PERCEPTIONS BY VI FORM STUDENTS OF COURSES IN BUSINESS STUDIES AND ENGINEERING EMPLOYING A MULTI‐ATTRIBUTE MODEL

This paper gives an account of the use of cluster analysis to obtain benefit segmentations by which sixth‐formers could be grouped according to their responses to twenty three criteria on the choice of ‘course’ in Higher Education.     

Cognitive skills in the reading process: a review

Some current problems in reading, as viewed by cognitive psychology, are discussed around a summary of a symposium on Reading and Lexical Access held ac, part of the International Conference on Practical Aspects of Memory (Gruneberg, Morris arid Sykes, 1978). The analysis of component processes in reading, and the analysis of reading dynamics provide apparently opposing approaches to the study of reading, but they often lead to similar conclusions about reading behaviour and are seen here to be complementary approaches. Prompted by the discussion of phonological mediation in a number of the papers we are led to the conclusion that whereas phonological reading can be observed to be used on some occasions, it is not necessaryfor word recognition and reading. Three hypotheses of its use by skilled readers are suggested—for sequential attention control, for the generation of a working memory code, and for the resolution of ambiguity by prosodics. The beginning reader may have a further use in gaining a spoken representation, and therefore recognition, of new words.     

The relative effectiveness of computer‐based and traditional resources for education in anatomy

There is increasing use of computer–based resources to teach anatomy, although no study has compared computer‐based learning to traditional. In this study, we examine the effectiveness of three formats of anatomy learning: (1) a virtual reality (VR) computer‐based module, (2) a static computer‐based module providing Key Views (KV), (3) a plastic model. We conducted a controlled trial in which 60 undergraduate students had ten minutes to study the names of 20 different pelvic structures. The outcome measure was a 25 item short answer test consisting of 15 nominal and 10 functional questions, based on a cadaveric pelvis. All subjects also took a brief mental rotations test (MRT) as a measure of spatial ability, used as a covariate in the analysis. Data were analyzed with repeated measures ANOVA. The group learning from the model performed significantly better than the other two groups on the nominal questions (Model 67%; KV 40%; VR 41%, Effect size 1.19 and 1.29, respectively). There was no difference between the KV and VR groups. There was no difference between the groups on the functional questions (Model 28%; KV, 23%, VR 25%). Computer‐based learning resources appear to have significant disadvantages compared to traditional specimens in learning nominal anatomy. Consistent with previous research, virtual reality shows no advantage over static presentation of key views. Anat Sci Educ 6: 211–215. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

Pubertal development of the understanding of social emotions: Implications for education

Recent developmental cognitive neuroscience research has supported the notion that puberty and adolescence are periods of profound socio-emotional development. The current study was designed to investigate whether the onset of puberty marks an increase in the awareness of complex, or “mixed,” emotions. Eighty-three female participants (aged 9–16 years) were divided into three groups according to a self-report measure of puberty stage (early-, mid- and post-puberty). Participants were presented with emotional scenarios, and used four linear scales to rate their emotional response to each scenario. Scenarios were designed to evoke social emotions (embarrassment or guilt) or basic emotions (anger or fear), where social emotions are defined as those which require the representation of others' mental states. We measured the relative complexity or “mixedness” of emotional responses, that is, the degree to which participants reported feeling more than one emotion for a given scenario. We found that mixed emotion reporting increased between early- and post-puberty for social emotion scenarios, and showed no relationship with age, whereas there was no change in mixed emotion reporting for basic emotion scenarios across age or puberty groups. This suggests that the awareness of mixed emotions develops during the course of puberty, and that this development is specific to social emotions. Results are discussed in the context of brain development across puberty and adolescence, with speculation regarding the potential implications for education.     

A psychometric evaluation of the digital logic concept inventory

Concept inventories hold tremendous promise for promoting the rigorous evaluation of teaching methods that might remedy common student misconceptions and promote deep learning. The measurements from concept inventories can be trusted only if the concept inventories are evaluated both by expert feedback and statistical scrutiny (psychometric evaluation). Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory provide two psychometric frameworks for evaluating the quality of assessment tools. We discuss how these theories can be applied to assessment tools generally and then apply them to the Digital Logic Concept Inventory (DLCI). We demonstrate that the DLCI is sufficiently reliable for research purposes when used in its entirety and as a post-course assessment of students’ conceptual understanding of digital logic. The DLCI can also discriminate between students across a wide range of ability levels, providing the most information about weaker students’ ability levels.     

