Brain Processes in Mothers and Nulliparous Women in Response to Cry in Different Situational Contexts: A Default Mode Network Study

SYNOPSIS

Objective: In everyday life, parents must respond to and interact with children while in different situational contexts. How situational contexts influence parents’ responses has not been systematically studied. Here we investigated mothers’ versus nonmothers’ neural responses to infant vocalizations in different situations with different task demands. Design: Using fMRI in 21 women (10 mothers), we explored the effects of being distracted by self-oriented (self-referential decisions about personality adjectives) versus goal-oriented (syllabic counting of personality adjectives) tasks while listening to infant cry in comparison with other emotional sounds (infant laughing, adult crying) on the activity of two medial nodes of the Default Mode Network (DMN): the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). Results: In the self-oriented task while listening to infant cry, both mothers and nulliparas showed (weak) activation of the DMN; this response likely reflects a shift of attention from the task to the cry. In the goal-oriented task, mothers, not nulliparas, showed (weak) activation of the DMN; this result is compatible with interference of emotional sounds while attending to a goal-oriented task, an activity that deactivates the DMN. Conclusions: Mothers are prone to process infant cry and emotional sounds and are less distracted from doing so by situational contexts, demonstrating their greater sensitivity to emotional sounds such as cry. By contrast, situational context influenced brain responses to infant sounds in nulliparas.     

Teaching computer programming with PRIMM: a sociocultural perspective

ABSTRACT

Background and Context: Vygotsky's sociocultural theory emphasises the importance of language, mediation, and the transfer of skills and knowledge from the social into the cognitive plane. This perspective has influenced the development of PRIMM (Predict, Run, Investigate, Modify, Make), a structured approach to teaching programming.

Objective: The objective of the study was to find out if using PRIMM to teach programming had an impact on learner attainment in secondary school, and the extent to which it was valuable for teachers.

Method: We evaluated the use of PRIMM in 13 schools with 493 students aged 11-14 alongside a control group, using a mixed-methods approach. Teachers delivered programming lessons using the PRIMM approach for 8-12 weeks. Data were collected via a combination of a baseline test, a post-test to compare control and experimental groups, and teacher interviews.

Findings: Learners performed better in the post test than the control group. Teachers reported several benefits of the PRIMM approach, including that PRIMM helped them to teach effectively in mixed-ability classes, enabling all learners to make progress.

Implications: PRIMM makes a contribution to programming education research by building on previous work in effective pedagogy for teachers, and encouraging the use of language and dialogue to facilitate understanding.     

A learner–centred approach to developing team skills through web–based learning and assessment

In traditional face–to–face classrooms, collaborative learning has been endorsed as an effective pedagogy that fosters skills of analysis, communication and higher order thinking. Increasingly, as online learning environments for tertiary learners make use of course support systems, there is greater recognition of the potential of communications technologies to foster dialogue, networking and team skills among learners. Such skills are now among the recognised core attributes that graduates are expected to develop. In face–to–face classroom students learn the skills of collaboration and teamwork by engaging in tasks defined and supervised by a teacher. In online environments teacher presence is often limited to task definition, management and feedback functions. Team skills and collaboration therefore need to be supported though different pedagogies and processes such as establishing a climate of trust and openness, communication protocols, resolution of conflict and group processes that provide sanctions and support. In this paper we describe an innovative approach to building the skills of decision–making and conflict resolution, leadership and clarity in goal setting and communication. A case study of tertiary learners illustrates how the essential aspects of task definition, resources to support group learning and integrated online assessment foster team skills.     

一组相关联的结构模型

中学课本列举的一些常见分子及典型晶体的晶胞之间，往往有相互关联的结构相似性，恰当运用这些联系，对教师的教学有积极的帮助，有利于学生深刻的理解和掌握知识。     

Kindergarten Teachers’ Conceptual Framework on the Ozone Layer Depletion. Exploring the Associative Meanings of a Global Environmental Issue

