Some psychologists may be interested in "A Response to 'It's Not All
About Class Size' " [Hake (2009)]. The abstract reads: Some
psychologists
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ABSTRACT: Stephen Ceci and Spyros Konstantopoulos in a "Chronicle of
Higher Education" commentary "It's Not All About Class Size" point
out that the new administration needs to be aware that attempts to
fulfill its pledge to narrow the *international* achievement gap
between America and its international competitors by reforms such as
decreasing class sizes might thereby widen the *domestic* achievement
gap that separates black and white, rich and poor. But, in my
opinion, the new administration also needs to be aware that a major
cause of the domestic achievement gap is POVERTY, as forcefully
argued by David Berliner. I submit that:
(a) reduction of poverty in the U.S. might reduce *both* the domestic
and international achievement gaps, since then the learning of *all*
students, not just the advantaged, would be increased by reforms such
as reduction in class size, more effective teachers, and more
effective pedagogy; (b) a more important reason for increasing
student learning than narrowing the international achievement gap is
the need to alleviate the science/math illiteracy of the general
population and thereby lessen the threat to life on planet Earth.
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To access the entire 15 kB post please click on <http://tinyurl.com/daf85y>.
Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands.
<[email protected]>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/>
<http://HakesEdStuff.blogspot.com/> (Contains this post and allows comments.)
REFERENCES
Hake, R.R. 2009. "A Response to 'It's Not All About Class Size', "
AERA-L post of 6 Feb 2009 09:42:04-0800; online on the OPEN! AERA-L
archives at <http://tinyurl.com/daf85y>, and also at
<http://hakesedstuff.blogspot.com/2009/02/response-to-its-not-all-about-class.html>
where comments may be easily posted.
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