Tutoring through the internet: how students and teachers interact to construct meaning

Two episodes of tutoring through the internet have been analysed in terms of situational, interactive and content perspectives. The episodes involved secondary students who submitted queries about chemistry issues to an online service provided by teachers. Studies of the asking of questions and of the dynamics of classroom interactions are employed to discuss the interactive and content factors of this approach to teaching–learning. The functions conveyed by students’ and teachers’ utterances are used to identify the structural patterns of the interactions. The occurrence of classical and inverted I–R–F exchanges, the questioner’s role, the continuity of the dialogues, and other structural patterns, are used to classify the episodes as being Debate and Triadic Dialogue. The notions of mastering cultural tools and scaffolding are used to account for how meaning is constructed through the interactions.     

Motion controllers for learners to manipulate and interact with 3D objects for mental rotation training

Mental rotation is an important spatial processing ability and an important element in intelligence tests. However, the majority of past attempts at training mental rotation have used paper‐and‐pencil tests or digital images. This study proposes an innovative mental rotation training approach using magnetic motion controllers to allow learners to manipulate and interact with three‐dimensional (3D) objects. Stereovision allows learners to perceive the spatial geometric form of a 3D object. This approach allows learners to perceive 3D objects in space through stereovision and make mental rotation visible from each intrinsic and invisible mental rotation step using motion‐interaction methods. This study examines the effects of user training performance and perceptions. The results indicate that the proposed approach can improve user mental rotation ability effectively. Learners expressed high degrees of concentration toward the mechanism that included direct control and immediate feedback. The results also suggest that female testers perceive greater degrees of playfulness toward the mechanism and improve more through training than male testers.     

For squad-members only! Why some teachers are more popular to interact with than others in data use

Teacher interactions are seen as a source for teachers’ professional development. To better understand this potential, research is needed into who is consulted in data use. Therefore, this study investigates whether Flemish teachers’ popularity in data use discussions can be attributed to formal aspects of the formal school organization, similarity among teachers, proximity and informal bonds between teachers. A multi method study combining social network analysis and interview data was designed. The results reveal that informal bonds between teachers may not be overlooked in how interactions are formed. Because the participants do not seem to choose the colleagues they interact with for data use purposefully, the potential of these interactions for their professional development is questionable. Future research should invest in examining how conscious teachers are of the knowledge and skills of their colleagues in data use and how this knowledge affects the formation of data use interactions.     

How classmates interact with an autistic child in a mainstream class

ABSTRACT

In Italy, Law 517 has since 1977 sanctioned the right for all children to attend ordinary schools in normal classes, reduced in number (maximum 20). Integration has been particularly difficult with children affected by various forms of autistic behaviour. In this paper, we shall study the interactive process that has gone on in two of the ten classes of a primary school where ten autistic children have been integrated, each in a different class. The study has been conducted through observation of interaction in the classes, Moreno's sociometric approach and the psycholinguistic analysis of fairy tales written by classmates on the autistic child, compared with ones written on a classmate of their own choice. The autistic child has an average sociometric status (i.e. he is chosen by an average number of classmates who are very popular in the group). Moreover, observation shows that very vulnerable children with fear of confusion of their own identity reject or imitate the autistic children, while bright, well‐adapted and emotionally rich children interact with them in different ways (listening, teaching). These last children in fact observe their autistic schoolmate and try to explain his symptoms and to propose therapies for the disorder. They have also a clear representation of the disorder and its symptoms.     

How minimal grade goals and self-control capacity interact in predicting test grades

The present research examined the prediction of school students' grades in an upcoming math test via their minimal grade goals (i.e., the minimum grade in an upcoming test one would be satisfied with). Due to its significance for initiating and maintaining goal-directed behavior, self-control capacity was expected to moderate the relation between students' minimal grade goals and their actual grades. Self-control capacity was defined as the dispositional capacity to override or alter one's dominant response tendencies. Prior to a scheduled math test, 172 vocational track students indicated their minimal grade goal for the test and completed a measure of self-control capacity. The test grade was assessed at a second time of measurement. As expected, minimal grade goals more strongly predicted the actual test grades the higher the students' self-control capacity. Implications can be seen in terms of optimizing the prediction and advancement of academic performance.     

