Re: [tips] The sadness of stats/selected racism

[michael sylvester]

Judith Harris brand brand of cultural determinisn usually implies  latent 
biological underpinnings.
Anyway Jim Clark noted some important stuff. We should never forget that 
environmental stimulation can change
the structure and function of the brain.And in this regard the environmental 
factors become  "distal" and the  brain activity
is "proximal". One of the surprises in black education is that up to the 4th 
grades black kids are highly motivated and ehthused about learning,but by 
the 6th grade there is a significant decline.This apparently does not 
pronouncely occur with other groups.


Michael "omnicentric" Sylvester,PhD
Daytona Beach,Florida 



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RE:[tips] Let the Countdown Begin

[Pollak, Edward]

The "light up tracing board" to which my wonderful daughter, Sara, refers is 
her old Barbie Doll Illuminated Tracing Desk. For many years I would use it to 
grade multiple choice exams rather than shlepp across campus to drop them off 
at the computer center, have them run through the grading machine, and then 
have to go back to pick them up hours later.

Alas, the Barbie Doll Tracing Desk has gone the way of all flesh (and plastic). 
Besides, we now have a grading machine in the psych department so I no longer 
need Sara's Barbie doll accessory.

As for Michael's suggestion that my replacement play bluegrass... 
we actually do have one candidate who's learning the banjo. Of course, I had to 
advise him that playing the banjo is not considered a plus in most employment 
settings. Indeed, Mark Twain once (allegedly) defined a gentleman as someone 
who knows how to play the banjo but doesn't.

Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
http://home.comcast.net/~epollak/home.htm

Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, & bluegrass fiddler.. in 
approximate order of importance.

Subject: RE: Let the Countdown Begin
From: "DeVolder Carol L" 
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2010 09:37:41 -0600
X-Message-Number: 16

Congratulations, Ed. Ooh, and what's a light up tracing board? Can I call 
"second dibs" on it (whatever it is)?
Carol




Carol L. DeVolder, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Chair, Department of Psychology
St. Ambrose University
518 West Locust Street
Davenport, Iowa 52803

Phone: 563-333-6482
e-mail: devoldercar...@sau.edu
web: 
http://web.sau.edu/psychology/psychfaculty/cdevolder.htm

The contents of this message are confidential and may not be shared with anyone 
without permission of the sender.



-Original Message-
From: Sara Levine 
[mailto:slev...@fitchburgstate.edu]
Sent: Fri 12/17/2010 8:18 AM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Subject: Re: [tips] Let the Countdown Begin

Oooh and I have dibs on my light up tracing board when you finish next semester.

Sara Pollak Levine
Associate Professor of Psychology
Director of the Leadership Academy Honors Program
Fitchburg State University
Percival Hall 201C
978-665-3611

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[tips] The sadness of stats/selected racism

[sblack]

Michael Sylvester wrote:

> Have you observed how re assessing the performance of blacks on various 
> achievement tests some behavioral
> scientists (Jensen,Judith Harris and others) are quick to infer genetic and 
> hereditary factors as
> determinants of the inferior performance? 

I have to correct His Dudeness concerning the views of one of the 
names on his list. Judith Harris was not quick to infer genetic and 
hereditary factors as determinants of the inferior performance of 
Blacks.  In fact, she did not claim this at any speed.

What she claimed was the opposite. In her famous work _The Nurture 
Assumption_, in a chapter concerning the socialization of children in 
school, she argued that group norms "with contrasting attitudes 
toward schoolwork" might be responsible for Black-White differences 
in IQ. In Black culture, it's not cool to do well in school.  To 
illustrate her point, she quotes a Bronx teacher telling the New York 
Times that "some of her black students "would rather be paraded in 
handcuffs before television cameras than be caught reading a book" ". 
Harris also cites evidence. 

 Moreover, in addition to her own ideas on this, she drew on the work 
of two other behavioural scientists, Daniel Seligman and Janet 
Schofield. So including herself, that makes three behavioural 
scientists in her book lining up on the side of environmental (but 
not parental) factors. Michael's claim, and about Harris in 
particular,  is busted.

The relevant section is headed "Long Division" and  can be found 
between pages 247-251 of the original 1998 edition (the new 10 year 
anniversary edition should also have it on different pages). It's a 
persuasive proposition, well worth a look. 

Stephen


Stephen L. Black, Ph.D.  
Professor of Psychology, Emeritus   
Bishop's University
Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada   
e-mail:  sblack at ubishops.ca
-

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[tips] Bill's reaffirmation of guidelines

[michael sylvester]

Has anyone observed that Bill usually reminds us of the guidelines after he has 
been away on vacation or away from Tips on other assignments? Could this be 
construed as Ex Post Facto?

Michael "omnicentric" Sylvester,PhD
Daytona Beach,Florida
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[tips] Random Thought: Shouldn't We, Then?

