Education: Understanding,Ethics, and the Call of Justice

Education is interpreted as something basic to our humanity. As part of our primordial way of being human, education is intrinsic to the understanding’s functioning. At the same time education involves an originary ethical relation to the other, unsettling the self-directed character of the striving to live. And because of its social setting, the call of many others, education orients one to the social, to the call of justice.     

An evaluation of the quantity and quality of empirical research in three pastoral care and counseling journals, 1990-1999: has anything changed?

This article summarizes a review of all articles published in Pastoral Psychology, The Journal of Rleigion and Health, and The Journal of Pastoral Care between 1900 and 1999, identifying a total of 737 scholarly articles, of which 165 (22.4%) were research studies. The proportion of research studies, especially quantitative studies, increased significantly between the first and second half of the study period (p < .05). There was a significant positive correlation between compliance with three out of four criteria of internal validity. Three of five criteria of external validity were also positively related to one another. Compared to previous research using identical criteria to assess quantitative studies in the same journals in 1980-1989, the 1990-1999 sample showed improved compliance with respect to specifying the sampling method (p < .001), reporting the response rate (p < .05), and discussing the limitations of research studies (p < .001). However, the overall findings suggest that many researchers in the field do not have a sophisticated knowledge of statistical sampling, statistical analysis, or research design. Several recommendations for increasing the quality of quantitative research are offered.     

Development of the visual placing response in the human infant

The development of the visual placing response was studied in the human infant using an apparatus that controlled the visual stimulus (texture density of patterns) and the depth at which stimuli were presented. The visual placing response was found to be nearly an all-or-none response having an acute onset at between 170 and 190 days of age. The response is identified in the human infant by rigid extension of the hands and arms, characteristically with the fingers fanned. Shortly after it develops, the response appears to be visually mediated and is well differentiated with respect to increasing depth. In contrast, the older infants showed less well differentiated visual placing, tending to respond to all depths equally. The results suggest that there are two phases in the development of the response. The first phase is the initial acquisition of the response and is determined largely by visual depth. The second phase occurs later in development, near the time of walking, and seems to be determined by several factors, including both texture density and depth.     

A proposed variation of the matching technique

A matching procedure is proposed by which a judge may use the same items in different matches. TheK items in one group most likely to include the correct match with each item in the other are selected. Inclusion of the correct match among theK items chosen is defined as a success. The distribution of the number of successes is discussed. Tables are presented showing the number of successes needed for significance for various values ofK and ofN, the number of items in each group.