The combined effects of dosage level and interstimulus interval on the formation of one-trial poison-based aversions in rats

Adult male rats were allowed to drink a novel solution of sodium saccharin which was followed .5, 1.5, 4.5, 7.0, 13.5, or 24.0 h later by intubation of a .9, 2.7, 8.1, or 12.15% (w/v) solution of sodium chloride (NaCl). Three days after the single training trial, consumption of saccharin was again measured. Significant differences between groups were found. When consumption by the experimental groups at each CS-UCS delay was compared with that of the isotonic NaCl (.9%) control group, it was found that all groups showed aversions at delays of .5, 1.5, and 4.5 h. Animals intubated with 8.1% or 12.15% NaCl solution also showed aversions at a delay of 7.0 h, and those intubated with the 12.15% solution showed an aversion at a delay of 13.5 h. No NaCl concentration used produced aversions at a CS-UCS interval of 24.0. These results reflect differences in the effectiveness of a range of NaCl concentrations in producing one-trial aversions at long CS-UCS intervals.     

By design: Professional learning ecologies to develop primary school teachers’ makerspaces pedagogical capabilities

Makerspaces embody a growing movement of educators promoting constructionist learning with physical materials and digital technologies such as 3D design and 3D printing. As it gains traction in K-12 settings, the maker movement represents an interesting context in which to explore how professional ecologies can equip teachers with the knowledge, skills and dispositions needed to implement twenty-first century learning in their school context. This study investigated the roles of different participants from industry, school leadership and colleagues in influencing teachers’ confidence, enthusiasm, capabilities and beliefs when teaching in makerspaces. Utilising triangulated observations of activities through online questionnaires at beginning, middle and end points, as well as postproject interviews, the study explored the participation of 27 primary school teachers in a blended professional learning programme, followed by classroom delivery of modules focusing on tablet-based 3D design applications and the use of newly instaled 3D printers. Reporting no prior knowledge or experience with makerspaces, quantitative analyses revealed significant increases in teachers’ confidence and enthusiasm. Qualitative analyses of questionnaire and interview data underscored the influence of hands-on and theoretically grounded professional learning providing practical exposure to constructionist ideas, design thinking methodologies and 3D design technologies. Findings reveal the importance of targeted professional learning coupled with a substantial collegially supported implementation phase, as well as support from school leaders and industry partners to promote meaningful pedagogical change in technology-mediated maker-based learning.     

EXAMINING THE USE OF SPACING EFFECT TO INCREASE THE EFFICIENCY OF INCREMENTAL REHEARSAL

Incremental rehearsal (IR) is a highly effective intervention that uses high repetition and a high ratio of known to unknown items with linearly spaced known items between the new items. It has been hypothesized that narrowly spaced practice would result in quick learning, whereas items that are widely spaced would result in longer‐term retention. The current study examined the effect of spacing by teaching vocabulary words to 36 fourth‐grade students. Each student was randomly assigned to a widely spaced IR condition (i.e., one unknown item, one known item, one unknown item, two known items, one unknown item, three known items, and an increase in the number of known items presented each time by one) or an IR condition in which spacing increased exponentially (IR‐Exp; i.e., one unknown item, one known item, one unknown item, two known items, one unknown item, four known items, and one unknown item, eight known items). The results indicated that the students in the study retained twice as much information with the widely spaced IR than with the IR‐Exp condition, but the latter required half as much time. IR and IR‐Exp were equally efficient, but IR continues to be superior to all other flashcard approaches in improving retention.     

Teasing apart the child care conundrum: A factorial survey analysis of perceptions of child care quality, fair market price and willingness to pay by low-income, African American parents

Child care quality plays a crucial role in children's social and cognitive development. While child care quality is a critical issue for all children, it matters more for low-income children. Policy makers have increased the emphasis on allowing parents, not government, to make decisions about the type of care they want for their children. Yet most research on child care quality has focused on how child care professionals, not parents define high quality care. This study investigates how low-income families evaluate child care quality by examining the child care preferences of a sample of low-income African American parents. We employ the factorial survey method, a method used in sociological research to assess people's perceptions and rankings of individual attributes associated with complex multidimensional phenomena. The factorial survey method permits a simultaneous assessment of how respondents evaluate and make tradeoffs among multiple child care characteristics. We assess the impact of child care characteristics on respondents’ perceptions of child care desirability, fair market value, and willingness to pay. Findings indicate that parents’ definition of quality focused squarely on the care giving environment, specifically the qualifications, experience, training and behavior associated with the child care provider. The type of care facility—family, center, relative or neighbor care was largely irrelevant to this sample of parents. Parents believed that the characteristics they defined as desirable child care situations were worth more, and parents were willing to pay more for these characteristics. These parents also defined quality in terms of race and class, and they wanted racial and economic diversity. This research suggests parents may choose lower quality care, not because they do not know what quality is or because they define quality care differently, but because such care may be neither available nor affordable in their communities.     

Wellbeing in schools: what do students tell us?

