Professional Development to Promote Teacher Adaptability

Effective professional development (PD) follows adaptive teaching principles; it increases teacher understanding and instructional purpose, which ultimately supports and extends adaptive teaching. Through this article, we compare and contrast training models with educative models of PD (Duffy, 2004). We discuss characteristics of effective PD that enhance teachers' instructional adaptability, and explore potential barriers to the implementation of adaptive teaching, which may be addressed preemptively through PD.     

Early, late and non-participants in sexual intercourse: A profile of black South African first-year university students

This study investigated the differences among early-, late-and non-participants in sexual intercourse. 1817 first-year black South African university students completed a structured questionnaire, which tapped their knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and practices about sexuality. The results revealed significant differences among the three groups with regard to their sources of sexual knowledge, approval of pre-marital sex, first intercourse partner relationship, number of sexual partners, contraceptive use, satisfaction with first sexual intercourse and parental communication about contraception.     

Classical-classical transfer: Excitatory associations between “competing” motivational stimuli during classical conditioning of the rabbit

A sensory preconditioning analogue was employed to separate signaling effects from motivational effects observed in appetitive-to-aversive transfer of training. Rabbits received appetitive conditioning (tone-water pairings) of the jaw-movement response, followed by aversive conditioning of the nictitating membrane response, during which water delivery served as the CS for para-orbital shock. When the tone was subsequently presented, only subjects exposed to both sets of pairings demonstrated conditioned jaw movement and nictitating membrane responses. The occurrence of both responses to the tone is inconsistent with the action of reciprocal inhibition between motivational states. The results are interpreted in terms of multiple mediators for transfer-of-training paradigms.     

Reactions of professors to retirement: A comparison of retired faculty from three types of institutions

Dorfman et al. (1982) compared the professional activities of retired professors from liberal arts colleges, a comprehensive university, and a major research university. This companion piece based on the same survey compares the professors' reactions to retirement. Results show that a majority of faculty from all types of institutions plan for retirement, are positive about retirement, and give suggestions for institutional retirement policy. The retired professors recommend the following: (1) help in planning, (2) more information about retirement, (3) support for continued work, (4) gradual retirement. Major differences among institutions are the following: (1) comprehensive university faculty plan for retirement more than do faculty from the other institutions, (2) faculty from both universities begin financial planning at a younger age than do faculty from the liberal arts colleges, (3) research university faculty miss work and like having time to spend on professional activities more than do faculty from the other institutions.     

An international comparison investigating the relationship between national culture and student achievement

The purpose of this study was to examine the connections between national culture and student achievement. Using Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions and the two dimensions from the World Values survey, we conducted multiple regressions to determine the most significant predictors of student achievement as measured by the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment in reading, mathematics, and science. Our analyses found that the most significant predictors of student achievement on all three student outcome included the following cultural dimensions based on two different frameworks: (1) a culture’s focus on fostering long-term orientation to include emphasis on perseverance to achieve future-oriented results and (2) a culture’s focus on secular-rational values vs. traditional values. In addition, findings indicate that when mapped geographically, similar patterns emerge among the two cultural dimensions.