State-dependent retention induced by postacquisition exposure to pentobarbital or shock stress in rats

Although state-dependent retention (SDR) has been the focus of considerable research in recent years, there has been little work demonstrating this phenomenon when the treatment is administeredafter learning. In the present study, the effectiveness of two different treatments, pentobarbital and shock-induced stress, in producing postacquisition SDR in rats was examined. In all experiments, water-deprived rats were exposed to a novel flavor, apple juice, on each of 2 days. Subjects that remember their initial exposure to this substance should show an increase in consumption on their second exposure (i.e., an attenuation of neophobia). It was found that subjects exposed to pentobarbital (Experiment 1) or shock-induced stress (Experiment 2) immediately after their initial exposure did not increase their intake on the subsequent exposure unless they were reexposed to pentobarbital (Experiment 1) or shock-induced stress (Experiment 2b) shortly prior to that exposure. These results clearly show that this “attenuation of neophobia” paradigm can be used to investigate postacquisition SDR.     

Training humanitarian professionals at a distance: testing the feasibility of distance learning with humanitarian professionals

Training is an essential part of the professional development of staff working for international humanitarian organizations. While humanitarian workers are being deployed around the world to provide life‐saving relief assistance in often‐hazardous missions, it is imperative for organizations to ensure that staff members understand the mission and protocol of their organizations and that they develop an appreciation for the impact their work has on beneficiaries. Demand for such training has been expanding exponentially over the last decade with the growing number of humanitarian organizations and personnel. In the United Nations alone, an estimated 37,000 civilian personnel are being employed as part of UN humanitarian operations, an increase of 54% since 1997; 75% of this personnel is composed of national staff of the countries of operation (United Nations, 2008 United Nations. 2008. “Towards a culture of security and accountability”. In Report of the Independent Panel on Safety and Security of UN Personnel and Premises Worldwide Retrieved July 26, 2008, from http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/terrorism/PanelOnSafetyReport.pdf [Google Scholar]). With the increasing reliance of humanitarian organizations on national staff to manage their field operations, the professional development of staff members poses an ever‐growing challenge due to the remoteness and distribution of staff, limiting organizations’ ability to maintain the coherence and cogency of their mission and methods. Although many international humanitarian organizations have adopted some form of distance learning into their staff training, few organizations have evaluated the effectiveness of their distance learning programs. This research briefly evaluates the literature relevant to the use of distance learning for training professional staff in the humanitarian field, assesses how distance learning programs are being used among select humanitarian organizations based in the USA, and reviews the results of a pilot distance learning course offered to mid‐career professionals working on international humanitarian issues in a professional capacity.     

Les premieres acquistions de la notion de nombre par l'enfant

This paper describes the observation and analysis of clinical interviews with children who had just entered Cours Preparatoire (which is the first year of compulsory education in France: six-year old). The main object of these interviews was to gain information about the first acquisition of the idea of number by children before entering compulsory education, particularly on the following points:

· numerical range in which the child knows the comptine numerique (i.e. chanting or reciting of sequences of numbers such as “one two three four five six seven” for example);

· different uses of this comptine when the child has to solve problems (numbering a given collection, or finding the cardinal number of a given set when an element is added or taken away, or determining the numerical relation which exists between two given collections, or transformating this relation...).

In addition, our study shows how some number properties which apparently are obvious (for teachers), in fact pose very important questions about the acquisition of number concepts by children.     

The relationship of school‐wide Positive Behavior Support to academic achievement in an urban middle school

An emerging literature on school‐wide Positive Behavior Support (PBS) in urban settings suggests the utility of PBS in addressing student social development while decreasing the need for disciplinary actions (i.e., office disciplinary referrals [ODRs]). This research represents a significant addition to, and expansion of, this literature by examining the relationship of school‐wide PBS‐induced reductions in out‐of‐class referrals to student academic achievement. School‐wide PBS was implemented in an urban, inner‐city middle school in the Midwest over a 3‐year period. Data on ODRs, suspensions, standardized test scores, and treatment fidelity were gathered and analyzed. Results demonstrated significant reductions in ODRs and suspensions and increases in standardized math and reading scores. Additionally, regression analyses suggested a significant relationship between student problem behavior and academic performance. Treatment adherence to PBS procedures was significantly correlated with reductions in problem behavior. These findings are discussed in terms of helping urban schools address challenging behavior. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 701–712, 2006.     

