Students’ Perceptions of Learning in an Online Multiround Business Simulation Game: What Can We Learn from Them?

Multiround business simulation games have been gaining popularity in higher education. However, certain aspects of experiential learning of individual students in the game remain unaddressed in research literature. Team assessments, such as team papers, appear a common, “natural” choice given the team‐based nature of the games but may potentially mask individual learning outcomes. In this study we use a qualitative method to glean from individual students’ papers a deeper understanding of the process of learning of individual students in a team‐based, multiround business simulation game. Our findings indicate that individual and timely assessments are necessary to identify cases of not meeting the expected individual learning outcomes for the instructor's corrective intervention. This study contributes to the understanding of the process and outcomes of student learning in a multiround business simulation game, methods of teaching a supply chain and operations class with a simulation, and methods for better aligning course goals and assessments.     

What helps and hinders indigenous student success in higher education health programmes: a qualitative study using the Critical Incident Technique

Tertiary institutions aim to provide high quality teaching and learning that meet the academic needs for an increasingly diverse student body including indigenous students. Tātou Tātou is a qualitative research project utilising Kaupapa Ma¯ori research methodology and the Critical Incident Technique interview method to investigate the teaching and learning practices that help or hinder Ma¯ori student success in non-lecture settings within undergraduate health programmes at the University of Auckland. Forty-one interviews were completed from medicine, health sciences, nursing and pharmacy. A total of 1346 critical incidents were identified with 67% helping and 33% hindering Ma¯ori student success. Thirteen sub-themes were grouped into three overarching themes representing potential areas of focus for tertiary institutional undergraduate health programme development: Māori student support services, undergraduate programme, and Ma¯ori student whanaungatanga. Academic success for indigenous students requires multi-faceted, inclusive, culturally responsive and engaging teaching and learning approaches delivered by educators and student support staff.     

Renewal of extinguished instrumental responses: independence from Pavlovian processes and dependence on outcome value

The source of renewal of instrumental responding in rats was investigated. In Experiment 1, two responses (R1 and R2) were reinforced with one outcome (O1) in contexts A and B (i.e., R1→O1, R2→O1), and then R2 was extinguished in A and R1 was extinguished in B. At test, the rate of R1 was higher than that of R2 in context A, and the reverse was the case in context B: Renewed responding was independent of the Pavlovian context→O1 associations. In Experiment 2, all rats received R1→O1 and R2→O2 trials in A and then were placed in B, where they were sated on O2 and either did (Group Extinction) or did not (Group No Extinction) receive concurrent extinction of R1 and R2. At test, we found more responding in A than in B for Group Extinction, but not for Group No Extinction, and the renewed responding in A was as sensitive to the current value of the outcome as responding that had not been subject to extinction (i.e., the rate was higher for R1 than for R2). That is, the renewed responding was goal-directed. These results identify the removal of contextual inhibion of either the response or the response→outcome associaon as potenal bases for renewal, and the response→outcome associaon as the source of renewed responding.     

Relational learning in pigeons: The role of perceptual processes in between-key recognition of complex stimuli

In Experiment 1, we used six procedures in a series of unsuccessful attempts to obtain relational learning using trial-unique pictorial stimuli in pigeons. The Experiment began by testing conventional (three-key) matching-to-sample (MTS) and nonmatching-to-sample (NMTS); in subsequent stages of the experiment we progressively incorporated features of techniques that do obtain relational learning in a single-key apparatus. In Experiment 2, we found that acquisition of NMTS using pictorial stimuli proceeded no more rapidly than acquisition of a conditional discrimination. Experiment 3 showed that acquisition of NMTS was more rapid than acquisition of MTS when plain colored stimuli were used, but not when pictorial stimuli were used. These three experiments suggest that pigeons do not recognize pictorial stimuli shown on different keys. In Experiment 4, between-key recognition was obtained with familiar but not with novel pictorial stimuli. It is argued that perceptual learning facilitates the detection of the between-key identity of complex stimuli, and that perceptual processes may underlie the difficulty in demonstrating relational learning in pigeons.     

Perceptual learning with tactile stimuli in rodents: Shaping the somatosensory system

The animal kingdom contains species with a wide variety of sensory systems that have been selected to function in different environmental niches, but that are also subject to modification by experience during an organism’s lifetime. The modification of such systems by experience is often called perceptual learning. In rodents, the classic example of perceptual learning is the observation that simple preexposure to two visual stimuli facilitates a subsequent (reinforced) discrimination between them. However, until recently very little behavioral research had investigated perceptual learning with tactile stimuli in rodents, in marked contrast to the wealth of information about plasticity in the rodent somatosensory system. Here we present a selective review of behavioral analyses of perceptual learning with tactile stimuli, alongside evidence concerning the potential bases of such effects within the somatosensory system.     

Investigating self‐perceptions and resilience in Looked After Children

The perceptions of Looked After Children (LAC; n = 51), their Designated Teachers (DTs), and a sample of non‐LAC (n = 99) were elicited. LAC held more positive self‐perceptions than the non‐LAC, and similarly positive ratings were given for the LAC by their DTs; but LAC held lower career aspirations than the non‐LAC. LAC differed in their levels of resilience, in terms of the number of risk and protective factors identified for each child. Girls had more protective and fewer risk factors than boys. Moreover, a high incidence of protective factors in LAC was associated with positive self‐perceptions, and a high incidence of risk factors was associated with negative self‐perceptions. The implications of these findings for educational psychology practice are discussed.