Play for young handicapped children in an integral setting,part 2

Conclusions Play is an important part of the life of the young child, both at home and in school. In designing a play environment for handicapped children who are attending a preschool along with their nonhandicapped peers, the teacher needs to be aware of the needs and limitations resulting from the child's particular disability. This knowledge can be put to use in making the environment as productive as possible and providing play opportunities that are fun, educational, and practical for each child. While it is important that we consider the particular handicapping condition, teachers should never lose sight of the fact that a handicapped child is first and foremost a child, whose basic needs are not too different from those of all children. These basic needs should be the primary concern of the teacher who is interested in guiding the child toward productive educational experiences and helping that child become an integral part of the school group.     

Effects of image‐based and text‐based active learning exercises on student examination performance in a musculoskeletal anatomy course

Research on the benefits of visual learning has relied primarily on lecture‐based pedagogy, but the potential benefits of combining active learning strategies with visual and verbal materials on learning anatomy has not yet been explored. In this study, the differential effects of text‐based and image‐based active learning exercises on examination performance were investigated in a functional anatomy course. Each class session was punctuated with an average of 12 text‐based and image‐based active learning exercises. Participation data from 231 students were compared with their examination performance on 262 questions associated with the in‐class exercises. Students also rated the helpfulness and difficulty of the in‐class exercises on a survey. Participation in the active learning exercises was positively correlated with examination performance (r = 0.63, P < 0.001). When controlling for other key demographics (gender, underrepresented minority status) and prior grade point average, participation in the image‐based exercises was significantly correlated with performance on examination questions associated with image‐based exercises (P < 0.001) and text‐based exercises (P < 0.01), while participation in text‐based exercises was not. Additionally, students reported that the active learning exercises were helpful for seeing images of key ideas (94%) and clarifying key course concepts (80%), and that the image‐based exercises were significantly less demanding, less hard and required less effort than text‐based exercises (P < 0.05). The findings confirm the positive effect of using images and active learning strategies on student learning, and suggest that integrating them may be especially beneficial for learning anatomy. Anat Sci Educ 10: 444–455. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

The challenge to professionals of using social media: teachers in England negotiating personal-professional identities

Social media are a group of technologies such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn which offer people chances to interact with one another in new ways. Teachers, like other members of society, do not all use social media. Some avoid, some experiment with and others embrace social media enthusiastically. As a means of communication available to everyone in modern society, social media is challenging teachers, as other professionals in society, to decide whether to engage with these tools and, if so, on what basis – as an individual (personally), or as a teacher (professionally). Although teachers are guided by schools and codes of practice, teachers as individuals are left to decide whether and how to explore social media for either their own or their students' learning. This paper analyses evidence from interviews with 12 teachers from England about their use of social media as to the challenges they experience in relation to using the media as professional teachers.. Teachers are in society’s spotlight in terms of examples of inappropriate use of social media but also under peer pressure to connect. This paper explores their agency in responding. The paper focuses on how teachers deal with tensions between their personal and professional use of social media. These tensions are not always perceived as negative and some teachers' accounts revealed a unity in their identities when using social media. The paper reflects on the implications of such teachers' identities in relation to the future of social media use in education.     

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.     

An extension of the realistic preview concept to various career transitions

A model is presented in which the realistic preview concept is extended beyond the job and organization choice situation for which it was originally suggested. Realistic previews are suggested for two major career transitions: the entry from high school to college and university and the transition from university to the world of work. The differences between high schools, universities and workplaces are discussed to highlight the need for realistic previews which pertain to aspects of the occupational field which a student pursues, as well as aspects of college or workplace environments. It is reasoned that realistic previews will soften those entry transitions in the same way that a realistic preview for job choice has been shown to be beneficial.     

Continuity and discontinuity of behavioral inhibition and exuberance: psychophysiological and behavioral influences across the first four years of life

Four-month-old infants were screened (N = 433) for temperamental patterns thought to predict behavioral inhibition, including motor reactivity and the expression of negative affect. Those selected (N = 153) were assessed at multiple age points across the first 4 years of life for behavioral signs of inhibition as well as psychophysiological markers of frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry. Four-month temperament was modestly predictive of behavioral inhibition over the first 2 years of life and of behavioral reticence at age 4. Those infants who remained continuously inhibited displayed right frontal EEG asymmetry as early as 9 months of age while those who changed from inhibited to noninhibited did not. Change in behavioral inhibition was related to experience of nonparental care. A second group of infants, selected at 4 months of age for patterns of behavior thought to predict temperamental exuberance, displayed a high degree of continuity over time in these behaviors.     

Opening Pandora's Box: Evidence-based practice for educational psychologists

Over the past few years evidence-based practice has become of central concern to health and social services in this country. The fundamental tenant is that there must be a clear link between professional practice and its research base. This paper outlines the concept of evidence-based practice and how it rests on the concept of good quality research -- defined as randomised controlled trials. Some of the arguments against evidence practice are outlined; in particular, the importance of educational psychologists' epistemological position. A framework is described that helps to explain how educational psychologists may use their experience to construct explanations for their clients' difficulties. The tension between those educational psychologists who wish to base their professional practice on subjective experience and self-reflection, and those who wish to base it on a more objective base is explored. It is suggested that how this tension is resolved will be the key factor in the continued public and political credibility of the profession.     

The relation between neonatal heart period patterns and developmental outcome

Developmental psychophysiologists have long been interested in a means for evaluating infants at risk for cognitive disabilities. The current research addressed the utility of a noninvasive measure of cardiac vagal tone in predicting developmental outcome. At 40 weeks conceptional age, 3 min of resting EKG were recorded from 80 infants. Four groups of infants were evaluated: prematures who had no medical complications in the postnatal period; prematures who experienced respiratory distress syndrome during the postnatal period; term infants who experienced birth asphyxia during labor and/or postdelivery; and healthy term infants. The mental scale of the Bayley Scales of Mental Development was administered at 8 and 12 months conceptional age. Heart period data were analyzed to derive mean heart period, heart period variability, and estimates of vagal tone for each subject. Analyses of the relationship between the heart period variables and 8- and 12-month outcome (i.e., Bayley Scales) indicated that infants with high vagal tone at 40 weeks conceptional age always had positive developmental outcome at both eight and 12 months of age. Infants with low vagal tone had varied outcomes. Measures of medical complications and other measures of heart period variability were not related to developmental outcome. The results suggest that measurement of cardiac vagal tone may provide an important means for assessing risk in birth stressed populations.