James P. Shaver

What Statistical Significance Testing Is, and What It Is Not

AbstractA test of statistical significance addresses the question, How likely is a result, assuming the null hypotheses to be true. Randomness, a central assumption underlying commonly used tests of statistical significance, is rarely attained, and the effects of its absence rarely acknowledged. Statistical significance does not speak to the probability that the null hypothesis or an alternative hypothesis is true or false, to the probability that a result would be replicated, or to treatment effects, nor is it a valid indicator of the magnitude or the importance of a result. The persistence of statistical significance testing is due to many subtle factors. Journal editors are not to blame, but as publishing gatekeepers they could diminish its dysfunctional use.

Modifying Attitudes Toward Persons With Hearing Impairments: A Comprehensive Review of the Research

Negative attitudes toward persons with hearing impairments adversely affect their opportunities and self-concepts. Thus, modifying such attitudes is of concern to educators and researchers.An exhaustive search of the literature yielded 12 reports of research on modifying attitudes toward persons with hearing impairments. The research results were mixed—some studies even yielded negative attitude outcomes—and the quality of the studies was not high. Of the treatments studied, properly structured contact in particular showed promise for improving attitudes toward persons with hearing impairments.

The Usefulness of Educational Research in Curricular/Instructional Decision-Making in Social Studies

Abstract The usefulness of educational research for curricular/instructional decision-making in social studies education is questioned on several grounds including the frequent lack of clearcut implications of findings for practice because of alternative value and factual assumptions, the lack of cumulative findings relevant to the “real life” of the school, the inadequate understanding of science as a knowledge-building endeavor that underlies much educational research, and the difficulty of making decisions about individual students based on “central tendency” findings. Research findings, it is suggested, do have heuristic value for teachers as sources of alternatives for instruction and for classroom research. Past studies may serve as a basis for further, more productive research in social studies education, but a thorough reassessment of research methods, strategies and aims is urged.

Populations, Samples, Randomness, and Replication in Two Social Studies Journals

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine if research in social studies education reflected the same lack of attention to population and sample definitions and description, to randomness, and to replication that the authors found in a previous review of articles in the American Educational Research Journal over a ten-year period. Their study of all the research articles in Theory and Research in Social Education and in all Research Department of Social Education through 1978 indicated that small percentages of the articles report research done with random samples of subjects, that accessible populations were not often described with data, that the definitions researchers provided for target and accessible population and the sample descriptions appeared inadequate either as a basis for sampling or for others to use in replicating the studies, and that few studies used random assignment to conditions. It was concluded that, while much time, effort and money are expended on social studies education...

The Effectiveness of Tutoring Underachievers in Reading and Writing.

AbstractSystematic data to confirm the effectiveness of tutoring are rarely gathered. In this study, the effectiveness of tutoring underachievers in reading and writing at the fourth, seventh, and tenth grade levels was checked. Subjects were defined as underachievers if their obtained STEP reading and writing scores were lower than the scores predicted on the basis of their CTMM scores. Subjects with the largest discrepancies were randomly assigned to one of two tutorial arrangements or to a control group. Tutoring produced significantly greater end-of-year gains on the STEP tests at all three grade levels and these were sustained 2 years later for Ss tutored as seventh and tenth graders. At all three grade levels, there were significantly greater frequencies of tutored, as compared to control Ss, who reached their predicted potential or better. This difference was present 2 years later.

Improving Slow Learners' Self-Esteem in Secondary Social Studies Classes.

AbstractAmong the characteristics most frequently ascribed to slow learners is low self-esteem. This paper reports the findings of a study designed to increase the self-esteem of slow learners in social studies classes in a number of secondary schools in British Columbia, Canada. Two research designs, the nonequivalent control group design and the one-group, pretest-posttest design, were used. Students in the experimental classes and in the classes included in the one-group, pretest-posttest design employed an inquiry model to investigate a contemporary societal problem in their communities. Students in the control classes followed the prescribed social studies program. Aspects of the student investigations intended to affect self-esteem were a) the suitability of this approach with slow learners; b) the intellectually challenging materials and activities; and c) the anticipated positive feedback from significant others. A statistically significant difference in favor of the experimental group was found b...

Open-Closed Mindedness and an Inquiry-Oriented Social Studies Methods Course

AbstractA social studies methods course focused on preparing teachers to teach students skills of critical thinking was studied. The course concentrated on the examination of assumptions underlying social studies curricular decisions and on critical thinking skills. Discussion, rather than lecture, was the primary method of instruction. The Dogmatism, F-, and Rigidity Scales were administered as measures of open-closed mindedness. Correlations were run to determine if scores on the three scales were related to ratings of the instructor by the students, using the University of Washington Survey of Student Opinion of Teaching, or to achievement in the course. Scores on the personality measures showed no consistent relationship with ratings of the instructor. There also were no significant relationships between the personality measures and the measures of learning. With a larger sample, many of the correlations would have been statistically significant, even though the relationships were educationally trivial.

The new social studies, textbooks, and reform in social studies

The New Social Studies curriculum development movement was short-lived, in part because project staff were not sensitive to the realities of the educational context within which their materials and methods would be used. Although textbook-based recitation persists in social studies classrooms, textbooks are not a ready mechanism for reform. Among the reasons are the institutional constraints on publishers and the difficulty in effecting curricular change without appropriate teacher preparation and modifications in the educational environment.

Research Handbook Helps Principals Define Social Studies

Principals who are conscious of their instructional leader ship role in the school and classroom will find vital direc tion from a new handbook of social studies research.

Helping Gifted Students to Analyze Public Issues: The Jurisprudential Approach.

The jurisprudential approach to social studies is appropriate for gifted students because they tend to be concerned with moral issues and are likely to be in leadership positions as adults. The approach focuses on the analysis of public issues—political‐ethical issues about proper aims and actions for the society and its members. It is based on the assumptions that controversy is inevitable and that learning to recognize and handle disputes over values is, along with learning concepts for dealing with factual and language disputes, essential to valid decision‐making about public issues. The approach provides a rationale for curricula, as well as for case discussions.