Nature education and science

Four-year-old Adrienne is on her hands and knees watching ants in one corner of the school yard. Her friend June is nearby with a magnifying glass and sifter. She's pouring dirt through the sifter and then using the magnifying glass to study the remains of what's left in the sifter. So far, she's found a small pebble, something that looks like a bone, and remnants of dried grass.Ruth A. Wilson is Director of Environmental Education for Preschoolers, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH.The author's work is supported, in part, through a grant from the Ohio Environmental Education Fund, a program of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.     

A comparison of reading comprehension knowledge in above average,average and below average comprehenders: A study in metacomprehension

Differences which exist between different groups of reading comprehenders were examined through an interview approach. Thirty sixth graders, representing above average, average and below average reading comprehenders, were interviewed as they completed 4 sets of reading comprehension exercises. Statistically significant differences were found between the three groups for correct monitoring of textual information and answering strategies: unsuccessful use of recall. Significant differences were found between the above average and below average groups for, schema about text structure; schema about solution strategies; knowledge of the given text; and incorrect monitoring of textual information. The above average and average comprehenders were found to have a significant difference on the variable, answering strategies; unsuccessful use of lookbacks. The results are discussed in terms of metacomprehension ability.     

A Qualitative Metasynthesis of Consultation Process Research: What We Know and Where to Go

ABSTRACT

Qualitative metasynthesis (QM) is a research methodology that permits the meaningful integration and interpretation of qualitative research. This study applies a QM approach combined with constructivist grounded theory methods, bolstered by several features of research credibility, to examine the state of consultee-centered consultation (CCC) and related relational, process-oriented school consultation research. A systematic search and retrieval process including two rounds of appraisal resulted in a final sample of 38 relevant studies from 1995 to 2014. Data analyses included two stages of coding/theme development. Integrated themes suggest a number of considerations regarding consultation implementation including: system-level factors; consultation structure; consultee voice, social-emotional support, and learning; ecological orientation and cultural responsiveness; and consultation training. Future research priorities stemming from these themes are identified and elaborated upon, as are future applications for QM in educational research.     

Physical abuse during adolescence: Gender differences in the adolescents' perceptions of family functioning and parenting

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between physical abuse of adolescents and parenting by mothers and fathers and whether the association differs by gender. METHODS: Subjects were adolescents, 51 girls and 45 boys, documented by Child Protective Services (CPS) as physically abused during adolescence. Comparison subjects were non-abused adolescents, 47 girls and 48 boys, from the same suburban communities. Subjects completed the following: Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale, Parental Bonding Instrument, modified Conflict Tactics Scale (assessing physical abuse/punishment by each parent). RESULTS: Although CPS generally cited fathers as the abuse perpetrators, abused boys and girls often reported experiencing physical maltreatment from both parents. Not surprisingly, comparison subjects rated parents more positively than abused subjects. For both groups, mothers were perceived as more caring and less controlling, were reported to have closer relationships with their adolescents, and were less likely to use abuse/harsh punishment than were fathers. Differences between the adolescents' perceptions of mothers and fathers were more pronounced for abused than for comparison subjects. Boys' and girls' perceptions of parenting were generally similar except that girls, especially the abused girls, reported feeling less close to fathers. Abused girls also viewed mothers as less caring than the other groups viewed mothers. Abused girls were also less likely than abused boys to perceive that either parent, but particularly fathers, had provided them with an optimum style of parenting. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents who experienced relatively mild physical abuse reported dysfunctional family relationships, which may place them at risk of poor adult outcomes. Adolescents' reports suggest that CPS reports may underestimate physical maltreatment by mothers.     

A curriculum to improve thinking under uncertainty

Recent evidence indicates that people's intuitive judgments are sometimes affected by systematic biases that can lead to bad decisions. Much of the value of this research depends on its applicability, i.e., showing people when and how their judgments are wrong and how they can be improved. This article describes one step toward that goal, i.e., the development of a curriculum for junior high school students aimed at improving thought processes, specifically, those necessary in uncertain situations (probabilistic thinking). The relevant psychological literature is summarized and the main guidelines in the curriculum development are specified: (a) encouraging students to introspect and examine their own (and others') thought processes consciously, (b) indicating the circumstances in which common modes of thinking may cause fallacies, and (c) providing better tools for coping with the problems that emerge. Two detailed examples are given. In addition, the problem of training teachers is briefly discussed and a small-scale evaluation effort is described.     

