The effects of mood,cognitive style,and cognitive ability on implicit learning

In an experiment with 109 undergraduates, we examined the effect of mood, cognitive style, and cognitive ability on implicit learning in the Artificial Grammar (AG) and Serial Reaction Time (SRT) tasks. Negative mood facilitated AG learning, but had no significant effect on SRT learning. Rational cognitive style predicted greater learning on both tasks, but this effect on SRT was mediated by cognitive ability. SRT, but not AG learning was significantly correlated with Math and English scores on the ACT. These findings confirm and contradict previous research. The association of negative mood and rational cognitive style with AG confirms that AG learning is facilitated by systematic, bottom-up processing. However, the lack of converging evidence for the SRT task suggests that the tasks involve different aspects of implicit processing. Theoretical explanations and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

“That’s Not Very Deleuzian”: Thoughts on interrupting the exclusionary nature of “High Theory”

In the following essay, I discuss my own uneasy and nonlinear journey from the classroom to Deleuze, describing the concepts and lines of thought that have been productive in thinking differently about teaching and teacher education. I also detail my encounters with the surprising orthodoxies of using Deleuzian/Deleuzoguattarian thought. From these, I suggest that ‘being Deleuzian’ is itself a molar line that serves as an exclusionary mechanism, working to preserve high theory for the use of only a select few. Instead, I argue for the potential of making such nonlinear thinking accessible to mainstream audiences to interrupt the linear, status quo thinking undergirding a global educational neoliberal movement.     

Teachers communicating about life-limiting conditions,death and bereavement

The number of children with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions in England is double what it was at the millennium. These conditions include cystic fibrosis, cancer, organ failure and severe neurological injuries. The Teaching for Life project aimed to explore the needs of teachers working in English schools in relation to working with children with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions. Ninety teachers completed a questionnaire and 38 completed individual and group interviews. About half the teachers interviewed had experience of working with children with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions, and half did not. The teachers expressed a number of anxieties about coping with illness, death and bereavement. They described difficulties in communicating with parents, children and health professionals. They worried about maintaining their professional role whilst needing to contain their own emotions and the emotions of others, within school cultures that did not feel supportive. The paper concludes that policies and practices that seek to support children with medical conditions need to acknowledge the weight of responsibility for teachers. They need to articulate with a whole school approach that protects and promotes teachers’ emotional well-being.     

JROTC as a Substitute for PE: Really?

Purpose: Even though physical education (PE) is an evidence-based strategy for providing and promoting physical activity, alternative programs such as the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) are commonly substituted for PE in many states. The purpose of this study was to compare student physical activity and lesson contexts during high school PE and JROTC sessions. Method: The System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time was used to assess PE and JROTC sessions (N = 38 each) in 4 high schools that provided both programs. Data were analyzed using t tests, negative binomial regression, and logistic regression. Results: Students engaged in significantly more moderate-to-vigorous physical activity during PE than during JROTC sessions and they were significantly less sedentary. Significant differences between the 2 program types were also found among lesson contexts. Conclusions: PE and JROTC provide substantially different content and contexts, and students in these programs engage in substantially different amounts of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Students in JROTC, and perhaps other alternative programs, are less likely to accrue health-supporting physical activity and engage in fewer opportunities to be physically fit and motorically skilled. Policies and practices for providing substitutions for PE should be carefully examined.     

Sex and Athletic Status as Factors in Reaction Latency and Movement Time

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of sex and athletic status on reaction latencies and movement time. One hundred subjects, categorized into five groups of 20 subjects each—male athletes (MA), female athletes (FA), male nonathletes (MNA), female nonathletes (FNA), and control group (CG)—were tested over a period of five consecutive days. Several different types of incentives were used to ensure that subjects provided the fastest times possible. Two blocks of 25 trials were administered to each subject on each day. A 2 × 2 × 2 × 5 × 2 mixed factorial analysis of variance was used to test for between-subject differences of group (experimental/control), sex, and athletic status and for within-subject differences of days and blocks. The four dependent variables were reaction time (RT) mean, RT consistency, movement time (MT) mean, and MT consistency. Results did not support the classic finding of male superiority over females in RT/MT or athletes' superiority over nonathletes. Evidence of athletic superiority emerged, but for the first day of practice only. As subjects were allowed extended practice over a 5-day test period in which knowledge of results (KR) and other incentives were provided, differences in the experimental groups disappeared. Sex was the predominant factor in consistency, with males being less variable in RT (p = .02) performance than females. There were no sex differences in MT consistency.     

Do We Practise What We Preach?: putting policy into practice in teacher education

There are substantial pressures for changes in teaching practice which are now clearly reflected in government policy. It is argued that these pressures have emerged from changes in the culture of technologically based societies and the resulting changes in the needs of all students in schools. The implications of recent theories of learning and new needs for learners are discussed with respect to teacher education. An attempt to change the way in which students are prepared in mathematics education is reported. Data collected as part of the study indicate the need for a system‐wide approach to change.     

Moving towards transdisciplinarity: an ecological sustainable focus for science and mathematics pre‐service education in the primary/middle years

One reason we have difficulty finding sustainable solutions is in part because we are unable to see the bigger picture. Capra (2000 Capra, F. 2000. The challenge of our time.. Resurgence, 203: 18–20.  [Google Scholar]) argues, “To become ecologically literate we must learn to think systemically – in terms of connectedness, context and processes” (p. 270). We have attempted to structure connected learning experiences through our transdisciplinary approach to teaching for learning science, mathematics and ecological aspects of society and environment. We support Jucker's (2002 Jucker, R. 2002. Our common illiteracy: Education as if the Earth and people mattered, Frankfurt: Peter Lang.  [Google Scholar]) view that we must have lateral rigor across disciplines and vertical rigor within disciplines in order to best prepare students for teaching. This paper explores the theoretical underpinning of this complex approach to undergraduate teaching and reports on how our teaching team has worked collaboratively to structure a sequence of three, one semester integrated, core courses that explicitly uses an educating for ecological sustainability theme as the basis for each course and associated assessment.     

Season of birth is related to child retention rates, achievement, and rate of diagnosis of specific LD

A sizable literature has demonstrated that the achievement of children in early elementary school is related to their season of birth: Those born in summer typically perform less well than those born in the fall. A small literature indicates that more children diagnosed with specific learning disabilities (SLD) are born in the summer. We have begun to explore the possibility that the same processes may account for both outcomes. In order to better understand these processes, the standardized achievement levels and rates of diagnosis of SLD for children born during each season were studied in one geographical area of the State of Georgia served by 28 school districts. Standardized achievement scores in reading, mathematics, and science were reliably lower for those born in the summer. Furthermore, there was a strong relationship between season of birth and the rate at which children received a diagnosis of SLD. Summer-born children were diagnosed with SLD at a higher rate than their peers. Four hypotheses for both the lower performance in the general school population and the greater rate of SLD diagnosis among these children are discussed.