Designing technology to support reflection

Technology can play a powerful role in supporting student reflection. Sociocognitive theories provide a conceptual framework that we use to consider systems that afford reflective thinking. Reflective thinking involves actively monitoring, evaluating, and modifying one's thinking and comparing it to both expert models and peers. This requires a combination of both individual and collaborative reflection. These theoretical frameworks suggest four ways that technology can provide powerful scaffolding for reflection: (a) process displays, (b) process prompts, (c) process models, and (d) a forum for reflective social discourse. Each approach is presented with specific examples illustrating its design features. We argue that a systems approach that combines these different scaffolding techniques may be even more powerful. Modern technologies can provide students with rich resources for reflection and help students develop adaptive learning expertise through reflective practice. We conclude with a discussion of design issues that should be considered in the future.The preparation of this article was supported by a Vanderbilt University Research Council grant and a Spencer Fellowship to the first author. The ideas expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the granting agencies. We thank John Bransford, Allan Collins, Ben Loh and Susan Williams for their insightful suggestions on drafts of this article. We also thank Eliot Soloway, Shari Jackson Metcalf and the highly interactive computing group at the University of Michigan for their permission to use the graphics of the Model-It program. Finally, we thank the reviewers for their comments and suggestions.     

An approach to investigate anxiety and hostility in consultee-centered consultation

This paper presents an approach to investigating affect in the process of consultee-centered consultation. The anxiety and hostility of three consultants and consultees was assessed from an intensive analysis of their verbal behavior during consultation. Comparisons to normative data suggested that the anxiety and hostility expressed by consultees was high, relative to that expressed under more neutral conditions, and a relationship was observed between consultee anxiety and consultation outcome. It was concluded that this provides a potentially productive direction for future research in consultation.     

The training and analysis of consultation process using transactional analysis

The present investigation was an attempt to examine the possibility of experimentally manipulating the process of consultation. In this instance, the process of consultation was conceived in terms of the Transactional Analysis paradigm. The study employed a small-N analogue to consultee-centered consultation with the experimental treatment consisting of a training session in Transactional Analysis for the consultants. The treatment effect was assessed against three dependent measures: (a) the subjective evaluations of the consultant-consultee pairs; (b) the percent of behavioral change toward goal; and (c) the number of Adult-Adult transactions characterizing the consultation exchange. The data indicate increases in the number of Adult-Adult transactions, the Average Subjective Evaluation, and the Percent of Goal Attainment for two of the four experimental subject pairs. However, the result for only one subject met the requirements of the multiple baseline design, so that it could be concluded that the observed gains for this subject probably could be attributed to the T.A. training session. In addition to suggesting the influence of Adult-Adult transactions on consultation, this study is felt to offer insight to researchers seeking appropriate experimental designs for manipulating relevant process variables in consultation and detecting the effects of these manipulations.     

School Resource Officers, ‘Zero Tolerance’ and the Enforcement of Compliance in the American Education System

Schools are an important part of any community, and are increasingly considered responsible for the social education of young people as much as their academic instruction. In doing so, many schools have adopted a ‘zero tolerance’ response to student conduct that involves harsh penalties for minor infractions. At the heart of this zero tolerance approach is the use of School Resource Officers (SROs) as a means of enforcing student discipline. Involvement of these sworn police officers in the day-today behaviour management processes of a school has serious implications for students that are targeted by these measures. Students at schools with a SRO presence are five times more likely to be arrested for disorderly conduct, with over 10,000 prosecutions of young people under the so-called ‘disturbing schools’ laws every academic year. SROs and their use as a behavioural deterrent can be seen to influence a juvenile’s likelihood of recidivism and heavily impacts upon their involvement in the school-to-prison pipeline. Direct causal connections exist between the criminalisation of misbehaviour in school and adult incarceration; in this sense, the presence of SROs in American schools must be re-evaluated in order to determine whether they constitute an acceptable application of social control.     

Prevention Through Consultation: A Model to Guide Future Developments in the Field of School Psychology

The Invitational Conference on the Future of School Psychology held at Indiana University in 2002 had implications for consultation. It addressed projected shortages in school psychologists that provide a rationale for service delivery models integrating consultation and prevention. The conference discussed the need for effective work with children, families, and professionals from diverse cultures; success in fostering productive home-school connections; optimal and ethical use of rapidly changing technologies; and the use of empirical evidence to inform practice. This article presents a model of consultation and prevention informed by recent research in positive psychology as well as public health models. This model is discussed in the context of these and other important developments in the field of school psychology.     

Fish Swim,Rocks Sit,and Lungs Breathe: Expert-Novice Understanding of Complex Systems

Understanding complex systems is fundamental to understanding science. The complexity of such systems makes them very difficult to understand because they are composed of multiple interrelated levels that interact in dynamic ways. The goal of this study was to understand how experts and novices differed in their understanding of two complex systems, the human respiratory system and an aquarium ecosystem. In particular, we examined how a representation of complex systems, Structure-Behavior-Function theory (SBF), might account for these differences. SBF is particularly relevant in understanding biological systems because an important domain principle is the relation between form, function, and mechanism. Our results demonstrated that there were minimal differences between the expert and novice groups on structures, but that the locus of the difference was on understanding causal behaviors and functions, the least salient elements of the systems. Mental model analysis provided largely convergent results. We also found differences between the two different kinds of experts in each domain. These results suggest that SBF does capture expert-novice differences and may have implications for instruction.     

Validation of the Early Childhood Ecology Scale-Revised: A Reflective Tool for Teacher Candidates

Given increasing numbers of young culturally and/or linguistically diverse (CLD) children across the United States, it is crucial to prepare early childhood teachers to create high-quality environments that facilitate the development of all children. The Early Childhood Ecology Scale-Revised (ECES-R) has been developed as a reflective tool to help early childhood teacher candidates examine their beliefs concerning classroom ecology. Using cultural responsivity and classroom management theories as the theoretical framework, the authors posit that the ECES-R identifies five dimensions that promote a high-quality, culturally responsive classroom ecology. These include the sociocognitive, sociocultural, sociolinguistic, socioemotional, and sociophysical dimensions. Evidence for reliability and validity was established. Factor analysis supported the five proposed dimensions, with the identification of an additional dimension: sociocomfort.