Digital Commons Network^™

Back Matter, Medieval Feminist Newsletter, No.17 1994

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Conceptualizations Of Nature And Scientific Literacy, Part I: Research Methodology, William W. Cobern, Adrienne T. Gibson

Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project

If we may paraphrase and adapt from feminist scholars, there are voices of people that need to be heard if scholars intend to have a valid understanding of people and their behavior. The feminist scholars were of course seeking ways of making women’s voices heard but the importance of their work exceeds gender issues. It is important for restoring the image of people as persons rather than as objects of research. As we have undertaken it, the foundational perspective of worldview research is that one must hear from students and science teachers about themselves. We thus suggest it is important …

Alternative Constructions Of Science And Science Education, William W. Cobern

Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project

I want to begin today with two short personal remarks. My field of research at home is the cultural study of science education. In other words, I am interested in what is commonly called the culture of science and how that becomes interpreted in science education by teacher and curriculum. I am interested in the variation of culture among American students, cultural variations grounded in family and community and brought to the classroom. I am interested in the cultural interactions that are precipitated by the meeting of cultures in the science classroom. In my current work I use worldview concepts …

Worldview Theory And Conceptual Change In Science Education, William W. Cobern

Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project

Once again science education finds itself in the midst of reform. Reform documents are too numerous to mention by name but they all share the same view that Americans know far too little science. Durant (1990) noted that even the well educated often know little science. Of course every reform document by its very nature offers a solution. Many in the science education research community "see conceptual change as the emerging focus of science teaching" (Wandersee, 1993, p. 319) and thus focus their research interests here as well. To borrow warfare metaphors, conceptual change activities are tactical devices used to …

Notes And Announcements, No.16 1993

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Reflections On Chaucer's ''The Prioress's Tale", Esther Zago

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Bibliography: Medieval Antisemitism, Sylvia Tomasch

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Western News, Feb. 11, 1993, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story highlights: Winter enrollment down slightly from last year, on-campus minority/international numbers up, Senate votes to institute new faculty evaluation system, Boston University economist to discuss global competition, Ziring book covers Middle East topics from A to Z.

World View, Metaphysics, And Epistemology, William W. Cobern

Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project

It has been argued from world view theory that fundamental beliefs about the world exert a powerful influence on how sense is made of events in the world. However, the nature of that influence has remained enigmatic. Hannah Arendt's distinction between thinking and comprehension, and knowing and apprehension provides a clarification. Thinking is the epistemological path to conceptual comprehension. Knowing is the metaphysical path to apprehension - to the acceptance of a concept as true or valid. Comprehension does not necessitate apprehension. One may reject a fully understood concept. The recent discussion in science education about world view is essentially …

Contextual Constructivism: The Impact Of Culture On The Learning And Teaching Of Science, William W. Cobern

Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project

Though rooted in Piagetian research, constructivism1 is an avenue of research pertaining to teaching and learning that departed from the neo-Piagetian2 mainstream twenty years ago and has continued on a distinct path of development. The departure was evident by the late seventies, clearly marked by two publications, Novak (1977) and Driver & Easley (1978). For constructivists, learning is not knowledge written on, or transplanted to, a person's mind as if the mind were a blank slate waiting to be written on or an empty gallery waiting to be filled. Constructivists use the metaphor of construction because it aptly summarizes the …

New Subscribers

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Mtv Ideology: Rocking To A Different Beat?, Janelle L. Wilson

Masters Theses

This study analyzed 30 of the most popular rock music videos aired on Music Television Network in the summer of 1991. Using a qualitative content analysis, six prominent themes in these videos were identified: (1) eroticism, (2) female gender roles, (3) Americana, (4) violence, (5) religious symbols, and (6) clothing fetishism. From these themes, five values were discerned in the videos: (1) carpe diem, (2) individual freedom, (3) nihilistic religiosity, (4) nationalism, and (5) consumerism. It was found that these values constituted an ideology in music videos which in some ways reflects dominant American ideology. Their focus on appearance, their …

Chaos And Order, Mystery And Knowledge, The Beautiful And Mundane: College Student Conceptualizations Of Nature, William W. Cobern

Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project

What do students believe about the world around them? Hawkins (1983) suggested that young students can have a difficult time understanding heliocentrism because their personal experience is literally geocentric. What this illustrates is that meaningful learning in the science classroom presupposes students who enter with beliefs about the world compatible with science as it is taught in the classroom. The study of student beliefs (or for that matter, teacher beliefs) at fundamental levels is the study of worldview (Cobern, 1991a). The research reported here was an interpretive study of beliefs about nature, a delimitation of worldview, held by women college …

Different Perspectives On The Natural World: Biology Professors And Their Students, William W. Cobern

Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project

The science classroom is the location of complex interactions between students, teacher, curriculum, and environment. These interactions can lead to conflict where the various factors pertaining to students, teacher, curriculum, and environment are at odds. Interest in these types of conflicts has led to numerous studies of classroom processes including those concerned with gender, ethnicity, religion, and language (e.g., Fraser, 1989). Worldview is a factor of more recent interest to researchers and is at an early stage of methodological development and nascent investigation (Cobern, 1991c). Pertaining to the classroom, worldview research focuses on the fundamental beliefs held by teachers and …

Western News, December 12, 1991, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story Highlights: Haenicke to recommend Powell as vice president and Hodge as dean at Dec. 20 board meeting, Senate endorses nursing program to meet community need, October grants represent Iargest one-month total for WMU, Student researchers contribute fresh viewpoints to scholarly endeavors, Kust set to continue academic career as research standout, Senior design projects link engineering programs; industry, Graduate student's discovery replaces time-honored engineering method, Pair of young chemists present papers on their metals research at fall Argonne conference, Gianakaris compiles and edits book of essays on celebrated British playwright Peter Shaffer

An Analysis Of Self-Report Delinquency: A Test Using An International Instrument, Linda Robyn

Masters Theses

This is part of an international pilot study on juvenile delinquency in the U. S. and six European countries. Research questions were designed based on using Hirschi’s (1969) theory of Social Control as a guide. Among the questions to be studied are the relationships between delinquency and single- and two-parent homes, participation in organized sports, and acts committed alone or with others. Interviews were conducted with 100 youths from 14- to 18-years of age. The population consisted of past and present students from junior high and high school in a mid-western city. The data were stratified into census tracts and …

Building For The Future: The Faculty Recognition Dinner 1991, Western Michigan University

Faculty Recognition

Building for the Future: The Faculty Recognition Dinner

June 7, 1991

Honored Guests:

• Leila Bradfield
• Robert Brashear
• Alan Brown
• Sondra Brunhumer
• Mary Cain
• William Carlson
• Albert Castel
• A. Bruce Clarke
• John Cummings
• Jacqueline Driscoll
• Reginald Gammon
• Russell Grandstaff
• Arthur Howson
• Chris Koronakos
• John Lindbeck
• Nathaniel McCaslin
• Fredric J. Mortimore
• Necia Musser
• Richard Neschich
• Robert Neubig
• Charles E. Osborne
• Richard F. Raklovits
• Barbara Rensenhouse
• William H. Rowekamp
• William P. Schreiber
• Donald Sellin
• Norman Slack
• Shirley Sparks
• Richard Suddendorf
• Mary Taylor
• Robert F. Wyman
• Joyce R. Zastrow

Crime And Development: A Comparative Analysis, Dick Taver'shima Andzenge

Dissertations

The study examines the extent to which social and economic development might be related to crime. Modernization theory of crime posits that the process of social and economic development involves changes in the society which are criminogenic. These changes include: urbanization, industrialization, longevity or increased life expectancy, increased manufacturing and gross domestic products. According to this theory these characteristics alter social tendencies to stability and conformity, and therefore result in increased deviance and crime.

