Gender Differences in Ways of Knowing: The Context Dependence of the Attitudes Toward Thinking and Learning Survey

In this article we challenge the notion of stable, gender-related differences in the way people acquire and process information, with men more likely to utilize separate knowing and women connected knowing. An alternative analysis highlights malleability and the importance of social context in determining knowing style. We examined the responses of 186 women and 81 men on the Attitudes Toward Thinking and Learning Survey (ATTLS; Galotti, Clinchy, Ainsworth, Lavin, & Mansfield, 1999) across 3 contexts. Results revealed that both men and women were more likely to use connected knowing in the context of similar in-groups compared to the context of dissimilar out-groups. Gender differences were only apparent where gender was made salient. Our data support an analysis of ways of knowing as flexible and context dependent and question the notion that knowing is intrinsically related to gender.     

Relationship of Connected and Separate Knowing to the Learning Styles of Kolb,Formal Reasoning,and Intelligence

The present investigation examined the relationship between the Connected and Separate Knowing dimensions of the Knowing Styles Inventory [K. H. Knight, M. H. Elfenbein, and J. A. Messina (1994) A Scale to Measure Connected and Separate Knowing: The Knowing Styles Inventory, paper presented at the meeting of the New England Educational Research Organization, Rockport, ME; (1995) A Preliminary Scale to Measure Connected and Separate Knowing: The Knowing Styles Inventory, Sex Roles, Vol. 33, pp. 499–513] and the Concrete Experience and Abstract Conceptualization learning modes of D. A. Kolb [(1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall], formal reasoning ability [B. Inhelder and J. Piaget (1958) The Growth of Logical Thinking from Childhood to Adolescence, New York: Basic Books; (1975) The Origin of the Idea of Chance in Children, New York: W. W. Norton; K. G. Tobin and W. Capie (1981) The Development and Validation of a Group Test of Logical Thinking, Educational and Psychological Measurement, Vol. 41, pp. 413–423], and vocabulary and abstract thinking ability [W. C. Shipley, (1940) A Self-Administering Scale for Measuring Intellectural Impairment and Deterioration, Journal of Psychology, Vol. 9, pp. 371–377], Study 1 (126 females, 117 males) found that males who were more connected were more likely to describe their learning style as emphasizing feeling rather than thinking (i.e., scored higher on Concrete Experience). Studies 2 (59 females, 39 males) and 3 (56 females, 58 males) found no relationship between Connected or Separate Knowing and formal reasoning and vocabulary or abstract thinking ability, respectively. Suggestions for future research were presented.     

A New Way of Assessing Ways of Knowing: The Attitudes Toward Thinking and Learning Survey (ATTLS)

In four studies, college students (both male andfemale, predominantly white) filled out a 50-item surveyconsisting of statements illustrating“separate” (critical, detached) and“connected” (empathic) ways of knowing (Belenky, Clinchy, G oldberger,& Tarule, 1986). The instrument showed acceptableinternal reliability. Scores on the two scales wereuncorrelated, supporting the view that the twoepistemological positions are independent. Females consistentlyrated connected knowing (CK) statements higher thanseparate knowing (SK) statements, while males showed aslight, but non-significant difference favoring SK statements. When participants were dividedinto groups using a joint median split of the two ratingscores, females were disproportionately likely to beplaced in the High CK-Low SK group. CK and SK scores were unrelated to performance on avariety of cognitive tasks, but were related to somemeasures of preference, suggesting that ways of knowingmay function more as approaches or styles rather than basic abilities.     

Profiling Perceptual Learning Styles of Chinese as a Second Language Learners in University Settings

This study revisited Reid’s (1987) perceptual learning style preference questionnaire (PLSPQ) in an attempt to answer whether the PLSPQ fits in the Chinese-as-a-second-language (CSL) context. If not, what are CSL learners’ learning styles drawing on the PLSPQ? The PLSPQ was first re-examined through reliability analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with 224 CSL learners. The results showed that Reid’s six-factor PLSPQ could not satisfactorily explain the CSL learners’ learning styles. Exploratory factor analyses were, therefore, performed to explore the dimensionality of the PLSPQ in the CSL context. A four-factor PLSPQ was successfully constructed including auditory/visual, kinaesthetic/tactile, group, and individual styles. Such a measurement model was cross-validated through CFAs with 118 CSL learners. The study not only lends evidence to the literature that Reid’s PLSPQ lacks construct validity, but also provides CSL teachers and learners with insightful and practical guidance concerning learning styles. Implications and limitations of the present study are discussed.     

