A time-series analysis of changeover performance on concurrent variable-interval schedules

Pigeons responded to concurrent variable-interval variable-interval schedules of food reinforcement. Interchangeover times and reinforcements were recorded in intact time series during acquisition following several schedule-density manipulations. Probability of a changeover, while constant as a function of time since the previous changeover, was found to be a nonmonotonically increasing function of time since reinforcement. Autocorrelation analyses of intact time series revealed the presence of statistically significant sequential dependencies in the time series during acquisition, but not during asymptotic performance. Lag transformations of actual interchangeover times revealed inhomogeneities in the time series not shown in the autocorrelations or in the overall distribution of interchangeover times.     

Extrinsic and intrinsic factors in graduation and academic failure among LD college students

A group of 110 LD college students were compared to a random stratified sample (RSS) of 153 peers attending the same moderately selective college between 1980 and 1988. The LD students received comprehensive, highly coordinated support services for at least one semester. The groups were matched on gender, college experience, semester, and year of entry to the college. The LD and RSS groups were compared on high school preparation and performance, ACT and college performance, and graduation and academic failure rate. Although the LD students’ high school records, ACT scores, and college performance were inferior to that of the RSS group, they graduated at the same rate and within the same time frame. Neither was there any significant difference in the academic failure rate. Closer examination of the LD graduates and academic failures’ performance showed that in spite of the similarities in intellectual abilities, academic achievement, and aptitude-achievement discrepancy, two factors differentiated between the LD graduates and non-graduates: oral language abilities and motivation and attitude toward the teaching-learning process. These two factors accounted for 60 percent of the variance in graduation status. This research was supported in part by grants from the Butz and Thorn River Foundations.     

Characteristics of a cognitive tool that helps students learn diagnostic problem solving

Three related studies replicated and extended previous work (J.A. Danielson et al. (2003), Educational Technology Research and Development, 51(3), 63–81) involving the Diagnostic Pathfinder (dP) (previously Problem List Generator [PLG]), a cognitive tool for learning diagnostic problem solving. In studies 1 and 2, groups of 126 and 113 veterinary students, respectively, used the dP to complete case-based homework; groups of 120 and 199, respectively, used an alternative method. Students in the dP groups scored significantly higher (p = .000 and .003, respectively) on final exams than those in control groups. In the third study, 552 veterinary students responding to a questionnaire indicated that the dP’s gating and data synthesis activities aided learning. The dP’s feedback and requirement of completeness appear to aid learning most.     

Does Part-Time Faculty's Self-Efficacy Predict Critical Dimensions of Online College Teaching?

Surveys have repeatedly depicted a dismal picture of part-time teaching in academia, including low pay, scant benefits, limited institutional support, and lack of job security. Thus, the main purpose of the present study was to delve deeper into part-time faculty's ability to sustain the demands of a tough work environment by examining the extent to which specific psychological characteristics predict key self-reported dimensions of teaching in such faculty. The sample selected comprised part-time online instructors, as they are a relatively new and growing entity in academia. Teaching dimensions upon which faculty rated themselves belonged to three categories of factors known to shape satisfaction of faculty in the online environment (i.e., instructor-related, student-related, and institution-related). They included current satisfaction with the teaching profession, preparation to teach subject matter, responsibility for students' academic success, beliefs in the impact of one's teaching on student learning, perceived institutional support, and desire to remain in the teaching profession (i.e., commitment). Psychological characteristics examined were self-efficacy and self-monitoring. In this study, each key dimension of teaching was found to be positively related to one or more self-efficacy measures, whereas no links with self-monitoring were uncovered. The findings involving self-efficacy confirm those of studies of full-time faculty in that beliefs of one's capability are a source of resilience and, as such, a staple of the teaching profession.     

Parental Conceptions of School Readiness: Relation to Ethnicity,Socioeconomic Status,and Children's Skills

Research Findings: This study analyzed the school readiness beliefs of parents of 452 children from public pre-kindergarten and the relations of these beliefs to socioeconomic status and children's readiness skills. Parents conceived readiness largely in terms of the ability to name objects, letters, or numbers, but few included inferential skills. Readiness beliefs were related not to socioeconomic status but to ethnicity. Readiness beliefs about the importance of independence, social competence, nominal knowledge, and inferential skills were related in expected ways to children's skills. Practice or Policy: Infrequent inclusion of inferential skills among parents' readiness beliefs may not bode well for children. Informational programs for parents about the critical role of higher order cognitive skills and ways to promote them are needed.     

Relational and Overt Aggression in Disruptive Adolescents: Prediction from Early Social Representations and Links with Concurrent Problems

Children's representations of conflict and distress situations at 7 years were examined as developmental precursors to relational aggression, overt aggression, and psychiatric symptoms in early adolescence. Children were identified in early adolescence. Children were identified in preschool as normally developing or with behavior problems. Overt, but not relational, aggression, was correlated with concurrent disruptive symptoms in adolescence. Childhood predictors of adolescent aggression were found only for girls: Early hostile themes predicted more relational and overt aggression, while prosocial themes predicted less relational aggression. Also for girls only, early emotions foretold later functioning: Sadness predicted a higher ratio of relational to overt aggression, while inexpressiveness predicted disruptive, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Relational and overt aggression are discussed with regard to sex differences in symptom changes over time.     

