The acquisition of basic quantitative reasoning skills during adolescence: Learning or development?

Five items requiring use of proportional, probabilistic, and correlational reasoning were administered to students in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12. Proportions are taught in the school district in grades 7 and 8, probability in grade 10, and correlations are not taught. Based on the hypothesis that successful performance is due to classroom instruction, improvements on the proportions item were predicted between grades 6 and 10 and improvements on the probability items were predicted between grades 10 and 12. Actual gradewise improvements did not correspond well with predictions. Yet performance did correlate significantly with enrollment in classes such as chemistry, physics, and trigonometry. It is argued that successful qualitative reasoning arises as a consequence of the process of equilibration, and influences one's selection of course work. Specific instruction may initiate the equilibration process.     

Classically conditioned heart rate and respiratory-motor activity in newborn and neonatal pygmy goats

Classical discrimination conditioning of heart rate (HR) and respiratory-motor (RM) activity was examined in 16 newborn (average age = 1 day) and 8 neonatal (average age = 2 weeks) pygmy goats over 4 days of conditioning involving an electric shock US and auditory CSs. On the 4th day, one-half of the animals in each group received a low to moderate dose of ethanol to test the resistance of the CRs to drug effects. Discriminated conditioning of RM activity but not HR occurred in the newborn group, indicating an absence of close coupling between skeletal-motor activity and HR at this early age. While the newborn group failed to show recognizable HR reactions to the CSs during the 4 days of testing, it did show a long-latency brady-cardia UR beginning at 2 days of age that may have been secondary to baroreceptor reflex actions. The neonatal group displayed conditioning of both HR and RM activity. The similar latencies of the two types of CRs during the CS suggested that they may have been related to each other. However, the fact that the RM CR developed a day before the HR CR, combined with the observation that ethanol modified the HR CR but not the RM CR, supports the view that there was considerable independence between the two types of CRs.     

Students’ perception of frequent assessments and its relation to motivation and grades in a statistics course: a pilot study

This pilot study measures university students’ perceptions of graded frequent assessments in an obligatory statistics course using a novel questionnaire. Relations between perceptions of frequent assessments, intrinsic motivation and grades were also investigated. A factor analysis of the questionnaire revealed four factors, which were labelled value, formative function, positive effects and negative effects. The results showed that most students valued graded frequent assessments as a study motivator. A modest number of students experienced positive or negative effects from assessments and grades received. Less than half of the students used the results of frequent assessments in their learning process. The perception of negative effects (lower self-confidence and more stress) negatively mediated the relation between grades and intrinsic motivation. It is argued that communication with students regarding the purpose and benefits of frequent assessments could mitigate these negative effects.     

Evaluating deaf students' readiness to meet the English language and literacy demands of postsecondary educational programs

The purpose of this study was to investigate alternative methods for evaluating deaf students' readiness to meet the English language and literacy demands of postsecondary educational programs. In the first part of the study, scores obtained by a large sample of deaf students on the ACT Assessment (ACT Composite score and scores on the ACT English and Reading tests) were compared to their scores on various measures of English language and literacy skills. In the second part of the study, the performance of a smaller sample of deaf students on the ESL Reading and ESL Grammar/Usage components of COMPASS/ESL was compared to their performance on a set of concurrent measures of English skills. The results of this investigation demonstrate that neither the ACT Assessment nor COMPASS/ESL are appropriate for the full range of deaf students seeking admission to postsecondary educational programs. However, the ACT Assessment is appropriate for deaf students seeking admission to transferable (BS and AAS) degree programs, and the ESL Reading and Grammar/Usage tests appear to be appropriate for deaf students seeking admission to nontransferable (AOS) degree programs. Taken together, the combination of the ACT Assessment and COMPASS/ESL appear able to provide a valid, reliable, and coherent approach to admissions screening assessment for the full range of deaf students seeking admission to postsecondary programs.     

Augmented Reality in Design Education: Landscape Architecture Studies as AR Experience

The rapid and ongoing development of digital technologies continues to create new opportunities for education. Over the last decade this has enabled the establishment of blended learning approaches and online education. More recently, Augmented Reality (AR) has emerged as a unique technology that can transform learning experiences across diverse disciplines. This article outlines the development of an AR prototype, Master of Time, which was created to educate first year students and non‐designers on the foundational principles of landscape architecture. This study examines the learning potential and benefits of AR technology with a focus on creating new practices in digital storytelling across situated experiences. In outlining project outcomes, the authors propose a series of critical design principles, strategies and methodologies for educators to apply when developing AR learning experiences across disciplines. Included within this is a framework for transdisciplinary and co‐design collaboration, which is essential for educators working in the forefront of learning technologies.     

Taste-sickness associations in young rats over varying delays,stimulus, and test conditions

We showed, as had previous investigators, that young rats formed taste-sickness associations that were weaker than those of mature rats; associations were not formed over a delay greater than 45 min, and aversions did not survive a 60-min test session. The difficulty young rats had withholding consumption and their poor sensitivity to taste and sickness contributed to the weak aversions. Choice tests revealed aversions that had apparently extinguished during a no-choice test, and animals that were allowed to mature prior to the first test readily withheld consumption for 60 min. Furthermore, young rats formed an aversion over a delay of 2.5 h when the concentrations of saccharin and lithium chloride were increased. Aversions to the stronger saccharin did not extinguish over two one-bottle tests and were retained for 52 days.     

Formal reasoning ability and misconceptions concerning genetics and natural selection

Students often hold misconceptions about natural phenomena. To overcome misconceptions students must become aware of the scientific conceptions, the evidence that bears on the validity of their misconceptions and the scientific conceptions, and they must be able to generate the logical relationships among the evidence and alternative conceptions. Because formal operational reasoning patterns are necessary to generate these logical relationships, it was predicted that, following instruction, formal operational students would hold significantly fewer misconceptions than their concrete operational classmates. To test this hypothesis 131 seventh-grade students were administered an essay test on principles of genetics and natural selection following instruction. Responses were categorized in terms of the number of misconceptions present. The number of misconceptions was compared to reasoning ability (concrete, transitional, formal), mental capacity (<6, 6, 7), verbal intelligence (low, medium, high), and cognitive style (field dependent, intermediate, field independent). The only student variable consistently and significantly related to the number of misconceptions was reasoning ability; thus, support for the major hypothesis of the study was obtained.