Counter-stereotypic beliefs in math do not protect school girls from stereotype threat

The threat of being negatively stereotyped in math impairs performance of highly qualified females on difficult math tests, a phenomenon known as “stereotype threat”—ST. Perhaps more alarmingly, recent studies based on unselective samples of elementary-, middle-, and high-school students show that ST also operates in girls from the general population. Here we offer first evidence that ST does operate (with large effect sizes) even in middle-school girls who deny the negative gender stereotype. Children’s beliefs about the two genders math ability, therefore, do not necessarily moderate their susceptibility to ST, an important issue that remained unclear so far. This new finding is also of great practical significance: School girls’ counter-stereotypic beliefs cannot be taken as sufficient evidence for deciding whether the struggle against ST is or is not needed. Appropriate interventions should be the default option when aiming for true gender equality in math and science achievements.     

Sceptical possibilities? No worries

This paper undermines a paradigmatic form of sceptical reasoning. It does this by describing, and then dialectically dissolving, the sceptical-independence presumption, upon which that form of sceptical reasoning relies.     

The other between fear and desire – countertransference fantasy as a bridge between me and the other

This paper attempts to show how unrepresented rupture/injury of primary expectations of the early relationship is reactivated in the analytic process. This becomes perceptible especially as unconscious fear and a specific defence described as ‘living behind a glass-wall’. The author, however, postulates the existence of an inherent dialogical-dyadic principle in the psyche, which she calls archetypal hope, and shows how this principle may become active in the analytical space. These aspects of analytical treatments are sketched with two vignettes, in which unconscious processes of exchange cause the analyst to experience unrepresented states. The author describes how the analyst is gradually able to experience and understand this, and how this understanding finally – without first becoming explicit – becomes effective in the analytical space. Special attention is given to the analytic attitude. A readiness to accept and move into regression and a receptivity to attune to the early sensory experience of the analysand is regarded as essential. Through this the analyst gains access to the inner space of the analysand and, through bodily experience and pre-symbolic processes, the unrepresented may thus become figurable. The reverie and countertransference fantasies are understood as a bridge: they connect the analytic pair. However, the reverie also creates the transition between that which was not – the absent representation – and that which wants to emerge. It thus bridges the personal unconscious (implicit expectation) and the archetypal (the archetypal hope). Through this, the space of hope may become a space of possibility, and help bridge the chasm between the experienced and the hoped-for.     

INSTABILITY AND DISSONANCE: PROVOCATIONS FROM SANDRA HARDING

Abstract. Sandra Harding's work is useful, not only as a critique of the scientific method and its epistemological constructs, but also in providing new energy and insights to the discussions about epistemology between theology and science. Feminist theory has been critical of the worldviews inherited from the Enlightenment. No longer is there one unambiguous way of knowing ourselves and the world around us, a single vision of reality. Feminist philosophers of science like Sandra Harding and Donna Haraway have redefined the scientific method and its analytic categories. They have contributed significantly to this discussion by moving the Enlightenment epistemological issues into the arena of politics and ethics. Feminist theory continues to remind us that what is important is not only how or what we know but what we do with that knowledge and how we use it.     

The Projective Way of Knowing: A Useful Heuristic That Sometimes Misleads

For many purposes, people need a reasonably good idea of what other people know. This article presents an argument and considers evidence that people use their own knowledge as a basis for developing models of what specific other people know in particular, that they tend to assume that other people know what they know. This is a generally useful heuristic, but the assumption is often made uncritically, with the consequence that people end up assuming that others have knowledge that they do not have.     

Interpersonal Understanding Fuels Knowledge Acquisition

Beginning in infancy, humans acquire knowledge at a pace far outstripping that found in any other species. Recent evidence indicates that interpersonal understanding—in particular, skill at inferring others' intentions—plays a pivotal role in this achievement. Infants as young as 12 to 18 months actively utilize clues to others' intentions to guide their interpretation of language, emotion, and action more generally. In the language domain, for example, on hearing a new word, infants spontaneously check the speaker for intentional clues such as gaze direction, emotional expression, gestures, and body posture, and interpret the word in light of such information. By capitalizing on information about intentions, infants are able to avoid a wide range of potential errors, and to quickly learn relevant new skills. Current research is exploring the origins and developmental course of such early-emerging interpersonal skill, ultimately with an eye to understanding how disruptions in such abilities affect children's cognitive and social development.     

Metacognitive Development

Traditional developmental research in memory and reasoning, as well as current investigations in such disparate areas as theory of mind, epistemological understanding, knowledge acquisition, and problem solving, share the need to invoke a meta-level of cognition in explaining their respective phenomena. The increasingly influential construct of metacognition can be conceptualized in a developmental framework. Young children's dawning awareness of mental functions lies at one end of a developmental progression that eventuates in complex metaknowing capabilities that many adults do not master. During its extended developmental course, metacognition becomes more explicit, powerful, and effective, as it comes to operate increasingly under the individual's conscious control. Enhancing (a) metacognitive awareness of what one believes and how one knows and (b) metastrategic control in application of the strategies that process new information is an important developmental and educational goal.     

Orthographic learning during reading: examining the role of self-teaching

Thirty-four second grade children read target homophonic pseudowords (e.g., slurst/slirst) in the context of real stories in a test of the self-teaching theory of early reading acquisition. The degree of orthographic learning was assessed with three converging tasks: homophonic choice, spelling, and target naming. Each of the tasks indicated that orthographic learning had taken place because processing of target homophones (e.g., yait) was superior to that of their homophonic controls (e.g., yate). Consistent with the self-teaching hypothesis, we obtained a substantial correlation (r=.52) between orthographic learning and the number of target homophones correctly decoded during story reading. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that neither RAN tasks nor general cognitive ability predicted variance in orthographic learning once the number of target homophones correctly decoded during story reading had been partialed out. In contrast, a measure of orthographic knowledge predicted variance in orthographic learning once the number of targets correctly decoded had been partialed. The development of orthographic knowledge appears to be not entirely parasitic on decoding ability. (c) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).     

小学生数学学习观调查研究

采用开放题、多选题与单选题相结合的问卷调查方法．调查190名二、四、六年级学生的数学学习态度和数学学习观,结果表明：1)小学生普遍喜欢数学．并对自身的数学能力有信心．但这种积极态度随年级升高而逐渐下降,尤其是在四、六年级之间达到了显著性;2)小学生的数学知识性质观是倾向于建构性的,并随年级升高而显著提高．但总体上还是比较素朴、直观和肤浅的;3)小学生的数学学习过程观总体上并不十分明确．同时注重表层上的接受学习和深层上的主观参与。