An Exploration of the Interaction between Speech Rate,Gender, and Cognitive Style in their Effect on Recall

This paper explores how the interaction between cognitive style, gender, and type of task predicts task outcome, particularly when presentation speed is varied. A sample of 91 11‐year‐old pupils completed the Cognitive Style Analysis. Pupils were assigned to one of two groups balanced for gender and cognitive style. Group 1 listened to a recording of a passage presented at 84wpm; Group 2 listened to the same passage at 197wpm. Pupils were then required to comprehend and recall information from the passage that required assimilation of distantly positioned information. Male verbalisers and female imagers performed well in the slow condition but poorly in the fast condition. Female verbalisers showed improved performance in the fast condition. Results indicate that the interaction between verbal–imagery style and gender predicts the outcome of verbal tasks, especially when processing speed is restricted. These results support differences in information processing between genders and also suggest that this processing is mediated by verbal–imagery cognitive style.     

Academic calendar change impact on enrollment patterns and instructional outcomes

A study of 10 universities in two states was completed to determine the impact of a change from the quarter to the semester calendar on enrollment patterns and instructional outcomes. A decrease in average student credit hour load and an increase in the percentage of students withdrawing from courses were observed after institutions changed to the semester calendar system.Presented at the 23rd Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, Toronto, May 1983.     

Changing What Is Taught: Hearing the Voices of the Underrepresented

A major challenge facing institutions today is determining the role of multiculturalism in the curriculum. Institutions that decide to incorporate multicultural perspectives into the general education curriculum will face a long and complex process. In 1991, policy makers at Florida State University made the decision to require all students to take multicultural courses to fulfill general education requirements. This article provides insight into the challenges that institutional policy makers face as they seek to change the curriculum to include the voices of those previously underrepresented.     

Fostering collaborative teaching and learning scholarship through an international writing group initiative

The research presented here explored the experiences of participants in an international collaborative writing group (ICWG) initiative that ran in conjunction with the 2012 International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSoTL) conference. The ICWG sought to cultivate collaborative pedagogical scholarship by bringing together a range of international academics to co-author articles on teaching and learning topics of shared interest. Data were collected via online surveys at the beginning and end of the initiative and interim focus groups/interviews. In addition to suggesting that the ICWG is an effective means of fostering collaborative writing, the results point to a number of factors that might also influence collaboration in other contexts: modes of collaboration, opportunities for social dialogue, developing a shared vision and voice, and leadership. Implications and applications of the findings, as well as areas of further research, are discussed.     

School-age child care: A review of five common arguments

During the past decade, parents and educators have increasingly expressed concern over the potential safety and developmental risks associated with children in self-care, or the care of another child (Garbarino, 1984; Harris, Kagay, & Ross, 1987; Robinson, Rowland, & Coleman, 1986; 1989; Zigler & Ennis, 1988). One result has been a growing interest in school-age child care (SACC) programs.Mick Coleman is Assistant Professor, Child and Family Development, and Extension Human Development Specialist, University of Georgia, Hoke Smith Annex, Athens, Ga. Bryan E. Robinson and Bobbie H. Rowland are both Professor of Human Services, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC     

Eliciting,Interpreting and Developing Teachers' Understandings of the Nature of Science

This paper covers three main areas : eliciting teachers' views of the nature of science; interpreting and understanding these views; and developing them in the context of initial or in-service teacher education. The three areas clearly overlap but we begin with eliciting : this section includes a look at past probes, and then presents the notion of critical incidents, with a range of examples. We argue throughout that critical incidents can be used partly as a means of probing teachers' views of science, but also have value as a tool for professional development. We then discuss interpreting and understanding teachers' responses to critical incidents, based on our research with over 300 teachers and student teachers who have worked with them. In the third section, on developing, we pursue the argument that teachers' understandings of the nature of science are located in their professional experience. We argue that if teachers' understandings are embedded within their professional practice this has important consequences for appropriate teacher education and professional development in the area of the nature of science.     

Specification of the stimulus-reinforcer relation in multiple schedules: Delay and probability of reinforcement

Control of pigeons’ keypecking by a stimulus-reinforcer contingency was investigated in the context of a four-component multiple schedule. In each of three experiments, pigeons were exposed to a schedule consisting of two two-component sequences. Discriminative stimuli identifying each sequence were present only in Component 1, which was 4, 6, or 8 sec in duration, while reinforcers could be earned only in Component 2 (30 sec in duration). Control by a stimulus-reinforcer contingency was sought during Component 1 by arranging a differential relation between Component 1 cues and schedule of reinforcement in Component 2. In Experiment 1, rate of keypecking during Component 1 varied with the presence and absence of a stimulus-reinforcer contingency. When a contingency was introduced, rate of keypecking increased during the Component 1 cue associated with the availability of reinforcement in Component 2. In Experiment 2, the stimulus-reinforcer contingency was manipulated parametrically by varying the correlation between Component 1 cues and Component 2 schedules of reinforcement. Responding in Component 1 varied as a function of strength of the stimulus-reinforcer contingency. The relatively high rates of Component 1 responding observed in Experiments 1 and 2 pose difficulties for conceptions of stimulus-reinforcer control based on probability of reinforcement. In these two experiments, the stimulus-associated probabilities of reinforcement in Component 1 were invariant at zero. An alternate dimension of stimulus-reinforcer control was explored in Experiment 3, in which Component 1 cues were differentially associated with delay to reinforcement in Component 2, while probability of reinforcement was held constant across components. When the stimulus-reinforcer contingency was in force, rate of responding in Component 1 varied inversely with delay to reinforcement in Component 2. In a quantitative analysis of data from Experiments 2 and 3, relative rate of responding during Component 1 was strongly correlated with two measures of relative delay to reinforcement.     

Eliciting and developing student's schema of classroom practices using a video-disc system

In this paper we explore the potential of videodisc technology to develop student teachers'capacity to examine their judgements and reasoning critically about typical classroom events. We describe how the type of setting for such activities is committed to and successful at provoking quality collaborative learning. The videodisc system offers a range of exemplars of teaching which are carefully managed to challenge and extend students'existing ideas. We have adapted the key learning constructs of scaffolding and modelling of various strategies so that the intellectual processes of analysis and reconstruction are persistently attended to. In this way, we are designing a more powerful learning environment to support students in acquiring professionally relevant knowledge.     

Ratings in the Research Assessment Exercise 2001 – the Patterns of University Status and Panel Membership

Ratings awarded to university departments in the UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2001 were analysed to determine whether they were influenced either by the status of the university (pre‐1992 or post‐1992) or by whether the university was represented on the panel that determined the ratings. There was little evidence that panel membership has any effect on ratings, but an analysis of covariance also showed that, among universities not on the panel, pre‐1992 universities were more favourably assessed, relative to post‐1992 universities, than would be expected on the basis of their ratings in the 1996 RAE. This finding, along with the preponderance of pre‐1992 universities on all panels (even those where the majority of the research is conducted by post‐1992 universities), is used to urge strongly that in future RAEs, panel membership should be made much more representative of higher education in general and of the institutions submitting the research considered by each panel in particular.