A case study of the mis-management of educational change: an interpretation from an affective standpoint

The paper describes a case study of the development and implementation of a policy to monitor teachers’ classroom practice in a secondary comprehensive school in Wales, UK. The change process is interpreted from an affective standpoint to explain how the experience of feelings and emotions shapes organisational practice. In particular, the interpretation illustrates how affective experience may influence the distinction between espoused and in use theories, which may in turn have an effect on individual and organisational resistance to change and the success of the implementation. Differences between espoused and in use theories may increase both organisational anxiety and resistance in a self-sustaining cycle. We argue that when the anxieties and emotions of organising in schools are allowed to surface in the change process and are reflected upon, the espoused and in use theories are more likely to correspond and organisational anxiety and resistance to change to decrease.     

Fixed point properties of the binomial function

Fixed point properties of the binomial function

are developed. It is shown that for any 1 < L < N, T^L_Nhas a unique fixed point p? in (0, 1), and that for large N, the fixed point is L/N. This has application to signal detection schemes commonly used in communication systems. When detecting the presence or absence of a signal with an initial false alarm probability p_FAand an initial detection probability p_D, then T^L_N(p_FA) < p_FAand T^L_N(p_D) > p_Dif, and only if, p_FA < p? < p_D. When this condition is satisfied, as N → ∞, T^L_N(p_FA) → 0 and T^L_N(p_D → 1.     

Caregiving and Developmental Factors Differentiating Young At-Risk Urban Children Showing Resilient versus Stress-Affected Outcomes: A Replication and Extension

This study tested hypotheses from an organizational-developmental model for childhood resilience. In this model resilience reflects a child's mastery of age-salient objectives, in the face of substantial adversity, by drawing on internal and external resources that enhance processes of adaptation specific to each developmental stage. Interviews were conducted with parents of 122 7- to 9-year-old urban children exposed to multiple risk factors, 69 classified as resilient and 53 as maladjusted. Consistent with predictions generated by the model: (1) characteristics of a child's caregiving system and early development differentiated children with resilient and stress-affected adaptations; and (2) variables reflecting emotionally responsive, competent parenting were direct, proximal predictors of resilient status and mediators of other caregiver resources such as education, mental health, and relational history. Identified predictors of resilient status, including competent parenting and caregiver psychosocial resources, largely replicated findings from a prior study with sociodemographically comparable 9- to 12-year-old children.     

Unconscious Displacements in College Teacher and Student Relationships: Conceptualizing, Identifying, and Managing Transference

Transference is an unconscious displacement of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors from a previous significant relationship onto a current relationship—a phenomenon that teachers and students both enact with each other, sometimes resulting in a dramatic intensification of those relationships. Transference can pertain importantly to understanding and managing the complex, dynamic, intersubjective system that constitutes the educational helping relationship. Based on an analysis of over 350 items in the college teaching and transference literatures, this article provides: (a) a conceptual foundation for understanding transference, (b) 15 indicators of its possible occurrence, and (c) 9 recommendations for its effective management.     

Editorial

Science &; Education -     

History of Science - With Labs

Science &; Education - We describe here an interdisciplinary lab science course for non-majors using the history of science as a curricular guide. Our experience with diverse instructors...     

An extinction cue reduces spontaneous recovery of a conditioned taste aversion

The effect of an auditory cue presented during extinction on spontaneous recovery of a conditioned taste aversion was investigated in three experiments. Experiment 1 demonstrated that the presence of the cue during extinction did not influence saccharin consumption during that phase, and that an aversion to saccharin in the absence of the cue was stronger at 18 days than at 1 day after extinction, representing spontaneous recovery rather than a renewal effect. Experiment 2 showed that a cue presented during extinction and testing reduced spontaneous recovery. Experiment 3 replicated that effect and showed that it depended on the cue’s correlation with extinction and not on an unconditioned effect; cues that had been presented during or prior to conditioning did not reduce spontaneous recovery when presented during testing. The cue’s potential to reduce spontaneous recovery through conditioned inhibition or configural cue learning is discussed, as is the possibility that the cue retrieves a saccharin extinction memory in a manner consistent with Bouton’s (1993) account of spontaneous recovery.     

Continuity in special education placements: Are reevaluations really necessary?

A 3-year catch-up prospective study of 654 rural special education students was conducted to determine what proportion had a change in classification and/or programming. Information was gathered through a record review of all handicapped students from preschool through secondary school. Change was found to be more common than is generally perceived: 38.2% of the students had a classification change (21.9% by termination and 16.3% by reclassification). Changes in the type of program occurred for 33.1%, and changes in frequency of services occurred for 71.2% of the students in classroom programs. Rates of changes varied significantly between classifications. The relatively high rates of change stress the need for thorough reevaluation services.