Until recently, children and young people’s perspectives have been largely overlooked in considering optimal approaches to supporting their wellbeing at school. This article reports student views on the meaning of ‘wellbeing’ and how this is best facilitated, gathered as part of a large, national research project aimed at understanding and improving approaches to wellbeing in schools. The data reported here were gathered through 67 focus groups, involving 606 primary and secondary school students, across three Catholic school regions in different Australian states. Students provided rich accounts of how they view their wellbeing, conceptualised across three interconnected themes of ‘being’, ‘having’ and ‘doing’. They identified relationships with self, teachers, friends, peers and significant others, as central to their wellbeing. The findings point to immense potential in accessing and utilising children and young people’s views for change and reform in schools in the area of student wellbeing.     

Student Strategies for Learning Computer Programming: Implications for Pedagogy in Informatics

In the context of the debate about the extent to which secondary school Informatics curricula should include specifically vocational content, this paper explores the possibility that in Informatics teaching, there is value in adopting pedagogical approaches, rather than curriculum content, based on practice in industry and business settings. This paper reports research findings that raise questions about the widely held assumption that students will gain their programming knowledge and skills predominantly from classroom activities undertaken at the instigation of the Informatics teacher. Investigation of sources of students' information about programming skills and knowledge indicates that such an assumption is not well founded, and leads to the suggestion that innovative approaches to pedagogy in this area should be explored.Two studies, each a part of a larger project, are reported here. The first showed that a group of Grade 5 students, skilled programmers in the MicroWorlds multimedia programming environment, sought and acquired programming skills and techniques from a wide variety of sources, many of which were not classroom based. The second reports a formalisation of this model of student initiated seeking among a range of resource people for immediately needed expert advice. This was observed in a deliberately constructionist learning environment in an after-school Computer Clubhouse where students are supported by mentors with different specialist areas of expertise as well as by a teacher.The importance of these issues for Informatics teaching, assessment, course design and evaluation, and for the preparation of Informatics teachers is considered, and the need for further research in this area is outlined.     

The Promise of Restorative Practices to Transform Teacher-Student Relationships and Achieve Equity in School Discipline

ABSTRACT

Restorative approaches to school discipline are increasingly being implemented throughout the United States in an attempt to reduce reliance on suspension and eradicate the racial discipline gap. Yet, little is known about the experience of students in classrooms utilizing restorative practices (RP). This study draws on student surveys (N = 412) in 29 high school classrooms. Hierarchical linear modeling and regression analyses show that high RP-implementing teachers had more positive relationships with their diverse students. Students perceived them as more respectful and they issued fewer exclusionary discipline referrals compared with low RP implementers. In addition, the findings demonstrate some initial promise of well-implemented RP for narrowing the racial discipline gap. The study found that higher RP implementers issued fewer discipline referrals to Latino and African American students compared with lower RP implementers. The study findings have implications for equity-focused consultation in schools that honor student experience of new programming.     

Elementary Teachers’ Mathematics Subject Knowledge: the Knowledge Quartet and the Case of Naomi

This paper draws on videotapes of mathematics lessons prepared and conducted by pre-service elementary teachers towards the end of their initial training at one university. The aim was to locate ways in which they drew on their knowledge of mathematics and mathematics pedagogy in their teaching. A grounded approach to data analysis led to the identification of a ‘knowledge quartet’, with four broad dimensions, or ‘units’, through which mathematics-related knowledge of these beginning teachers could be observed in practice. We term the four units: foundation, transformation, connection and contingency. This paper describes how each of these units is characterised and analyses one of the videotaped lessons, showing how each dimension of the quartet can be identified in the lesson. We claim that the quartet can be used as a framework for lesson observation and for mathematics teaching development.     

The influence of instruction,prior knowledge,and values on climate change risk perception among undergraduates

We evaluated influences on the climate change risk perceptions of undergraduate students in an introductory Earth Science course. For this sample, domain‐specific content knowledge about climate change was a significant predictor of students' risk perception of climate change while cultural worldviews (individualism, hierarchy) and political orientation were not. These results contrast with previous studies highlighting worldviews as a dominant influence on risk perception. At the beginning of the semester, students' climate change content knowledge was relatively low, with average scores on a 21‐item test less than 50%. Post instruction results indicated that students learned climate change science during the course, and their perceptions of risks associated with climate change increased. Unlike most prior research evaluating links between climate change knowledge and risk perception, our measure of content knowledge was a validated assessment specific to climate change. Use of this specific climate knowledge test may be one reason that we detected a relationship between climate knowledge and risk perception whereas most of the previous research has not. Another—possibly complementary—explanation may be a generational shift between our study sample and prior samples. Undergraduates today, having grown up with more exposure to climate change in schools and the media than previous generations, may be diverging from average adults in that learning climate science appears to also increase their perceptions of the risks climate change poses. Undergraduate courses with embedded climate‐related activities present an opportunity to both increase climate science knowledge and risk perceptions of future decision makers.     

Familiarity with School English in African American children and its relation to early reading achievement

For children whose everyday speech differs greatly from the School English (SE) they encounter in academic materials and settings, it was hypothesized that greater familiarity with SE would be associated with more successful early reading acquisition. Sentence imitation and reading skills of 217 urban African American students in kindergarten through second grade (ages 5 to 8 years) were assessed. Children in each grade varied widely in the extent to which their imitations of SE sentences included phonological and grammatical forms that are acceptable in African American Vernacular English but not in SE. Higher familiarity with SE (reproducing SE features more often when imitating) was associated with better reading achievement, and these relationships were independent of memory ability.