Publication Type: Research Report
Abstract: This study examines 8th grade students' coordination of quantitative units arising from word problems that can be solved via a set of equations that are reducible to a single equation with a single unknown. Quantitative unit conservation also emerges as a necessary construct in dealing with such problems. We introduce a theoretical framework that encompasses these two constructs. Our data consist of videotaped classroom lessons, student interviews and teacher interviews. We generated a thematic analysis by undertaking a retrospective analysis, using constant comparison methodology. Our first result is about students' coordination of pairs of units (e.g. dime standing for the name of the coin and/or the number of dimes, the value of a dime being the second unit). Our second result is about students' attempts to balance the two sides of an equation by conserving units.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Single mothers leaving welfare face a web of obstacles in accessing childcare subsidies. However, welfare leavers’ perceptions about their experiences and about work supports for which they are eligible, including childcare subsidies, are not well documented in the literature. This paper develops a model of childcare selection and subsidy use among welfare leavers. Findings suggest the level of trust between parents and childcare providers, related to bad experiences with center-based care, and the availability of information about child care facilities were important decision making criteria. Efforts to work with this population need to address lack of information about subsidies to increase the range of child care alternatives and quality and also promote trusting relationships between social workers and welfare leavers.

Supporting Publications:
Supporting Document
Supporting Document
Supporting Document
Supporting Document

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: While the role of judicial review in liberal democracies is often framed--by both defenders and skeptics--in terms of the conditions under which "minority rights" can be invoked by courts against "majority rule," this framework is essentially useless in thinking about the legitimacy of judicial review for two reasons. First of all, political institutions are frequently non- or counter-majoritarian in both design and practice. Conversely, it is not clear that most acts of judicial review clearly contravene majority preferences (to the extent that majoritarian public preferences can be determined at all.) Second, outside of discussions of judicial review few would see strict adherence to majoritrian preferences as a desirable form of democracy even if it were an empirically accurate description of the way political institutions function. To concede the fundamental irrelvance of the "counter-majoritarian difficulty," however, does not mean that judicial review does not present democratic problems: blame-shifting and the diffusion of electoral responsibility, for example, represent significant potential drawbacks of judicial review. Using contemporary democratic theory, we explore questions about the democratic role and legitimacy of judicial review by evaluating courts not as being involved in zero-sum struggles with political majorities but rather as part of a complex, interdependent institutional system in which no single body represents a clear "democratic" outcome to which other branches can then be compared.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This essay explores the effects of the judicial filibuster, arguing that it will result in more moderate judges and will mitigate the countermajoritarian difficulty. It also explores the implications of the filibuster for stealth nominees.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: We present results from an on-going research, that is part of an national project, sponsored since 1997 by the Mexican Ministry of Education, studying the implementation of technological tools in middle-school (children 12-15 yrs. old). mathematics classrooms. Our particular focus here is on teachers’ difficulties in adapting their teaching practice to the use of technological tools and the importance of the teachers’ role for students learning. A small sample of the participating schools was used to carry out a detailed analysis of teachers’ practices, and students’ attitudes and learning, combining field observations and interviews with quantitative research. We investigated particularly: (i) The ways in which the student and teacher materials were used; (ii) teacher’s performance during the technology-based sessions; (iii) children’s attitudes, and (iv) children’s mathematical performance both in standardized tests and through their academic scores. We analysed 12 teachers’ performances, and 13 study groups (650 students) and 8 control groups (400 students), in 2 schools. Most teachers had difficulties in adapting to the use of the proposed pedagogical model and this affected students’ learning and attitudes, but the teachers’ willingness to adapt also had a positive effect in helping students benefit from the tool use.