A comparison of self-recording and self-recording plus consequences for on-task and assignment completion

The purpose of the present experiment was to compare the effects of providing backup reinforcers for accurate self-recording on both attending and academic output. Twelve behaviorally disordered special education students were randomly placed in one of three groups: self-recording (N = 4); self-recording + backups (N = 4), and a control group (N = 4). The outcomes revealed significantly different performance for on-task behavior and assignment completion. On-task and academic responding was significantly higher for both the self-recording and self-recording + backups groups when compared to a control group. Additional comparisons indicated that the performance of the two groups who self-monitored were not statistically different for either measure. Maintenance of treatment effects was higher for two groups (self-recording and self-recording + backups) than for the control group. These differential outcomes were discussed in terms of (a) accuracy of self-recording, (b) nature of the dependent variables employed, (c) ceiling effects, and (d) possible vicarious effects. The advantages of using self-recording with and without consequences were noted.     

An analysis of assignment completion and accuracy across time under fixed, variable, and extended token exchange periods in a classroom token economy

This research investigated the effects of employing fixed, variable, and extended token exchange periods for backups on the completion and quality of daily assignments of a total fifth- and sixth-grade class. The results indicated a higher percentage of assignments was completed when the number of days between point exchanges was variable, and that performance was maintained when the number of school days between point exchanges was gradually increased. The overall accuracy on assignments was high, but varying, and did not appear to be under the systematic control of the experimental procedures. Data for all pupils indicated that there were individual differences as to the effects of the various token (point) exchange procedures. Pupils with inconsistent assignment completion during Fixed Exchange Conditions (Fixed Period (FP-I, -II, -III) increased their assignment completion during the Variable Token Exchange Procedures (Variable Period (VP)-I, -II, -III). Thus, the variable sequencing of the number of days should be an important consideration in any effort to maintain the positive effects of token-reinforcement systems within classroom settings.     

The effects of individual and group contingencies on reading performance of special education students

The effects of individual and group contingencies on the reading performance of 10 special education students were examined in a counterbalanced multiple-baseline design with experimental manipulations introduced at random. During the Baseline condition no consequences for accuracy in programmed reading were in effect. With the Group Contingency, pupils earned points based on accuracy and exchanged them for activity backup reinforcers based on the average performance of the group. During the Individual Contingency arrangement, the same point totals were awarded by yoking pupils to the group behavioral criteria. The results indicated superior accuracy (from 2 to 25%) with the Group Contingency by all 10 pupils. Student preferences as to the two contingency arrangements indicated a slight preference for the Group Contingency phase. A lack of negative peer comments was noted over the duration of the experiment. Results were also discussed in terms of ease of implementation of the group contingencies within an ongoing token economy in a classroom setting. Tentative reasons for the differing results of the present study and others were presented.     

A McCarthy short form for rapid screening of preschool,kindergarten, and first-grade children

A short form of the McCarthy was developed primarily to help meet the needs for a well-normed brief instrument to be used for the rapid screening of preschool, kindergarten, and first-grade children. The proposed short form comprises 6 of the 15 tests in the General Cognitive Scale: Puzzle Solving, Word Knowledge, Numerical Memory, Verbal Fluency, Counting and Sorting, and Conceptual Grouping. The abbreviated form was specifically geared to the 3–6 year age range, although equations to convert short-form score to estimated General Cognitive Index were provided for children across the entire span of $\text{2}\text{1}\text{2}$ to $\text{8}\text{1}\text{2}$ years. The short form was shown to have a standard error of estimate of about 6 points and to have excellent psychometric properties in general.     

Qualitative differences in concrete and formal operational tasks

Five concrete and five formal tasks were administered to 64 second-, fourth-,sixth, and eighth-grade subjects. A significant grade effect (p ? .01) but no significant sex effect or interaction was found. A cluster analysis indicated that four of the five formal tasks grouped together, two of the five concrete tasks grouped together, and the rest of the tasks remained isolated. These results were interpreted as supporting both Piaget's qualitative hypothesis and the structural characteristics of the concrete and formal stages.     

Attention to semantic versus phonetic verbal attributes as a function of individual differences in arousal and learning strategy

It has been argued that deep processing of semantic information helps students to learn faster and perform better on classroom tests. Using paired associates tasks, it has been found that high arousal subjects make more errors when the response terms are phonetically similar. Subjects low on arousal make more errors when response words are semantically similar. If the encodings of semantic features are assumed to be “deeper” and more durable than the encodings of “shallow,” phonetic features, then studies have suggested that anxious students process shallowly and are thus at a disadvantage when learning information. The present study treats deep processing as a learning style and used the Synthesis—Analysis scale of the Inventory of Learning Processes to assess it. It is hypothesized that arousal would be negatively related to the learning style of deep processing. It is also hypothesized that the interaction obtained in earlier studies, i.e., greater susceptibility to semantic interference with low arousal and phonetic interference with high arousal, would occur only when Synthesis—Analysis scores are low. It is assumed that the habitual use of a deep processing strategy by students high on Synthesis—Analysis could counteract the limiting effect of arousal on cue utilization. The study provides support for both hypotheses.     

