An Expanded View of Joint Attention: Skill,Engagement, and Language in Typical Development and Autism

This study provides an expanded view of joint attention and its relation to expressive language development. A total of 144 toddlers (40 typically developing, 58 with autism spectrum disorder [ASD], 46 with developmental delay [DD]) participated at 24 and 31 months. Toddlers who screened positive for ASD risk, especially those subsequently diagnosed with ASD, had poorer joint attention skills, joint engagement during parent–toddler interaction, and expressive language. Findings highlight the dynamic relation between joint attention and language development. In the ASD and DD groups, joint engagement predicted later expressive vocabulary, significantly more than predictions based on joint attention skills. Joint engagement was most severely impacted when toddlers did not talk initially and improved markedly if they subsequently began to speak.     

Measuring strategy use in context with multiple-choice items

A number of authors have presented data that challenge the validity of self-report of strategy use or choice of strategy. We created a multiple-choice measure of students’ strategy use based on the work of Kozminsky, E., and Kozminsky, L. (2001), and tested it with three samples as part of a series of studies testing the fit of the DIME model of reading comprehension. One study was conducted at the high school level (N = 175) and two at the undergraduate level (N = 185 and 737). Over the three studies with three different samples, we found good evidence for the internal consistency reliability and concurrent validity of this type of measure. Commonality analysis suggested that strategy use mainly makes a shared contribution to comprehension with other predictors, especially inference, and to some extent vocabulary, background knowledge, and word reading. The measure was relatively easy to construct and easy to administer to large numbers of students, and showed much higher evidence of concurrent validity than self-ratings of frequency of use of strategies.     

Use of the one-minute preceptor as a teaching tool in the gross anatomy laboratory

The one-minute preceptor (OMP) is a time-efficient technique used for teaching in busy clinical settings. It consists of five microskills: (1) get a commitment from the student, (2) probe for supporting evidence, (3) reinforce what was done right, (4) correct errors and fill in omissions, and (5) teach a general rule. It can also be used to address structure-identification questions in gross anatomy laboratory small-group settings. The OMP is an active learner-centered teaching approach that prepares students for a style of learning that they need to master in clinical settings, provides novice anatomy teachers with an efficient and effective teaching strategy, and moves anatomy learning beyond mere name tagging to active knowledge construction.     

Questions,Instructions, and Modes of Listening in the Joint Production of Guided Action: A Study of Student–Teacher Collaboration in Handicraft Education

This article concerns a central issue in education as an institutional activity: instructions and their role in guiding student activities and understanding. In the study, we investigate the tensions between specifics and generalities in the joint production of guided action. This issue is explored in the context of handicraft education—or more specifically, a teacher education program in sloyd. Handicraft is particularly interesting when analysing instructions, since the purposes of instructions are often dual: (1) to bring about a broad, instructionally relevant mode of understanding artefacts (including their origin, aesthetics, etc.), and (2) to guide manual action in the production of such artefacts. In the article, a detailed analysis of an instructional sequence, which includes the production of two distinct types of embroideries, is reported. The analysis sheds light on the role of educational examples in sloyd as well as on the related issue concerning the distinctive difference between the activities of listening to instructions as part of a lecture, on the one hand, and, on the other, listening to instructions in order to be able to accomplish a task.     

Inquiring in the classroom

This paper considers the part played by teaching assistants in the implementation of the National Literacy and National Numeracy Strategies, two widespread UK government reforms. Evidence from two sources of evaluation (the Ontario Institute in Canada and OfSTED, the school inspectorate for England) indicates that assistants are providing ‘remedial’ support for up to 25% of children in English primary schools. However, although the evaluators note this, they fail to truly acknowledge the important contribution of assistants to the functioning of the Strategies. The paper argues that the lack of acknowledgement arises from the evaluators’ view of teaching assistants as ‘peripheral’ and teachers as ‘core’. This does assistants a great disservice, but also masks the shortcomings of the Strategies, particularly with regard to the way in which a required pedagogy, linked to targets and tests, has created an exclusionary pressure leading to the separation of teaching by teachers and assistants, respectively.     

