International Collaboration for In-service: The Bhutanese Multigrade Attachment Program

The Bhutanese Multigrade Attachment Program has developed through collaboration between a number of agencies and institutions in Australia and Bhutan. The collaboration between funding bodies, the Education Division in Bhutan, the University of New England (UNE) and school communities around Armidale features a shared knowledge of what is needed, an approach that does not privilege one partner over another and processes which focus on mutual understanding. It depends upon trust within continuing relationships, and hard work from those involved. The program has developed considerably and it is evident that there have been a range of positive professional and cultural outcomes for those involved in Bhutan and in Australia. Some difficulties are also identified. The paper is a useful case study for workers and academics involved in, or contemplating, development assistance projects.     

Hermeneutics,underdetermination and quantum mechanics

There exists an essential underdetermination in the interpretation of the formalism of quantum mechanics and this extends even to the question of whether or not physical phenomena at the most fundamental level are irreducibly and ineliminably indeterministic or absolutely deterministic. This is true in spite of the widespread belief that logic and empirical considerations alone demand an indeterministic world view in physics. This lends support to Martin Eger's analysis of a role for hermeneutics in science education.     

Self-concept development and educational degree attainment

The present study explores changes in the academic, social, and artistic self-concept of college students over a nine-year period. While the findings demonstrate a positive relationship between the educational degree attainment levels of students and their formation of a more healthy self-concept, the findings further indicate that the relationship is not consistent for males and females. In general, the findings suggest that the collegiate experience does not diminish self-concept gender differences that exist at the time of matriculation. The degree to which changes in students' self-concept is related to selected aspects of their collegiate experience and characteristics of their undergraduate institutions is also explored. The findings indicate that changes in students' self-concept is related to their level of social and academic integration during their undergraduate careers and to the size and selectivity of colleges they attend. The implications of these findings for enhancing students' self-concept during the college years are discussed.     

Correlation between performance in physics and prior mathematics knowledge

The final grade of 1403 students enrolled in the first semester of the introductory, pre-professional physics course has been correlated with performance on a precourse diagnostic test of mathematical skills. The students were from a total of eight different sections taught by six separate instructors over a three year time span. The student population has been separated into two groups, those who completed the course (913 students) and those who dropped (490 students). The drops were assigned a “projected final grade”based on performance up to date of withdrawal. The Pearson product-moment correlation for students who completed the course is 0.418 and correlation for the drops is 0.232. Both correlations are significant at the p < 0.001 level. This study suggests that prior mathematical ability is a primary influence on performance in the course, and has a secondary influence on the tendency to drop out of the course.     

Oregon Teacher Pathway: Responding to National Trends

ABSTRACT

National population trends demonstrate a shift in the U.S. ethnic population, similar to changes in the ethnic landscape of U.S. public schools. However, the teaching landscape has not adjusted to align with student demographics. Research highlights the academic and social/emotional benefit for students of color who experience having a teacher of color during their education. Therefore, it is valuable to consider frameworks for increasing the number of teachers of color in the educational landscape. Although there are initiatives for supporting these efforts in urban communities, rural communities often are not seen as having much need in this area. The authors of this article present literature and findings on the impact and needs for diversifying teacher education, and then outline a self-study of the Oregon Teacher Pathway (OTP) as a framework that takes into consideration promising practices for recruiting and supporting preservice teachers of color in rural eastern Oregon and other rural and urban communities.     

Stimulus intensity affects pigeons’ timing behavior: Implications for an internal clock model

Five pigeons were trained to discriminate between 2- and 10-sec illuminations of a white light; choice of a red pecking key was correct and rewarded after presentation of the short stimulus, whereas choice of a green key was correct and rewarded after presentation of the long stimulus. On half the trials, the light was bright; on the others, it was dim. Durations of 4, 6, and 8 sec of both dim and bright light were also presented; choices on these trials were not rewarded. The probability of the pigeons’ choosing the short alternative decreased in a graded manner as duration of both bright and dim light increased from 2, to 4, to 6, to 8, and to 10 sec. However, the pigeons were more likely to choose the short alternative with longer durations of the dim light than the bright light, a result that implies that the perceived duration of a dim light was shorter than that of a bright light of equal length. One interpretation of this effect is that stimulus intensity affects the rate of the pacemaker in an internal clock mechanism subserving timing of event duration.     

Effects of exteroceptive feedback and safe-box confinement durations on escape behavior in rats

In Experiment 1, rats received escape training in which an exteroceptive feedback cue occurred in the safe box, and safe-box confinement durations of 5 or 20 sec were combined orthogonally with shock-box confinement durations of 5 or 20 sec. Exteroceptive feedback reliably facilitated escape performance relative to no-feedback controls when safe-box confinement was relatively longer than shock-box confinement. Confinement duration also facilitated performance in the absence of exteroceptive feedback. In Experiment 2, escape training with or without feedback was followed by extinction either with the feedback condition of prior training or with the opposite feedback condition. Feedback presentations in extinction reliably increased responding. Feedback removal reliably decreased responding relative to feedback controls. Introduction of feedback in extinction reliably enhanced performance relative to no-feedback controls.     

How Parents Feel About Their Child’s Teacher/School: Implications for Early Childhood Professionals

The purpose of this article is to describe the effects that parent perceptions of their relationships with teachers have on parent involvement. After providing a brief review of literature identifying the importance of parent–teacher relationship formation, the authors provide suggestions for early childhood educators that will help them establish and maintain productive relationships with the families that they serve.     

Counselor Anxiety During a Counseling Interview

Physiological and subjective measures of counselor anxiety were compared to determine if counselors experienced greater anxiety during a counseling interview than during a conversation, Twenty experienced rehabilitation counselors in a graduate-level practicum course volunteered to participate in a 10-minute conversation and counseling session. Anxiety was assessed by self-report skin conductance and heart-rate measures. Results indicated that there were no significant treatment, period, or interaction effects for heart-rate data; however, there was a significant period effect for conductance data. There were no significant differences for participants' self-report evaluations of the two situations. Baseline autonomic data were highly related to autonomic data during the anticipation and stimulus periods, and preexperimental self-report data were moderately related to postexperimental self-report data. Conclusions were that counselors experience comparable anxiety during counseling and conversing, that expectation accounts for most of the counselors' anxiety, and that baseline physiological and self-report data may prove useful in identifying counselors who would experience anxiety during an interview.