Quantitative reasoning,complexity, and additive structures

Six fifth-grade children participated in a four-day teaching experiment on complex additively-structured problems, which was followed by in-depth interviews of individual children. The teaching experiment was meant to investigate children's difficulties in holding in mind at once situations in which one or more items played multiple roles. Two important difficulties were identified: (1) distinguishing between difference as the result of subtracting and difference as the amount by which one quantity exceeded another; and (2) indirect evaluation of an additive comparison. Sources of these difficulties, along with pedagogical and curricular recommendations for addressing them, are discussed.Research reported in this paper was supported by National Science Foundation Grants NO. MDR 89-50311 and 90-96275, and by a grant of equipment from Apple Computer, Inc., Office of External Research. Any conclusions or recommendations stated here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect official positions of NSF or Apple Computer.     

Emotional regulation and emotional development

Current neofunctionalist views of emotion underscore the biologically adaptive and psychologically constructive contributions of emotion to organized behavior, but little is known of the development of the emotional regulatory processes by which this is fostered. Emotional regulation refers to the extrinsic and intrinsic processes responsible for monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional reactions. This review provides a developmental outline of emotional regulation and its relation to emotional development throughout the life-span. The biological foundations of emotional self-regulation and individual differences in regulatory tendencies are summarized. Extrinsic influences on the early regulation of a child's emotion and their long-term significance are then discussed, including a parent's direct intervention strategies, selective reinforcement and modeling processes, affective induction, and the caregiver's ecological control of opportunity for heightened emotion and its management. Intrinsic contributors to the growth of emotional self-regulatory capacities include the emergence of language and cognitive skills, the child's growing emotional and self-understanding (and cognized strategies of emotional self-control), and the emergence of a theory of personal emotion in adolescence.     

Towards a sociocognitive model of progression in spoken English

Current approaches to oral assessment of English in English secondary schools tend to concentrate more on ‘confidence’ and ‘participation’ than on the quality of children's thinking. This undermines the rich possibilities in classroom talk for cognitive development. Behavioural assessment approaches deny the essentially cognitive character of spoken English. This paper compares two brief representative extracts from a larger data‐set of students engaged in small group debate on the subject of abortion. One group of students are hindered in their discussion by an inability to conceptualize abstractly. It is suggested that a formative assessment approach based on a model of cognitive progression such as Vygotsky's could enable all students to develop as speakers by encouraging their teachers to focus more explicitly on the development of the quality of thinking. A sociocognitive framework for conceptual progression could guide teachers in their interpretation of peer debate in order to develop the quality of students' understanding and argument. Building on the work of Newman, Griffin and Cole, and Torrance and Pryor, further research should be conducted into the ways in which formative teacher–student and student–student assessment dialogue might enhance students' ability to think through talk.     

User library service expectations in health science vs. other settings: a LibQUAL+ Study

Objectives: To explore how the library service expectations and perceptions of users might differ across health‐related libraries as against major research libraries not operating in a medical context; to determine whether users of medical libraries demand better library service quality, because the inability of users to access needed literature promptly may lead to a patient who cannot be properly diagnosed, or a diagnosis that cannot be properly treated. Methodology: We compared LibQUAL+® total and subscale scores across three groups of US, Canadian and British libraries for this purpose. Results: Anticipated differences in expectations for health as other library settings did not emerge. Conclusions: The expectations and perceptions are similar across different types of health science library settings, hospital and academic, and across other general research libraries.     

Transformation and Closure for Anatomical Donor Families that Meet Medical Students

The University of Oklahoma College of Medicine has conducted an annual Anatomical Donor Luncheon where families of the anatomical donors met anatomy dissection groups of medical students. The luncheon presented an opportunity for donor family members to share the life story of their loved one with the medical students prior to the start of the anatomy course. This study was designed to understand the impact of the Anatomical Donor Luncheon on families of the donors. Seven families in two different focus groups were included to explore the reactions and attitudes of the donor families to meeting the medical students. Conversations were digitally recorded and transcribed. Qualitative analysis of textual data were coded by three investigators using the Constant Comparative Method. To provide evidence of validity, a form of member checking was utilized. For further triangulation, an analyst not involved in conducting the focus groups or analyzing the data, re-coded all data. This analyst used categories and themes identified by the original analysts, ensuring validity of the themes and any negative cases (data not supporting or contradictory of the established categories and themes). One meta-theme and three sub-themes were identified. The meta-theme was Donor Family Participants Experience Transformation and Closure, and sub-themes were Motivators for Participation, Optimal Venue Factors, and Optimal Medical Student–Anatomical Donor Family Interactions. Study findings indicated the Anatomical Donor Luncheon facilitated closure on the death of their loved one, and transformed their apprehension about the luncheon and body donation into an attitude of gratitude and appreciation.     

Resistance as method: unhappiness,group feeling,and the limits of participation in a digital storytelling workshop

This paper offers a narrative case study of Mirabel, one participant in a digital storytelling workshop for women who were newcomers to Canada, whose experience compelled me to rethink conceptualizations of participation in social justice-oriented, community-based participatory media projects. Drawing on the work of Sara Ahmed, I consider how Mirabel’s resistance to the ‘promise of happiness’ offered by the group was interpreted by others as a failure to participate. Conversely, I suggest that Mirabel’s experience and her digital story are generative for thinking about resistance as a method of participation and a political resource for the group. I argue that conceptualizations of participation should be complicated to include the kinds of agency demonstrated by participants like Mirabel who resist the norms of the digital storytelling workshop and group culture.     

False-performance feedback does not affect punching forces and pacing of elite boxers

Prior research indicates that providing participants with positive augmented feedback tends to enhance motor learning and performance, whereas the opposite occurs with negative feedback. However, the majority of studies were conducted with untrained participants performing unfamiliar motor tasks and so it remains unclear if elite athletes completing familiar tasks respond in a similar fashion. Thus, this study investigated the effects of three different versions of false-performance feedback on punching force (N), pacing (force over time) and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) in 15 elite amateur male boxers. Athletes completed a simulated boxing bout consisting of three rounds with 84 maximal effort punches delivered to a punching integrator on four separate days. Day one was a familiarisation session in which no feedback was provided. In the following three days athletes randomly received false-positive, false-negative and false-neutral feedback on their punching performance between each round. No statistical or meaningful differences were observed in punching forces, pacing or RPE between conditions (P > 0.05; ≤ 2%). These null results could stem from the elite status of the athletes involved, the focus on performance rather than learning, or they may indicate that false feedback has a less potent effect on performance than previously thought.     

Immigrant perpetrators in the news: A terror management approach to resultant hostility,perceived vulnerability,and immigration issue judgment

This study found that mortality salience in TV news activated more hostile attitude toward the perpetrators and negative judgment on the immigration issue. Social group difference influenced news viewers’ immigration issue judgment, but did not affect their resultant hostility and perceived vulnerability. More negative attitudes emerged toward the immigration issue when immigrant perpetrators were portrayed negatively in the news. News viewers with exposure to mortality salience in TV news reported more negative toward immigrants. Exposure to mortality-related elements in TV news could lead to social conflicts that were viewed as a severe threat by U.S. government and policymakers.