Developmental Relations Among Motor and Cognitive Processes and Mathematics Skills

This study explored transactional associations among visuomotor integration, attention, fine motor coordination, and mathematics skills in a diverse sample of one hundred thirty‐five 5‐year‐olds (kindergarteners) and one hundred nineteen 6‐year‐olds (first graders) in the United States who were followed over the course of 2 school years. Associations were dynamic, with more reciprocal transactions occurring in kindergarten than in the later grades. Specifically, visuomotor integration and mathematics exhibited ongoing reciprocity in kindergarten and first grade, attention contributed to mathematics in kindergarten and first grade, mathematics contributed to attention across the kindergarten year only, and fine motor coordination contributed to mathematics indirectly, through visuomotor integration, across kindergarten and first grade. Implications of examining the hierarchical interrelations among processes underlying the development of children's mathematics skills are discussed.     

Effects of a prenatal care intervention for adolescent mothers on birth weight, repeat pregnancy, and educational outcomes at one year postpartum

About one-third of adolescent mothers receive inadequate prenatal care, and babies born to young mothers are more likely to be of low birth weight. The objective of this study is to evaluate a peer-centered prenatal care program for adolescent mothers. Pregnant adolescents were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group in a mastery modeling peer-support intervention designed to improve long- and short-term perinatal outcomes. A sample of 282 urban pregnant adolescents (94% African American, 4% Caucasian, 2% other) participated in the study. Participants were recruited from five clinics located mainly in Detroit, Michigan. Participants in the experimental group received care in a small group setting and learned to perform critical measurements with a peer partner during prenatal visits. Participants in the control group received individual prenatal care in the same clinics. Outcome measures included birth weight, years of schooling completed at one year postpartum, planned and unplanned pregnancy at one year postpartum, and employment and school attendance at one year postpartum. Mothers in the experimental group had a lower rate of low birth weight (6.6% vs. 12.5%, p=0.08). The rate of unplanned pregnancy was also lower for adolescents in the experimental group (13.4% vs. 15.9%), although this difference was not statistically significant. Adolescents who participated in the intervention were more likely to have continued their education during the pregnancy and the postpartum year. The mastery modeling, peer-centered, prenatal care program produced some positive pregnancy outcomes for adolescent mothers.     

Positive and negative successive contrast effects following multiple shifts in reward magnitude under high drive and immediate reinforcement

Multiple shifts in reward amount were given to rats in a straight runway. Both positive and negative contrast effects were observed. A positive contrast effect was observed, however, only if the shift from small to large reward occurred while the subject was evidencing a negative contrast effect. Implications for current conceptions of reinforcement contrast are discussed.     

What's in a game? A study of games as an instructional method in an adult education class

An experiential approach employing game design and play was tried in a graduate adult education class. This article describes a follow-up study which attempted to capture class members' perceptions on value of game design/play; group interactions in game development; effectiveness of game design/play as a learning stimulant; appropriateness of the grading criteria; likelihood to use a similar strategy in their own teaching; and, identification of helpful resources in gaming. Game design/play appears to offer an effective adult teaching strategy which produces a variety of learning outcomes.Jessica Somers earned her BBA and MBA degrees at West Georgia College. She is currently a doctoral student in instructional technology at the University of Georgia and is a self-employed computer contractor.Margaret E. Holt is associate professor of adult education at the University of Georgia and is an associate with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation. Her most recent publication is a book co-edited with Dr. George Lopos for Jossey-Bass Publishers entitled,Perspectives on Educational Certificate Programs (Winter 1991). She is also a former editor ofInnovative Higher Education.     

Travelling the Unpaved Road to Democracy from Communism: A Cross‐Cultural Perspective on Change

The basic subject of this article is change, how one copes with it, how it can or cannot be guided. More specifically, the author, a Czech‐American scholar, examines the processes and the trauma of the post‐1989 transition in his country of birth with an eye to how education, particularly higher education, can contribute to a successful outcome to transition affecting all of society while undergoing transition itself. Crucial to the presentation and arguments of the author is his conviction that the period of communist rule in Czechoslovakia, as in the other central and eastern European countries, was intellectually and morally damaging. For the citizens of the Czech Republic as well as for those of the other central and eastern European countries who also experienced communism and who are now trying to recover from it, it is necessary that they develop a clear understanding of what communism really represented and what it did to them. For them to gain this understanding, the catharsis that goes with it, and the possibility of developing successful reforms that will move their countries forward in a constructive way, they must develop a number of cross‐cultural skills through familiarity with a number of social science and educational disciplines that were more‐or‐less closed to them. The author proposes ways in which these skills can be learned and education at all levels profoundly reformed.