Learning to make change happen in Chinese schools: adapting a problem-based computer simulation for developing school leaders

School leader training has become a critical strategy in educational reform. However, in China, there still exists a big gap in terms of how to transfer leadership knowledge into practice. Thus, tools that can integrate formal knowledge into practice are called for urgently in school leader training. This paper presents the results of a research and development (R&;D) approach to adapt an existing online computer simulation, Making Change Happen?, for use in Mainland China. The paper describes the process used to inform and assess our cultural adaptation of the simulation, as well as the response of Chinese principals to learning through this innovative method. Results affirmed the necessity for cultural adaptation of ‘Western’ curricula and tools for use in the Chinese context. The positive response of the Chinese school principals to learning via an online computer simulation suggested future potential for employing technology-facilitated, active learning modes in China. Implications are outlined for theory, research, and practice.     

The Nonreciprocating Robot: Effects on Verbal Discourse, Social Play, and Social Referencing at Two Years of Age

2-year-old children interacted with a robot in a large playroom while their mother sat quietly in the corner. Identical vocalizations from the robot had very different effects on 3 dimensions of the children's behavior when the vocalizations were embedded in reciprocating and nonreciprocating social structures. The reciprocating robot produced (1) more topic-maintaining verbal dialogue, (2) less physical and more linguistically mediated social play, and (3) gender-specific effects on the children's tendency to visually reference their mother during the play session. The data are discussed with reference to the frequently encountered assumption that reciprocal social structures have an impact on children's behavior when the quantity and other qualitative dimensions of social stimulation are held constant, and with reference to the children's attributions about the robot as a social partner.     

Conjunctive differentiation of gape during food-reinforced keypecking in the pigeon

The pigeon’s keypecking response includes both a head-transport (peck) and a jaw-movement (gape) component. Because the two components are mediated by different effector systems, they may potentially be viewed as orthogonal responses. A response differentiation procedure was used to bring gape amplitude under operant control. The procedure employed a conjunctive response requirement in which reinforcement was contingent upon both gaping and key contact. The key-contact requirement was held constant, while the gape contingency was systematically varied to reinforce either decreases or increases in gape amplitude with respect to baseline. The procedure was effective in shifting the gape distributions in both the upward and downward directions and in inducing new gape values that deviated from the baseline in the reinforced direction. These observations indicate that gape may be brought under operant control. However, subjects showed a bias in the differentiation of the gape response, such that larger gapes were more readily differentiated than smaller gapes. The results are discussed in relation to the methodological utility of the paradigm, the problem of biological constraints on learning, and the heuristic utility of a response components analysis.     

Anxiety and cueing in a visual concept learning task

This study investigated the relationship of two anxiety measures to performance on a visual concept acquisition task. Criterial information was embedded at two levels for the noncued treatment group and made salient by color cues for the cued treatment group. Two-way analyses of variance were used and indicated a significant interaction between cueing treatment andState-Trait Anxiety Inventory (stai) anxiety scores for the heavily embedded figures. Further research is suggested utilizing different populations and cueing techniques. The addition of cues is suggested for deeply embedded criterial information for use with high-anxiety students.     

Alternative constructs and cognitive development: Commonalities,divergences, and possibilities for evidence

The last fifteen years of research in science education has seen the emergence, flowering, proliferation, and now perhaps slight wilting of studies of pupils' alternative constructs. Meanwhile the older, broadly Piagetian, tradition of work rooted in notions of cognitive development was attacked as being, inter alia, deterministic, concentrating on what children could not do, and getting even that wrong since children could be shown to be a lot cleverer than the cognitive developmentalists claimed. The time has perhaps now come to look at these two lines of work together to see what assumptions they share and where their paradigms, aims, and methods differ significantly. In this paper I will claim that there is far less antagonism between the two traditions than is often represented, but that nevertheless the differences are fundamental and lead to different views of the purposes and potential of science education. Possible evidence that might be adduced in support of one view at the expense of the other will be considered and exemplified with recent results of a cognitive acceleration project. Specializations: cognitive development, curriculum development, in-service education, project evaluation.     

Dominance relationships in femaleHerotilapia multispinosa (Pisces: Cichlidae)

Agonistic interactions between all possible pairings of 10 adult female rainbow cichlids (Herotilapia multispinosa) were observed in three round-robin tournaments. Specific behaviors and color patterns were found to characterize winning and losing fish. The outcomes of agonistic encounters were used to construct a hypothetical dominance hierarchy. This hierarchy was consistent over the three tournaments in that (1) the order of animals in the hierarchy remained relatively unchanged and (2) the relationship between the members of a particular dyad tended to remain stable. The latter was especially true for fish of widely different dominance rank.     

Belief correlates of perceived addiction in young smokers

Results from a survey of smoking prevalence and smoking beliefs among 10,579 pupils from 10 co-educational comprehensive schools from the Bristol conurbation suggest that there is more to adolescent smoking than a vulnerability to peer group pressure. Those adolescents who saw themselves as more addicted, those who anticipate more difficulty in stopping and/or reported more craving for cigarettes had more «external control» beliefs about their health, emphasized to a greater extent intrinsic enjoyment and the calming effect of smoking and rejected ideas that smoking by young people is motivated by the desire to look grown up or feel important. Young smokers appear to attribute their behaviour to the intrinsic benefits of smoking itself rather than to external pressure or to the desire to conform to peer group norms. The implications of these findings for health education programmes are discussed.