Resistance and invention: becoming academic,remaining other

In this paper, we take an unsanctioned academic network, a writing group, as a site of inquiry into both the broad given-ness of the norms of the neoliberal academy and our simultaneous compliance with and resistance to these norms. We choose to comply because we are invested in becoming academics; we continue to research and write for conferences and publication and to frame our scholarly work in terms of how it can be used on our CVs. We choose to resist by working collaboratively and towards remaining intelligible (both to ourselves and to those outside the academy) while becoming scholars. Here we put several concepts to work to think about the role of the writing group in our experiences as becoming-scholars, in particular ‘becoming-minoritarian,’ ‘schizoid subjectivities,’ ‘agential assemblage,’ and ‘institutional passing.’ Then, to think about how we (might) live through the process of becoming academic, we turn to the concept of survivance.     

Generation of descriptive text headings

The effectiveness of having students generate their own headings for scientific text is assessed. Results reveal that generating headings enhance performance on a number of recall measures compared to either author-provided headings or no headings. Educational implications are discussed.     

“Simultaneous immersion”: How online postgraduate study contributes to the development of reflective practice among public service practitioners

This paper examines how the process of engaging simultaneously in study and work – through online distance-based study – affects students’ capacity to apply their learning in and for the workplace. The paper takes as its starting point the importance of extending notions of “educational effectiveness” beyond course-based attainment to encompass the impact of learning within the workplace. It explores the interface between study and work, focusing on the case of online postgraduate programmes in public management at the University of York. It finds that simultaneous immersion in study and work can create the conditions for “public reflection” that underpin work-based learning and that a key factor is the student-practitioner's ability to mobilise “episodic power.” The paper suggests ways in which existing approaches to online postgraduate learning might be enhanced in order to capitalise on these conditions of simultaneous immersion.     

Reinstatement after counterconditioning

Reinstatement after counterconditioning was examined in three experiments with rats. The rats received CS-shock pairings in Phase 1 and then CS-food pairings in Phase 2. When unsignaled shock was presented after appetitive conditioning, fear performance to the CS replaced food performance. This reinstatement effect depended on initial pairings of the CS and shock in Phase 1. It also depended on shock exposure occurring in the test context. The results parallel previous data obtained after extinction. Counterconditioning and extinction yield several parallel effects (spontaneous recovery, renewal, and now reinstatement) which suggest that Phase 2 does not destroy the learning acquired in Phase 1.     

Cookbook Procedures in MBL Physics Exercises

This paper presents the results of a controlled experiment comparing the conceptual mechanics learning gains as measured by the FCI between two laboratory groups. One group completed cookbook labs while the other completed the IE labs in RealTime Physics.     

Why School is not Easy: An Analytical Perspective

An overarching theory that enables a systematic study of learning recently has been developed. Motivation, for example, is something we all think we know when we see. It was an important step to recognize that motivation can be conceptualized in terms of allocating working memory and especially attention to a learning task. The unified learning model (ULM) was synthesized from the literature with this in mind. Using the ULM as a basis for analysis, it is possible to consider all aspects of learning. A good place to begin concerns schools in general and why, in particular, school is not thought of as being easy. The ULM explains that allocating working memory often requires effort, and any exertion of such effort may be perceived as being hard. This paper is an analysis of school learning and especially science learning (STEM learning) in terms of the ULM.     

Serving Latino Farmworker Students in Michigan Summer Migrant Programs: Directors’ Perspectives

This survey and interview-based study examined the perspectives of 30 of the 38 migrant directors in Michigan, covering 26 summer migrant programs. Among the findings of this study were an unexpected inverse relationship between the size of programs and the frequency and number of external services and referrals they are able to provide for students; a widespread concern with interstate credit accrual and communication between state programs as well as differences in program directors’ perceptions of the ease of interstate communication; and a generally positive response to the suggestion of a new statewide evaluation protocol for migrant programs.