The relative effects of pre- and postattention directing devices on learning from a “walk-through” museum exhibit

Twenty-eight seventh and eighth grade students were randomly assigned to two treatments and a control as they entered the Florida State Museum. All subjects were given set induction materials saying in effect: (1) Treatment-Study the wall panel which is part of the cave exhibit and describes the many biologic relationships and organisms in the cave at the cave entrance. Continue into the cave and study the habitat. When you exit the cave you will be given a test to see how much you learned; (2) Treatment II-Enter the cave and study that habitat. When you exit at the other end, study the wall panel which is part of the cave exit and describes the many biologic relationships and organisms in the cave. After studying this panel you will be given a test to see how much you learned; (3) Control-You will take a walk through exhibits depicting a variety of Florida Habitats and later see a film on the Habitats of Florida that are represented in the museum. Then you will be given a test to determine how much you know about one type of habitat. Both treatments and the control spent equivalent time at their tasks and were confronted with either the cave exhibit as described or the equivalent control experiences. A 25 item criterion test was designed to measure the acquisition of conceptual and factual knowledge and specific attentional factors relative to both the cave and the instructional panel. A Kr-20 indicated that this instrument had a reliability coefficient of 0.80. It was anticipated that the panel, used as an attention directing and controlling device prior to entering the cave (Treatment I) or upon exiting the cave (Treatment II), would function as a forward-shaping or backward review prompting adjunct, hence both should be significantly more effective than the control. This was confirmed (df 2,28; F 8.09) p < 0.01. It was also expected that the forward shaping panel would be more effective than the backward review panel in the tradition of inserted questions in prose research. Although the differences were in this direction, they were not significant (p≤ 0.10).     

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN THE NEW UNIVERSITIES: HOW TO APPROACH HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

The view taken in this article is that Total Quality Management (TQM) in the new universities (the former Polytechnics) and the development of a so‐called managerialist ideology has led to the inevitable adoption of an approach to Human Resource Management (HRM) policy and practice that is functionalist. The criteria favoured by managerialism represented by TQM is not only inappropriate in higher education, but more importantly, it limits the productive activity of individuals. This limitation occurs to the extent that at the level of the individual academic in higher education organizations, quality control and assurance, that has traditionally been a localized process of self‐ and close‐peer review, has become formalized by externally imposed systems and procedures ‐ a necessary condition under the current funding arrangements for enabling internal quality assurance systems to meet the requirements of external agencies. However, the authors suggest that only a truly professionalizing, soft, individualistic, and user‐focussed collegial culture will provide a sufficient condition for total quality enhancement to become a reality.     

Associations Between Classroom Environment and Academic Efficacy

Research was conducted on associations between classroom psychosocial environment and academic efficacy. A sample of 1055 mathematics students from Australian secondary schools responded to an instrument that assessed ten dimensions of mathematics classroom environment (viz. Student Cohesiveness, Teacher Support, Investigation, Task Orientation, Cooperation, Equity, Involvement, Personal Relevance, Shared Control, Student Negotiation). These scales were from two existing instruments, namely, What Is Happening In This Classroom? (WIHIC) and the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES). A seven-item scale assessed students' academic efficacy at mathematics-related tasks. Simple and multiple correlation analyses revealed statistically significant correlations between these classroom environment dimensions and academic efficacy. Results showed that classroom environment relates positively with academic efficacy. A commonality analysis showed that the three scales from the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey scales did not contribute greatly to explaining variance in academic efficacy beyond that attributed to the seven scales in the What Is Happening In This Classroom? questionnaire.     

Fabrication de problèmes de fraction par des eleves a la fin de l'enseignement elementaire

Résumé Une expérience d'enseignement a été menée avec des élèves de Cours Moyen (Grade 4 et 5). Les élèves ont participé à une activité spécifiquement élaborée, la production de problèmes de fractions, à l'aide d'une terminologie spécifique, grâce à la production et à l'observation d'un ensemble de critères. Ainsi, les interactions au sein de la classe ont été organisées dans le but d'élaborer un système commun de significations, basé sur des outils sémiotiques appropriés, qui ont permis au maître et aux élèves de partager des significations mathématiques. De telles interactions nécessitent une négociation de nouvelles normes sociales qui détermine, pour le maître et les élèves, un nouveau contrat didactique.

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A longitudinal teaching experiment was conducted with fourth and fifth graders. Students participated in a specially designed activity, the production of fraction problems using a specific terminology developed through producing and applying a set of criteria. The interactions within the class were organised with the goal of developing a common system of meanings, based on appropriate semiotic tools, allowing teacher and students to share mathematical significations. Such interactions require a negotiation of new social norms determining, for teacher and students, a new didactic contract.

     

The promises of numeracy

The aim of this study is to better understand the notion of early algebraic thinking by describing differences in grade 4–7 students’ thinking about basic algebraic concepts. To achieve this goal, one test that involved generalized arithmetic, functional thinking, and modeling tasks, was administered to 684 students from these grades. Quantitative analysis of the data yielded four distinct groups of students demonstrating a wide range of performance in these tasks. Qualitative analysis of students’ solutions provided further insight into their understanding of basic algebraic concepts, and the nature of the processes and forms of reasoning they utilized. The results showed that students in each group were able to solve different number and types of tasks, using different strategies. Results also indicated that students from all grades were present in each group. These findings suggest the presence of a consistent trend in the difficulty level across early algebraic tasks which may support the existence of a specific developmental trend from more intuitive types of early algebraic thinking to more sophisticated ones.     

Depressed Mothers' Touching Increases Infants' Positive Affect and Attention in Still-Face Interactions

The effects of depressed mothers' touching on their infants' behavior were investigated during the still-face situation. 48 depressed and nondepressed mothers and their 3-month-old infants were randomly assigned to control and experimental conditions. 4 successive 90-sec periods were implemented: (A) normal play, (B) still-face-no-touch, (C) still-face-with-touch, and (A) normal play. Depressed and nondepressed mothers were instructed and shown how to provide touch for their infants during the still-face-with-touch period. Different affective and attentive responses of the infants of depressed versus the infants of nondepressed mothers were observed. Infants of depressed mothers showed more positive affect (smiles and vocalizations) and gazed more at their mothers' hands during the still-face-with-touch period than the infants of nondepressed mothers, who grimaced, cried, and gazed away from their mothers' faces more often. The results suggest that by providing touch stimulation for their infants, the depressed mothers can increase infant positive affect and attention and, in this way, compensate for negative effects often resulting from their typical lack of affectivity (flat facial and vocal expressions) during interactions