What about the tertiary climate? Reflecting on five decades of class climate research

Learning Environments Research - Although studies on, and reviews of, class climate have flourished in the past decade, little is known about how student perceptions of the learning environment are...     

A Study of the Career Perspectives of Male Teachers of Young Children

One of the aims of ‘equal opportunities’ policies is to encourage teachers into non‐traditional areas. Consequently, the early years of schooling has witnessed an increase in the number of men teachers opting for this age‐group. This article focuses on the experiences of 11 early years male teachers. The findings suggest that men teachers undertaking a non‐traditional career option will do little to effect a positive change in female educational inequalities. It will be argued that individual and institutional patterns of masculinity and femininity are so entrenched that as more male teachers enter nursery/infant education, male power secures an even deeper hold.     

Marketing undergraduates' attitudes towards query-based instructional machines as a possible learning medium

Six hundred and seventy-one undergraduates completed a questionnaire concerning their reactions to the idea that parts of their degree programmes might be delivered via Query Based Instructional Machines. The latter are commonplace in museums and other cultural attractions. They are menu-driven and operate on the touch-screen principle, thus allowing the user to browse through whichever aspects of a subject the person finds most interesting. Cognitive, affective and conative responses were measured and related to students' personal characteristics, degree programme, year of study, level of academic attainment, psychological involvement with a course, and innate tendencies vis-à-vis need for cognition, curiosity, and change leadership. The sample comprised students on three categories of degree programme: marketing, computing, or humanities. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was completed using aggregated responses as dependent variables, degree type as the fixed factor (grouping variable), and personal characteristics and inclinations as covariates. There were a number of significant differences between the responses of the marketing students and students in the other groups.     

Biological constraints on instrumental and classical conditioning: Retrospect and prospect

The adequacy of traditional approaches to the study of animal learning to account fully for learning phenomena has been seriously questioned during the past decade. Critics of traditional analyses advocated a biological orientation to the interpretation of associative processes and introduced a variety of concepts intended to provide a new framework for the study of animal learning. This promise of a reorientation of the field has not been realized. The concepts of biological constraints, adaptive specializations, and situation specificity of learning have had a less profound influence on the general process approach to instrumental and classical conditioning than anticipated. The present paper makes explicit the conceptual bases of the original biological approaches to learning, identifies reasons why they failed to change fundamentally the study of instrumental and classical conditioning, and proposes an alternative approach to the use of ecological and evolutionary principles in studies of conditioning. We suggest a renewed comparative approach to the study of learning phenomena that avoids many of the difficulties inherent in earlier formulations by providing (1) a strategy for the discovery of adaptive specializations in learning, (2) an ecological framework for the discussion of these adaptive specializations, and (3) a renewed emphasis on the study of species differences in learning.     

Intramaze cues and “odor trails” fail to direct choice behavior on an elevated maze

The relative importance of intramaze cues and extramaze cues in directing choice behavior on a radial arm maze was examined using a discrimination procedure which selectively rewarded rats for following only one set of cues. Rats in the intramaze group obtained food from a food cup on the end of each arm. Rats in the extramaze group obtained food from a food cup on a small platform just beyond the end of each arm. All rats were first shaped to perform correctly with the maze in a constant position. Then the maze was rotated to a new position after every choice. For rats in the intramaze group, the food moved with the arms, making intramaze cues relevant. For rats in the extramaze group, the food remained on the platforms (in the same position in the room), making extramaze cues relevant. Rats in the extramaze group performed almost perfectly during maze rotation, demonstrating that intramaze cues were not necessary to support accurate choice behavior. Rats in the intramaze group never performed better than chance, demonstrating that intramaze cues (from the rats, the reinforcement, and the apparatus) were not adequate to control choice behavior. The results of the present experiment are compared to those of other experiments describing the influence of “odor trails” or other olfactory stimuli on choice behavior in mazes.     

Diversity around the Profile of the `Good' Candidate within French and German Universities

Diversity may occur amonginstitutions that are considered to be similar.This is one of the arguments developed in thispaper through the empirical analysis of facultyrecruitments in history and mathematics withinGerman and French universities. This studyshows that the definition of what constitutes a`good candidate' varies greatly from onedepartment to another and affects the criteriato be taken into account and their respectiveweight in the decision. These variations are tobe explained by the internal dynamics of theparticular national academic labour market, thespecific situation of the department and alsoby its development strategy.     

Evaluating the Social Validity of Project TEAM: A Problem-Solving Intervention to Teach Transition Age Youth with Developmental Disabilities to Resolve Environmental Barriers

Project TEAM teaches transition-age youth with developmental disabilities (DD) to identify physical and social environmental barriers and supports, generate solutions to barriers, and request modifications to increase participation. Establishing the social validity of this environment focused intervention with youth and their parents is critical, given the significant shift the intervention represents from rehabilitation’s more traditional focus on body structures and function. University researchers and youth research collaborators conducted a participatory evaluation of the purpose, procedures, and perceived benefits of Project TEAM. Youth with DD (n = 42) provided feedback using three methods: activity voting, a survey, and a focus group. Parents (n = 37) also provided feedback. Results suggest that both youth and parents find Project TEAM acceptable and relevant to youth’s current and future lives. The majority of youth and parents felt Project TEAM fostered independence and empowerment, although some youth and parents reported challenges with the unique environment-focused approach.     

Understanding silence: an investigation of the processes of silencing in parent–teacher conferences with Somali diaspora parents in Danish public schools

This article questions the dominant understanding that immigrant and refugee parents in parent–teacher conferences are silent because they come from a culture where one does not question the authority of the teacher. Instead, it is argued that they become silent through certain interactional processes. Building on material from an explorative case study of the home–school relations of Somali diaspora families in Danish public schools, the article argues that while these parents have many opinions about their children’s education that they wish to convey, there are institutional and interactional processes in the parent–teacher conference that systematically silence their voices. The understanding of culture as a stable structure that persons are situated within in a top-down manner is thus challenged, arguing that dynamic here-and-now interactions unfolding in a specific practice result in persons becoming, rather than being, silent.