Expectancies as mediators in the differential-reward conditional discrimination performance of pigeons

In a series of within-subject experiments employing a two-choice delayed conditional discrimination task, pigeons chose correctly more often when kind of correct choice and kind of reinforcer were perfectly correlated than when uncorrelated. Correct choice behavior fell to chance levels when the correlation was reversed or when it was removed by using only one kind of reinforcer. Implications for mediation theories are discussed, with the conclusion being that, although the possibility that instrumental mediators are present in this situation cannot be dismissed, the overall pattern of results indicates that classical mediators are of principal importance in this type of task.     

A teacher education program in elementary science that connects content,methods, practicum,and student teaching

Conclusion To educate teachers who have adequate content knowledge, possess the necessary skills to implement effective teaching strategies, and are confident and have positive attitudes toward science and the teaching of science, alternative teaching models are necessary. The University of Wyoming model provides such an alternative. Based on observations and interviews of students and the mentor teachers, it is apparent that it has created a very positive response in prospective teachers who have participated in it. The Wyoming model provided an effective process to train future elementary teachers. Even though it focused on science, the basis is general enough that it could be successfully extended to other disciplines with only minor modifications; however, all of the major components of the Wyoming model are vital to its success. Content courses designed specifically for prospective teachers have been successful in giving the students the content knowledge and providing opportunities for effective modeling. The seminars provide strong mechanisms to connect content to methodology and make the content relevant to teaching and to children. Because of their modeling, peer coaching, and sharing their time and students, the mentor teachers are essential partners in helping the university educate future teachers. Finally, the cooperation of all partners—district administrators, teachers, science content and science education university faculty, and students—is necessary to provide early and continuous experiences to prospective teachers. This material is based upon work supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation (Grant No. TTE-8851105). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, and/or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NSF.     

Enhancement of pigeons’ conditional discrimination performance by expectancies of reinforcement and nonreinforcement

Prior work has shown that when the separate correct responses of a conditional discrimination are followed by different reinforcing outcomes, performance is enhanced relative to that obtained under the conventional, single-reinforcer procedure. Four experiments with pigeons yielded the analogous finding when the different outcomes were reinforcement and explicit nonreinforcement. Controls indicated that the results could not be attributed to the effects of intermittent reinforcement, to possible differences in cue duration, or to a variety of potential sources of conditioned reinforcement. An interpretation in terms of expectancy learning is proposed.     

Stichwort: Entwicklung sprachlicher Fähigkeiten von Kindern und Jugendlichen im Bildungskontext

This article contains a review of recent research on the topic of language development in an educational research perspective. The contribution is focussed on research which was carried out in the German education system. The starting point of such research was the insight that mastery of a language is of core importance for educational success as well as for participation in a society. The research which is presented in this review article strives to identify factors that are relevant for the development of different language abilities during an education biography. The article starts with an overview of international and national research traditions which build the ground for the investigation of language development in an educational research perspective. A second part of the article deals with research projects that aimed to unveil factors which are influential for differential language development during a school career. In the third part of the article, an outlook on recent research is presented which deals with the question how language development can be fostered and supported by educational institutions. In Germany, such projects are just beginning. They mainly derive from the evaluation of model projects or other practical experiments; only very few experimental intervention studies have been carried out.     

Elimination of lipaemic interference by high-speed centrifugation

IntroductionIn order to deliver high quality results, detection and elimination of possible analytical interferences, such as lipaemia, is crucial. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of high-speed centrifugation in eliminating lipaemic interference and to define own lipaemic index (LI) for the studied biochemical analytes.Materials and methodsEvaluated analytes were: albumin, alkaline phosphatase, alanine-aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate-aminotransferase (AST), calcium, creatinine, gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT), glucose, phosphates, total proteins, urea and total bilirubin. Those analytes and LIs have been analysed in duplicate in the Roche Diagnostics-c8000 analyser in samples centrifuged at 3000 rpm/10 minutes in the SL16 (Thermo Scientific, Waltham, USA) centrifuge and according to an own high-speed centrifugation protocol (12,900 rpm/15 minutes) in the MicroCL17R (Thermo Scientific, Waltham, USA) centrifuge. Lipaemia has been measured in each sample. The efficiency of high-speed centrifugation is verified by the Wilcoxon test (P < 0.05). In cases where significant differences are observed, our own LI is calculated. For ALT and AST, it is verified by McNemar test (P < 0.05). For creatinine, both Wilcoxon and McNemar test were applied.ResultsThere were statistically significant differences in analyte concentration before and after high-speed centrifugation for: albumin, creatinine, GGT, glucose, phosphates, urea and total bilirrubin. Own LI is calculated. McNemar test shows statistically significant diferences in the proportion of delivered results before and after high-speed centrifugation in ALT, AST and creatinine.ConclusionsThis study confirms the efficacy of high-speed centrifugation protocol for all the considered analytes, excepting calcium, alkaline phosphatase and total proteins.     

探索有效终身学习之指标:“学习能量”及其动态测评

“学习能量”有关学习的倾向、态度和价值观,是英国教育界近年来出现的讨论“学会学习”的一种新的话语.它包含了改变与学习、意义建构、探究意识、创造力、学习关系、战略意识和心理弹性七大维度.“有效终身学习指标”作为其动态测评工具,对教学和科研的意义重大.“学习能量”为切实改进教学法、进行课程变革、开展个性化学习以及发展终身学习型社会提供了有力的理论依据和实践框架.它最大的创新之处在于激发并解放了学习者终身学习的能动性,对进一步深化中国的教育改革有着重要的启示.     

Stichwort: Professionelle Kompetenz von Lehrkräften

Ohne Zusammenfassung      

Die Bedeutung der sozialen Herkunft und des Migrationshintergrundes f��r Lehrerurteile am Beispiel der Grundschulempfehlung

In Germany, teachers give a recommendation on the type of school a student should attend after primary school. In some federal states, access to a more demanding school type is restricted to students holding an appropriate recommendation. In a first step, we discuss different theories and approaches as to why a student??s social origin or migration background has an impact on the recommendation, irrespective of school performance. Then we test different hypotheses using data of a combined teacher, student, and parent survey, conducted from the 3^rd grade on in Bavaria and Hessen. Overall, we have information on 1.644 students and 147 teachers. We find strong relationships between social origin and school recommendations as teachers take parents?? educational aspirations into account. Students?? positive school behavior has a positive impact on getting a recommendation for a higher school type; however, the influence of parents?? socio-economic status remains. The data show no evidence for children with migration backgrounds facing greater risks of receiving lower recommendations than other children??irrespective of their family language.     

The Physical Educator as Evaluator

There has been a limited interest in examining physical education teacher educators’ role and practices in embedding professional responsibility and commitment to continued professional learning for both teacher educators and pre-service teachers in a physical education teacher education (PETE) program (MacPhail, 2011) Directed by a landscape of community of practice (CoP) as professional development (Parker, Patton &; Tannehill, 2012), this article shares four case studies that demonstrate the extent to which PETE learning can be mapped onto the landscape. In essence, a CoP is sustained over time, involves shared member goals, involves frequent discourse, is active and social, and is characterized by problems being solved by the members. The ideas in this article in tandem with Wenger's (1998) CoP process can encourage teacher educators to consider whether opportunities undertaken in a PETE program, and with colleagues external to the PETE program, encourage an authentic CoP.