learning to attenuate inequity.     

International and Domestic Students,Perceived Burdensomeness,Belongingness, and Suicidal Ideation

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for traditional‐age college students, and the interpersonal theory of suicide (ITS; Joiner, 2005) provides a cogent framework for predicting which students may be at highest risk. However, little is known about how constructs of ITS operate in cross‐cultural contexts. Findings, based on a sample of international and domestic undergraduate students (N = 254), indicated that the ITS construct of perceived burdensomeness was positively associated with suicidal ideation (SI) for both groups. However, campus belongingness emerged as connected with SI for international students, whereas family belongingness emerged as connected with SI for domestic students.     

Methods matter: A review of Scientific Method: How Science Works,Fails to Work,and Pretends to Work by John Staddon,Routledge Press, 2018

The short and engaging book, How Science Works by John Staddon, reviews ways in which social and behavioral sciences arrive at decisions and how those decisions can best influence public policy. It is a provocative book that takes on controversial topics, including a critique of null hypothesis statistical testing, classical economic theories of supply and demand, limitations of Prospect Theory and behavioral economics, and evidence behind the health effects of smoking. A key theme running throughout is the idea that the theories and quantitative models used in the social sciences capture behavior and attitudes as fixed in time and fail to address the important issue of how behavior arose and how pliable it might be. The book will be of interest to scientists of all types as well as advanced students of psychology and other behavioral scientists.     

Five Key Topics on the Frontier of Theology and Science Today

Abstract : This article explores the creative mutual interaction between Christian theology and the natural sciences through five key issues: (1) the relation between creation ex nihilo and Big Bang cosmology; (2) biological evolution and continuous creation; (3) the search for non‐interventionist objective divine action in light of physics and biology; (4) the problem of suffering in nature and with it the turn to redemption theology via the bodily Resurrection of Jesus; and (5) the challenge raised for its eschatological implications by scientific predictions for the future of the universe. The article concludes with a brief suggestion for the ways Christian theology, reformulated in light of these sciences, might offer creative suggestions for future scientific research, and, in doing so, complete the loop promised by the phrase “mutual creative interaction.”     

Distinguishing between level and impact of rumination as predictors of depressive symptoms: An experience sampling study

Rumination—repetitively thinking about one's emotional state, its causes and consequences—exacerbates negative mood and plays an important role in the aetiology and maintenance of depression. Yet, it is unclear whether increased vulnerability to depression is associated with simply how much a person ruminates, or the short-term impact rumination has on a person's negative mood. In the current study, we distinguish between the level versus the impact of rumination, and we examine how each uniquely predicts changes in depressive symptoms over time in an undergraduate sample. Using experience sampling, we assessed students’ (N = 101) subjective experiences of positive and negative affect and their use of rumination and distraction in daily life for seven days. Participants also reported their depressive symptoms before and after the experience sampling. Increases in depressive symptoms over the week were predicted by how much people ruminated, but not by its impact on negative mood.     

Bill Wallace (A Conversation in a Bar)

The dialogue is concerned to do two things. In the first place it seeks to display the extreme difficulty of discussing conceptual issues with students whose academic backgrounds are the social sciences. Its point is not to criticize any element of those disciplines per se, but to illustrate the sort of misunderstandings which many beginning students appear to acquire from them. The second point is to offer a reminder that perhaps the part of philosophizing which requires the most care is the stating of just the question which one wishes to raise ‐ the getting into position, as it were, to think to any end.     

SHORT- AND LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF CONTINGENCY MANAGED INSTRUCTION ON LOW,MEDIUM, AND HIGH GPA STUDENTS1

Undergraduate students had been assigned to a contingency managed course or a conventional lecture course (Du Nann and Fernald, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1976, 9 , 373–374). Two years later, some 35% (N = 86) of the original classes responded to a letter offering them $2.00 to participate in a study of their educational experiences. These students completed a multiple-choice test on material from the course, and answered questions about activities and attitudes that might have been affected by the experience in Introductory Psychology. In the contingency management course 2 yr past, students were tested each week on a chapter of textbook material with 10-item multiple-choice quizzes. The course employed a modified “Doomsday Contingency”, requiring each student to achieve 80% mastery on one of the four weekly quizzes or drop the course. Quizzes were given in small groups and scored individually, while the student stood near, by an undergraduate proctor assigned to that group. The proctor was asked to show interest in the students' quiz performances, help clear up difficult areas, and develop a friendly working relationship with each student. While many students passed the quiz on the first attempt, others were given individual tutoring, so that no one was in fact forced to drop the course. In addition to the weekly quiz assignment, students in the contingency managed group were asked to attend one lecture each week. While the contingency management course procedures had much in common with PSI (Keller, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1968, 1 , 79–89), several departures made them unique. First, self-pacing was curtailed because students were required to master one unit per week or drop the course. Second, proctors met with students in small groups, usually giving individual tutoring only to those students who did not pass the quiz on the first attempt. Finally, students were asked to attend one lecture per week. Students in the conventional lecture group were not asked to pass weekly quizzes, but instead attended three 50-min lectures each week. Two of these lectures followed the textbook material closely, while the third, which was also attended by students from the contingency management course, covered material only indirectly related to the text. This partition of lecture content allowed material to be similar across the two instructional groups. Although students in the lecture condition were told they could obtain copies of the quizzes, few of them did so. Course grades were determined by scores on two 45-item multiple-choice hourly exams, each covering half the semester material (each worth 25%), and by a 90-item final exam, which served as a measure of short-term retention. Before analyzing the follow-up data, several characteristics of the returning students were compared to determine the comparability of the sample from the two original classes. Most important, both attrition and the current mean GPAs of students from the two classes were very similar. These considerations, and others, suggested there was no systematic sampling bias to confound comparisons of student performance. A 2 (contingency management versus traditional lecture) by 3 (high, medium, and low GPA) analysis of variance was computed on the course final-exam scores and the follow-up measures. Instructional procedure and GPA interacted on the final exam such that low and medium GPA students performed significantly better under contingency management, but there was no significant effect of instructional procedure with high GPA students. On the 2-yr retention measures, students from the contingency management course performed significantly (p < 0.01) better on items drawn from quizzes used in their original course, and marginally better (p < 0.10) on items drawn from the final exams, but no interactions with GPA appeared. Furthermore, instructional method produced no significant main effects or interaction with how many students became majors or minors in psychology, how many psychology courses were later taken, how many books in psychology were reported to have been read, or on students' evaluation of the interest and importance of psychology.