Piagetian controversies,cognitive competence,and assumptions about human communication

This article is a comment on Ed Elbers' analysis of the debate between R. Gelman and R. Siegler on the development of fundamental counting competencies. An attempt is made to characterize some aspects of the theoretical positions of Gelman and Siegler. It is argued that the tendency to reduce human cognitive performance to an issue of either the application of preformed competencies of various kinds, or, alternatively, of the use of domain specific knowledge, hampers our understanding of cognitive growth and the mastery of intellectual tools. The alternative offered is that all human activity—including what takes place in the experiment — should be seen as socially and culturally situated, and that our focus should be on understanding the resources—mental as well as practical—that people draw on when solving problems.     

Job satisfaction of University academics: Perspectives from Uganda

Although several studies in the affluent world have examined the job satisfaction and dissatisfaction of lecturers in higher education, little is known about academic job satisfaction in the low-resource countries. This study probes those factors contributing to academic satisfaction and dissatisfaction in higher education in the developing world. Using a sample of 182 respondents drawn from two universities in Uganda, this analysis reports that the factors most prevalent in the prediction of dons’ satisfaction relate to co-worker behaviour, supervision and intrinsic facets of teaching. Analogously, the stimuli that create academic dissatisfaction are largely extrinsic (contextual) factors with respect to facets of remuneration, governance, research, promotion, and working environment. This article discusses these findings in the light of Herzberg’s dichotomy and concludes that any given factor be it intrinsic or extrinsic can either evoke academic satisfaction or induce dissatisfaction. The present analysis finds that while age, rank, and tenure significantly predict academic job satisfaction, no evidence is adduced to support a gender influence on dons’ job satisfaction. Implications for Ugandan academics’ job satisfaction are formulated, recommendations made, and a further research agenda proposed.     

Creating cultures of disability to control young people in Australian schools

State and territory education departments across Australia have been attempting to respond to reported increases in the levels of disruption in schools. The problem is considered particularly severe in urban secondary schools. This paper examines the way in which integration or “mainstreaming” policies have been subverted in order to control disruptive young people by labeling them as defective.     

Instrumental escape learning in the rat at 24-hour intertriai interval: Effects of magnitude and schedule of reinforcement

Three experiments investigated the effects of magnitude and schedule of reinforcement and level of training in instrumental escape learning at a 24-h intertriai interval. In Experiment I, two magnitudes of reinforcement were factorially combined with two schedules of reinforcement (CRF and PRF). Under PRF, large reward produced greater resistance to extinction than did small reward, while the reverse was true under CRF. In Experiment II, two levels of acquisition training were factorially combined with three schedules of reinforcement (CRF, single-alternation, and nonalternated PRF). Patterned running was observed late in acquisition in the single-alternation extended-training condition. Resistance to extinction was greater for the nonalternated PRF condition than for the single-alternation condition following extended acquisition, and the reverse was true following limited acquisition. Experiment III confirmed the extinction findings of Experiment II. The results of all three experiments supported an analysis of escape learning at spaced trials in terms of Capaldi’s (1967) sequential theory.     

Writing centre tutoring sessions: addressing students’ concerns

The guiding principle behind university writing centres is to focus on the process of writing rather than the finished product, prioritising higher order concerns related to organisation and argumentation of texts rather than lower order concerns of grammar and punctuation. Using survey-based data, this paper examines students’ concerns regarding written texts in English and analyses whether there is a correlation between students’ and peer-tutors’ perceptions of help received/provided in the writing centre at Nanyang Technological University. The aggregate findings show that there is a significant correlation between their perceptions but a further sub-analysis that pairs individual student and peer-tutor responses reveals that there are discrepancies between their perceptions of the type of help received and provided. These findings not only reveal the type of feedback students prefer, whether global or local, but also whether there is a good fit between student needs and tutoring approach based on students’ nationality and English proficiency.     

Social‐Emotional Competence: An Essential Factor for Promoting Positive Adjustment and Reducing Risk in School Children

Social‐emotional competence is a critical factor to target with universal preventive interventions that are conducted in schools because the construct (a) associates with social, behavioral, and academic outcomes that are important for healthy development; (b) predicts important life outcomes in adulthood; (c) can be improved with feasible and cost‐effective interventions; and (d) plays a critical role in the behavior change process. This article reviews this research and what is known about effective intervention approaches. Based on that, an intervention model is proposed for how schools should enhance the social and emotional learning of students in order to promote resilience. Suggestions are also offered for how to support implementation of this intervention model at scale.     

Effects of signaled reward in instrumental conditioning: Enhanced learning on DRL and DRH schedules of reinforcement

The effects of signaled reward were examined using DRL and DRH schedules of reinforcement. In each case, one group of rats received a brief cue between the reinforced response and the reward, and a second group received brief cues at random times. With the DRL schedule (Experiment 1), signaled reward decreased response rate, increased response efficiency (number of responses per reinforcer), and increased resistence to satiation relative to the control group. With the DRH schedule (Experiment 2), signaled reward increased response rate, efficiency, and resistance to satiation. These results refute an overshadowing explanation of the effects of signaled reward and suggest that food-correlated cues enhance learning of the reinforcement contingencies.     

The stimulus-response overshadowing phenomenon with VI versus FI schedules of reinforcement

Previous research has shown that response rates on a variable interval (VI) schedule of reinforcement decrease if a brief response-produced signal is given prior to reward. One explanation is that the signal overshadows the response because it is a better predictor of reinforcement. The S-R overshadowing effect does not occur with variable ratio (VR) schedules, however. Tarpy, Lea, and Midgley (1983) explained this fact by suggesting that the signal functions to enhance the salience of the temporal interval offset on the VI schedule (a characteristic not possessed by VR schedules), which then overshadows the response. In this experiment, the salience of the temporal interval was enhanced in another way: signaled or unsignaled reward was provided to rats responding on either a VI or fixed interval (FI) reward schedule. As predicted, rates were lowest for animals receiving signaled reinforcement on an FI schedule and highest for those receiving unsignaled reinforcement on a VI schedule.