Student commitment and school organization in relation to on-task behavior and achievement

Three experiments considered student commitment to school, IQ, and school organization type in relation to student task behavior and to school achievement. The first two correlational studies indicated the relationship between student commitment and student task behavior; the third study used student task behavior, student commitment, IQ, and school organization to predict achievement. This prediction equation was quite robust with a final R² = .85. School achievement is predicted by intelligence and academic time on task in traditionally structured schools, and by intelligence and student commitment in open structured schools. Increasing the amount of teacher directed time would increase achievement in traditional schools, but decrease achievement in open schools.     

The use of peers in classroom behavior change

The development of research in the use of children to control the behavior of other children in classroom settings is discussed. Several studies utilizing peers are shown to be effective and scientifically sound. In addition, ethical problems which may arise when using peers to change the behavior of other children, such as possible detrimental effects on the pupil contingency manager, are discussed. Suggestions are made for future research using peers as agents of behavior change in the classroom.     

The relationship between perception of locus of control and academic achievement: Review and some educational implications

In an attempt to explain the evidence which indicates that internal perception of control is postively related to academic achievement, this paper suggests that mediating motivational and cognitive reactions, which differentiate internals from externals, may account for this relationship. Furthermore, on the basis of data which suggest that the perception of locus of control is a changeable disposition, this paper calls for structuring environments that will induce and maintain realistic internal perception of locus of control.     

Reprint requesting: A possible adjunct to citation analysis for judging research: Preliminary questions and findings

Interest in the quality of published research is evident across the range of disciplines including education. Several comprehensive studies either sponsored or published by the American Educational Research Association attest to this fact. In the sciences, citation analysis is attracting interest as a methodology for assessing research. The procedure has both theoretical and practical promise. The present study considers an overlooked source of information, reprint requesting, as a possible adjunct to citation analysis. The study stems from the questionnaire responses of 24 reprint requestors for an article by the authors. Requestor characteristics, motives, and reprint uses are considered. Implications for further research are advanced.     

Duration of response to teacher questions and statements

To examine the effectiveness of teacher questions in stimulating student participation, 26 high school discussion classes were tape-recorded and the duration of utterances timed by stopwatch. Analyses of variance performed on class mean duration of student response revealed three findings. (1) No significant difference was observed between response to questions and response to declarative statements. (2) By question type, opinion questions received significantly longer responses than factual ones, and closed longer than open; no differences were observed for six other ways of classifying questions. (3) Response to questions appeared unrelated to selected characteristics of classroom, teacher, and student. The findings offer little support to current emphases in theory and practice on the use of questions in discussion classes. The study may be situated within a body of recent research that has failed to validate traditional claims for the efficacy of teacher questions.     

Life goals and academic interests as predictors of extracurricular activities of secondary school sophomores

The life goals and interests of eighth-graders were examined in relation to their reported extracurricular activities in secondary school. In 1969, 204 females and 178 males, attending three feeder schools, completed the Vocational Sentence Completion Blank, a semiprojective measure of life goals, values, quests, aspirations hopes, preferences, and concerns. For the Milwaukee Academic Interest Inventory, which measures curricular interests, the complete test records of 183 females and 150 males were available. In 1971, all subjects reported about their participation in six secondary school activities. Approximately two-thirds of the 29 VSCB categories and all 7 MAII variables were predictive at a low level of association. The statistically significant relations between eighth-grade predictors and specific extracurricular activities in the first year of secondary school seemed reasonable. Implications for adolescent development were discussed.     

Conceptual process as a function of age and enforced attention in learning-disabled children: Evidence for deficient rule learning

Adapting a modified reception paradigm, three bidimensional rules (conjunctive, disjunctive, conditional) and two instructional conditions (enforced attention vs standard rule learning) are used to test the assumption that deficient rule learning rather than inattention is responsible for poor learning with learning-disabled children. Main findings indicate learning-disabled children are deficient on binary conceptual rule tasks for three age groups (6 to 7, 8 to 9, 12 to 13) compared to normal children matched on sex and IQ regardless of experimental instructions. For both groups, learning is retarded by rule complexity while rate of learning diminishes with increasing age. Data reflect a truth-table logic at all ages for both groups, although there is evidence that disabled children perseverate with a rule-learning hypothesis characteristic of younger nondisabled children. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that rule learning is deficient in children with learning disabilities.     

Comparative functions of preschool learning style and IQ in predicting future academic performance

Early assessment programs frequently rely on intelligence tests for making predictions regarding children's future school performance. Unfortunately, IQ scores provide little information to those who must develop educational interventions tailored to the unique ways in which children respond to learning situations. Alternatively, measures of children's learning style focus on distinct patterns of learning-related behavior manifested in classroom settings. Each dimension of learning style is composed of observable skills that are potentially teachable or alterable through available instructional procedures. In order to examine the relative contributions of learning style dimensions, IQ, and their interactions to the prediction of subsequent performance, 100 kindergarten children were evaluated by teachers using the Study of Children's Learning Styles scale and were administered the Kuhlmann-Anderson Intelligence Test. Fifteen months later the children's first-grade achievement was determined through standardized tests and teacher-assigned grades in reading, language, and mathematics. Relationships between the predictor and criterion variables were studied through patterns of bivariate correlations, canonical variate loadings, and standardized regression weights. Although IQ was found the better predictor, learning styles accounted for appreciable and statistically significant proportions of the variability in later achievement. The learning style dimensions functioned differentially across areas of achievement to enhance overall prediction either by complementing or interacting with the predictions afforded by IQ. The results are examined in the light of earlier research on learning-related behavior.     

