The effects of taste extinction on ingestional potentiation in weanling rats

Four experiments investigated taste potentiation in weanling rats. In Experiment 1, the animals that drank a conditioning compound of denatonium and saccharin consumed significantly less on the test than controls that drank only saccharin during conditioning. This enhanced saccharin aversion was decremented by postconditioning extinction to denatonium in Experiment 2, and no generalization of saccharin aversions to the denatonium was observed in Experiment 3. Extinction of either saccharin or denatonium aversions after compound conditioning was shown in Experiment 4 to result in substantial decrements in aversions to the compound. The relationship of these outcomes to a multiple-association account of potentiation and to the role of discrimination processes in ingestional learning is discussed.     

Effects of performance objectives on achievement

The purpose of this investigation was to determine (1) the effects of performance objectives on the achievement level of low achieving black inner city pupils and (2) the effects of giving the students performance objectives prior to beginning instruction The population used in this study was selected from four predominantly black inner city schools. The results of the study show that training teachers to use performance objectives had a significant effect on student cognitive achievement. Although providing students copies of the objectives prior to study did not significantly affect their cognitive achievement, performance objectives, as an instructional technique, seem as effective as traditional methods of instruction currently used with low achievers.     

The neighborhood walk: sources of support in middle childhood

This report documents children's perception of their involvement with self-development, family members, and members of the community and begins to test the relation between that network and aspects of social-emotional functioning during middle childhood. Support was conceptualized to include experiences of both relatedness to and autonomy from others. Three major types of reported support in this study using the Neighborhood Walk were considered: others as resources (e.g., persons in the peer, parent, and grandparent generation; pets), intrapersonal sources of support (e.g., hobbies; fantasies--structured and unstructured; skill development), and environmental sources of support (e.g., places to get off to by oneself; formally sponsored organizations with structured and unstructured activities; informal, unsponsored meeting places). One hundred sixty-eight children (72 7-year-olds and 96 10-year-olds), residing in nonmetropolitan and rural northern California and representing all but the lowest Hollingshead socioeconomic status, participated in this study. To assess their sources of support at home and in the neighborhood/community, each of these 168 children was taken on a Neighborhood Walk, and then several measures of social-emotional functioning were administered. Cross-sectional data form the empirical basis for a developmental perspective on sources of support, the structure of social-emotional functioning, and the relationship between sources of support and social-emotional functioning during middle childhood. The child's perception of support was found relevant to predicting the social-emotional functioning of children growing up in relatively secure and low-stress conditions in modern American society. Furthermore, a broad-based as opposed to a limited network and informal as opposed to formal sources of support were more predictive of social-emotional functioning. The empirical and theoretical relevance of considering middle childhood as a period of active development involving expansion and integration of social and affective phenomena was underscored by the results. First, it appears that the 7-year-olds have not yet developed the underlying response or habit clusters that characterize the 10-year-olds. Second, with respect to reported sources of support, 10-year-olds appear to have more elaborated sources of support than do 7-year-olds. Third, the findings confirm that developing a bridge to extended family and neighborhood resources is related to expressions of social-emotional functioning during middle childhood and that 10-year-olds appear to make effective use of more social support factors than do 7-year-olds.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

The connection between phonological,syntactic and semantic skills and children’s reading and spelling

In recent years two radically different views have dominated discussions about the way in which children learn to read and write. The first view is that the crucial hurdle in learning to read is the discovery of how to do the correct phonological analysis. The second view is that the crucial factor is the use of context, and that children use what they know about the meaning — and particularly the semantics and the syntax — of the passages that they are reading to help them decipher and learn about difficult written words. Learning to read is ‘a psycholinguistic guessing game’ according to this view and children set about it in much the same way as they set about learning to speak. Thus according to the first view children’s semantic and syntactic skills will determine their progress in reading and according to the second it will be their phonological skills. We present longitudinal evidence about a group of children in their first year at school which shows that both kinds of skill do play a part, but that they make entirely different contributions. Semantic and syntactic skills determine how well children make use of the context of what they are reading. Phonological skills affect their use of letter-sound relationships.     

