Map Perspective and the Learning of Text

In two studies, undergraduates learned a map of the city of Rome in either a flat survey map or a one-point perspective format. The perspective map lead to greater feature recall in the first study and to better memory for a related text when features were correctly located in the second study. Both studies suggest that map scanning patterns may differ depending on the learner′s point of view.     

The black and deaf movements in America since 1960. Parallelism and an agenda for the future.

This paper traces the political and educational movements of both black and hearing-impaired Americans since 1960 and compares their common as well as disparate but equally significant experiences. The purpose of the comparisons is to identify problems and proven solutions that collectively suggest a strategy for the continuing movement of hearing-impaired people. The authors, through their ethnicity--three are black and two are white--and personal and professional experiences bring divergent but relevant points of view to the question of multicultural coalitions and their abilities to effect social change. Four principles or suggestions for advancing the agenda of hearing-impaired Americans are presented: (1) the need to define the issues that will continue to confront hearing-impaired Americans through the year 2000, (2) the need to enlarge the membership and participation of existing coalitions, (3) the need to address local, vocational, technical, and educational issues, and (4) the need to facilitate hearing-impaired networking groups within religious, social, business, and cultural organizations.     

Hands-on, Demonstration, and Videotape Laboratories for Non-Science Majors in a Food Science Course: Achievement, Attitude, and Efficiency

ABSTRACT: Student achievement, attitude, and instructional efficiency were determined for hands-on and for live and videotape demonstration laboratories for nonscience majors. Each of 3 laboratory sections experienced 3 different teaching methods for one 4-wk unit. No significant difference in achievement was found among the laboratory methods. An attitude survey indicated a significant positive change in attitude toward live demonstration, with a negative change toward the hands-on and videotape methods. Videotape demonstration was the most economical method based on monetary and time expenditures, followed by live demonstration. Findings support using a variety of laboratory teaching methods, with the particular method based on appropriateness to students' learning needs; particular information, lesson, or unit of study taught; and instructional purpose.     

Teachers’ perceptions of the benefits and challenges of three-dimensional virtual worlds for social skills practice

This case study describes how a systematic 7-Step Virtual Worlds Teacher Training Workshop guided the enculturation of 18 special education teachers into three-dimensional virtual worlds. The main purpose was to enable these teachers to make informed decisions about the usability of virtual worlds for students with social skills challenges, such as students with autism. A 10-point rating scale was used to measure the perceived usability of virtual worlds for social skills practice. Although the mean usability was higher after the intervention, a Wilcoxon signed-rank test did not reveal a statistically significant difference between the mean ratings (p = .14). A majority of the participants (76%) tended to be supportive of the idea of using virtual worlds in special education. Three key themes emerged from the qualitative instruments, namely, Virtual World Pedagogy, Virtual World Benefits, and Virtual World Challenges, encompassing 18 codes overall. This article focuses on the benefits and challenges of virtual worlds for social skills practice as perceived by special education teachers. Social skills practice and repeated practice opportunities in a stress-reduced environment emerged as the key benefits, although these affordances were affected by various challenges. The study concludes with suggestions for future research for special education purposes.     

Introduction and overview: Why alternate delivery systems?

Cynthia S. Johnson is Coordinator, Counselor Education and School of Psychology, California State University-Long Beach, Long Beach, California 90840.     

Dialect variation,dialect-shifting,and reading comprehension in second grade

The purpose of this study was to examine second graders’ (n = 680) changing spoken nonmainstream American English (NMAE) use in relation to their oral language and reading comprehension achievement. Fall NMAE production was negatively associated with fall achievement scores. NMAE production generally decreased from fall to spring. Students who qualified for the US Free and Reduced Lunch program (FARL) and who had stronger language skills were more likely to decrease their NMAE use (i.e., dialect shifting) than their peers who did not qualify for FARL or their peers with weaker language skills. Dialect shifting for a sub-sample of 102 students who used substantial amounts of NMAE at the beginning of the school year was predicted by school context, controlling for reading and language skills—in general, students who attended more affluent schools dialect shifted to a greater extent than did their peers who attended higher poverty schools. Greater dialect shifting in this group predicted gains in reading comprehension from fall to spring.     

Peer collaboration: accommodating students with mild learning and behavior problems

This study examined the effectiveness of a structured problem-solving process, peer collaboration, as a means of assisting classroom teachers in developing and implementing alternative interventions for students with mild learning and behavior problems. The study included 48 elementary and junior high school teachers in the intervention group and 43 elementary school teachers in a comparison group. Results indicate that teachers in the intervention group increased their tolerance for the range of students' cognitive abilities. These teachers reconceptualized their understandings of classroom problems and successfully implemented interventions for 86% of the 70 problems they attempted to solve.     

The Trauma Symptom Checklist for Young Children (TSCYC): reliability and association with abuse exposure in a multi-site study

OBJECTIVE: The Trauma Symptom Checklist for Young Children (TSCYC) is a 90-item caretaker-report measure of children's trauma- and abuse-related symptomatology. It contains two reporter validity scales and eight clinical scales [Post-traumatic Stress-Intrusion (PTS-I), Post-traumatic Stress-Avoidance (PTS-AV), Post-traumatic Stress-Arousal (PTS-AR), Post-traumatic Stress-Total (PTS-TOT), Sexual Concerns (SC), Dissociation (DIS), Anxiety (ANX), Depression (DEP), and Anger/Aggression (ANG)], as well as an item assessing hours per week of caretaker contact with the child. This paper introduces the TSCYC and describes its psychometric properties in a multisite validity study. METHOD: A total of 219 TSCYCs administered by six clinician/researchers across the United States were analyzed for scale reliability and association with several types of childhood maltreatment. RESULTS: The TSCYC clinical scales have good reliability and are associated with exposure to childhood sexual abuse, physical abuse, and witnessing domestic violence. The PTS-I, PTS-AV, PTS-AR, and PTS-TOT scales were most predictive, followed by SC in the case of sexual abuse and DIS in the case of physical abuse. There were a small number of age, sex, and race effects on TSCYC scores. CONCLUSIONS: The TSCYC appears to have reasonable psychometric characteristics, and correlates as expected with various types of trauma exposure. Subject to continued validation and the development of general population norms, its use as a clinical measure is supported.