Re: WOMEN'S WAYS OF KNOWING/physics courses

["Dewey Dykstra, Jr." <dykstrad@bsumail.idbsu.edu>]

> 	It seems to me that most of the studies aimed at understanding
> gender differences (if any) in the way people learn have been flawed by
> poor statistical design.  This certainly is the case for the studies that
> led to the book "Women's Ways of Knowing".  The conclusions were based on
> results from a very small sample population, and there is no indication
> that an effort was made to ensure that the population was
> representative of all women, nor was there an effort made to compare the
> group of women studied with a representative comparison group of men.
>
> 	Many of the conclusions reached about the inability of part of the
> sample to aquire knowledge using higher order thinking skills probably
> apply equally well to men and women.
>
> 	Clearly, this is an area worthy of serious scholarly pursuit.
> However, we should not put too much stock in the results from studies
> based on flawed sampling procedures.  Instead, we should encourage studies
> that are carefully designed to ensure that representative populations are
> studied and compared, and that are designed to minimize investigator bias.
>
> Dr. Mark H. Shapiro

This work was not quantitative but qualitative research (see Lincoln and
Guba, _Naturalistic Inquiry_, Sage Press).  While one might want to dismiss
the work based on notions from the quantitative research tradition, the
work appears to fit within the established practice and conventions of
naturalistic inquiry.

The sample _was_ from a wider range of the population than most educational
research includes.

The work is not really about "how people learn."  I do not remember that
the authors made any claim about anyone's "inability...to aquire knowledge
using higher order thinking skills."  The work is a study of people's views
and beliefs concerning the nature of knowledge and their relationship to
it, in this case women's views and beliefs.

There _is_ discussion about comparisons between their findings with their
sample of women and similar work done with men.  What is significant is
that their findings are very consistent with those of Perry from Harvard to
the extent that the "socio-economic" levels overlaped.  Wm. Perry's studies
at Harvard were conducted over many years and longitudinally over periods
of up to 4 years for many of the subjects.  Perry's book is very
interesting and has much to say to college profs.

WWK is a good read and thoughtful work.  It should be read before judgement
is passed on it.

Dewey

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Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr.                   Phone: (208)385-3105
Professor of Physics                    Dept:  (208)385-3775
Department of Physics/MCF421/418        Fax: (208)385-4330
Boise State University                  dykstrad@bsumail.idbsu.edu
1910 University Drive                   Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570                       novice piper

"Physical concepts are the free creations of the human mind and
are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external
world."--A. Einstein in The Evolution of Physics with L. Infeld,
1938.
"Every [person's] world picture is and always remains a construct
of [their] mind and cannot be proved to have any other existence."
--E. Schrodinger in Mind and Matter, 1958.
"Don't mistake your watermelon for the universe."  --K. Amdahl in
There Are No Electrons, 1991.
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