Childhood trauma and neighborhood-level crime interact in predicting adult posttraumatic stress and major depression symptoms

Previous research has identified several individual-level factors that modify the risk of childhood trauma on adult psychiatric symptoms, including symptoms of major depression (MD) and posttraumatic stress (PTS). Neighborhood-level factors also influence the impact of individual-level exposures on adult psychopathology. However, no prior studies to our knowledge have explored cross-level interactions between childhood trauma and neighborhood-level factors on MD and PTS symptoms. The purpose of this study was therefore to explore cross-level interactions between a neighborhood-level factor – neighborhood-level crime – and childhood trauma on MD and PTS symptoms. Participants in this study (N = 3192) were recruited from a large public hospital, and completed self-report inventories of childhood trauma and MD and PTS symptoms. Participant addresses were mapped onto 2010 census tracts, and data on crime within each tract were collected. Multilevel models found a significant cross-level interaction between childhood trauma and neighborhood crime on MD symptoms, such that the influence of high levels of childhood trauma on MD symptoms was enhanced for participants living in high-crime neighborhoods. Supplementary analyses found variation in the strength of cross-level interaction terms by types of childhood trauma and crime, with the strongest associations including emotional neglect paired with personal and property crime. The results provide preliminary support for interventions that help childhood trauma survivors find housing in less vulnerable neighborhoods and build skills to cope with neighborhood crime.     

Project interact: A study of patterns of interaction in abusive, neglectful and control families

Child Abuse refers to non-accidental physical and psychological injury to a child under the age of 18 as a result of acts of omission or commission perpetrated by a parent or caretaker. Conceptual problems abound in part because we are clearly dealing with behavior which falls along a continuum of caregiver-child relationships. At one end of the continuum we have seemingly innocuous verbal punishment — disparagement, criticism, threat and ridicule. Or, we have fairly typical forms of physical punishment such as a slap on the hand or a swat on the bottom. Then there are forms of physical punishment that exceed current community standards — hitting the child with a closed fist or with an object such as a razor strap, belt, cord, or paddle, slamming the child against the wall, kicking him, burning the child with a cigarette, scalding the child with hot water, torturing or even killing the child. It is not always clear where a particular case should be placed on this conceptual continuum. What is more devastating to the development of a child, a single occasion where a parent loses control and slams a child across the room, in the process knocking out a tooth and breaking a child's arm, or the persistent day-by-day, month-by-month, year-by-year use of ridicule, criticism and sarcasm toward that child? Nor is it always clear whether acts of omission which are harmful to the child (i.e., neglect) are functionally equivalent to acts of commission that harm the child. This problem of definition and the establishment of a uniform response class is but one of many problems plaguing the systematic study of child abuse. Other problems such as the tendency to dramatize the bizarre and extreme use of physical violence or aggression at the expense of more subtle forms of verbal punishment, the tendency to equate child abuse either with psychopathology, on the one hand, or with poverty, on the other, and the tendency to rely upon impressionistic accounts of behavior also have retarded the accumulation of sound knowledge about the causes, consequences, treatment and prevention of abusive behavior.     

Improving word reading speed: individual differences interact with a training focus on successes or failures

The effect of two training procedures on the development of reading speed in poor readers is examined. One training concentrates on the words the children read correctly (successes), the other on the words they read incorrectly (failures). Children were either informed or not informed about the training focus. A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 79 poor readers. They repeatedly read regularly spelled Dutch consonant?Cvowel?Cconsonant words, some children their successes, others their failures. The training used a computerized flashcards format. The exposure duration of the words was varied to maintain an accuracy rate at a constant level. Reading speed improved and transferred to untrained, orthographically more complex words. These transfer effects were characterized by an Aptitude-Treatment Interaction. Poor readers with a low initial reading level improved most in the training focused on successes. For poor readers with a high initial reading level, however, it appeared to be more profitable to practice with their failures. Informing students about the focus of the training positively affected training: The exposure duration needed for children informed about the focus of the training decreased more than for children who were not informed. This study suggests that neither of the two interventions is superior to the other in general. Rather, the improvement of general reading speed in a transparent orthography is closely related to both the children??s initial reading level and the type of words they practice with: common and familiar words when training their successes and uncommon and less familiar words with training their failures.     

