How learning in an inverted classroom influences cooperation, innovation and task orientation

Recent technological developments have given rise to blended learning classrooms. An inverted (or flipped) classroom is a specific type of blended learning design that uses technology to move lectures outside the classroom and uses learning activities to move practice with concepts inside the classroom. This article compares the learning environments of an inverted introductory statistics class with a traditional introductory statistics class at the same university. This mixed-methods research study used the College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI), field notes, interviews and focus groups to investigate the learning environments of these two classrooms. Students in the inverted classroom were less satisfied with how the classroom structure oriented them to the learning tasks in the course, but they became more open to cooperative learning and innovative teaching methods. These findings are discussed in terms of how they contribute to the stability and connectedness of classroom learning communities.     

CHARACTERISTICS OF INTERVENTION RESEARCH IN SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY JOURNALS: 2010–2014

The purpose of this study was to provide an updated content analysis of articles published in major journals of school psychology spanning the years 2010–2014, with an emphasis on intervention research (including intervention and participant characteristics). Six journals—School Psychology Review, School Psychology Quarterly, Journal of School Psychology, Psychology in the Schools, School Psychology International, and Journal of Applied School Psychology—were selected for the analysis. Over the 5‐year period, 1,196 articles were published in the selected journals. A total of 65.8% of the articles were empirical articles; intervention studies with school‐age samples comprised 11.1% of all articles. Within the intervention studies, single subject represented the most frequently used research design (40.6%). Further, 58.6% of the intervention studies did not provide sufficient information to discern participants’ disability status. Although the proportion of empirically based articles has increased in recent years, that of intervention articles has remained low.     

Assertive Discipline in a school for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties

The management of difficult and disruptive behaviour continues to be an issue in many classrooms. In this article, Jeremy Swinson, a senior educational psychologist and honorary lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University, and Mike Cording, an education consultant working in Southport, consider the impact of in-service training on the use of Assertive Discipline in a school for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD). Swinson and Cording report improved rates of 'on-task' behaviour for pupils across the age range and reduction in numbers of disruptive incidents. These changes in pupil behaviour mirror an increase in teachers' use of positive feedback and praise. Swinson and Cording argue that these techniques are effective even for those pupils who are seen as being disaffected or very discouraged.     

Stochastic Einstein Locality Revisited

I discuss various formulations of stochastic Einstein locality(SEL), which is a version of the idea of relativistic causality,that is, the idea that influences propagate at most as fastas light. SEL is similar to Reichenbach's Principle of the CommonCause (PCC), and Bell's Local Causality. My main aim is to discuss formulations of SEL for a fixed backgroundspacetime. I previously argued that SEL is violated by the outcomedependence shown by Bell correlations, both in quantum mechanicsand in quantum field theory. Here I reassess those verdictsin the light of some recent literature which argues that outcomedependence does not violate the PCC. I argue that the verdictsabout SEL still stand. Finally, I briefly discuss how to formulate relativistic causalityif there is no fixed background spacetime.

1 Introduction

2Formulating Stochastic Einstein Locality

2.1 Events and regions

2.2 The idea of SEL

2.3 Three formulations of SEL

2.3.1The formulations

2.3.2Comparisons

2.4 Implications betweenthe formulations

2.4.1 Conditions forthe equivalence of SELD1and SELD2

2.4.2 Conditions for theequivalence of SELS andSELD2

3 Relativistic Causality in the Bell Experiment

3.1 The background

3.1.1 The Bell experiment reviewed

3.1.2My previous position

3.2 A common common cause? The Budapestschool

3.2.1 Resuscitatingthe PCC

3.2.2 Known proofs of aBell inequality need a strongPCC

3.2.3 Two distinctions

3.2.4Szabó's model

3.2.5A common common cause is plausible

3.2.6 Bell inequalitiesfrom a weak PCC: the Bern school

3.3 SEL in the Bell experiment

3.3.1 PCC and SEL are connectedby PPSI

3.3.2 The need forother judgments

3.3.3 Weak vs.strong SELD

4 SEL in Algebraic Quantum Field Theory

4.1 The story so far

4.2 Questions

4.2.1 Our formulations

4.2.2 The BudapestandBern schools

5 SEL in DynamicalSpacetimes

5.1 SEL for metric structure?

5.2 SEL for causalsets?

5.2.1 The causal set approach

5.2.2Labelled causalsets; general covariance

5.2.3 Deducing thedynamics

5.2.4The fate of SEL