Infants can learn decontextualized words before their first birthday

Can infants below age 1 year learn words in one context and understand them in another? To investigate this question, two groups of parents trained infants from age 9 months on 8 categories of common objects. A control group received no training. At 12 months, infants in the experimental groups, but not in the control group, showed comprehension of the words in a new context. It appears that infants under 1 year old can learn words in a decontextualized, as distinct from a context-bound, fashion. Perceptual variability within the to-be-learned categories, and the perceptual similarity between training sets and the novel test items, did not appear to affect this learning.     

Role of perceptual and conceptual similarity in category matching at age two years

Perceptual and categorical similarity were varied independently in a concept-matching task administered to 26-month-old children (N = 25). 44 test sets were assembled. Each set included a 3-dimensional standard and an array of 4 pictures, one of which was a member of the same basic or superordinate category as the standard. On each trial, placing the standard on the matching picture resulted in activation of 1 of 12 mechanical displays. The test sets varied in the perceptual and categorical resemblance of the standard to the match and to the nonmatches, as determined by adults' ratings. Perceptual similarity proved to be the primary determinant of difficulty level. When perceptual resemblance of the standard and the match were equated, superordinate and basic matches were equally difficult. When perceptual resemblance was minimal, most children were unable to recognize matches at either the basic or superordinate level.     

School psychological services: An empirical comparison of two models

In this study, the traditional diagnostic model of school psychological services was compared with the emerging consultant service model. The study was conducted in an effort to determine the effectiveness of each model in working with teachers in the elementary grades. The two delivery systems were evaluated by comparing them on two variables: (a) the number of school days that elapse from the time of referral until the teacher receives feedback, and (b) the effectiveness of the recommendations as measured by brief questionnaires. The results revealed that the consultant model with its de-emphasis on the administration of time-consuming tests resulted in more immediate feedback for teachers. Responses to the follow-up questionnaires revealed that the consultant service model was as effective, if not more effective, in the teachers' perceptions, when comparing the effectiveness of the recommended intervention strategies. Although the data are more favorable for the consultant service model, they are not conclusive. Since each model meets some teachers' needs, a merging of these two approaches seems more justifiable than abandoning one model in favor of the other.     

Fooled by Our Perceptions

Many people enjoy watching magicians perform magic acts and seemingly do the impossible. In many of these acts, magicians use sleight of hand, trickery, and special tools. There are, however, other occasions in which audience perceptions are used to make them see things differently. This exploits people's tendencies to see things based on their expectations and prior experience. One of these is perceptual readiness, the tendency for people to see what they expect or want to see. This article describes an exercise that illustrates that perceptions can be misleading.     

The Relation of Level of Facilitative Conditions,Consultant Experience,and Stage of Consultation to Consultees' Perceptions of the Use of Direct Confrontation

Controversy surrounds the use of confrontation in human services consultation. This analogue study investigated the effects of facilitative consultative conditions, consultant experience, and the stage of consultation in which confrontation occurs on consultees' perceptions of the use of direct confrontation. Graduate student participants viewed and then rated the consultants' use of confrontation in 16 videotaped scenarios of a consultation interaction representing combinations of the independent variables (facilitative conditions, consultant experience, and stage of consultation) and containing a consultant-initiated direct confrontation. The study was replicated with a group of undergraduate students taking counseling courses. Results for both groups suggest that facilitative conditions, consultant experience, and the stage of consultation in which confrontation occurs interact in influencing consultees' perceptions of confrontation. Results are discussed in terms of implications for practice and future research efforts.     

How the experience of assessed collaborative writing impacts on undergraduate students’ perceptions of assessed group work

A time-series analysis was used to investigate Arabic undergraduate students’ (n = 50) perceptions of assessed group work in a major government institution of higher education in Qatar. A longitudinal mixed methods approach was employed. Likert scale questionnaires were completed over the duration of a collaborative writing event. Additionally, open-ended questionnaires were administered after the students received their grade for their term paper. This study found that the participants’ perceptions were positive towards assessed group work throughout the duration of the event, changed in a statistically significant way after the submission of the first piece of formally assessed work, and are temporal and liable to change depending on what is experienced. The results of this study suggest that: assessed collaborative writing is a feasible pedagogical tool within higher education; undergraduate learners place value on group work as it enables them to collaboratively generate, share and develop their ideas; and researchers who investigate perceptual or attitudinal changes should consider whether their study requires time-sensitive methodology.     

Dyadic Agreement Concerning the Consultation Process and Its Relationship to Outcome

This article reports the first study from the School Consultation Research Project, a cooperative group of school psychologists from four universities interested in exploring relationships among processes and outcomes in consultation. Using an interpersonal perspective, statistical relationships between 12 dyadic process variables and 4 consultation outcome variables were examined. The central hypothesis was that the more that consultant and consultee see the process in a similar way, understand their roles, and work together as a team, the more favorable are consultee perceptions of (a) the beneficialness of consultation, (b) consultee competence, (c) client improvement, and (d) consultant effectiveness. Data were collected from 61 consultant-consultee dyads situated in four locations in the northeastern, southeastern, and southwestern U.S. Results supported the hypothesis as well as the value of assuming an interpersonal perspective in future consultation research.     