Families and Children With Special Needs: Professional and Family Partnerships. By Tom E. C. Smith,Barbara C. Gartin,Nikki L. Murdick,and Alan Hilton. Upper Saddle River,NJ: Pearson. 2005, 288 pp

The goal of this case study was to describe the cross-cultural consultation experiences of school psychology graduate students as they progressed through a semester-long school-based consultation course. Graduate students enrolled in a consultation course completed both quantitative and qualitative assessment measures. The course instructor used these tools to adapt course components to students' expressed cross-cultural needs. Highlighted themes from the data included the importance of continual cross-cultural competency development in school psychology training programs. Other questions raised from the case study included how to extend a practitioner's cross-cultural development beyond formal training.     

Using the Internet to Improve University Education: Problem-Oriented Web-Based Learning with MUNICS

Up to this point, university education has largely remained unaffected by the developments of novel approaches to web-based learning. The paper presents a principled approach to the design of problem-oriented, web-based learning at the university level. The principles include providing authentic contexts with multimedia, supporting collaborative knowledge construction, making thinking visible with dynamic visualisation, quick access to content resources via information and communication technologies, and flexible support by tele-tutoring. These principles are used in the MUNICS learning environment, which is designed to support students of computer science to apply their factual knowledge from the lectures to complex real-world problems. For example, students may model the knowledge management in an educational organisation with a graphical simulation tool. Some more general findings from a formative evaluation study with the MUNICS prototype are reported and discussed. For example, the students’ ignorance of the additional content resources is discussed in the light of the well-known finding of insufficient use of help systems in software applications.     

The impact of action learning: what difference are we making in the world?

Involvement in a number of action-learning programmes and associated development opportunities has led the Professional Development Centre Limited to question the relevance of a strict adherence to the ‘rules’ of action learning as described by Reg Revans. A deliberate focus of one such programme to a financial services organisation offered some insights into the challenges of introducing action learning into the field. Pressures on organisations of time and business expedients might make them believe that action learning is too slow a technique to offer real rewards. However, elements of the action-learning story do resonate in the workplace, key concepts that appear to ‘stick’ are listening, questioning and equality. The utilisation of these skills enhances leadership and organisational development and can still provide a useful set of actions to aim for. This is especially true in problem solving and the way in which respect and equality can re-create a different environment or development space.     

5. Journalism

MANUFACTURING THE FUTURE: A HISTORY OF WESTERN ELECTRIC by Stephen B. Adams and Orville R. Butler (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999—$34.95, ISBN 0–521–65118–2, 270 pp., photos, appendices, notes, bibliographic essay, index)

HITLER'S AIRWAVES: THE INSIDE STORY OF NAZI RADIO BROADCASTING AND PROPAGANDA SWING by Horst J. P. Bermeier and Rainer E. Lotz (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997—price not given, ISBN 0–300–06709–7, 368 pp., photos, notes, appendices, sources, index, compact disc inside back cover)

HOWARD AIKEN: PORTRAIT OF A COMPUTER PIONEER by I. Bernard Cohen (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press “History of Computing,”; 1999—$34.95, ISBN 0–262–03262–7, 329 pp., photos, appendices, source notes, index)

COMMUNICATION, COMMERCE AND POWER: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF AMERICA AND THE DIRECT BROADCAST SATELLITE, 1960–2000 by Edward A. Comor (New York: St Martin's Press, 1998—price not given, ISBN 0–312–21071‐X, 253 pp., notes, bibliography, index)

THE GREAT RADIO SOAP OPERAS by Jim Cox (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1999—$55.00, ISBN 0–7864–0589–9, 331 pp., photos, credits, appendices, annotated bibliography, index)

INFORMATION AGES: LITERACY, NUMERACY, AND THE COMPUTER REVOLUTION by Michael E. Hobart and Zachary S. Schiffman (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998—$29.95, ISBN 0–818–5881‐X, 301 pp., photos, notes, bibliographic essay, index)

ENIAC: THE TRIUMPHS AND TRAGEDIES OF THE WORLD'S FIRST COMPUTER by Scott McCartney (New York: Walker, 1999—price not given, ISBN 0–8027–1348–3, 262 pp., photos, notes, bibliography, index)

MAXWELL ON THE ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD: A GUIDED STUDY by Thomas K. Simpson (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press “Masterworks of Discovery: Guided Studies of Great Texts in Science,”; 1997—prices not given, ISBN 0–8135–2362–1 hard, 0–8135–2363‐X paper, 440 pp., diagrams, selected readings, bibliography, index)

THE BRITISH LIBRARY GUIDE TO PRINTING: HISTORY AND TECHNIQUES by Michael Twyman (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999—$19.95, paper, ISBN 0–8020–8179–7, 88 pp., further readings, illustrations, index)

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PRINTED WORD IN EARLY AMERICA: COLONISTS’ THOUGHTS ON THE ROLE OF THE PRESS by Julie Hedgepeth Williams (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press “Contributions to the Study of Mass Media and Communications, No. 55,”; 1999—$65.00, ISBN , 0–313–30923‐X, 298 pp., bibliography, index)