[Louis E. Schmier]

 Yesterday, I went out walking this morning for the first time in two 
weeks.  The temperature is a sane 59 degrees.  What a shift.  Recently, as I 
told a bunch of people, despite the November election results, the spate of icy 
days in the mid to low 20s  had turned Georgia into a blue state.  Pun aside, 
150 of those very uneducational, anti-learning things we call final grades are 
in; I've been talking with a few students who, in spite of my efforts, are just 
now realizing that to get something out they had to put something in, and that 
I was serious about holding them to the honor statement they had signed; I've 
been learning about and practicing with "clickering" as an experiment for 
portions of my classes; I've been putting together a huge book/DVD order for my 
Holocaust classes; I've been working on my syllabi for both Spring semester 
classes and study abroad classes in China and Russia this coming May and July; 
I've been calendaring out assignments for the differently scheduled classes 
this Spring semester; I've done three batches of my holiday rugalach baking; 
Susan and I have been running around buying, wrapping, and distributing 
Christmas presents--and my rugalachs--to those on her list; I've been futilely 
trying to shortened Susan's long honey-do list; this weekend we'll do our 
family present wrapping and start packing.  Then, Wednesday it's over the hills 
and through the woods for a couple of spoiling rotten weeks to our 
grandmunchkin's houses in Nashville and San Mateo with suitcases filled with 
belated Chanukah presents and large tins of ruglachs.  What a"whew" pace!  What 
a rush!
 Talk about racing, I had a few separate yet connecting enlightened 
thoughts racing through my heart and mind like dancing sugar plum fairies as I 
walked the dark streets.  I suppose I could just have jotted them down for a 
later series of "quickie random thoughts," but, then, the normal spontaneity 
would have been lost.  Besides, I think they're really backdoor New Year's 
resolutions, "keep on" reminders if you will, triggered by some "extra" journal 
entries I have been receiving from a student who just needed a listening ear.  
So, I decided to gather together these few "quickie 'shouldn't we, thens.'"   
And, lo and behold they mysteriously plug into my selected word to live this 
day:  hospitable.  So, for this last time in 2010:
  For the "hidden" classroom master teachers, there will most likely be 
no ticker-tape parades, no monuments created in their honor, no buildings 
bearing their names.  But that does not lessen their possible impact, for there 
are scores of people waiting for someone just like them to come along; people 
who will live bit happier lives merely because they took the time to share what 
they had to give:  a faithful smile, a kindly eye, a believing word, a hopeful 
touch, an encouraging ear, a supporting shoulder, a caring minute of their 
time.  Too often we, but not they, underestimate the enormous potential impact 
the seemingly smallest act of caring can have on a life.  In my religious 
tradition, we are told that if we save one life we have changed the world and 
altered the future.  Shouldn't we, then, consider the continuous opportunities 
there are to make our faith, hope, belief, and love felt; to want to be a 
difference, to be a difference, and thus make a difference?
  Some people need pace makers to keep their heart pumping.  I think we 
all need a peace maker to keep our hearts pumping, for education is not an 
exercise without human beings.  The rhythm of the classroom is the heart beat, 
not the clicking of clickers, not the tapping of computer keyboards, not the 
turning of lecture pages, not the scratching of notes, not the squeaking of 
markers or chalk, not the movement of PowerPoint slides.  There is a yiddish 
toast that toasts it all:  "L'Chaim!"  It means, "to life."  Shouldn't we, 
then, make the guiding toast in education not "to pedagogy," not "to 
technology," not "to standardized tests," not "to research," not "to 
assessment," not  "to grades," but just simply and profoundly "To life?"
 There is the tradition of hospitality in all religions.  It 
says, that all travelers are guests of the Divine and that by helping the 
traveler, you are on the journey yourself.  And, therefore, no one truly 
travels alone.  Hospitality, then,  is not simply a matter of good manners; it 
is a moral institution to provide safety; it is a sacred obligation to offer 
sustenance.  In my religious tradition, it is the good deed called hachnasat 
orchim, literally, "the bringing in of guests." The patriarch Abraham is the 
biblical exemplar of hospitality; it was said that he kept his tent open on all 
four sides so that strangers would always know they were welcome. We are told 
in Genesis that inhospitality was really the great sin of Sodom.  In Leviticus, 
we are instructed to have extraordinary concern f

RE: [tips] The joy of stats

[Allen Esterson]

Rick Froman writes:
>I nominate this thread as the most inappropriately (or ironically)
>named thread in the history of TIPS... In fact, my stats classes are
>a laugh riot compared to this dreary sequence of ad hominem attacks.

Rick: I appreciate your exasperation with the way this thread has gone, 
but as I figure among this “dreary sequence” I would point out that 
Chris commended (for the third time) *The Spirit Level* in this thread, 
and that induced me to provide the criticisms of the book that I cited. 
As these centre around its controversial use of statistics (and the 
authors’ propensity towards a “correlations demonstrate cause” 
viewpoint), that has some relevance to the use and (possible) misuse of 
statistics. And I hope you will find that I do not figure in the 
“sequence” of ad hominem attacks that have disfigured the later stages 
of the thread.

Allen Esterson
Former lecturer, Science Department
Southwark College, London
allenester...@compuserve.com
http://www.esterson.org

RE: [tips] The joy of stats
Rick Froman
Fri, 17 Dec 2010 11:59:07 -0800
I nominate this thread as the most inappropriately (or ironically) 
named thread
in the history of TIPS given the extent to which each subsequent post 
has
clearly sucked all of the joy out of the list.  In fact, my stats 
classes are a
laugh riot compared to this dreary sequence of ad hominem attacks.

Are there any other nominees before we vote?

Rick

Dr. Rick Froman, Chair
Division of Humanities and Social Sciences Box 3055
x7295
rfro...@jbu.edu
http://tinyurl.com/DrFroman



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