Mentoring retrained teachers: extending the web

Novice teachers need support if they are to survive the reality of school. A web of relationships involving members of the school community, mentors outside the school community and a university tutor has been shown to be an effective way of providing this assistance. This article describes an extended web of assistance offered to a group of 11 teachers retrained to teach science. As they made the transition to science teaching these teachers identified a need for guidance and support in learning about a new subject and a new school environment. In some cases the school community was able to provide this guidance and support but in other cases the retrained teachers were met with scepticism by their fellow teachers and needed assistance from other sources. The extended web of relationships they accessed included district consultants provided by the employer, mentors located outside of the school, fellow graduates and a university tutor. All retrained teachers were also assisted in their development as reflective teachers by the production of a portfolio. The addition of an online component to the portfolio, allowing the sharing of ideas between the retrained teacher and the university tutor coordinating the program is proposed as a valuable component of the mentoring network.     

The Multiple Subfunctions of Attention: Differential Developmental Gateways to Literacy and Numeracy

Attention is construed as multicomponential, but the roles of its distinct subfunctions in shaping the broader developing cognitive landscape are poorly understood. The current study assessed 3‐ to 6‐year‐olds (N = 83) to: (a) trace developmental trajectories of attentional processes and their structure in early childhood and (b) measure the impact of distinct attention subfunctions on concurrent and longitudinal abilities related to literacy and numeracy. Distinct trajectories across attention measures revealed the emergence of 2 attentional factors, encompassing “executive” and “sustained–selective” processes. Executive attention predicted concurrent abilities across domains at Time 1, whereas sustained–selective attention predicted basic numeracy 1 year later. These concurrent and longitudinal constraints cast a broader light on the unfolding relations between domain‐general and domain‐specific processes over early childhood.     

An Educational Case Study in Protocol Verification and Distributed Observation

This paper describes a case study presented to students in computer science during a course on formal techniques for protocol validation. The course teaches some basic notions on specification, simulation, verification, testing and distributed observation. The case study is the classical alternating-bit protocol. The exercise first consists of some simple modeling and simulation of the specification and verification of some basic service properties. It is then followed with the problem of observation of distributed executions of the protocol. This kind of experiment was found to be useful for students, since they gain an understanding of the importance and necessity of formal methods for protocol validation.     

Le Système ESSOR d'Expérimentation Scientifique Simulée et ses Potentialités Pédagogiques

Summaries

English

One of the main aims in the teaching of science is the acquisition of an experimental methodology. The principal obstacles to this methodological training are briefly analysed; they arise mainly from the shortage of time available for experimental work. In this article, computer‐simulated scientific experimentation is proposed as an aid in overcoming these obstacles. This type of teaching, integrated into a classical curriculum, does not exclude laboratory work, which is still indispensable for the learning of techniques. To facilitate the setting up of the proposed method, the ESSOR system simulation on mini‐computer has been developed. Its technical and pedagogic characteristics are described. This system allows the easy simulation of experiments analogous to those of the laboratory. The student using it is free to adopt individual procedures for the study of a proposed phenomenon; the system follows up automatically the individual activity of students and frees the instructor from most of the difficulties in programming work.     

The Value of Certain Factors for Direct and Differential Prediction of Academic Success

Are some students advantaged when changing multiple-choice answers? The authors of this investigation assessed the importance of an examinee's cognitive style in the answer-changing process. Two separate studies were conducted using undergraduates (n = 125 and n = 84). One set of variables consisted of a measure of field dependence/field independence, a measure of impulsivity/reflectivity, and an introductory psychology unit examination made up of multiple-choice items. A second set of variables was formed by gathering two answer-changing scores for each subject using the scannable forms from the unit examination—one reflecting the effect of answer changes and the other representing the number of changes. Canonical correlation analysis was used to describe the relationship between the two sets of variables. Only the first canonical correlation coefficient was statistically significant in each study. The structure coefficients indicated that the cognitive-style variables had little impact on the canonical solution and that a combination of the effect of answer changes, the number of changes, and unit examination scores were the most influential components of the first canonical variates.     

The Value of Amount of Tardiness and Absence for Direct and Differential Prediction of Academic Success

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among nine measures of attitude toward quantitative concepts and verbal and quantitative aptitude. Subjects were 353 graduate students enrolled in educational research courses. The attitude measures consisted of nine factor scores drawn from a seman tic differential instrument; the aptitude measures were the Graduate Record Examination Verbal and Quantitative scores. Canonical correlation was used to relate the attitude to the aptitude measures. Two significant canonical variates were obtained. The first showed a moderate relationship between positive attitudes toward quantitative concepts and high quantitative aptitude. The second indicated a slight relationship between negative attitudes toward quantitative concepts and high verbal aptitude.