This study tests the theory by using longitudinal data collected over a 25-year period from 54 countries. A sample of these data representing 34 countries from …

Collaborative Writing: History And Art History, Kathleen Ashley

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

World View Theory And Science Education Research, William W. Cobern

Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project

This monograph is timely for the membership of NARST. As science educators probe teaching and learning in an endeavor to make sense of learning in classrooms, there is a need for theoretical frameworks to enable new questions to be posed and a correspondingly fresh set of responses to be obtained. World view is a framework that can be applied to research on teaching and learning science and fits well with the trend towards studies that are interpretive in nature. The number of science education researchers using ethnographic techniques in science education research is increasing steadily and theories and methods that …

Burnout And Job Satisfaction: Their Relationship To Perceived Competence And Work Stress Among Undergraduate And Graduate Social Workers, David P. Himle, Srinika Jayaratne

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study investigated the effects of two types of social work competency on job satisfaction and burnout among undergraduate and graduate social workers. While previous research has suggested that perceived practice competence may increase job satisfaction and reduce burnout, the findings of this study suggest that there is a differential effect between various types of competence on these factors, especially among undergraduate workers. The findings did not support the contention that perceived practice competence was a primary cause of burnout reduction among graduate workers or undergraduate workers, when compared to other occupational stressors.

The Westerner Vol. 11 No. 1, Western Michigan University

The Westerner (1980-1997)

• Rubbish? Recycling requires rethinking as well as reusing • WMU expands recycling efforts • Distinguished Alumni Award winners announced for 1990 • Kellogg Foundation grant provides $1 million to expand library access, information services • Two years of hard work end in top-ten finish for WMU and Sunseeker • Fourteen students earn Medallion Scholarships • University News in Brief • Three endowed gifts support important University programs • Program provides safety net for student-athletes • Student-athletes speak out on issues related to their dual roles • Here’s looking at WMU • Constituency Activities • Here's one 'pig' who's flying …

The Use Of Volunteers By Governmental Social Services In Israel, Ram A. Cnaan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article studies an important aspect of coprovision in social service agencies. It focuses on how social welfare departments utilize the resources of volunteers. An indepth study of 14 Local Departments of Social Service (LDSS) in Israel identifies several issues regarding the use of volunteers that have theoretical and practical implications not only for social services but also for other government service organizations engaged in coprovision.

Causes Of Juvenile Delinquency In Jordan, Ayed A. Irfaifeh

Dissertations

This dissertation sought to examine the extent to which a set of social bonding factors were helpful in preventing delinquency in the Jordanian society. A sample of 147 juveniles (male eleventh-graders) from seven public high schools in the Tafielah Covernate and its localities completed a self-reported survey. Their answers were useful in ascertaining whether or not Hirschi's (1969) social control theory was indeed applicable cross-culturally, especially in a society dissimilar to the United States. Within the theoretical confines of Hirschi's theory, the descriptive data suggest that Jordanian youth have similar cultural beliefs, values, attitudes, and affiliation to the convention order …

Commentary, Linda Lomperis

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Western News, January 18,1990, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story highlights: Haenicke outlines response to racism 'We shall do what we do best ... we shall teach", Senate endorses cutoff for freshman applications, Friday elected to two statewide offices in criminal justice organizations

Alcohol Use In The Industrialized West: One View, E. Michael Smith

Masters Theses

Alcohol has great antiquity and is used by most of the world's cultures. Invariably, there are many theories which account for its use. Regardless, whether psychological, biological or sociological they tend to represent alcohol use, alcohol abuse and alcoholism as stages of the disease process. The present paper uses a multidisciplinary approach to the study of alcohol use, incorporating ideas that are psychological, sociological, biological and anthropological. Alcohol use in the industrialized West may, in part, be accounted for because of "subsistence insecurity."

For the purpose of this paper "subsistence insecurity," in the industrialized West, will be represented by the …

Back Matter, Medieval Feminist Newsletter, No.8 1989

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Western News, April 6, 1989, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story highlights: WMU plays 'central and powerful role' in economy, Tours to embark to France; England; Spain and Kenya, Nassar named to career planning post

Worldview Theory And Science Education Research: Fundamental Epistemological Structure As A Critical Factor In Science Learning And Attitude Development, William W. Cobern

Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project

This research paper war originally presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, San Francisco, March 1989. This research was funded by a grant from the Sid Richardson Endowment at Austin College.

Some of the most interesting work currently being done in science education research is with scientifically misconceived ideas about the causes and mechanisms of natural phenomena, or as it is more simply referred to, misconception research. This type of research can be dated as early as the sixties (see Kuethe, 1963; Boyd, 1966); but it came into its own with the 1983 …