Scholars committed to opportunities in psychological education: a training and mentoring program for future psychologists of color

ABSTRACT

Although strides towards inclusivity and racial equality have been made in graduate education, many barriers to graduate education remain for racial/ethnic minorities. In response, we created Scholars Committed to Opportunities in Psychological Education (SCOPE), a mentor-based program for racial/ethnic minority undergraduates. 63 racial/ethnic minority undergraduates completed the SCOPE curricula and pre- and post-program questionnaires regarding graduate school application knowledge, application confidence, stress, self-efficacy, and SCOPE program satisfaction. Mentors completed a training and questionnaires in one SCOPE cohort. Knowledge about the GRE, the application process, and application confidence increased, and stress decreased, following SCOPE. The result of this work is a portable mentoring program that can be used across disciplines and demographics to increase inclusivity and equality.     

Job satisfaction: perceptions of a national sample of teachers of students who are deaf or hard of hearing

The study examined the perceptions of a national sample of teachers of students who are deaf or hard or hearing to assess their level of job satisfaction. A questionnaire was developed and distributed; 610 completed surveys were analyzed. Overall, respondents appeared satisfied with their jobs. Of the 59 items in the survey, 51 were scored as positive for the group as a whole. Participants reported that their relationships with colleagues were the most enjoyable aspect of the job. Paperwork, state assessment tests, and lack of family involvement were identified as the least satisfying aspects. Data were also analyzed by comparing the responses of teachers across groups--itinerant, elementary, secondary, and resource room. Generally, this group-by-group analysis produced findings similar to those for the overall sample. Recommendations on addressing the specific factors that teachers responded to negatively are provided.     

Financing desegregation in the Yonkers public schools

The Yonkers public school district is under a federal court order to desegregate its schools. Accordingly, the district has developed and implemented a detailed desegregation plan that will cost up to $170 million over a five-year period. However, there are various constraints on school district financing that could affect the plan. The Board of Education in Yonkers, which is appointed by the mayor, is fiscally dependent on the city. Thus, the school district budget must be approved by city officials. Also, because Yonkers appears to be a wealthy district, it receives less wealth-equalized state aid than other large-city districts. Given these circumstances, in addition to increase in state and federal aid, other measures to assist the district should be explored. Note: The opinions expressed in this paper are my own and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the New York State Education Department.     

Cognitive load theory and educational technology

Educational technology research and development - Cognitive load theory provides instructional recommendations based on our knowledge of human cognition. Evolutionary psychology is used to assume...     

Attenuation of blocking by a change in US locus

A classical conditioning procedure was instituted in which the locus of the US was changed coincidentally with the onset of the compound conditioning phase of the Kamin blocking design. The nictitating membrane of the rabbit served as the conditioning preparation. Three groups of nine rabbits each were employed: a conventional blocking group in which the US was unchanged during the simple and compound conditioning phases, a control group that received only the compound conditioning phase, and an experimental group given both simple and compound conditioning but in which the US was administered to the contralateral paraorbital region during the compound conditioning phase. Postconditioning presentations of the elements of the compound CS indicated that, relative to the control group, responding during the new element was markedly reduced in the conventional blocking group but was strongly conditioned in the group in which the US locus was changed. Implications of these findings for theoretical analyses of conditioning are discussed.     

What is Lesson Study?

This article addresses the conceptual question “what is lesson study?” as an issue that arises in the context of the globalisation of lesson study as a method for improving teaching and learning beyond its presumed origins in the Japanese education system. To what extent can adaptations of the method in different national settings be interpreted as faithful representations of its practically significant “critical features” in the country of origin? In order to address this question, the article begins by examining the comparative classroom research by Stigler and Hiebert that culminated in the publication of The Teaching Gap. This work is generally acknowledged to have been seminal for the global development of lesson study as a method for improving teaching and learning. Sponsored by the 1997 TIMMS testing programme, the research sought to explain pronounced differences in measured educational attainment between students of all ages in Japan, and the US and Germany. In the process Stigler and Hiebert discovered the extensive use of lesson study in Japanese primary schools as a school‐based research method for securing consistency between learning goals and teaching methods. In doing so, they identified six principles which underpinned the method and pinpointed its practical significance. In this article, the author claims that the principles identified by Stigler and Hiebert can be used as a framework for assessing adaptations of lesson study in the context of globalisation, and connecting it to related methodological ideas that are internationally circulating. In particular, the author stresses links between lesson study, the tradition of classroom action research forged by Lawrence Stenhouse and his colleagues at the University of East Anglia, UK and the theory of variation developed in Sweden and Hong Kong by Ference Marton, Lo Mun Ling and others. Such links can deepen a theoretical understanding of “lesson study” and safe‐guard it against a “cherry‐picking” approach to its implementation in a context of globalisation. The article particularly highlights the importance of understanding the ways in which the organisational cultures of schooling in many countries shape and distort the implementation of lesson study. It argues for the greater involvement of school leaders and administrators in a form of second‐order action research aimed at transforming the organisational context of teachers’ work in classrooms and creating more space for them to spend less time as test data managers and more time as lesson researchers in accordance with the six principles outlined.     

Students' conceptions of natural selection and its role in evolution: Cases of replication and comparison

The work of Bishop and Anderson (1990) plays a major role in educators' understanding of evolution education. Their findings remind us that the majority of university students do not understand the process of evolution but that conceptual change instruction can be moderately effective in promoting the construction of a scientific understanding. The present article details two studies that represent an effort to focus on and define the limits of the Bishop and Anderson (1990) study. Study A describes a close replication of the work of Bishop and Anderson (1990) using the same conceptual-change teaching module to teach a unit on evolution to students enrolled in a biology course for nonmajors. Study B, a case of comparison, used the same evaluation instrument used in Bishop and Anderson (1990) and Study A, but high school students were the participants and the instruction was based on the inquiry approach to science. Like Bishop and Anderson (1990), Study A showed that the amount of prior instruction and students' beliefs in evolution were not found to be large factors in students' use of scientific conceptions. Unlike the original study, the students in Study A showed only a meager increase in their use of scientific conceptions for evolution. In Study B, students in the experimental group showed significant increases in their use of scientific conceptions. These findings suggest a need to investigate more closely the teachers' theories of learning, their reliance on instructional conversations, and the amount of time devoted to the topic of evolution as we study conceptual change in this area.