REVIEWS


Alice Wilson and Jocelyn Legault
Alice Wilson and Jocelyn Legault examine a fossil imprint (1962).

Similarly, we may wish to ask what is and is not science. The masculine identity of "hard" science has been rigorously maintained by designating female-dominated occupations like nursing, whose practitioners claim scientific expertise as the basis of their collective professional identity, as "soft" forms of pseudo-Science.

By organizing our discussion of women and science around an uncritical acceptance of the male discourse of professionalization, we risk the perpetuation of women's status as other within science in particular and, as in the case of nursing, within society as a whole. Nevertheless, as points of departure for discussion and research, both in the classroom and among scholars, the essays collected by Ainley in Despite the Odds: should fulfill their role eminently.

Bev Boutilier is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in History at Carleton University in Ottawa. Her .thesis focuses on the work of the Victorian Order of Nurses.



They're Not Dumb, They're Different
Stalking the Second Tier

Review by Rachelle Sender Beauchamp

“I was certainly not given the belief that I could give something to science and that it could give something back to me.”

Student quoted by Sheila Tobias
in They're Not Dumb, They're Different (1).

Most report negative reactions: as compared with arts courses, they find their fellow students extremely competitive (interested only in the marks of others). Faculty pays little or no attention to the larger significance of the material studied, focusing almost exclusively on the nitty-gritty of problem solving.

Although this book does not specifically address gender issues in science teaching, many of the points made have also been raised by advocates of feminist pedagogy. Tobias provides many concrete suggestions for ways to improve science teaching, including smaller classes, ongoing support to science students by trained "science advisors"; exit interviews with science dropouts; and changes in grading practices (i.e., elimination of 'curved' grading schemes).

Rachelle Sender Beauchamp is a Guest Editor of this issue of Women's Education des femmes.

by Sheila Tobias Tucson, Arizona; Research Corporation, 1990

How to attract more students to study science?
In this fascinating study, Tobias arranged for a group of very bright non-science graduate students to audit introductory university chemistry and physics courses and to keep journals chronicling their reactions to the work, the teaching styles and the other students.



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