Patrice M. Miller

Women's Schooling and Child Care in the Demographic Transition: A Mexican Case Study

THE QUESTION OF HOW FEMALE SCHOOL ATTENDANCE influences fertility and child survival in developing countries has emerged as an important problem in the analysis of demographic change and the evaluation of health and population policies. An extensive research literature based on national surveys and censuses conducted in developing countries shows maternal schooling to be a highly consistent household-level predictor of reduced fertility and child mortality, even when other socioeconomic factors are controlled. This has led to proposals for expanding female school enrollment as a means of facilitating future reductions in fertility and child mortality rates in those countries where they remain high-despite scant information on the processes through which these reductions would occur.2 Gender equality in access to schooling can be justified without reference to the consequences for health and population growth, let alone scientific analysis of the processes involved. But consideration of expanded opportunities for schooling as an instrument of health and population policy calls for a deeper understanding of how the formal education of women affects their reproductive and health behavior.3 The research reported in this article was designed to contribute to that understanding through community-level studies in Mexico. The robust and widespread associations found between womens schooling and demographic variables are at once extremely familiar and

The relation between formal operational reasoning and academic course selection and performance among college freshmen and sophomores

The significance of Infielder and Piagets (1958) construct offormal operations depends in pert on establishing the extent to which formal operations have real-wodd relevance beyond the narrow domain of assessment situations in which Infielder and Piaget studied them. The present research investigates this question by examining the effect of exhibiting a concrete versus formal operational level of reasoning in an isolation of variables task on academic program selection and performance of beginning college students over a two-year period. Students who reasoned at the concrete operational level did not differ from students matched on ACT scores who reasoned at a formal operational level with respect to either number of college credits obtained or overall grade point average. When courses were broken down into three categories, however, formals took significantly more science/math courses and received significantly higher grades in them. No differences were found in the other two categories: liberal arts/social sciences or activities/vocational courses. A further study of beginning college students already enrolled in science/math courses confirmed that very few concrete operational reasoners were present in these courses, suggesling that a process of self-selection is in operation. Inhelder and Piaget s (1958) stage of formal operations has received considmlLble attention as the only comprehensive theoreticalformulation of major cognilive changes occurring subsequent to childhood. At the most abstract level, formal OImatlons can be characterized as operations on operations, or, in other words,

DOMAIN-SPECIFIC INCREASES IN STAGE OF PERFORMANCE IN A COMPLETE THEORY OF THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN INTELLIGENCE

The evolution of humans required performing increasingly hierarchically complex tasks within multiple domains. Hierarchical complexity increases task by task. Tasks occur within, and differ by, determinable domains, their stages of performance measurable using the Model of Hierarchical Complexity. How well one performs within single and multiple domains is considered to indicate intelligence. Original task-initiation is more difficult than imitational learning and can create new domains. Levels of support reduce task difficulty, increasing performance. Task-performance may be generalized to other domains. Stages of developing tools and empathy are presented to demonstrate domains roles in the evolution of human intelligence.