Dimensions of On-the-Job Learning Styles

The aim of this study is to identify dimensions of on‐the‐job learning styles that can create an awareness among employees and offer them opportunities for the improvement of their on‐the‐job learning. In order to be able to select relevant dimensions, we propose four criteria: dimensions should: (a) concern activities and behaviour; (b) be changeable by learners; (c) be applicable to the workplace context; and (d) be uni‐dimensional. After reviewing the literature in light of these criteria, we conclude that employees need to be aware of four core dimensions of on‐the‐job learning styles: (a) whether they are reproductive or developmental learners; (b) whether they tend to learn alone, from others, or with others; (c) whether they are holistic or analytical learners; and (d) how they engage in reflection (e.g. the depth of reflection). Le but de cette étude est d’identifier les dimensions composant des styles d’apprentissage sur le tas et plus particulièrement la création d’une conscience parmi les salariés et l’opportunité d’accroître les possibilités d’apprentissage sur le tas. Afin de sélectionner des dimensions appropriées, nous proposons 4 critères: les dimensions doivent a) concerner des activités et le comportement, b) être variables selon les apprenants, c) être applicable dans un contexte de travail et d) être uni‐dimensionnel. Une revue de la littérature à la lumière de ces critères montre que les salariés ont besoin d’être conscients de 4 dimensions fondamentales des styles d’apprentissage sur le tas: a) Sont‐ils des apprenants “passifs” ou “actifs” ? b) Tendent‐ils à apprendre seul, avec d’autres ou d’autres personnes ? c) Sont‐ils des apprenants holistiques ou analytiques ? et d) Quelle est la façon dont ils s’engagent dans une réflexion (e.g. la profondeur de la réflexion)?     

Ways of Knowing: The Creative Process and the Design of Technology

ABSTRACT This paper draws upon the already extensive epistemology of science, both to provide a yardstick of comparison for the emergent epistemology of design, and to establish some starting points from which we might begin to construct the epistemology of design.
In approaching the problem of how designers design, the paper employs Heidegger's distinction between 'know-how'and 'knowledge-that', popularised by Ryle, and shows it to be central to the distinction between the implicit processes of design employed by craft technologies, and the explicit processes employed by modern scientific technology. Borrowing from recent work by post-structuralists, it explores the nature of the phases of analysis or 'deconstruction', synthesis or construction, and evaluation, by which scientifically informed design is supposed to proceed, paying particular attention to the relationship between deconstructive analysis and constructive synthesis, in order to re-construct the creative moment/movement by which designers 'leap' from problem to solution.     

A preliminary scale to measure connected and separate knowing: The Knowing Styles Inventory

The present investigation reported the development and validation of the Knowing Styles Inventory (KSI), a scale to measure connected and separate knowing [M. F. Belenky, B. M. Clinchy, N. R. Goldberger, and J. M. Tarule (1986), Women's Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind New York, Basic Books]. In Study 1, principal components analyses for samples of females (N = 300) and males (N = 253) yielded two components, Connected and Separate Knowing. Studies 2 and 3 focused on females exclusively. The results indicated adequate test—retest reliability and internal consistency for both components. Additionally, Connected Knowing was positively correlated with empathic concern, perspective-taking, social desirability, and the femininity factor of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI). Separate Knowing was positively correlated with the masculinity factor of the BSRI and negatively correlated with social desirability. Suggestions for future research were presented.The authors wish to thank Jill Mattuck Tarule for the insight that she offered in the early stages of this project, and they wish to acknowledge the contribution of Nicole Bressler who participated in item development.     

Learning Styles,Gender and Age as Influential Issues amongst Students of Theology

In order to determine whether men and women's learning styles differ, two samples of students undertaking formal theological educational programmes completed a questionnaire focusing on contextualised examples of global and analytic learning styles. This was followed by selective interviews. Whilst no significant correlation was found between learning styles and gender, a significant correlation was unexpectedly found between learning styles and age.     

Perspectivism as a Way of Knowing in the Zhuangzi

A perspectivist theory is usually taken to mean that (1) our knowledge of the world is inevitably shaped by our particular perspectives, (2) any one of these perspectives is as good as any other, and (3) any claims to objective or authoritative knowledge are consequently without ground. Recent scholarship on Nietzsche, however, has challenged the prevalent view that the philosopher holds (2) and (3), arguing instead that his perspectivism aims at attaining a greater level of objectivity. In this essay, I attempt a structurally similar reinterpretation of Zhuangzi’s perspectivism. I argue that while the Chinese thinker sees all knowledge as perspective-dependent, he thinks that some perspectives are broader and more accurate than others. He utilizes shifts in perspective precisely in order to attain these superior perspectives, which constitute what he calls da zhi 大知, or “greater knowledge.” Whereas Nietzsche sees his perspectivism as methodologically continuous with the sciences, Zhuangzi’s “greater knowledge” has the goal of ensuring our survival and well-being in the everyday world.     

