Comparative studies of the preference for free vs response-produced reinforcers

Neither domesticated hooded rats nor wild black rats responded appreciably for water on a CRF schedule when free water was available. However, four out of five crows showed substantial responding for food in the presence of identical free food. Previous reports also indicate that type of reinforcer and species are variables which significantly influence this phenomenon. Nevertheless, the overall findings seem to be amenable to an explanation based upon incentive-motivation theory.     

A sociocultural perspective on mediated activity in third grade science

This ethnographic study of a third grade classroom examined elementary school science learning as a sociocultural accomplishment. The research focused on how a teacher helped his students acquire psychological tools for learning to think and engage in scientific practices as locally defined. Analyses of classroom discourse examined both how the teacher used mediational strategies to frame disciplinary knowledge in science as well as how students internalized and appropriated ways of knowing in science. The study documented and analyzed how students came to appropriate scientific knowledge as their own in an ongoing manner tied to their identities as student scientists. Implications for sociocultural theory in science education research are discussed. John Reveles is an assistant professor in the Elementary Education Department at California State University, Northridge. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2005. Before pursuing his Ph.D., he worked as a bilingual elementary school teacher for 3 years. His research focuses on the development of scientific literacy in elementary school settings; sociocultural influences on students' academic identity; equity of access issues in science education; qualitative and quantitative research methods. Within the Michael D. Eisner College of Education, he teaches elementary science curriculum methods courses, graduate science education seminars, and graduate research courses. Gregory Kelly is a professor of science education at Penn State University. He is a former Peace Corps Volunteer and physics teacher. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1994. His research focuses on classroom discourse, epistemology, and science learning. This work has been supported by grants from Spencer Foundation, National Science Foundation, and the National Academy of Education. He teaches courses concerning the uses of history, philosophy, sociology of science in science teaching and teaching and learning science in secondary schools. He is editor of the journal Science Education. Richard Durán is a Professor in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara. His research and publications have been in the areas of literacy and assessment of English Language Learners and Latino students. He has also conducted research on after school computer clubs, technology and learning as part of the international UC Links Network. With support from the Kellogg Foundation, he is implementing and investigating community and family-centered intervention programs serving the educational progress of Latino students in the middle and high school grades.     

A study of Indonesian students' perceptions of classroom psychosocial environment

Extensive research conducted in developed countries has established classroom learning environment as a thriving field of study. The present investigation makes a contribution to classroom environment research in that it involved the translation into Indonesian of scales previously available only in English, and the subsequent validation and use of these translated scales among Indonesian students. The new Indonesian instrument consists of nine seven-item scales based upon the Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire and the Classroom Environment Scale. Analyses of data collected from a sample of 373 Indonesian students from nine schools supported the new instrument's internal consistency, discriminant validity, ability to differentiate between classrooms, and predictive validity (i.e. ability to predict student outcomes). Potential applications of the new instruments in Indonesian classrooms are suggested.

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Zusammenfassung Die in entwickelten Ländern durchgeführte umfassende Untersuchung beweist, daß die Klassenumwelt ein emporkommendes Untersuchungsfeld ist. Die jetztige Nachforschung trägt zur Klassenumweltsuntersuchung bei, insofern als Tabellen bis jetzt nur auf Englisch erhältlich waren und sie durch ihre Übersetzung ins Indonesische auf ihre nachfolgende Gültigkeit und Anwendung bei indonesischen Schülern untersucht wurden. Das neue indonesische Instrument besteht aus neun sieben-Punkte-Tabellen, die sich auf den Fragebogen bezüglich individualisierter Klassenumwelt (Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire) und auf die Klassenumweltstabelle (Classroom Environment Scale) stützen. Analysen von gesammelten Daten einer repräsentativen Auswahl von 373 indonesischen Schülern aus neun Schulen bestätigen die inhärente Folgerichtigkeit des neuen Instruments, seine Unterscheidungsgültigkeit, seine Fähigkeit zwischen Klassen zu differenzieren und seine Genauigkeit in der Vorhersage (d.h. die Fähigkeit, die Resultate der Schüler vorherzusagen). Die Untersuchung schlägt potentielle Anwendungen der neuen Instrumente in indonesischen Klassen vor.

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Résumé La recherche approfondie qui a été menée dans les pays développés sur le milieu d'apprentissage qu'est la classe en a fait un champ d'étude florissant. La présente enquête apporte une contribution à la recherche sur le milieu scolaire en ce qu'elle introduit la traduction en indonésien d'échelles d'évaluation qui n'existaient jusqu'alors qu'en anglais, et qu'elle examine la validation ultérieure et l'application de ces échelles, une fois traduites, par les étudiants indonésiens. Le nouvel instrument indonésien consiste en neuf échelles de sept items basées sur le Questionnaire portant sur le milieu scolaire tel qu'il est vécu par chaque individu et sur l'Echelle du Milieu Scolaire. Les analyses des données recueillies auprès d'un échantillon représentatif de 373 étudiants indonésiens appartenant à neuf écoles différentes ont confirmé la valeur intrinsèque du nouvel instrument d'évaluation, sa justesse de discernement, sa capacité à différencier entre les classes, et l'exactitude de ses pronostics (c'est-à-dire la capacité à prédire les résultats des étudiants). Cette étude suggère différentes applications potentielles de ces nouveaux moyens d'évaluation dans les classes indonésiennes.

     

Fire play: ICCARUS—Intelligent command and control,acquisition and review using simulation*

Is it possible to educate a fire officer to deal intelligently with the command and control of a major fire event he will never have experienced? The authors of this paper believe there is, and present here just one solution to this training challenge. It involves the development of an intelligent simulation based upon computer managed interactive media. The expertise and content underpinning this educational development was provided by the West Midlands Fire Service. Their brief for this training programme was unambiguous and to the point:

• 1 Do not present the trainee with a model answer, because there are no generic fires. Each incident is novel, complex, and often ‘wicked’ in that it changes obstructively as it progresses. Thus firefighting demands that Commanders impose their individual intelligence on each problem to solve it.
• 2 A suitable Educational Simulator should stand alone; operate in real time; emulate as nearly as possible the ‘feel’ of the fireground; present realistic fire progress; incorporate the vast majority of those resources normally present at a real incident; bombard the trainee with information from those sources; provide as few system‐prompts as possible.
• 3 There should also be an interrogable visual debrief which can be used after the exercise to give the trainees a firm understanding of the effects of their actions. This allows them to draw their own conclusions of their command effectiveness. Additionally, such a record of command and control will be an ideal initiator of tutorial discussion.
• 4 The simulation should be realisable on a hardware/software platform of £10 000.
• 5 The overriding importance is that the simulation should ‘emulate as nearly as possible the feelings and stresses of the command role’.