The role of self- and social directed goals in a problem-based, collaborative learning context

Students’ learning goals demonstrate much stronger variety than traditional goal orientation models for classroom learning assume, especially when the educational context allows so. In this empirical study we will investigate the richness of students’ goal orientation in a collaborative learning context. We do so with the help of a goal setting framework that is based on a two-facet approach distinguishing multiple contents (performance, learning, well-being) and goal directions (varying degrees of self vs social direction). To investigate the role of different goal constellations, goal setting and learning performance data of first year students (n = 2,636) in a problem-based, collaborative learning program, and evaluation data of problem-based tutorial groups (#groups = 206) are combined into a multilevel model. Each tutorial group functions in two different educational settings: one directed at open-ended, group problems, the other at closed, individual problems. Educational context appears indeed to have a crucial role in the relationship between students’ goal setting at the one side, and students’ performance and group functioning on the other side.     

A Behaviorally Oriented Study Skills Program

A study skills program should have low time requirements, raise the student’s GPA, and create durable behaviors. Twenty-four male sophomore cadets at the USAF Academy were placed in one of two groups by their rank-order place on a list of academically deficient students. The experimental group and the control group both received normal directive counseling. The experimental group received a behaviorally oriented study skills program requiring two hours of supervisory time and minimal behavior recording and showed a mean increase of .54 GPA points; the control group showed an increase of .02 at the end of the semester. The results indicate this program satisfied the basic requirement of study skills training.     

Different Schools as Narrative Communities: Identity Narratives in Threefold

The last decade identity is often and very fruitfully conceptualized as “narrative identity.” Neither for individuals nor for groups is identity a given beforehand anymore. On the contrary, identity has to be constructed in an inductive way continuously. Three qualitative research methods are applied to explore in an inductive way the school's narrative identity, combining the individual and the group processes of narrative identity construction. Our data reveal a close relationship between autobiographical critical incidents in teachers' and principals' commitment to the school's identity.     

The consistency effect depends on markedness in less successful but not successful problem solvers: An eye movement study in primary school children

This study examined the effects of consistency (relational term consistent vs. inconsistent with required arithmetic operation) and markedness (relational term unmarked [‘more than’] vs. marked [‘less than’]) on word problem solving in 10–12 years old children differing in problem-solving skill. The results showed that for unmarked word problems, less successful problem solvers showed an effect of consistency on regressive eye movements (longer and more regressions to solution-relevant problem information for inconsistent than consistent word problems) but not on error rate. For marked word problems, they showed the opposite pattern (effects of consistency on error rate, not on regressive eye movements). The conclusion was drawn that, like more successful problem solvers, less successful problem solvers can appeal to a problem-model strategy, but that they do so only when the relational term is unmarked. The results were discussed mainly with respect to the linguistic–semantic aspects of word problem solving.     

Ownership concentration and innovativeness of corporate ventures

Corporate venture investments are an established means for incumbent firms to access radical innovation. Drawing from a behavioural agency framework, we distinguish two mechanisms that govern the relationship between corporate venture investment and radical innovation, the safety net that corporate sponsors provide and control incentives. While the safety net induces a gap between the radical innovation success of corporate ventures (CVs) and ventures without a corporate sponsor, the superior radical innovation success of CVs decreases with the corporate sponsor’s incentives to control the venture. The impact of the safety net and control incentives further depends on the corporate sponsor’s position vis-à-vis her aspiration level.     

Team-reflection: the missing link in co-teaching teams

In literature, co-teaching is mostly defined as an instrumental and pedagogical means delivered by collaborating special and regular teachers, from which students with and without special educational needs benefit in regular schools. The importance of a shared vision on the part of members of co-teaching teams as to what they consider as good education for students is not mentioned in definitions of co-teaching. The authors argue that sense-making by reflection about what can be considered as good education – good teaching and good learning – is essential when co-teachers want to understand or change their practice or relationship with their partner. We reviewed 17 articles about co-teaching teams’ professional development and identified that challenges to co-teachers’ professionalisation mostly were directed to interpersonal and normative aspects of development in co-teaching teams. We elaborate on five distinguished movements that can bring about change in teacher professionalism. These movements correspond to the challenges retrieved from the literature review and can be used to contribute to move toward a new perspective on professionalism of co-teachers. A contemporary definition of co-teaching is proposed because former definitions do not suffice to express the value of constructing a shared vision on good teaching and learning. We argue that team-reflection is the missing link in terms of enhancing normative professionalism of co-teaching teams and recommend that further research should be conducted to value team-reflection as a means to overcome challenges of co-teaching teams.     

Students’ Ability to Connect Function Properties to Different Types of Elementary Functions: An Empirical Study on the Role of External Representations

Recent research on the phenomenon of improper proportional reasoning focused on students’ understanding of elementary functions and their external representations. So far, the role of basic function properties in students’ concept images of functions remained unclear. We add to this research line by investigating how accurate students are in connecting functions to their corresponding properties and how this accuracy depends on function types and representations. A large group of 10th graders evaluated for different function types, represented in either a graphical, a formulaic, or a tabular mode, the correctness of statements about their general properties and behavior. Results show that students succeeded rather well in making the right connections between properties and functions. Errors depended not only on the type of function for which the properties were evaluated but also on the kind of representation in which the function was presented. These results highlight the importance of function properties in students’ concept images of functions and suggest positive effects of making these properties explicit to students.     

A culture of knowledge production: testing and observation of Dutch children with learning and behavioural problems (1949–1985)

Abstract

This article focuses on the role the Dutch school for children with “learning and behavioural problems” (LOM) has played in knowledge production about learning disabilities and in the development of academic study of special education between 1949 and 1985. LOM-schooling grew rapidly during these years and attracted relatively many experts. In the selection and admission of LOM-children they had to be distinguished from normal, mentally deficient, and “very difficult” children. Around 1970 experts shifted their focus from the distinction between LOM-children and the latter to the difference between LOM- and mildly mentally retarded children, which turned out to be too small in the end to justify a separate school. The LOM-school’s culture of knowledge production has stimulated both testing and the study of learning problems and their treatment. It functioned as a laboratory for the development of therapeutic treatment for learning disabilities. In particular, the systematic reflection on the practice of remedial teaching was relevant in the development of child science.     

Hemisphere-specific treatment of dyslexia subtypes: a field experiment

Evidence is discussed to show that so-called L- and P-type dyslexia result from deviations in the development of hemispheric subservience in learning to read. Investigations into the validity of the L/P classification are reviewed, as are laboratory experiments on the effects of so-called hemisphere-specific stimulation (HSS). In the present field experiment, 28 L-dyslexic children (mean chronological and reading age 10.6 and 7.5 years, respectively) received HSS of the right hemisphere by the presentation of words to the fingers of the left hand, and 26 P-dyslexic children (mean chronological and reading age 9.4 and 7.2 years, respectively) received HSS of the left hemisphere by the presentation of words to the fingers of the right hand. Control L and P subjects were treated according to the discretion of the remedial teacher. The results underscore the findings of previous laboratory experiments in that (a) HSS-treated L-dyslexics, relative to controls, tended to show larger improvement of accuracy in text reading; and (b) HSS-treated P-dyslexics, relative to controls, showed larger improvement of fluency in word reading.