Computerized prompting partners and keystroke recording devices: Two macro driven writing tools

Recent research into composing processes has focused on instructional intervention strategies that promote effective composition practices within computerized writing environments. The field of computers and composition has benefitted both from advances in computing tools and developments in learning theory. The innovative computer tool discussed in this paper uses the macro-command language of a full-featured word processor to enact strategic support designed to help writers with their written work. From a theoretical standpoint, this tool created a writing environment based on Vygotskian theory of mediated learning and was grounded in an instructional strategy known as “procedural facilitation.” To evaluate the effectiveness of this computerprompting tool, a second macro application was used to log student keystrokes, thereby tracking student writing development, revisionary practices, and keystroke reactions to the prompting partner. Students using the prompting tool enacted divergent and convergent thinking assistance that appeared at the bottom of their computer screens while the system saved a process record of their keystrokes. Procedures for creating macro-driven prompting programs and keystroke-logging devices are discussed. Additionally, a catalog of prompts and summary of keystroke-mapping benefits are provided. Finally, our research using the macro-driven prompting partner and keystroke-register tool is detailed.     

A systematic follow‐up approach for mainstreaming students with behavior and emotional disorders

The Behavior Intervention Centres are part of the Houston Independent School District's (HISD) Special Education Department. Their purpose is to provide educational services to elementary and secondary students, aged 3 through 21, who exhibit either severely aggressive or severely withdrawn behaviours. This article describes a formalized follow‐up service considered by the authors to be a critical component of the BIC program.     

Categorical color coding by pigeons

Pigeons were trained on two independent tasks. One involved red and yellow hues, the other involved blue and green hues. For half of the birds, the two tasks were the same (i.e., both tasks were either matching-to-sample, or oddity-from-sample). For the remaining birds, the two tasks were different (i.e., one task was matching-to-sample; the other task was oddity-from-sample). Following acquisition, the pigeons were exposed to test trials on which either the correct or the incorrect comparison hue was replaced with one of the hues from the other task. On yellow-sample trials and on green-sample trials, the pigeons performed as if they had a common code for yellow and green. When there was one comparison available that was appropriate to the “yellow/green” code, performance remained high; but when either both comparisons or neither comparison was appropriate to the “yellow/green” code, performance dropped. The pigeons also tended to code red samples as green and to code blue samples as yellow. The results indicate that pigeons can categorically code colors under conditions that rule out a failure to discriminate among the colors.     

Enhancing the facilitation of online groups in higher education: a review of the literature on face-to-face and online group-facilitation

There still appears to be a gap between what online learning promises and what it can deliver in terms of student learning. Developments in online pedagogies and professional learning appear to lag behind the developments in technology and the promised benefits of technological transformation may not be realised. In this paper, we bring together perspectives that highlight vital aspects of online group-learning by reviewing the group-facilitation literature and the latest online learning literature to interrogate the pedagogical theories and practices currently used in online group-learning in higher education. We specifically focus on the interpersonal interactions between teachers and students, which are described in the online learning literature using the terms instructor immediacy, teaching presence, and social presence. We note differences in the literature regarding how teacher presence is interpreted and enacted and we expound the importance of the personal characteristics of the online teacher. Finally, we provide some signposts that might help course designers and teachers to improve online group learning: the intentional use of effective online learning pedagogies; a deeper understanding of what constitutes teacher presence; and strategies to enact that teacher presence with online groups. Recommendations for further research in online group facilitation are provided.     

The easy-to-hard effect: Transfer along the dimension of orientation in the rat

Long-Evans rats were trained on an easy simultaneous discrimination problem and then transferred to a hard discrimination problem. The discriminanda were different orientations of stripes. In Experiment I, transfer was intradimensional with stimulus generalization controlled. The easy-to-hard effect was not found. In Experiment II transfer was intradimensional and either compatible (nonreversal) or incompatible (reversal). With compatible transfer, rats trained on a prior easy problem learned the hard problem faster than rats trained only on the hard problem. Persistent negative transfer was found with incompatible transfer. Attention was not supported as underlying the easy-to-hard effect. Explanations based on specific sources of intradimensional transfer, such as stimulus generalization or adaptation level, are suggested.     

Career Counseling for Longevity: Self-Care and Burnout Prevention Strategies for Counselor Resilience

Balancing self-care and other-care is often a struggle for career counselors and others in the helping professions. The process of caring is made up of a constant series of empathic attachments, active involvements, and felt separations. The ability to continually engage in the caring cycle is important for success. However, the constant need to re-create the cycle of caring can lead to counselor depletion and burnout. This article provides a developmental framework for assisting career counselors to avoid depleted caring while prolonging their professional longevity. The model of self-care includes recognizing the hazards of high touch work, such as limited resources and constant one-way caring. Also addressed are specific means of professional and personal sustenance, such as maximizing experiences of professional success and balancing personal wellness throughout one's career.     

A women's scientific society in the west. The late eighteenth-century assimilation of science

The Natuurkundig Genootschap der Dames (Women's Society for Natural Knowledge), formally established by and for women, met regularly from 1785 to 1881 and sporadically until 1887. It challenges our stereotypes both of women and the physical sciences during the eighteenth century and of the intellectual interests open to women in the early European republics. This essay aims not simply to identify the society and its members but to describe their pursuits and consider what their story adds to the history of Western science. What does this society's existence tell us about the relationship between women and early science in general and about science and society in the Dutch setting in particular? Science and gender look rather different when observed through the activities of the immensely prosperous women of Middelburg, citizens of one of the most highly literate Western countries. The elite lives of the first-generation members of the women's society also offer us a glimpse into the early domestication of science, a process vital to its acceptance and assimilation.