Knowing full well: the normativity of beliefs as performances

Belief is considered a kind of performance, which attains one level of success if it is true (or accurate), a second level if competent (or adroit), and a third if true because competent (or apt). Knowledge on one level (the animal level) is apt belief. The epistemic normativity constitutive of such knowledge is thus a kind of performance normativity. A problem is posed for this account by the fact that suspension of belief seems to fall under the same sort of epistemic normativity as does belief itself, yet to suspend is of course precisely not to perform, certainly not with the aim of truth. The paper takes up this problem, and proposes a solution that distinguishes levels of performance norrmativity, including a first order where execution competence is in play, and a second order where the performer must assess the risks attendant on issuing a first-order performance. This imports a level of reflective knowledge that ascends above the animal level.

Knowing the Stability of Model Rockets: A Study of Learning in Interest-Based Practices

This article adds to sociocultural theories of learning by investigating knowing and learning in the hobby of model rocketry. Hobbies are paradigmatic of interest-based, long-term pursuits and studying the tailored practices the rocketeers craft for themselves sheds further light on the relationship between the nature of practices and the learning processes that emerge in their enactment. My window into this issue is the core problem of determining the stability of model rockets, across phases of design, construction, and flying. Using ethnographic and experimental data, I catalog the various individual and collective ways of knowing rocket stability and articulate the manners in which they operate to foster and sustain the highly tailored pursuits characteristic of interest-based practices.     

Attachment as a Function of Parental and Partner Approach-Avoidance Tendencies

This two-part investigation develops a new scale of parental attachment that includes the previously under examined form of role reversal, or being a caregiver for one's parent, and explores the contention that romantic attachment is more dyadic than originally conceived, in that it is a function of an interaction between parental attachment style and specific partner romantic attachment style. It was expected that the most secure partners would have secure attachments with their parents and partners who report their own secure romantic attachment, that the most preoccupied partners would have been anxious-ambivalent in their attachment to their parents and paired with dismissively avoidant others, and that the most dismissively avoidant partners would have been role reversed by their parents and paired with preoccupied partners. Support for this expanded model was found, in that parental and partner attachments both influenced the final form of romantic attachment, with partner attachment appearing to have more influence than parental attachment. The relationship of romantic attachment style to the subsequent communication outcome of self-disclosure was also explored. Results supported expectations, with security relating positively to intentional and honest self-disclosure, preoccupation relating negatively with honesty, and dismissive avoidance relating to greater positivity and less honesty.     

Learning styles and academic outcome: The validity and utility of Vermunt's Inventory of Learning Styles in a British higher education setting

Background: Vermunt's (1994) Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS) integrates four components of learning: processing strategies, regulation strategies, mental models of learning and learning orientations. Using explanatory factor analysis, Vermunt (1998) identified four different learning styles, meaning‐directed, reproduction‐directed, application‐directed and undirected, which displayed characteristic patterns of factor loadings across the four components of learning. Aims: The aims of the current study were to test the generalisability of Vermunt's integrated model of learning with a sample of students from a British university and to establish whether different learning styles were associated with different academic outcomes. Sample: A total of 273 students from a British university took part. Methods: Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test Vermunt's four‐factor model of learning styles and compare it with alternative models. Interrelationships between components of the ILS were examined in more detail using regression analyses. The relationship between learning style and academic outcome was also examined. Results: Fit indices indicated that Vermunt's four‐factor model of learning styles provided the best fit for the current sample. Path estimates associated with meaning‐directed and reproduction‐directed learning styles loaded across components as described by Vermunt but application‐directed and undirected learning styles loaded mainly on conceptions and orientations components. Undirected learning style had a low negative association with academic performance, while the meaning‐directed learning style had a low positive association with academic performance. Conclusions: Although the ILS did identify Vermunt's four learning styles, different learning environments influence the precise characteristics of each learning style.     

知晓感和学习判断产生机制的实验研究

以汉语配对词为实验材料,在已有实验研究的基础上,采用干扰模式进一步探讨了关于知晓感(Feeling of knowing)和学习判断(Judgment of learning)产生机制的四种理论假说,即线索熟悉性假说、目标提取假说、可接近性假说和竞争性假说。实验结果表明:在干扰条件下,知晓感和学习判断符合竞争性假说。