Re: Women's Ways of Knowing Study (Applied to physics instruction)?

[herbgottlieb@juno.com]

Jane (and others in this net)
Before we can apply the results of the five year interview study  to the
teaching of physics, a few more questions about the study  have to be
asked:

On Fri, 26 Dec 1997 12:05:00 -0700 jane.jackson@asu.edu (Jane Jackson)
writes:
>  The authors interviewed 135 women (ages 16 to 60) over 5 years and
> watched them move from one stage to the next. About half of the 135
women never >got to stage 3.

Q1. Which half never got to stage 3? Those from ages 16 to 35 or those
from 35 to 60?


Q2. When a woman moves from one stage to another, how long does it take
to complete such a move once she starts moving? Instantaneously?  An
hour?  A day? A week?  A year?  5 years? 


Q3.  If the moving time varies from one woman to another what is the mean
time, the mode, and the median time to start making a move and then
complete it?


Q4. How can we tell when the move from stages 1 to stage 2 is 10%
complete? 20%?      50% ?    75%    or  100% complete?   Is it ever fully
completed?.   


> The women who were in stages 1  and 2  "DID NOT place "an
> emphasis on procedures, skills, and techniques" and DID NOT "conceive
> knowledge as a process"!  

Q5. What type of PROCEDURES did they fail to emphasize?
a)Procedures of grooming and  personal hygiene?  b)Procedures of shopping
and marketing? c) Procedures for budgeting finances?  d)Procedures of 
efficient studying for examinations?  d)Procedures for solving crossword
puzzles? e) Procedures for preparing their income taxes? f) All of the
above


Q6.  What SKILLS did they fail to emphasize?  
a) Skills for cleaning a home?  b) Skills for debating?  c) Skills for
operating a word processor?  d)Skills for operating machines?  e)Skills
for computer programming?
f) Skills for applying first aid?  g) skills for organizing an efficient
factory production line? h) Skills for repairing simple home appliances?
i) All of the above


Q7. What TECHNIQUES did they fail to emphasize?
a) Applying lipstick and other makeup?  b) Techniques to make others do
their bidding?  c) Techniques for raising children  d) Techniques for
computer programming?  e) Techniques for closing sales in retail stores? 
f) Techniques for driving an automobile on icy streets? g) All of the
above?

> The question is, HOW CAN WE PHYSICS TEACHERS ASSIST IN THE 
> INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR STUDENTS (both female and male), >USING
THE INSIGHTS OF THIS STUDY?
>              

Q8. Exactly what are the INSIGHTS of this study?

Herb Gottlieb from New York City
( Where we find it easier to ask probing questions than to answer
them)than