The laboratory test utilization management toolbox

Efficiently managing laboratory test utilization requires both ensuring adequate utilization of needed tests in some patients and discouraging superfluous tests in other patients. After the difficult clinical decision is made to define the patients that do and do not need a test, a wealth of interventions are available to the clinician and laboratorian to help guide appropriate utilization. These interventions are collectively referred to here as the utilization management toolbox. Experience has shown that some tools in the toolbox are weak and other are strong, and that tools are most effective when many are used simultaneously. While the outcomes of utilization management studies are not always as concrete as may be desired, what data is available in the literature indicate that strong utilization management interventions are safe and effective measures to improve patient health and reduce waste in an era of increasing financial pressure.     

The impact of a team's aggressive reputation on the decisions of association football referees

It has been suggested that individuals may use heuristic methods of reasoning and rely on schemata when a quick decision is necessary. Accordingly, it is possible that decisions made by sport officials may be influenced by prior knowledge they have about teams they are officiating. The aim of the present study was to determine whether sport officials are more likely to penalize individuals who participate in a team with an aggressive reputation. In a balanced design, 38 football referees were randomly assigned to either an experimental or control group and were presented with the same 50 video clips of incidents from football games, all involving a team in a blue strip ('blue team'). The incidents were categorized before the study by five experienced referees into fouls committed both by, and against, the blue team, where all participants agreed that a foul had been committed (certain incidents), disagreed it was a foul (uncertain incidents) or agreed that there was no foul (innocuous incidents). Both groups received written instructions before the task; in addition, the experimental group was informed that the blue team present in all of the clips had a reputation for foul and aggressive play. For each incident, the participants were required to indicate what action they would engage in if refereeing the game. Although there was no difference in the number of decisions made, the experimental group awarded significantly more red and yellow cards against the blue team both overall and for the 'certain' incidents. It is suggested that prior knowledge may impact referees' behaviour in a laboratory setting, although future research should explore whether a similar effect is observed in the behaviour of referees during football matches.     

Integrative assessment: reframing assessment practice for current and future learning

The requirement to provide timely formative tasks that are designed to facilitate student learning and autonomy has provoked a wider examination of the role of assessment in higher education and encouraged further investigation of the alignment of learning, teaching and assessment in curriculum design frameworks. Many current authors have proposed that the primary purpose of assessment is to enhance current and future learning and that current practice tends to overemphasise the importance of assessment for progression and certification purposes. This paper proposes that a clearer distinction be made between assessment tasks designed to facilitate and test current learning through the use of formative and summative assessments, and those tasks primarily designed to enhance future learning, which could be better termed integrative assessments. This distinction would allow students and teachers to have greater clarity around the proposed outcomes and reward mechanisms associated with assessment tasks and feedback. This paper proposes that teachers should strive to incorporate four different types of assessment tasks throughout a programme of study, namely diagnostic, formative, integrative and summative tasks, and that the outcomes and reward mechanisms for different assessment types be explained more clearly to students.     

Putting Mutual Exclusivity in Context: Speaker Race Influences Monolingual and Bilingual Infants’ Word-Learning Assumptions

Previous work indicates mutual exclusivity in word learning in monolingual, but not bilingual toddlers. We asked whether this difference indicates distinct conceptual biases, or instead reflects best-guess heuristic use in the absence of context. We altered word-learning contexts by manipulating whether a familiar- or unfamiliar-race speaker introduced a novel word for an object with a known category label painted in a new color. Both monolingual and bilingual infants showed mutual exclusivity for a familiar-race speaker, and relaxed mutual exclusivity and treated the novel word as a category label for an unfamiliar-race speaker. Thus, monolingual and bilingual infants have access to similar word-learning heuristics, and both use nonlinguistic social context to guide their use of the most appropriate heuristic.