THE EFFECTIVENESS OF COLOUR IN LEARNING FROM EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION

The author reviews recent research comparing both the relative learning gains and relative attitudes of students using colour or monochrome television material. It is concluded that all users of educational television should resist the temptation to spend large sums on colour television equipment merely because colour is now widely preferred by society at large.     

An Innovative Higher Education Course to Meet Industry's Needs

This paper describes the development and implementation of a multilevel undergraduate degree course in technology management designed to meet identified needs of manufacturing industry. The program has a number of innovative features, including flexible entry and exit points and three levels of award, and is delivered in the workplace with the aid of a computer managed learning system and self paced learning materials supported by electronic mail and workplace tutorials. A feature crucial to its success is extensive collaboration with industry, a partnership with a technical and further education college, and cooperation between applied science and business faculties. An evaluative account of the implementation of the program in two motor vehicle manufacturing plants during 1990, and a discussion of the implications of the findings of the evaluation are also included.     

Studying mathematics learning in collective activity

This paper describes a study of the interplay between social and developmental processes in children's mathematics learning. The focus is on children's play of an educational game, Treasure Hunt, and the way children's interactions in play frame developmental processes involving arithmetic with base-10 blocks. Sixty-four third and fourth graders were grouped in same- and mixed-grade dyads. Analyses of interactions revealed that players were frequently involved with jointly structuring arithmetical problems involving base-10 blocks. However, the arithmetical goals that members of dyads created often differed as labor became divided in their activity. Two findings were of particular interest: (1) differences in divisions of labor as a function of players' grades and grades of their opponents led to construction of different arithmetical goals, and (2) differences in goals led to different sequences in children's strategic developments, sequences that differed from the developmental trajectory in our matched controls.     

The influence of context-reinforcer associations on instrumental performance

In each of two experiments, rats were trained to press the lever in a Skinner box, food reinforcement being available on a variable-interval 60-sec schedule (VI 60). There followed an “exposure phase” for which the levers were removed from the boxes, and then a final test with the levers replaced to assess the effects of the intervening treatment on instrumental responding. Experiment 1 showed that simple exposure to the box reduced the vigor of instrumental performance in comparison with a condition in which food was made available during the exposure phase. Animals which received no exposure treatment also showed a relatively high rate of response. Experiment 2 demonstrated that an exposure treatment in which the occurrence of food is signaled by a light stimulus also leads to a decline in instrumental responding. These results are held to support the notion that associations between the context and the reinforcer serve to energize appetitive instrumental behavior.     

Convergent cognition

In an attempt to address shortcomings revealed in international assessments and lamented in legislation, many schools are reducing or eliminating elective courses, applying the rationale that replacing “non-essential” subjects with core subjects, such as mathematics and language arts, will better position students in the global market. However, there is evidence that systematically pairing a core subject with another, complementary subject, may lead to greater overall learning in both subjects. In this paper, we analyze two subject area pairs—first and second language, and computer programming and mathematics—to demonstrate in what ways two subjects might complement each other. We then analyze the relationships between these pairs to better understand the principles and conditions that encourage what we call convergent cognition, the synergistic effect that occurs when a learner studies two complementary subjects.     

Use of the meeting street school screening test and the myklebust pupil rating scale with first-grade black urban children

This study hypothesized that: (a) the MSSST would identify the same proportion (15%) of high-risk children in a group (N = 580) of first-grade urban black children as estimated for the general population; (b) the Myklebust would discriminate between high-risk (N = 22) and low-risk (N = 21) children within the minority group using the MSSST as the criterion variable; and (c) Myklebust ratings for the high-risk and low-risk young minority children would approximate ratings reported elsewhere for older white suburban samples of high-risk and low-risk children. All three hypotheses were confirmed. The MSSST may be appropriate for minority group children. The small number of teachers (N = 6) participating in the Myklebust ratings makes generalization about it hazardous without further replication.