A test of anxiety/uncertainty management theory: The intercultural adaptation context

Anxiety/Uncertainty Management theory, as formulated by Gudykunst and Hammer (1987a), proposes that intercultural adaptation outcomes are based on the two mediating dimensions of uncertainty reduction and anxiety reduction and sixteen secondary variables that systematically influence uncertainty and anxiety reduction. In this paper, the sixteen variables originally identified are categorized into four “fundamental factors”; (interpersonal saliencies, intergroup saliencies, communication message exchange, and host contact conditions). The present study examines this revised Anxiety/Uncertainty Management (AUM) theory of intercultural adaptation. A total of 291 international students at two universities in the United States participated in the study. The study found overall fit of the revised AUM theory vis‐a‐vis the two mediating factors of uncertainty and anxiety reduction, the importance of interpersonal saliencies for uncertainty reduction, and the importance of host contact conditions for facilitating feelings of comfort and reducing anxiety. Intergroup saliencies were significantly related to uncertainty reduction but not, contrary to expectation, to anxiety reduction. Communication message exchange (which consists of information gathering strategies and second language proficiency) was, again contrary to expectation, not significantly related to either uncertainty or anxiety reduction. Finally, cultural identity showed a small though significant negative relationship to intergroup saliencies, suggesting a stronger, ingroup identity was associated with increased uncertainty. The paper concludes by proffering explanations for the findings and suggestions for future research.     

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.     

The management of quality in the University of Ulster

The setting of standards for teaching is identified as central to any system of quality assurance for teaching and learning. The paper describes a number of initiatives which have been taken at the University of Ulster to identify and develop quality in teaching. They include a project to identify teaching skills through consultation with expert teachers; the use of quality circles of staff and students to specify standards for teaching; the use of student feedback on teaching; the introduction of a distinguished teaching award; the assessment of teaching competence when staff are selected; the introduction of a unit-based in-service teacher training course; and the encouragement of self and peer evaluation using an appraisal schedule. Quality assurance for support services is considered and finally the University's initiatives are related to total quality management and BS 5750.     

The 2003 Benjamin Franklin medal in chemistry for pioneering the development of ultra-fast and multi-dimensional spectroscopies and their applications is presented to Robin M. Hochstrasser

Throughout his distinguished career of over 40 years, Robin Hochstrasser has made significant contributions to several areas of science in the fields of chemical and biochemical physics. He has been at the forefront and made fundamental contributions to the fields of photochemistry, solid-state chemistry, ultra-fast laser spectroscopies, and protein dynamics. He has been a prolific researcher, producing over 560 publications. His work has been characterized by experts in the fields as “a constant stream of experiments of lasting significance” (J. Phys. Chem. 100 (1996) 11791).Robin began his career in the 1960s using a variety of magnetic and electric field measurements to study crystals at low temperatures to understand spin quantization in solids and electron exchanged-mediated energy transfer. This work, described as a “classic contribution” (J. Phys. Chem. 100 (1996) 11791) was the basis for much of the subsequent experimental and theoretical work on the effect of magnetic fields on molecular spectra and on the measurements of dipole moments.In the late 1970s, Robin recognized the power of laser technology for the study of molecules and soon became a leader in the field investigating solid, gas phase, and condensed phase systems. He developed and applied various ultra-fast laser techniques to study the structure and dynamics of complex molecules in liquid phase, chemical, and biochemical reactions. He made seminal contributions to the development of two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy (2D IR) on a time scale of a picosecond or less. This 2D IR spectroscopy measures coupling between two functional groups in a large molecule and can thus be used to measure distances, as for example, two amide carbonyl groups in a peptide molecule. On the ultra-fast timescale, one application of 2D IR is to gain information on the rate of protein folding and unfolding in solution. Some of Robin's greatest contributions to understanding biomolecules are said to be in the experimental studies on the picosecond and femtosecond dynamics of heme proteins. Using techniques he developed he was able to observe the interactions of oxygen, carbon monoxide, and nitric oxide with hemoglobin inside the protein.