Vocational-technical programs: follow-up of students with learning disabilities

Recent research has examined the role of vocational-technical training in facilitating the transition from school to work of adolescents with learning disabilities. The present study provided 6-, 12-, and 24-month follow-up data on such students who had attended vocational-technical programs. Matched groups of students without disabilities from vocational-technical programs, as well as randomly selected students without disabilities from regular high schools, were also included for comparisons. Results of the study raised several questions about the value and purpose of vocational-technical training for adolescents with learning disabilities.     

开放在线课程教法的适应性变革:从OCW到MOOC

文章旨在通过对OCW和MOOC所采用的教学方式的对比,探索开放在线课程在由"重资源"向"重服务"变革的过程中,其教学方法所发生的适应性变化。文章通过四个常用的开放在线课程搜索引擎,随机抽样出51门OCW课程和51门MOOC课程作为研究样本,并从课程说明中获取课程周数、建议学时、学习方式、教学手段等信息。结果表明:与OCW相比,MOOC建议以较短的周数、每周投入较多的时间来完成课程,以提高课程完成率;少量课程采用了基于项目、基于研究和基于团队的学习方式,但MOOC环境下的在线协作学习仍存在难度;在线论坛和讲座视频是MOOC中使用较多、发展较成熟的教学手段;社会媒体和位置地图等则是OCW中未出现而在MOOC中发展形成的。最后,文章根据研究结果提出了相应的教学建议。     

Effects of reward amount and reward omission on short-term retention

A series of four experiments studied the retention of the response made on a just-preceding trial as a function of the presence, and amount, of food reward given on that trial. Rats were trained to alternate arm choices in a T-maze, and then were tested for alternation with 5- or 30-sec delays between runs. When the subjects had received prior experience with the reward amounts used in testing, larger rewards led to better retention than did small or no rewards. However, when reward omission first occurred during the test phase, it produced more alternation on the following trial than did reward presence. The results suggest that both reward amount and surprisingness determine short-term retention of responses paired with the rewards.     

Attitudes of Business Faculty Towards Two Methods of Collecting Teaching Evaluations: Paper vs. Online

Business professors were surveyed to determine their attitudes towards two methods of collecting students' teaching evaluations of faculty--the traditional paper-and-pencil method conducted in class and the online method conducted via the Internet. Faculty preferred the traditional paper method, mainly because they believed it would produce a higher and more accurate response than the online method. Faculty characteristics were examined to determine whether they were related to attitudes towards the online method of collecting teaching evaluations. No characteristics were found to be significantly associated with attitudes towards the online method. Suggestions for future researchers are offered.     

Collaborative Development and Evaluation of an Online Nursing Course

Institutions of higher education acknowledge that online learning represents a growing segment of the modern learning environment, and most students have mastered basic computer skills. However, reluctance to engage in online learning remains among both faculty and students. This article presents a case study of three schools of nursing that collaboratively developed and implemented an online undergraduate-nursing course. The article discusses the challenges that were encountered by faculty and students. The faculty used the distance education literature to address these challenges related to technological, institutional, and pedagogical aspects of online learning, as well as the recruitment and retention of online learners. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the course. The paper concludes with suggestions to overcome the challenges of online learning, such that faculty and students receive the inherent rewards.     

Educating the Child‐centred Practitioner: Innovations and dilemmas

The education of child‐centered early childhood practitioners involves issues of content, pedagogy, relationships and context. Recent insights on the nature of child‐centered teaching generated by collaborative research with teachers, has highlighted its complexity and suggests that new ways of thinking about teacher education are needed. But developing a more learner‐centered approach to early childhood teacher education will be difficult, given the instrumentalist orientation in many institutions and in societies at large. This paper discusses the broad issues surrounding the development of a more learner‐centered approach to early childhood teacher education and describes several initiatives the authors have been involved in, in Australia and the United States.