Consultee-Centered Consultation: Contemporary Perspectives and a Framework for the Future

ABSTRACT

Consultee-centered consultation (CCC) is a familiar, but historically understudied, model of consultation. This Special Issue of the Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation summarizes, supplements, and updates the CCC research base; considers the role of CCC in contemporary school and community settings; and calls for and helps guide future CCC research and practice. This introduction to the Special Issue begins with a definition of CCC, individuates the model from its historical roots in mental health consultation, and provides a timeline of significant events in the evolution of the CCC model. Next, each article in the Special Issue is previewed in order to highlight unique contributions made to the CCC literature. Collectively, these articles provide a summary of the current state of CCC, multicultural frameworks for CCC training and practice, and multiple directions for future research.     

Short-term retention of “surprising” events following different training conditions

Terry and Wagner (1975) have suggested that short-term retention of information about an event is enhanced if the occurrence of the event is surprising. To investigate this idea, we trained two groups of pigeons in a preparatory-releaser procedure in which half the trials started with the presentation of food (the preparatory event). The preparatory food presensation was signaled by an 8-sec white keylight in the signaled, but not in the unsignaled, group. After a retention interval, varying between 2 and 32 sec, the releaser stimulus (CS_R), a red keylight, was presented for 8 sec in the absence of any reinforcement. The remaining trials were initiated by the presentation of CS_R, and the first peck occurring 8 sec after the onset of CS_R was reinforced by food. The preparatory event controlled responding to CS_R at the short retention interval, with the level of control declining systematically with increasing retention intervals. On probe test trials, the presentation of the preparatory food event was preceded by a stimulus that had previously been paired (CS+) or unpaired with food (CS?). Discriminative responding to CSr was better following CS? than following CS+ in the unsignaled, but not the signaled, group. These results suggest that the enhanced retention following surprising preparatory events reflects a generalization decrement induced by changing the signaling conditions between training and testing.     

Bullying: teachers’ views and school effects

Fifty‐one teachers completed a questionnaire and 20 teachers were interviewed about bullying. The teachers taught at two Outer London schools with high proportions of ethnic minority pupils where pupils had previously reported significantly different incidences of bullying. Analyses of the teachers’ responses indicated that at the school where pupils had reported a higher incidence of bullying, teachers were significantly more likely to perceive behaviour as bullying, observe bullying and have pupils report bullying to them. The majority of teachers interviewed endorsed gender differences in type of bullying. Only a minority of teachers believed that there were clear‐cut bully typologies but most believed that there were typical victim personalities. These results are discussed within a phenomenological approach to bullying.     

Direct effects on instrumental performance of outcome revaluation by drive shifts

In three experiments the sensitivity of instrumental responding to revaluation of the instrumental outcome in the absence of experience with the revalued outcome was examined. Hungry rats were trained to make one response for food pellets and a different response for sucrose liquid. In Experiment 1, these responses were tested in extinction when the animals were either thirsty or hungry. A significant preference for the sucrose-trained response was observed in the test conducted under thirst but not in that conducted under hunger. In Experiments 2 and 3, the effect of experience with sucrose under thirst on the magnitude of this preference was explored. Following training of the instrumental responses in Experiment 2, half of the animals received presentations of sucrose while they were thirsty; the other half received sucrose while they were hungry. In Experiment 3, the same design was used but these sucrose presentations were made contingent on an instrumental response. Also in Experiment 3, the specificity of the sucrose-response preference to a shift to thirst was examined by testing under increased and decreased levels of hunger. The results of those experiments indicated that the sucrose-response preference is exhibited only under thirst and that exposure to the sucrose under thirst only marginally enhanced that preference. These findings suggest that instrumental responding may be modified by changes in the value of its outcome in the absence of experience with the revalued outcome.