论文学语言的感性特点

文学语言并非另一种语言,它只是语言的审美功能变体.日常语言是人类理性把握世界的工具,其中自然浸透了理性内容;而文学语言则是在既有的语言规则之内,调动一切感性因素,尽量恢复表述的具象功能的一种言语方式.人们超越看待生活的功利眼光,从特殊的、感性的角度观照生活、言说对象,对发挥语言的感性功能具有非常重要的意义.     

Information Technologies: What You See Is Not (Always) What You Get

The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the gap between the learning potentials afforded by computers and the actual learning from them. A computer's unique potentials emanate from the kinds and varieties of four basic attributes that it offers: information, symbol systems, user activities, and relations with user. These attributes may affect four corresponding cognitions-knowledge structures, internal modes of representation, mental operations, and attitudes and perceptions respectively-by either activating, supplanting, or short-circuiting them. Such effects could be obtained through "low road" learning, which is practice-intensive, leading to near automatic responses, or through "high road" learning, which is thinking-intensive (i.e., nonautomatic operations are mindfully employed). The high road is seen as the more feasible and promising road to conceptual learning of the kind computers can facilitate. However, the extent to which high road learning actually occurs greatly depends on learners' volitional mindfulness, itself partly determined by the nature of the materials encountered and partly by personological, perceptual, and attitudinal factors. It is argued that the opportunity for mapping computers' attributes on their corresponding cognitions, although often available, does not always take place because learners do not always become mindful on their own. A computer's promise does not lie in its attributes alone, unique and powerful as they may be, but in how mindfully learners come to handle them. One important computer attribute—the partnerlike relationships with learners that it permits—and a number of instructional practices are discussed as possible means to promote and sustain learners' mindfulness.     

先感性、后理性方法在藏族大学生计算机专业教学中的应用研究

文章针对藏族大学生学习计算机课程存在诸多问题的现状,提出先感性、后理性教学方法。从知识建构,扫除学习障碍,抽象知识感性化表示三个方面论述感性方式在教学中的作用。从构建实践教学体系,抽象知识可视化设计,硬件类课程仿真教学,学习空间、积极情感等方面促进感性教学,使感性教学向理性教学升华并具体论述该方法的运用。且利用成绩指标对比分析和均值T检验证明了该方法教学效果明显优于传统方法。     

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERCEIVED LEARNING STYLE AND TEACHING STYLE OF JUNIOR COLLEGE EDUCATORS

This study examined the relationship of perceptual learning style and teaching style of 138 junior college educators. The Perceptual Learning Style Inventory developed by James and Galbraith (1984) was used to determine learning style preference. The authors modified the inventory to assess preferred teaching style. The Spearman's rho procedure was employed to determine if a correlation existed for the entire group of educators and for each subgroup by major teaching area, sex, years of teaching experience, and by educational attainment. A high correlation existed for all variables except in three subgroup variables. Findings indicate that junior college educators tend to teach the way they prefer to learn. Implications for practice are provided that encourage educators to examine the teaching/learning process in an effort to make it a more effective and rewarding experience for instructors and learners     

Consultant Verbal Control and Consultee Perceptions

High verbal control is a way of exercising interpersonal power and may be an important influence on consultation process and outcome. In this study, two groups of public school teachers were shown videotapes depicting either high or low levels of consultant verbal control. Dependent measures included a consultation-acceptance rating, a behavioroid measure assessing consultee commitment to future consultation meetings, and a thought-listing technique soliciting covert cognitive responses occurring while the teachers viewed the consultation exchanges. Results indicated that the verbal control manipulation produced differences in teachers' perceptions of the consultant's level of verbal control. After viewing the vignettes, 16% of the teachers expressed willingness to commit to future consultation. However, there was no apparent detrimental effect of high consultant verbal control: Of those teachers willing to commit, differences between high and low control were not significant. Post hoc analysis of acceptance scale items indicated that participants thought the consultee learned more about the problem discussed during the consultation under the high consultant verbal control condition. Advantages and limitations of high consultant verbal control as a consultation process variable are discussed, and recommendations for future consultation research are offered.     

论知性和理性－－人类思维把握世界的两种方式

知性和理性是人类思维不断深化的两个阶段 ,知性是理性的基础 ,是上升到理性的必经环节 ,理性高于知性并包括知性于自身之中。知性和理性都属于理性认识 ,都是人类思维对事物本质的把握 ,但二者把握事物的层次、方法、特点、结果各不相同     

Perceptual influence of psychoeducational reports

In the present study, teachers read fictitious psychoeducational reports that interpretively were consistent, inconsistent, or absent with respect to a child's diagnostic label. On a perceptual expectation questionnaire, teachers indicated both their perceptions of the child and their confidence in these perceptions, after reading a cumulative folder and again after reading a psychoeducational report. Although the reports differed by just one or two interpretive statements, results revealed that teacher perceptions of child characteristics changed in an adaptive direction for the school performance clusters of general adjustment, academic skill, and learning approach, while report interpretation negatively influenced ratings for intellectual capacity. Further, the type of diagnostic label provided in the cumulative folder was an important variable in determining the perceptual effect of the report's interpretation, since different patterns of teacher perception and their confidence in these perceptions were observed for LD, BD, or EMH labels.     

