Enhancing Student Motivation: A Schoolwide Approach

What little motivational research is directed toward the practical world of education is primarily addressed to classroom teachers. We presume to speak to those in school leadership roles. Building on current interest in restructuring schools as well as the recent attention to motivational issues, we suggest how the school as a whole can be redesigned so as to enhance student motivation and learning. Our proposal is based firmly on an established program of research and is framed by goal theory. In addition to presenting a rationale for school change and a process to effect that change, we describe an ongoing project based on the theory and directed toward school change.     

Parties as reflectors of the feminine sensibility: Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway counters James's the wings of the dove

This article examines the ways in which parties conceived by women writers elucidate the feminine sensibility and feminine concerns with communication. Communication occurs through the preparation of a context—the making of the party from the planning stage, through the purchasing and preparation of food, to its opening in an artfully ordered drawing‐room. It occurs through attention to relationships between partygoers spatially; through attention to people over objects; through attention to the individual hostesses’ attempts to shape the meaning of events internally, intrapersonally; and through an exchange of meaning between individuals through a system of symbols constellated around death. A comparison of Clarissa Dalloway's party in Virginia Woolf's novel with Milly Theale's in Henry James's The Wings of the Dove aptly conveys the differences between male/female reflections of the party and illuminates how death figures prominently in feminine imaginings of social gatherings. Death is the metaphor to communicate psychic fears occasioned in women by parties. Finally, the article suggests how women writers have altered the tradition of the party in literature, permitting it to reflect their felt and lived experience.     

Children linking science and technology in the primary classroom

This research project exemplifies how technology can facilitate scientific investigations. It also highlights how enthusiastic children can be when they are encouraged to pose their own questions and take responsibility for finding the answers. Year 5 children, working in groups, were involved in designing, making and appraising catchers and enclosures used to investigate small animals found within their school's grounds. A videotape of this project was made and should be a valuable resource for the professional development of both trainee and practising teachers. Included in the tape are children's spontaneous comments, their concern for animal welfare, and reflection on the various aspects of their investigations. Syndal South Primary School     

Verbal and spatial analogical reasoning in deaf and hearing children: the role of grammar and vocabulary

The extent to which cognitive development and abilities are dependent on language remains controversial. In this study, the analogical reasoning skills of deaf and hard of hearing children are explored. Two groups of children (deaf and hard of hearing children with either cochlear implants or hearing aids and hearing children) completed tests of verbal and spatial analogical reasoning. Their vocabulary and grammar skills were also assessed to provide a measure of language attainment. Results indicated significant differences between the deaf and hard of hearing children (regardless of type of hearing device) and their hearing peers on vocabulary, grammar, and verbal reasoning tests. Regression analyses revealed that in the group of deaf and hard of hearing children, but not in the hearing group, the language measures were significant predictors of verbal analogical reasoning, when age and spatial analogical reasoning ability were controlled for. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

A Longitudinal Study of Intralimb Coordination in the First Year of Independent Walking: A Dynamical Systems Analysis

Using a dynamical systems approach, we examined the development of intralimb coordination over the first year of independent walking. The segmental motion of the thigh and shank and their intralimb coordinative relationship were modeled dynamically as a system of coupled limit cycles. To test the predictions of such a dynamic model in the development of intralimb coordination, 3 infants were filmed from the onset of their first upright independent walking steps, and weekly for the next month and then every month thereafter until they had been walking for 1 year. 3 adults also were included for comparison. Analysis of the kinematics data derived from the film revealed that at the emergence of walking, the limit cycle system displayed instability in several aspects. With walking experience, however, the limit cycle regime became more attractive, such that by 3 months of walking the infants appeared to have found an adult-like stable coordinative relationship between the 2 segments. This pattern of instability followed by stability is consisted with the transitional behaviors of dynamical systems. Several potential control parameters are discussed that might contribute to the stabilization of the walking behavior. The utility of employing a dynamical systems approach for understanding developing behavioral systems is discussed.     

Making ‘Hope Practical’ Rather than ‘Despair Convincing’: feminist post‐structuralism,gender reform and educational change

This paper explores the work and effects of gender reform in schools through the use of feminist post‐structuralist theory. Focusing on the discourses designed to enhance girls’ post‐school options, it examines the ways in which teachers and students, particularly girls, write, read and rewrite these discourses and on the basis of this suggests some new directions for researching, theorising and practicing gender reform in schools. In particular, it raises questions about the ways in which feminist pedagogies in schools deal with the female body, difference, pleasure and pain.     

Promoting Race Pedagogy in Higher Education: Creating an Inclusive Community

ABSTRACT

The current study reports outcomes of a professional development model intended to strengthen faculty members’ cultural competence and skills for teaching about diversity and inclusion. Creating Inclusive Communities (CIC) was developed collaboratively by faculty from across social science disciplines based on a theoretical framework emphasizing learning principles, critical consciousness, and White racial identity development. This study examined the outcomes of the model on student cultural competence based on pre-post survey analysis. Findings indicate that students perceived a benefit from course activities related to race pedagogy and showed statistically significant results in two of three courses. These findings indicate that the infusion of an inclusive model, including in courses not directly related to diversity topics, has potential benefits to students. Additionally, the impact is strengthened through a more integrated approach over the course of the semester.     

Visual recognition memory in squirrel monkeys

Squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) were trained on visual recognition memory tasks in a Wisconsin General Testing Apparatus with a trial-unique procedure that used 250 objects as stimuli. In Experiment 1, acquisition of a trial-unique delayed non-match-to-sample task (DNMS) was compared with acquisition of a trial-unique delayed match-to-sample (DMS) task. The DNMS task was learned in significantly fewer trials and with significantly fewer errors. Two animals in the DNMS group demonstrated highly accurate retention of the DNMS strategy despite an 11-month hiatus in experimental testing. In Experiment 2, the same procedures were used to study the learning of lists of 3, 5, 10, or 20 serially presented items. Although the animals were able to accurately remember lists of up to 20 items, there was no evidence of serial position effects.