Using Charter Schools to Alleviate Racial Exclusion in Rural America: An Innovative Idea or a Trojan Horse?

ABSTRACT

Racial segregation has remained a lasting legacy of rural schools in southern states. Our article explains a case where community leaders created a diverse charter school to change its historical practice of an isolated White private school and isolated African American public schools. We scan documents and literature related to this integration strategy to surface key themes when using rural charter schools to alter patterns of school segregation. First, we explain pressing issues in rural schools. Second, we describe how segregation and inequality have evolved in the South. Third, we explain research showing how charter schools maintain patterns of school segregation, but with exceptions and nuances in certain contexts. Fourth, we consider the benefits and tensions surrounding one rural charter school that offers an integrated educational program. Benefits range from societal to individual as the school fosters an environment where students are exposed to diverse educational experiences. Tensions include shifting power and funding dynamics and the possibility of using a good example to shepherd in less effective charter models elsewhere.     

The Distinction Between Knowing When to do a Sum and Knowing How to do it

Abstract There is a difference between recognising what kind of sum is needed to solve a mathematical problem on the one hand and doing the sum correctly on the other. There are good grounds for pursuing this distinction. One is that the easy availability of calculators makes the second element a great deal easier for children who know how to use them. Another is that current work on children's cognitive development shows that there are many problems which children have the skill to solve but nevertheless fail to solve because they do not always realise when the skill is needed. I report a pilot study which demonstrates the same sort of thing with subtraction and which deals with the conditions which might encourage children to use the mathematical skills that they do have more effectively.     

Cultivating environmental citizenship in teacher education

Research on environmental action projects in teacher education is limited. Furthermore, projects that emphasize the role of citizens and governments in environmental problem-solving are scarce. The purpose of this study was to explore how participating in a political environmental action project influenced pre-service teachers’ environmental citizenship. Following the steps of Project Citizen, an international civic education program, pre-service teachers learned about and proposed policy solutions to address excessive energy usage at their university. Analysis revealed growth in the pre-service teachers’ environmental citizenry, including their self-efficacy, values awareness, and ecological and civics literacy. Through critical appraisal of their local energy-yielding system, the pre-service teachers recognized energy conservation as a cultural problem with local and global implications, furthering their commitment to action-oriented environmental education.     

The Cognitive Predictors of Computational Skill with Whole versus Rational Numbers: An Exploratory Study

The purpose of the present study was to explore the 3rd-grade cognitive predictors of 5th-grade computational skill with rational numbers and how those are similar to and different from the cognitive predictors of whole-number computational skill. Students (n = 688) were assessed on incoming whole-number calculation skill, language, nonverbal reasoning, concept formation, processing speed, and working memory in the fall of 3rd grade. Students were followed longitudinally and assessed on calculation skill with whole numbers and with rational numbers in the spring of 5th grade. The unique predictors of skill with whole-number computation were incoming whole-number calculation skill, nonverbal reasoning, concept formation, and working memory (numerical executive control). In addition to these cognitive abilities, language emerged as a unique predictor of rational-number computational skill.     

Picture content and preschoolers’ learning from sentences

Do preschoolers remember what they hear when accompanying pictures do not completely overlap sentence content? In two experiments children learned more when the subjects and objects were depicted, but learning was not enhanced by the provision of only the subject or object. Whether explicitly mismatched pictures detracted from learning depended on the nature of the mismatch.     

Relating quality of center-based child care to early cognitive and language development longitudinally

How quality of center-based child care relates to early cognitive and language development was examined longitudinally from 6 to 36 months of age in a sample of 89 African American children. Both structural and process measures of quality of child care were collected through observation of the infant classroom. Results indicated that higher quality child care was related to higher measures of cognitive development (Bayley Scales of Infant Development), language development (Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development), and communication skills (Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales) across time, even after adjusting for selected child and family characteristics. In addition, classrooms that met professional recommendations regarding child:adult ratios tended to have children with better language skills. Classrooms that met recommendations regarding teacher education tended to have girls with better cognitive and receptive language skills. These findings, in conjunction with the growing child-care literature, provide further evidence that researchers and policymakers should strive to improve the quality of child care to enhance early development of such vulnerable children.