Dancing in Fetters? Chinese Principals’ Perceptions of the Effects of Finnish Training Programs

Although there is an increased interest in overseas training for educational leaders in China, little is known about the value of such programs. This qualitative case study explores Chinese school principals’ perceptions of leadership practices and professional development after undertaking a Finnish training program. The article also explores difficulties related to different educational contexts when an attempt is made at applying the Finnish education experience to China. Famed for its excellent education, Finland is currently actively involved in exporting its education by providing such training programs to the whole world. Data was collected by semi-structured interviews with six Shanghai principals. The results showed a certain level of satisfaction but also needs for improvement. It thus appears that such an overseas training program can play a positive but limited role in expanding Chinese principals’ leadership practices and professional development.     

An Embedded and Embodied Cognition Review of Instructional Manipulatives

Recent literature on learning with instructional manipulatives seems to call for a moderate view on the effects of perceptual and interactive richness of instructional manipulatives on learning. This “moderate view” holds that manipulatives’ perceptual and interactive richness may compromise learning in two ways: (1) by imposing a very high cognitive load on the learner, and (2) by hindering drawing of symbolic inferences that are supposed to play a key role in transfer (i.e., application of knowledge to new situations in the absence of instructional manipulatives). This paper presents a contrasting view. Drawing on recent insights from Embedded Embodied perspectives on cognition, it is argued that (1) perceptual and interactive richness may provide opportunities for alleviating cognitive load (Embedded Cognition), and (2) transfer of learning is not reliant on decontextualized knowledge but may draw on previous sensorimotor experiences of the kind afforded by perceptual and interactive richness of manipulatives (Embodied Cognition). By negotiating the Embedded Embodied Cognition view with the moderate view, implications for research are derived.     

Does Your Company Have a Performance GPS?

This article examines the Performance GPS, a tool to use in identifying the paths for getting from here to there. This tool cannot be purchased; it must be built. Building it requires mapping and linking the four basic domains of performance found in organizations: people, processes, units, and the organization itself. A set of such diagrams provides a Performance GPS, a road map to results.     

Problematic students of NASP‐approved programs: An exploratory study of graduate student views

This study reports the findings of an electronic exploratory survey of National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) Student Representatives. The purpose of the survey was to gather information about the perspective of graduate students concerning problematic peers and their experiences with them in school psychology training programs. Findings suggest that (a) students are unsure whether or not their training programs have an official procedure in place for dealing with problematic students; (b) the problems they observe most commonly involve poor interpersonal skills; (c) consistent with other mental health programs, school psychology graduate students most often talk with their peers or avoid contact with the problematic peer when they have concerns rather than go to faculty; (d) the majority (49.4%) of the respondents feel that faculty or training directors have the most responsibility for the identification of problematic peers but that students have an ethical duty to provide information to the teaching staff if they feel they have a reason to believe there is a problem of which the faculty is unaware. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Nudging in education: from theory towards guidelines for successful implementation

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Nudging is one of the strategies from behavioral economics that aims to influence behavior by changing the environment. We propose that it could also...     

Spacing and Interleaving Effects Require Distinct Theoretical Bases: a Systematic Review Testing the Cognitive Load and Discriminative-Contrast Hypotheses

Educational Psychology Review - Spaced and interleaved practices have been identified as effective learning strategies which sometimes are conflated as a single strategy and at other times treated...     

Effects of instructional strategies using cross sections on the recognition of anatomical structures in correlated CT and MR images

This research is an effort to best utilize the interactive anatomical images for instructional purposes based on cognitive load theory. Three studies explored the differential effects of three computer‐based instructional strategies that use anatomical cross‐sections to enhance the interpretation of radiological images. These strategies include: (1) cross‐sectional images of the head that can be superimposed on radiological images, (2) transparent highlighting of anatomical structures in radiological images, and (3) cross‐sectional images of the head with radiological images presented side‐by‐side. Data collected included: (1) time spent on instruction and on solving test questions, (2) mental effort during instruction and test, and (3) students' performance to identify anatomical structures in radiological images. Participants were 28 freshmen medical students (15 males and 13 females) and 208 biology students (190 females and 18 males). All studies used posttest‐only control group design, and the collected data were analyzed by either t test or ANOVA. In self‐directed computer‐based environments, the strategies that used cross sections to improve students' ability to recognize anatomic structures in radiological images showed no significant positive effects. However, when increasing the complexity of the instructional materials, cross‐sectional images imposed a higher cognitive load, as indicated by higher investment of mental effort. There is not enough evidence to claim that the simultaneous combination of cross sections and radiological images has no effect on the identification of anatomical structures in radiological images for novices. Further research that control for students' learning and cognitive style is needed to reach an informative conclusion. Anat Sci Ed 1:75–83, 2008. © 2008 American Association of Anatomists.     

“I Want to Feel That I Live in China”: Imaginaries and Hospitality in International Students’ (mis-)Encounters at a Top Chinese University

Research on international students’ experiences abroad has tended to rely on models of adjustment, integration and/or acculturation to describe their (mis-)encounters with different kinds of people (e.g., co-nationals, locals and other international students). This paper proposes to use the more fluid concepts of imaginaries and hospitality, leaving behind stages and phases of adaption and acculturation, and focusing on the influence of the Structure on their experiences. Based on a discursive pragmatic analysis of interview data with 20 international students at a top Chinese university, the authors review how the students describe the kind of hospitality experienced at this institution and the influence that it has on their (mis-)encounters. Culturalist, differentialist and essentialist imaginaries (static and fixed views of Chineseness) are often used to justify the lack of encounters and the “segregation” and somewhat “positive discrimination” that they experienced. However, the paper shows that, amongst others, the institutional hospitality management for international students leads to closed contexts of encounters and feelings of exclusion. Although the study serves as a case study and cannot be generalized to the many and varied experiences of international students in other universities in China, some recommendations are made to solve, at least in part, misconceptions about what interculturality and hospitality entail in the internationalization of higher education.