Form-Function Correspondences in Children's Inference

Perceptual similarity among concept members has been viewed as inadequate to motivate concept formation. Instead, it has been argued that intuitive beliefs about the world offer more structured motivation for concepts. Our research explores children's beliefs about the relations between perceptually based similarity among things and their predicted behaviors. We focus on form-function correspondences as fundamental components of very young children's belief systems. Groups of 2- and 4-year-old children were asked to choose which of 2 line-drawn animals evidenced a particular "function," a special behavior. Even the youngest children showed sensitivity to form-function correspondences by selecting the animal whose form afforded the particular function. A second study investigated how form-function correspondences affect the relative influences of perceptual similarity and shared labels over patterns of children's inference. Perceptual similarity, if "motivated" by intuitive beliefs about correspondences between form and function, was found to be sufficient basis for inference and a more robust basis than shared labels when children attributed meaningful functions to novel animal forms.     

Use of classroom environment assessments in school psychology: A British perspective

The move from individual-centered to systems-oriented and consultancy-based approaches has inevitably affected school psychologists' perceptions of and need for appropriate assessment techniques. Of particular importance are techniques that make it possible to assess participants' perceptions of teaching-learning contexts. One such technique (Fraser's Individualised Classroom Environment Questionnaire) is described, together with the rationale of individualized learning on which it is based. Preliminary data on the validity and reliability of the ICEQ in English secondary schools are provided, and illustrative examples are presented on ways in which systems-oriented consultant psychologists can employ such data in their professional practice.     

Creating School Environments Responsive to Gay,Lesbian, Bisexual,and Transgender Families: Traditional and Systemic Approaches for Consultation

The authors review research on (a) gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) families and the nature of discrimination against them; (b) school factors that hinder and facilitate equity for GLBT families; (c) instituting change through organizational consultation or large group-level strategies; and (d) instituting change through traditional consultation or small group and individual level strategies. Taking an ecological perspective, the school is viewed as a system trying to maintain the status quo in the face of increasing pressures to change. The need for systemic change when establishing antiharassment and GLBT-friendly environments in schools is highlighted. The consultant identifies the obstacles hindering change and empowers the system to reorganize itself and connect with resources that will help establish collaboration between straight and gay members of the school community. This role requires a unique combination of expertise in social processes, group dynamics, organizational change, and GLBT issues. Specific consultant strategies for small groups and individuals are identified. Resources for consultants and future research directions also are provided.     

Using action research to explore the role of the international academic consultant: drawing on participants’ perceptions in a teacher development project in Pakistan

This paper problematises the involvement of the UK academic consultant in professional development projects among teachers in a developing, low-income nation. The context for this exploration was a four-year project in Pakistan in which I gave input as a UK consultant. My over-arching research question was: What was the value of my work as international academic consultant in providing professional development for teaching and learning in Pakistan? I gained insights into the issue through asking participants their perceptions, reflecting on these, acting on insights and then asking more questions in a continuous cycle of action and reflection. Participants in this case were head teachers and senior teachers from a range of private schools in Pakistan, including some of the wealthiest school chains. My findings were that participants did value the presence of the international consultant because they believed s/he had access to more valuable knowledge than local experts in many respects. However, participants valued the chance for activities and dialogue among their professional compatriots most of all.     

Facilitating knowledge construction in mobile learning contexts: A bi-directional peer-assessment approach

With the advancements in technology networks, mobile learning has been extensively applied in teaching contexts, enabling closer interaction between students and authentic environments. Previous studies have indicated that, when learning in real-world contexts, students need to interact with real learning targets and peers as well as the digital learning content; thus, effective learning strategies or tools are generally required for helping them organize knowledge and for promoting peer interactions. As a result, the present study developed a bi-directional peer-assessment-based concept mapping system, which not only engages students in assessing peers’ concept maps, but also encourages them to evaluate or respond to peers’ ratings and comments. To explore the effectiveness of this learning system, the study conducted an experiment in elementary science classes. A total of 101 fifth graders from four classes were recruited to participate in the study. Two classes were assigned to the experimental group and two to the control group. The experimental group adopted the bi-directional peer-assessment approach, while the control group adopted the conventional peer assessment approach for concept mapping. The results reveal that the bi-directional peer-assessment-based concept mapping system can not only increase students’ learning achievement and the completeness of their concept mapping, but can also enhance their critical thinking tendency and the feedback quality of their peer assessment.