Effects of two types of letter rehearsal on word memory in skilled and less skilled beginning readers

Skilled and less skilled beginning readers were taught to read and define 10 printed pseudowords. Then they rehearsed the spellings of the words in one of two ways. Experimental subjects performed activities to retain spellings in memory as orthographic images. Control subjects rehearsed the letters similarly but with the correct spellings in view. Post-tests revealed that experimentals remembered spellings better than controls. This indicates that the activity of committing letters to memory is better for learning spellings than copying letters which is what most spelling programs have learners do. Experimental subjects' superior knowledge of spellings, however, did not enable them to read the words faster or more accurately than controls, possibly because of overlearning. Comparison of good and poor readers' word-learning behavior revealed greater deficiencies in phonological than in semantic processes. Correlational analysis indicated that background skills are much more powerful than specific learning experiences in accounting for individual differences in reading and spelling performances.     

High school student satisfaction and perceptions of the school environment

The satisfaction of high school students was studied using an adaptation of reinforcement theory. An instrument entitled Students and Their Schools was developed to assess the perceived availability and value of 35 different academic and interpersonal dimensions of the high school environment and student satisfaction with these areas. This was distributed to 411 students in two city and three suburban public high schools. Availability of resources alone is more highly related to satisfaction than their value. Small but consistent differences were found between male and female students, with suburban females reporting lower levels of availability and satisfaction but higher value ratings than other students. City students have higher levels of satisfaction, but lower levels of value, than suburban students. Most of the differences concerned academic aspects of school and interactions with administrators and faculty. If students perceive a high availability of rewarding aspects of their school environment, they report higher levels of satisfaction with school. Thus, an adaptation of reinforcement theory can be used as an empirical measure of student satisfaction with school.     

“从基因到社会”——约翰·霍普金斯大学医学院新型课程体系的设计逻辑与实施进程

2009年,约翰·霍普金斯大学医学院实施了一项全新的课程体系——"从基因到社会",其目的在于:更为宽泛地重构健康与疾病的相互关系,鼓励学生们在一个包含社会、文化、心理和环境等多维变量的综合系统中探索与患者的健康状况相关的生物学特性。本文描述了新课程的设计理念及其五年规划过程,包括课程目标的确定、课程的构建、新教学楼的建造、学生自身能力及教师发展的促进、横向和纵向结构的建立等。应对新课程挑战的关键因素在于:领导的支持、与教职员工的对话和沟通、不同群体和层面的广泛参与、避免井蛙之见、通过课程试点来测试教学理念和方法等。     

Structuring academic conflicts between majority and minority students: Hindrance or help to integration

The effects of two types of structured academic conflict, controversy and debate, were compared with individual study in a study on desegregation. Seventy-two sixth grade students were assigned to conditions on a stratified random basis controlling for sex, reading ability, and ethnic membership. In all three conditions students studied a controversial issue with materials representing both pro and con views. In the controversy condition each learning group was divided into two pairs representing the pro and con sides. In the debate condition each member of a learning group was assigned a pro or con position to represent in a debate with the other three members. In the individualistic condition subjects were told to learn the material without interacting with other students and each student was given all the pro and con materials. The results indicate that controversy promotes the most cross-ethnic verbal rehearsal and exchange of the assigned material, the most concern that all students master the assigned material, the most active search for more information about the topic being studied, the most reevaluation of one's position and incorporation of opponents' arguments, the most liking for the subject matter and the instructional experience, the highest self-esteem, and the most accepting and supportive relationships among minority and majority students. The debate condition generated higher levels of these dependent variables than did individualistic study.     

Acquisition of inductive biconditional reasoning skills: Training of simultaneous and sequential processing

One hundred forty-four 10th-grade students received training on one of three processing methods: coding-mapping (simultaneous), coding only, or decision tree (sequential). Then they learned a biconditional rule under one of eight transfer test conditions based on a 2 (paradigm: rule vs complete learning) × 2 (memory aids: 0 vs 4) × 2 (focus instance: presence vs absence) design. Although the coding-mapping students processed concept instances in much the same way as the coding-only students, they acquired the target rule more frequently, and they processed instances more quickly and more consistently than the decision-tree students. The observed ordinality of the responses of four truth-table classes was found to be more consistent with the simultaneity than with the sequentiality hypothesis. As expected, training interacted with paradigm and also with memory aids and focus instance. The induced simultaneous processing strategy apparently works optimally under rule learning, while the sequential strategy is difficult to induce and/or not optimal for rule-learning operations.