企教互动共同发展--攀钢发展职业教育的思考

企业的发展离不开职业教育，职业教育的生存和发展也需要依靠企业。职业教育与企业之间如何形成“企教互动、共同发展”的新局面，是企业和职业院校共同面对的问题。     

How multi-levels of individual and team learning interact in a public healthcare organisation: a conceptual framework

The aim of this paper is to review the relevant literature on organisational learning and offer a preliminary conceptual framework as a basis to explore how the multi-levels of individual learning and team learning interact in a public healthcare organisation. The organisational learning literature highlights a need for further understanding of how the multi-levels of organisational learning interact and a broadly accepted theory of organisational learning has not yet emerged. Organisational learning is a multi-level concept and while there has been some multi-level research, more is required to understand the mechanisms that facilitate the flow of learning between the levels. This paper explores multi-level learning, using action learning as a basis through which we consider how individual learning and team learning interact. The preliminary conceptual framework seeks to contribute to our understanding of the interaction between the individual and team levels of learning and the processes and conditions that facilitate or hinder the flow of learning. As this framework provides a means of exploring individual learning in a team setting it has the potential to develop understanding as to how to enhance the effectiveness of learning interactions in the healthcare sector and other sectors. In turn this exploration could lead to enhanced understanding of the mechanisms involved in the flow of learning.     

Reading in a foreign language: how does L2 lexical knowledge interact with the reader's general academic ability'

Reading in a foreign language is believed to be both a reading problem and an L2 problem. It is still unclear, however, how the two factors interact in determining the reading results in L2. The study investigates how L2 reading is affected by L2 proficiency as reflected in the learners’ lexical level on the one hand and by hidher general academic ability (including the reading ability in Ll) on the other hand. Sixty four EFL learners took part in the study. For each subject, three scores were compared: vocabulary size in L2, general academic ability, and L2 reading. The results show that 1, with vocabulary size of fewer than 3000 word families (5000 lexical items), no amount of general ability will make the learner read well; 2, with vocabulary size of 5000 word families (8000 lexical items), reading in L2 will be satisfactory whatever the general ability; 3, with vocabulary size of 3000–4000 word families (about 5000–6500 lexical items), L2 reading may or may not be influenced by general ability. Practical implications of the results are suggested.     

How the second screens change the way people interact and learn: the effects of second screen use on information processing

The use of a second screen can enhance information processing and the execution of search tasks within a given period. In this study, we examined the learner's attentional shift (AS) between two screens and controlled secondary tasks (STs) in the media multitasking setting and its effect on the learning process. In particular, we analyzed how cognitive and emotional learning effects can be explored depending on the role of this setting. A between-subject experiment was conducted with 69 participants (simultaneous vs. sequential use of a second screen in terms of open versus closed STs). The findings showed that there was a greater difference in emotional learning effects than in cognitive learning effects for participants who used a second screen. In terms of estimated emotional learning effects of media multitasking, participants engaged in sequential use demonstrated lower anxiety levels and higher competence beliefs during learning compared to participants who were engaged in simultaneous use. Moreover, an interaction effect occurred in the AS between the two screens and in controlled STs of recognition memory. These results indicate that attentional change and controlled STs are key predictors of learning effects in the media multitasking environment.     

从关注文本到关注儿童

“幼儿园教育是基础教育的重要组成部分，是我国学校教育和终身教育的奠基阶段。”幼儿园要实施素质教育，为幼儿一生的发展打好基础。能否实现如上目标，作为幼儿园内部来说，关键是教师在自己的工作中能否将教育观念转化为教育行为，在教与学的过程中能否从关注文本转化到关注儿童。所谓关注文本，是指教师只重视参阅，选用已有的教学参考、教师用书、课程方案等资料制定教育教学计划，并按预先的计划来检查教的效果。所谓关注儿童，是指教师在教育教学的各个时期、空间时间均能了解儿童的原有基础、兴趣爱好、特点、智慧策略等，追求科学…     

劝返何去何从

劝返作为引渡的替代性措施之一,早在2007年的胡星案中就成功使用过。劝返较引渡和引渡的其他替代性措施,确实存在一系列优势,但它的困境也是显而易见的:其前提性条件的具备何其艰难;其是否像有的学者所说的那样应认定为自首;为何杨湘洪至今未被劝返。总之,充分比较劝返的利弊之后,我们是否继续不遗余力地对劝返措施进行提倡,如果提倡的话,如何提倡,则是不得不面对的问题。     

Learning to Talk to Parents

Why are so many teachers reluctant to make talking to parents a priority? In the Warnock Report, the 1981 Education Act and, more recently, the Fish Report teachers were urged to form 'partnerships' with parents. Yet very little progress has been made in this direction with the parents of children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Neil Dawson and Brenda McHugh are two ILEA teachers who have been using a family systems approach in the Marlborongh Family Service Education Unit for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties in north west London. In this article they explore the question, 'Why is it so difficult?' and share their ideas and experiences of possible solutions.