This paper reports on a study conducted among Greek kindergarten teachers aiming to explore their conceptual frameworks on a major environmental issue of our times: the ozone layer depletion. The choice of this particular issue was premised on its novelty, complexity and abstractness which present teachers with difficulties in its teaching. A free word association task was employed to identify the associative meaning of the issue among the participant teachers. The study’s results revealed the existence of a simplistic, linear, cause-and-effect scheme in the teachers’ conceptual frameworks, the two poles of which are “solar radiation” and “its harmful results for human health”. Some of the well-known misconceptions and misunderstandings already emerged in previous research also arise in this study. Prominent among them are the deeply rooted confusion between the “ozone hole” and “greenhouse effect”, a general fusion of ideas concerning all environmental problems and an overemphasis on the harmful consequences of the ozone depletion on human health. Implications for kindergarten teacher education are also discussed.The present study is part of a research project that is co-funded by the European Social Fund and National Resources – (EPEAEK II) PYTHAGORAS II.     

The Impact of Omitted Responses on the Accuracy of Ability Estimation in Item Response Theory

Practitioners typically face situations in which examinees have not responded to all test items. This study investigated the effect on an examinee's ability estimate when an examinee is presented an item, has ample time to answer, but decides not to respond to the item. Three approaches to ability estimation (biweight estimation, expected a posteriori, and maximum likelihood estimation) were examined. A Monte Carlo study was performed and the effect of different levels of omissions on the simulee's ability estimates was determined. Results showed that the worst estimation occurred when omits were treated as incorrect. In contrast, substitution of 0.5 for omitted responses resulted in ability estimates that were almost as accurate as those using complete data. Implications for practitioners are discussed.     

A new look at comprehension instruction for disabled readers

The traditional specific skills approach to comprehension instruction is no longer considered useful since research has demonstrated that comprehension is a holistic process. However, one must break down the process in some way in order to teach it. Three models of comprehension instruction that attempt to break down the process are described. Strengths and weaknesses of each of the three models: text-based instruction, explicit comprehension instruction, and a combined model, are discussed. Techniques which are exemplars of each of the models are described in relation to their use with reading-disabled children. The combined model of comprehension instruction is recommended because it joins the goal of understanding the text with helping children learn how to learn.     

Quantifying participation in,and the effectiveness of,remediating assessment in a university mathematics module

In Maths for Business, a large first-year mathematics module, the continuous assessment component comprises 10 weekly quizzes which combine to contribute 40% of the final module mark. If students did not receive the full five marks on their weekly quiz, they were provided with the opportunity to resubmit their corrected weekly quiz with an explanation of their error(s) for one additional mark. We refer to this process as ‘remediation’. Of the students who had the opportunity to remediate, ～70% did. Through examining learning management system data, we show that the remediation process encouraged students to access module resources. Furthermore, by using a Bayesian hierarchical model to account for students’ level of participation, achievement and prior knowledge, we show that participation in the remediation process positively impacted the final examination marks of moderate to high-achieving students (based on initial continuous assessment marks). However, participation in the remediation process provided limited benefit to low-achieving students. We conjecture this is because these students had not achieved a level of understanding whereby participation in the remediation process could progress their knowledge.     

Kindergarten Teachers’ Conceptions of Environmental Education

A written questionnaire was used to obtain information regarding Greek kindergarten teachers’ personal views on the concept of Environmental Education (EE). The questionnaire was also designed to obtain the teachers’ views relative to a series of theoretical and methodological issues concerning the application of EE. It was ascertained that the prevalent conception of the kindergarten teachers includes the following: (a) it is directed towards a knowledge-centered type of EE, (b) it is primarily centered on nature and its protection in terms of EE content, (c) it aims not only to shape citizens willing to adopt environmental measures recommended by the experts, but who will also actively participate in social actions for the protection of the environment, (d) it favors learning procedures in the environment with field study activities, (e) it must be compulsory in the kindergarten level.     

Componential IRT Models for Polytomous Items

Componential IRT models for polytomous items are of particular interest in two contexts: Componential research and test development. We assume that there are basic components, such as processes and knowledge structures, involved in solving cognitive tasks. In Componential research, the subtask paradigm may be used to isolate such components in subtasks. In test development, items may be composed such that their response alternatives correspond with specific combinations of such components. In both cases the data may be modeled as polytomous items. With Bock's (1972) nominal model as a general framework, transformation matrices can be used to constrain the parameters of the response categories so as to reflect the Componential design of the response categories. In this way, both main effects and interaction effects of components can be studied. An application to a spelling task demonstrates this approach