Influences of Writing Tasks on Students' Answers to Recall and Higher-Level Test Questions

This paper reports on two inter-related studies that examined the use of non-traditional writing strategies within secondary school science classrooms. The first study involved Year 10 students who incorporated one letter writing experience into the learning sequence when studying genetics. The second study was with Year 9 students who used both a non-traditional laboratory writing heuristic and letter writing as part of the learning sequence when studying a topic on light. The same teacher was involved in both case studies. A higher-level analogy question was added to the teacher-prepared tests for each study to examine if students who participated in writing-to-learn activities were able to perform significantly better as a group than a group of students who completed traditional teacher directed laboratory activities and note-taking. Results indicate that for the first study there was not a significant difference using t-test analysis, while for the second study involving two writing treatments there was a statistically significant difference using t-test analysis. There was no statistically significant difference in responses between treatment and control groups when answering low level recall questions for either case study. Student interviews indicated awareness by students of the metacognitive value gained by using the non-traditional writing types.     

The effect of intra- versus post-interview feedback during simulated practice interviews about child abuse

OBJECTIVE: This study compared the effectiveness of two types of instructor feedback (relative to no feedback) on investigative interviewers' ability to adhere to open-ended questions in simulated practice interviews about child abuse. METHOD: In one condition, feedback was provided at the end of each practice interview. In the other, the instructor stopped the interviewer at various stages during the practice interviews to provide feedback. The relative effect of these conditions was examined by measuring interviewers' performance in a standardized mock interview paradigm immediately prior to, immediately after, and 12 weeks after the practice and feedback sessions. RESULTS: Prior to and 12 weeks after the practice sessions were administered, there was no significant difference in participants' adherence to open-ended questions irrespective of the nature of the feedback, or whether feedback was received. At the immediate post-practice assessment interval, however, the participants who received feedback during the practice interviews performed better (M proportion of open-ended questions=.85, SD=.13) than the other participants (post-interview feedback M=.67, SD=.18, p<.001; no feedback M=.56, SD=.16, p<.001). This heightened use of open-ended questions was associated with a greater tendency among the interviewees to provide abuse-related details in response to open-ended questions (M=.91, SD=.11) compared to the other participants (post-interview feedback M=.77, SD=.15, p<.05; no feedback M=.69, SD=.16, p=.001). CONCLUSIONS: Different types of feedback can be differentially effective in training child abuse investigators to adhere to open-ended questions. The benefits of any training program, however, are likely to be short-lived without ongoing practice. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: A single study compared the relative effectiveness of two types of instructor feedback (relative to no feedback) on investigative interviewers' ability to adhere to open-ended questions in simulated practice interviews about child abuse. This research is relevant to trainers of investigative interviewers because there is currently large variability in the type of feedback employed in training programs. This study is one of the first to empirically demonstrate that different types of feedback may be differentially effective in improving the performance of investigative interviewers.     

Temperament, Emotion, and Cognition at Fourteen Months: The MacArthur Longitudinal Twin Study

200 pairs of twins were assessed at 14 months of age in the laboratory and home. Measures were obtained of temperament, emotion, and cognition/language. Comparisons between identical and fraternal twin correlations suggest that individual differences are due in part to heritable influences. For temperament, genetic influence was significant for behavioral observations of inhibition to the unfamiliar, tester ratings of activity, and parental ratings of temperament. For emotion, significant genetic influence was found for empathy and parental ratings of negative emotion. The estimate of heritability for parental report of expression of negative emotions was relatively high, whereas that for expression of positive emotions was low, a finding consistent with previous research. For cognition and language, genetic influence was significant for behavioral indices of spatial memory, categorization, and word comprehension. Shared rearing environment appears influential for parental reports of language and for positive emotions, but not for other measures of emotion or for temperament.     

Educating and training out of poverty? Adult provision and the informal sector in fishing communities,South Africa

This paper looks at access to adult education and vocational education and training (VET) provision in fishing communities in the Western Cape, South Africa. Fishing communities are being disadvantaged due to geographical and socio-political marginalisation, and the predominance of informal sector employment in the context of worldwide marine resource depletion. Neither public nor private provision is adequately serving rural areas or the informal sector in this context. Using the sustainable livelihoods approach as a tool of analysis, this paper argues that a more cross-sectoral approach is needed to tackle equity and poverty concerns in adult education and training provision.     

Contextual Variation and Memory Retrieval at Six Months

In 2 experiments we asked whether training in multiple contexts could eliminate context-dependent memory retrieval at 6 months as it does for adults. We found that 24-hour retention was disrupted when infants were trained in one context and tested in another but not when they were trained in multiple contexts prior to testing in a novel context (Experiment 1). After a long delay, however, training in multiple contexts did not facilitate memory retrieval in a novel context: An otherwise effective retrieval cue (the training mobile) did not alleviate forgetting 3 weeks later when it was presented in a novel context (Experiment 2). These findings demonstrate that multiple learning contexts can override the debilitating effects of an altered context on memory retrieval at 6 months, but only over the short term. The resistance of older memories to retrieval in novel contexts after long periods of disuse may be adaptive, insuring that potentially inappropriate or irrelevant memories will not be expressed.     

Children's Judgments about Psychological Harm in Social Context

72 children, ages 6 to 11 years, were presented with a series of stories involving psychological harm (name-calling) in a game context. Situations were presented in which intentions, consequences, and game context were varied, along with order of story presentation. Comparisons between acts of physical and psychological harm were also conducted. Although responses in some conditions were influenced by order of presentation, age differences were found in children's evaluations of agents' actions and recipients' reactions for psychological harm in game contexts. Younger children were more likely to ignore intentions and consequences or the recipient's perspective and to focus on contextual features (e.g., game rules). Older children were more likely to base their evaluations on intentions, or both intentions and consequences, and to take into account the recipient's perspective. Game context interacted differentially with psychological and physical harm at all ages. Evaluations of acts of physical harm were more likely than acts of psychological harm to be transformed by game context.     

Concepts associated with the equality symbol

This paper looks at recent research dealing with uses of the equal sign and underlying notions of equivalence or non-equivalence among preschoolers (their intuitive nitions of equality), elementary and secondary school children, and college students. The idea that the equal sign is a do something signal (an operator symbol) persists throughout elementary school and even into junior high school. High schoolers' use of the equal sign in algebraic equations as a symbol for equivalence may be concealing a fairly tenuous grasp of the underlying relationship between the equal sign and the notion of equivalence, as indicated by some of the shortcut errors they make when solving equations.This article is based on a paper presented at Fourth International Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Berkeley, California, August 1980.

---

     

‘Wild’ girls? An exploration of ‘ladette’ cultures in secondary schools

‘Laddish’ attitudes and behaviours are central to current discourses on boys’ ‘underachievement’, as they are seen by many people to impede the progress of some boys in school. Whilst the vast majority of concern about ‘laddishness’ has, to date, focused upon boys, according to media reports there are now good reasons to worry about girls. Anecdotes from teachers and reports in the media suggest that some schoolgirls are now acting ‘laddishly’, that they are ‘ladettes’. This paper explores ‘ladette’ cultures in secondary schools, drawing upon interview data from100 pupils and 30 teachers. It tackles and discusses the following questions: (a) What does the term ‘ladette’ mean to pupils and teachers? (b) Do school‐aged ‘ladettes’ ‘exist’—and if so, what are they like inside and outside of school? (c) In what ways are ‘ladettes’ similar to, and different from, ‘lads’? (d) Are teachers concerned about ‘ladettes’? (e) Are ‘ladette’ behaviours on the increase?