Differential acquisition of discriminated autoshaping as a function of stimulus qualities and locations

In each of two experiments, different groups of pigeons were required to discriminate between one of two basic kinds of stimulus differences: stimulus quality or stimulus location. For stimulus-quality groups, a key was illuminated by one of two colors on trials ending with food delivery and by the other color on trials ending with no food. For stimulus-location groups, a key was illuminated at one of two locations on trials ending with food delivery and at the other location on trials ending with no food. The birds began to respond differentially to the stimuli (i.e., peck the keys on food trials and not peck the keys on no-food trials) earlier in acquisiton if the stimulus qualities served as the signals for trial outcomes than if the stimulus locations served as those signals. The results from both experiments are consistent with predictions from a hypothesis regarding interactions among the qualities and locations of stimuli and responses (the “quality-location hypothesis”). Furthermore, the present results support other recent demonstrations of the important role that spatial relations among stimuli can play in classical conditioning.     

Predictors of reading delay in deaf adolescents: the relative contributions of rapid automatized naming speed and phonological awareness and decoding

Deaf readers often fail to achieve age-appropriate reading levels. In hearing children, two cognitive factors correlated with reading delay are phonological awareness and decoding (PAD) and rapid automatized naming (RAN) of visual material. In this study we explored the contribution of these factors to reading and reading delay in a sample of deaf students (N = 49, mean age 13 years) whose reading age (RA) was around 7 years. Although PAD performance was poor in the deaf students compared with RA-matched hearing controls, it nevertheless correlated with their RA. Whether tested in sign or speech, RAN was much faster in the deaf group than in RA-matched hearing controls but showed no direct relationship with reading level or reading delay. We conclude that in contrast to PAD, which is a factor in both deaf and hearing reading achievement, RAN may be only indirectly related to reading in deaf students.     

Write on or write off? An exploration of Asian international students’ approaches to essay writing at an Australian university

This paper investigates the approaches taken to essay writing by five Asian international students at an Australian university. Analysis of their in‐depth interviews reveals links between their perceptions of learning, their perceptions of essay writing, their motivation for completing the task, and their awareness of the structural conventions of the essay as a genre. These links are apparent, irrespective of whether the students were taking a deep or a surface approach to the task. In addition, analysis of the interviews shows that the students who were taking a deep approach to writing had developed high levels of cross‐cultural awareness, specifically in relation to the learning cultures, and the discursive structures of academic writing in Australia and their home country. Implications for the practice of teaching academic writing within the context of increasing cultural diversity in higher education are discussed.     

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 Vibrating Universe: Astronomy for the Deaf

The Deaf have often been overlooked when designing informal STEM education and public outreach activities. Astronomers at UC Riverside and teachers at the California School for the Deaf, Riverside (CSDR), have designed an astronomy workshop aimed specifically for the Deaf using the school’s on-site sound lab. We have used astronomy for this workshop because the field has a significant edge over other sciences to act as portal for K-12 engagement in science given the imagery it presents, the answers it offers to grand questions, and its interdisciplinary nature. The workshop is an unconventional activity that excites the students and provides a positive experience in astronomy, based on knowledge that they already acquired beforehand in the classroom. Our workshop uses electromagnetic emissions, enhanced sounds and sonification processes of cosmic phenomena that have low frequencies and sufficiently distinguishable patterns which are delivered to students through a specialized designed sound lab for the Deaf. Storytelling paired with videos and images are used to give understandable meaning to the sounds of the Universe. Positive feedback was collected from over 80 students who participated in our workshop. Our activity can be reproduced elsewhere to further engage the Deaf community in science.

     

University to school: challenging assumptions in subject knowledge development

This investigation addresses the complex issue of teachers' subject knowledge. Specifically it focuses on the teaching of secondary school English; however, the principles it suggests apply more widely. Drawing on the experiences of trainee English teachers undertaking full‐time and flexible PGCE courses during both their university‐ and school‐based training, it explores the subject knowledge models of Banks, Leach & Moon and of Grossman, Wilson & Shulman, delineating how these can be used as a foundation on which beginning teachers can build their own personal deliverable models of subject.     

Ideological tensions in the educational choice practices of modern Greek Cypriot parents: the role of social capital

The rapid modernisation process of Greek Cypriot society has created a cultural environment with an amalgam of traditionalist and modernist ethical attitudes, and antagonisms between them concerning, among other things, social advancement. These have implications for the way individuals and families develop various strategies of choice‐making for post secondary school destinations and for issues of social justice. We focus on social capital networks and resources. Our arguments are supported by the analysis of attitudes, beliefs, practices and resources available to a sample of 24 Greek Cypriot parents for choice‐making about the educational and occupational futures of their children. In discussion we offer modelling of these processes plus, more speculatively, implications for the possible emergence of a transcendent postmodernist cultural recontextualisation of social capital practices in contemporary Cyprus and for the ethics of social capitalism more generally.     

Disciplinary differences and other variations in assessment cultures in higher education: exploring variability and inconsistencies in one university in England

This article argues that differing disciplinary assessment cultures are likely to be an important factor in explaining differences in student marks and grades both within and between higher education institutions. Using institution-wide data on undergraduate student marks over the last five years in one UK higher education institution we demonstrate variability in the distribution of marks in terms of the ‘distance travelled’. This issue was further explored via interviews with senior teaching-active staff. We suggest that the distribution of marks is likely to reflect different disciplinary assessment cultures as well as complexity in the process of marking and assessment. These findings signify that it will be highly challenging, if not impossible, to establish nationally comparable learning gain measures using student mark data because of the underlying inconsistencies in the process of awarding marks. In the current higher education context, with the ongoing implementation of the Teaching Excellence Framework, it remains important to debate and further investigate these issues with all stakeholders, including students.     

Teacher education for rural–regional sustainability: changing agendas,challenging futures,chasing chimeras?

Rural schooling has remained a concern for policy‐makers, employers, teacher education providers and schools throughout our recent history. In particular, the allegedly variable quality of teaching and learning in rural Australia is a major concern for teacher educators and educational leaders alike, with the provision of quality services for rural Australians a major equity issue in social as well as political terms. Working from an explicitly situated perspective, this paper explores these issues in relation to a set of current and recent research projects and government reports, with particular reference to a study currently exploring the articulation of teacher education and rural schooling in New South Wales. This is contextualized within a larger agenda of national and environmental sustainability which raises the key issue of social policy and educational priorities as we look forward into a radically uncertain future for teacher education, rural schooling and rural‐regional sustainability.