Positive teacher–student relationships go beyond the classroom,problematic ones stay inside

The authors voice teachers' perceptions of their interpersonal experiences with students in both positive and problematic relationships. Interview data from 28 teachers were examined by coding utterances on teacher and student interactions. Results indicate that teachers defined the quality of the relationship mostly by the level of communion (friendly vs. hostile), instead of by the level of agency (in control vs. powerless). Analyses of mentioned teacher and student behavior show a friendly interactional pattern for positive relationships and a hostile pattern for problematic ones. In teachers' perceptions, positive and problematic relationships also differed in context where encounters take place and topic of talk. Contrary to interactions in problematic relationships, encounters in positive relationships were mostly situated outside the classroom context and conversations during these encounters covered a wide range of topics. Implications for teacher education programs are discussed.     

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.     

Assessment of Communication Competencies in Engineering Design Projects

Reforms in engineering education have caused a shift from the traditional stand-alone course in technical communication for Engineering students towards communication training integrated in courses and design projects that allows students to develop four layers of competence. This shift creates opportunities for realistic and situated learning, but offers challenges for assessment of communication competence at student, course and program levels. On the basis of a detailed definition of communicative competence, three formats for integrated communication training are described: Linked to design projects, integrated in design projects and integrated at program level. Assessment of communication competence in these formats is constrained by their characteristics with regard to student motivation, individual and group work, and situated learning.     

A longitudinal study of attitudes of students and parents coincident with court-ordered school desegregation

Attitudinal data were collected for a sample of 492 parents and public school children before implementation of a metropolitan desegregation plan and for 2 years after implementation. The variables measured included racial attitudes, feelings out desegregation, and school-related attitudes. There were small but significant changes on 7 of the 11 measures, with most of the changes occurring during the first year. There were race and grade-level differences on some of the variables before desegregation, but race and grade level were generally not related to changes over time.This research has been supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, Division of Social Sciences.     

Does Guessing Really Help?

This study examines the claim that attempting, or guessing at, more items yields improved formula scores. Two samples of students who had taken a form of the SA T- Verbal consisting of three parallel half-hour sections, were used to form the following scores on each of the three sections: the number of attempts, a guessing index, the formula score, and (indirectly) an approximation to an ability score. Correlations were obtained separately for the two samples between the attempts, and the guessing index, on one section, the formula score on a second section, and ability as measured by the third section. The partial correlations obtained hovered near zero, suggesting, contrary to conventional opinion, that, on average, attempting more items and guessing are not helpful in yielding higher formula scores, and that, therefore, formula scoring is not generally disadvantageous to the student who is less willing to guess and attempt an item that he or she is not sure of. On closer examination, however, it became clear that the advantages of guessing depend, at least in part, on the ability of the examinee. Although the relationship is generally quite weak, it is apparently the case that more able examinees do tend to profit somewhat from guessing, and would therefore be disadvantaged by their reluctance to guess. On the other hand, less able examinees may lower their scores i f they guess.     

Microcounseling: Techniques in Assessing Clients' Attitudes toward Guidance Tests

Microcounseling techniques were used to conduct an experimental study. The objective was to train naive college students who were interested in counseling to assess clients' attitudes toward guidance tests. A correlation of .797 was obtained between clients' ratings of attitudes toward tests and the trainees' ratings of clients' attitudes toward tests. Findings were consistent with the results of other microcounseling studies. Individual differences among the trainees were noted and comparisons were made between the trainees' own ratings, judges' ratings, and clients' ratings of trainees. Lack of a control group imposes a serious limitation on interpretation of the results.     

Facilitating small-group learning: A comparison of student and staff tutors' behavior

This study focused on students' observations of student and staff tutors' behavior during two academic courses, using a thirtynine-item rating scale. The study took place within an integrated problem-based law curriculum. Six major factors in tutors' behavior were identified. Differences between student and staff tutors' performance were investigated. The results showed that student tutors were better at understanding the nature of the problems students face in attempting to master the subject-matter. Student tutors were also more interested in students' daily lives, study experiences and personalities. In addition, student tutors referred to end-of-course examinations more frequently than staff tutors to direct student learning. Alternatively, staff tutors used their subject-matter expertise more often and displayed more authoritarian behavior than student tutors. No differences were found with respect to tutors' focus on cooperation among group members. The results are interpreted in terms of the nature of the knowledge and experiences of students and staff with regard to problem-based learning and its requirements.     

Developmental arrest at the logographic stage: impaired literacy functions in Klinefelter's XXXY syndrome

We report an analysis of reading and spelling processes in a case of developmental disability associated with a genetic anomaly (Klinefelter XXXY syndrome). The results are interpreted within the framework of a model of reading and spelling development (Frith, 1985). An almost complete absence of alphabetic functions was noted. Reading appeared to be based on a ‘logographic lexicon’ (Seymour & Elder, 1986), and spelling on a letter sequence generator which was modifiable by access to a limited store of word images.